SPRING/SUMMER 2016

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THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY WMROCKETMAGAZINE.COM MAGAZINE.ROCKET@GMAIL.COM

cover credits: photography by danny rosenberg beauty by ellen penn berry, claire powell, julia sung; style by isabella FOX arias, kyle lopez art by: Lillian zhao models: Omar Ahmed, Shadin Ahmed

ROCKET

magazine magazine fa s hion art p hotogra p hy

SP R I N G / SU M M E R 2 0 1 6

Danny Rosenberg Editor-in-Chief BROOKE LARUE MANAGiNG EDITOR Kelsey Rook CREATIVE director GABI LEVI DIGITAL CONTENT director ISABELLA fox ARIAS style editor ELLEN PENN BERRY beauty editor SARAH COLLIER PRODUCTION DIRECTOR BRITTANY JOHNSON Assistant PRODUCTION DIRECTOR AMIRIO FREEMAN features editor Lillian zhao art editor JONATHaN MERLINO, RICO XI PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM KYLE LOPEZ, SHIVA MINOVI, Bronwyn Roseli, MAGGIE SULLIVAN, Amy Zhang style team ADEOLA ADESUYI, CLAIRE POWELL, julia sung, caroline pellegrin beauty team Mary Burns, Isabella pizarro PRODUCTION TEAM CLARITY BIAN, emmel el-fiky, LARISSA SLONIEWSKY, miranda watson FEATURES TEAM jennifer albarracin, REBECCA MUNNS, vail prior, emma russel Art team CAROLINE CREASEY, Madeleine golden, SHAKERIA HICKS, anna weidman Digital Content Team Shani Cave, Kyle lopez booking Team

EDI T ORS NOTE

Spring 2016 brought rapid growth to ROCKET. We broadened our horizons—exploring and creating—while expanding our content to a wider audience. In the last year our staff nearly doubled in size and we made a great shift towards emphasizing digital content as a continuation of our publication and not just an afterthought.The growth of our staff has provided us with fresh eyes, and with these new perspectives we have gained a greater appreciation of William & Mary’s beauty, both apparent and overlooked.

As spring comes to an end and the doors to summer open, we are challenged to continue discovering beauty. Many of us will leave campus shortly, some for the summer and others for the last time—branching out to new places, people, and experiences. With the monotony of summer internships, the unknown shadows of a new place, or the complications of new and old relationships, it is easy to overlook the greatness around us and dwell on the seemingly finite nature of time and place.

Our issue aims to disrupt the finite by featuring beauty and its endlessness in its many complex forms. We spent the semester immersing ourselves in color, romping through grocery stores, seeing light in the dark, baring it all, finding intrigue in the mundane, and observing the intricate details of nature. Each shoot and project has its own heart; we attempt to capture the intangible and present it in a way that can allow you to see the world in a different light. We were awestruck—sometimes when we least expected it.

Now we share these moments with you, in the hope that you will gain a new perspective. May beauty reveal itself to you in this issue and beyond.

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In living color

credits Photography by jonathan merlino beauty by Ellen Penn Berry, Adeola Adesuyi, Claire Powell, lillian zhao style by isabella fox arias, kyle lopez, shiva minovi, bronwyn roseli, MAGGIE SULLIVAN, amy zhang art by lillian zhao, jennifer albarracin, vail prior models: naomi feliz, Abby jones, anwar radwan, julian scoffield, austin spivey, kiersten white

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t h i n g s t h a t g o b u mp

credits Photography by Danny rosenberg style by isabella fox arias, kyle lopez, shiva minovi, bronwyn roseli, maggie sullivan, amy zhang art by lillian zhao models: colum bowyer, eden tadesse

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U H O GH

TD S

T A N W O R DS

RadioHeads

by Emmel El-Fiky

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uried beneath Campus Center’s main floor, hiding in plain sight, is the campus radio station. It looks like your grandma’s basement—if your grandma was super punk-rock and had one of the biggest vinyl collections ever. Most flat surfaces are covered in either posters or stickers. One sticker in particular advertises the radio station as “WCWM 90.9—The Giant Sucking Sound from the South.” Everything is dimly lit and smells old, including the furniture and the well-outdated carpeting. And yet, the space is probably the coolest place on campus that no one really knows about.

