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The Bikes to Art event features art supplies and a decorative bike parade.
Students celebrated the Burmese New Year in Marshalltown.
Two full pages of drag!
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Scarlet & Black Volume 134, Issue 22
April 20, 2018 • Grinnell, Iowa
Student workers demand union, College responds 'no'
By Gabe Loewenson loewenso@grinnell.edu There has been an ongoing dispute this semester between College administration and the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) over the expansion of the union to cover nearly all students employed on campus. Recently, UGSDW has launched a postering and social media campaign to draw attention to the dispute over student dining worker’s status as “employees.” The campaign highlights Grinnell Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Mary Greiner’s use of the term “student workers” rather than “employees.” UGSDW claims that the term implies that students employed by the college should not be afforded the same rights as non-student workers, such as the right to organize. “As an employee of a private corporation or business organization, as employees of Grinnell College are, we are given certain rights granted by the federal government, the most important being under the National Labor Relations Act, which gives us the ability to form a union if the employees wish,” said Alec Doss ’19, president of UGSDW. “And, that applies to all employees. And while there’s a whole bunch of labor law under the decision, such as NLRA, that goes into who exactly can form unions, what Mary Greiner is saying about students who work in the mailroom or the library, by saying they are not employees, that’s denying them the rights that are accorded to them under federal law.” The SGA cabinet has even become
The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation is a prestigious scholarship that works to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. This year, two Grinnell College students — Rachel Bass and Tim Burnette, both ’19 — have received Honorable Mention in the award. Over 420 colleges and universities nominated 1,280 students for the scholarship this year, 211 students receiving the scholarship and 281 an Honorable Mention. Bass is a physics and mathematics double major and was initially introduced to the Goldwater Scholarship last year by her advisor. The application process was extensive and required a lot of work, she said. “I think I went through eight drafts of my essay,” Bass laughed. “It was a lot of revision and trying to fine tune things and it was kind of an exhausting process but I think it really helped me writing applications for summer programs and become aware of things that I was just oblivious to.” For Bass’s application, she wrote her essay about her past research and how she plans to build upon either that research, or new work in her future career as a scientist. Last summer, Bass did research at Cornell College, where she modeled dipole magnets as they went into an accelerator. “I talked about that modeling process and the contributions I made to the project and future stuff where I am interested in accelerator science and particle physics experiments. … I talked about past research, what I had done, and what I'd want to do building upon that in the future,” Bass said. Monday Gallery Talk: Barrett Klein Faulconer Gallery, 4 p.m.
Pride week prompts reflection on queer experience at Grinnell
By Kelly Page pagekell@grinnell.edu
SOFIA MENDEZ
The Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers has pushed for an expanded, all-student union.
involved in collecting information on the College’s position, according to UGSDW, and as such intends to contact the College’s legal counsel. “I know that Student Government is going to be having a call with the College’s lawyer on this very matter,” said Quinn Erlocani ’20, UGSDW vice president and SGA senator. Although The S&B was unable to obtain an interview with Greiner, President Raynard Kington released a Campus Memo addressing the issue on Wednesday, April 18. “While we recognize the
Bass, Brunette Goldwater Honorable Mentions
By Kate Irwin irwinkat@grinnell.edu
thesandb.com
Currently, Bass is a mentor for physics and works in the math lab. Bass plans to pursue a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics. She would like to possibly combine her interest in mentorship with her academic interests. “I enjoy that mentoring, tutoring relationship. Being a professor would be cool or even if I was a researcher and having some say into outreach,” she added. Bass will be spending her summer at an accelerator facility in Geneva, Switzerland to learn more about her interest in this area of physics. “Hopefully I'll get to see a more experimental instead of engineering side of it,” she added. Burnette is a biology major. They first heard about the scholarship during former CLS advisor Dr. Steve Gump’s annual potato luncheon for second years. Like Bass, Burnette felt that the application process was intensive. “The process is intensive and truly makes you examine yourself and your academic interests. You have to really know yourself to present a cohesive application. In a way, I felt as if I was condensing my whole life down into those few essays and responses and it was so hard to do,” Burnette wrote in an email to The S&B. Burnette wrote their application essay about their MAP research from last summer where they studied the growing drought tolerance in the Clarkia species in environments with growing global drought and changes in water availability. Burnette plans to continue their research with the Clarkia species in the fall of 2018. Additionally, they will spend their summer at the University of Colorado at Boulder to study the drought tolerance of xeric >> See Goldwater page 2 Monday April Dobbins ’99: Diversity in Filmmaking Bucksbaum 152, 4:14 p.m.
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income that students earn may play an important part in financing their education, students working at the College are not here primarily to earn a living,” Kington wrote in the memo. “The College values the work performed by students; however, our view of these jobs is based upon the central and fundamentally educational relationship between students and Grinnell College. Therefore, it is the College's position that work-study participants should not be considered employees for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act, and we oppose
the intrusion of collective bargaining into the educational relationship.” Kington also argued with regards to union expansion that the various student positions do not share a “Community of Interest”, and that a single union could therefore not be expanded to include all of them. And, “If dozens of unions were formed to cover each of the groups of student positions that are related, it would be unduly burdensome and expensive to administer such a system,” Kington wrote, “this could have an adverse >> See Union, page 2
Research symposium features student work
SARINA LINCOLN
Students presented their research at the research symposium this week. By Ahon Gooptu gooptuah@grinnell.edu
Last week was Pride Week at the College. Every day from Monday, April 9, through Saturday, April 14, the Stonewall Resource Center (SRC) and affiliated groups hosted events for LGBTQ+ students. Ric Tennenbaum ’18, cocoordinator of the SRC, gave an open call for students to host priderelated events. She highlighted the importance of events that bring together students with various identities, saying, “I think the importance of Pride Week is in parsing out all these different fields of queerness and different little interests people have within queerness and being able to … really get into it.” For many, Pride Week presented a moment to reflect on what it means to be LGBTQ+ at Grinnell College. There are a multitude of LGBTQ+ identities of Grinnellians, many of which are addressed by student groups that focus on different experiences and concerns. One such group is Queer People of Color (QPOC), led by James Caruso ’18. According to Caruso, “QPOC’s focus over the past several years has been to provide a space for queer people of color on campus … to come together and talk. … Especially for queer students of color, we have that double identifier of otherness or of difference … and I think being here in Grinnell where this school is predominantly white, predominantly straight and cisgender, and the town itself is predominantly conservative, … here can be very difficult.” Another student group that addresses a specific LGBTQ+ experience is Out in STEM, cofounded by Allison Bartz ’18 as a place for LGBTQ+ students in STEM to come together. “We made it because there wasn’t any group that was sort of associated with STEM students in LGBT stuff,” Bartz said. “The idea is that if you don’t know that there are other queer students in your classes, you might feel kind of isolated or nervous ’cause … there’s a lot of straight men in a lot of classes and they like to talk a lot. … It’s good knowing there are people to talk to if you need help.” Trans Advocacy Group (TAG) is a group on campus that addresses the needs of transgender students. Loyal Ulm ’20, a TAG leader, has helped push for the College to make various changes in the interests of trans students “A lot of what we do in TAG is looking at a lot of small things that come up for students throughout the school year,” Ulm said. “For example, last year … if students had issues with CAs assigning bathrooms, … we would sort that out, working with Intercultural Affairs to get P-Card names changed, getting dead names off Dean’s List.” Queer Athletes and Allies (QAA) provides a safe space for those navigating often heteronormative experiences as athletes. A member of the group said that “[QAA is] a space for us to talk, and a space for us to be aware of other queer athletes who are younger and who are trying to figure it out in their typically heteronormative teams.” The QAA member, who wished >> See Pride Week page 2
Grinnell College’s third annual campus-wide student Research Symposium was held April 16 through 19. Featuring the work of 104 individual third and fourth year students, the symposium took the form of numerous panels, poster sessions and performances. “Grinnell College seeks to ensure that every Grinnell student has the opportunity to engage in research. Towards this end, our Faculty have engaged in thoughtful conversations about their majors and fields so that the skills needed to carry out research are scaffolded across the curriculum,” wrote Professor Maria Tapias, anthropology, a coordinator of the symposium, in an email to The S&B. Professors Jackie Brown and Wayne Moyer, biology and political science respectively, and Lesley Wright, Faulconer Gallery director, opened the symposium. Brown and Wright spoke about the Faulconer Gallery exhibit, “Making Life Visible,” a collection which they coresearched and curated and which incorporates biology and art, their respective fields of study, while Moyer spoke on his work on policy research. The event foreshadowed potential career opportunities in which undergraduate research may aid and served to exemplify the importance
of research and the breadth of forms it can take. The symposium allows for students to share their research, exhibiting techniques they have learned at Grinnell. The projects which students engage in are either of their own design, or that of a faculty member. About half of the research presented resulted from Mentored Advance Projects (MAPs) and other research projects were derived from courses, seminars and a book club. Similar research topics were organized into panels, featuring two to four students who presented their work, often reading their research paper aloud, which was followed by time for questions from the audience. Panel titles included “Gender and Agency,” “Health, Racism and Policy in the United States,” and “Religion and Otherness.” Ric Tennenbaum ’18 presented her paper, “The Pedophile, the Family, and Sustaining White Supremacy” on the panel entitled “Terror,” along with Bailey Bagneris ’19, “The McCarthy Front: U.S. Subversion of Radical Black Activism from 1940 to 1960,” and Lucy Bales ’18, “The Impact of U.S. Troops on Terrorism.” After reading her paper aloud, Tennenbaum reflected on the opportunity the Research Symposium had given her to share her work. At the undergraduate level, much of the >> See Symposium page 2
Tuesday 20 Minutes @ 11: Elias Saba
Tuesday Squire Lecture in Physics
Thursday
Faulconer Gallery, 11 a.m.
Noyce 1023, 11:45 a.m.
Faulconer Gallery, 4:15 p.m.
Fresh Flutes Concert
Features 3 | Community 5 | Sports 7 | Opinions 8 | Arts 9
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Edited by hermanal17@grinnell.edu & mettleca@grinnell.edu
"Disability as Identity" panel to start conversations By Ahon Gooptu gooptuah@grinnell.edu
This semester, the Disability Resources Office and the Assistive Technology Lab have hosted a series of events about disability both at Grinnell College and the wider world. The culminating panel discussion, “Disability as Identity,” will be held on Friday, April 20. The previous events in the series dealt with the technical aspects of disability, with discussions on living with learning disabilities in academia and funding and services for individuals with disabilities to get medical care. The penultimate event highlighted the importance of the American with Disabilities Act, how it applies to students and how they can advocate for themselves. “We’re trying to make disability and disability culture an integrated part of the Grinnell experience and trying to bring visibility to our office and to our students,” said Maddie O’Meara ’17, the organizer of the Disability Event Series and moderator of Friday’s
discussion. The capstone discussion will delve into the personal and talk about things that are more difficult to talk about. The panel will comprise of Professor Astrid Henry, gender, women’s and sexuality studies; Professor Carolyn Lewis, history and gender, women’s and sexuality studies; Maure SmithBenanti, associate dean of students and director of Intercultural Affairs; Jennifer Brooks ’15, currently pursuing sociology and disability studies in graduate school; and current students Rebecca Hsiung ’19 and Christina Collins ’21. “[O’Meara] worked pretty hard to get people from different aspects of life at Grinnell,” Hsiung said. “We’re trying to showcase the diversity that is entailed in disability. None of us is going to be saying the same things. We all play different roles at the College, so it has impacted our work here in very different ways.” “Not everyone on the panel necessarily identifies as an individual with a disability,” O’Meara clarified. “Part of the point of the panel is that disability identity is complicated and amorphous and constantly shifting. Two people can have the exact same diagnosis and one can [identify as] disabled and one cannot.” Although Grinnell has a very strong focus on social responsibility and inclusion, people tend to be less familiar with disability than with other categories of identity at the College. “I hope that as a panel we are able to give a window into what it is to live with a disability,” Collins said.
