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Scarlet & Black Volume 134, Issue 21
thesandb.com
April 13, 2018 • Grinnell, Iowa
Mando Lecture focuses on journalism and capturing The College envisions new experiences that show love for curiosity purpose for 1021 Main Street
By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu
MAHIRA FARAN
Stephen Kuusisto answered reader questions about his memoir Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet's Journey, on Tuesday, April 10.
By Gabe Loewenson loewenso@grinnell.edu On Tuesday, April 10, Grinnell College hosted two guests, Stephen Kuusisto and Tessa Cheek ’12, for the second annual Armando Montaño ’12 Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Armando Alters Montaño Writers@Grinnell Endowment Fund. Montaño, a journalist and alumnus of the College, tragically died while working for the Associated Press in Mexico City. The fund in his name carries on his legacy. Cheek was a personal friend of Montaño and now works as a freelance reporter and fiction writer in Colorado. The invited author, Kuusisto, is a renowned blind author who also serves as a professor at the school of Education at Syracuse University. Kuusisto writes largely about society’s perception of disability and his experiences as a disabled person. Professor Ralph Savarese, English, one of the lecture’s
organizers, remembers Montaño as “very full of life, very engaged, and it seemed like everybody knew him, and really knew him. … It was a stunning blow, and we just had another stunning blow ten days ago [with the death of Jack Gustafson ’20]. And I think that’s one of the nice things about this community, that it tries to honor the memory of people who have been taken too early, in ways that are meaningful, beyond just having a memorial service.” The fund for the lecture was established by a donation from Montaño’s parents, Diane Alters ’71 and Mario Montaño, as well as contributions from some of the peoples whose lives were touched by Mando. These include a generous donation from Jeremy Mindich, who agreed to grant $25,000 if the College could raise $25,000 to match it — which it did. Montaño’s parents intend to bequeath the fund with a larger amount of money when they pass on. The College currently
100 Days raises questions on consent
By Kate Irwin irwinkat@grinnell.edu
100 Days is a tradition for graduating seniors to gather in celebration of their last few days at the College. The event is informally understood to be a “makeout party,” and although in previous years it was sponsored and run by the Student Government Association (SGA), this year’s 100 Days event did not receive funds. SGA funding has typically provided All Campus Event Student Safety (ACESS) security and food for the event, but has never covered the purchase of alcohol. This year, students funded and organized the entire event independently of SGA. Emily Porter, Colin Greenman, Kahlil Epps, Nick Roberson and Henry Bolster, all ’18, worked to plan 100 Days. According to these students, there are three reasons why 100 Days did not receive SGA funding. First, they say, students started planning the event too late. There was confusion about who was hosting the event and where it would be held, and this confusion resulted in creating a request too close to the date requested. “The way it went down this year is somewhat at the fault of the students for not planning ahead or being aware that they had to plan that far ahead. There is definitely the ability to have it the way that it has been in previous years next year as long as people are on top of their [things],” Roberson said. Additionally, the students were not able to meet the stipulation of having ACESS present at the party to be granted SGA funding. The party is typically hosted off-campus, and Friday Japanese Spring Festival JRC 101, 6:30 p.m.
ACESS, now under the Division of Student Affairs, are no longer allowed to work off of Grinnell’s campus. Further, to have 100 Days, harm reduction requirements, such as tabling and postering, must be met. Administrators felt that the date was too close to allow for sufficient conversations to take place. “At the time of the request, the students had not done the proper planning to ensure a successful event and had not build [sic] in time for harm reductive measures to be employed,” wrote Sarah Moschenross, dean of students, in an email to The S&B. “Grinnell is all about harm reduction, so asking people for money for alcohol shows that the party is primarily for getting drunk, and the school doesn’t want that to happen,” Epps added. Lastly, the general reputation of the party and issues of Title IX played a role. Epps felt that it was more than just logistical failings that lead to the absence of SGA funding. “The school just didn't want the party on campus because of damage from previous years and also the Title IX problems of consent that have happened at other parties,” Epps said. While Moschenross stated that the reason that SGA funding was not granted was only due to the lateness of the request, she did acknowledge that administration is aware of the issues that have arisen with the event in the past. 100 Days has a reputation of allowing for situations to arise in which the lines of consent are blurred. “I'm not going to pretend that >> See 100 Days page 3 Saturday Miracles, Treachery and the Midieval Fiddle Sebring-Lewis Hall, 7:00 p.m.
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draws around four percent annually from the fund, which is roughly equivalent to the interest obtained from investing it. Kuusisto and Savarese had collaborated in the past on poetry and on research in disability studies. “So Ralph knew he was a very good engaging speaker, and he was also the kind of writer we’re trying to honor with this series,” said Professor Dean Bakopoulos, English, who also worked to organize the event. “He balances that line between humor and honesty, between death and irony.” Bakopoulos also coordinated to bring Cheek to campus. Cheek spoke with Kuusisto at a roundtable discussion about writing and journalism, and attended an English class during her visit. “[T]oday, I just did a little roundtable with Stephen, and talked about writing life post grad, and MFAs [master of fine arts programs], places to go, and also ways to create a writing life for yourself outside
of the structures of the university, of the college environment,” Cheek said. “But mostly I’m here to honor Mando’s memory, and to kind of live it, and to keep his memory alive here, because so much of what I believe is really powerful and important about Grinnell was kind of in and of him, so it’s a real honor to be here.” At 8 p.m., Kuusisto read excerpts from his new book, “Have Dog Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey,” an account of his experience with his first guide dog, the Labrador Corky. During the reading, Kuusisto read aloud about the process of developing a relationship with the dog, his first time traveling in the city with the dog and ultimately, Corky’s death. Kuusisto also touches on other themes in the book, such as his experiences growing up legally blind and his relationship with his parents. Following the reading, he answered questions from the audience, and then signed copies of the book.
After purchasing and demolishing the 1021 Main Street building — the former location of McNally’s — the College now plans to fill the lot with a four-story building, the would-be tallest in Grinnell, including over 20 rental units upstairs and spaces for retail businesses or restaurants on the first floor. To enhance the Zone of Confluence, a project that began in 2013, and take advantage of underused buildings in downtown Grinnell for what John Kalkbrenner, assistant vice president for auxiliary services and economic development, describes as “college or community needs,” the College purchased several buildings in 2016, including 1021 Main Street. The building was demolished, and in fall 2017, the College issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to real estate development companies. “After considerable analysis, it was determined that the building could not be reused. In summer of 2017 the College prepared the site for a use that could better serve community needs,” Kalkbrenner said. “The RFP basically says, ‘we have a property where we think an interesting building could be constructed — send us your ideas for a project.’ The RFP included some general interest in exploring residential and retail that would enhance, and not compete with, existing downtown establishments.” Of the plans submitted, a selection committee comprised of College staff, >> See Apartments page 2
Racing Iowa Conference brings professional development for students of color By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Last Saturday, April 7, students Nomalanga Shields ’18 and Juliet Torres ’19 and Professors Deborah Michaels and Stephanie Jones, both education, hosted the first Racing Iowa Conference at Grinnell. The conference aimed to provide students of color with skills for leadership and professional development, and was funded with a grant from the Grinnell Innovation Fund. The organizers believe that while Grinnell College is abound with professional development opportunities, these programs and resources do not always account for the needs of students of color. “In the past I’ve been to a lot of conferences where I felt like it wasn’t specifically geared to the needs of students of color,” Shields said. “They were geared towards a broader audience, and students of color were expected to just fit in with that broader audience.”
"We’re hoping to collaborate more with the CLS, given that the CLS is the primary institution on campus that provides career, life and services opportunities for students." Nomalanga Shields '18 When Michaels and Jones won the grant, Michaels spoke with Torres about what resources she felt were lacking for people of Sunday The Royale Flanagan Theatre, 2:00 p.m.
CONTRIBUTED
Professor Stephanie Jones, Nomalanga Shields '18 and Juliet Maria Torres '19 organized the College's first Racing Iowa Conference to discuss how people of color navigate predominately white settings. color on campus. Torres suggested that a leadership conference would be especially helpful, and the idea snowballed from there. While Michaels and Jones secured and distributed the grant, they gave Shields and Torres near complete power in deciding the speakers, topics and workshops they wished to feature. “Stephanie was very open to everything we had to say, she was very receptive,” Torres said. “That was pretty powerful, to have two women of color deciding what’s best
for everybody. Me being Latina and [Shields] being African-American, I think we have two very different and good perspectives.” The conference was divided into three workshop blocks: one on “POC adulting 101,” a second on personal liberation and justice and a third on social engagement and activism. Each of these workshop blocks included presentations and demonstrations from various guest speakers, covering topics as varied as microaggressions in the workplace,
Wednesday Research Symposium Moderated Panels JRC 2nd Floor Rooms, 4:00 p.m.
Thursday
>> See Conference page 2
2018 McKibben Lecture: Jeffrey Henderson JRC 101, 4:00 p.m.
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Edited by hermanal17@grinnell.edu & mettleca@grinnell.edu
Students, administrators, staff work to adopt gender neutral bathrooms By Vera Kahn kahnvera@grinnell.edu Grinnell College provides genderneutral housing options that include gender-neutral bathrooms. However, students have raised concerns that there is a distinct lack of genderneutral bathrooms in non-residential buildings, such as Harris, the JRC and Noyce. “Grinnell really loves to talk about its gender-inclusive housing,” said Ric Tennenbaum ’18, a member of the Trans Advocacy Group (TAG) and co-Director of the Stonewall Resource Center (SRC). “[The claim is that] you can piss always, no matter who you are. But then in the building where we’re supposed to eat and drink, we can’t shit.” Last spring, to combat the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms, TAG posted over gender signs to let patrons know what facilities they will find inside, including the number of urinals and/or toilets, as well as whether bathrooms are wheelchairaccessible. TAG re-posts the signs every day because Facilities Management (FM) custodians are required to take them down. Assistant Vice President for FM Rick Whitney explained that this is due to American with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. According to the ADA, Whitney said, “official signs of specified size, location and readability are required to designate restroom facilities.” TAG is not the only group
working to bring bathroom equity to Grinnell. Action to get genderneutral bathrooms in Noyce began this year, when a computer science major approached Rachel Swoap ’19, a member of the computer science SEPC, with concerns. The SEPC got support from all of the Noyce SEPCs. “I thought it was going to be easy, just putting a new sign up,” she said. She quickly learned that it would not be that simple. The main obstacles to bathroom equity in Grinnell are city codes regarding public bathrooms, which apply to academic buildings. Private buildings, such as residence halls, are under less scrutiny to adhere to this policy, which in part explains the disparity. “City of Grinnell building codes and International Plumbing Code (IPC) both require a specific fixture count for men and for women, based on designed building occupancy,” Whitney said. Gender-neutral bathrooms do not count towards the minimum number of fixtures. Establishing gender-neutral bathrooms will require constructing new bathrooms. Building multi-stall gender-neutral bathrooms would require the construction of fixtures that would not qualify for the fixture counts. The main focus, then, is on constructing single-stall bathrooms. The multiple construction projects on campus require diplomacy with the city that might hinder the school’s ability to go ahead and build gender-neutral bathrooms. “We have a … crane. The crane
Apartments proposed for newly College owned building
Continued from Front Page
trustees and representatives from local businesses and local government chose the Grinnell Promenade project, a proposal from William J. Ludwig & Associates, LTD. and Brower Real Estate Services. The idea is that the apartments, once construction is complete, will be available for rent by both students and community members. To gauge interest from students, the developers, William Ludwig and Stephen Brower met with Sarah Moschenross, dean of students. Moschenross then set up a focus group of students who have been approved to live off-campus for the 2018-19 school year to meet with the developers and set apartment design plans. Still in the planning stage, the project has not yet been approved by the city or finalized by the College.
