Globalists Fall 2021 Issue, No.06 by suglobalists

GLOBALISTS FALL 2021

ISSUE No.06

where your story is celebrated.

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EDITOR’S NOTE been thrown so many obstacles, but rewarding, because we’ve been able to overcome each one.

Dear Globalists, Time has somehow passed slow as molasses and quick as a flash. Just this August, we were picking back up piece by piece, newly acclimating to an in-person semester. As I write this note, we’re now in chilly November in the throes of final production and I can take this time to sit back and reflect on how these past few years have been: tumultuous, because we’ve 4 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2021

Our stories come from this same space of reflection. Cori Dill’s searing personal narrative denouncing the performative nature of Black Lives Matter activism takes you into the past year of injustices and protests. Cali Delisle’s deep dive into Interstate 81 policy decisions that further pullulated Syracuse’s racial wealth gap teaches you how time and time again, minority groups are disregarded for profit. My story introduces to you David Haas, who wants you to get off University Hill and recognise the beauty this city naturally possesses. Ethan Chu’s commentary on Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Mirror” delivers an exquisite treatise on the qualities of memory: fickle, fragile, but also pictureperfect, all-encompassing. As we arm ourselves with the lessons of our past, we also look to the future. Brittany Miller examines the future of Facebook and the implications of the metaverse in our forward-barrelling world. Eden Stratton captures how

Rufus Sivaroshan has leveraged his experiences as a student singersongwriter into his debut EP “graduation.” We also learn from Narratio fellow Alaa Laila on how she uses photography to reconcile her two communities in a profile by Maggie Sardino. To commence the round of thank yous: We’d be bereft without Alex Weiss’ impeccable and compassionate creations. His leadership and work brought these stories to life and gave their narratives the dignity they deserved. The fruits of Brittany Miller’s unfailing work ethic and eye for detail are peppered across this magazine’s pages. Ethan Chu devoted his sharp instincts and keen sense of editorial style to fashion this final product. Jade Chung’s tireless rally of her communications prowess ensured these words had sponsors and an enraptured audience. As a testament to her painstaking dedication, Adèle Bey-Smith went above and beyond in

her first semester with us to provide the platform we needed to share these stories. We’re also immensely grateful to our unofficial mentors, Izzy Bartling and Kaizhao “Zero” Lin, who did all of this before us and gave us invaluable guidance. A special thank you is reserved for Amanda Lennes, who contributed exemplary artwork and kept our digital design lineups afloat. And to all the Globalists I can’t thank by name, know that your efforts are treasured. These pages have been my most fulfilling labor of love during the course of my college career. I hope they inspire you to look back and learn from our pasts, myriad as they may be, and look forward to envision a future that’s more equitable, more empathetic, and full of love and life. Boundlessly yours,

Shivani Reddy

Editor-in-Chief

suglobalists

globalists

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CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS

Fatima Alibhai Izzy Bartling Ethan Chu Cali Delisle Cori Dill Brittany Miller Shivani Reddy Maggie Sardino Eden Stratton

PR & SOCIAL

Kelly Chang April Kim Allison De Young Bianca S. Pérez Lugo

EDITORS

Fatima Alibhai Cali Delisle Bryan Fletcher Jordan Greene Eden Stratton

ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN Amanda Lennes Javali Marri Grace Zhang

PHOTOGRAPHY Edward Grattan David Haas Nicole Hopwood Jehan Muhialdain

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Brittany Miller

Ethan Chu

Alex Weiss

Amanda Lennes

Adèle Bey-Smith

Jade Chung

Managing Editor

Print Creative Director

Fiscal Manager

Senior Editor

Web Creative Director

Communications Director OUR TEAM 7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

My Life Matters | 22 Communities Replaced by Concrete | 28 Our feature stories spotlight a critically relevant perspective about the Black Lives Matter movement and the racist history of Interstate 81. Both pieces discuss the issue of systemic racism from the past, the present and the future.

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The Power of Social Media

Future of Facebook | 10 Capturing Moments and Changing Narratives | 16

Artist Spotlight

a kid named rufus | 34 Eye on Narratio: Alaa Laila | 38

Beyond the Sea | 30 A Mosaic of Time | 40 Postcard from Strasbourg | 42

Future of Facebook What data dearths mean for the future of social media

BY BRITTANY MILLER ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRACE ZHANG 10 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2021

project manager, she explained how the company has a history of doing very little about the spread of misinformation on its platform and not curbing its negative impact on young users.