Students take 'wellness approach' to hackathon
By Carter Howe howethom@grinnell.edu
This weekend from April 20 to 22, the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership will host the first-ever “hackGC” event, a self-described liberal-arts style hackathon. Though hackGC is similar to other hackathons, in that students work in teams over a short period of time to build a piece of technology, teams in hackGC will develop technology that addresses a social justice issue. In addition to time for coding and collaboration, the weekend-long event will also feature talks from alumni, faculty and staff who work at the intersection of technology and social justice. Event organizers David Chang ’18 and An Hoang ’18, both computer science majors and Wilson Center staff, decided to host the event as a way to offer Grinnell students a way to develop their programming skills and build on the College’s history of social justice. “Because Grinnell’s sort of mission statement is very heavily focused on social justice we thought it would be appropriate that Grinnell’s first hackathon also be themed around discovering how technology can tackle social justice problems and issues in society that might take the form of, for example, accessibility or some sort of inequality, sustainability,” Chang said. In contrast to the standard portrayal of a hackathon as an event in which coders frantically stay up all night drinking energy drinks to develop their software before the deadline, Chang said that hackGC strives to create a more accessible event that is open to people from all backgrounds. “A big part of our event is based off wellness and inclusivity. … I think hackathons generally are stereotyped as you sleep on a sleeping bag, you eat pizza, you drink energy drinks … so that you can really just build some sort of software in like a short amount of time,” Chang said. “I think here at Grinnell where people always constantly talk about how not well
they are … that’s sort of why we made it a multi-day event from Friday to Sunday so that people actually get some sleep and that’s … why we also have sort of the talks and the alumni speakers so that people can sort of take their mind off the programming and collaborating and go to topical speakers and presentations that might inspire them.” Chang said that the event is also devoted reaching out to not only computer science majors. “We don’t want this event to be just computer science majors, right, and so part of our outreach has been, for example, for art students a large part of how software and technology is developed is the user experience and the user interface, like graphical design,” he said. “A lot of art students have told us that they’re pretty interested in the event. … We’re really trying to reach out to a wide range of people and make sure that this is an inclusive event for all types of people.” To make sure that the event was planned well, Hoang went to the HackISU hackathon at Iowa State University to see what practices he and Chang could apply to their hackathon. “That was really helpful because it helped me contextualize what needed to be done. There were small details that I didn’t even think about, we didn’t think like the type of food matters and then when I was there they chose really healthy food that makes everyone happy,” Hoang said. For students too busy to participate in hackGC, the organizers encouraged students to come and listen to the speakers on Saturday or watch the teams present their team “science fair style” on Sunday. “The speakers events are very curated and kind of like people from really different backgrounds but they all have similarity in that they work in the intersection of technology and social justice and these talks I think they’re super interesting and it’s open to the public,” Hoang said. Students can register for the event and find more details online at hackgc. github.io.
“Because I think that sometimes for those that don’t consider themselves disabled and don’t have something big that’s impacting their lives, it can be difficult to remember that there are things that you can see and there are things that you can’t see that impact the way people live. And having a bit more understanding about that, I feel, would be a benefit to the community. … Grinnell is the first place that I’ve felt comfortable talking about it in the open.”
"Part of the point of the panel is that disability identity is complicated and amorphous and constantly shifting..." Maddie O'Meara, Assistive Technology Assistant According to Hsiung, Grinnell’s resources for students with disabilities “are so much more comprehensive than basically any other college in the United States.” She considers the College to be a pioneer in organizing programs and outreach for students with disabilities. “My favorite class right now is with Ralph Savarese in the English department,” she said. “I’m taking a seminar with him that is very grounded in disability studies and he’s a very well known scholar and activist in disability studies. I work with a lot of great students on accessibility initiatives at the College through Intercultural Affairs and PCPOP, which is one of the first-year mentorship programs that includes disabilities.”
She also works with Autumn Wilke, Assistant Dean for Disability Resources, Professor Eliza Willis, political science, Professor Casey Oberlin, sociology, and some library staff to go through buildings, programs and resources on campus along with students and staff with disabilities to beta test those places for potential disability problems. As for Collins, she has been grateful for the support that she has received from the office. “I needed help when I came to Grinnell because I was struggling and I couldn’t cope with my mental illnesses on my own. I found my way to the Disabilities Office and I was shocked how much more support Grinnell had. Grinnell has support I didn’t even know I wanted,” she said. Collins, Hsiung and O’Meara all intend to continue to work in Disability Studies into the future. O’Meara plans to study disability law after attending law school, Hsiung hopes to work with disability education in an inclusive environment and Collins plans to investigate how disabilities can influence the way a person interacts with the health care system. “This isn’t going to be one of those panels where everyone takes themselves very, very seriously,” O’Meara clarified. “It’s going to be much more informal and give people the chance to have the in-depth conversations in smaller groups after the discussion instead of the general one answer to one question. … Grinnell has never had anything like this before.”
Pride Week a success to remain anonymous, said that they feel the SRC does not necessarily provide a space for people “for whom being queer is not the most central part of our identity.” They also referred to the relationship between athletes and non-athletes at the College, citing their belief that SRC community members “won’t like sportos and everything that sportos stand for.” Mental illness and LGBTQ+ issues are also often closely tied at the College. “There’s a very strong relationship between people who have mental illness and people who are queer on campus,” said Luke Jarzyna ’18, who organized the Freesound and English SEPC Open Mic during the week. “I wish there were more resources, potentially, and I feel like people still experience those things in isolation.” The draft of the new Diversity and Inclusion Plan, released earlier this month, includes a discussion of
the importance of spaces on campus to “promote student healing.” It remains to be seen whether this will apply specifically to LGBTQ+ students. Although being LGBTQ+ presents difficulties while at Grinnell, the college environment can also provide hope. Jarzyna pointed out many ways that the English Department has supported queer studies within English classes. He noted the importance of the College hosting three recent Writers@ Grinnell events that featured queer writers: Ocean Vuong, Marlon James and Roxanne Gay. “I know for me and a lot of other writers on campus hearing those perspectives on campus really meant the world,” he said. “I feel very supported by hearing these people speak.” Even with Pride Week now in the past, LGBTQ+ students at Grinnell continue to strive for community, visibility and growth at Grinnell.
HELENA GRUENSTEIDL
Charlie Rosenblum ’18 performed at this year's Drag Show, part of Pride Week.
Union dispute continues
Continued from Front Page
impact on our students who receive financial aid through the work-study program.” So what exactly is a work study position? According to Brad Lindberg, assistant vice president of enrollment and director of financial aid, work study is “really to help students to earn money to pay for their educational expenses.” Grinnell does have a different system from many other colleges and universities because students that are not on work-study can obtain many of the same positions as students who are. “We are able to have positions to accommodate our students on campus, those students who aren’t on need based aid are able to obtain jobs,” Lindberg said. In other words, students participating in work study programs work alongside students who are not. Perhaps in part for this reason,
the UGSDW does not believe it is relevant whether a student employed on campus is part of work-study or not. “While our employment may be through work-study program, we are still employees,” Doss said. In response to Kington’s statement, Doss drew upon the example of graduate student instructors at Columbia University, who, in 2016, were ruled to be employees for the purposes of the NLRA by the National Labor Relations Board. “The fact that this case is from a graduate school does not preclude it from applying at Grinnell,” Doss wrote. “Workers across campus perform and are compensated for work in many departments, which makes them employees.” Looking forward, the UGSDW has released a formal response indicating that they will continue to advocate for an expansion of the Union.
Goldwater foundation honors students tallgrass prairies in Colorado. Burnette plans to continue studying drought tolerance and to apply for the Churchill Scholarship and Fulbright. Additionally, Burnette wants to teach at the university level and they believe “this process only confirmed that, but it also showed me how interested I am in drought tolerance in natural plant communities,” they wrote. For Burnette, it is a tangible confirmation that they are capable of conducting this work and that they deserve to be where they are.
"...receiving this award [has] definitely made me feel like my work wasn't in vain." Tim Burnette '19 “Being gay, non-binary, firstgeneration and low-income in science can be alienating from my peers and the scientific community. I always feel as if I need to work more to catch up and that can be stressful. But, receiving this award [has] definitely made me feel like my work wasn't in vain. It made me feel so good to have my efforts recognized at a national level and built my confidence a little bit more,” Burnette wrote.
Symposium features breadth of student research Continued from Front Page research done is experimental and highly interest driven, allowing for students like Tennenbaum to explore topics of unique interest. Tennenbaum shared that she does not plan to publish her paper anytime soon for its provocative take on the pedophile and the family as tools through which white supremacy is sustained. Tapias wrote that if a student chooses to pursue publishing their work, “The College also provides funding for students to disseminate their creative and scholarly beyond our own symposium, including regional, national and international venues.” In contrast to the panels, poster sessions allowed student-researchers to share their work with viewers in a one-on-one environment. Luke Jarzyna ’18, Sunny Zhao ’18 and Anne Rogers ’19 along with Professor Tony Perman, music, conducted a research project entitled “The American Mbira,” which they presented during a poster session during the symposium. The project focused on the Zimbabwean instrument, mbira, which all three students have been playing for pleasure over the past four or five semesters. Over spring break, the three students traveled to Oakland, California, staying with a Zimbabwean artist who they interviewed along with other musicians who play mbira. “We used those interviews to begin talking about how a very traditional, very old and spiritual music shifts and changes in the U.S. context, where its performance has increased in the last 20 years or so,” said Jarzyna. Jarzyna appreciated that the College provided for the students to compensate their host for food and lodging, allowing for them to conduct a project that was ethical, respectful and compassionate. “Being able to really practice ethnography, where you’re really talking with people and letting conversations develop in a natural way, would aid me in any number of personoriented fields,” Jarzyna said, drawing on his experiences in ethnomusicology and sociology classes. “In this [research] process, students develop skills in problemsolving, ethical decision-making, collecting and analyzing data or texts, as well as critical thinking, writing, and communication skills. … [Students] build resilience and learn to work through obstacles or unanticipated problems,” Tapias wrote.
Features
Edited by weberama@grinnell.edu
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Get to know Corn Palace – and the corn phallus By Lily Böhlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu Walking into the Corn Palace, one encounters the smell of popcorn and the sound of loud, and perhaps even fake, laughter. “Sometimes [Kathryn Yetter ’18] tells computer science jokes and we just laugh,” said Lucy Chechik ’18. Yetter, Chechik, Mimi Sarai ’18, Clare Magalaner ’18, Maddie Goldman ’18 and Tulah Fuchs ’19 live together in the home they call Corn Palace. Not only have many of the housemates been to the real-life Corn Palace in South Dakota, but Chechik also wanted a name that lent itself well to an alter ego: the corn phallus. “I really wanted it to catch on, but it’s really never been used,” Chechik said. “I wanted it to be our weekend alter ego. Come to the Corn Palace around 9 p.m., you’ll meet the corn phallus.” Fuchs, who is a year below the rest of the housemates and was abroad first semester, said that although there were adjustments to make moving in, living in the house with her friends has been an overall positive experience.