“I would caution to say, this isn’t a done deal. There are still several hurdles for them to get over with the city … but I think they feel enthusiastic about the possibility of putting this together for students,” Moschenross said. The focus group, held on Wednesday, April 11, heard from eight students, as well as staff in the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement and the Office of Auxiliary Services and Economic Development. While community enhancement and engagement and auxiliary services and economic development have been highly involved in the planning process, student affairs and in turn residence life came into the process solely to offer perspective on student living. If the plan is finalized, residence life will not have domain >> See Zone of
Confluence page 4
has to be able to do things. If the city planner doesn’t like what we’re doing in other aspects, maybe the crane can’t do things the crane wants to do,” Tennenbaum said. “It’s generally good to have a positive and collaborative relationship with the city; as a partner rather than an adversary,” said Maure SmithBenanto, associate dean of students and director of intercultural affairs. “Disregarding or defying the code would not necessarily preserve that positive relationship.” “Barring unforeseen engineering obstacles,” Whitney said, the plan is to have gender-neutral restrooms completed in the JRC by this coming fall. JRC is the top priority in the bathroom plan, followed by Noyce and Harris. According to SmithBenanti, the Humanities and Social Science Center (HSSC) is planned to have binary gender restrooms to fit the fixture counts, as well as genderneutral single-stall bathrooms above those counts. In spite of the structural obstacles, both Swoap and Tennenbaum affirm the school’s support for the issue. Tennenbaum said, “the people throughout the administration, up to the top, are advocating and doing what they can.” “FM is working with the city contractor… to look at where the restrooms can be… it’s in the works. It’s happening,” Swoap added. Tennenbaum also mentioned that there was a town hall being planned in order to get community feedback. Tennenbaum stressed the
Residential Life approved a new project house called Farm House (not affiliated with the international fraternity FarmHouse) for the 201819 academic year. On April 4, students Tommy Hexter, Maya Dru and Seth Bartusek, all ’21, presented the idea for Farm House to a group of residence life staff and student community advisors. They proposed the creation of a chicken coop, organic garden, compost and floral garden, as well as plans to host open houses and monthly dinners with local farmers as guests, and put out a monthly newsletter. Less than an hour later, they received confirmation that Farm House would exist next year, moving into 1023 Park Street and causing Art House, the current project house residing there, to relocate. The College is allocating a new house, already owned by the College, to student housing because of a need for additional residential space. Farm House was the only new group that applied to have a project house, filling a highly convenient opening. Leah Reuber, assistant director of residence life, explained the decision to grant the applicants their house, saying that “their enthusiasm was palpable and they were very excited about introducing Farm House. One of the things I think was interesting this year is that Farm House, Eco
House and Food House all have this area of similarity,” Reuber said. But what set Farm House apart, according to Reuber, was “how they wanted to tie in community, … so really looking at how this college is uniquely placed in a really middle-ofnowhere rural area and how it is kind of disassociated with the ruralness.” Some of those living in Food House are unsure if the proposed uniqueness of Farm House is enough to necessitate the creation of a new organization. “In the beginning I had mixed feelings about Farm House,” wrote Bella Kugel ’20, a Food House resident who has spent the past year working on its already-existing garden, in an email to The S&B. “Because I thought it may have been more useful for the people who proposed Farm House to help us (the garden) improve, expand, before creating a whole new entity on campus. The garden has a lot of amazing goals, projects and plans and we've been working hard on all of it for the last year and a half with many people involved, and this iteration of the garden has been a long time coming after years of restriction. I hope that going forward the garden and Farm House will have a lot of beneficial overlap though, there's so much opportunity for support and collaboration.” On the relationship he envisions between the two project houses, Hexter said,“I’m not too familiar with
power of individuals to help create safer bathrooms. It is not gendered bathroom signs that “do the pain,” she said, but rather the judgmental stares from cisgendered individuals assessing trans and gender nonconforming people. “If we can just make a bathroom culture that doesn’t involve people staring at each other, people
interpreting other people as being in the wrong space, in the wrong bathroom, meaning their bodies are wrong, that would be everything. At the end of the day, the signs mean very little compared to the social interactions inside. Usually the signs are scary because they’re ... a bad omen of the social interaction inside,” Tennenbaum said.
Nomalanga Shields, Artis Curiskis earn Watson Fellowship
By Clara Larson larsoncl@grinnell.edu
Each year, 40 students from a select group of liberal arts schools around the country are granted scholarships by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. Watson fellows are each given $30,000 to travel internationally and explore a subject of their choice for an entire year. This year, Grinnell’s Nomalanga Shields and Artis Curiskis, both ’18, have been chosen as Watson fellows. The Watson Fellowship is a unique opportunity in that, “it’s not a career track fellowship, and I’m not researching one specific thing,” Shields said. “It’s more so focused, not on you trying to change the world, but you trying to figure out who you are through a project that you are willing to pursue for an entire year.” For her project, Shields will “be working with marginalized communities to see how they’re tackling housing displacement and to see how they’re also building and maintaining their sense of community
Res Life approves Farm House By Kelly Page pagekell@grinnell.edu
SARAH RUIZ
Students hope that the bathrooms in Noyce, along with other College-owned buildings, will become gender neutral.
what they do [at Food House] but I think that our hope is to basically expand and be more productive than [them]. Not that it’s a competition at all. We want to work together with them but we have more room than they do, so more of a farm than a garden feel I would say.” Farm House plans to construct a greenhouse from PVC tubes and clear tarp, which they hope would allow them to grow plants throughout the year. According to Kugel, growing plants in Grinnell is not simple, and Farm House has a formidable challenge ahead. “Gardening simply takes a lot of work and technical knowledge,” Kugel wrote. “It's not usually a space restriction because you can be ultra productive on a small plot of land if you know what to do, but the growing season not lining up with the school year is big. … I also love their enthusiasm, but am a bit worried they are too overeager or trying to do too much all at once.” Each of the founders of the house have links to farming which could help them as they create the garden: Bartusek has a garden, greenhouse and compost at his home in Chicago, Dru has worked on two farms for several summers and will spend two weeks this summer working on a farm in Minnesota and Hexter’s family owns a farm which he has worked on throughout his life. >> See Farm House page 3
while being displaced or consistently moved within the countries that they’re in.” Shields will work with the Dalit and lower caste populations in India, with the Romani population in Hungary and with native South Africans in South Africa. Curiskis will be traveling to Russia, Georgia, India, Chile, Spain and the United Kingdom. He says that the focus of his project will be to study “unrecognized nations’ ethnic and religious minorities’ soccer teams to see how they use them as a diplomatic tool or a tool to draw attention to human rights issues as they play in unrecognized international soccer matches.” For both Shields and Curiskis, their projects represent a convergence of their backgrounds, education and interests. Shields, a Chicago native, explained that her project was inspired by witnessing gentrification and housing displacement in Chicago, especially as they targeted low-income and African American residents. Additionally, she expressed that after
her fellowship, she hopes to work in in community development, urban planning and housing development. During her time at Grinnell, she cultivated these interests through sociology classes that taught migration, statelessness and activism. Curiskis cited his experience playing soccer for Grinnell as one of the biggest influences on his project, especially the sense of community he experienced among his team. He said that he has always been interested in doing international work, and that “every semester, I tried to take at least one culturally oriented course, because those were things that I’m interested in.” After spending a semester abroad in India where he spent time with Tibetan communities, he recognized a Tibetan national soccer team jersey hanging in a soccer shop while in Amsterdam. He explained that after this finding, his varied interests “all just kind of came together as one,” eventually inspiring a project focused >> See Watson page 3
Conference addresses needs of students of color Continued from Front Page entrepreneurship, trauma-based yoga, nutritious soul food and emotion-based journaling. “[These were] new ways of thinking about wellness and new ways of thinking about leadership and professional development,” Shields said. Twelve guest speakers were brought into the conference in the Joe Rosenfield Center (JRC) at the conference on Saturday. Some of the highlights for Shields and Torres included a presentation by alumna Marlu Abarca ’14 on handling microaggressions in the workplace; a discussion between Director of Urban Dreams Izaah Knox and the Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS)’s Jovan Johnson on the career paths of leading a multicultural world; and a talk by alumnus Alvin Irby ’07, recipient of the Wall Alumni Service Award for his organization Barbershop Books, which gives books to barbershops to improve literary rates among Black boys. “Professor Sharon Quinsaat, [sociology,] was also there to talk about interracial coalition building, which I felt was a huge theme of the conference given that it was between Black and Latinx students,” Shields said. Bringing Grinnell’s Black and
Latinx communities to the conference was a major aim of the organizers. Going forward, Torres expressed her hope that the conference and its related conference committee will continue to emphasize this collaboration. “I hope that the committee is evenly split with Latinx and Black students so that we have a good perspective,” Torres said. “It was good that [Shields] and I were able to represent both the groups, but I definitely think that next year it will be better if we have more perspective on what’s needed. [This includes] continuing this conversation, and maybe some more building between the groups, between CBS, SOL and ACSU.” Before the second Racing Iowa Conference occurs next year, Shields hopes that the committee and campus resources like the CLS will continue to make sure that the needs of students of color are recognized. “We’re hoping to collaborate more with the CLS, given that the CLS is the primary institution on campus that provides career, life and services opportunities for students,” Shields said. “Having the committee give advice to the CLS, or even host workshops on its own or in collaboration with ICA [Intercultural Affairs]. Collaborating more with on campus institutions so that it can be more sustainable for the future.”
Edited by hermanal17@grinnell.edu & mettleca@grinnell.edu
News
100 Days planners address importance of consensual encounters
Continued from Front Page there wasn't some concern about that, but it wasn't the motivation for not having the party,” Moschenross wrote. Emily Ricker ’18, a Grinnell Advocate, knew that consent had always been an issue at 100 Days. But she felt that despite the lack of SGAsponsored harm reductive measures, the student organizers appropriately handled the discourse about consent leading up to 100 Days. “This year I was really impressed with how the organizers dealt with the issue of consent. Specifically, they sent an email out to all the fourth years prior to the event and it had a lot of logistic details, but a pretty major portion of that email was discussing explicitly the expectations around consent,” Ricker said. Epps shared this positive outlook on the issue of consent and feels that there were far less consensual problems this year than in years past.