arlier this year, The Wall Street Journal released an investigative piece titled “The Facebook Files,” where reporters unearthed the flaws within the social network and the company’s complicity with them. This is after Zuckerberg himself had been called to testify in front of Congress multiple times. Facebook, or originally Facemash, was created in 2003 at Harvard University by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes for people to judge the attractiveness of their fellow students. Now, the company has rebranded to Meta, short for metaverse and derived from the Neal Stephenson novel "Snow Crash," in which people retreat into virtual life to avoid reality. In 2018, Zuckerberg was questioned about the company’s handling of user information, whether the company should be more heavily regulated and whether Russia used it to meddle with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He was called again in 2020, and once more in October of 2021 because of “The Facebook Files” and whistleblower Frances Haugen. Haugen leaked the aforementioned documents to the WSJ. A former

What had once started as a website to compare attractiveness has only continued to do so 18 years later. Instagram, also owned by Facebook, has been proven mentally harmful to teens. Data from Facebook’s own research presentation slides show that the platform makes teen girls more easily exposed to body comparisons which can lead them to develop negative body-image relationships and can increase anxiety and depression levels in teens overall. What had once started as a website to compare attractiveness has only continued to do so 18 years later. Yet, social media itself has been a game changer. People can communicate across oceans with the click of a button and can turn their names into multi-million dollar brands. According to Christian Velitchkov, co-founder of 11

Twiz LLC, such apps are easy platforms with the ability for users to consume news, entertain themselves, learn, shop and even apply for jobs. However, it is becoming increasingly unclear whether or not the convenience will outweigh the apparent flaws within Facebook and other social media platforms.

“There has always been a lack of transparency.” With a demonstrated history of causing mental harm to young women, it seems contradictory for Facebook’s largest cohort to be young women, according to data from the Pew Research Center. If a company is going to do nothing about this large contradiction, it is unclear whether the public can continue to trust it. At a congressional hearing this March, Zuckerberg said, “The research that we’ve seen is that using social apps to connect with other people can have positive mental health benefits.” But the research he referred to is kept hidden from both the general public and social scientists. Research assistant professor Brian McKernan at Syracuse University's iSchool mentioned how this has been a problem with Facebook for a while now. “I can’t say I was too surprised

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when the Facebook Files came out,” he said, “There has always been a lack of transparency.” The problem is not just within Facebook. McKernan wondered why the same questions were not being asked about other platforms. People always mention the YouTube rabbit holes they fall into until 2 a.m., but there is no prominent information about how ethical the platform’s algorithm is. Most users do not strongly oppose or openly question the ads Google gives them based on their search history and how specific they can be. “People talk about how it makes them uncomfortable sometimes, but they still use it,” he said. It is unclear where the decision to do this comes from due to the lack of data on the subject from both researchers and the platforms themselves. This is key to getting past the current waves of uncertainty. With more data, people can detect when Facebook is presenting content that is purposely

trying to inflame users. But this cannot be done without the platform’s compliance. Congressional testimonies similar to those by Frances Haugen show that this is a bipartisan issue. Some have compared it to the Big Tobacco lawsuit, where tobacco companies were found guilty of lying to the American public about the deadly effects of cigarettes and secondhand smoke. But Facebook is hard to quit too, just like tobacco. According to Andrew Selepak, social media professor at the University of Florida, it is evident that people cannot simply cut themselves off from social media. “Social media is communication now,” he said, “As a species, we have evolved into social creatures, and social media is the way that we are now social with one another, and the way we learn about the world around us, and the way we

“People talk about how it makes them uncomfortable sometimes, but they still use it.” store memories, and the way we share our thoughts and ideas.” Facebook, or Meta, might not be in the best situation right now, but if people were to give it up, they would be giving up its benefits as well as its defects. To use it or not isn’t the choice that the public can make yet as there is no data. The corporation needs to do more than a well-timed name change. Ultimately, the social media landscape might look entirely different once the right researchers –– and eventually the general public –– become aware of it. G

Student Assembly of Interfaith Leaders Student leaders from Religious and Spiritual Life Groups at Hendricks Chapel work together as the Student Assembly of Interfaith Leaders, also known as S.A.I.L. Their purpose is to be a greenhouse for leaders of all backgrounds, and an incubator for leaders of all future promise.

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What happens at Hendricks Chapel? Interfaith Learning We believe in the importance of learning about the beliefs of others. Through conversation and cooperation, our commitment to interfaith-based programming is an important contribution to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

Sustaining our Community Health and wellness involve mind, body, and spirit. We invite students to visit with chaplains, support our Food Pantries, participate in musical groups, enjoy People’s Place Café, and explore meaningful volunteer opportunities.