“I wanted [the corn phallus] to be our weekend alter ego. Come to the Corn Palace around 9 p.m., you'll meet the corn phallus.” Lucy Chechik '18 “It is a little odd to live off-campus as a third year just because a lot of my friends not in this house live on-campus, so I feel like it’s definitely a commitment that I have to make on my part to go back to campus, and visit my friends in their dorms,” Fuchs said. “It’s been furthering myself from the college social scene in some ways, but also I think it’s made my friendships with
a friend group, as is often the case with off-campus houses. “We all have a lot of other different friends and I don’t think any of us would consider ourselves a friend group, but we are really close in a lot of ways,” Magalaner said. “And I think we love seeing each other, hanging out a lot and do it a lot, but in a way that’s a lot more inclusive, and I don’t feel like I need to spend all my time at home hanging out with these people.” One activity that frequently brings them together is hosting dinner parties. They all enjoy cooking, and spend a lot of time together in the kitchen. In addition to the dinner parties, the housemates cook together for fun on a regular basis, and collaborate to ensure that everyone has a healthy and delicious meal.
MAHIRA FARAN
(Left to right, top to bottom) Maddie Goldman ’18, Tulah Fuchs ’19, Mimi Sarai ’18, Clare Magalaner ’18, Kathryn Yetter ’18 and Lucy Chechik ’18 are the residents of the always-entertaining Corn Palace. my housemates stronger. … Especially my first month here, I would wake up and see my friends and be like this is incredible! My friends are just here!” “I feel like you usually just grunt at me in the morning,” Chechik added. The six humans are not the only ones who make daily use of the house, however. Randall, a.k.a Greg, a.k.a Olivia is a possum that stays underneath their bathtub. One weekend night while taking out the trash, a neighbor alerted them that a possum had eaten their trash. The Corn Palace residents decided to put the trash in a stairway, the most “inside-outside” part of the house, according to Magalaner. “I’m in bed, and Clare just comes screaming and is like, I can hear the possum at the top of the stairs, and it had gotten into the trash bag,” Yetter said. “This is the culmination of all
our personalities,” Fuchs added. “Clare was freaked out, Kathryn was like let’s get some shit done, I’m tired, let’s … move this, and I was like, let’s play a song on the speaker to scare it!” Their landlord decided to address the possum. One night, according to Chechik, there was “a mysterious man at our back porch with a bat in his hand.” However, the man with the bat was unsuccessful, and the possum still hangs around.
“Especially my first month here, I would wake up and see my friends and be like this is incredible! My friends are just here!” Tulah Fuchs '19 “I live at peace with the possum, like it doesn't scare me as much
anymore when I hear it under the bathtub,” Fuchs said. “I know what it is and so far it hasn’t entered our house, that we know of, so I’m like, ok, it’ll just be there, it hasn’t eaten through anything yet, we think.” Many of the housemates — all except for Goldman and Randall/ Greg/Olivia — spend a lot of time together outside of the Corn Palace playing frisbee. “I feel like sometimes it can be overwhelming. Like you can go to team dinner, and then you also go home together, and you also went to practice together before that, and I feel like at points this year I’ve been like, I need other friends,” Yetter said. “But it’s also really nice to have this subcommunity to talk about what I’m thinking about on the frisbee team all the time and that’s really nice.” While many of the housemates do operate on a similar schedule, they don’t consider themselves to be
“I feel like sometimes it can be overwhelming. ... But it's also really nice to have this subcommunity to talk about what I'm thinking about on the frisbee team all the time and that's really nice.” Kathryn Yetter '18 “I expected everyone to be really healthy, just knowing that everyone was really healthy in the past. They still are very healthy,” Fuchs said. “I feel like they’ve inspired me. … And putting foods together — yesterday I asked Mimi what was missing from my bowl —” “Sauce,” Sarai said. “It was sauce,” Fuchs said. “Yeah. And crunch.” Before the end of the interview, the residents of Corn Palace took some time to think about what their sixth housemate, Goldman, who was not able to attend, would have said. “My bed is really comfortable,” Magalaner said. “She really likes her bed.”
What's your favorite thing to get at Dari Barn?
In honor of the recent seasonal re-opening of the popular student haunt serving up ice cream, summer nostalgia and joy, The S&B's Ahon Gooptu went around the College to ask the real tough questions: namely, what Dari Barn items do students prefer? Photos by Sarina Lincoln.
“One of those — I don’t even know — blizzards? Wait, they’re called cyclones!” — David Taylor ’20
“What are the options?” — Devansh Chandgothia ’21
“The ice cream sandwich. Oh, actually the nuggets! The chicken nuggets are awesome.” — Waez Sheikh ’19
“Vanilla sundae.” — Nandita Banik ’20
“I actually went to Dari Barn last night and I got mac and cheese bites and a small French silk cyclone.” — Nolan Boggess ’19
“Mac and cheese bites.” — Joe Fitzpatrick ’21
Features
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Edited by weberama@grinnell.edu
Home and Away: How International Grinnell Students Celebrate the New Year By Zoe Fruchter fruchter@grinnell.edu
dent population at Grinnell numbers even fewer than the Thai community, with only two students. “We’ve recently established friendships with the Burmese refugee population in the Marshalltown area so for this year’s celebrations we actually went to the festivities put together by the Buddhist Temple there. We all had a blast,” wrote Burmese student Zaw Bo ’18 in an email to The S&B.
The Thai New Year holiday, Songkran, was celebrated both in Thailand and across the globe from Friday, April 13 to Sunday, April 15. Songkran traditions include performing water-pouring rituals and paying respect to ancestors. Water-pouring in particular has evolved into the main event of the holiday, which is renowned for its water festival.
"Even though we’re such a minority in Iowa [as] Southeast Asian students, the festival is still being celebrated."
"The water fight is the best part of the festival for me ... Sometimes the roads in Bangkok would clog up, traffic would not be allowed to pass because there's a huge area closed off for the water fight."
Charun Upara '21
PAUL CHAN
Nandita Banik '20 “[At home] we would just gather in the streets, basically everyone in the city, and fill buckets of ice cold water and just splash them on everyone. … I think [Songkran] became more modernized because traditionally people would just go to their cousin’s house and sprinkle them with water and say, ‘Happy new year,’ but it’s become this commercialized big thing in cities,” said Charun Upara ’21, a Thai student from the northern city of Chiang Rai. Nandita Banik ’20 agreed. “The water fight is the best part of the festival for me. I loved playing
A group of students visited the Buddhist Temple in Marshalltown to celebrate Thingyan. with friends as a child, and then observing and taking part in it as an adult. Sometimes the roads in Bangkok would clog up, traffic would not be allowed to pass because there's a huge area closed off for the water fight. It's magnificent,” Banik wrote in an email to The S&B. The Thai students at Grinnell elected not to hold a Songkran celebration on campus this year. There are only three Thai students currently enrolled at Grinnell, a total which lacks the critical mass that enables other national and cultural groups to host holiday celebrations.
“It's terribly cold outside (the water might literally freeze) and it's logistically a complicated process,” Banik wrote. “[Instead] we just wished each other [‘Happy new year’] and wore Thai clothes (if we had them from home) and [planned] on making some Thai food. … It's just impossible to celebrate in a similar manner [to home celebrations] in Grinnell.” Banik, who is also Bengali, noted that she previously attempted to host a dinner for the Bengali festival Durga Puja but found the experience exhausting.
Meet your SEPC: Sociology By Zoe Fruchter fruchter@grinnell.edu The Sociology Student Educational Policy Committee (SEPC) is a gregarious and passionate group of students, united by their enthusiasm for the discipline of sociology and its institutional importance to Grinnell. The SEPC comprises of Jessica Black, Abdiel Lopez, Nomalanga Shields, Ashley Jackson, Ifetayo Olutosin and Kayla Estes, all ’18, as well as Jordan Maddous ’19. Lopez, the longest-running member of the SEPC after a total of five semesters on the committee, ran for the position after declaring as a sociology major in their first year. However, other members took a more circuitous path to the committee.
"I ran after seeing what the past year’s [SEPC] was doing ... bringing all of the sociology majors together. I felt there was a lot of flexibility in the sociology department where my ideas would be respected." Nomalanga Shields '18 “I ran after seeing what the past year’s [SEPC] was doing … bringing all of the sociology majors together. I felt there was a lot of flexibility in the sociology department where my ideas would be respected,” Shields said. “I also had friends on the com-
mittee so I thought it would be great to meet other majors while working with people that I knew to make the sociology department more connected.” All five members emphasized the importance of sociology to all students at Grinnell, regardless of their major. Jackson noted that, “sociology works best when it is interdisciplinary.” “Given the way that Grinnell is framed as a social justice-oriented school, … I think Introduction to Sociology should be a required course because it’s really important to orient yourself with the way that our social, economic and political structures are set up and how those structures impact peoples’ daily lives,” Estes added. Although the SEPC is not currently campaigning to make Introduction to Sociology a required course, they do host a variety of outreach events on behalf of the department. This year the SEPC held an ice cream social for majors, prospective majors and professors to discuss summer sociology MAPs and internships. Both Lopez and Shields highlighted “Bad B*tches Gardner,” a party in Gardner Lounge that the SEPC sponsored in the fall of 2015, as a memorable event. The party, which Lopez described as “lit,” prioritized women of color and artists of color. This emphasis on bringing awareness to marginalized identities is characteristic of the SEPC. Many of its members cited concerns about diversity and intersectionality as their
MAHIRA FARAN
(Left to right, top to bottom) Kayla Estes ’18, Ashley Jackson ’18, Jordan Maddaus ’19, Nomalanga Shields ’18 and Abdiel Lopez ’18 make up the Sociology SEPC.
reason for joining the Committee. Ashley Jackson became a member of the SEPC last Fall. “I got along with my professors but … I figured that if I was [on the SEPC] I could challenge some of the problems I found in the department because I would have a voice,” Jackson said. “We’re in a rural area so I understand that it's hard for Grinnell to get professors from a diversity of experiences and backgrounds … but I wanted to see Du Bois not be used as a representative … in Soc 111,” she stated. Lopez, a fourth-year, noted that it was important for them to establish diverse and non-Eurocentric scholarship within the department as a form of legacy. Lopez cited new visiting professors as a reason to be optimistic about the future of sociology at Grinnell. Next year, Professor Joel Crombez from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville will teach a course on the Sociology of Afro-futurism and scholar J.M. Bacon will teach a course on Environmental Sociology.
"I figured that if I was [on the SEPC] I could challenge some of the problems I found in the department because I would have a voice." Ashley Jackson '18 “I think we’re really starting to decolonize sociology slowly but surely,” Lopez said in reference to these upcoming opportunities. Multiple SEPC members cited the appointment of Professor Sharon Quinsaat to a tenure track position as a highlight of their term. Quinsaat teaches classes on Asian-American sociology, migration and mass media in society. She came to Grinnell following the departure of Professor David Cook-Martín for NYU in 2017. Like Cook-Martín did after last year, the majority of the SEPC will soon depart from Grinnell. Six out of the seven SEPC members are fourthyears. To fill these vacancies, the current SEPC has requested that majors submit a paragraph explaining what they want to see in the sociology department and what they would add to the SEPC by Sunday, April 22. Following a week-long election period, the SEPC will announce their new members at a social event coordinating with the release of their long-awaited stickers. “We said this and now we have to do it!” Lopez added, laughing.