“From what I could tell, … everyone seemed to be having fun and was in good spirits, as far as from what I observed, there were no Title IX issues, everyone seemed to be asking for consent and being respectful,” Epps said. Moschenross noted, however, that there is a considerable length of time between non-consensual encounters and reports, meaning that no one can be immediately sure of how consent was handled at 100 Days. “The average time between an incident of sexual misconduct happening and when a student comes forward is 11 months, so a lot of times when something has happened victimsurvivors don’t come forward right away and that’s okay," Moschenross said. Mosechenross stressed that both students and administration are on the same side when it comes to campuswide parties. While Moschenross says that she wants students to have the
opportunity for a campus-wide party, she says that sufficient planning for student safety is a necessity to make the event happen in a safe way. “We encourage students to get alcohol agreements. We are completely in support of organized parties with student safety and trained servers so that alcohol use doesn’t have to be covert but can be enjoyed safely. I think we have a shared goal of parties being safe, inclusive, and fun,” Moschenross said. Roberson is doubtful about the future of campus-wide parties at Grinnell College, as over time, many traditional parties have stopped receiving funding. “It's just kind of going with the trend that I think I and a lot of other people noticed that the school is shielding themselves from any kind of liability that could occur,” he said. However, Grinnellians are still looking for ways to reconcile traditions and awareness of consent. Ricker is confident that this is not unattainable for the College. “A lot of Grinnellians are really invested in the idea of maintaining traditions associated with Grinnell, I think that's really important. … I just think that should never be done at the expense of others’ bodily autonomy and I think we can come to a solution. I don't think it's impossible to create environments in which peoples' bodily autonomy is respected and Grinnellian traditions are maintained,” Ricker said.
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Farm House brings more agricultural Continued from Page 2 It is unclear where funding for the garden will come from, and according to Kugel, their farm will be productive if they are able to acquire a substantial budget and a lot of time. “Partial funding does come from residence life, so they get six dollars for every resident who lives there,” Rueber said. “Their consideration is to work with local farmers and talk to them about getting seeds, or talk to them about getting equipment that maybe they don’t use anymore.” Bartusek and Hexter, however, say that they will try to work with the College on funding, ask local farmers for help getting started and try to apply for local grants. Aside from the garden, another initial goal of Farm House was to have chickens on their land. “A very important part of building a sustainable house itself is that chickens eat some of the vegetables that we don’t and their eggs are a really good source of protein,” Bartusek said. However, according to Residence Life, Farm House cannot have chickens due to school year breaks and the year-to-year status of project houses. “One of the stipulations of them being allowed to have the space is
that they would not have chickens … but we’re open to talking about other possible kind of routes for them to fulfill that role, whether it’s partnering with a farmer and purchasing a coop on their property, or having chickens that they’re responsible for at home that isn’t on Grinnell College campus.” Another goal of Farm House is to expand agricultural study at Grinnell. There are already Grinnell students conducting independent majors in agriculture and related fields. For example, Kugel is an agronomy and ethnobotany major. Additionally, Wren Frueh ’21 is currently planning a major in agriculture, which will involve global development and environmental studies and rely on independent study options. Frueh, who will live in Eco House, agrees with Farm House that Grinnell should have more classes in agriculture, however, she still sees a liberal arts approach as important. “I think it’s important to have a strong background in biology and environmental studies when planning a career in agriculture,” Frueh said. “It’s not gonna be like an Iowa State program where you’re gonna have classes in, like, dairy and corn farming and things like that but I think, yeah, Grinnell should probably have classes in ag, especially with the region we're in.”
Watson fellows Shields and Curiskis will study Grinnell College among institutions to be investigated by community development across the world Department of Justice on "early
decision" questions
By Alice Herman hermanal17@grinnell.edu On Friday, April 9, the Department of Justice (DOJ) notified Grinnell College of a pending investigation into the institution’s handling of early decision admissions. DOJ also sent a notice of investigation to Amherst College, Middlebury College, Pomona College, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University and Williams College.
"...colleges share lists of admitted students to discourage violations of binding ED agreements and to preserve the integrity of the ED process." Joe Bagnoli, dean of admissions and financial aid Over 420 colleges offer early decision admissions, according to College Board. Schools offering early decision allow applicants to apply and hear back about admission before the spring of their senior year in high school. The College Board website describes what is perceived
as the riskiest aspect of the program: “Early decision plans are binding — a student who is accepted as an ED applicant must attend the College.” Among other allegations, the DOJ letter stipulated that colleges submit “records of actions taken or decisions made based in whole or part on information received from another college or university about the identities of accepted students.” Inside Higher Ed, the first publication to obtain the letter and report on it, reported that the DOJ alleged violations of antitrust laws by schools like Grinnell who have been accused of sharing information on early decision applicants with other institutions. In an email to The S&B, Joe Bagnoli, dean of admission and financial aid, wrote that to his understanding, “colleges share lists of admitted students to discourage violations of binding ED agreements and to preserve the integrity of the ED process.” By cross-referencing early decision information with other colleges, he explained, schools ensure that “only those who violate their ED agreement (and remain active in other regular decision applicant pools after being offered admission through ED) are penalized in the process of list sharing.” The issue of early decision
admissions has not typically raised questions about inter-collegiate collusion, instead drawing criticism for the financial inaccessibility of the program. The early decision program at Grinnell College, for example, promises applicants a higher chance of admission — 55 percent are accepted early decision as compared with the 25 percent admitted regular decision — in exchange for applicants’ promise to withdraw applications to other schools upon admission to the College. This means that, according to the College’s website, although early decision applicants are still subject to need-blind admissions, “[t]he binding nature of Early Decision means you will not be able to compare financial aid offers among colleges.”
"The binding nature of Early Decision means you will not be able to compare financial aid offers among colleges." College Board The implications of the investigation, on the other hand, remain largely unclear. Grinnell College has publicly confirmed its readiness to comply with the investigation.
MAHIRA FARAN
Nomalanga Shields '18 (left) and Artis Curiskis '18 (right) will spend a whole year abroad, working on research. Continued from Page 2 on soccer community development geo-politics and human rights issues. Both of their projects consider the implications of their topics on community development. “It’s not a staple of the Watson, but I think the fact that both of our projects revolve around community development is kind of a testament to Grinnell and the environment, and the beliefs that brought us to this college,” Curiskis said. This fellowship will force both Shields and Curiskis into new environments and out of their comfort zones. They both expressed worries about the language barriers they will face as they travel to new countries, especially in engaging with
communities that speak predominantly local dialects. Shields added that she is also nervous about “going to places knowing that I’m going to be discriminated against for having darker skin,” and Curiskis added that he fears the isolation he may experience, as most of his time will be spent far outside of countries’ major urban centers. Despite the fear and uncertainty that may accompany their year abroad, both Shields and Curiskis are excited for their projects and hope to grow tremendously from the experience. Curiskis cited a conversation with a previous Watson fellow in which the fellow shared that, “you don’t grow when you’re comfortable, but when you’re uncomfortable, that’s when you make the most growth.”
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Community
Department of Human Services dominates last legislative coffee
Grant to partially finance downtown building renovation
By Seth Taylor taylorse@grinnell.edu
SARAH RUIZ
Senator Tim Kapucian and Representative Dave Maxwell were joined by Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven for the last of three legislative coffees with constituents. By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu On April 7, Iowa State Senator Tim Kapucian and Representative Dave Maxwell met with their constituents in Grinnell for the third and final Legislative Coffee, hosted by Grinnell’s League of Women Voters. The state legislature is scheduled to end its session on April 17, its 100th day in session, when the per-diem payment of legislators will expire. However, the legislature may go into over-time if bills still on the floor are not resolved by the deadline. With the session ending, constituents expected an opportunity to let their legislators know what concerns they had over bills still on the senate and house floors. However, a presentation by Jerry Foxhoven, Director of the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS), delayed audience questions. Senator Kapucian invited Foxhoven to speak in Grinnell after receiving several questions about Medicaid and the DHS budget at both the Feb. 3 and March 3 Legislative Coffees. “When we get a question from a constituent, we go to our staff people, and then they go to the Department of Human Services. So, I’d like to get everybody connected directly to the people that can help them. I don’t want to have anything lost in translation,” Kapucian said as he introduced Foxhoven. Foxhoven assumed the role of director in June, after Iowa’s Medicaid system had already been privatized
and put in the hands of managed care operations. Foxhoven spoke for half an hour, focusing on the positives of the switch to MCOs, citing the low numbers of complaints received by DHS as evidence of success. “They used to talk about saving you money, that’s kind of the wrong discussion. It’s about sustainability … [so that] 20 years from now we’re still able to provide that care,” Foxhoven said. Some attendees did not share Foxhoven’s positive outlook. “If you asked anybody who takes care of patients if it was a good idea to privatize Medicaid all at once, everybody said ‘no, this is a bad idea,’” said Laura Ferguson, lifelong Grinnell resident and family physician. “Now we are left with this debacle that doesn’t seem to be getting better on the ground. … When the governor says there’s been a few bumps in the road, and you say it’s been a little rough, that undervalues the lived experiences of my patients that can’t get care.” Foxhoven’s response to Ferguson’s comment acknowledged mistakes made, but he stated that he prefers not to dwell on the past. Currently, rather than try to change the state’s Medicaid system, which depends on managed care organizations, Foxhoven is awaiting the next federal budget from President Trump. A new federal budget would likely necessitate changes to Iowa’s Department of Human Services’ own budget, bringing about changes to the system. “I’m going to push back a little bit on this not looking back to the mis-
takes that were made, because those mistakes had costs,” said Kirsten Klepfer, a member of Capstone Behavioral Healthcare’s Board of Directors. “Those [mistakes] have costs to a community mental health center that is serving the community people well and in a financially sustainable way. … The cost of those mistakes is threatening that.” Foxhoven reiterated the need for more money to fix problems. “We’ll be asking for more money just to provide the benefits we need to provide, a lot more money,” he said. After Foxhoven’s presentation and the questions directed at him filled the hour that was allotted for the event, Emily Guenther ’07 requested that the legislators stay an extra half hour to answer questions that did not relate to DHS. Senator Kapucian and Representative Maxwell agreed, answering several questions, two of which referenced proposed budgets and questioned tax cuts. The legislators asserted several times that, nearing the end of session, it is hard to know how current bills will play out. “When we come into session, I don’t know what is going to happen … and now I’m almost in the dark towards the end of session,” Kapucian said. The Iowa State Legislature’s session is scheduled to end April 17. State primaries will be held on June 5, although Maxwell is running unopposed and Kapucian is not up for re-election. General elections will be held on Nov. 6.
