April Issue

OP ED: Redefining Beauty and Struggling with an Eating Disorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 7

APRIL 2019

Can you call it a feud? Indie Listeners on Mitski and Mac Demarco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 7

How Two New School Students Got $15,000 to Create a Short Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 5

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ISSUE 2

Parsons’ Outsourcing Leads to Mixed Feelings Among Student Designers

by JIHAN BASYAH AND KATHRYN SCHMID In the fashion industry, outsourcing is using outside workers or professionals to help designers create their collection. Fashion design students often outsource to help with the basic skills that many designers tend to not be good at, such as sewing.

Parsons’ BFA Fashion Design program lifted the restraints on how much of a student’s thesis collection could be outsourced in May 2017.

Before the 2017-2018 academic year, students were allowed to outsource up to 33 percent of their thesis collection.

Under the new rule, the labor for an entire collection can be outsourced. That means that students are free to hire professionals not only to sew minor details such as pockets and zippers, but also create their full

garments based off designs as long as it is approved by their professors.

The rule reversal for fashion majors came for a variety of reasons. After interviewing eight Parsons students, all said the teachers lacked the ability to monitor and enforce the old rule, and in one interview, they said that some students with the money to outsource did so behind professor’s backs. Several professors believe that it was difficult to determine what “33 percent” entailed. “The big difficulty before [the new rule] was judging what was 33 percent. Or 30 percent. It was so hard,” said Brigitte Conti, a fashion design thesis professor at Parsons. “[To outsource an entire collection is] insane and I don’t think it’s fair at all,” said Kara Moss, (18’ Parsons). “There

were people in my year who outsourced their entire collection.”

Mikki McCann, a sophomore at Parsons fashion design, likes the rule change because she believes that her work should be based off of her designs, not her ability to sew. “[I] struggle in the sewing department and so I try super hard, but I’m also not studying to be a seamstress. So, I don’t think my final product should be judged based on my craftsmanship because that’s not what I’m here to do,” McCann said. That said, she still can’t afford to produce collections of top quality because of cost.

“That’s a big issue for me. I’m considering taking a gap year off just so I can save money to outsource. We also need so much money for fabrics, too.”

McCann plans to save at least $3,000.

Illustration by Nico Chilla

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Parsons Student Tiff Piko is Running for Mayor “Share Meals” Comes to of her Hometown Campus

by MARTIN KAFF

App aims to stop food insecurity

Tiff Piko, a 22-year-old Parsons senior, is running for mayor of her hometown, Lancaster, Ohio in its 2019 elections. Tiff, short for Tiffany, said she has always wanted to run for office in Lancaster. “I was so fed up with the way that our government was being run and who was representing us,” she said. “It was mostly male, mostly older, and I didn’t think that was representative of the entire populace.”

Piko is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, and if she were to win the general election against incumbent Republican Mayor David Scheffler in November 2019, she would be the first female mayor and the first person of color elected mayor in Lancaster’s history.

Piko’s run for mayor also happens to be her thesis project for her undergraduate degree in fashion design. Timo Rissanen, professor of fashion design and sustainability at Parsons, who has advised and taught Piko in the past, helped develop the “systems” track within the major for the purpose of tackling problems on a system-wide level.

Piko’s campaign, he says, fits right into that vision. “I see huge value in people with a design education being elected officials, particularly the way we teach design at Parsons,” he said.

“It’s a great tool for problem solving.”

After speaking with Lancaster

by KATHERINE HUGGINS

Photo by Tiff’s sister, Jade Piko

residents about her candidacy for mayor, Piko identified three major issues she wants to run on: First, she plans to bring city-wide recycling services to Lancaster for the first time.

“I’ve learned so much about sustainable infrastructure at the New School which will be so cool to implement in Lancaster,” she said. Second, Piko believes in community representation — the idea that every part of her hometown should be thriving and participating in municipal affairs. Third, Piko wants to reimagine the way that Lancaster handles victims of drug abuse, a widely-reported nationwide epidemic that she says must be treated as a

disease and not as a crime. “We don’t include people who are directly affected in the conversation,” she said.

Determined to include all of Lancaster in her campaign, Piko has set a high bar for herself.

“One of my design challenges with my thesis project is that I wanted to meet as many people in Lancaster as possible. Ideally, the whole $40,000,” she said. In addition to the social activism and government design aspects of Piko’s project, she has also started a podcast called Oisms where she speaks with different leaders within the Lancaster community, including coaches, teachers, and businesspeople.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

The last thing any college student should be worrying about is where their next meal is coming from, but the reality is not every New School student is food secure.

At the end of the fall semester, a new app became available on campus, called Share Meals. It aims to alleviate food insecurity by sharing financial resources as well as information about where free food is available on campus.

Katie Tzivanis, a 20-year-old second-year politics and urban studies student, and co-chair of the University Student Senate, discovered the app being used at NYU and brought it to the New School.

Tzivanis met with the creator of the app, Jon Chin, an NYU graduate student, to discuss bringing Share Meals to the New School.

Share Meals has been available at NYU for nearly six years and currently has just more than 2,000 students signed up, according to Chin. Students have even created a club called Share Meals at NYU that, according to their mission statement posted online, is “dedicated to eliminating food insecurity and social isolation at NYU by empowering students to share food and conversation.”

Chin explained that in order for the app to work there has to

be community support, especially from the administration.

“The administration at NYU is using Share Meals as a major tool to address food insecurity on campus,” said Chin. “So we’ve got full support from them, full support from our student government, and full support from our student body.”

After meeting with Chin and seeing how successful the app is at NYU, Tzivanis went to the New School’s the Office of Support and Crisis Management to propose creating a partnership between the school and the app.

“We’re hoping as more people learn about it, that we’ll be able to get more students access to food, but also that it will help to reduce waste on campus,” said assistant director of Student Support and Crisis Management, Andrea MacFarlane.

Share Meals is currently available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, but the University Student Senate plans to promote it more within the next couple months.

On the app, students can find school-specific events that have free food as well as meal swipes (the New School’s Dining Dollars) being offered by fellow students.

“There’s a messaging aspect to the app, so you guys can coordinate where to meet,” said CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

EDITORIAL MASTHEAD

Alchemy Magazine: The New School’s First Black Magazine

Editors-in-Chief Molly Mintz Ryanne Salzano

Aishammane Williams, the founder of Alchemy Magazine, discusses the creation of the publication,

Creative Director Candice Wood Art Director Olivia Heller News Editor Emma Tucker Deputy News Editor Dina Williams Arts & Culture Editor Sammi Fisher Deputy Arts & Culture Editor Kurt Burger Social Media Editor Lundon Lafci Designer Alyssa Achacoso Reporters Jihan Basyah Nico Chilla Katie Cologna Anna Conkling Emily Dosal Joseph Gobran Katherine Huggins Michael Izquierdo Martin Kaff Manami Kaneko Marissa Matozzo Isaac Sante Kathryn Schmid Anvita Shah Rebekah Stewartson Faculty Advisors Irwin Chen Allison Lichter Joseph Vivyan Tran

Follow Us @nsfreepress newschoolfreepress.com

TELL US WHAT WE SHOULD COVER, OR SUBMIT YOUR WORK. nsfreepress@gmail.com

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launching the first issue during Black History Month, and the future of Alchemy.

by MICHAEL IZQUIERDO On a Friday afternoon, over a dozen of students were scattered around the Social Justice Hub, chatting and listening to music, artists like Beyoncé, Solange, and Tierra Whack playing in the background.

