The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873
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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 37
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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
| WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2022
OP ED PAGE 6
NEWS PAGE 5
SPORTS PAGE 6
My uncle Brent paid the ultimate price for work that threatened the powerful
Experts discussed the Equal Rights Amendment at a Radcliffe panel
Women’s basketball’s season ended at the hands of Princeton on March 11
Nieman Fellows Honor Renaud By VIVI E. LU CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Nieman Foundation’s 2022 cohort assembled a memorial in remembrance of Brent Renaud, acclaimed journalist and former Nieman fellow, in Harvard’s Science Center Plaza Tuesday afternoon. Around 20 people attended the remembrance of Renaud, who was killed on March 13 by Russian forces in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, while filming Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war. He was working alongside Juan Arredondo, another Nieman fellow, who survived the attack with injuries. An award-winning journalist and filmmaker, Renaud spent the 2018-2019 academic year at Harvard through the Nieman Fellowship, an opportunity for journalists to attend classes and workshops while building relationships with other fellows. Renaud and his brother Craig filmed documentaries for many media organizations, including HBO and the New York Times,
covering conflicts such as the ISIS invasion of Iraq and Mexican cartel violence. Nieman fellow Pacinthe Mattar read an overview of Renaud’s life, and the fellows took turns reading messages sent in by Renaud’s peers from the 2019 Nieman class. At the gate of Harvard Yard, they laid down roses in front of a shrine for Renaud, which included a photograph and a description of his work. “As a class, we are honoring Brent’s work by doing what drove him as a journalist: shining light on the marginalized, the oppressed and the overlooked,” the Nieman fellows from the 2022 class wrote in a handout distributed to attendees. Jorge Caraballo, a Nieman fellow who helped organize the event, described the gathering as “beautiful” in an interview following the event. “We really feel that this fellowship is a community, and
SEE RENAUD PAGE 5
Service Project Returns to City By KATERINA V. CORR CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Filmmaker and director Mira Nair ’79 donated her professional archive — including photographs, film scripts, and journals — to the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study’s Schlesinger Library. Nair has directed feature films such as “The Namesake,” “Monsoon Wedding,” and “Queen of Katwe,” along with several web series. The Asian American director brought a wide array of languages into her works, ranging from Japanese
The Cambridge Neighborhood Service Project, an initiative offering young people the opportunity to collaborate on community service projects, began its yearly programming this month — its first in-person cycle since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.The program began as a collaboration between the City of Cambridge’s Office of Workforce Development and its Cambridge Youth Programs. “It was created as a collaboration between those two offices to kind of marry the idea of youth development and providing opportunities for young people with the idea of developing career exploration and job skills,” George M. Hinds, director of youth employment at the Office of Workforce Development, said. Jeneen Mucci, the director of program quality and training for Cambridge Youth Programs, said the service component of the initiative is designed to be long-lasting and impactful. “It isn’t something that is done one time and then it’s something you feel good about as community service, but what is the learning that comes from that that can trickle out into the community?” she said. Each year there are about 45 students who participate in the program, Hinds said. The students are divided into several cohorts — each headquartered at a different youth center in the city — that separately work on a team project of their choice.According to Mucci, these projects have had a wide-ranging scope, from focusing on the cohort’s youth center to impacting residents in the greater Cambridge area. Before the pandemic, Mucci said, students in a cohort at the Moses Youth Center organized an interactive “game of
SEE ARCHIVES PAGE 3
SEE SERVICE PAGE 3
Passerbys pause to commemorate and honor Bren Renaud’s legacy at a memorial set up in the Science Center Plaza. VIVI E. LU—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Tax on Weed Repealed by City
Mira Nair Donates Archive to Library
By ELIAS J. SCHISGALL
By CAROLINE E. CURRAN and SARA DAHIYA
CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
The Cambridge City Council unanimously passed a policy order repealing a three percent “Community Impact Fee” tax on recreational marijuana in a meeting Monday evening. The policy order eliminated the tax, currently part of Massachusetts state law, in a move to “support the viability” of recreational dispensaries in Cambridge, according to an early version of the policy order. Though Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 and Cambridge began issuing permits for recreational dispensaries in 2019, retail weed shops have been slow to open. The city’s first recreational dispensary, Yamba Market, will open to the public next week. Sean D. Hope, a co-owner of Yamba Market, said that dispensaries are “not set up to be profitable” under the existing tax regime. “[Taxing] 3 percent of gross in a startup business is unheard of, especially when it’s a business that the city is trying to incentivize to be in Cambridge,” Hope said. In addition to the community impact fee, sales of marijuana are subject to a 10.75 percent excise tax and a 6.25 percent state sales tax.Under the current law, the community impact fee compensates the city for “additional expenses and impacts” on municipal services such as law enforcement and public health. The policy order, however, argues that evidence from Northampton, Mass. suggests the repeal of the tax “would not have any appreciable impacts” on Cambridge finances. Northampton waived its own community impact fees for recreational dispensaries in January.In an interview with The Daily Hampshire Gazette, then-Mayor of Northampton David Narkewicz said community concerns about dispensaries in Northampton “have not materialized.” “A lot of the concerns, potential concerns, about this
CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
SEE CANNABIS PAGE 3 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Harvard Today 2
Acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair donates her professional archive to Harvard’s Schlesinger Library.
CHRISTOPHER
HIDALGO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER
IOP Hosts Youth Activist Panel on Gen Z’s Role in Politics By TARAH D. GILLES and JOHN N. PEÑA CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A panel of youth activists discussed the role young people play in American politics at a forum hosted Tuesday evening at the Harvard Institute of Politics. The panel — moderated by Alicia J. Menendez ’05 — featured the Institute of Politics’ longtime polling director, John Della Volpe, along with climate activist Sophia Kianni, gun control advocate David M. Hogg ’23, and 2021 Time Magazine Kid of the Year Orion M. Jean. The group discussed efforts encouraging young people to participate in politics and youth activism. In an interview following the forum, Hogg highlighted the importance of youth activism, but said it can often be “really hard work.” “It is exhausting work,” Hogg said in the interview following the event. “It is especially exhausting for the people that need the most help in the first place.” Hogg said many young people are discouraged by some aspects of the American political system, pointing to the filibuster.
News 3
Editorial 4
Kianni, who serves as the U.S. representative on the United Nations’ Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, highlighted institutional flaws that she said make the work of young people an uphill battle. At the event, Kianni criticized big oil and gas companies, which she said benefit from the perception that individuals are responsible for solving climate change. Change at the individual level will do little to address climate change, Kianni said during the forum. “It’s really up to our government to hold these companies, to hold these corporations responsible and accountable,” Kianni said. Kianni also called on politicians to do more to implement changes that young people advocate for. “It’s really easy for politicians to use us as material for their campaigns, to do photo ops with us, but I think the next step is actually working with us,” she said. Della Volpe said Generation Z is often misconceived by older generations as “a bunch of socialists who hate America.” “No generation has dealt
SEE IOP PAGE 3
Sports 6
A panel of youth activists discussed Gen Z’s influence on politics on Tuesday evening. From left, Alicia J. Menendez ’05, David M. Hogg ’23, and Orion M. Jean. TARAH D. GILLES—CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
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