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Edited by mikekben@grinnell.edu
The Beyer Block buildings in downtown Grinnell are about to get major upgrades. The city of Grinnell recently received a $100,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) to rehabilitate the buildings, both owned by the same proprietor and located on the 800 block of Fourth Avenue, just west of the Jewel Box Bank. Grinnell was one of 18 cities to receive money from the grant at an awards ceremony at the Iowa Rural Development Council Rural Summit held at Hotel Grinnell on April 5 and 6. The Community Catalyst Building Remediation Grant is a new grant awarded by the IEDA, which is designed to assist “communities with the redevelopment, rehabilitation or deconstruction of buildings to stimulate economic growth or reinvestment in the community,” according to the IEDA’s website. Funding from the grant is restricted to the rehabilitation of one commercial building or two adjacent buildings owned by the same entity, and 40 percent of the funds awarded were given to small communities of less than 1,500 people. The Beyer Block buildings were identified by the mayor’s Downtown Improvement Task Force as viable candidates for renovation, due to their location in the center of downtown, their size, their historic nature and their listing as some of the most endangered buildings in Iowa in 2015. The buildings had already been included in the city’s project to improve downtown facades, receiving new exteriors in 2017. Laura Manatt, the executive director of Poweshiek Iowa Develop-
ment and one of the leaders of the grant application project, said that the size of the buildings was one of the main reasons for their selection. “It’s a lot bigger building. You know, a lot of buildings in downtown have been restored and are in pretty good shape. This one’s just a pretty big building in downtown, so that’s kind of why it was identified as a priority,” Manatt said. In applying for the grant, the city brought in a historian to identify the historical significance of the buildings. They also laid out expectations for the revitalized building and its contribution to the health and vitality of downtown Grinnell. The city, Chamber of Commerce and Poweshiek Iowa Development worked together to construct a new vision for the 9,117-square-foot property, including four two-bedroom apartments, two one-bedroom apartments and 2,100 square feet of commercial space. The project, which is supposed to be finished within two years, is estimated to cost $2 million. The city will match the $100,000 provided by the grant, and state and federal historic tax credits and workforce housing tax credits will hopefully help to pay for a large portion of the rest of the project. The city and Poweshiek Iowa Development hope that the renovation will attract investors, and that the six new apartments will help to address housing shortages in Grinnell. “[This is] all in hopes that we can kind of get the building as far along as possible so that an investor could come in and invest in the building and a lot of the legwork is already done,” Manatt said. The new mixed-use properties should be completed by 2020.
MAHIRA FARAN
The grant will help fund renovation of a building located on Fourth Avenue.
Zone of confluence project to bring student housing downtown Continued from Front Page For the most part, student concerns focused on the estimated prices of the units, that while speculative, are likely to cost between $550 and $650 a month in rent. Discussion of potential included amenities, such as Wi-Fi, laundry, bike storage and security or accessible property managers, were suggested to make the price more appealing. “In regard to Grinnell College just buying a lot of property in the downtown area and away from our main campus, I have a lot of negative feelings. ... It creates weird tensions with the community,” said Kirsten Gillis ’18, who was not at the focus group but is employed by residence life as a house coordinator. “As someone who lives in town, I think one of things you’re going to want to factor is that if there are students living there, realistically, your market for in-town renters who are looking to live there will be new-coming faculty and staff to the College,” said Joe Rolón, director of residence life, during the focus group. “So there is an apprehensiveness with some staff members and faculty members to live in the same building with students.” While the developers have not yet met with potential residents besides students, they have spoken with local
business people, and are open to community input on the project. “We’ve worked with the city and the Chamber of Commerce together and we’ve done a housing study that’s clearly identified that the town needs more transitional housing, more rental housing. People who want to be living in town can’t, because of lack of apartments. So that’s a lot of the impetus behind this,” said Monica Chavez-Silva, assistant vice president of community enhancement, asserting the project would address needs of both students and the community. Currently, developers will use the feedback they have received from students and staff to refine their plans before establishing a formal plan with the College, according to Kalkbrenner. The developers hope that within the next 30 days, the building will be approved by the city and the plan will move forward with the College. “One of the things [the College] has talked about is they want to create special places within Grinnell, where when people come to visit they say, ‘hey that’s really cool.’… [The College] wants to make Grinnell an attractive place, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Stephen Brower of Brower Real Estate Services. “If we make it happen, that’d be cool. We’re going to try and make it cool.”
Features
Edited by weberama@grinnell.edu
5
Getting schooled on the site of Hotel Grinnell
SARAH RUIZ
Hotel Grinnell, located on 925 Park St., was once the site of Grinnell's junior high school. By Rachel Eber eberrach@grinnell.edu When guests walk up to the front desk of Hotel Grinnell, they stand in what was once the Principal’s office of the Grinnell Junior High School. Classrooms and the school library have been converted into guest rooms, and the old gymnasium and auditorium are now used for weddings and community events. The school’s old scoreboard hangs on the wall in the hotel’s trendy Periodic Table Bar and Lounge, and the floors are original wood and terrazzo from 1921. At the Drake Community Library, archivist Dorrie Lalonde has kept records and photographs of how the building has changed over
the years. According to a pamphlet written by members of the Grinnell Area Arts Council in May 1982, Grinnell’s public school district was founded in March of 1867, and the site where Hotel Grinnell currently stands was chosen as the location for the first school. At that time, the school consisted of several two-story frame buildings. In 1901, a wood and masonry structure was built to serve as the high school. Overcrowding was a serious issue in the early 1900s — by 1903, four classrooms had to be rented in private houses, and non-resident tuition students were often excluded due to a lack of space. In response, an addition to the existing high school building was constructed in 1921 for the junior high.
The 1921 addition is the building which now houses Hotel Grinnell. According to the pamphlet, it was designed by Des Moines architects Proudfoot, Bird & Rawson and displayed a “typical early 20th century school exterior style with an abundance of windows.” The original main entrance on the northeast corner of the building, with its appearance of columns and its arched windows, was “influenced by the Classical Revival so popular at the time of construction.” According to Lalonde, the original high school building was torn down in the 1970s due to a 1975 State Fire Marshal’s inspection, which found a number of safety violations. Angela Harrington, one of Hotel Grinnell’s co-owners, added that the building did not comply with new Americans with Disabilities Act regulations and had problems with asbestos. “Back in the day, they didn’t preserve much,” Harrington said, adding that it was a “real tragedy, because it was quite the beauty. Nowadays, we would never tear it down, because we have the technology to restore things like that.” Despite the demolition of the old high school, the 1921 junior high building was salvaged. A new school was built for the junior high
On April 11 at 7 p.m. in JRC 204, the Grinnell Campus Democrats gathered for a night of political organizing as part of their preparation for upcoming primaries. The group held a phone bank to reach out to registered Democrats in Black Hawk County, notifying them of an event being put on by the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) called “Win in 2018: Building the Blue Wave in Black Hawk Community.” The event takes place on April 18 in Waterloo, Iowa. It is part of the party’s initial preparation for the upcoming primaries and federal election. “At the event, they will focus on how to organize teams, register voters and improve voter turnout for the midterm election this year,” said Allie Pearce ’20, an intern for the IDP. The event, intended for active or interested members of the Democratic party in the Black Hawk area, is not specifically centered on the upcoming June primary. “For that reason, it wasn't an ultra-important event, but of course it is always important to recruit and work with potential volunteers in the long-term,” Pearce said. Pearce is involved in recruitment for a similar event in Linn county, happening on April 19. The outcome of the 2018 midterm elections could be a turning point in national politics, with the Democrats hoping to take back control of Congress. With no state-wide federal election in Iowa, the attention of state Republicans and Democrats are on the congressional and gubernatorial races. “The state party is working on building our volunteer base as early as possible, because we won’t have the same focus that we normally do as a state,” said Austin Wadle ’18 of Campus Democrats, Without a Senate race, the IDP is faced with less out-of-state funding. “The state party is taking this as an opportunity to focus in on how we build locally and sustainably,” Wadle said. At the events in Black Hawk and Linn, IDP members will be
helping registered Democrats who hold community leadership positions and have wide social reach to access those networks. Leading up to the June primary, this will translate into get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration and vote-by-mail processes. Tuesday’s phone bank was part of this effort. The events in Black Hawk and Linn are organized by the IDP, but Campus Democrats are lending a hand to the party by expanding support networks and getting involved in areas outside of Grinnell. The group is currently engaged in several efforts to promote student political participation in this pivotal election year. Throughout the week, members of the Campus Democrats tabled in the JRC to encourage student voter registration. Additionally, the group will be having an early voting location on May 15 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in JRC 101. “That’s one of the best opportunities for students to participate in the primary, because we have some really contested primaries, especially on the Democratic side,” Wadle said. Grinnell is located in Iowa’s first congressional district, a Democratic-leaning district where Tea Party Republican Rod Blum currently holds office. Four Democrats are running against Blum for a congressional seat. Six Democratic candidates are in the race for governor. Unsurprisingly, the IDP is energized. “We see the potential for a large democratic swing and the opportunity to pick up a bunch of seats, but it requires hard work. That will not be enough, especially in districts where we live in, it matters that we are focusing on our students,” Wadle continued. The Campus Democrats promote beginning civic engagement early. Getting registered and taking the time to vote in local and statewide elections give students a stronger voice in politics. While some candidates may have more financial power, according to Wadle, “Money can only go so far, at the end of the day it’s about vote totals, and students are big part of that vote total.”
MAHIRA FARAN
CONTRIBUTED
Though the hotel is a recent addition to the Grinnell community, the building that houses it also houses a great deal of history.
ELENA COPELL
(Clockwise from top left) Sean Cullinane, Nate Balcom, Andrew Redhead, Gus King and Jacob Ekstrand, all ’18, live in Biz. By Kate Irwin irwinkat@grinnell.edu To say that the reputation for 1017 High Street precedes itself is an understatement. For the campus community, the house is otherwise known as “Biz,” and it aims to be a fun time, all the time. Jacob Ekstrand, Gus King, Nate Balcom, Andrew Redhead and Sean Cullinane, all ’18, are the residents of Biz. To them, Biz is more than just another off-campus house; it is a place of camaraderie, parties and basketball that is available for the enjoyment of all of campus. All five residents are members of the basketball team. They feel that their house serves as a central space for team bonding, helping to create a community to introduce first years to the basketball team. “We always try to have the guys together, so [spending time at Biz] helps the freshmen get to know the seniors and that builds a pretty good cohesive unit,” Balcom said.
"We're just trying to have a good time and have a place where people can come and blow of steam ... [And to have] a safe space for people to feel included." Jacob Ekstrand '18
Austin Wadle ’18 from Campus Democrats worked the phonebank on Tuesday.
purchased the property in October 2016. The project was completed this past September. Turning classrooms into hotel rooms was not an easy feat. Harrington said the biggest challenge was installing the heating and cooling systems — school buildings are designed to have central heating, but in a hotel, guests must be able to control the temperature of individual rooms. Individual plumbing systems for bathrooms in each room also needed to be installed. The hotel contains 43 guest rooms plus two bunk rooms, which amounts to 45 different mechanical and plumbing systems. From the beginnings of a school district in 1867 to a luxury hotel today, the building serves as a vibrant time capsule of Grinnell’s history.