Some were seated in secluded sections, reading through pages in a sleek, bold magazine. What was the event that brought them together? It was the launch party for the first issue of Alchemy Magazine, The New School’s first black magazine.

Alchemy Magazine is a student-run fashion and literary magazine founded by Aishammane Williams, an 18-year-old, first-year Journalism + Design student. “It’s the first type of magazine created for and by black students. It showcases art, writing and creativity in general that black students want to produce,” Williams said.

The magazine has already gained an audience online, garnering over 100 followers on their Instagram page.

The concept of the magazine grew out of Williams’ observations of a lack of attention for students of color, especially black students, at The New School in her first semester.

She started attending Black Student Union and heard black students’ experiences at the university meetings and heard a lot of students’ experiences as black students at the university.

“A lot of classes, especially at Lang, talk about racism as this abstract concept that’s not happening to people here, so I want the magazine to not only empower us [black students], but also create conversation about what TNS, the university itself, and the people that go here could be doing better to bridge the gap,” said Williams.

Hearing the different classroom experiences resonated with Williams and got her thinking about how unique the black experience was at the university. “I wanted to put that somewhere for people who are leaving the university to have a record of the fact they were here, and then people who are coming, like me, to learn more about what it’s like to be black here.”

In her first semester, Williams became a peer health advocate through Student Health Services and decided to pitch the idea of the magazine as her peer health advocacy project.

“Your advocacy project is suppose to promote wellness and create community, so Alchemy Magazine was the first thing I thought of. I’m a part of the black community here and we needed something,” said Williams.

The name for the magazine was inspired by Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade. At

one point of the album, Beyoncé says, “Grandmother, the alchemist. You spun gold out of this hard life. Conjured beauty from the things left behind.

Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kitchen. Broke the curse with your own two hands.” This is a process that the black community is all too familiar with, and will serve as an ode to how the magazine will document the black New School community, according to Alchemy’s website.

When Williams started to create Alchemy Magazine, she was shocked to discover this was the first black magazine at the university. She did research on magazines created for black students at the university and couldn’t find anything, and neither could Student Health Services. The New School Free Press also contacted the New School’s archives team to confirm there’s no previous record of a black magazine on campus.

“I think it’s a really cool opportunity for black students to express how they feel about diverse topics without feeling any judgment. It can really help provide insight and combat ignorance from a safe space” In the beginning of December 2018, Williams reached out to potential contributors for the magazine by using Instagram story questionnaires and hanging up posters on campus seeking black students to contribute. She then compiled a list of everyone who was interested and assigned a deadline for pitches for Jan. 4, which is also her birthday.

By Feb. 1, Williams had gathered the final submissions from her contributors and began to lay out the magazine.

It was important to Williams that the publication came out in February because it was Black History Month and she wanted Alchemy Magazine to contribute to that history. With that in mind, Williams received helped from Ashley Bernal, a graduate student at the Milano School of International Affairs, to create the layout and publish copies in print.

Williams and Bernal received

Photo by Ashley Bernal

a grant from Lang’s office of Civil Engagement and Social Justice to produce a total of 125 copies for the first issue.

“At first, a lot of people were telling me to just do it online because it’s easier, less expensive, and quicker to get out. But I really wanted it to be print because I felt like it wouldn’t be ‘felt’ at TNS if it was just online,” said Williams.

On Feb. 22, Alchemy Magazine launched their first issue.

There were a total of 12 contributors to the print magazine, and three more people contributed work online, including a documentary film.

There are a diverse selection of spreads in the first issue: including an interview with Blasian Womack, a first-year Parsons student and founder of his own clothing line, Peer Style, a piece discussing blackness in the Latinx community, as well as a Black History Month playlist and information on buying from blackowned businesses.

At the launch party, students supporting the project flooded the space, with some coming in and out to pick up a copy, read a few pages, and catch up with other friends. 20 copies were handed out to the people who showed up to the launch event, and the rest were equally distributed in different departments on campus, such as the Student Health Services office, CESJ, and the Office of Intercultural Support.

Students at the event expressed their initial reactions to the magazine, and their interest in contributing.

Dashae Roberts, a third-year fashion design major, said, “I loved it. I was really inspired because we don’t really have things like this. Black people, we’re constantly being pushed to the side. I really think it’s great that we’re being highlighted in a whole magazine.”

“I think it’s a really cool opportunity for black students to express how they feel about diverse topics without feeling any judgment. It can really help provide insight and combat ignorance from a safe space,” said Nomaris A. Garcia, a firstyear undecided student.

Egyptmoyenda Staley, a second-year psychology and

theatre double major, talked about wanting to contribute to the magazine in the future.

“I’m actually writing this poetry / monologue piece about being ratchet,” she said with a passion, before diving deeper into the piece. “I wanted to write about it because ‘ratchet’ and ghetto’ are terms used negatively, when that’s not the case. Ratchet is about being empowered, going against the system, being a real bitch being that bitch.”

“Everyone says the sense of community here at TNS is not that strong, so the fact that people came out physically for this magazine meant a lot to me” Contributors to the magazine who attended the event also discussed what it was like to have students react to their work in the magazine.

“I contributed my photography and I like to focus on dancing. Sometimes, I have moments where I doubt myself and doubt my art and just hearing about people talking about how amazing it was just reaffirms why I’m here and I do what I do,” said Rashad Heagle, a first-year photography major.

The magazine recently announced that submissions and any interest in being apart of the team are welcome through emailing them at thealchemymag@gmail.com or DMing their Instagram account. The next issue will be released in May. “Everyone says the sense of community here at TNS is not that strong, so the fact that people came out physically for this magazine meant a lot to me,” said Williams. “I think it just reaffirms that fact that people want something like this.” •

NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Parsons Sounds Off on Outsourcing Practices Some fashion design students believe outsourcing a senior thesis only takes away an opportunity to learn and improve one’s skills. Moss did not outsource her final thesis, not because it was expensive, she says, but because of the learning experience she gained. “I don’t think you learn anything [by outsourcing]. I think you’re robbing yourselves, ” Moss said. Moss, who now works at Tommy Hilfiger, believes that learning how to construct garments is key to a career in fashion. “At my job, when I design something, I have to write down everything. Every step and how to make the garment.

I have to know exactly what to do. If I would have gotten everything outsourced then I wouldn’t have known how to make it,” Moss said.

