the index The student voice since 1888
The Haverford School · Haverford, PA 19041 · March 2022· Volume 89, No. 6 · thsindex.org
Jeffrey Yang ’22
J
azz: the source of most of the music you listen to every day: hip hop, pop, rock, and R&B. All these musical roads lead to one lively city: New Orleans, Louisiana. Yet the story of jazz, just as much of American society today, lies fastened to a history of enslavement and racial discrimination. For the eighteen students who traveled to New Orleans over Presidents’ Day Weekend, the vivacious atmosphere of the city was expected; but more, perhaps folded under more layers of nerves and pain, glared the city’s bloodstains. Sixth Former Jahmon Silver was appalled by how the city remains, in many aspects, segregated, desensitized, or ignorant of the past—especially considering the role that Black people had in forming the city’s identity. “I feel like the Black culture created this city and its entertainment, and the whole name of New Orleans as the city of jazz,” Silver said. “There’s not as much appreciation for [the Black population and culture] as there should be.” But more than just jazz, the entire culture of the city has its roots in the Black culture that persisted and adapted through enslavement. Echoing Silver, Fifth Former Love McCune recalled a moment on the trip that tied the city’s history to the present.
Black students confront enslavement’s trauma in New Orleans
and reflect on Haverford’s racial realities MS. ANGELA OCHOA
Students listen to Ms. Denise Augustine, a seventh generation Creole griot—a West African term for culture bearers and storytellers—on a tour of New Orleans with Our Scared Stories
cont. on 5
Something Rotten! revives Centennial Hall musicals Mitav Nayak ’22
O
JEFFREY YANG ’22
Harvey Pennington, playing William Shakespeare in Something Rotten, commands the stage on March 13, 2022
Lacrosse, p. 20
JEFFREY YANG ’22
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Lunar New Year should be a school holiday, p. 11
n March 12, 2020, the final day in person schooling before an extended hiatus, students— unsure of when they would be together again—gathered in Centennial Hall to watch the dress rehearsal of Carousel. Exactly two years later, Something Rotten! brought Haverford musicals back in the best way possible: a spectacular production fraught with comedy, excitement, color, and delight. The show follows Nick Bottom (Sixth Former Will Rubin) and his brother Nigel (Fifth Former Julian Caesar), as they struggle to compete with the star of their time, William Shakespeare (Fifth Former Harvey Pennington). This past weekend, Centennial was packed, and the cast and crew delivered. Rubin said,“This show really started coming together right on our first run, which is really, really amazing to see and normally does not happen. It’s generally a mess hall in the first run. And so the night that happened and I felt this great energy, I was like, ‘this is going to be a great show.’ And I knew it then.” Director Mr. Darren Hengst explained his thought process behind choosing this
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Community reactions to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, p. 3
particular show. “I first saw the show on Broadway with a middle school theater class, and I had a friend in it,” Mr. Hengst said. “I remember we sat in the fourth row Orchestra, the curtain went up, and we laughed the entire time—start to finish. So this year, it was important for us to do comedies because we were dark last year. I wanted to uplift the group and the community, and this is the funniest show I know.” Fifth Former Harvery Pennington, who plays Shakespeare, explained the process of preparing for the show. “We first worked a lot with the Ensemble and tried to nail that down,” Pennington said. “We spent a lot of time on those big numbers, which was really worth it. We made sure to get all of our work done outside of school, so when we came in, it was an easy process. I’ve never seen a show come together so quickly at the level it did: on Sunday, we had a clean run, and by Wednesday it was spectacular.” In order to reach this level, the cast and crew spent time perfecting their roles. cont. on 17
Baseball, p. 19
JEFFREY YANG ’22