Religious and Spiritual Services We host nine chaplaincies and thirty religious and spiritual life groups. By providing students with important opportunities and communities to better understand their beliefs and values, we seek to lead in service to our common good. Visit chapel.syracuse.edu to learn more. 15

David Haas, creator of @syracusehistory, shares what binds him to the past and his vision for the future BY SHIVANI REDDY PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVIS HAAS

hen David Haas was in high school, he went to Universal Studios in Orlando. The amusement park boasted many sights, but that which remained most memorable to Haas was City Walk. City Walk was constructed to resemble an old town built around walkable streets, with stores, restaurants and bars lined up around every corner. The town was meant to be a testament to walkable urbanism, a concept that most Americans think is reserved only for tourist attractions like this one. Haas, now 35, said that when he thinks back to City Walk, he’s immediately reminded of his neighborhood of Eastwood, Syracuse, and specifically, the untapped potential it holds.

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Haas said he wasn’t fully aware of what his neighborhood naturally possessed. At a young age, Haas said he wasn’t fully aware of what his neighborhood naturally possessed –– the walkability, the turn-of-thecentury homes and the tree-lined streets –– but as he grew older, he saw things differently.

“I just looked at Eastwood and thought, we have all those opportunities here on James Street. And we have the business district going East to West. Why can’t we take advantage of that?” Haas said. Haas is the creator of @syracusehistory, an Instagram page dedicated to sharing Syracuse’s past through photos and stories of people, buildings, trees and even windows of interest. The page, which Haas started in 2013, has amassed over 44,000 followers and is updated daily –– sometimes twice or thrice –– with fresh content based on what Haas is currently excited to learn and share about Syracuse.

The page was borne out of his curiosity for his city. When Haas first purchased an iPhone in 2012, one of the first things he did was download Instagram. On his personal account, he would snap and post photos of old houses or signs that interested him with what he could find out about their background from scouring libraries and museums in the caption. “It’s not like I have a background in architecture… it was more the story of why things are like they are,” Haas said. “I wasn’t exactly interested in what kind of building it is, but instead who put it here and why. Why did an individual decide, ‘I’m going to build something on this street?’ That’s what I liked to find out.” 17

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His friends loved his posts and encouraged him to make a separate account to tell others what he learned. The rest is, quite literally, history. The page has grown since its inception, with recognition pouring in from various media outlets like the Syracuse Post-Standard, which named Haas one of Syracuse’s leading innovators and is currently collaborating with him on a series titled “Beyond the Front Door,” and the Syracuse New Times, which awarded Haas “Best Social Media Personality” in 2016. Haas has since expanded to Twitter and Facebook. He also sells some of his photography on Darkroom, an online print shop, all the while working full-time as executive director of Sarah’s Guest House, a non-profit that provides lodging and services to patients and families of patients receiving medical care in Central New York. Today, Haas’ work has taken on a new meaning: to upend certain negative narratives and perceptions that plague some neighborhoods in the city. “If you go on Facebook or read the local paper, you just hear about certain areas and streets only when there’s a violent incident there. Then that’s the only way you’re going to look at that street and that area and those individuals,” Haas said, “But you can look deeper at the fact that there’s actual stories that can be told here about the beauty that remains.” Haas said that’s why all his stories pertain to matters inside the city limits.

“I care to shine a light where there isn’t one.” “I don’t do stories about houses in the suburbs,” he said. “I don’t care to tell those stories. No offense to those individuals, but I care to shine a light where there isn’t one, or where there’s only light on the bad things.” Haas recognized that his platform could evolve if he used it to generate calls-to-action. “I didn’t think from day one that I would change perceptions or start a movement or influence an election or policy,” Haas said. But that didn’t stop him from rallying his followers to provide public comment about how the renovation of I-81 affected the community grid or fundraising for a tombstone in Oakwood Cemetery for Black Civil War veteran James Jameson. Haas is optimistic about his future endeavors and has faith in his follower base. He’s spent the past decade educating people on the terse racial history of I-81 and said he will not stop any time soon, while working with historical preservation societies to get another 80 Civil War veterans who are buried in unmarked graves in Oakwood the recognition they deserve. “I know with this larger and engaged audience, that we can put out calls to action to get a project done and give a voice to the voiceless.” G 19

oming from a year where it was nearly impossible for us to write a story without addressing COVID-19, we wanted to go back to our roots, stop to take a moment to think about where we’ve been and where we’re headed. This issue, we are “Looking Back, Looking Forward.” We are returning to the core of our magazine: profile and photo-heavy articles that expand on our commitment to inclusivity and celebrate the diversity of identity.

Cori Dill begins by addressing a point of view on the Black Lives Matter movement that challenges us to think about our past actions, what has happened since the murder of George Floyd and how we can do better.

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We are brought closer to home as Copy Editor Cali Delisle looks back to the history of Interstate 81, the plans Syracuse intends to enact and how it could irreversibly widen the racial wealth gap in the city. As we try to move forward and find a foothold in an increasingly foreign world, let us celebrate the power of storytelling as a means to look beyond the scope of our lives and spark meaningful conversations. BY ETHAN CHU & BRITTANY MILLER

PHOTO BY NICOLE HOPWOOD

BY CORI DILL

At the beginning of June 2020, you thought you understood what it’s like to be Black in America. You did not.

ripple throughout the country. Black Americans were mad but unsurprised. An innocent life lost. A racist cop. You became aware and surprised. Another innocent life lost? Another racist cop? I watched as you slowly began to realize that racism still exists in America, and it's costing us our lives.