While students are now free to hire people to work on their collections, signing them into the university premises is forbidden. “Students are not permitted to bring outside

contractors onto campus at any time- this is in violation of university policy and raises issues of liability in terms of non-authorized use of machines or equipment,” according to the Y4 Outsourcing Guidelines. Y4 refers to the 4th year fashion students who are undergoing thesis work.

McCann said that she’s seen outside contractors working on campus. “I took my cousin to the main fashion studio of Parsons and there was a 50-year-old woman working at the table,” she said, “I was like ‘That’s a seamstress, that’s definitely not a student.”

Moss said she saw students bringing in different kinds of help for their collections. “I’ve seen people’s mom sew for them in the Parsons building, which is a little more acceptable,” Moss said.

“But I’ve seen students that are bossing these seamstresses around in the sewing rooms.”

Maya Valladares, an associate director of Making Center,

said via email, “Contractors brought in by students who are working in the sewing construction rooms or open studios would be asked to leave.”

“At my job, when I design something, I have to write down everything.

Every step and how to make the garment. I have to know exactly what to do. If I would have gotten everything outsourced then I wouldn’t have known how to make it” The policy against outside contractors is technically a

university policy, and not enforced at the Parsons level, said Parsons School of Fashion’s co-program director Brendan McCarthy via a separate email.

While the university as a whole is required to take action when it comes to outside contractors using facilities in the school, according to McCarthy, Parsons would “work immediately and closely with New School Security and the Making Center to address the matter with the student and ensure the contractor stops working and leaves the building safely.”

Brigitte Conti, the thesis professor at Parsons, believes that outsourcing is actually helpful because it allows students to focus more on their creative drive and opportunity to collaborate. “To tell you the truth, the way we’re guiding the student [was] always, all the very time-consuming thing, outsource. Even the pocket, things like that, just outsource and keep going.

Because [they’re] supposed to

know how to do it. But you want to do it perfectly,” Conti said. As long as outsourcing is done professionally and within the knowledge of the thesis professor, Conti believes that outsourcing is not as bad as one might think.

“I think that the faculty has a big role in that. To show exactly that outsourcing is a good tool, but you have to use it with full attention,” she said.•

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Student Senate to Promote App for Students to Share Dining Dollars, Extra Food

The New School’s food pantry, located on the 12th floor of 6 E 16th St. Photo by Katherine Huggins

Tzivanis. “They’ll have to come with you to the cafeteria and pay for you.”

“We wanted to teach staff and faculty how to use it before we launched it to the students, because if we launched it without there being any food options, there’d be a lot of demand and no providing,” said Tzivanis. “But if people don’t know about it, it doesn’t have a purpose.”

Another important resource for struggling students is the food pantry, but Tzivanis pointed out that it doesn’t work for everyone.

“The majority of the food in the food pantry requires the individual to have access to a kitchen, she said. “And a lot of the people that I know who are food insecure are also homeless or housing insecure, and so they couldn’t cook the food unless they had access to a kitchen.”

A student worker, who asked to remain anonymous for the sake of job security, and has worked at the Food Pantry for

three years, explained that the Food Pantry was not intended to be a main food source for struggling students, but instead a supplemental resource.

“It’s not open every day, and especially when it was just the non-perishable items, there were definitely some students who were very frustrated,” the worker said.

213 students visited the pantry between July 1, 2017 to Jun. 30, 2018, according to the Food Pantry Annual Report provided by MacFarlane. The majority (51.9 percent) of students who used the pantry were Parsons students, followed by Lang students (20.2 percent). Of those students, 36 percent had been homeless or housing insecure within the past year.

Students who want to use the Share Meals app need to create an account with their MyNewSchool email address in order to see specific New School offerings. A tab labeled “Find Free Food,” then shows a map with dropped pins.

When a user clicks on the pin, a description of the event or location appears. Events also specify if they are serving kosher, vegetarian, or dairy foods.

“It’s a phenomenal way for students to interact with each other, build community, and just show how one act of kindness can really change someone’s day” MacFarlane hopes students will use Share Meals as a way to share their meal swipes with low-income students rather than letting extra swipes expire.

“We know that students

often have left-over money in their Dining Dollars at the end of the semester, so when we’re working with the Student Senate to try to advertise to students, I think just bringing that to students’ attention and seeing that it’s sharing resources, not necessarily taking away resources from other students,” said MacFarlane.

According to Tzivanis, the Student Senate intends to require that any student event funded by them must post to Share Meals if there is free food.

Aside from the tangible benefit of providing food to those in need, the app may serve an additional purpose of connecting students.

“It’s a phenomenal way for students to interact with each other, build community, and just show how one act of kindness can really change someone’s day,” said Tzivanis.

Though the Senate is continuing to work on creating resources for food insecure students, the worker at the pantry is disappointed by the lack of effort from the administration, noting one suggestion the university appears to have ignored.

“I know there have been multiple student organizations and also staff groups who have been trying to get it so they could discount food [in the cafeteria] near the end of the day, but the university is very no-go about that,” said the pantry worker. “The cafeteria is expensive.”

In response, university spokesperson Merrie Snead wrote in an email, “While the university operates its dining services operations to break even, meaning that overall sales will cover all costs, we

know that expenses can mount for students, leaving limited available funds to purchase nutritious meals and groceries. In addition to helping our students and their families through financial aid, there are a number of New School resources available.”

Besides the Food Pantry and Share Meals app, Snead added that “last fall, the university established the Food Issues Advisory Committee, comprised of faculty, students, and staff, that is focused on issues of food security, access, and sustainability on our campus.”

The worker also expressed frustration at the school not purchasing a larger fridge/ freezer for the Food Pantry, which would allow them to provide frozen fruits and vegetables. However, now that the Food Pantry offers fresh produce, through Corbin Hill Farm Share, it is less of a concern.

Providing reliable sources of food will ease one burden students face and allow them to focus on other things, such as their schoolwork.

“If a student doesn’t have access to basic resources that they need, they’re not usually feeling their best, and that of course impacts their academics and many areas of their life,” said MacFarlane.

Students can easily download Share Meals, or visit the Food Pantry on the 12th floor of 6 E. 16th street. Their hours are available online. Students worried about food or housing security should reach out to Student Support and Crisis Management. •

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COMMUNITY

The Debate Over Elizabeth Street Garden, Little Italy’s Treasure

by EMILY DOSAL New York might lose one of its most beloved — and scarce — green spaces. The potential closing of Little Italy’s Elizabeth Street Garden, a neighborhood hot spot filled with live music, local art, public programs, and lush green amongst reds, browns and greys, has perpetuated a six-year long battle between the garden and the city of New York.

The New School, Elizabeth Street Garden, and NoLita based book and stationery store McNally Jackson co-hosted a panel debating the garden’s future before spring break on Monday, March 11. Community Board 2, the local community board led

by Councilwoman Margaret Chin, have proposed a plan to replace Elizabeth Street Garden with a 123-unit affordable housing development for seniors. This development would take up the entire space of the garden. The ESG and Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden have filed two lawsuits to fight the development and keep the garden.