Personally, I’ve only ever been in the radio room twice. Once to meet Elizabeth Stephenson, a freshman who just started her show, PB&Jamz (“I just really like peanut butter and music”). And once to meet Tai Tomozawa, a junior who runs Front Porch Radio. Acting almost as additions to the station’s atmosphere, their relaxed, creative personalities reflected the mood of WCWM 90.9. They care about their shows, but in an effortless, easy way.

Upon meeting Elizabeth, it was easy to tell that her show was going to be enjoyable. She seemed so excited to share her musical finds with people, even if the only ones who usually have time to listen are a few friends and her parents. Usually she tries to plan her shows by making a playlist of some of her favorite songs mixed with new songs and musicians that she actively seeks out, but she isn’t totally worried about fully planning things or always being ahead of the trends. Every once in awhile a Taylor Swift song is definitely called for.

When it comes to her musical taste, it usually changes depending on the season and what she’s feeling at the moment. Typically preferring sadder, slower music, she plays more upbeats songs when she knows her mom is listening. Elizabeth also tries to showcase female vocalists. She joked that on every single show, even her test show, she’s featured a song by Courtney Barnett.

Elizabeth sees even more new music and special guests in the future of her show. Ultimately, she just wants to share music that makes people feel good. When asked what she wants people to take away from her show, Elizabeth’s simple and honest response was “a smile.”

Tai, another student radio jockey I met with, was also impressive. He was laidback with a calm voice, yet the hard work he put into his show was clear. Tai’s show promotes the happenings and self-made music of the Front Porch Society (FPS), a club on campus focused on sharing student-made demos with a wider audience. During his interview, he was joined by some of the members of FPS, who chimed in on some of the questions with answers of their own.

Sitting in on his show, it was understandable why, when asked what type of alcohol the show would be classified as, Tai and his FPS company said it would be “a handle.” The show was casually cool and didn’t really have a plan. Taking suggestions for songs from his crew, Tai played a track inspired by a new Kanye West song, followed by Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” and Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing).” His friends kept themselves busy between songs by reading out of sex-ed and alcohol education pamphlets and doodling with dry erase markers. Just a bunch of college kids sitting around on a Friday night listening to music.

After seeing Elizabeth and Tai operate their separate shows, you can’t help but come away with a renewed appreciation for what many consider a dying art. Here are just two people out of many who strive to preserve radio as a medium of musical display and communication. Campus radio is a perfect sanctuary of expression, unlike any other place on campus. It’s a musical treasure trove guided along by effortlessly interesting people with something to share, and there’s nothing more compelling than that.

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heart of the hijab

by Amirio Freeman

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amily members, foreign locales, Forever 21—these are a few of the places from which Yussre ElBardicy, a senior at William & Mary, sources her collection of hijabs.

Worn every day as a reminder of her commitment to her Islamic faith, Yussre’s hijabs have formed an integral star in the larger constellation of her identity. Symbolic of pride, duty, and community, her headscarves—in a world that threatens Black boys in hoodies and that shames women in short skirts— have also come to be considered dangerous.

Criminal. Even unpatriotic. ROCKET recently caught up with Yussre to discuss the hijab and the significance of the disparate narratives attached to it by herself and others.

ROCKET: Why do you wear the hijab?

Yussre: For me, it’s an act of devotion to God. It’s a very spiritual thing. Even though I sometimes forget that I'm wearing it, it's an everyday reminder that I'm Muslim and that I'm proud to be a Muslim. I'm proud to live by the values of my faith. However, I sometimes get so annoyed with politics of wearing it. People will mention examples of Muslim women who've been forced to wear the hijab, and of course I think that's wrong. I think that defeats the entire purpose of it being a spiritual

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act—what’s the point of wearing the hijab if you don't want to? That's oppression. But to then assume that because some women are forced to wear it that all women are forced to wear it takes so much agency away from me.

That assumes that I haven't made my own decisions. It's insulting. By saying that I'm oppressed because I'm not showing certain parts of my body assumes that the only form of empowerment I can have comes from revealing myself. There's so much more to me than the hair or the skin that you are not seeing.

ROCKET: In academic settings, how have you navigated how others may perceive you while wearing the hijab?

Yussre: I first wore the hijab the day before my freshman year of high school. During the year, I had friends from middle school who told me I wasn’t being myself. And I wasn't.

I didn't want the same thing to happen freshman year of college, so I stayed super quiet.

But that didn't work out, because I'm not really a quiet person. In both cases, I constantly found myself thinking about how I was going to be perceived, especially at first glance.