This is Biz
Campus Democrats hold phonebank as part of voter registration push By Wini Austin laustinwi@grinnell.edu
to relocate, and the vacant building was used to hold several city offices and the Council Chambers. The rest of the building was used as a community center. A church group used the space once a week, and an art gallery was also housed in the building. According to Harrington, however, the space was largely under-utilized. The idea to build a hotel in Grinnell had been in the back of Harrington’s mind since the beginning of her work for the city in 2008. In her previous position as the President of the Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce and the Grinnell Convention and Visitors Bureau, it came to her attention that the city needed an event space besides the College. Harrington and her business partner, Grinnell alum Steve Holtze ’68,
“We have an open-door policy, so if any of the guys want to come over and watch TV, talk, hang out, play video games, they're more than welcome to. And it just builds more of our team chemistry,” Cullinane added. While Biz is a place for current basketball players, alumni affiliat-
ed with basketball visit it as well. The house hosts alumni parties and serves as a space for alumni to stay and reconnect with new team members to share their passion for playing basketball for Grinnell College.
"We have an open door policy ... And it just builds more of our team chemistry." Sean Cullinane'18 Biz has not always been housed in 1017. For the last three years, members of the basketball team had a Cowles apartment. Regardless of the physical location of Biz, though, it will always be a place for both the basketball team and the campus community. This year, the residents of Biz wanted an off campus house for the social aspect. While Biz hosts many parties that are meant for the team, they also regularly host campus-wide parties, such as Moose. “We also got the house thinking that we wanted to host stuff, like it’s the nature of having parties at Grinnell, we wanted to live up to it,” King said. Ekstrand feels that hosting campus-wide parties on a regular basis helps establish that Biz is a place for Grinnell students to enjoy, no matter who the person. “We're just trying to have a good time and have a place where people can come and blow off steam and just kind of always be open to having a party and a good time. [And to have] a safe space for people to feel included,” Ekstrand said. “We're really trying to provide a place to have a good time, because on campus all the new rules are kind of restricting that ability.”
While hosting parties for the campus community and the team helps to bring the residents of Biz together, they think that their bond as basketball players brings them together the most. Their shared background of basketball makes for a more cohesive living environment. “Having people with some of the same schedules as you, as we're all on the basketball team, so that's all the same. A lot of us have the same interests and stuff like that, and we're better able to communicate with each other about what would work and what won't,” Redhead said. Additionally, as the five residents are both seniors and best friends, they can serve as a support network during a time filled with changes and stresses. “Since we're all in the same stage of life being fourth years, we can support each other and talk about a job, or whatever else there is,” Ekstrand added.
"[By] creating a positive reputation and a positive environment, the basketball team can have people [want to come] over ... It should be a place that people want to go." Gus King, '18 The Biz residents are always down to host a Moose, open their doors to anyone on campus and have a good time. They want their house to be the destination on High Street. “[By] creating a positive reputation and positive environment, the basketball team can have people [want to come] over to Biz. It should be a place that people want to go to,”King said.
Arts
6
Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu
Sooji Son By Kelly Page pagekell@grinnell.edu One of the biggest advantages of attending a liberal arts school is the ability to take classes across multiple curriculums. This has been an important part of Sooji Son ’18’s education as a computer science and theater and dance double major. Before interacting with the theater and dance department at Grinnell, Son never thought she would major in that discipline. She viewed it more as an extracurricular activity that supplemented her focus on computer science. “I started doing backstage stuff in high school,” Son said, adding with a laugh that the highlight of her high school theater career was working the spotlights that follow actors across the stage. “When I came to college I was interested in doing theater work, but not actually majoring in theater. But I met Professor Justin Thomas, [theater and dance], who convinced me to major in theater.” Thomas’s strategy in convincing Son to major was persistence. “He was always saying ‘it’s never too late to be a theater major!’” Son recalled. Her experience crewing for the play “Anna Christie” her first year led her to try taking classes in theater, eventually choosing to major in it. Of her experience pushing herself to try new things in the theater and dance program, Son said, “Everyone should take advantage of Grinnell’s liberal arts and take different classes, because I took a dance class that I never thought I would take and then that actually helped me broaden my perspectives a lot.” Son is drawn to theater by the opportunity it provides to to work with others to create art. “The reason why I got into the-
ater is because it was a collaborative process, working with so many different people like actors, directors, choreographers and crew members, so at the end of each show I felt like it’s something we created together. So that’s what drew me into theater, because I like making art with many people,” she said. Son has stage managed many shows throughout her time at Grinnell, from “The Boy Who Fell From the Roof” in 2015, to “The Laramie Project” in 2016, to the inventive and largely student-created production “The First Time I Walked On The Moon” in 2017. Son also directed a one-act play this past fall called “The Universal Language” by David Ives. The play shows the interactions between a con artist, who teaches a fake language called Unamunda, and a woman with a stutter, who seeks to learn the language and then falls in love with him. Additionally, Son has helped create many performance art pieces at Grinnell. Last semester she and Anh Thu Pham ’19, a fellow computer science major, created the interactive performance, “We’re All Vulnerable: Who Killed Tammy Zywicki ’92?” which explored the kidnapping and murder of Grinnell student Tammy Zywicki in 1992 as she drove back to campus on I-80. “I made a performance about her disappearance and what it must have felt for her, so it was for a smaller audience, maybe like of two, three people,” Son said. “I try to — because I’m also a computer science major — connect technology with art, so I made a phone app to guide the audience through the performance because they have to be at multiple places, so that was interesting and fun.” The performance guided the audience through a series of clues that led them to new locations, where
they would experience different installations. “We had it set from the basement of Bucksbaum, where all the storage is for the theater department, and then going around outside, in front of the box office and then to the loading docks. The audience was constantly on their feet moving around, trying to find the clues, but also they were just misled and led into these creepy corners. We had installations going on at each stop they had to go, and then hints they had to enter on their phone to get the next clue and whatnot, so it was a very interactive and audience-driven performance,” Son said. Learning about computer science has helped Son beyond just giving her the skill to create apps to aid in performances. It taught her a way to solve problems that allowed her to be inventive in the way she uses technology in performance. “Computer science is more, you kind of dig deeper into this problem, so they always talk about problem-solving skills, so I think I use that to do digital work. … [The class] Problem Solving Inquiries really helped me learn things on my own and then use that skill to do performances,” she said. Son used the problem-solving skills that she gained in computer science to create a recent performance using projections. “I recently had another installation performance thing where, it’s hard to explain, but there was a webcam for the performer and the audience, it was for an audience of one, and then the projections and video images got looped around so it was as if the audience was interacting with the performer even though they were in separate rooms. It was like exploring intimacy while being in a different room. I wanted to play with that mirage but also, like, what is the
real you,” she said. Immediately after graduation, Son will work in Silicon Valley, making a career in computers. However, she still wants theater to be a big part of her life. “People say ‘oh, you’ll be making a lot of money in Silicon Valley,’
and that’s actually what I’ll be doing immediately after grad, but I always joke that’s, like, means of production. Just like, make money, stock up and do theater stuff on the side. I’m interested in looking for grad school or maybe other theater opportunities,” she said.
HELENA GRUENSTEIDL
Sooji Son ’18, theatre and dance and copmuter science double major, has stage managed for multiple productions during her time at Grinnell
Writers@Grinnell: Roxane Gay
HELENA GRUENSTEIDL
Alissa Nutting, left, interviewed Roxane Gay, right, on various topics including writing and the human body. By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Roxane Gay is undoubtedly one of the most prominent and influential writers working today. Her novels, short stories, essays, blogs and tweets provide critical examination of Blackness, queerness, feminism, human bodies and more, earning her spots on the New York Times bestsellers list and a devoted fan base. Last Friday, April 6, Grinnellians got the opportunity to hear Gay speak about these topics firsthand, as she was interviewed in Harris Cinema by Professor Alissa Nutting, English, one of Gay’s close friends. The event was part of the Writers@Grinnell series and featured questions submitted by students, faculty and other visiting writers. The Q&A at Grinnell College oc-
curred in the midst of the release of “Unruly Bodies,” a popup magazine on Medium that Gay curated. “Unruly Bodies” features essays by 25 writers including Gay and will release new content every Tuesday throughout the month of April on Medium.com. “Late last year, Medium approached me and said, ‘We would love for you to curate a popup magazine.’ … They gave me a budget that was going to allow me to pay writers real money, so I was really thrilled,” Gay said about the origin of “Unruly Bodies.” “I thought it would be great to continue the conversation I contributed to in ‘Hunger’ about living in a human body in a world that has very rigid rules about what a human body should look like, and how it should move through the world. I approached 24 writers and gave them the same
prompt, which is, ‘what does it mean to live in an unruly body?’ … It was just really wonderful to see what the writers did with that prompt. There’s no overlap.” Human bodies that defy society’s standards have been a prominent topic in many of Gay’s works. Besides “Unruly Bodies,” her nonfiction book “Hunger” and short story collection “Difficult Women” explore both the reality of female bodies and the expectations projected upon them. Naturally, then, bodies were a major topic of conversation at last Friday’s Q&A — especially bodies as a site of resistance. “We use our bodies as sites of resistance in a lot of different ways. How we present our bodies, where we place our bodies. It’s actually some of the most important work that we do,
and it often goes the most unacknowledged,” Gay said. “I’m the only Black faculty member many of my students are going to have [at Purdue University]. I know that by placing my body in an inhospitable climate, I am committing an act of resistance. I think it’s important, but I think we also have to consider the toll that it takes.” Gay and Nutting’s shared love for tattoos led to eager discussion on how getting inked can serve as an act of resistance, especially for women. “When we tattoo ourselves, we ruin something, because we’re supposed to be an unblemished canvas that you can project your bullshit onto. It’s very frustrating,” Gay said. “I got most of my tattoos when I was 19. I thought the best thing I could do for my future career prospects is get tattoos that are large and dark on my forearms. I was so right! I was very alienated from my body, I was having a mental breakdown and had run away from college and was not speaking to anyone in my family. I just wanted to do something with my body that was my choice.”