Mia White, assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Lang, moderated

4

the panel and called for an open and constructive dialogue regardless of various perspectives.

“This is a perennial debate in the context of urban space,” White said. “So I hope nothing we’re pissed about is new. This is an ongoing fight that happens in every part of the world, every city, every state.”

Joseph Revier, executive director of Elizabeth Street Garden, followed with a briefing on the garden’s history and an alternative solution to the city’s housing proposal.

“That’s been the crux of our argument—is that we [ESG] can achieve more affordable housing, and community green

space, and preserve Elizabeth Street Garden and not have these entities against each other because they’re both needed in New York,” Revier said.

He showcased blueprint plans for a construction model that incorporates compost space, a greenhouse, a shed and solar panels on a lean-to unit within the space. The plans would maintain the gardens around these units, and create a multi-functioning community space for both greenery and waste management.

The panel featured four native New Yorkers who are dedicated to greenery, displacement, and gentrified communities. This included Alicia Boyd, founder of community displacement organizations Flower Lovers Against Corruption and The Movement To Protect the People, Tom Angotti, professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College and editor of “Zoned Out: Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York,” Charles Birnbaum, president and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Raymond

Figueroa, president of the NYC Community Garden Coalition.

Boyd emphasized broader community engagement as a stronger alternative to individual fights against developers and the city’s rezoning and development plans.

“The way that we keep approaching these fights is incorrect. We keep doing individual lawsuits, we keep fighting in our communities, we keep not working with other communities, we keep isolating ourselves in thinking that our particular fight is going to get into war. And that’s not true,” Boyd said.

“99 percent of the time we lose these lawsuits because we’re not working together. We need to be thinking about filing class action lawsuits.”

Boyd also pointed out that racism, bias and white privilege interferes with community cooperation toward filing class action lawsuits around community spaces.

“Why would we allow the city to sell off our land? This is our land, it is our earth, it is our sky, it is our air, and we have a right to it. So let’s think out-

“Why would we allow the city to sell off our land?

This is our land, it is our earth, it is our sky, it is our air, and we have a right to it.” side the box and removing our prejudices, cause we have our racism, let’s say hey, sit at the table and have a discussion,” Boyd said.

The response from the audience was charged, with passionate cheers, fist pumps and whistles.

Angotti mentioned how the current issue is around community responsibility.

“That’s the crux of the problem we’re facing here,” Angotti said. “The weakness of communities, and the ability of communities to make their own decisions, in a way that’s fair and just.

And by just I mean, every community needs to think about its responsibility for the provision and low income, and I mean deeply low income housing,” said Angotti. “But also, everybody has to think about the problems; that we’re running out

of open space.

What kind of city do we want to live in?”

Raising the question of housing needs while showing support for claiming space, Birnbaum approached the garden debate through the lens of artistic vision and storytelling.

“The municipalities that are doing public reviews should do a determination of eligibility to say, ‘is this a significant feature’? They should do diligence to understand how it contributes to the quality of life and that nothing like this will ever be created ever again. We should cherish it as a place where nature and culture have a great story to tell,” Birnbaum said.

White read a quote from Councilwoman Chin, which stated that there are more than 5,000 homeless seniors in her district who are on a waitlist for housing. White then acknowledged that nobody on the panel can identify with or relate to being a senior in desperate need, and that the audience and panel must keep this bias in mind. The discussion then focused on the prospect of failed lawsuits and the garden’s alternatives.

Figueroa explained that city planners have not addressed equity in financial distribution and support of affordable development, thus unfairly analyzing the value of various communities. He also described how the NYC Community Garden Coalition works with regional wide city planners to find new solutions.

“We are actual consultants with the New York City Department of Housing, preservation and development around the development of community land trust, where we’re in negotiation,” Figueroa said.

Illustrations by Olivia Heller

They figure out processes “around how communities can actually own and control the land,” Figueroa said. “We’re taking a regional approach.”

“The only piece missing here is that this is Lenape land,” Angotti said. The Lenape tribe were the indigenous group that lived on the land that is not New York City.

The dialogue on how racism is embedded in urban planning, lower income housing and community garden reform led a two hour conversation that went well into the night.

Talking to the New School Free Press after the event, White expanded on why students should care about Elizabeth Street Garden, or any community garden in New York.

“When we think about nature, we think about going into the Catskills. We think about going on a hike. And we know we’ve achieved nature as a destination if no one else is there.

My pedagogical impulse is that nature is right here in this moment, actually right now.

Even in the so called ‘concrete jungle’, there’s nature. In fact, concrete is all natural material,” White said.

“So even if nobody cares about the Elizabeth Street Garden, because they’re not gonna ever go there or they just don’t care or they think everyone is crazy, this is emblematic of larger issues, starting with how we understand the environment.” •

NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Tiff Piko’s Parsons Thesis is a Mayoral Campaign “Her work exemplifies exactly what art can contribute to social justice and ecological issues,” said Jean Gardner, a professor of social-ecological History and design at Parsons and an environmental activist.

Gardner says Piko’s activism in Lancaster resonates “not only with our rational minds but also stirs our hearts, often leading to meaningful change.”

Following her announcement, Piko was met with support from residents of Lancaster and those around her at the New School. “There were so many young girls and women in general who messaged me when I announced, and then came up to me after the announcement saying that they were so inspired seeing a woman run for mayor of Lancaster,” said Piko.

Piko is receiving political support by the Main Street Initiative, a group that was created and run by the Ohio Democratic County Chairs Association, and is specifically geared toward diversity in the democratic process. They work with “candidates and campaign volunteers of various backgrounds and experience levels,” according to their website, “including those who are brand new to the political process.”

Focused on sustainable and

renewable fashion, Piko also runs her online clothing resale business that she started in high school. Together with grants and merit-based scholarships, Piko has covered her entire education and housing in New York City for the four years of her degree with her own business, selling more than $8,000 items in the last five years, or about 15,000 pounds of clothes.

“She has a strength of character that transcends all of that” A defining element of Piko’s campaign is a set of yellow suits that she is designing and producing. Piko appears in her official campaign photo in one of these suits. She explained that she drew inspiration from a beloved comic, Hogan’s Alley, whose creator is a Lancaster native. The comic featured “a tenement boy who wore a yellow nightgown, and whenever he spoke, the text would appear on his dress. I recreated that dress and a lot of people know me for it in Lancaster,” she said. “I always called it Lancaster’s Yellow Dress.”

One of Piko’s friends, Alice Ly (Lang ‘18 and former features editor of the New School Free Press), said Piko’s friends and peers always envisioned her doing something like this.

“When she announced she was running for mayor, I thought it was the craziest thing in the world, and yet also kind of made sense,” said Ly. “She’s the type of kid that your parents would hope you were.