It's a different awareness. However, the longer I'm in a community the more that starts to go away, because people do start to know me as more than just “the girl in the hijab.”

ROCKET: So, do you feel as though you have to make more of an effort to make sure people get to know you beyond the exterior?

Yussre: I feel like people, even subconsciously, make assumptions about what I will believe. Whether they’re within the Muslim community or outside of it. I feel like I always have to state my opinions and views.

For instance, within the Muslim community there's this perception that those who wear the hijab think they’re more conservative than those who don't. But that's not true.

It frustrates me when people use wearing the hijab as a religiosity test.

Outside of the Muslim community, it's hard

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because you never know how much people know about Islam. That’s hard to gauge.

So it's difficult to know how much I have to overcompensate, in a way. It feels like I have to make my opinions known so that other people don't write my narrative.

ROCKET: Do you ever feel like you’re protecting not only your narrative, but also the narrative of the Muslim community?

Yussre: People are always looking to me for an opinion, and I always feel like I have to preface my thoughts with a reminder that my opinions are my own and they don't represent all Muslims. It's hard being constantly on the defensive.

And I don't want to come off as constantly being on the defensive. It's exhausting.

ROCKET: With having to be so self-aware all the time, how do you care for yourself ?

Yussre: I think talking about it does help.

Saying things out loud reaffirms what I feel.

Also, just talking to people who are going through the same things is great. If anything, talking about my experiences has only made me happier that I wear the hijab. Despite the negative stuff that comes with it.

There have been times, this year especially, when I’ve realized I’ve been really lucky, because the things that I've faced while wearing the hijab have been practically nothing in comparison to other people. The Chapel Hill shooting immediately comes to mind.

Also, I know people who've been screamed at on the side of the road or who’ve gotten horrible treatment at the DMV. My own

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sister, who was in high school during 9/11, was called “bin Laden's daughter”, so my dad made her take her scarf off because he was so afraid. These moments have been wake-up calls reminding me that I'm really not as sheltered from prejudice as I may have thought. That’s why it’s frustrating when I complain to my allies about things that have happened or things I've seen in the news and they're like, “Oh, aren't you so glad that doesn't exist at William & Mary?” And I'm like, “It does. It really does.”

ROCKET: In general, what are your thoughts on the people’s tendency to make assumptions about others based on what they wear?

Yussre: I know that by wearing the hijab the first thing people are going to notice about me is that I'm Muslim. I understand that and I’m fine with that. One of the things I'm most proud of in my life is my faith.

I think that everybody holds their own intentional or unintentional biases, and these biases do shape the way you think about people. So when people first talk to me, their first impression is likely related to me being a Muslim. And, consciously or subconsciously, that will shape the way they see me.

Which is fine, as long as there’s no malicious intent. I always say I’m more than happy to answer questions. I'm more than okay with being the first Muslim that people meet, as long as they give me the benefit of the doubt. It is a conscious decision to choose to be identified by my faith, but all I ask is that people don't solely identify me by my faith. There is more to me. My faith defines so much of what I do, but not everything.

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Roots, Recipes, Remembrances

by Clarity Bian

Tomato & Egg Noodles

Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry chopped scallions Add two chopped tomatoes, a spoonful of salt, and a spoonful of sugar Stir-fry at medium heat until the tomatoes are soft Put all ingredients in a pot of water and then boil Add noodles and lightly stir Add an egg and boil at low heat for 2 minutes After the egg solidifies some, boil at high heat for 1-2 minutes Ready.

Your breakfast is scrambled eggs and bread. Maybe with a cup of coffee. It’s not what your grandma would have recommended for you to eat. She’d always say, “Noodles are the best thing to eat in the morning.” You’re not going to pretend that you care much about her folksy advice for good health, but suddenly you’re homesick. When was the last time someone woke up earlier than you just to cook you breakfast? Probably last Winter Break, when your family came to Williamsburg and your mom’s cooking failed epically because all of the kitchen tools in the hotel were different from the ones she’s used to. That you’re used to. No matter how hard you try to adjust to the culture in the States, food is still a constant reminder that you are from another place.

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Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs

Boil chopped pork ribs Add a little oil to a pan and stir-fry the ribs until they’re a golden color Add 1 spoonful of cooking wine, 2 spoonfuls of soy sauce, 3 spoonfuls of sugar, and 4 spoonfuls of vinegar Add boiled water until the ribs are mostly covered Add a star anise, cover the pot, and set the heat to low for 20 minutes When there is about 1/3 of water left, turn the heat to high and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes Add salt Ready.