George Floyd was murdered. His life –– like Breonna Taylor’s, Daunte Wright’s, Andre Hill’s and Manuel Ellis’ –– was taken by a police officer. A police officer who assumed that merely being Black was the equivalent of being a threat to society. His death, on the other hand, caused fires to

You discovered terms like police brutality, systemic racism and white supremacy. You discovered that police brutality is the racially-motivated, excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement. You discovered that systemic racism is systems and structures that discriminate

You will never understand what it’s like to be Black in America. Period. I am tired of you thinking otherwise.

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against racial minorities and are firmly embedded in most of American society, organizations and institutions. You discovered that white supremacy is a form of oppression that every white person still consciously or unconsciously upholds and benefits from today. These terms, as well as others, developed new meanings to you. Many of you realized that police brutality and systemic racism were not just terms, but our realities. Many of you realized you played a role in upholding police brutality, systemic racism and white supremacy.

It's costing us our lives.

With all this, came a movement. A movement started by us and propelled by you. A movement that, prior to George Floyd’s death, you may have considered radical. A movement defined by three simple words that were seemingly difficult for you to wrap your head around. So difficult, that mainstream news outlets placed air quotes around “police brutality” and “systemic racism” as if our fears and struggles were hypotheticals rather than realities. So difficult, that you beat around the bush, trying to claim “all lives matter,” treating the word “Black” as a swear word. I watched

as white America toyed with the apparently radical idea that Black lives could possibly matter. It was 250 years too late and the bare minimum, but nonetheless, white America had the time to finally say it: Black Lives Matter. In hindsight, the movement couldn’t have come at a better time. We were at the height of the national COVID-19 lockdown. You were bored and restless. You had nothing else to do, no other reasons to get out of the house. You had time to learn, and learn you did. By the end of June 2020, you thought you understood what it’s like to be Black in America.

I watched as white America toyed with the apparently radical idea that Black lives could possibly matter.

At that point, you almost had me thinking the same. Suddenly, you were ready to fight, to post, to protest, to argue, to do whatever necessary to ensure that others heard you say that Black lives matter.

Never before had I felt more seen as a Black woman in America.

You filled your influx of free time with becoming a vocal proponent of the Black Lives Matter movement. You marched the streets yelling, “I say ‘Black lives,’ you say ‘matter’” at the top of your lungs. You read endless books that spoke on your personal relationship with white supremacy or depicted the true history of slavery’s evolution into over-policing and mass incarceration. You donated to bail funds and police-reform organizations and communityenrichment programs. You chose one day in which you would solely shop at Black-owned businesses. You chose another that would be a day of digital silence, in which you would only post a black image and nothing more. You became activists.

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You made me cry, something I don’t do often, but did when I saw hundreds of non-Black people marching the streets, yelling “no justice, no peace” in my predominantly white neighborhood. Tears rolled down my face as I drove past protesters kneeling on the sidewalk yelling “no racist police'' in harmony with each other and in solidarity with the Black community. Never before did I feel as supported by my predominantly white neighborhood as I did at that moment. This didn’t just start in my suburban California neighborhood. Protests blew up all across the country and, eventually, all across the globe. During the month of June 2020, data from Civis Analysis suggested that between 15 to 26 million people demonstrated in the U.S. fighting on behalf of George Floyd. Never before had America displayed so much support for a Black man than in June 2020. Never before had I felt more seen as a Black woman in America than I did in June 2020. When you couldn’t play a role in the movement in the real world, you brought the fight into the digital one. Your social media posts flooded timelines, feeds and story posts. You made sure that on every platform,

people saw your support for the movement. Some of your posts were informative, explaining how American slavery transformed into mass incarceration. Others were graphic, videos showing police brutality to its fullest, most vivid extent. Others provided endless lists of resources for educating oneself on the Black American experience and donation links to bail funds. I was almost proud of America. For the first time, America recognized that my life mattered. For the first time, America recognized that they used to treat my life like it didn’t

experience –– were only a part of your performative activism. Exhausted by tapping through the endless flood of resources for educational opportunities and donations links that you often never fully read or utilized yourself. As disillusioned and as tired as I was –– as we all were –– you refused to stop. You constantly used every avenue to garner our attention and to let us know that you truly believed Black lives matter. You put a hashtag on my life to make supporting it trendy. You wrote the word “black” when we asked you to capitalize it. You yelled “Black lives matter” over the Black voices trying to tell you how to truly support their lives. You preached that our voices were equal, but continued to speak over us and for us.