She’s artistic, she cares about people, she cares about politics, and she does everything at one hundred percent. She’s one of those kids.”

Growing up in small-town Ohio, in a biracial family with a dad from West Virginia and a mom from Tahiti, Piko was determined to include as much of Lancaster as she can in her campaign. She strongly believes that she can reach voters and energize her community without any campaign funding. “I love this idea that she’s going to run a zero-cost campaign,” said Brendan McCarthy, one of Piko’s thesis advisors at Parsons in fashion design.

“Of course from a budgeting perspective it’s brilliant but it also means that she has to collaborate.”

Piko’s campaign is entirely run by volunteers, people both in her New York community and back home in Lancaster.

“She’s really helping people understand what their personal worth is, their true value, and how much more valuable we are as a united group than a group of individuals,” said McCarthy.

Many around her, as well as Piko herself, understood from the start that in some respects this campaign would be an uphill battle against people’s preconceived notions of politicians and what their identities have almost always been in the past. “I think people are just skeptical of young people running for any office, having someone so young, especially a woman,” said her friend Alice Ly. But even in the face of this inevitable ugliness and backlash, “she has a strength of character that transcends all of that,” said Rissanen that gives her the unique ability to maintain an unrelentingly open approach to meeting people, and winning them over. “I want this whole project to be positive and to be about uplifting Lancaster,” Piko said. But whatever happens in the election, Piko is adamant that her activism in Lancaster and her work in fashion will continue no matter what.

Piko feels strongly that part of that engagement has to do with getting people to understand that, as mayor, she would want and need the work

and support of the whole community. “A lot of people expect mayors to fix potholes, fix the taxes, and one person can’t do that and shouldn’t be able to do that,” said Piko. “We need a diverse group of people fixing these problems, and so as mayor I want to see that happen.”

Although she has spent the last four years in Manhattan learning all she can about fashion and design systems, Piko says living in New York was always meant to be temporary.

“I always wanted to take what I learned here and bring back to Ohio,” she said. Despite all the positive aspects of New York, Piko explained that moving away from her family was never easy. “I was so family-oriented,” she said, “especially with my little sister who was 5 years old when I moved away. I’m excited to move back and be with my family again.”

“I always joke with Tiffany that she’s almost too nice to be in politics,” McCarthy said.

“No matter the challenges she faces, she meets them with love. It’s always love first, it’s always about how to find the good in someone.”

This truly is Piko’s approach to running for mayor as well as seemingly everything else she does. “Time is precious,” said Piko,“and there’s so many things to do and so many people to help.” •

Students Selected as Finalists for the Coca Cola Regal Film Competition

by REBEKAH STEWARTSON

is getting a lot of critiques,” said Vitorelli. Though the pair did much of the work on their own, they also had help from the Regal Cinemas and Coca-Cola team.

Photo from Regal Cinemas video

A short film created by New School students may be coming to a big screen near you. For the first time in three years of New School participation, two students — ­ Jamie Rabinovitch and Thais Vitorelli­— were selected as finalists for the Coca Cola Regal Film Festival Script Contest.

Vitorelli and Rabinovitch created the 35-second promotional film entitled “The Exchange.” It depicts two sisters watching the same movie, at the same time, but at two separate theatres. The plot was inspired by Vitorelli’s own experience of moving to New York from São Paulo, Brazil.

“Being an international student living in New York, you say goodbye to a lot of friends,” said Vitorelli. Because of this,

she often finds small ways to share experiences with her long-distance friends, such as reading the same book at the same time or binging the same TV show.

Both women graduated from the Creative Writing MFA program at the New School in 2017, and are now enrolled in the Media Management program. When Vitorelli heard about the project, she asked Rabinovitch to sign on as producer. This contest was the first time they worked together since graduate school.

Vitorelli wrote and directed the film, while Rabinovitch produced it. Rabinovitch grew up in Montreal, Canada and has had experience producing live comedy shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but this was

the first time she had produced a film. As the producer, Rabinovitch was in charge of the film’s budget and her responsibilities included logistics like getting equipment insurance, location insurance and paying the crew. “It’s a lot of different moving parts and pieces that I had never faced before in live comedy, so that was definitely a challenge, but I’m really glad that I got the experience,” said Rabinovitch.

As the director, Vitorelli was in charge of the creative side of things. She created the story boards for the project and revised the script several times.

“I think one of the biggest challenges for me was to kind of separate my project from myself and learn how not to get unmotivated when your project

“I think one of the biggest challenges for me was to kind of separate my project from myself and learn how not to get unmotivated when your project is getting a lot of critiques” Hundreds of applications from 29 college and university film schools around the country were submitted to the contest and only five scripts from five schools were chosen.

Each of the schools were given a RED camera and a budget of $15,000, which the students were to manage themselves.

After Vitorelli’s script was selected, Vitorelli and Rabinovitch held auditions at the New School to cast the actors who would play the two sisters in the film and the other minor parts. Before holding auditions, Vitorelli and Rabinovitch felt it was important to have a predominantly female film set. “The story of the short represents sisterhood, we wanted our cast and crew to

reflect that,” said Rabinovitch.

“A lot of the women on set came up to us and were like, ‘This is very cool. We’re not used to this.’” Vitorelli and Rabinovitch also felt it was important to have a diverse cast. The two female leads are Italian and Turkish-American and they worked with a cast of around 50 people from countries including Brazil, Canada, Australia, Namibia, India, Colombia, Spain, Taiwan, Guam, Laos, the Philippines, Italy, and Turkey.

On the day of production, Vitorelli and Rabinovitch arrived at Regal Cinemas in Union Square at 8 p.m. They rented a theatre and filmed through the night for 13 hours.

Rabinovitch said that filming was exhausting. “We had a super great team,” she said. “Everyone was super determined.

We had lots of coffee, so that was helpful.” The hardest part for Vitorelli was drafting the script. “The requirement was to write a one page script and it couldn’t be any more than that.

So I had an idea but, of course, when I wrote it, it was at least two pages and a half. I had to work to cut some things out.”

In April, Regal Cinemas and Coca-Cola will choose between the five finalists’ scripts.

The grand winners will have a red carpet experience and their short film will be shown in Regal Cinemas nationwide right before full length feature films starts. “It was the first time the New School won, so it’s really cool to be able to represent our school. Especially since we’re not necessarily a film school,” Rabinovitch said. •

5

ARTS & CULTURE

‘Isn’t It Romantic’: Is it Worth Watching?

by REBEKAH STEWARTSON “New York is a shithole!”

Rebel Wilson says as she stands in front of our very own University Center.

Wilson stars in “Isn’t it Romantic,” a parody on romantic comedies that was filmed in the Lower East Side.

“Isn’t it Romantic” attempts to satirize romantic comedies, but the film doesn’t dare to venture away from some of the same tropes used in the many romantic comedies that precede it. Though I’m a romcom fan myself, when I saw the trailer I was excited to finally watch a movie that called the genre out on its use of sexist, homophobic, and racist tropes.