“I just cannot bring myself to arrange more things. I think the fun part of festivals is to celebrate it, not do all the administrative work and then celebrate it,” Banik wrote. Upara noted that the Burmese students at Grinnell celebrate a New Year festival similar to Songkran, called Thingyan, but clarified that “we’re from different countries and back home it’s not the same festival.” The Burmese community of Iowa gathered over the weekend of April 13 in Marshalltown to celebrate Thingyan. The Burmese stu-
Fellow Burmese student Paul Chan ’21 wrote in an email to The S&B that the event was attended by 40 to 50 individuals, mainly from Marshalltown and Des Moines, as well as Chan and Bo. The attendees ate a communal meal of “fried chicken, chicken curry, mango salad,and various other curries along with biryani rice,” Chan wrote. Following the meal some attendees performed traditional Burmese dances and Burmese New Year songs. Upara was inspired by this representation of Southeast Asian culture throughout Iowa. “Even though we’re such a minority in Iowa [as] Southeast Asian students, the festival is still being celebrated,” Upara said.
Day in the Life: Professor Kelly Herold
Professor Kelly Herold, Russian, outlines her typical day. 6:30 a.m. — The Evil Alarm (so named by me and my kid as it’s the only one certain to wake up the house) makes horrible noises. Rely on canned coffee to get out of bed. Do email. Read Twitter. It was a busy weekend in the world of Trump. Look forward to Cohen’s day in court. 7:30 a.m. — Wake kid, start to leave house, forget many things, have to go back twice before finally making it out. 8:00 a.m. — Coffee, bagel, Russian 101 prep in the Grill. Text family in our HarFamBe group text. 9:00 a.m. — Russian. Verbs for marriage, divorce, etc. Remind self that language reflects sexism, isn’t sexist in and of itself. 10:00 a.m. — Student meeting rescheduled, so ask for help in making a poster for a talk next week. Read Twitter. Cohen not due in court until after my afternoon class. Start prepping for afternoon class. 11:30 a.m. — Run to McNally’s to pick up lunch before 12 p.m. student comes in. It is SO cold. Curse universe and Iowa. And April. 12:00 p.m. — Make up exam. 1:00 p.m. — Signed up a new Russian major. Ура! The few, the proud, the mighty. 2:00 p.m. — Afternoon literature class — American YA Fantasy. On the agenda — Malinda Lo’s “Ash” and Nnedi Okorafor’s “Akata Witch.”
ANDREW TUCKER
3:30 p.m. — Pull up Twitter. Laugh out loud at Cohen’s reveal of Client #3. True joy in a gray, cold day. 3:30 p.m. — Phone call with friendly and helpful literary agent at superstar Children’s/YA literary agency about a talented student looking to break into industry. 4:30 p.m. — Phone call over. Time to go home! 4:35 p.m. — Begin dinner. 10 minutes later, kid shows up from tennis early (did I mention the weather was bad on Monday?) and is starving. Can’t rush the rice cooker. Child heads to McNally’s and consumes many snacks so he’ll survive until 5:45. 5:45 p.m. — Dinner. It’s just me and a 17-year-old these days, so we usually watch some sort of news program when eating dinner. Revel in coverage of Cohen court date. 6:30 p.m. — Laundry, laundry, laundry. Dishes. Email. 8:00 p.m. — Consider doing some work. Or maybe clean the house, which really needs it. Instead watch another episode of “Scott and Bailey” (feminist British cop show — thanks, [History Professor] Carolyn Herbst Lewis, for the recommendation!) with a friend. 10:30 p.m. — Last shot at email. Quite a few this evening including one with the speaker coming in next week. 12:30-ish a.m. — Finally fall asleep. The Evil Alarm is set for 7 a.m.
Community
Edited by mikekben@grinnell.edu
5
School district, police department hold active shooter drill at GMS
By Amanda Weber weberama@grinnell.edu On April 18, Grinnell Middle School hosted a district-organized active shooter drill. Participants included volunteer high school students and faculty, as well as Emergency Medical System workers and Grinnell police. The drill, like many emergency simulation drills, was the result of a collaboration between Poweshiek County emergency management coordinator Brian Paul and public services such as the fire department and the police. According to Grinnell-Newburg Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Janet Stutz, the drill was entirely staged and Paul was the only one who knew the exact plans. Observers were placed at the event in order to provide assistance for any students who felt uncomfortable during the drill and wanted to leave. “Kids are going to come in, be set up and staged. … Some kids might act like they have a wound. … There will be observers there, a lot of different EMS people, various police departments. … About 100 students and teachers will be participating,” Stutz explained. The purpose of the ambiguity of the drill was to create a scenario that felt as real and unpredictable as possible, in order to determine the effectiveness of current safety measures and emergency response services. “What I hope to see is that our emergency safety plans are in order, our procedures for instructing students are in pretty good shape and in order. … I’m hoping for the most part
SARINA LINCOLN
The simulation at Grinnell-Newburg Middle School allowed police and educators to test emergency response plans. that we have a pretty good plan we are able to test,” Stutz said. Effectiveness was to be measured mainly through timing — how long it would take for students to be evacuated, for emergency services to respond and for police to identify and neutralize the threat. In addition, the simulation tested some basic checks. For instance, teachers should have their class rosters and be able to identify their students. After the drill was finished, participating students and staff were provided pizza while emergency services and the drill planners met to debrief. Next steps will include determining what aspects of the emergency response plan need to be fixed. Stutz believes that one of the main flaws
at present is the cell reception — or lack thereof — in the middle school. In addition, the school office is located far from the entrance, so visitors do not have to immediately pass through before gaining access to the rest of the school. However, according to Stutz, the remote location of the office is not the only flaw in the school design. The superintendent noted broader issues, including the need for a better storm shelter, safer entryways, better emergency contact systems and even increased ADA compliance, including wheelchair accessibility. “We did not pass the bond [referendum] at the last go-around, and part of the building bond plan was to have a storm shelter in the middle school
The S&B shares its reaction to The Periodic Table
and at the elementary building,” Stutz said. “There are so many different safety features that we have to think about.” Furthermore, the middle school may not be the only corporation building lacking in safety features. According to Stutz, many of the schools appear to be reaching the end of their intended life spans. “These buildings are, on average, 62 years old, and … it’s going to cost $60 million to fix them all … and that’s dollars you don’t want to put into the building, because it’s not going to extend the life of the building. The average life of a building is 65 years,” Stutz said. Stutz continues to believe that one of the most effective ways to
Gas leak at McNally's causes evacuation, but no serious damage
By Harper Smith smithhar@grinnell.edu
ANDREW TUCKER
The menu, walls and decor of The Periodic Table are all chemistry-themed. By Ben Mikek & Kelly Page mikekben@grinnell.edu pagekell@grinnell.edu As late April snow showers continued to decrease the likelihood of May flowers, The S&B’s staff members Ben Mikek and Kelly Page, both ’21, walked the three blocks to The Periodic Table at Hotel Grinnell with one question in mind: is it worth it to make the short trek in order to use the coupons handed out to all Grinnell students earlier this spring? The beginning of our experience set a relatively low bar. Upon our arrival, it was somewhat unclear where to sit. No staff came onto the scene until five minutes had passed. Nevertheless, we made the best of the time by observing the surroundings. The Periodic Table, a restaurant situated inside Hotel Grinnell, is one of the newest restaurants in Grinnell. Its big theme is, for obvious reasons, chemistry, with chemical symbols painted on the walls and chemical diagrams on the drinks menu, which did eventually arrive. The decor, though, was a bit eclectic, including cow-themed chairs, a variety of board games nestled in a corner, and a scoreboard from the gym of the middle school that once occupied the same building. We tentatively selected a metal table near the bar and listened to
Movies at the Strand
’80s music playing on the speaker. Eventually, a very attentive server arrived and, being the only patrons in the restaurant, we were caught up in a whirlwind of almost immediate service for the remainder of our meal. Though not extensive, the menu contained a tasteful selection of appetizers, salads and main courses, including extensive vegetarian and vegan options. To begin, each of us ordered a salad, all of which cost $3 in the smallest size. The zoodle salad was centered around the modern innovation of zoodles: zucchinis sliced thin enough that a middle-aged mom could say, “it’s just like pasta but without the carbs!” The salad tasted fresh, and peanuts and basil added nice dimensions to it. The red onion, which can be scary in its uncooked form, was a nice touch. The spinach salad likewise did a good job of balancing sweet (strawberries and dressing) and savory (spinach, walnut and onion) flavors. For entrees, The Periodic Table offers options in two major categories: bowls and flats, all priced equally at $10. Again seeking diversity in our selections, we selected the green curry bowl and the chicken bruschetta flat. In the curry, to our surprise, the zoodles were back, stirred into the curry as the “seasonal vegetables” the menu promised, along with cauliflower. The
RAMPAGE
zoodles were fun the first time, but placing them twice in a single meal seemed a bit much. The curry itself smelled a lot like coconuts and was just spicy enough to be invigorating without being painful. The chicken bruschetta, by contrast, offered a possibly better experience. As with the salads, the balance between the clashing flavors of chicken, cheese and balsamic vinegar was nearly perfect, and the mozarella was neither too heavy nor too sparse. Combined with the puffy but not overly-thick crust, these positive attributes far outweighed a somewhat odd choice of plate. For dessert, we shared a raspberry cobbler. The confection seemed to consist of three layers: hot raspberry jam, a pastry which tasted pleasantly like sugar cookies and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Again, the balance of flavors was spot-on. It was a delicious way to end the meal, but at $8 might not have been worth the price. Overall, The Periodic Table’s strengths include a balance of flavors and a strong dynamic equilibrium (pun intended) between culinary innovation and traditional flavors. On the downside, not all of the menu options are created equal, and particularly given the limited selection, prices are rather high. While it might be a place to visit once or twice with family, The Periodic Table is likely not the ideal restaurant for regular student outings.
Showtimes: 3:40 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 9 p.m. In the next theater: 50 years of successful scientific experimentation without producing a single mutant gorilla.
fix the existing issues and improve the safety of the buildings would be to pass the bond measure which has been turned down by voters in two consecutive referenda, most recently in February of this year. Stutz plans to bring the plan back to a vote for a third time on September 11. If it were to pass, according to Stutz, the money could be used to upgrade and rebuild the schools, so that a number of the missing safety features would be created or improved. “The $60 million would include building a brand new elementary school for pre-k through 5th grade, completely gutting and redesign of the middle school and renovat[ing] portions of the high school,” Stutz wrote in a follow-up email to The S&B. While she considers it important that safety precautions be taken, Stutz does not think that Grinnell is more atrisk for school gun violence than any other community. One of her main priorities for minimizing any existing risk is to pay close attention to mental health and the needs of students. “I think that any community could potentially be at risk, no matter where you are in the country,” Stutz said. That said, the reaction of the Grinnell community to the drill has not been exclusively positive. Regardless, Stutz maintains that it is important to be prepared. “Some people disagree with us doing this full drill. There [are] people who think we shouldn’t be doing a full drill with students. But I think it’s only going to help us make sure we’re as prepared as possible,” Stutz said.