"I just wanted to do something with my body that was my choice." Roxane Gay Gay’s alienation from her body was largely related to being gang raped at the age of 12, a trauma she reflects on in “Hunger.” Gay’s own relationship to writing about sex, sexual violence and consent is complicated. She related that she goes with her gut feeling when determining how to write about these topics, and errs on
the side of not sharing too much. “In the stories in ‘Difficult Women,’ there is a lot of sexual violence,” she said. “I think the reality is that in life, the lines are blurred between consent and a lack of consent. That’s what makes so many conversations around sexual violence difficult, because we just don’t have a clear understanding of what consent looks like and what consent feels like. I try to explore that in my writing. For myself, my guideline is always don’t sensationalize it. … I never describe any of the assault scenes. Because I just don’t feel like you need to put that into the world. Our imaginations are horrifying enough to fill in those blanks.” A contributor to so many contemporary literary conversations, Gay is far from working in a vacuum. As demonstrated by her curating of “Unruly Bodies,” Gay is committed to collaborating with and supporting other writers, especially Black and queer writers, as well as drawing inspiration from them. “I love Zadie Smith, who is just incredibly intelligent,” Gay said on the British writer who delivered Grinnell’s commencement address in 2016. “She takes risks. She says unpopular things sometimes and awkward things and things I find to be completely wrong-headed, but she says them really well. You can tell that she’s someone that puts in the work and really cares about a life of the mind.” Gay also shared the books and authors she is currently reading in celebration of Blackness and queerness. These include the works of Samantha Irby, who will visit Grinnell next year, along with “An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones and “The Recovering” by Leslie Jamison.
Arts Behind the Scenes: The Costume Shop
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Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu
REINA SHAHI
Theater and dance productions are only made possible with the behind-the-scenes support of the costume shop. By Zoe Fruchter fruchter@grinnell.edu In the basement of the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, within a maze of whitewashed hallways, lies the Grinnell College Costume Studio. This hidden on-campus gem gets students fitted for various theater and dance productions. It features shelves of multi-colored fabrics, notions and threads and is organized by the steady hand of Costume Studio Supervisor and Resident Costume Designer Erin Howell-Gritsch. As studio supervisor, Howell-Gritsch manages the volumes of fabric and clothing needed to produce each season of shows at the College. Her tasks include ordering supplies, maintaining equipment, organizing the costume spaces — two storage rooms, the studio, makeup room and three dressing rooms — and supervising student staff. In her role as resident costume designer, Howell-Gritsch designs costumes for all of the mainstage productions and assists with student MAPs and class projects. “I read the play several times, do any necessary research and render (draw) any costumes that I will build,” wrote Howell-Gritsch in an email to The S&B. “I usually don't render contemporary shows as I might want a men's blue suit, for instance, and it really isn't necessary [to render] in order to communicate with the rest of the team. I choose all fabrics, trims, notions, etc. and decide what each char-
acter/performer will wear. I do all of the shopping and sourcing of rentals.” The process of putting on a mainstage production is intensely collaborative. “I work with the other designers and the director to make sure the show has a cohesive look and all of us are working toward the same goal,” Howell-Gritsch wrote. “We have weekly production meetings to discuss any changes, progress, problems. I work closely with the stage manager to schedule fittings for each performer.” Jamie Friedman ’20 began working at the costume shop after performing in theater and dance shows. She noted that she saw an entirely different side of productions working from behind the scenes.
"It's interesting to see how all the different parts of the theater department work together to make a show." Jamie Friedman '20 “It's interesting to see how all the different parts of the theater department work together to make a show, and how many people are involved. The costumes department has to be very aware of how the stage will be set up, what the lighting will be, how long each actor has to change between scenes, and a bunch of other details,” Friedman wrote in an email to The S&B.
"Iterations over Trees" opens at Smith Gallery
Yet even with such a collaborative process, Howell-Gritsch, who is employed only part time by the College, is often overloaded come performance season. “It is very difficult to fit everything in. I need to be really organized and have my days planned out for the most part. I do most of the shopping on my own time,” Howell-Gritsch wrote. “The busiest time in the shop is usually when we are just a few weeks out from performance, because of the fittings. ... If I am building many of the costumes, every week is busy just trying to get them done. I like to think of myself as a master multitasker.” Howell-Gritsch’s mastery of multi-tasking comes from years of experience. She holds an MFA in theater design from the University of Iowa, a degree she decided to pursue after falling in love with costume designing while working for Ballet Iowa right out of college. It was at Ballet Iowa that she worked with Erik Sanning, Grinnell College’s technical director, who recommended she come to Grinnell in April of 1999 as a guest designer. Friedman spoke to Howell-Gritsch’s width of experience and knowledge. “Erin also really gets to know everyone who works for her and cares about our lives and opinions. She’s been working at Grinnell for almost 20 years so she has a lot of knowledge on not just costumes, but the whole department,” Friedman wrote.
SOFIA MENDEZ
By Lauren Miller millerla@grinnell.edu An exhibition titled “Iterations over Trees” by Clara Bertaut ’18 and Julia Cory ’18 opened at the Smith Gallery on Monday, April 9. When coming up with the idea for an exhibition in the gallery, Bertaut and Cory looked for overlaps in their work. That overlap came in the form of trees. “It started with us wanting to do a Smith show, and from there we looked at what our work had in common. Trees is what we landed on as a recurring theme,” Cory said. Their project is a play on the “Tree” data structure used in computer science. As Bertaut is a computer science major and Cory a studio art major, the two artists were interested in seeing how the two disciplines connected. Together, they created a multidimensional work. “The conceptual center of the project is technology and nature and how they interact and how they can change in different situations,” Cory said. One part of the project includes intricate copper wire trees with circuit board backgrounds made by Bertaut, serving as the physical representation. Cory created a digital representation of glass trace collages, where she sketched trees and put them on a glass
backdrop. The exhibition also includes an animated video that they collaborated on as part of a previous project. “The animation started it all. That was the intersection,” Bertaut explained. They branched out from there, adding images to the animation and building the other two pieces of the project. The pieces build off of each other to create a show that envelops multiple disciplines in an interesting and unique way. Bertaut felt that the different aspects of the exhibition came together organically. “Bringing [all the different pieces together] seemed natural,” she said. Bertaut and Cory had been working on their project for the whole semester, and the final product reflects the effort they put in. “Once we had the work up on the wall, we were really satisfied with how [all the parts] were interacting with the space,” Bertaut said. She described how the small size of the Smith Gallery is fitting to their exhibition, as most of their pieces are small and would not have looked right in a larger space. She also expressed appreciation for the accessibility of the gallery, which is located right next to the dining hall. “Iteration over Trees” will be on display in Smith Gallery until Friday, April 20.
By Rachel Eber eberrach@grinnell.edu On Saturday, April 7, members of Grinnell’s Ritalin Test Squad (RTS) improv troupe attended Oberlin College’s 18th annual Improv Conference Workshop. Improv troupes from all over the Midwest and the East Coast attended the conference. While most were amateur troupes from other colleges, some local, non-collegiate troupes from Ohio also attended. Professional improv troupes led the workshops. On Friday night, the professional troupes performed at The Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse, a performance venue and student space on Oberlin’s campus. “It’s kind of like [Oberlin’s] version of Bob’s,” said Denali Carpenter ’19, a member of RTS who attended the conference. After watching the professional troupes perform, each amateur troupe decided who they wanted to work with on Saturday. RTS attended three workshops, each two hours long. RTS worked mostly with Holy Fuck Comedy Hour and Hitch*Cocktails, both from Chicago. Their first workshop was about “different theories of comedy, why people laugh at things and how to incorporate that knowledge into your improv,” said Carter Howe ’20, another RTS member in attendance. “And then the second one was about how to raise the stakes in a scene … someone could be doing a scene, and then it loses energy or you don’t know where to go with it, and so this was about different strategies to switch things up.” Carpenter and Howe explained that this workshop focused on establishing a sense of status among the characters in a scene. “The high status one, you’re al-
ways praising them, the neutral status, you’re on the same page, and then you’re putting down the lower status person,” Carpenter said, adding that this strategy gives actors something to say when the energy is low. “The worst thing about improv is when you get stuck in a scene and you don’t know what to do.” The last workshop was about how to stay in character and the character-building process. Carpenter and Howe, along with the other members who attended, plan on sharing what they learned with the rest of their troupe. “On practice on Wednesday we usually talk about what we learned, and if there’s anything that we want to use. So I think we’ll probably talk about the [status] workshop a little bit,” Carpenter said. Last year, RTS invited one of the professional troupes from the conference to come perform and lead workshops at Grinnell, and they are considering doing that again this year. After Grinnell, Carpenter and Howe both plan on staying involved in the improv scene. Howe mentioned Chicago as the “locus of improv” in the U.S. “I think it would definitely be cool to, after graduation, take a year or two off and work some random job and do improv in Chicago,” Howe said. Carpenter is thinking about getting a job at a think tank as a research analyst, while also doing improv on the side and auditioning for Annoyance Theater. “It’s not something you have to commit to full time, so it’s totally something I see myself doing after [college],” Carpenter said. RTS’s next performance will be 24 hours of improv in Loose Lounge, spanning from Friday, April 13 at 6 p.m. to Saturday, April 14 at 6 p.m.
CONTRIBUTED
RTS worked on their improv skills with other collegiate improv groups.
Grinnell music major alumna, Allie Kieffer visits campus
By Samantha Stagg staggsam@grinnell.edu
The exhibit explores the connection between computer science and studio art.
RTS attends improv conference at Oberlin
On Tuesday, April 10, Allie Kieffer ’08, assistant professor of musicology at Rice University and a Grinnell College alumna, visited the College to hold a lecture titled “Inharmonious Bells: Materialities of Listening in Ravel’s ‘La Vallée des cloches.’” Kieffer did not always want to pursue a career in the realm of music. In fact, when she first arrived at Grinnell she was planning to go to law school. One of her favorite classes was on political theory. “It was amazing. It just, like, opened up my mind to all sorts of new ways of thinking about texts … and how ideas change over time. … That was a really important class,” she said. However, as she began playing piano more seriously and started taking advantage of Grinnell’s open curriculum, with classes in philosophy and English, Kieffer realized she had other interests. But her classes in political science continued to serve her well. The skills she learned in the political theory course translated into thinking about the historical side of music and how ideas about music have changed over time. “A lot of the skills that I learned in that class I think set me up really well for everything I’ve done since then,” she said. When she first decided to be a music major, Kieffer still thought she would apply to law school. But her numerous humanities classes and love of piano drew her further and further away from law. “It was a gradual transformation,” Kieffer reflected. By the beginning of her senior year, she knew music history was her calling, and began applying to music grad schools instead of law schools.
Professor Eugene Gaub, music, remembers what Kieffer was like as a student. “I remember Allie as an excellent pianist … but her true gift was for writing. Her paper for my Mozart opera seminar was just phenomenal: ‘Mozart's Exalted Style: Forgiveness, Entreaty and the Construction of Human Power Relationships.’ I couldn't get to sleep after reading it. … Her work spoke for itself,” he said. Kieffer went on to obtain a doctorate from Yale University and a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford. She also has a book contract with Oxford University Press. Gaub attributes Kieffer’s mountain of success to all her hard work. He understands that talent and luck have their place in her story, but “sustained effort over a long period of time was the key.” Gaub believes current students at Grinnell can look to Kieffer’s successes as inspiration.