But while there are some funny aspects of the film, it ultimately isn’t as clever as it would like to be.

SPOILERS AHEAD The movie begins by introducing us to the people in Natalie’s life, all of whom are white (the film attempts to remedy this by introducing Priyanka Chopra’s character later on). There’s Donny, her drug-dealing neighbor, and then her best friends Josh and Whitney, who also happen to be her coworkers. From the moment that Josh is introduced to the plot, their interactions make it painfully clear that he

and Natalie are going to end up together. Natalie isn’t even trapped in a romantic comedy yet, so Josh’s infatuation with her doesn’t really add up, especially since she constantly blows him off whenever he asks her out for drinks.

After Natalie is mugged, she wakes up in the hospital where everything is a little too nice and her doctor shamelessly flirts with her. Even if though he’s attractive, Natalie is understandably freaked out.

Eventually, she is discharged and as she stands outside the the hospital, she notices that it smells like flowers instead of, as we know, dog shit and sewage (the hospital is actually the UC).

When Natalie arrives back at work, suddenly she and her co-worker Whitney are enemies, which pokes fun at romantic comedies’ penchant for making women compete against each other for no real reason. The directors decide to keep Josh exactly the same, which only emphasizes how oddly fake Josh seemed back in the real world. As characters go, Josh is two-dimensional, and doesn’t seem to have a life outside of Natalie. He’s also strangely animated at all times.

Maybe this is simply Adam Devine’s acting style, as evidenced by his work in “Pitch

Perfect” and “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.” Either way it takes away from the plot of the movie.

Natalie needs someone to vent all of her problems to so, naturally, Donny becomes the “gay best friend” who gives her advice — ­ and makeovers.

The film does a great job of demonstrating how unrealistic this scenario is. The film then upends this trope by giving Donny an actual backstory by the movie’s end. Another fun character is Blake, the predictable hot CEO who falls in love with Natalie. His character is the epitome of everything wrong with romantic comedies. He’s attractive, successful, and rich, but it only takes a few days before Blake proves himself to be controlling and possessive. This allows Natalie to realize she’s in love with Josh but unfortunately for her, Josh is about to get married to his new girlfriend. While the audience might assume that Natalie is going to stop Josh’s wedding, she actually decides that she loves herself and doesn’t need a man to complete her. This is all well and good, but when Natalie gets back to the real world, she still ends up with Josh, so her words feel a little empty.

To the film’s credit, Natalie does use her newfound self

Illustration by Olivia Heller

confidence to finally present her architectural designs at work. Thus she is no longer “the coffee bitch” and all the plot points are neatly tied together. Whitney points out that it kinds of seems like Natalie was in a romantic comedy all along, considering now she’s got the guy and the job of her dreams. This is clearly meant to be “meta,” but considering the movie fails to surpass the cliched structure of its predecessors, the line falls flat.

The movie then ends with a

hilarious and mocking musical number.

“Isn’t it Romantic” still has a long way to go in terms of plot consistency and representation, but it definitely has some funny moments, which is why I’m giving it 3/5 stars.

If you’d like to see our neighborhood on the big screen and have a few laughs, then this movie might be what you’re looking for. Otherwise, you won’t be missing out on too much. •

Yang learned to hand-dye silk on her own, but she believes that if it weren’t for the constant feedback she received from her professors and classmates at Parsons, she would not have been as successful in doing so. “The peers, like your classmates, are definitely a valuable resource. I’m not really afraid of getting negative feedback. I’m actually happy about it,” she said.

Daniel Xu, a creative consultant and close friend of Yang, saw her work through during the design process. “From this collection, I could see her passion, radiating through each look that she created. She’s also a perfectionist, because I’ve seen her suffer and struggle during the process, but in the end she came through,” Xu said.

Choosy. When Yang isn’t busy sketching her designs or designing her collection, she likes to listen to music during her leisure time. “When I design I always have to listen to some peaceful music or else I’ll get really panicked, like, ‘What if I can’t draw a nice design within an hour or so?’”

Yang said that her experience at Parsons had a rocky start. “My time at Parsons started off a bit rough because of how different the culture is from Taiwan to the States,” she said, “I was very nervous to talk in front of people and my English ability was limited too.” Yang believes her classmates at Parsons helped shape her into the designer she is today. “What I learned most through my journey at Parsons would really be through my peers. Of course what you learn in class is valuable, but we have such amazing peers in Parsons from different cultures, different backgrounds, but all so talented,” said Yang “Seeing [others] presenting their work and telling their design story made me grow so much more as a designer.”

Tzu Hsuan Yang’s success after Parsons has led her to be a fashion designer for the fashion brand Vivienne Hu. When asked how NYFW and life after Parsons has changed her, she said, “I feel really happy. I really wanted to make clothes that caters to each woman, like, this is your look, this is it. You feel very confident. You feel really, you know, yourself.” •

From Parsons to NYFW: Meet Tzu Hsuan Yang

by JIHAN BASYAH As the music began to play, heads turned towards the hand-dyed, multi-colored silk garments featured on the runway. From flowing gowns to puffy cloud like arms, the designs vary from gradient ruffles sewn onto a white top and pants, to a galactic-inspired skirt with feathers attached it it.

This is the collection of 24-year-old Parsons graduate, Tzu Hsuan Yang. Yang, who graduated in the spring of 2018, had her thesis collection featured in New York Fashion Week. Hailing from the busy streets of Taipei, Yang’s NYFW show was held through Art Hearts Fashion, a platform for designers and artists to showcase their designs.

Yang’s Fall 2019 collection

was showcased on Feb. 10, at the Angel Orensanz Center in the Lower East Side. Yang’s entire collection, THY, which is an abbreviation of her name and the Old English term for “your,” was inspired by the concept of lucid dreams. “[Lucid dreaming] means that the dreamer is aware that he or she is inside the dream,” said Yang, “What’s really interesting is that there’s actually some people who train to or were born with have the ability to control their dreams while they’re lucid dreaming. So I’m particularly interested in those kind of people.”

During her design process, Yang sought out lucid dreamers and asked one question: “What’s the first thing you do when you can control the dream?” “They always say ‘Oh, the first thing that they

want to do is to fly on the sky.

To experience what it’s like to be very intimate, to be close to the sky.’ So that’s why I started to research a lot of images, like the sky colors or when the sun sets, ” said Yang.

A remarkable aspect of the collection is that everything except for the sewing, which she outsourced, was done by Yang.

“Just because I’m dealing with very, very delicate fabric. Like pure silk. So I don’t want to mess it up and then rip it,” she said.

The garments in the THY collection are mainly made out of pure silk. Every color that was chosen to create the design was hand-dyed by Yang herself. Yang would hand-dye her silk by layering water on the fabric and dropping in the colored dye, “It’s like painting a canvas,” she said.