On Thursday, April 12, the usually peaceful Fifth Avenue and Main Street were hurriedly evacuated due to a gas leak at McNally’s Foods. The Pioneer Alert system quickly notified the campus of the potential danger. An “all clear” message was sent out shortly after. Rumors of a car crash also circulated following the incident. According to Fire Department Chief Dan Sicard, the gas leak was caused by a delivery truck crashing into McNally’s. “The truck had two people in it — it was a delivery truck going to McNally’s and it appears one of the drivers had a medical issue that caused them to crash into the corner of the building. It took out a big piece of the corner and tore the gas meter out of the ground, and that’s what the leak came from,” Sicard explained. “The gas pipe was big enough that you could hear the gas leaking, it sounds like a jet engine as it’s leaving the pipe.” The Police and Fire Departments promptly responded and arrived at the scene to evacuate the area, assisted by Midwest Ambulance and Alliant Energy. According to Sicard, about 40 or 50 people were evacuated from the East side of Main street and the North side of Fifth Avenue. Plans were also under way to evacuate larger areas of the city, but the gas leak was capped quickly enough that such measures were unnecessary. Although the emergency was handled smoothly by GPD and the Fire Department in less than half an hour, it had the potential to become quite dangerous. “With natural gas, we need it to
get up to 5 percent in the air to be explosive, so it has to be pocketed somewhere,” Sicard said. “The problem for us was [that] the truck was right on top of the gas main, and the gentleman was still stuck in the truck, so that area inside the truck was our greatest hazard.” Natural gas floating freely in the air, though, can pose other hazards as well. “The other places you worry about are downwind, if that gas finds a building that has a pocket … and it starts to collect, … it can get up to a point where it can be explosive,” Sicard said. “There are examples of gas leaks smaller than this. Like down in Kansas City, they had a gas leak that the gas company was working on and half a block away enough gas had escaped and collected in that area and it exploded and killed people.” McNally’s owner Randy Smith said that no one in the store had heard the crash, but an electrician and volunteer firefighter who happened to be there at the time got the call and evacuated everyone from the store “[The volunteer firefighter] got a call — he ran out to his truck, thinking that he was going to respond to a fire or whatever, … and came running back into the store with his equipment on,” Smith said. Overall, Smith described the leak as a minor inconvenience that only caused about an hour of disruption for his business. Fortunately, there were no additional injuries, everyone remained calm and things quickly returned to normal. In the end, according to Smith, it was “just a little bit of excitement I guess, to punctuate our day.”
REINA SHAHI
The gas leak occurred in the afternoon on April 12.
A QUIET PLACE
Showtimes: 4 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:20 p.m. Quiet places are typically good for doing homework. Not advice, just commentary.
THE MIRACLE SEASON
Showtimes: 3:50 p.m., 6:45 p.m., 9:10 p.m. Because no one would watch a film entitled disaster season.
6
Community Green living event to Local food fair connects clean water, soil consumers with area farmers
Edited by mikekben@grinnell.edu
By Samantha Stagg staggsam@grinnell.edu On Saturday, April 14, local farmers congregated at McNally’s Foods. They brought posters, pamphlets, food samples and business cards in order to introduce themselves and their farms to Grinnell residents. Between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., patrons of the grocery store drifted from station to station, connecting with farmers, trying samples and signing up for email lists. Also present were members of Local Food Source, an organization that acts as an online farmer’s market where farmers can sell to local residents on a monthly basis. During the fair, shoppers could learn about the farming practices and crops grown at each farm. Several farms set up promotions, from free tomato knives to a drawing to win a wood-fired pizza dinner right on the farm. Situated at the front of the store, the food fair also served as a way for Grinnell residents to become familiar with the variety of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organizations in town. CSAs offer a subscription service to receive monthly boxes of produce directly from farmers in the Grinnell area. Members of the community can purchase a share of this year’s harvest well in advance, and will receive their portion of the
harvest each month. Some farms choose to provide the same box of produce for every subscriber, while bigger farms might allow their subscribers to customize their boxes each month. Many farmers who have CSAs appreciate them because they guarantee that their harvest will sell. Additionally, because Grinnell residents typically subscribe before crops are planted, CSAs can reduce the pressure on farmers to search for buyers during the growing season. “It’s a way for farmers to get commitments up front … to buy seeds and fertilizer and potting soil … so [they] don’t have to go to a bank,” said local farmer Jordan Scheibel. He stressed the importance of buying directly from farmers, as it benefits both the grower and the consumer. If one dollar is spent through a CSA, “that whole dollar goes to the farmer,” Scheibel said. The customer also receives high-quality produce, sometimes to a surprising extent. Andy Dunham, a local farmer with his own CSA, said, “the produce, it’s so fresh. … One of the biggest comments is, ‘hey, I got that bag of spinach and I forgot about it and a month later, it was still good.’” He explained that customers are inclined to believe leafy greens do not last very long because at the grocery store, they might sit around
ELENA COPELL
The Local Food Fair was held at McNally's Foods on April 14.
Stewart gallery features textile art
By Rachel Eber eberrach@grinnell.edu
“Bricks & Blocks,” a new exhibit by Ames-based artist Catherine Reinhart, opened at the Grinnell Arts Center’s Stewart Gallery on Monday, April 16. A reception at the Stewart Gallery, which will include an interactive performance by the artist, will be held on Saturday, April 21 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. “My artistic voice is one of second chances,” Reinhart wrote in her artist’s statement. “I make fiber art with discarded textiles to create works dealing with the themes of redemption, connection and care.” “Bricks & Blocks” features an old queen-size quilt, which Reinhart deconstructed by cutting it up into small blocks. A friend of Reinhart’s purchased the quilt at a state auction in southern Iowa. Eventually, the friend realized the quilt was just taking up space and wanted to get it off her hands. According to Reinhart, it was a “monstrosity of polyester.” Still, something drew her to it. “I just felt that I could add value, or I could … get people to look at it in a more respectable way, or a more valued way,” Reinhart said. She had also recently given birth to her daughter. Entering into motherhood made her think about the value of things that are typically forgotten. “With the process of being a mother, you do a lot of things that people also forget, or they take for granted, or they just don’t value. So I just felt like, in being a mom of a small child and getting this quilt, that I needed to look and find value in places that were overlooked,” Reinhart said. According to Reinhart, creating the textile blocks in “Bricks & Blocks” was very much a technical and formal challenge. Reinhart first cut the quilt up into small sections, and then worked to mimic the patterns and color interactions of the quilt in her textiles. With a sewing machine, she sewed in a grid, using the technique of free motion stitching to construct the cloth. The entire series took three years to complete. The “Bricks” aspect of the exhibit will be introduced at the reception on Saturday evening. While visiting Grin-
nell, Reinhart was struck by the brickwork on all the buildings. “Being a textile artist, I loved the patterns of the bricks,” Reinhart said. “And just the brick as a symbol or an object, a common object … also a forgotten object. We don’t see bricks, we see buildings … but they’re everywhere in Grinnell.” A site-specific artist who strives to incorporate an interactive component into in all her exhibits, Reinhart knew she wanted to do something with bricks. So she designed hollow plexiglass bricks, and during the reception, she will fill them with thread and leftover fabric scraps. Audience members will have the opportunity to fill their own. The bricks will stay at Stewart Gallery, and visitors will be able to move them freely around the space. As an undergraduate at Iowa State University, Reinhart studied printmaking and fiber arts. She then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in textiles from the University of Kansas. Her past works range from two-dimensional fiber works to larger installations to printmaking and drawing. “I have always done tons of drawing. I even think I draw with the thread,” Reinhart said, adding that she thinks of her fiber works as sketches. Reinhart’s art has enjoyed relative success in recent years, having been shown in a number of different locations across Iowa, regionally and across the country. Additionally, Reinhart has received multiple grants, including one from Grin City Collective, which made “Bricks & Blocks” possible. “I love the varieties of material, I love the thread and the different qualities that thread has, the way that it behaves. … I’m also interested in using textiles because I think they are a really powerful bridge to maybe people who are not so in tune with art,” Reinhart said. “We are very familiar with textiles — we live in them, … we clothe ourselves with them [and] we cover up with them, and so I think there’s just this familiarity and comfortableness that textile art immediately possesses, that really automatically inclines people to be receptive to looking at fiber art.” “Bricks &Blocks” will be on exhibit at the Stewart Gallery until May 25.
for upwards of 20 days before being purchased, so they only last about five days after being brought home. Scheibel runs Middle Way Farm and organized this food fair event under the Local Foods Connection umbrella. Local Foods Connection is an organization that aims to provide access to those who cannot afford local foods. The organization raises money to give to farmers, which they then use to grow food for low-income families. This is not the first time a local food fair has taken place in Grinnell. Last year, according to Scheibel, it boosted business for McNally’s and connected more people with local CSAs. Because of last year’s success, it was easy to bring farmers back again this year. Residents of the town also had good reason to attend — Scheibel characterized fairs of this sort as “a one-stop shop to learn about all their CSA options.” Because Local Food Source was also present, Scheibel said it was an easy way for those looking for local foods to “embrace CSA producers, but also other types of producers.” Dunham said that overall, the food fair aims to foster “longer-term relationships between the person eating the food and the person growing the food.” If a customer wanted to join a CSA, he or she could take a business card, or subscribe to an email list to learn more. This year’s fair also proved quite popular. Small crowds of people were consistently drawn to the booths throughout the day to discuss everything from how to make the most of CSAs and Grinnell’s Local Food Source, to the wonders of fresh tomatoes. The fair not only exposed shoppers to the different types of food grown in the vicinity of Grinnell, but also put faces to the farmers who already support much of Grinnell with their harvests. Through education and by example, this food fair highlighted the importance of eating locally and finding joy in every tomato.
By Gabe Loewenson loewenso2@grinnell.edu Grinnell College is joining the Poweshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and Imagine Grinnell to collaborate on a Green Living and Creek Cleanup event, promoting environmentalism. The event is being organized by Mindy Sieck, district coordinator at SWCD and by Rich Dana, director at Imagine Grinnell. Sieck was recently awarded the Circle of Excellence award by the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance for her contributions to improving water quality. “I was surprised and happy [about receiving the award],” Sieck said. “I know there’s a lot of other watershed coordinators in the state that are doing great work.” The Creek Cleanup and Sustainable Living events have historically been separate, but last year SWCD and Imagine Grinnell, which had previously organized the two events respectively, decided to combine the events into one Green Living event. It will be held at Summer Street Park on April 21. “We have it at Summer Street Park because I’m a watershed coordinator, and I’m working on making improvements to the Little Bear Creek watershed,” Sieck said. “And Little Bear Creek starts there … at the park.” The event will provide information on things that landowners can do in urban settings or on farms to improve the health of soil and water, according to Sieck. It is especially important to the
organizers to help preserve Little Bear Creek. “We want to raise awareness within the community of environmental issues that effect everybody in the area,” Dana said. “The Little Bear Creek watershed is here. Our drinking water comes from it, our rainwater runs off into the Little Bear Creek, it's sort of the heart of the water system in our area. And a lot of people aren't really aware of how much that is endangered by agricultural runoff, wastewater and then even things like, washing your car, things like that.” Sieck said that this year, she would like to place more emphasis on discussing soil health with land owners, and in particular, no-till agriculture and cover crops. Sieck also mentioned that she is working on a project with Assistant Professor Andrew Graham, Chemistry, on using a bioreactor that removes contaminants like nitrate and phosphate from the water. The event will also feature information on a broader range of topics. “We’ll have some more emphasis on local food,” Dana said. Sieck mentioned that athough she is not completely certain of the effectiveness of the event in spreading environmental awareness, she hopes that it will be helpful. She noted that there were several people who reached out to her to ask additional questions following the event. Dana referred to using the event’s attendance to measure its success. “It’s a popular event, we usually have a big turnout,” Dana said. He claimed that turnout has been as high as 100 people in the past. The event will take place on April 21.