#BLM

matter. For the first time, America realized that change needed to come.

But by the end of 2020, you still thought you understood what it’s like to be Black in America. At that point, I was disillusioned and tired. Disillusioned by your consistent posts that I had just seen reposted on 12 other white girls’ stories. Tired of having to relive the trauma of watching the graphic videos and reading the disturbingly racist stories, videos and stories that –– while a part of my everyday

It was performative action at the pinnacle of its effectiveness. It’s now 2021, and it’s obvious you never fully understood what it’s like to be Black in America, because you’ve stopped. Gone are the countrywide rallying cries to say the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, Andre Hill and Manuel 25

Ellis. Gone is the constant flood of social media posts calling on people to call and email their congressional officials, urging them to implement systemic change. You returned to choosing to attend birthday parties and sporting events over protests.

You treated my life as a trend, and now my life is no longer trending. 26 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2021

You returned to posting aesthetically pleasing photo dumps instead of threads of resources to support the movement. You returned to a lifestyle where you only support something if everyone else is doing the same. You returned to your everyday life, forgetting Black lives in the process. Gone are the days when we were all locked inside our homes, begging for reasons to get out of the house or find something to do. Gone are the days when you had the time to recognize how truly threatened Black America is by the police brutality, systemic racism and white supremacy perpetuated by white America. You left the height of the lockdown in the past and with it, your supposedly endless support of the Black Lives Matter movement. You treated my life as a trend, and now my life is no longer trending. After reading this, you will still never fully understand what it’s like to be Black in America. That level of understanding only truly comes when you are one of those Black lives threatened, on a daily basis, by police brutality, systemic racism and white supremacy. But you will understand that Black lives did not just suddenly stop being under attack when you chose to suddenly stop fighting for them.

After reading this, you have a choice to make. It’s a choice that, as a Black individual, I do not have the privilege of possessing. You can choose to continue on the downhill path of performative action. Where you only post if a Black individual’s life or death is trending. Where you only join the countrywide protests and rallying cries when they are countrywide. Where you only call on your congressional officials to implement systemic change when you are bored and at the height of a global lockdown. You can ignore the fact that it’s a privilege to not have a life that goes in waves of trendiness. Or you can choose to recognize your privilege and revitalize the energy you had in June 2020. Where you continue to read books reminding you of your role in the fight against police brutality, systemic racism and white supremacy. Where you continue to join protests and rallying cries, both large and small. Where you continue to call out your congressional officials for failing to implement systemic reform over a year after the uproar. With Black lives across the country on the line, I hope you choose the latter. Frankly, I am tired of you choosing otherwise. G 27

Communities

Concrete

REPLACED BY

The aftershock of Interstate 81

BY CALI DELISLE PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE HOPWOOD

or many of Syracuse’s residents, Interstate 81 is simply the old, rundown highway that cuts through the center of the city. It is notorious for being a complex entanglement of lanes, but this is the extent to which citizens pay the structure any mind. Most don’t realize that I-81’s history is even more complex than the lanes that comprise it. The construction of I-81, redlining and the largely racist practice prevaricated as urban renewal combined to hinder a large portion of the city’s population. Poverty has since been entrenched specifically within the city’s minority groups. In 1959, 1,300 families, including an entire ward of the city, were displaced to make room for the new road. The

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15th Ward, home to 90% of Syracuse’s Black population at the time, was demolished. Residents lost their homes. Business owners lost their jobs. Generations of livelihoods were lost. Today, descendants of the 15th Ward still feel the aftershock of this displacement. An entire generation of citizens was set back by the decision to build I-81, and the impacts ripple into the lives of present-day residents. For them, the interstate is a tombstone over acres of land where their families once lived or worked, that have long-since been razed to make room for the highway.

And the city wants to do it again. Syracuse, New York is a glaringly obvious display of poverty’s multifaceted suffering. Syracuse ranked eighth in the nation for poverty rates in the 2020 census. If you delve into that a little deeper, 40% of Syracuse’s Black community lives in poverty, compared to just 11% of white citizens. Repeated transgressions against

Residents lost their homes. Business owners lost their jobs.

impoverished areas of the city, and in particular impoverished areas with high numbers of minorities residing within them, have set back half of the city’s populace. Approximately 50% of Syracuse’s population is non-white, yet throughout its history, the city has repeatedly impeded this group’s ability to pull themselves out of the poverty they were forced into. Syracuse’s poverty rates continue to grow, and with that, the racial wealth gap widens. Now I-81 is in need of renovation. The project is estimated to cost $1.2-1.9 billion. State transportation officials have proposed to tear down the elevated portion of the interstate that passes between downtown and University Hill and replace it with a community grid. With this reconstruction would come the demolition of low-income living communities in the area, namely Pioneer Homes and The Bricks. In their place would be not only new sections of highway, but residencies which many of the families living in the area now cannot afford. Poor residents will be driven out by these plans, without receiving adequate housing options.