“When I design I always have to listen to some peaceful music or else I’ll get really panicked, like, ‘What if I can’t draw a nice design within an hour or so?”

In between graduation and NYFW, Yang was busy designing and improving her collection while balancing her work as a product development assistant at fashion company,

Photo by Arun Nevader

6

OPINION

How Redefining Beauty Can Save Lives: A Letter from a Recovering Anorexic

by KATHRYN SCHMID I am a cat-loving, crime-investigating, coffee-saturated college student. My friends tell me I could have a promising future in stand-up comedy or as a public speaker. I am also a size zero model struggling with Anorexia-Nervosa.

Not so much “‘I’ll skip dinner so when I drink tonight I can get wasted faster” anorexia and not “I want the flu so that when I throw up I have a flat stomach” anorexia, either. I mean “debilitating, in-and-out of residential eating disorder facilities, fearful of my heart stopping in my sleep, relationship-fracturing, hiding behind baggy sweats, constantly feeling embarrassed” anorexia.

Every symptom of anorexia needs addressing — especially in a society that normalizes disordered behavior and appearance.

When I was in residential rehab for my anorexia, every girl’s reason for their disorder and unhealthy behaviors varied, yet we all shared ridiculous strength, courage, and determination to fight.

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, because “every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder[,] eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.” Studies show that fashion magazines and social media, among other popular culture mediums, negatively influence young people’s perceptions of

their bodies. Members of my industry have spoken out about the impossible expectation to look a specific way.

What’s “normal” for models or “beautiful” for society with respect to female appearance needs to change, even if happens slowly; one step, one op-ed, one on-campus discussion, one body-positive Instagram post at a time.

So how can I, as a model, inspire a different outcome than influencing girls to lose weight and potentially develop a horrible, life-threatening illness?

I was scouted when I was a ripe 14-year-old growing up in Missouri, who wore a daily uniform of Nike shorts and graphic tees and played hockey everyday after school. I had a Midwestern accent and did not have anything close to an eating disorder.

But I went from struggling to walk in heels to being shipped off to New York for Fashion Week, eventually signing worldwide with the esteemed agency Next Models. I walked the runways for companies like V-Files and have shot for WMag, Marc Jacobs, Estée Lauder, and Maybelline. A casting director for Calvin Klein told me I was beautiful.

“Le monde est à toi,” she said: The world is yours.

But it wasn’t — at least not entirely — because part of me was imprisoned by my eating disorder. Even when I had the badge

of approval from designers and magazines and an agency that especially booked me, it was still too late; I was too deeply involved in the fashion industry.

Girls like me with pre-existing anxiety around our appearances and character, desperate for outside acceptance, are not meant for modeling.

Online and in real life, models like myself and numerous others outside the industry have

Illustration by Nico Chilla

advocated for a redesign of what is accepted as the standard, “cookie-cutter” model. We should not have to be size zero, perfectly coiffed and primed from head to toe. We shouldn’t need to change what we were given at birth. We should be allowed and encouraged to have genuine curves, scars, marks, differences, anything — because these aspects make us human, make us beautiful, make us healthy.

If the fashion world had been accepting towards perceived imperfections when I started my career, I doubt my anorexia would have festered into the terrible wound I live with today.

I wouldn’t have felt pressured to lose whatever baby fat my 14-year-old body carried around, I wouldn’t have worked out so much, dieted so frequently, starved so often… I’d like to think my life would be exponentially happier without the modeling industry exacerbating my eating disorder.

I want to push the global modeling industry, and everyone that participates in society, to redefine what beauty is and appears as. That’s why I adore the impact and work of strong women like Ashley Graham, who spoke on Sunday, Mar. 31 at The New School alongside New York Times Fashion & Style editor Joanna Nikas at an event titled “Reshaping Beauty with Ashley Graham.”

Ashley is well known for her plus-size curves, which is

refreshing amongst the skin and bones that typically grace Vogue. She represents what most American women actually look like. Even still, she receives criticism from people who think she doesn’t belongs in fashion and isn’t “curvy enough” to be a plus-size advocate.

I think they’re all wrong. To me, Ashley is a beacon of light in the modeling industry, offering a genuine form of beauty with a message that is simple enough: Just be yourself, in whatever flawed, ever-changing, and alternative form that may be. Ashley helps me see that I am beautiful as I gain weight with perseverance and dedication to my recovery.

She is pushing for an inclusive, boundaryless, and definition-less standard of beauty without any specific norms of what’s deemed “perfection.” I personally wish all women, men, and people advocated for this change in the fashion world and entire world.

At the New School, we have agency to make a difference. We can’t just throw out all of the mannequins in Parsons, even though they have been of extremely limited size variety. We must design for and celebrate bodies of all shapes and sizes.

Tell your friend she is just as lovely today as she was last year, five pounds ago. Love your body for all that it is and isn’t. Be like Ashley Graham and play a part in changing what is beautiful, because everyone is beautiful.

You just might help someone like me beat their eating disorder. •

Nobody and Cowboy Culture: New Schoolers Weigh In On Mitski and Mac DeMarco Controversy

by MARISSA MATOZZO

Photo by High Road Touring

“My God, I’m so lonely, so I open the window to hear sounds of people,” indie rock songstress Mitski sings in her single, “Nobody.”

For college students in New York City, myself included, the idea of being surrounded by people but yet still alone is all-too-relatable.

Mitski proves her unwavering power in being open and honest on this track, a characteristic of her songwriting.

Declared by Iggy Pop to be “the most advanced American songwriter” he knows, Mitski Miyawaki, who performs under her first name, is a star on the rise.

Mitski’s latest album title, Be

the Cowboy, was inspired by the classic, masculine image of the American cowboy. Mitski said the album title was “kind of a joke” in a recent interview with the Line of Best Fit, and elaborated more on the idea that served as her main inspiration for her LP. Mitski, a Japanese-born artist, has spoken about how she is treated in the music industry as an Asian American woman.

Much of Mitski’s subject matter in her songs are related to female guilt, and how Mitski has struggled to feel confident in an American society that constantly reminded her she was an Asian American, female musician. In her most recent release, the notion of Mitski reclaiming a classic American image that she would never be expected to fit into, resonated with listeners who heard its more bold, defying, and unapologetic lyricism.

Be the Cowboy, Mitski’s seventh album, received rave reviews from many music publications, and landed a spot on multiple best-albums-of-theyear lists.

That’s why on March 5, when fellow-acclaimed indie artist Mac Demarco unveiled his latest single, “Nobody,” from his upcoming album titled Here Comes the Cowboy, indie fans were genuinely surprised.

Mitski herself tweeted the same morning encouraging her fans not to be angry with Mac

Demarco, and that she thought it was a coincidence that the albums shared a common “cowboy” theme. However, Mitski’s fans were angered that Demarco, a white, male artist, would release an almost-identical album name which he said came from calling his friends cowboys.