Planned parade to facilitate collision between creative art and bicycles
CONTRIBUTED
Event organizers will provide art material for residents who would like to make improvements to their bicycles on May 19. By Rachel Eber eberrach@grinnell.edu If you’ve ever walked around downtown Grinnell, chances are you have seen one of Ryan McGuire’s wacky vehicles. There is his “Monster Truck,” a Ford pick-up painted yellow with purple spots, a mouth and eyes, and his “Dinocar,” a green Volkswagen Bug with orange spikes. On May 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Grinnell families will have the opportunity to make their own wacky vehicles at the Second Annual Bikes to Art Festival. McGuire collaborated with fellow Grinnell resident Melissa Berman on the idea for a Bikes to Art Festival last year, tapping into a mutual love for art and community. Before moving to Grinnell, Berman lived in Minneapolis, where she would attend “art car parades” regularly. “Those are full of beautiful handmade art cars and contraptions and things that go. … I just thought it would be fun to do that in Grinnell sometime,” Berman said. Upon seeing the dinosaur car, she mentioned the idea for an art-car parade to McGuire. He immediately agreed. According to McGuire, converting cars into art is “super time consuming and very expensive.” The
two consequently decided that bikes would be more practical. “People wouldn’t have to invest in a [car], and, you know, this is a very bike-friendly town,” McGuire said. According to Berman and McGuire, what really sets the Bikes to Art Festival apart from more traditional community events is the fact that it is not a fundraiser for something else. It simply serves to bring the community together. “It’s the fun and camaraderie of community without having the pressure of being a fundraiser for something else or being connected to something that’s going deeper than what it needs to,” Berman said. “The idea around this was, ‘let’s have an event that brings our neighbors together from all different social divides, and have everything for free,’” McGuire added. “You can come with no bike, we’ll get you a bike. If you want to come with a bike non-decorated, we’ll have all the supplies to decorate the bike for free, we’re gonna feed everybody for free, [and] we’re gonna entertain everybody for free.” Last year, Berman and McGuire funded the event themselves. This year, they received a grant from Grin City Collective and sponsorship from
a number of local businesses. In addition to free bike-decorating supplies, like construction paper, fabric, yarn, pool noodles, colored duct tape, rhinestones, tin foil and fake flowers, the event will provide free tacos from The Purple Cucumber and a free live music performance by High Crest, a folk-rock family band from Des Moines. Berman and McGuire agree that the event was a huge success last year, despite rainy weather. According to McGuire, nearly 70 people showed up and participated enthusiastically. One of the best parts, he said, was getting to see artists and non-artists coming together to work creatively with one another. “Probably the most successful thing was to see, you know, fathers who don’t normally make art at all, sitting on the ground, helping their children convert their bikes into, you know, spaceships and ponies, … just to see people engaging with their siblings and their families in a whole new way,” McGuire said. Berman and McGuire invite and encourage Grinnell College students to participate and are especially looking for volunteers to help with decorating. The festival will take place on May 19, the Saturday at the end of final exam week.
Sports
Edited by schultej@grinnell.edu
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Elisha Tibatemwa '21 breaks Ugandan national record in 50-meter freestyle and 50-meter butterfly By Lily Böhlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu In the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Grinnell swimming’s very own Elisha Tibatemwa ’21 broke two Ugandan national records: one for the 50-meter freestyle and one for the 50-meter butterfly. His freestyle time was 24.93, placing 47th overall and breaking the previous record of 25.54. His butterfly time was 27.17, placing 50th overall. “I think I did pretty well in the freestyle and butterfly — I prefer the freestyle,” Tibatemwa said. “It was kind of exciting because there was a huge crowd and everything; there was a big screen.” Tibatemwa competed with the Uganda National Team, which had two athletes swimming including Tibatemwa. According to Tibatemwa, the Uganda team found his times from his first college season here at Grinnell. “Going in, [breaking the records] was kind of my goal, so I was happy I was able to do it,” Tibatemwa said.
He said that while there was more pressure in the Commonwealth Games than on the Grinnell team, things were less extravagant than he had expected in his first big international competition. To keep his nerves at bay, he connected with some friends from different countries who he had met over the years in his swimming career. “I think everything seemed a bit more normal than I expected it to be,” he said. “I think I expected it to be more extravagant, but I got there and the people you see on TV and everything just seem more normal.” Seeing celebrity-level athletes didn't compare to international travel, though. One of the most rewarding aspects of the Commonwealth Games for Tibatemwa was having the chance to go to Australia. Throughout his swimming career as a child, he traveled around Africa to different meets and really enjoyed that aspect of international competition. Elisha is not the first Tibatemwa to make waves in the international swimming arena. While both of his brothers were involved in swimming growing up, one of them,
Athlete Spotlight: Nathan Zaroban '18
MAHIRA FARAN
Elisha Tibatemwa '21 traveled to Australia to compete internationally for Uganda. He wound up breaking records.
Grinnellian Joshua Tibatemwa ’19, went to the Olympics in 2016 and ranked 64th in his event with a time of 25.98. “There’s sometimes competition, but it’s more like fun compe-
tition. So usually if we’re doing the same event we’ll try and race each other and see who would win,” Elisha said. “I guess it’s kind of cool to keep it going so that even if he stops, I can keep going.” Tibatemwa has been swim-
ming since he was 10 years old. He played soccer until his parents suggested he try swimming, and it turned out he had a knack for it. “Swimming is peaceful,” Tibatemwa. “I find competition kind of fun.”
Inside golf practice: players and coaches alike improve their game
ELENA COPELL
Nathan Zaroban ’18 has made incredible strides in his career. He most recently earned his first conference-wide recognition. By Quan Tran tranminh2@grinnell.edu Nathan Zaroban ’18 is a Pioneer for life. His high school team was also nicknamed the Pioneers, and at his high school graduation party his parents had a sign that read, “Once a Pioneer, Always a Pioneer.” Zaroban, who is in his final baseball season, has been contributing in every imaginable way to the Pioneer baseball team. Last week, he was named the Midwest Conference (MWC) Baseball Player of the Week, a worthy testament to his recent performance. During the Pioneers’ four games against Illinois College, Zaroban had a batting average of .357, going 5-of-14 at the plate with a double and three RBIs. He paired that with a .429 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage. He also had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in five chances. This season he’s been posting career-high percentages in slugging and fielding opportunities. Zaroban didn’t actually find out about his conference award until he went on the Grinnell athletics page to look up the team schedule for the following week. Even though he knew he’d played well against Illinois, the senior was still taken aback by the delightful surprise, specifically because of how unprecedented it was. “I was hitting the ball well, but nothing crazy out of the ordinary. I’ve never won the award before so it is a big honor, especially since my other teammates also had a big week too. Some of them are just as deserving I was,” Zaroban said. To get the point where his game is at today, Zaroban has had his fair share of obstacles. Even though he first played serious baseball at around the age of nine, he had always wanted to play basketball and football. It wasn’t until college that he decided to totally focus on baseball. By then, there was already a big learning curve for him. “My first couple of years [at Grinnell] I felt like I was lagging behind because of that jump in skill level from high school to college. I wasn’t the standout, so that was difficult to deal with. But through junior year and now this year I feel
like I have developed my skill and gained enough confidence to where I’m standing today.” Indeed, Zaroban has come a long way. Since his rookie season, he has improved in every major statistical category. He credits this uptick in performance to the wonderful guidance he’s received from the team, especially from the upperclassmen before him. The award, in his opinion, was only meant to be a recognition of his development. “My biggest role models that I’ve had in my game was when I was in my first few years here. There were a couple of classes of really good baseball players. I learned a lot watching them play, how to play the game correctly, and how to use your love of the game of baseball on the field.” Coming from Nebraska City, a three-hour drive from Grinnell, Zaroban was influenced by baseball at a young age. The town has a big baseball culture and a historically successful unified youth program. With the help of his parents, who drove him to countless practices and helped him with his throwing and batting mechanics, Zaroban fell in love with the game. And while he loves the Houston Astros and their outfielder George Springer, he knew he wouldn’t be able to have an MLB career, so he started looking for programs at academically rigorous schools. “I discovered Grinnell by attending a baseball camp at Stanford University where they brought in coaches from a lot of similar-minded schools. That’s how I met our assistant, [Assistant Athletic Director] Coach [Ben] Cooprider. After the camp, [Grinnell] got into contact with me. I always think it’s funny that I had to travel all the way to California just to find a school that was three hours away.” These days, as his time at Grinnell is winding down, Zaroban spends a lot of time reflecting on his baseball career. He knows at one point, he’s going to have his last baseball game. In fact, he has plans to attend medical school. Thus, in the season’s final weeks, he wants to enjoy every minute of baseball, play the best of his ability and, of course, win a Midwest Conference Championship.
ELENA COPELL
The men's golf team prefers a laid back yet focused practice. Even the coaches get in on the action.
By Quan Tran tranminh2@grinnell.edu The Grinnell men’s golf team doesn’t take a green golf course and beautiful afternoon for granted. In fact, weather has been plaguing their ability to practice all spring. When I visited, though, the sun was shining, the wind was breezy and it actually felt like spring. I came to practice on a Thursday, and it was the first time they had the opportunity to practice outside all week. Normally, the team has six days of golf a week, including days on which they have tournaments. For practice, they either go to the golf course and spend time working on their short game, putting and hitting a couple of holes to get the feeling, or everyone is driven five miles to the Oakland Acres Golf Course to work on their swing technique. When weather conditions don’t allow the team to go outdoors, they go inside the fieldhouse, where there are a couple of hitting bays and a small putting green. It’s not the most ideal situation in the world, which is why assistant men’s golf coach David Arseneault Jr. ’09 tries his best to get the men outside. “[Indoors] is a little more challenging because you can’t see the balls’ flights. That’s why when you’re outdoors you can read other factors like the wind, the temperature and where to land the ball. So,
even if the weather is only halfway reasonable, we try to go outdoors,” Arseneault said. Sometimes it’s easy for people to forget how much of an individual game golf is. I was reminded by the sense of autonomy upon arrival at the course. Everybody was doing something different. Evan Bunis ’18 — a Division III All-American Scholar — was working on putting by himself, while Connor Headrick ’21 and Dan Jaques ’21 — the newest additions to the team — were sharpening their short game. Even the coaches were having a 9-hole scrimmage. Although there wasn’t much organization, the work ethic was outstanding. “As I’ve learned from [head men’s golf coach Brian] Jaworski, being a Division III athlete, you have to be very self-motivated. A lot of these guys, not only are they coming out here in practice time, but they’ll be hitting practice balls all the time, whether it’s indoors or outdoors,” Arseneault said. “I think D-III athletes are some of the most self-motivated people you can find. If you’re willing to come out and play as hard as you can, you’re going to get a lot better,” Jaworski agreed. Eventually, the team split up into groups of four or fewer so they could start hitting at different holes. I decided to tag along with Arseneault and Jaworski’s group, which includ-
ed their athletes Owen Craven ’20 and John Zbaracki ’20 as they traversed the course. Throughout the game, everybody was having fun and talking to each other, but they were very focused when the time came to hit balls. Although the coaches got in on the action, they didn’t forget their roles as mentors, giving tips and encouragements to the players along the way. There was no procrastination either, because each group had to finish their shots at one hole quickly enough to make room for the next groups. Swing technique is perhaps the most vital skill a golfer needs. That’s why the team dedicates many of their sessions at the local Oakland range to work on it. It’s a great place because they can hit virtually unlimited golf balls and correct their stances in the process, which is a very important part of the game. “You’d want to get the feel, to get comfortable with the club in your hand, to make sure your tempo is right, and to align everything perfectly,” Arseneault said. After a while, it came down to the very last hole between the two coaches. Fortunately for Arseneault, Jaworski missed the game-tying putt by a hair. “I want the guys to come out and have fun,” Jaworski said. “Four years of college can go by so fast, so you never want to take many days off.”