“She is a terrific role model for Grinnell students,” Gaub said. “Hard work does pay off.” Kieffer’s lecture explored the use of bell sounds in French composer Maurice Ravel’s piano music. She hopes students who attended learned how music is deeply connected with the context in which it was born. “There are a lot of cool ways to think about music history. … There are tons and tons of ways that music is intersecting with the historical world that it’s in,” she said. To current Grinnell students thinking of majoring in music, Kieffer offers this insight: “You can do a lot of things with a music major. You don’t have to do what I did. I think there are a lot of ways that a music major can cultivate skills that are really useful and life enriching. … It can be a really exciting major. … It can set people up really well for all sorts of things in life.”
REINA SHAHI
Kieffer majored in music at Grinnell, and is currently an assistant professor of musicology at Rice University.
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Sports
Edited by schultej@grinnell.edu
Rueter's Digest: Zlatan's arrival is Inside practice: The proof that the MLS is legit now
S&B takes baseball
By Sam Rueter ruetersa@grinnell.edu On March 31, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Los Angeles FC (LAFC) met for the first time ever in Major League Soccer (MLS). That game has already been christened “El Tráfico,” a pun invoking the famous “El Clásico” rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid as well as pointing out LA’s notoriously congested highways. The Galaxy ended up winning an exciting 4-3 game against the expansion side, LAFC. While a seven-goal fixture always raises eyebrows, the real draw for fans came in the form of LA Galaxy player Zlatan Ibrahimović. Ibrahimović made headlines with his breathtaking two-goal performance off the bench, one of which came as a onetime volley from over forty yards out that would make even the prickliest soccer fan cheer in admiration. Ibrahimović is the most recent in a long line of big name players to make the transition from Europe to the MLS, joining Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo, Steven Gerrard, Bastian Schweinsteiger, David Beckham, Kaká and David Villa. However, unlike the other names on that list (Villa and Kaká notwithstanding), Ibrahimović still has something meaningful left to offer an MLS team, as demonstrated by his impressive performances in 2017 for Manchester United before being sidelined by an ACL injury. Arguably one of the greatest players of his generation, Ibrahimović is a prolific goal scorer who has achieved
both individual and club success on some of the best teams in the world, including Barcelona, PSG, Inter Milan and Milan. While the recent arrivals of quality players such as Sebastian Giovinco and Carlos Vela have helped combat the notion that MLS is something of a “retirement league” for former worldclass players, the fact that a player of Ibrahimović’s pedigree turned down moves to a more visible club in favor of the Galaxy should send a signal to the rest of the world that MLS is a rapidly improving league. Increased television ratings, which are fueled by the conscious efforts of Fox Sports Network and ESPN to expand their soccer programming, have mirrored the corresponding talent boom. Similarly, MLS attendance figures have improved markedly in the past decade, led by Seattle Sounders FC, Portland Timbers and Atlanta United FC, a recent expansion side who shattered attendance records by averaging over 40,000 fans a game in 2017 (even getting as high as 70,000). So, what are the forces responsible for the rise of MLS into the American sports consciousness? For starters, it is likely that American soccer is the beneficiary of the misfortunes of other professional sports leagues. Major League Baseball (MLB) has long faced accusations of being “too slow” and “boring,” and the National Football League (NFL) has been rocked by concussion scandals and a culture of violence that seems to have followed players off the field.
In soccer, however, every possession is tense and action packed, as a single goal could be the deciding factor in a game. Next, it is important to understand the way that many sports fans operate. While there are certainly die-hard soccer fans in all corners of the United States, a great many of them were likely exposed to European leagues first, and thus will naturally be more inclined to flip on the TV to watch an MLS game if a familiar face with proven pedigree is on the screen. Finally, and perhaps most obviously, the quality of play in MLS is just plain old better than it was in years past. As someone who remembers watching MLS in the mid 2000s when the style of play resembled something akin to a high school match, it is astonishing to witness some of the intricate build-up play that teams routinely display in 2018. Regardless of how many more goals he scores in MLS, Ibrahimović signifies a kind of cultural vanguard in US soccer. His arrival corresponds with the recent election of Carlos Cordiero as president of the US Soccer Federation, a man who hopes to bring US soccer into the 21st century by tackling on-field issues like player development and coaching, as well as off-field questions related to equity and accessibility. Thus, while he may only represent the LA Galaxy on the field, Zlatan carries the hopes of an entire, newly soccer-crazed nation on his broad, tattooed shoulders.
Men's tennis wins 9-0 at Lawrence
HUNG VUONG
Quan Tran ’21 caught up with the baseball team to get a look at how practice looks on a day-to-day basis. The team plays Monmouth at home on Sunday. By Quan Tran tranminh2@grinnell.edu CONTRIBUTED
The men's tennis team shut out Lawrence 9-0 last Saturday. Ishaan Tibrewal ’21 (pictured) won in both singles and doubles. The team is 3-0 in the conference, and travels to Lake Forest for matches this weekend.
Morrissey recognized nationally By Quan Tran tranminh2@grinnell.edu Last week, Grinnell softball’s Kayla Morrissey ’18 was named on the “Top Performances” list released by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA). Morrissey’s recognition caps off two back-to-back weeks in which two Pioneers softball members made the list, the first being Darcie Wheeler ’21. One of the highlights that put Morrissey on the map was her performance during Grinnell’s win over nationally-ranked Central College. She hit .600 and went 12-of-20 at the plate with seven doubles and a triple. She also recorded five RBIs and 11 runs scored while finding success on both stolen base attempts. As a result,
Morrissey now stands atop Grinnell’s record boards in career runs scored, hits, triples and total bases. She is also in the Midwest Conference’s top 10 for career hits and triples. Nationally recognized for the first time in her softball career, Morrissey cannot help but feel excited, both for herself and for the team. “It was definitely very cool to be nationally recognized because I never really thought that would happen. It [also] means good things for our team going forward. Now that we are succeeding and doing well it’s going to open up more opportunities for that recognition for players in the future,” Morrissey said. It is important to remember that Morrissey plays both basketball and softball. The schedules for these
HUNG VUONG
Kayla Morrissey ’18 is helping to lead the Pioneer softball team to a historic season, earning national honors along the way.
sports overlap each other, making this feat even more impressive. Having wrapped up her no-less successful college basketball career two months ago, she wasted no time getting back into softball practice. Although there were some initial adversities, everything quickly fell into place for Morrissey. “I think the transition has been pretty smooth this year. The first two games were a little bit rough for me, but then once we got to Florida [during spring break] I kind of got off all the rust. I think I’ve come back pretty strong through this transition this year,” Morrissey said. Riding on a wave of wins and national recognition, the team is on track for its winningest season in Grinnell softball history. They have enjoyed the journey, playing together and for each other. Morrissey can feel the difference coming from the group this year. As they approach the most important stretch of the season, facing conference opponents, she is more confident than ever. With so many years of playing experience, she knows the exact mentality required. “We learned in our first two conference games that a team that might not necessarily be better than us on paper can kind of take a game from us right underneath us that they shouldn't have,” Morrissey said. “So it all comes down to taking it game by game.” There are three more weeks until the end of softball season, which will also mark the end of Morrissey’s student-athlete career. As she prepares herself for the final act, she remains as committed to the game and as humble in her successes as usual.
“In my 20 years here, we have never canceled as many games as we have this year,” Head Baseball Coach Tim Hollibaugh told me as we walked from his office to Pioneer Park, where the team hosts its practices and games. Recent weather has interfered with Pioneer baseball’s practices ever since spring break, leaving them to practice in the fieldhouse. The team’s outdoor practice that I got the chance to visit was only the third of the season. Fortunately for them (and me), it was a perfect afternoon for baseball. Normally, the baseball team has six practices a week, with four individual group workout days and two team workout days, which are usually Sunday and Thursday. For group workout days like today, players are assigned to groups based on their positions: catchers, pitchers, outfielders or infielders. Each group works on their skill set with a pre-assigned assistant coach. Still, given the number of players, organizing practice seems an impossible task. Hollibaugh, however, has developed a clever system. “What I do is I plan out week by week,” Hollibaugh said, drawing my attention to his Excel spreadsheets. “Then I e-mail the practice plans to guys before noon every day so they know where we are, what we’re doing and what they’re going to focus on. That allows guys to come in and be productive.” When practice time comes each group arrives fifteen minutes after the previous one and starts its exercises. Hollibaugh’s system is like clockwork. As the catchers practice throwing the ball around, the infielders sharpen their offensive skills in the batting cages. At the same time, the next group of outfielders is stretching, waiting for their turn at the cages. “Realistically, every group
doesn’t have more than 45 minutes to [practice]. Splitting them up takes advantage of the facility we’ve got and the time that they have, so that they can get the number of reps they need in the shortest period of time.” The pitchers, with whom Hollibaugh works personally, follow a different regimen. Most college pitchers are specialized, meaning they do not have to bat or play other positions. After a couple of “arm care” exercises to strengthen their shoulders, the pitchers got into pairs and started throwing to one another. The drill is essentially the same as that of normal groups, but the throws have more variety. “Position players are working on just their general throws from their position. But for pitchers, if you see guys kneeling down in a particular pitch it means that they are working on different spin rate, creating different ways to pitch to keep it in the strike zone,” Hollibaugh said. While everything was happening, Hollibaugh made sure to check in with his pitchers to see how their arms are doing. He didn’t forget to point out what they’re doing well, as well as room for improvement. He also asked personal questions, checking up on their day-to-day lives. For Hollibaugh, a practice can be lighthearted as long as it’s also productive. For example, at the end of practice players are given the option of doing “basketball conditioning,” where they get to play basketball instead of doing sprints. The enthusiasm from players and coaches alike was on display throughout every drill. As Pioneer baseball reaches its important stretch against Midwest Conference teams, the unpredictable weather conditions have made the team’s situation more difficult, with weekday games to make up for it. One thing is clear, though: temperatures might be low, but spirits are not.
Edited by fentonma@grinnell.edu
Film in Stock: Films to watch on Netflix
by Martha Beliveau
Though it’s not what it used to be, Netflix has a great selection of films. This week, I have highlighted five of my top choices currently available for streaming. All of the following films are radically different from each other, so hopefully there is something for everybody. The first two offer unexplored stories, while the last three titles are a good access point if you are a stranger to documentary films. “The Way He Looks” by Daniel Ribeiro If you are looking for a charming coming-of-age love story, look no further. This 2014 Brazilian film follows Leo, a blind teenager, navigating his first crush and the subsequent fallout of his affection. The strength of “The Way He Looks” is its subtlety. Youth isn’t exploited or oversimplified, but portrayed accurately as a toned-down mess. At the same time, this is a no-stress movie if you’ve had a long week and just want to pretend you’re a teenager in Brazil for a couple hours. If you liked last year’s “Call Me By Your Name,” “The Way He Looks” offers similarities in its slow-burning pace but is more subdued in its characters and plot.