As a female musician myself, I was aggravated to see two artists that I adored caught in a Twitter feud between their fanbases that neither of them seemed to want any part in.

I was even more upset when reading speculations that Demarco may have stolen the ideas of someone I believe to be one of the most inspiring musicians of this era, and my life.

Students at the New School also immersed in the music of both artists gave their input on the similar song and album name stirring up controversy.

“I think that’s it’s pretty impossible and also irresponsible for Mac Demarco to say he’s never heard of Mitski,” said Hannah Tacke, a sophomore and contemporary music major at Lang. “She’s had an insane amount of success.”

Mitski’s album, fans said, came from a place that evoked discussions of equality and the artistry of women of color.

“The reason why Be the Cowboy was so special is because it’s an Asian woman taking and bettering the narrative.” said Aditya Lal Chadha, a third-year acting and play-

wright major at the College of Performing Arts. Of Demarco, Chadha said, “It’s just another white dude doing the cowboy narrative again and again.”

“It’s just the old tale of men in the music industry appropriating female artistry for capital gain,” Tacke said. “At this point Mac isn’t some saltof-the-earth grunge star that navigates his own career.”

According to Demarco’s representative, the popular indie rocker said he never heard of Mitski, or her album or song titles, until hearing about controversy stemming from their similarities. This, however, did not anger Mitski, who said in a tweet that she was “laughing” at the whole situation.

Some students thought this incident may attract Mac Demarco’s fans or new listeners to Mitski’s music. The possibility of Mitski’s fanbase being widened appealed to many of her devotees. “Maybe the ‘bros’ who are into Mac Demarco will start listening to Mitski because of the drama,” said Emilia Copeland Titus, a thirdyear culture and media major at Lang.

Overall, as an indie-obsessed listener myself, I admit that reading the headline of the Pitchfork Instagram post on March 5 of Mac Demarco announcing a new album and single initially excited me. In high school, his 2014 album, Salad Days helped unearth the genre for me, and I grew an

appreciation for sliding guitar solos and choruses that echoed with psychedelic reverb.

However, reading about Demarco’s album title and song that was so similar to those of my beloved Mitski seemed, at first, like a joke or an error. I first heard the 2014 album, Bury Me At Makeout Creek by Mitski in high school.

Mitski taught 15-year-old me a valuable lesson, that femininity never equals weakness, and that there is true strength in female artists expressing emotion, not the stereotypical hysteria or insanity.

Mitski is reclaiming a symbol of white supremacy, toxic masculinity and old-time expectations into something young female-identifying and non-binary listeners can relate to. Mitski also posted a series of tweets the day Demarco announced his album saying she never wished to incite feuds regarding the situation, or that her fans would.

Whether Mac Demarco, who I do believe to be an important indie musician himself, copied her or not, one thing is for sure: Nobody has a more astonishing, eloquent songwriting style, kind disposition, or empowering effect on indie listeners than Mitski. • A version of this article is published online, with a Spotify playlist curated by reporter Marissa Matozzo.

7

EVENTS

SPRING IS IN BLOOM: WHAT TO DO IN THE COMING WARMTH AND SUN

by EMILY DOSAL

It’s finally that time of year, when the numbers on your Weather app slowly start to creep up to the 50s and even surprisingly the 60s. Spring is around the corner and it’s time to enjoy the outdoors again.

Here are some ways to celebrate spring, smell the flowers and get some sun.

All Spring and Summer CENTRAL PARK: THE LOEB BOATHOUSE Time varies, check website for more information

April 8 - End of November

April 22

SMORGASBORG

EARTH DAY 5K GREEN TOUR 2019

Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Free 90 Kent Ave, Brooklyn This Williamsburg event has more than 75 vendors, and operates rain or shine. Bring picnic blankets to sit on the river lawns and enjoy foods like soft dumplings and churros. The winter smorgasborg has ended, so this is the time to enjoy the first month of their spring and summer event.

$15 for an hour on the rowboat (cash only), $4 for each additional minute with a $20 deposit.

9 a.m - 12 p.m Free Union Square (E. 17th St. and Broadway).

April 13-14 NYC HOT SAUCE EXPO 10 a.m - 6 p.m $10 Brooklyn Expo Center, 72 Noble St.

This classic Central Park staple, operating for more than 150 years, has rentable row boats to paddle around the pond. A restaurant, called the Boathouse, is right next to the boat rental station to make for a perfect day of rowing and lunch. They are now also offering private gondola tours of Central Park. Each rowboat and gondola holds four people and lifejackets are provided.

Hosted by environmental education and awareness organization Earth Day Initiative, this tour goes from one environmentally-sustainable place right after the other, including a river education lab on Hudson River, a zero waste office, a top of the line NYC Department of Sanitation facility, and a rooftop farm to learn all about green systems throughout the city.

The perfect event for BBQ lovers, this annual hot sauce expo has a variety of samples from all over the world, as well as spicy food eating competitions and beer.

NYC VEGAN POP-UP FEST 10 a.m. -5:30 a.m.

Free Grand Bazaar NYC, 100 W 77th St. In the spirit of Earth Day, celebrate with this free, plantbased pop up event with local vendors. 100 percent of space rental profits at Grand Bazaar are donated to four public schools benefiting more than 4,000 children. Personal donations are welcome.

February 23-April 28 April 27-28

April 13-27 HESTER STREET FAIR April 13 NYC FOOD TRUCK FEST 2019 11 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Free - $15 Grand Bazaar NYC, 100 W 77th St. This is the largest food truck festival in NYC, and has gourmet food trucks from all around the city, from BBQ to mac and cheese to cupcakes.

4,000 beverages are served and represent 4,000 public school children, and the first 4,000 attendees receive a free coupon for select drinks at any of the food trucks. 100 percent of the food truck space profits are donated to four local public schools.

8

April 28

Saturdays, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Free Essex St. This street fair is lined with 60 vendors selling crafts, vintage knick knacks, jewelry, art and food. This was founded by three Lower East Side locals in 2010, who combined the idea of a food court and flea market to empower local artists and businesses. On April 14, they are hosting a special culinary event with Hokkaido style Lamb BBQ and fruit beer. Admission is free, but plates range from $6-$45.

SAKURA MATSURI CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. $25 for students and seniors, $30 for adults Brooklyn Botanical Garden 990 Washington Ave, Brooklyn.

This annual cherry blossom viewing festival is held at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and celebrates Japanese culture through cooking demonstrations, food vendors, cultural exhibitions like bonsai basics and a tea ceremony, live music, and a Japanese marketplace.

Each day requires a separate ticket.

THE ORCHID SHOW 2019: SINGAPORE 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday Adults $23 and Students $20 The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd, The Bronx.

This colorful and floral event is filled with flowers native to the island of Singapore, showcasing tall and winding orchids that serve an integral part of the culture. This exhibit was designed in collaboration with Gardens by the Bay and Singapore Botanical Gardens.

Illustrations by Olivia Heller