ELENA COPELL
Evan Bunis '18 practices his putting on the Grinnell College Golf Course. Bunis is the team's top golfer this year.
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Opinions IoWhat is going on in politics? SexualSexplanations: respect and quality Xenophobic Iowa, programming complicit Iowans
Edited by fentonma@grinnell.edu
event on sexual respect.
by Austin Wadle As I was brainstorming for this week’s column, I was unsure of what might inspire my writing for the week. In a humorous way my friend asked me, “Well, Austin, IoWhat is going on in politics this week?” While I appreciated the slight jab at my mildly obnoxious column title, this was also a helpful guide for my writing. Sometimes I have positive and exciting things to write about, like the future of the Democratic Party, or special elections wins across the country. These past couple of weeks are not panning out in the same way.
Immigrants' rights activists from around the state deeply worried about the effect this bill could have on their communities. It is already causing anxiety in many immigrant communities. Immigrants' rights groups have been getting frantic calls from families and school counselors from across the state. On Tuesday, April 10, Governor Reynolds signed Senate File 481 into law. In short, it is an “anti-sanctuary cities” bill. Although Iowa does not have any official sanctuary cities or counties, there are many counties that were actively lobbying against this bill. Immigrants’ rights activists from around the state deeply worried about the effect this bill could have on their communities. It is already causing anxiety in many immigrant communities. Immigrants’ rights groups have been getting frantic calls from families and school counselors from across the state. At the end of the day, this points to an unfortunate reality. The “Iowa nice” that is so often referenced really only applies to a select few in
the eyes of Iowan state officials. This law cements the fact that people who are of immigrant status are on thin ice legally, especially those of color. Rather than pursuing a policy that makes Iowa a welcoming state to people regardless of immigration status, the Iowa Republican Party sought to isolate these communities that are often underserved. This makes Iowa xenophobic. This is clear to many people, and it spurred a hashtag pioneered by DACA activist Kenia Calderon of Des Moines. #IowaXenophobic was used to channel some of the deeply held frustration pouring out from the communities that were most affected by this law. I took it as a chance to examine the institutional ways Iowa’s state government has penalized and targeted immigrants of all status. Sadly, many of my peers, who are white native-born citizens, took serious offense. This is probably the most frustrating part. They could not see past the idea that they may not be an active member of the apparatus that is targeting those communities. In reality they are complicit in the oppression of immigrant communities in Iowa. If you voted for the Branstad administration in 2014, you are complicit. If you voted for one of the legislators that voted in favor of Senate File 481, you are complicit. If you didn’t fight against this awful legislation, you are complicit in a xenophobic administration.
ICE is an agency devoted to tearing families apart and terrorizing innocent people. They have been consistently documented employing unconstitutional practices. These include racial profiling and holding people in detention centers for unspecified amounts of time. This is really a callout for the privileged Iowans who chose not to fight against this. As I wrote two weeks ago, “our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain” should not just be a nice slogan on a flag. There is a need for action on an institutional level. First, we need to repeal this harmful bill. We
also need Iowa to adopt sanctuary policies for state and local law enforcement, where they will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. ICE is an agency devoted to tearing families apart and terrorizing innocent people. They have been consistently documented employing unconstitutional practices. These include racial profiling and holding people in detention centers for unspecified amounts of time. They take brutal actions in their approach to immigration laws, but this is something most people are not familiar with.
We must take actions at all levels, including at the most local. This includes advocating for local governments avoiding working with ICE. It can go even further, with the Grinnell school district taking similar steps to those taken by the Des Moines Independent School District. We must take actions at all levels, including at the most local. This includes advocating for local governments avoiding working with ICE. It can go even further, with the Grinnell school district taking steps similar to those taken by the Des Moines Independent School District. That district centralized all requests by ICE to enter school boundaries to go through the Superintendent and supported the rights of immigrant students. Grinnell College could even go further than its these statements. Given the school’s response after the Trump Administration declared the end of the DACA program, Grinnell should be making bold steps that mirror those made in the past on social justice issues. We should also make sure that we are personally supporting immigrant communities. That includes supporting international students here in Grinnell. Many international students are familiar with the sting of people telling them to “go back to where they came from” or the alienating stares when they speak a language other than English. We need to do better. Iowa needs to do better. Our country needs to do better.
Upcoming events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Anita Hill Documentary Screening & Roundtable Discussion. April 23, 7 p.m., JRC 209 Sexplanations is an anonymous Q&A column about sex, sexual health, sexuality, gender, relationships and the promotion of respect at Grinnell College. Questions are answered collaboratively by the Sexual Health Information Center (SHIC), the Stonewall Resource Center (SRC) and the Office of Wellness and Prevention. If you have a question or comment, submit it anonymously at https://goo. gl/forms/36C5fLe9DeRdi48k2 or email [howeemil]. I don’t go to Harris or Gardner on weekends. I don’t feel like sexual respect events or information apply to me. Should it? Sometimes, sexual respect is only talked about when it fails. Harris and Gardner events on weekends are times we associate with when we need more sexual respect. However, sexual respect doesn’t start failing at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night as you walk into Gardner Lounge. What sets the stage for sexual respect on those evenings is the conversation on Thursday afternoon about weekend expectations. It starts in the dorms when we think about access to condoms and it starts in class discussions. You might not feel like sexual respect matters to you, but how you act contributes to the culture of sexual respect on campus. So my question to you is, how are you contributing? Are there assumptions you make about people based on gender? What kind of language are you using? Are you using consent for everyday interactions such as hugging, touching someone’s shoulder or asking if you can join someone in doing something? Are you being a healthy partner in your relationships, including your friendships by communicating thoroughly or being aware of each other’s needs? It is really important to think about sexual respect on Friday evenings, but sexual respect matters to everyone all the time. If you want to talk more about why it matters, reach out to a student leader like a SAM, Peer Educator, CA, [Jacobsen], [howeemil2] or attend an upcoming
Dusty
The gender, women’s and sexuality studies program, the Office of Wellness and Prevention and Office of Intercultural Affairs will be screening the 2013 documentary “Anita: Speaking Truth to Power.” Angela Onwuachi-Willig ’94, chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, will provide opening remarks on the documentary. After the screening, we will have a roundtable discussion on how intersecting identities impact sexual respect and sexual assault. Refreshments will be served. Together: a Film about College Students, Survival, and Sexual Violence. April 25, 7 p.m., Loose Lounge Grinnell Advocates and the Office of Wellness and Prevention will be showing “Together,” a film about being a sexual assault survivor on a small college campus. “Together” shares the stories and experiences of students, and while they don’t represent every experience, the filmmakers hope to educate others to focus on the validity of each story and that sexual violence affects all of us directly or indirectly. People at all stages of change are encouraged to attend this event and reflect on the impact of the experience on a small college campus. Active Bystanderism & Social Media Workshop w/ Langston Thomas ’20 and Sydney Steinle ’18. April 28, 3 p.m., CRSSJ Prayer Garage This active bystander workshop will focus on how to be an active bystander online, especially around issues of social justice. It is peer led by CA Sydney Steinle ’18 and Peer Educator Langston Thomas ’20. This workshop will help you develop new active bystander skills in the context of social media, and is for all levels of knowledge on active bystanderism. No prior experience with active bystanderism necessary. Refreshments will be provided.
by Phoebe Schreckinger
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Arts
Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu
Spring 2018 Biannual Drag Show
By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu For the members of Queer People of Color (QPOC), Drag Show is about more than putting on something you wouldn’t usually wear and performing a dance routine. It’s about celebrating drag as an art form, understanding its history and continuing to push the bounds of gender expression. And of course, for James Caruso ’18, QPOC leader and a fixture of Grinnell Drag Show, it’s also about being “the skinniest, prettiest, most beautiful drag queen, face and body, truly cheesecake.” Last Saturday, April 14, QPOC hosted its biannual Drag Show. Drag Show is an opportunity for Grinnell students to audition for and then potentially perform a drag number, on the condition that their piece aims to subvert gender in some way. The performers on stage then collect dollar bills from the audience, donating the total funds to charity. This semester, the ten performances raised $840.70 for Crisis Intervention Services — a sum nearly double the total raised last semester. “On the fundraising side, it was very successful,” Caruso said. “We were very excited to donate to Crisis Intervention services. We have donated to them in the past, and I think it’s good to support local organizations because it’s so close to home.” Caruso has been performing in Grinnell Drag Show since the first semester of his first year. Under the moniker Kristal Meth, he worked as a stage manager, director, mentor and performer, all while guiding the younger QPOC members who will assume his roles when Caruso graduates in May. With all this collaboration in mind, Caruso is pleased with the final result of last Saturday’s event. “At the end of the day, I was very happy that everyone was able to perform and have a good time,” Caruso said. “I didn’t hear anyone get off the stage and say that they felt insecure about their performance, or that they could have done better. Everyone put 100 percent into each performance
and I’m so proud of everyone who was part of this show.” Fellow organizers and MCs of the event included Tucker Haddock ’21, a.k.a Coin Slot; Errol Blackstone ’20, a.k.a Heaven Ne’ Vaeh and April Showers ’21 (who prefers to be referred to by her drag name for this article). Haddock, Blackstone, Showers and Caruso each have a special relationship to their drag persona. “Not being out at home, I feel like I have to suppress a lot of my femininity,” Showers said. “I think that April is a celebration of all the things that I usually try to suppress. She can be beautiful and go out wearing six inch heels and a full face of makeup and acting like a slut and flirting with guys. Anything that I can’t usually do as myself, especially at home, I can do as April.” Haddock is non-binary and therefore views drag as an opportunity to explore the various dimensions of femininity and gender. “I think I’m in an interesting position because I’m a non-binary person,” Haddock said. “I just like having the opportunity to celebrate certain types of femininity.” Blackstone revels in drag’s opportunity to express yourself differently and have fun doing it. “For me, drag is just about having fun and being able to express something that you might not be able to express every day,” he said. “And I’m a big slut,” Caruso added. When selecting this semester’s performances, the members of QPOC ensured that the show demonstrated an awareness and celebration of drag’s origins. This is particular to drag's origins in communities of queer people of color, as documented in such classic films as “Paris is Burning.” The QPOC members were especially excited byt he high number of individual performers, references to the history of drag and a special appearance by Ben Vaughn ’15, a previous fixture of the Grinnell drag community who took part in the swim team’s performance. “I was happy to see Charlie
Rosenblum ’18 (also known as Challah Back Girl) do some more classic voguing, because I like drag that really understands where it’s coming from,” Haddock said. “I want it to be more than just putting on a good performance and instead celebrating something beyond that.” While the QPOC members were ecstatic about all of the performances this year, they hope to see Drag Show get more queer and feature a greater diversity of individual performers. “Of course, we have drag queens that perform individually, but I want to see drag kings and non-binary performers take the stage by themselves and pave their own path in drag,” Showers said. “I think there’s this huge misconception that drag is necessarily binary. I want to subvert that and show that drag can be all these different things. It’s not just a man dressing up as a woman.” The drag queens acknowledge that for some, getting started out in drag can be an intimidating prospect. However, there are many helpful resources when starting out that can make the process more approachable. “YouTube!” Caruso exclaimed. “YouTube is where everyone is learning shit nowadays. If you want to learn how to beat your face, how to pad. … Also, just practice. Just start by buying the cheapest makeup at CVS and start practicing. … With performances, I think that Drag Show is a really good space to start out. If you are fearful of going out in public or going to a party dressed in a different way, you have that supportive environment.” And while drag is often about putting on a persona, the QPOC members also stressed that finding yourself in drag involves implementing the things you love in your everyday life. “If there’s a song that you always listen to, that you feel you could lipsync the hell out of — that one that comes on at Harris and you’re really feeling yourself — watch a YouTube tutorial, throw on a dress and a wig and do your choreo actually on stage in front of people,” Showers said. “See where it goes from there.”
Arts
Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu
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PHOTOS BY HELENA GRUENSTEIDL AND SARAH RUIZ
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Arts
Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu
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Ryan Hung By Ahon Gooptu gooptuah@grinnell.edu When creating art, Ryan Hung ’18 commits, putting his heart and soul into a project. However, once he is done, he does not move onto another project immediately. He prefers to take breaks between new works of art, finding activities completely outside of the arts to immerse himself in. “I’m not one of those artists who can constantly just keep going to take on project after project,” he said. “I love performance and creating performance … but sometimes feel like I’m not sure if I want to be an artist.” When he came to Grinnell as a Posse scholar, Hung knew he wanted to continue doing performance, but did not think that he would eventually graduate as a theatre and dance major. Having taken private lessons in dance, theatre and music throughout his childhood, Hung had always been in touch with the performing arts. However, in high school, he found himself having to choose between athletics and the arts. “In high school, I decided to com-
mit to athletics. But I felt that once I was going to come to college, I sort of regretted how much time I couldn’t put back into the arts. So I decided to focus on the arts,” he said. During his first year, Hung primarily spent his extracurricular time performing, but went back to running track in his second year. He spent the entirety of his third year in off-campus study, delving back into performance at the Trinity/La MaMa Performing Arts program in New York City for the first few months. But the intense program made him wonder what mattered to him the most and what he wanted his role to be in this world. “I think I have a conflicting struggle with that. So I find myself in a cycle where I pour a lot into making art for a certain period of time and then stepping away from it for a while and then coming back,” he said. After watching over 40 different shows in New York City and choreographing a piece that professionally debuted at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, he traveled to Seoul, South Korea and spent the rest of his third year there. He took classes out of
the arts during his time in Seoul, and got ahead on his college coursework. “I was able to explore my creativity a lot [in New York City] and then when I went to Korea, I did nothing related to art,” Hung said. However, even when he is not heavily involved in the arts, he still finds the time to practice and enjoy it in a way that does not involve being invested in the creative process. After studying off-campus for a year, Hung found himself running on a busy schedule with final and independent projects, one of which he recently finished and the other which he is currently working on. “I just finished assistant directing ‘The Royale,’ which has been a great time. But I’m currently choreographing a piece called ‘Gloomy Clock/ Letter,’ which goes up in Flanagan on May 5 and 6 as my capstone for the theatre and dance major,” he said. Hung recalled having a hard time just “existing” in a place like Grinnell, but cannot be more grateful for how the College has helped him be a better version of himself. “One thing that I do think that
Niccolo Seligmann holds Medieval Music Workshop
HELENA GRUENSTEIDL
Niccolo Seligmann held two workshops on improvisational medieval music. By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu On April 12, Niccolo Seligmann, a multi-talented, improvisational and medieval-focused musician came to campus. He for three days to teach a series of workshops and perform a concert on Saturday, April 14. Seligmann, who plays over 20 instruments, became fascinated with early music at age five when his parents brought him to a concert which featured the viola da gamba, a popular stringed instrument of the Renaissance. He played the cello until he was given a viola da gamba for his bar mitzvah. When Seligmann was 18 and studying at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, he discovered a passion for medieval music as he began teaching himself how to play the vielle, the viola da gamba’s predecessor. In 2011, still at Peabody, Seligmann was invited to tour the country with The Broken Consort, a group with whom he still plays a mix of early and modern improvisational music. He also is a founding member of the band Alkemie, which plays exclusively medieval music. In addition to playing with these groups, giving private lessons and acting as the viola da gamba coach for UCLA’s Early Music Ensemble, Seligmann is learning from his fatherin-law, an expert at building early instruments. “I have, as of 2018, begun my apprenticeship to him as a luthier and my goal as an instrument builder is to be able to build fiddles not only from pre-existing designs that you see in manuscripts but just totally from imagination — which is exactly what they would have done [in medieval times],” Seligmann said. While he hopes to be able to see
or imagine an instrument and build it, Seligmann has mastered the improvisational techniques of hearing a piece and learning it or being able to add an arrangement to a piece on the fly. By nature, medieval music is improvisational. Throughout history, most musicians have played without knowing how to read music, and depended on an oral or auditory history. “I have no written materials for this workshop, everything is oral, all of the tunes that they have learned, they learned them by ear and that’s how they would have done it back then,” Seligmann said, describing a particularly unique component of his workshop. The medieval music that is available today is written on manuscripts, but there are many gaps which require improvisation to fill. “I feel like medieval music is at the meeting place of classical, folk and world music traditions,” Seligmann said, calling upon these traditions as tools to fill the gaps. “Different musical communities improvise in different ways with different rules in different systems depending on where and when they are.” Professor Jennifer Brown, music, invited Seligmann to campus after student Kate Perry ’20 met him at a workshop in Los Angeles, where Seligmann lives and works. “I met him at a music party at a friend’s house, and it was amazing how quickly he could get a group of people with almost no prior experience (most of them playing modern instruments), immensely excited about medieval music. It seemed perfect for him to come to Grinnell, because we have a fairly large collection of medieval instruments, but no one to teach us how to play them — we mostly focus on the Renaissance and Baroque periods in Collegium,” Perry wrote in an email to The S&B. Brown invited Niccolo to campus
for his expertise in medieval improvisation, medieval stringed instruments and the viola da gamba. “Thus he could provide students with a more diverse experience of music than I alone am able to provide,” Brown wrote. “There are lots of ideas in common between all types of musical improvisation: it was interesting to me that the format Niccolo used for his workshops was pretty similar to what I have observed Mark Laver do with the Grinnell Jazz Ensemble.” For Perry, the improvisation was a completely new experience. She wrote, “As someone who’s been trained to read music from a printed page, it was really hard for me to adjust to improvising. I guess it’s a bit like spending years acting in scripted plays and then joining a comedy improv group — suddenly, you aren’t just delivering lines with emotion and energy, you’re inventing them on the spot! You have to be very aware of the structure of the music and the people you’re playing with.” The program for Seligmann’s concert was comprised of pieces from Spain, France, Italy and England that were popular between 1200 and the late 1300s. While Seligmann performed most of the concert solo, the ensemble who participated in his workshops accompanied him on several pieces. “We make music because we love it, and it is exhilarating to make music alongside a real virtuoso like Niccolo. … I hope the workshops helped [the students] to get over the fear of improvisation, of putting yourself out there in public, that we all feel — and especially classically trained musicians, who don't have that many opportunities to improvise these days. … I hope they learned that medieval music is something that we today can relate to, enjoy, and find meaning and beauty in, even hundreds of years after it was composed,” Brown wrote.
our department does really well, may- places more than once and exploring be because we lack the sort of studio what else I can find, not necessarily training that many people want in act- in the place, but in myself, existing in ing or dance, is that our professors are that place.” able to focus on our curriculum where they can help nurture their student artists in a way to encourage them to devise and create their own work for themselves,” he said. “Coming to Grinnell has allowed me to hone that side of me more in being able to create my own art and what it means to develop and shape our individual voice and put it out there.” As a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship, Hung will be back in South Korea for a year to teach English as a second language. However, he hopes to simultaneously collaborate on a range of projects with local Korean artists, while working towards greater accessibility to the arts for Koreans. The end-goal would be to “build relations in regards to how to have more Korean-American exchanges in the arts.” “I do think that there is more for me to explore despite having gone HELENA GRUENSTEIDL there pretty recently,” he said. “I do Ryan Hung ’18 hopes to continue to be find myself enjoying going back to involved in the arts after graduation.
BAX Arts Exhibit opens in Faulconer
By Seth Taylor taylorse@grinnell.edu
On April 6, the Bachelor of Arts Exhibition (BAX) 2018 opened at Faulconer Gallery. The event, organized by the Studio Art Student Educational Policy Committee in coordination with Faulconer Gallery staff, is an annual exhibition that highlights art that students have worked on during the year without any Art Department faculty involvement. Charlotte Richardson-Deppe and Anne Rogers, both ’19, led the organization of the exhibition this year. Third- or fourth-years are eligible to apply, and while art majors receive preference, non-majors that are heavily involved in the art studio may be accepted as well. Applicants must submit measurements of their work, the materials used and a paragraph on the piece, as well as answer questions on their involvement with the arts at Grinnell. The exhibition brings together student artists, the curatorial resources of the College and the community that gets to see the final product. Students get a rare chance to work with the curators of Faulconer Gallery to install their pieces, working on lighting and placement in the gallery. Ella Williams ’18 has two of her artworks featured in the exhibit this year. A gender, women’s and sexuality studies and studio art double major, Williams hopes to pursue music after graduating from Grinnell. For Williams, BAX is a chance to interact with curators in a professional space. Last year, Williams created an installation piece that she set up with the help of the gallery curators. This year, the curators allowed her to see her sculpture “The Fall of Man” in a new light, literally. “I was super impressed with the lighting [the curator] chose for ‘The Fall of Man,’ actually, because if you look at the shadows they just line up
perfectly in this really beautiful way,” Williams said. Williams believes that for an undergraduate artist to see their work in a professional gallery is a rare and valuable experience. “It lets artists at Grinnell envision their work actually being in galleries, because they can see that their work belongs in a place like that,” Williams said. BAX is not just an opportunity for student artists to show their work, but also a chance for students who may not be as involved in the arts at Grinnell to see what goes on in the Bucksbaum art wing. “I think sometimes the art department can feel a little separate from the rest of the campus community and BAX is sort of a time to open the doors and let the whole community see what we’ve been doing and engage with our work,” Williams said. Sofia Mendez ’19, a philosophy and studio art double major, is also featured in the art show. In the fall, Mendez studied in Italy, where she took a lot of photographs that inspired her pieces in this year’s exhibit. Similarly to Williams, Mendez believes that events like BAX that showcase student art can act as catalysts for students who may not be aware of the artistic opportunities available on campus. “If you see them around campus then that can work as an initial … trigger to want to participate,” Mendez said. In her first year, Mendez had been unaware of the existence of a photography club, until she saw a photobook produced by the club. She contacted the group, started taking photos and now has her work featured in a professional gallery. The exhibition will remain open until May 16 at Faulconer Gallery for faculty, staff, community members and students, art majors and otherwise, to observe and enjoy.
ANDREW TUCKER
The BAX Art Exhibit is an opportunity for student artists to show their work in a professional gallery.
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