Youth isn’t exploited or oversimplified, but portrayed accurately as a toned-down mess. At the same time, this is a nostress movie if you’ve had a long week and just want to pretend you’re a teenager in Brazil for a couple hours. “Tangerine” by Sean Baker If you liked Sean Baker’s 2017 “The Florida Project,” “Tangerine” (2015) offers a bit of stylistic difference. Famous for being filmed exclusively on iPhones, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez brilliantly plays a Black trans sex worker navigating life after incarceration. “Tangerine” offers a stark contrast to “The Way He Looks” — it doesn’t do subtlety. From the sound mixing to the collaged camera framing and panning, Baker will keep you engaged not only with a strong plot, but also with visuals and sounds that reflect its setting. At the same time, “Tangerine” is self-aware enough to know what it’s doing, and I admire this film’s balancing of rawness with stylistic integrity. This film will give you “Trainspotting” vibes in a contemporary, American context.
“Tangerine” offers a stark contrast to “The Way He Looks” — it doesn’t do subtlety. From the sound mixing to the collaged camera framing and panning, Baker will keep you engaged not only with a strong plot, but also with visuals and sounds that reflect its setting. “Last Men in Aleppo” by Feras Fayyad This Oscar-nominated 2017 documentary humanizes the civilians on the frontlines of the Syrian Civil War, forcing viewers to abandon the abstraction in which they think of humanitarian crises. “Last Men in Aleppo” follows the “White Helmets,” a group of Syri-
an civilians who have taken it upon themselves to save people from rubble and the general catastrophe of an aerial bombing. Be warned that this film is very visually and emotionally graphic, but, at the same time, that’s the strength of what this documentary offers: truth that challenges the dominant strain of complacency. Fayyad accomplishes the goal of documentary embedded in the genre’s name. “Last Men in Aleppo” serves as documentation of how people are forced to deal with the consequences that result from the decisions of others.
Be warned that this film is very visually and emotionally graphic, but, at the same time, that’s the strength of what this documentary offers: truth that challenges the dominant strain of complacency. “The Wolfpack” by Crystal Moselle I am a bit biased in my evaluation of 2015’s “The Wolfpack,” because the documentary itself is about the personal and collective value of film. A quick synopsis couldn’t really do it justice, but, to give a brief overview, “The Wolfpack” follows a New York family of seven siblings who were restricted from leaving their house except for a few times a year. To fill time, the children would create costumes, settings and props in order to replicate their favorite scenes from films, including Quentin Tarantino's “Reservoir Dogs,” Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” This documentary doesn’t really do anything out of the ordinary stylistically, but stands that fascinating subjects can carry a film. In short, “The Wolfpack” exists somewhere between “Grey Gardens,” “The Brady Bunch” and “The Room.”
To fill time, the children would create costumes, settings and props in order to replicate their favorite scenes from films. “Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal” by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon To be honest, this documentary is probably my most watched film on Netflix. If you are looking for (what I consider to be) a generally light hearted film, “Best of Enemies” (2015) is definitely the easiest watch, second only to “The Way He Looks,” the first film on this list. This documentary follows the 1968 televised debates between liberal commentator Gore Vidal and his conservative counterpart, William F. Buckley. But, underneath, “Best of Enemies” explores how the personal is political and the political is personal. Additionally, our current political circumstances start to make much more sense in context of chaotic nature of 1968. If you are in the mood for a laugh followed by several bouts of anger, alight here. Also, if you are new to the documentary genre, “Best of Enemies” is a great place to start.
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Loudspeaker: Reading Prince's "Dirty Mind"
by Maxwell Fenton After early success in 1979, Prince had a real opportunity to further shoot into the musical mainstream. Though the violet-tinged musical thunderstorm of “Purple Rain” was still a few years off, Prince vaulted into the sexual stratosphere with the 1980 release of “Dirty Mind,” easily his most libidinous record. Even compared to the frank eroticism of “Controversy,” the psychedelic sexuality of “Parade” or the legendarily sexy “Purple Rain,” “Dirty Mind” is a half-hour long leer, a symphony of lewdness that celebrates sexuality in its many vestiges. It challenges borders of race, gender, sexuality and recontextualizes sex as a new lingua franca, a commonality of the human experience that transcends whatever categories society and our peers place us in. Wrapped in a leather jacket and a speedo on the cover, Prince exudes raw sexuality through the entire record. The listener is party to the filthiest parts of his dirty mind, a voyeur into an X-rated world of sex fiends, sex freaks, funkateers of all stripes and their leader — Prince Rogers Nelson himself.
The listener is party to the filthiest parts of his dirty mind, a voyeur into an X-rated world of sex fiends, sex freaks, funkateers of all stripes, and their leader — Prince Rogers Nelson himself. “Dirty Mind” opens with its title track, a piece of magnetic and machine-like funk peppered with an organ-like synth riff. In the lyrics, Prince sets a hardcore tone for the album: “There's something about you, baby/It happens all the time/Whenever I'm around you, baby/I get a dirty mind.” Prince’s raw sexuality is the motivating force for “Dirty Mind” and his sexual thoughts are the linchpin of his lyrics. Prince uses titillating metaphors: even in his daddy’s car, “it’s her he really wants to drive.” Being around the object of his affection drives his brain to erotic places, motifs which remain relevant even in the album’s
Dusty
less overtly sexual tracks. The mechanically sexy “Dirty Mind” is followed with a sublime piece of pop music art: “When You Were Mine.” The love triangle described in the song is purely hellish, with the object of Prince’s desire not having the “decency to change the sheets” after she cheats on him. In his virtual liner notes, Prince reports he wrote the album in a hotel room in North Carolina, licking his emotional wounds after being jilted by a dear lover. On tour with Rick James that year, he was on the cusp of fame but was deeply unhappy with playing second fiddle. Though he was on the rise and had enjoyed a string of successes in both the R&B and mainstream pop worlds, he had not yet reached the apex of his fame nor had come into his own as a fully fledged pop auteur. Nevertheless, “When You Were Mine” suggests Prince’s deep emotional and musical intimacy even as a younger musician, and an ability to articulate emotional loss in a profound way. By the time the album reaches “Uptown,” Prince is back on the scene after his breakup a few tracks earlier. The location is the commercial district of his beloved Minneapolis, a Platonic ideal of the party scene where everyone is welcome. Anyone of any gender, be they “white, Black, Puerto Rican” can dance as long as they are one of Prince’s loyal “freaks or funkateers.” But the line Prince blurs in order to dance is not simply racialized or gendered. Prince signals a welcome to the LGBT community in “Uptown.” Long dogged by rumors that he was gay due to his flamboyant dress and perceived effeminacy, Prince plays this for laughs when the woman he is pursuing asks if he’s gay. He replies, “No, are you?” and characterizes her as a “victim of society and all its games” — the same ones that demonize and divide people based on their identity, and the same ones absent in the idealized “Uptown.” Raw sexuality becomes the common language of all of humanity in “Uptown,” and at the end of the day, “It's all about being free.”
The love triangle described in the song is purely hellish, with the object of Prince’s desire not having the “decency to change the sheets” after she cheats on him.
The most controversial song on the album is undoubtedly “Head,”
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a five-minute falsetto ode to oral sex. A dialogue between Prince and a bride-to-be, Prince seduces her away from her groom with the title of the song, “until she’s burning up, until she gets enough and until her love is red.” The distinctive use of synths in this song, apparent at the chorus, paints a shimmeringly erotic picture with sound. The song marks the first appearance of Lisa Coleman, a frequent Prince collaborator and future member of the Revolution. She plays the bride-to-be in the song with mewling perfection, intrigued but reticent at Prince’s proposition. The overt sexuality of “Head” doubles with the fast-paced “Sister,” another controversial track that flirts with the possibility of incest. The song only lasts a minuteand-a-half, but describes a sexual encounter with an older sister figure that is the “reason for Prince’s sexuality.” The song ends abruptly as it reaches a musical end emotional peak, perhaps suggestive of being caught in a forbidden act, and the listener is left unclear if what was described occurred with a fleshand-blood relative or a member of Prince’s chosen family of sex freaks.
Anyone of any gender, be they “white, Black, Puerto Rican” can dance as long as they are one of Prince’s loyal “freaks or funkateers.” But the line Prince blurs in order to dance are not simply racialized or gendered. The album closes with “Partyup,” similar to the opening track in its methodically sexy instrumentation. It too features a driving guitar and bass interspersed with organ-like synths. Its differences lie largely in their lyrics. Where “Dirty Mind” is suggestive of sex, “Partyup” is suggestive of defiance. In an act of “revolutionary rock and roll,” Prince declares he doesn’t want to fight “any damn war” since fighting is such a “fucking bore” in the aftermath of the reinstatement of military draft registration. It ends with a particularly radical chant — “You're going to have to fight your own damn war because we don't want to fight no more.” He is a lover, not a fighter, and the unrelenting sexuality of the past 25 minutes should be enough to convince anyone of that fact. After all, neither Prince nor his dirty minded funkateers wanted to die – they just wanted to have a “bloody good time.”
by Phoebe Schreckinger
Additionally, our current political circumstances start to make much more sense in context of chaotic nature of 1968. Further notable Netflix mentions include: “Pariah” by Dee Rees, “Meru” by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, “Christine” by Antonio Campos and “Frances Ha” by Noah Baumbach.
The Scarlet & Black Staff Editors-in-Chief
Opinions
Lily Bohlke Emma Friedlander Alice Herman Candace Mettle Amanda Weber Jackson Schulte Mayo Sueta Ben Mikek Maxwell Fenton Kelly Page Chloe Wray Lica Ishida Andrew Tucker Helena Gruensteidl Riley Murphy Kate Irwin Walmart Yodel Kid
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Back Page Volume 134, Issue 21
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The view in Cinque Terre.
Arbitrary Analysis Social Calendar
Terrier
Perrier
Snedge
This week, Maxwell Fenton '19 polled students asking: Tastes Like Chicken or Easy As Pie?
Friday
7:15 p.m. Carpe @ Younker Hall Lounge 7:30 p.m. The Royale @ Bucksbaum 191
North Loggia
Saturday
11:30 a.m. Met Opera Live in HD: Luisa Miller @ Harris Cinema 4:00 p.m. YGB Concert @ Bucksbaum 104 8:00 p.m. Drag Show @ Harris Center
Pub Quiz
1. Buttlejuice, Buttlejuice, Buttlejuice 2. Lyndon Beans Johnson 3. How many months until Henry Kissinger dies?
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Carrier The Signs as Dog Breeds
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Vexing vexillology
Produce conspiracy
Labor abuses
Performance art
Where's the flag of Pakistan in the Spencer Grill? #bringitback
Those plastic fruits/veggies in jars in the D-hall...Who are they and why are the here? How did they suddenly enter all of our lives without upsetting the delicate balance of it all? I have been liberating 2-3 of them every week but they seem to be replenishing themselves... Can they reproduce? What exactly is the college hiding from us?
How do you have a student employment appreciation event while categorically denying that student workers are employees?
Man, fuck performance art (except Marina Abramović).
- Ahon Gooptu '21
- Steven Duong '19, Philanthropist
- Quinn Ercolani '20
- Maxwell Fenton '19