Generations of livelihoods were lost.

Recent Rural Establishment Information Survey (REIS) project data revealed that 87% of construction jobs 29

currently available in the city are held by white workers. 90% of those jobs are held by people who do not even live in the area. Various advocacy groups have urged city officials to not let this happen with the I-81 construction. Urban Jobs Task Force (UJTF) is one such group. In early spring of 2021, UJTF joined a coalition of over 160

“If you don’t have equity baked into the process, how can you expect equitable outcomes?”

local and national officials fighting to remove the ban on local hiring for federal infrastructure projects. Since then, the Biden administration has reinstated the Sep-14 federal pilot program, which allows for local hiring requirements upon application. On June 29, UJTF President Deka Dancil met with U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, along with roughly 20 others to discuss I-81’s construction. “If you look at the DOT's website and what their account is of the history of [I-81], you see no mention of the racial and economic injustice that

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happened… The biggest crisis with this –– and what we see time and time again in urban planning and infrastructure planning –– is it's not being framed through an equity lens,” Dancil said. “So if you don't have equity baked into the process, how can you expect equitable outcomes? This is the question that we are urging the community to press upon the New York State Department of Transportation.” With Buttigieg and the federal government now on their side, UJTF was able to pressure the New York State DOT to apply for Sep-14. This application is set to go out in midOctober. Dancil said that the first step in inciting change is spreading

awareness of I-81’s history and its threat of repetition. “There is no knowledge of this history amongst the general public. Even me, six years ago, I had no idea,” Dancil said. “I'm a Black person in the city. And this happened to my family.” Dancil is one of many to have descended from residents of the 15th Ward. Her grandparents were displaced at the time of the highway’s construction. “When you don't share that history,” Dancil said, “I think it aids in a general misconception that people of color, and specifically Black people, [are at] fault, that the disparities that exist

An entire generation of citizens was set back by the decision to build I-81

economically are somehow related to individual shortcomings instead of repeated bouts of systemic oppression through policy.” The demolition of the 15th Ward and the cataclysmic impact it had on the descendants of those who lived there cannot be forgotten as the New York State Department of Transportation forges ahead with its upcoming I-81 reconstruction. Citizens who lack the time and resources to protect their livelihoods against these inequities cannot continue to be disregarded in public policy. It is a sad reality that citizens need to advocate to be considered factors in the equation of infrastructure, but if these voices are not heard, then what happened in 1959 will happen again. Closing the racial wealth gap in cities like Syracuse starts with actualizing ideas like Black Lives Matter by embedding it into the very fiber of the area in the form of equitable policy decisions that help uplift the community rather than exploit it. G

Beyond the Sea

BY FATIMA ALIBHAI ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX WEISS I spent my whole life running from something Thinking if I ran fast enough I could be something Something intangible, something transcendent I forget that I was just seventeen something See my father told me when I was a child That the only thing that existed was up ahead That there was nothing for me behind me So then when I left, I left him rotting Since then I’ve been everywhere all alone I fell in love with every city and every town That wasn’t the one I was born into I’ve loved every mother that wasn’t my own I bled through friends and lovers alike It was like having a spatial gut wound I was thinking in constant causality And how it still felt like being abused Then one day messengers came with the news The house had burned down without a sound I didn’t even remember what it looked like I had never once turned around

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Yet it still hurt like some cancerous growth Like watching them cement the Berlin Wall Like when I saw my brother get shot And fall to the floor like a dirty rag doll Today I pushed the burning boat out to sea And thought only of the ache in my arms I lay myself down on their feet like the dogs Of old vikings paying respect to their gods But there came no storm to free me At one point the fire left and died out too I threw over their bodies and their planners And my clothes and my shoes and all my jewelry.

I was naked, and clean, and wide awake Nothing like the day I was born Now I see the sun melt into the horizon No wind, no rain, no past, no future – just me.

a kid named Rufus Sivaroshan defies expectations with his debut EP “graduation”

BY EDEN STRATTON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEHAN MUHIALDAIN