The “Chinese food” in the dining halls is not Chinese food. The “Chinese food” in restaurants is not Chinese food. You refuse to say any of it is authentic, even when it does taste good. You always find things to criticize—maybe the vegetables are chopped the wrong way or there is a missing ingredient. “It’s not the same as in China,” you insist. Because you’re Chinese, people believe you.

But still, Xufan, your friend, proposes that you “go eat fake Chinese food” with her every once in awhile.

You sometimes agree, venturing with her into random Chinese restaurants. Ninety percent of the time, these restaurants serve either Sichuan food or Hunan food. These two (of the eight) regional Chinese cuisines are somehow overwhelmingly present in America. In fact, you have not yet even encountered the cuisine from your hometown, Shandong. But you cherish the food anyway, because what you have here is the closest thing you can get to your mom’s kitchen.

Homemade Milk Tea

Boil 350 mL of water Add a teaspoon of black tea Keep boiling at low heat for 5 minutes Filter out tea leaves Add ginger sugar Heat and stir until the sugar dissolves Add 50 mL of milk Boil at low heat for 1 minute Ready.

Food is probably the strongest representation of Chinese culture here in the United States. However, Chinese food culture in America isn’t necessarily equal to actual Chinese culture. Here, Chinese food is a mixture of connection and distance. A result of reinventing dishes with substitute ingredients. A mix of a Chinese background and an American education. A combination of Chinese values and American living.

There is a saying in China that who you are is decided by your roots, and your roots are shown in your food. When you stay up late for work, you often think about late-night snacks. But not high-calorie junk foods—you just want to find a hot cup of milk tea waiting on the kitchen table. That desire won’t ever change. Between your brain and your stomach, you don’t know which one could possibly miss home more.

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SH A TTERED

credits Photography by danny rosenberg beauty by Ellen Penn Berry, Adeola Adesuyi, Claire Powell art by lillian zhao, jennifer albarracin, rebecca munns, vail prior, emma russell models: giselle ferguson, aiesha krause-lee, vanessa lee

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b la n k s la t E / s h e e r s t a t e

credits Photography by danny rosenberg beauty by Ellen Penn Berry, caroline pellegrin, Claire Powell style by isabella fox arias, kyle lopez, shiva minovi, bronwyn roseli, MAGGIE SULLIVAN, amy zhang models: holly alesbury, miranda elliott, lucy gunter

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ennui

credits Photography by danny rosenberg beauty by Ellen Penn Berry, Adeola Adesuyi, Claire Powell style by isabella fox arias, kyle lopez, shiva minovi, bronwyn roseli, MAGGIE SULLIVAN, amy zhang models: will hart, zaid khan, veronica over

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morning minutiae

by Amirio Freeman jerk your shoulders. wiggle your toes. flex your legs. you command your frozen body to move as the sun blinds your eyes. you squint

and filter the morning light through your eyelashes. your vision is blurred and textured and bright, and you’re rising from the black pool of sleep. as your limbs liquefy—remembering what it means to stretch and shift and sprawl—you start to become aware of the world around you and the world within you.

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you become conscious of the inflation and contraction of your lungs. your heartbeat’s pattering. the sound of the wetness in your mouth. you become aware of your sheets. your covers. your pillows. the solidness of your walls. the reliability of your ceiling. the empty space around you. you acknowledge the illuminated dust hugging the air. the dozens of disturbed bits of earth and dirt and skin that sit in space. and you smile, thinking about how beautiful and warm this moment is. and how tiny. tiny like you. tiny like you within the “grand scheme.”

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you think: how did i, with my thoughts and bruises and uneven fingers, come to be here? how did the world, with its deserts and magma and glaciers and iron, come to be here? how did the universe, with its moons and gases and belts of stars, come to be here? how? you shrug, and the pit of anxiety in your stomach melts away. you remove yourself from your bed and let your feet hit the ground.

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something unearthed

credits Photography by danny rosenberg beauty by Ellen Penn Berry, Adeola Adesuyi, Claire Powell, julia sung art by lillian zhao models: arvin alaigh, emily draper, vickie goldsby, will manion, katie williams

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ROCKET MAGAZINE SP R I N G / SU M M E R 2 0 1 6 V ol u me V i , I SSU E 2

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