COURTESY OF RUFUS SIVAROSHAN

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d rufus L

ife is never what you expect. It has this cute little way of throwing you a curveball just when you thought you had it all figured out. Frankly, it sucks. Coming of age in a pandemic has a fickle way of making you reevaluate your plans in the worst conditions possible. But when I talked with Rufus Sivaroshan, who goes by “a kid named rufus,” I was amazed by the positivity I witnessed. A sophomore in Syracuse University’s Bandier Program, Sivaroshan has worked relentlessly to pursue his musical passions and showcase his prowess. As an international student, Sivaroshan’s life in the U.S. has been full of ups and downs. While studying here has its perks, Sivaroshan has had to learn how to function as an adult without the help of his relatives, who live thousands of miles away in Malaysia. “I had to learn how to drive by myself, and how to get my license all on my own,” he said, “I felt like I had to grow up super fast in the first couple of weeks of being here.” Despite his artist name, Sivaroshan is not just a kid. His story begins simple enough. Hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the young artist originally found inspiration 35

through bands such as Tame Impala and MGMT, who were pioneers in the now-popular indie genre. Despite cultivating a genuine love for music, he faced hardship in pursuing it as a profession. “Growing up in Asia, you grow up in a society that recognizes the sciences and the humanities more so than the creative arts,” he said, “My parents weren’t totally convinced that it was a productive use of my time.” Sivaroshan reflects, “The hardest thing about making music is not being supported.” However, music is a multifaceted field. While oftentimes we can get lost in the glitz and glamor of the performing arts, we forget that music involves both business and self-marketing — all while artists attempt to safeguard their creative vision. In the summer of 2019, Sivaroshan’s parents would realize the true extent of their son’s talent. After releasing several singles on Spotify, Sivaroshan went viral and was scouted by a slew of music professionals, labels and management.

“The hardest thing about making music is not being supported.” 36 GLOBALISTS // FALL 2021

“I just felt that I was losing grip over my life.”

While at first it seemed like the break of a lifetime, the artist soon began experiencing conflict with various members of his management team. He described the interactions as “disrespectful,” and expressed that he felt as though he was being taken advantage of because of his age. This, compounded with executives being dismissive of Sivaroshan’s academic life and mental health, led to a sharp decline in his emotional wellbeing. “I just felt that I was losing grip over my life,” he said. Last year, after a period of hardship, Sivaroshan split ways with his label. While he was initially disappointed by the outcome, he quickly rebounded and threw himself into his EP project “graduation.” Crafted almost entirely over Zoom, “graduation” is the result of partnerships between Sivaroshan and his close friends, both in Toronto and L.A. He describes the process as a “back and forth” between each party, where collaboration was key and creativity was encouraged. It’s a far cry from his first experience in the industry and one that allowed him to express his full potential. “I’m really big on collaboration,” Sivaroshan said. “If there’s something

that I’m not good at, I’ll enlist the help of someone else.” “I think it’s really important to do what’s best for the song.” “graduation” isn’t an EP that you can necessarily put in a box. While musically it features a steady drum beat through most of the tracks, each song features different stylistic elements. While “i feel good sometimes” features the classic indie guitar melody that has been popularized by artists like boy pablo and Wallows, “lies” exhibits a strong piano chord progression that is offset by the track’s bass line. Each track has a slightly different feel, which is a tribute to Sivaroshan’s versatility as an artist.

“I think it’s really important to do what’s best for the song.” Thematically, “graduation” is an album that every college student can relate to. From heartbreaks to the classic pitfalls of FOMO, the EP takes listeners through Sivaroshan’s own experiences of the past year. One of the strongest tracks, “everybody's fine but me,” deals with the feeling of ostracization from one’s peers, while simultaneously desiring real connection.

Everybody’s fine but me Living in a VSCO dream I just wanna feel something But they just say that Everybody’s high but me I just wanna feel something Everybody’s fine but me Everybody’s fine but me There’s something for everyone in “graduation.” Perhaps that’s why the EP has garnered over 200,000 streams on Spotify and why Sivaroshan has 190,000 monthly listeners. Currently, he hopes to continue working on a second project, which is set to explore his experiences over the past year in the U.S. Sivaroshan was intentionally vague about where he plans to go next, but I’m certain that wherever it is, it will be as multifaceted and novel as he is. G 37

Eye on Narratio:

Alaa Laila A journey between two worlds

BY MAGGIE SARDINO PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDWARD GRATTAN

laa Laila is on a journey of self-discovery. She wants to better understand herself, her emotions and the worlds within which she exists. This is what drew her to the Narratio Fellowship. “I wanted to find a common ground between my two worlds: the Arab world and the American world,” she said. Laila is a junior at the Public Service Leadership Academy, as well as a member of the Superintendent’s Cabinet and the “I Am Me” group, a club for female students who provide academic and emotional support to one another. She said the pandemic made her journey to better understand herself challenging at times. “Because of the pandemic, I felt like I was stuck,” Laila said, “What I really wanted was to expand my world and the ways I see it.” Even though her experience with photography was limited before starting the fellowship, Laila said she

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felt like this artistic medium was a natural way to explore and express herself. As the fellowship progressed, Laila said she became increasingly comfortable with photography and expression. When she was tasked with creating a collection of photographs about a topic of her choosing, Laila — who is an outspoken advocate for mental health in her communities, especially the Arabic community — decided to base her work on the theme of mental health. She started her work by capturing a collection of self portraits, but noticed that something was off. “It just felt too direct, too fake,” she said. She then turned to her younger siblings and other children in her neighborhood for inspiration and realized she was able to channel her feelings of loss and hope through capturing photos of her siblings. “The day I left Syria, I felt like I lost my childhood,” she said. “Looking at the photos of my siblings, I realized that my feelings were reflected in them.”

Laila speaks about one photograph in particular, where her father is holding up one of her younger brothers in his arms. She said she felt like that picature represented so much about her family’s journey to the United States, including the sacrifices her father made. She explained that it was the random, little moments she captured that made her see the world through a different perspective. Through photography, Laila found she could be more vulnerable than she typically is in her writing or while with others. She said that, while working on this collection of photography, she felt the desire to be brave and courageous.

her photography, she can inspire others to start conversations. “My biggest accomplishment would be if these photos made someone else feel comfortable with being vulnerable,” she said. “A lot of immigrants feel like they’ve lost their childhood and I hope that by sharing my journey, I can make someone else’s journey a little easier.” G

“Honestly, it was a need more than a want,” Laila said. Laila hopes her vulnerability enables others to express themselves more fully, especially those within the immigrant and Muslim communities. She said that mental health is not often talked about in her communities and hopes that by being vulnerable through

A Mosaic of Time

A hypnotic passage through the halls of memory BY ETHAN CHU | ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA LENNES

hen we look back on the pivotal moments that shaped our lives, oftentimes we don’t remember specific details aside from the lingering feeling we are left with. As an arthouse film director, Andrei Tarkovsky was endlessly fascinated by the spiritual and the metaphysical. Throughout his career, he devoted his brand of cinema to tackling questions surrounding time, memory and our place in the universe. The Russian auteur’s cinematic philosophy held that words were an inadequate and limiting means of personal expression.

that chronicles a life of disillusion and personal evocation. Using a stream-ofconsciousness-type approach, Tarkovsky pieces together scattered reflections in what feels like an attempt to understand his own dislocation. “Mirror” follows Aleksei, a dying man in his forties, as he recalls his past, his childhood and his mother. His private moments are interspersed with both his dreams and turning points in Soviet history. The film is a meditation on the impermanence of time and ponders the impossibility of objective recollection.

Rejecting the dogmatic filmmaking style of his time, Tarkovsky became solely concerned with techniques that were uniquely cinematic: methods of storytelling that could not be replicated through other art forms. He developed a new form of film grammar, one that did not follow traditional narrative conventions or adhere to the rules of reality. Characterized by frequent long takes, bouts of complete silence and an abandonment of narrative continuity, Tarkovsky achieved a distinctive visual lyricism akin to a trance or a hallucination.

The film first shows us his childhood, spent on a rural farm in the absence of a father. Raised primarily by his mother, the two share a deep bond. In his memories, Aleksei imagines the younger version of his mother as having the same face as his wife. The two are played by the same actress. He similarly imagines his young son, Ignat, as having the same face as his younger self, also played by the same actor. The cognitive dissonance that Aleksei experiences through this projected similarity highlights the subjectivity and malleability of memory and the absence of a strict and absolute truth.

He took this style to its extreme in his 1975 film “Mirror.” Not only is the film his most personal — the protagonist is his surrogate — it is also the one that is most resistant to interpretation. “Mirror” is a beautifully poetic and deeply characteristic work

The fragmented and episodic quality of “Mirror” is the result of its associative oneiric logic. Scenes are sequenced not based on logical coherence, but instead seek to find meaning and catharsis in the metaphoric juxtaposition of their images

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and sounds. This process mimics the way we filter memory. It isn’t rational or logical, but rather instinctive and emotional. Discarding the comfort of continuity and chronological storytelling, Tarkovsky attempts to guide us through the fractured labyrinth of the human psyche. All the while, he tries to unravel and understand the messiness of the world that exists within us: an inner world of memories and phantasms. The expectation of order in life is an abstract one and we should not force art to conform to that same expectation. Tarkovsky asks us to give into and embrace a form of storytelling that reflects the way we remember: not through logic, but emotion. It is due to

this intuitive approach that a purely intellectual reading of the film will ultimately be unsatisfactory. Like a visual poem, the film is an individual exercise — a Rorschach test of sorts — that will conjure thoughts and emotions personal to its viewer. “Mirror” is both haunting and ethereal, a masterpiece of arthouse cinema. It is a profoundly beautiful artistic achievement in its ability to transmit an artist’s innermost thoughts, desires and regrets. All the while, it raises existential questions about the brevity of our lives compared to the grandeur of the universe. It doesn’t handedly offer answers to the questions it poses; rather, the questions are ends in themselves. G

Strasbourg, France

A Syracuse Abroad Postcard from: