Volume 134, Issue 19.

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Community

Features

Witness artist Tara Shukla at work. Experience the craft.

Celebrate International Women's Day with women, hooray!

Saints' Rest coffee shop owner Sam Cox caffeinates and provide a warm atmosphere.

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the

Scarlet & Black Volume 134, Issue 19

Students respond to sudden closure of the Black Cultural Center by the College

ISO ushers in 2018-19 cabinet

By Gabe Loewenson loewenson@grinnell.edu The International Student Organization (ISO) held an election for its executive cabinet on Thursday, Feb. 22, with runoff elections on Feb. 25.

The new ISO cabinet includes Kirtimay Pendse ’19 as ISO president, Vincent Noh ’19 as vice president, Ahon Gooptu ’21 as secretary, Nana Okamoto ’20 as publicity coordinator and Prerana Adhikari ’20 as social coordinator.

“I’m not gonna lie, campaigning was probably the most intense part of the process,” Pendse said. “I knew I wanted to make a poster, and I underestimated how hard that was. But I spent a couple days coming up with good designs for posters, and then I went around campus putting them up. But that’s when I realized that campaigning is a more about actually just going up to people and talking to people and then messaging people that I knew. And people that I didn’t know, but I could get to know them through the people that I did know.

And I just reached out a lot, even in the D-Hall as they just went up with a friend or someone, and I just said, ‘oh hey, by the way I’m running for ISO president.’”

As president, Pendse intends to foster closer cooperation between ISO and other organizations, to help other students from underrepresented countries to promote their culture and to encourage discussion of topics that are not often discussed in the international student community.

“I would like to turn my attention more towards topics which I feel are not discussed as much in the international student community.

Mental health, sexual health, these kinds of things. In addition, like I said, there are a couple of students who approached me who said listen, I’m the only student [from a certain country] and I want to do something with this,” he said.

Vice President-elect Noh said that he was especially interested in smaller scale event organization.

“I’d like to be able to reach for organizing more small discus>> See ISO page 3

thesandb.com

March 09, 2018 • Grinnell, Iowa

Perception of SGA changes with executive election

By Maxwell Fenton fentonma@grinnell.edu

CANDACE METTLE

At last week's Concerned Black Students (CBS) Showcase, students protested the closure of the Black Cultural Center.

From left to right: Autumn McMillan ’20, Taylor Powell ’21, Madison Wardlaw ’20 and Rayyon Robinson ’19.

By Candace Mettle mettleca@grinnell.edu In February of this year, school administrators ceased independent student activity in the Conney M. Kimbo Black Cultural Center (BCC), indicating that the College would be reevaluating the resource center’s functions. Administrators did not issue an official statement to the College community at large, notifying only the leaders of Concerned Black Students (CBS) and the African Caribbean Student Union (ACSU) to relay the message to members of their organizations.

"But if this is a communitywide conversation that needs to happen, why aren’t they talking to students with concerns? " Simonne Carlton '18, CBS Leader Starting on March 5, 2018, any student who wishes to enter the BCC must send a request to Vice President of Student Affairs Andrea Conner, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Intercultural Affairs Maure Smith-Benanti and Assistant Director

of Cultural Affairs Jordan Brooks.

The request must be sent two weeks in advance of the intended date of use.

The current process deviates from the BCC’s normal mode of operation, in which any student may enter and use the BCC under the supervision of BCC student monitors who live there. Since the closure, the BCC monitors have stepped down from their positions.

Conner has been the point person on the BCC’s closure, but did not respond to The S&B’s inquiry for an interview.

Processes to rebrand the BCC will start with what Smith-Benanti describes as an “exploratory board” to decide how the BCC should function in the future. The board will consist of representatives from Student Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, such as Smith-Benanti, Conner and Brooks, SGA executives, interested faculty of color and chosen Black student leaders from Concerned Black Students (CBS) and African Caribbean Student Union (ACSU). In the meantime, Conner sent an email to faculty of color encouraging them to have their office hours in the BCC to keep the space occupied. CBS leader Simonne Carlton ’18 has chosen CBS representatives to serve on the board with herself, but has not heard anything from administrators about next plans or the potential faculty

involved with the board.

The lack of transparency from administration regarding the BCC’s closure has frustrated members of CBS, ACSU and the Black community who have become aware of the changes to the BCC. The concerned students believe that the unexplained closure of a resource center meant for marginalized Black students represents a lack of institutional support for Black people in the College community.

“I think what makes the situation seem more scary and ominous is that the administration appear very handsoff,” Carlton said. “If [administration personnel are not] Intercultural Affairs, they don’t want to talk or be directly involved. But if this is a community-wide conversation that needs to happen, why aren’t they talking to students with concerns? It makes no sense if this is a problem that we need to access for the College community. … Why are you not answering my email, or just say you don’t want to talk about this instead of leaving students in the dark.”

After not receiving what they believed to be an adequate response from administrators, a group of Black students aired their grievances to SGA’s Campus Council on Feb. >> See BCC page 3

Voter turnout dropped substantially in 2018’s Student Government Association (SGA) executive elections. In the executive race this year, roughly 700 students voted for presidential candidates Myles Becker and Dylan Welch, both ’19. This number is substantially lower than that of the 2017 executive elections, in which 811 students cast ballots for the presidential candidates, or 2016, in which 976 students did. This election turnout has prompted discussion about the relationship between SGA and the Grinnell student body.

SGA President-elect Becker argued that the lower participation rate is intertwined with the perception of SGA on campus.

“Post-election, looking back at the voter turnout, for as vigorously as everyone campaigned, the fact that we had a significantly smaller turnout than we did the previous two years, was also kind of indicative of the general consensus on SGA,” Becker said.

Welch, All Campus Events Committee (ACE) co-chair and Becker’s opponent in the past election, believes that the decline in turnout is largely a matter of timing and representation.

“I think part of it was probably the timing of the election. The executive panel was the same night as Ocean Vuong (a popular Writers@ Grinnell event). … ISO elections are going on at the same time. The fact that it happened on a Friday, … people are kind of checking out.

Half of the candidates were white men, they weren’t necessarily seeing themselves in who was being offered to the student body as candidates for executives,” Welch said.

OCCO Senator Quinn Ercolani believes the inherent business of life at the College has a direct relationship with student participation in elections and in SGA as a whole.

“The student body is comprised >> See Voter turnout page 3

Education SEPC sponsors black educators' panel

By Lauren Miller millerla@grinnell.edu

Faculty including Professors Kesho Scott, sociology, Vance Byrd, German, Stephanie Jones, education, and Mukasa Mubirumusoke, philosophy team up with Education SEPC members at the Black Educators Panel this week. SEPC Members include Jherron Sutton ’19, Christian Clark ’18, J’Remi Barnes ’19, Ashley Jackson ’18 and Eden Gregory ’19.

professors to participate on the panel.

Looking forward, Jones said “I’m excited to participate in any way possible,” in regard to the potential of another panel in the future.

The event was meaningful to many groups on campus, yet perhaps felt most imminently by one group in particular.

“The people who immediately asked the questions were Black women, the most feedback I’ve heard has been from Black women. … For Black women in general, this event was really impactful,” said SEPC member Ashley Jackson ’18.

The education SEPC is planning more events this semester.

“We are just working to make education and this school so much more inclusive and so much more representative of the students here, especially in the education department,” Clark said.

The current education SEPC will be graduating in 2018, and the new SEPC students will have a solid framework to work from.

“It means a lot for us to set the groundwork. … We refuse to go back,” Jackson said.

Friday Peace & Conflict Studies Conference

Friday Stand up comedy show and open mic

Thursday Live Action Cartooning workshop

JRC 101, 8 a.m.

Loose Lounge, 8 p.m.

On Thursday, March 1, the education department’s student educational policy committee (SEPC) sponsored a Black educators panel to communicate the experiences of Black professors at Grinnell College, a predominately white institution.

The event was planned as part of Black History Month, and SEPC students reached out to Black professors across departments to represent the panel.

“We were really intentional about getting professors from different disciplines,” said SEPC member Jherron Sutton ’18.

Not only did professor representation span across disciplines, but student attendance did as well.

“It was really nice to see students in the sciences, because we wanted to make sure they felt represented in the panel since there aren’t that many … Black students in the sciences,” Sutton said.

After the panel participants answered several questions prepared by the SEPC, the panel allowed for

questions from the audience.

The focus of the discussion was mostly on the identities of the professors, and “how their Blackness influenced their careers and their roles in academia and how they see themselves,” according to SEPC member Christian Clark ’18.

“It was everything,” said Stephanie Jones, education, who participated on the panel. “It’s easy

to assume all Black professors are the same … but though we share a common ‘Blackness,’ everyone has a different take on how they see themselves.”

Black professors span across all academic divisions, Jones pointed out.

“It was important for people to see we exist, and we exist across all divisions.”

As for the role of Black educators in particular, Jones described how Professor Kesho Scott, sociology, spoke about the role of being an advocate for students of color on campus. “We sit at tables you may not necessarily have access to.”

Jones also highlighted the importance of this being a studentled initiative, after a group of SEPC students reached out to Black

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Saturday Image of an Unknown Young Woman Flanagan Theatre, 7:30 p.m.

CONTRIBUTED

Monday Lecture by cognitive psychologist Chris Kello JRC 101, 12 p.m.

Bucksbaum 154, 4 p.m.

Features 4 | Community 5 | Sports 6 | Arts 7 | Opinions 9

News

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CLS states commitment to providing planning for life after Grinnell

Edited by hermanal17@grinnell.edu & mettleca@grinnell.edu

Talk opens dialogue around learning disabilities on campus

By Kelly Page pagekell@grinnell.edu

MAHIRA FARAN

Careers, Life, and Services expand services and emphasize social justice focus.

By Zoe Fruchter fruchter@grinnell.edu The Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS) has recently launched multiple initiatives aimed at helping students explore and achieve their career, life and service aspirations after Grinnell. This new programming follows an extensive strategic planning initiative.

“From our First Year Advising Program, to the seven new Career Communities, to the new Senior Interview and Professional Development grants, the CLS team is building a holistic, comprehensive program to ensure our student[s] possess the knowledge, experiences, insights and connections to successfully realize their post-college goals,” wrote Mark Peltz, dean of Careers, Life and Service, in an email to The S&B.

"From our First Year Advising Program, to the new Senior Interview and Professional Development grants, the CLS team is building a holistic, comprehensive program to ensure our student[s] posess the knowledge, experiences, insights and connections to sucessfully realize their postgrad goals."

Mark Peltz, dean of Center for Careers, Life, and Service “Career is the coming together of your personal life, your professional life and your civic life,” said Susan Sanning, assistant dean and director of service and social innovation at the CLS. “What do I care about?

What do I want to make a difference in? What do I want to explore?”

Peltz noted that many of the recent additions to the CLS aim for students to conceptualize their post-collegiate endeavors from the onset of their years at Grinnell.

“In the past, far too many students waited until their senior year

to start planning, and that is simply too late,” Peltz wrote. New programs like the First Year Advising Program intend to help students discover their values and explore how those values relate to both professional and non-professional goals.

“We are certainly seeing students engaged earlier in the exploration and post-college planning process, but we definitely have room to improve. The future will likely include greater collaboration with academic departments and members of the faculty, more fully developed Career Communities and expanded experiential learning opportunities for students (externships, internships, treks, symposia, etc.),” Peltz wrote.

Sanning made it clear that the addition of new programming does not correspond with an increase in tuition.

“The commitment to not making this [work] cost more for students, not affecting our operating budget is a pretty strong ethic we have in what we’re doing,” she said. “Mark [Peltz] has done a phenomenal job [of fundraising] and our alums are committed to this. They want to help and they want to be connected as well.”

In addition to keeping costs for students low, both Peltz and Sanning affirmed the value of social justice as central to new programming.

The program provides, among other things, student advising and funding for unpaid internships. Sanning stated that as students transition into the later years of Grinnell and begin narrowing their post-graduate career options, the CLS hopes to help them integrate values such as social justice on a professional scale.

Peltz sees CLS funding for unpaid internships as an expression of the College’s commitment to social justice.

“Grinnell College was among the first colleges in the country to award funding to students to defray the expenses associated with unpaid internships. … Having multiple internship experiences prior to graduating is essential for today’s college graduate and, unfortunately, a number of internships are unpaid.

As a result, these unpaid experiences

tend to be pursued by only those students who can afford to live and intern for eight to ten weeks in a city without pay. Consequently, unpaid internships become a contributing influence [on] the wealth gap that exists in the U.S. Making these experiences more accessible to students ensures Grinnell graduates can ultimately compete for opportunities in industries where unpaid internship are [sic] common and often a gateway to full-time employment,” Peltz wrote.

"Grinnell College was among the first colleges in the country to award funding to students to defray the expenses associated with unpaid internships."

This semester, the Office of Disability Resources and Assistive Technology Lab will be hosting the Disability Event Series. The series of four events is intended to open conversations about disability identity.

The first installment of the series on Friday, March 2 focused on learning disabilities. The next event, “Vocational Rehabilitation Services,” will occur on March 15 and focus on informing students of their resources once they leave Grinnell and enter the workforce. That event will be followed by the “Know Your Rights Workshop” on April 4, run by an advocate from Disability Rights Iowa, who will inform students about the impacts of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Finally, there will be a “Disability and Identity Panel Discussion” on April 20, where a panel of disability experts will give short presentations, break off to talk to individual students in small groups and then reconvene for a Q&A. Maddie O’Meara ’17, who works in the disability resources office, helped plan these events with Autumn Wilke, assistant dean for disability resources, to address what she saw as a lack of discussion about disability identities at Grinnell.

“When I was a student here I had accommodations, and spent a lot of time talking to other students with disabilities about things we’d like to see on campus. One of the main things that kept coming up is us wanting to have conversations about disability identity. I was also a sociology major and was sort of disappointed to see disability sort of glossed over in conversations about identity, power and privilege,”

with learning disabilities and shared tips with students for succeeding in college with learning disabilities.

When talking about dealing with disabilities in a college environment, Brown said, “You’re bridging the gap of power between student and faculty. You’re also bridging the gap between someone who’s occupying this campus for a very short period of time, and someone like a tenure-track faculty member who’s essentially moved here and has been here for 30 plus years, so their concept of time and change is very different from your concept of time and change.”

She encouraged students to advocate for themselves and create positive change in how their professors approach learning disabilities.

One of these strategies is asking professors to let students use multiple means of assessment other than just papers and tests. For instance, a student could ask to make a movie as a substitute for some of their writing assignments. Wilke added that many professors on campus are vocal advocates for multiple means of assessment.

Brown also discussed the experience of dealing with learning disabilities in doctoral programs.

“I’m 37 and I’m just now getting to the point of saying I wouldn’t change how my brain works and for the majority of the population, my brain does not work like yours,” Brown said. “When I was applying for doctoral programs, I was trying to figure out how to talk about disability. I had to put myself out there in my application process and say ‘I have a disability, and how are you going to handle that?’”

Brown additionally confronted some larger societal issues that

Mark Peltz, dean of Center for Careers, Life, and Services In order to inform students of these new opportunities and to raise awareness of the CLS in general, the office has employed a number of unusual outreach strategies over the past year. These strategies included various themed events and even a live pony.

“We were kicking off the school year with several new initiatives, and we thought a Harry Potter themed event (with magic wands and a Patronus) would be fun,” Peltz wrote. “For many students, wrestling with the question of ‘what will I do after Grinnell’ can be anxiety-inducing and overwhelming. It need not be. By adding elements of fun and creativity to our programming, we hope students come to know the CLS as a place that is student-centered, friendly, caring and supportive.”

Peltz stressed that the ultimate goal of the CLS is to serve the Grinnell student body, and that all of the changes put in place in recent years have been aimed towards that purpose.

“I hope students regard the CLS as an invaluable resource focused on helping them identify, clarify, pursue and, ultimately, achieve their post-college goals,” Peltz wrote.

MAI PHUONG VU

Autumn Wilke, assistant dean for disability resources, launched the first of several events geared toward making issues of accessibility visible on campus.

O’Meara said.

As a student, this prompted O’Meara to set up an informal survey in which she asked people to drop rocks in jars labeled with the names of events they would like to see on campus. This was the foundation for the Disability Event Series.

The learning disabilities event, hosted by Professor Kirsten R. Brown from Edgewood College, consisted of two presentations, one for staff and another for students. In the discussion for students, Brown focused on answering their questions. She discussed broad social patterns and inequalities associated

those with learning disabilities face.

Responding to a student who was not sure whether they had a learning disability or not, she said, “This is the most common problem with learning disability. It’s a combination of how we socially define disability as needing to have a diagnosis in order to be valid, and that diagnosis costing several thousand dollars to exclude a very large portion of the population.”

Students and faculty alike can look forward to learning more about disabilities in the upcoming weeks, as even more speakers come to campus.

"Predicting the predictable": upcoming Russia elections featured

By Seth Taylor taylorse@grinnell.edu

On Sunday, March 18, citizens of Russia will cast their votes for the next President of Russia, likely reelecting Vladimir Putin for a fourth term. As alleged Russian electioneering dominates political discourse and media attention in the United States, Grinnell’s Rosenfeld Program in Public Affairs, International Relations

and Human Rights sponsored a panel called “The Russian 2018 Presidential Election: Predicting the Predictable?” The panel aimed to develop an understanding of the election, the impact it may have and the issues Russia faces today.

The panel consisted of Professor William Reisinger, an expert on Russian domestic policy from the University of Iowa, and visiting Professor Alexander Kubyshkin from

CONTRIBUTED

History professors Edward Cohn and Alexander Kubyshkin joined Russian policy expert WIlliam Reisinger to discuss the upcoming Russian elections.

Saint Petersburg State University. It was moderated by Professor Edward Cohn, history, a specialist in the post-WWII Soviet Union and chair of the Russian, Central and Eastern European Studies concentration.

Putin was first elected President of the Russian Federation in 2000, winning reelection in 2004 and stepping down in 2008. But in 2008 an amendment to the Russian Constitution allowed Putin to run in 2012 for another presidential term, this time six-years long, with the possibility of being reelected during the 2018 election cycle. According to the current constitution, Putin will no longer be able to serve as president after the 2024 election. Due to Putin’s lasting popularity in Russia and a lack of coherent opposition, Putin will likely win this election easily. According to Reisinger, Russian polls show Putin winning with 69 percent of the vote, his closest competitor only collecting 8 percent.

Putin has faced widespread criticism for authoritarian governing techniques and undemocratic elec-

tions. Kubyshkin acknowledged prior transgressions against democratic institutions, but he argued that “before demanding some democratic reform and structural reforms you have to be prepared for that. You have to prepare your political behavior, your political culture, your management.”

Kubyshkin distinguishes “revolutionary” democracy, undergone all at once and at times creating instability, from “evolutionary” democracy, which takes time. “[Putin] is a supporter of evolution, not revolution,” Kubyshkin said. Kubyshkin predicts this year’s election will be “the most open” and “the most clear” election in years, but international observers will continue to keep a close eye on the integrity of democratic institutions in Russia.

Events like “Predicting the Predictable,” where students are exposed to Russian politics and culture, are essential, said Kubyshkin, in a time when U.S.-Russia relations are tense and informed by Cold War-era suspicion.

“It’s a real problem because in

[the] United States and Russia we still have a lot of stereotype[s] about each other … so I think that it’s a great experience, it’s a great challenge, to be closer, to discuss openly the problems, and the general items, and the common values … for Americans and Russians.”

Despite Putin’s almost certain reelection, Kubyshkin is sure that the upcoming election will not be boring.

Assuming Putin wins reelection, both Riesling and Kubyshkin believe Putin will be forced to address the problems now facing Russia, including economic struggles, a lack of public support for the government, but not Putin himself, and the absence of a clear successor to Putin. Some observers, on the other hand, fear that he will extend his power through more constitutional amendments or install a puppet president as his successor.

How Putin responds to foreign and domestic issues and whether he chooses a successor will have a lasting impact across Russia and across the world for years to come.

Edited by hermanal17@grinnell.edu & mettleca@grinnell.edu

News

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ISO cabinet-elects promise inclusion, innovative programming for the upcoming year

Continued from Front Page

sion-based events. I think that a lot of the international students would like a place to come together and just discuss various issues, whether they be a social issue, or getting connected with resources on campus, and just giving students a place to relax. That means working together with other organizations on campus, predominantly the multicultural suite, as well as possibly other international organizations from other schools, to hopefully be able to give students a place to chat, hang out and learn a bit about issues they might not be able to discuss otherwise,” Noh wrote in an email to The S&B. Noh is abroad in Budapest this semester, but said that he was still able to campaign effectively.

“Really what I can do is just write my statement, and there’s a little period for ISO candidates to talk to students, so I did that through Videochat online,” Noh said.

ISO Secretary-elect Gooptu described one of his main goals post-election as unifying the student body as a whole.

REINA SHAHI

ISO elected a new cabinet for the 2018-2019 year. Pictured from left: Nana Okamoto ’20, Prerana Adhikari ’20, Kirtimay Pendse ’19, Ahon Gooptu ’20 and Arunima Fatehpuria ’21.

“There still is a gap between the international students and the domestic students, so I think that, on behalf

of the ISO cabinet I can safely say that all of us want to work towards bridging that gap between interna-

BCC closure greeted with administrative silence

tional students and domestic students, through events, through meetings, study breaks and things like that,”

Gooptu said.

Publicity coordinator-elect Okamoto also emphasized the role of ISO in the student body at large.

“As publicity coordinator, I aim to bring a bigger and more diverse audience to events hosted by ISO,” Okamoto wrote in an email to The S&B. “Many people seem to have the misconception that ISO solely serves international students when it actually targets all students to make an environment that’s inclusive to all cultural identities. I think that by getting people to come to events or meetings, ISO can better serve its purpose, so I want to aid that process by creating effective and inviting publicity.”

Social coordinator Adhikari had similar intentions.

“In the past, some of my favorite events were held by ISO. I hope to pass down that same joy to all the ISO members as well as other students. I think there is a huge misconception about ISO being for international students only. As a social coordinator, I plan to work closely with publicity coordinators and bridge this gap,” Adhikari wrote in an email to The S&B.

Voter turnout low in 2018

MAHIRA FARAN

The SGA offices are located in JRC 222 and are open throughout the day.

Continued from Front Page

MAHIRA FARAN

The BCC, located at 1203 11th Avenue, was administratively closed without warning to the student body at large.

Continued from Front Page 28. SGA executives discouraged discussions on the closure of the BCC at Campus Council, citing confidentiality of “conduct violations” at the house. SGA officials did suggest that a resolution in support of efforts to open the BCC and console the concerned could be made in the meantime.

The move to repurpose the BCC comes in response to allegations of misconduct that occurred in the building during campus-wide events, as well as disagreements between the monitors over questions of the BCC’s use. Administrators have stated that such incidents occurred due to the lack of proper institutional oversight. “[The house is] four blocks [away] so I don’t know if that’s part of it — that it’s situated on the edge, or if it has not had oversight,” SmithBenanti said. Some members of the administration fear that not enough Black students go to the space and too many parties happen there.

“In my view, the BCC should exist to engage, to empower, to encourage and support people who are Black in the college community. In other places that I have been, Black cultural centers [have] been a vibrant, active place where people are going and having conversations and studying. …

I would say that it hasn’t served all of our Black students, faculty and staff in a way that I think the whole center was conceived of and demanded and intended in the first place,” SmithBenanti said.

However, Carlton cites many instances in which the BCC has served Black students: from hosting crawfish boils to serving as a study space, the BCC has been a center for students to engage with other Black students at any time, thanks to the live-in monitors and home-like structure of the center.

Carlton also argued that it also is the responsibility of the administration to make sure that students understand their access to the BCC, considering that Intercultural Affairs and Diversity and Inclusion typically aim to promote

and institutionalize resources to students with marginalized identities.

“I like how unique the space is [and] how we run our cultural center because it’s specific to our own Grinnell experience. They’re able to escape the mental hula hoops they have living on campus and they can go to this space where it’s secluded and out of the way. It feels like an off-campus experience while … simultaneously being on campus. The escape is more in the form of what black students can do when they go to the BCC … where black students can be en masse in a way that doesn’t happen with CBS and ACSU. It’s not so much of an escape of the trials of being around other white students.

It’s a safe space to go to regularly and freely regardless of the hours it will always be open and find some peace,” Carlton said.

"In my view, the BCC should exist to engage, to empower, to encourage and support people who are Black in the college community. " Maure Smith-Benanti, associate dean of students and director of Intercultural Affairs The focus on questions of conduct and personal disagreements do not recognize attempts by students to improve the BCC over the years, according to Carlton and other students close to the issue. Among other efforts, students have asked for more proper resources for BCC monitors to lead effectively, such as receiving CA training if the space were to remain a place to live, and training on conflict resolution and mediation. To them, the administration did not seem to take their suggestions seriously prior to the BCC’s closure.

“There’s a systemic lack of care administration gives to Black students specifically, but … the intercultural office, as it runs now, is relatively new. There was no one with direct

oversight. They were swamped, they had other responsibilities, so they created the Office of Intercultural Affairs. … The issue is so large and I don’t think it’s just on intercultural affairs and students, it’s on all of us, it’s on the Grinnell community to work on what it means to have a safe space for Black students,” Carlton said.

Smith-Benanti, on the other hand, believes that students should not have to act alone as BCC administrators, arguing that the onus falls unto the administration to promote and provide engagement, empowerment and support for students with marginalized identitieså.

“Sometimes people go to centers looking for resources that I don’t think students should have to be prepared to provide. Your education is your goal. If you look at what our peer institutions do, they are not studentrun spaces, they are components that are student-run,” Smith-Benanti said.

In response, Carlton pointed out that CAs also have a large responsibility to care for students’ needs. Considering that the BCC only came out of student demands to the administration, it is integral that the BCC continues to have a strong body of student leadership.

“I like the idea of the administration being more accountable for the wellbeing of all the students but would you consider CAs having a burden for taking on that responsibility? If that’s the case, why do they exist? If we’re going to have the space for students to live there, why are they not trained like CAs?” Carlton asked.

Although the board has not met, concerned students have drafted documents to share with administrators about what they believe the BCC should do and why the BCC is important to the college community. Alumni have also contacted the College urging them to reopen the BCC and to work with students. There has been no set date for the board to meet on the issue, or when a campus-wide statement from the administration will be sent out.

of a bunch of very, very busy people.

People don’t have the time to show up to Campus Council. … SGA does a decent job in my opinion of trying to present itself to the student body and what it does, but it has a very hard time getting input from the student body,” Ercolani said.

Current SGA President Summer White provided a number of possibilities to help explain lower participation in student government.

“One could be just general distrust in government or organizations, another could be lack of awareness to be involved and make your voice heard, despite many efforts to do so,” White said.

But White did not discount the possibility that politics-as-usual is an explanation for lower participation this election season.

“Another reason is that people are content with the way things are, so they don’t feel the need to run for office if they like and believe that the candidates are very well qualified and can do the job well,” White said.

Ercolani argues that the perception of SGA on campus is rooted in its restraints as an organization.

“It’s a control of expectations.

SGA has the ability to do a lot of things, but SGA also doesn’t have the ability to do a lot of things. Whether it be constraints constitutionally on what SGA cabinet members can and can’t do, or administrative struggle, or … the fact that SGA’s budget doesn’t allow for some things. …

A lot of the perception that SGA … being indifferent comes from the base limitations on SGA’s authority.”

The question of SGA’s effectiveness at handling student concerns directly relates to its perception in the student body. Many candidates this election cycle acknowledged SGA is not the typical campus organization that students go to when they have a problem.

“As I’ve become more involved in SGA, it has seemed more to me like I’m … hearing about concerns students have through avenues that aren’t directed towards SGA. It’s hard to try to gauge if that’s just because of new positions I’ve taken on, or if this current SGA is doing more poorly than previous SGAs,” Welch said.

On the subject of outreach, White believes “SGA has a lot to offer to students, and that not all students take advantage of that opportunity to advance whatever they want their experience to be like at Grinnell.”

Welch argues that the onus of outreach lies on SGA rather than the students.

“Outreach probably plays a large role, because if students don’t know what we can do for them, or that we will do X, Y or Z for them, then that’s our fault for not making that clear to the student body,” Welch said.

Discussions about the relationship between SGA, the student body and participation are not new. On the campaign trail, many candidates argued that SGA is not the organization students go to in the event they face trouble on campus and as a result, students prefer to take other avenues to manifest change on campus.

Welch made increasing approachability a focal point of his campaign.

“I think it’s because people don’t think SGA will listen to what they have to say or don’t think SGA will do anything about it. I think the … general approachability of SGA leadership is always something we could be improving on, we always need to be open to discussions with students and not sitting back and hoping students will come to us. We need to be proactive,” he said.

Becker also argued that the lack of a uniting major issue on campus drove down participation rates.

“There’s been less campus conversation about things. With the change in alcohol policy in previous years, and concern that might lead towards punitive measures towards students, … mental health has been a big conversation. … It’s kind of difficult when students are less passionate about current events on campus.”

White noted the limited amount of time SGA administrations have to implement policy change.

Looking to the future, White said, “I would advise [Becker] and others to … consistently reflect on what’s the most important thing to be addressing at that time, and to plan ahead so they’re able to accomplish what they want to … there are so many ways to go about improving the community and little time, so you have to do what you can in the time that you have.”

But whatever the proposed solutions, low participation remains a consistent problem for SGA that the incoming administration would like to tackle head-on. Looking to the future, Becker sees increased community engagement as a curative for low participation in SGA. “Finding ways to improve campus, making Campus Council more central, more accessible, more easy to get to … and if people don’t want that solution to be solved, then it’s not my job to force that on them, but making it as easy as possible to get them involved and showing them some of the enjoyable and fun aspects of SGA is going to be our goal,” Becker said.

Features

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Edited by weberama@grinnell.edu

Saints Rest: Past, present and future

By Nana Okamoto okamoton@grinnell.edu Located in the heart of downtown Grinnell, Saints Rest is a cozy hangout for coffee enthusiasts from the College and the greater Grinnell community. When entering the doors, coffee lovers are welcomed with the aroma of fresh coffee and pastries, along with the hearty voice of Sam Cox, the current owner of Saints Rest, standing behind the counter.

Recent patrons of Saints Rest might be surprised to know that this was not always the case.

Cox is the second owner of Saints Rest. She has been a coffee lover all her life and grew up dunking donuts in coffee with her grandfather.

Although originally from Louisiana, Cox grew up and graduated from high school in Grinnell. Later, she worked in real estate and had various jobs in retail in Iowa and frequented Saints Rest as a devoted customer.

She quickly hit it off with Jeff Phelps, the first owner of Saints Rest and a Grinnell graduate of ’71.

Just as Cox is not the first owner of Saints Rest, Saints Rest is not the first coffee shop owned by Cox. “Sadly, this is my second coffee shop,” Cox said. She started her first coffee shop in the Williamsburg Out-

SARAH RUIZ

Saints Rest, located at 917 Broad Street, provides caffeine and a great work space for community members and students alike. lets of Iowa, under the guidance of Phelps. “My first coffee shop failed, miserably. … I just started too big, so my advice to anyone and everyone that wants to open a business is that you start it on the smallest scale possible and grow it.”

However, Cox’s experience with her first coffee shop made her a good candidate to be Phelps’ successor.

Phelps began thinking about selling Saints Rest in 2012 and, after some careful thought, Cox acquired her second coffee shop in 2013. She saw

Cookie Season 2018

the value in Saints Rest as a business and made the leap to buy it, even though Phelps was selling at a price higher than a bank would value it.

When asked about her reasons for buying, Cox answered, “I love Saints Rest. I love the location, I love the building, I love the clientele. And to be quite honest, I love Jeff.”

After becoming the second owner of Saints Rest, Cox made some changes. She created a casual seating area with couches, started baking homemade baked goods in the

kitchen instead of relying on outside suppliers and shifted the focus to specialty drinks, featuring the “flavor of the month.” She changed the name from “Saints Rest Coffee Shop and Art Gallery” to “Saints Rest Coffee House” and redesigned the logo.

“I really wanted it to be so that when you were driving by or walking by, you could see a coffee cup and be like, ‘that’s a coffee shop,’” Cox said.

Learning from her past mistakes, Cox is letting her business grow slowly. She recently opened a second

location near Grinnell Mutual. For more information on the expansion, see the Dec. 1, 2017 issue of The S&B. As for future endeavors, Cox said, “I am always and forever wanting a drive-through. Like, more than life itself.” She believes that despite the risk of taking away customers from the other locations, she can profit by targeting the daily commuters.

Cox also remarked on the stress of managing her own business.

“Owning a small business is not as glamorous as it seems,” she said. “I think we all have grandiose ideas of being our own boss and running the show and doing what we want and taking off when we want and working when we want. … That's just not accurate and I think you have to realize that it is a lot of sweat and toil and strife.”

Nevertheless, Cox repeatedly expressed gratitude and appreciation for her customers.

“I would never just walk away from [Saints Rest],” Cox said. “I hope that someday I’m going to grow it to a level that [is] what I deem as really successful.”

Until then, Cox will be maintaining the friendly atmosphere of Saints Rest and keeping her customers caffeinated.

High School and College collaborate to discuss literature

By Gabe Loewenson loewenso2@grinnell.edu

SOFIA MENDEZ

Troop leaders Jennifer Gnau and Deb Brown sold cookies in the JRC this week.

By Clara Larson larsoncl@grinnell.edu This past week, Girl Scouts and their troop leaders from local troops 29, 72, 1009 and 882 set up shop in the JRC lobby to sell Girl Scout cookies. On Monday, the Girl Scouts were even able to sell cookies without missing school.

“It was a teacher in-service day, so it worked out well,” said troop leader Jennifer Gnau. On Tuesday and Wednesday, however, only the troop leaders were able to make it.

During that time, they were able to observe cookie-buying patterns and determine some clear fan favorites.

“Thin Mints are definitely more popular, and the Caramel deLites,” Gnau said. Others seem to agree.

“When I was little, [my favorite] was definitely Thin Mints, but now it’s between the Tagalongs and the Samoas (now called Caramel deLights,” said Lillie Westbrook ’21.

Likewise, Angella Brown, a third grader from Girl Scout Troop 29, thinks that Thin Mints are the best cookie.

The cookie season lasts a month and a half, from Feb. 1 to March 18.

Veronica Thomas ’21 said Girl Scout cookie season is “really well timed, because it’s right after big dessert seasons, like Christmas and the holidays. Valentine’s Day is gone, and you’re like, when’s the next time I’m going to get a steady

dessert? Girl Scout cookies.”

Behind the scenes, Girl Scout cookie season is about much more than the joy of devouring sugary treats. Troop leaders Gnau and Deb Brown said that they hope that Girl Scout season teaches the Girl Scouts skills such as math, personal communication, honesty and organization. For the Girl Scouts themselves, cookie season is presented as a challenge that highlights these skills.

“I like going door to door and asking people … and I like selling cookies and reaching my goal,” Brown said. Her goal is to sell 300 boxes, and when she reaches it, she’ll receive “a color changing cup and lots of cookie dough money.”

Kierra Orndorff, a first grader from Daisy Troop 882, exclaimed that when she reaches her goal of 605 boxes, “I get my hoodie, and cookie dough! I love cookie dough.”

At four dollars a box (five dollars for gluten-free cookies), Girl Scout cookies are far from cheap.

A box of Coconut Dreams from Walmart, replicas of Caramel deLite Girl Scout cookies, sells for two dollars. However, plenty of buyers appear to be under the belief that the price is not unreasonable.

“I understand that it’s expensive … but I feel like the Girl Scouts do a lot of good, and I would totally pay four dollars to make a girl happy,” Westbrook said.

“I was a girl scout, so I almost feel a sense of, like, moral duty to buy them,” Thomas added.

Grinnell College has been working with Grinnell High School to form a collaborative book club, led

by Professor Stephanie Jones, education, and Grinnell High School teacher Darien Sloat. The book club meets weekly on the first floor of the Burling Library from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

“The book club is a collaboration between the EDU/ENG 215, Reading and Writing Youth Culture course and Grinnell High School sophomores in Mr. Darien Sloat’s classroom. I thought it would be good idea to create an event on campus that highlights the relationships between the College and the community,” Jones wrote in an email to The S&B. “Forging relationships like these, through literature, helps to create a space where all students, regardless of age, background, race and gender can talk in depth about important issues. We are reading Angie Thomas’ Y.A. (Young Adult) novel, ‘The Hate U Give.’”

During the inaugural meeting of the book club on March 7, Jones spoke about her hopes for the meetings between the high school and college students to continue.

"Forging relationships like these, through literature, helps to create a space where all students, regardless of age, background, race and gender can talk in depth about important issues."

Professor Stephanie Jones, education “This is the first year I’ve done the book club. … I go over to the high school every week and work with [Sloat] and the high school students and they come over [to Burling] and we read a book together,” she said.

“This is the first time I’ve actually had a book club with the high school, but it’s something I hope to continue.”

ELENA COPELL

Sophomores from Grinnell High School and education and English students from Grinnell College met to discuss “The Hate U Give.”

“The Hate U Give” has been a New York Times bestseller for two years and is very popular in the realm of young adult literature. Perhaps more importantly, however, it is known for covering relevant and controversial topics regarding race, identity and police brutality. “[‘The Hate U Give’] talks about police brutality, and what it means to have your identity as a Black student in white schools. So it was something that my students wanted to read, and something [Darien Sloat’s] students wanted to read so we made sure they came together and talked about it,” Jones said. “Their responses to the book were really incredible. They had some good questions about who the book was written for. Was it primarily written for white audiences to understand more about police brutality? And also some questions about relationships between people. So those types of things are important to consider, but I encourage anybody if they have to opportunity to read the book.”

Jones also noted that the club is composed of 25 students each from Grinnell High School and Grinnell College, a quite large group compared to most Grinnell College class-

es. However, Jones did not seem to consider the size a hindrance to good discussion.

“We just had small groups… four, five students at a time, and then we came back together and talked as a whole,” she said.

Jones also emphasized the importance of building relationships between the College and the community.

"We need to have a connection with the community that the school is located in, it was here before we were."

Professor Stephanie Jones, education “There may be students who attend schools [in Grinnell] that feel like they can’t come to Grinnell College. And we need to have a connection with the community that the school is located in, it was here before we were,” Jones said. “So we need to make sure that we have strengthened communication between the two.”

FRESHER

FASTER IT’S JUST THE WAY I ROLL

WE DELIVER! VISIT JIMMYJOHNS.COM TO FIND A LOCATION NEAR YOU

Edited by mikekben@grinnell.edu

Community

Legislative coffee sparks controversy on abortion, mental health nant.

SOFIA MENDEZ

Representative Dave Maxwell and Senator Tim Kapucian met with constituents for the second of three legislative coffee sessions to be held this spring.

By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu On Saturday, March 3, State Senator Tim Kapucian, Republican, and Representative Dave Maxwell, also Republican, visited Grinnell’s First Presbyterian Church for the second of three Legislative Coffees. The next forum will be held on Saturday, April 7 at 9 a.m. in the same location.

Susan Ferrari, director of cor-

porate, foundation and government relations at the College, was present at the most recent Legislative Coffee, and reiterated a question about abortion bills asked in February by Janet Carl, former state representative and a writing instructor at the College.

At the February session, Kapucian stated that he would not support bills that ban abortions after too short an amount of time for many women to even know whether they are preg-

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, however, Kapucian voted for a bill that would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, and in cases of rape and incest. Ferrari claimed in her question that at six weeks, most people do not know they are pregnant, a notion supported by the American Pregnancy Association. Kapucian responded that he is against abortion.

Maxwell expressed slightly different sentiments.

“I do not believe in abortion myself, but at the same time I am 70some years old and it is not my place to be a bedroom-spector and try to control the social mores that we have in society,” he said. “I don’t think we can slam the door on everyone.”

After the forum, Ferrari explained her reason for asking a question similar to the one that Carl asked last month.

“To be honest I think it’s kind of nice just to have him on the record continually saying that he’s uncomfortable voting for these things and still voting for them,” Ferrari said. “I appreciate that Representative Maxwell, while he personally has reservations about reproductive rights for women, has been willing to recognize that this is a woman’s personal decision and that they need to be able to make it for themselves, and I value his voting record there.”

Just as Ferrari asked a question

City cooperates with Imagine Grinnell to build new skate park

By Rachel Eber eberrach@grinnell.edu At the end of last February, the Grinnell City Council approved a plan for the city to cooperate with Imagine Grinnell in the construction of a new skate park at the intersection of 8th Avenue and Prince Street, near Grinnell Community Senior High School.

Grinnell used to have a skate park on the site of old tennis courts near Bailey Park Elementary School.

It included wooden ramps, which did not hold up well to the harsh Iowa weather. Eventually, the ramps were deemed unsafe and the city had to remove them.

According to Rich Dana, executive director of Imagine Grinnell, the loss of this facility was significant to the community, and demand for a skate park remains high.

“The old skate park was popular, and it’s something that skaters and BMX riders are missing, so we are working on raising the funds for a permanent concrete park,” he said.

In an email to The S&B, Grinnell City Manager Russ Behrens noted that although Grinnell already has a number of successful and well-maintained public spaces, a

skate park might attract a new segment of the public.

“The skate park will serve a diverse group of users. Our parks have many options for young children but fewer opportunities for teens and young adults, so the skate park will appeal to them,” Behrens wrote.

Planning for the park has been in the works for the past three years.

While the park will be built on part of a four-acre plot owned by the City of Grinnell, Imagine Grinnell, a member of the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation, has been in charge of funding for the project.

“In a lot of cases, the city just doesn’t have the people-power to dedicate to a fundraising campaign, so they engage [the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation],” Dana said.

According to Dana, his personal interest in skateboarding was part of the reason for Imagine Grinnell’s involvement. “I was a skateboarder as a young man,” he said. “I had enthusiasm for it, and it fit within the mission of Imagine Grinnell, so we took it on.”

Imagine Grinnell has already raised $160,000 for the project, but Behrens estimated that the park will cost approximately $200,000 to con-

struct. Once bids for the construction are recieved, which will make more accurate price estimates possible, Imagine Grinnell and the city will likely need to do another push for fundraising before entering into a construction contract. So far, according to Dana, Imagine Grinnell has collected funding from a variety of sources, including a grant from the Wellmark Foundation, a grant from Grinnell College and small donations from individuals and businesses in town.

Funding this skate park is far from the first project Imagine Grinnell has undertaken during its 30 years in existence. The group was involved in founding the Grinnell Farmer’s Market and starting a citywide recycling program.

Imagine Grinnell’s mission, according to the group’s website, is to “create a more vibrant, sustainable, and healthy Grinnell community.”

Dana claimed that the new skate park will serve to fulfill that mission.

Once the fundraising has been completed, both Dana and Behrens described hopes that the new skate park will be a valuable addition to the community.

According to Dana, construction will hopefully begin this summer.

Giving garden coming to Ahrens Park

HELENA GRUENSTEIDL

The Ahrens Park location is only the latest of several giving gardens in Grinnell.

By Jackson Shulte schultej@grinnell.edu Imagine Grinnell, an organization focused on community development through local food, recreational programs and childcare, is planting its newest “Giving Garden” at Ahrens Park this spring.

Giving Gardens are dispersed throughout Grinnell with a goal of getting healthy food to those who need it. Imagine Grinnell’s website notes that much of the food produced in these gardens goes to MICA, Grinnell’s local food pantry. The newest garden, located at Ahrens Park, will be the biggest giving garden yet, and its location means it should get heavy traffic in the summer months.

Rich Dana, executive director of Imagine Grinnell, hopes that the Ahrens Park location will help the giving gardens reach more people.

“Ahrens Park has always been a place

for people to walk, play and get outdoors,” he wrote in an email to The S&B. Dana also emphasized the fact that the garden at Ahrens Park and all other Giving Gardens are open to anyone. “Everyone is welcome to get involved,” he wrote. “There are no restrictions on who can participate, or who can pick from the Giving Gardens. Everything operates on the ‘honor’ system.” Not only is everyone welcome to involve themselves in producing food in the gardens, but everyone is also welcome to harvest the fruits of those efforts.

Dana mentioned that even though the gardens help feed families who need better access to healthy foods, he encourages anyone who walks by the giving gardens to try something new.

“The food is free to all. We only ask that you respect the hard work that goes into the garden, pick carefully, and don't take more than you need,”

Dana wrote. “If you happen see a variety of tomato you have never tried, take a few! If you are out for a walk around the park and want to enjoy a handful of sweet peas or berries, help yourself!”

The garden is funded by an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach grant, part of a program which partners with communities throughout Iowa with a mission of developing rural communities. Dana wrote that this funding will make the Ahrens Park location “bigger and in a much more public location” than other gardens.

Dana also stressed the impact the giving gardens program can have on a community like Grinnell. “Grinnell is fortunate in that it has a strong economy compared to many small towns, and we have a very engaged population,” he wrote. “Despite these facts, we also have a lot of people who are struggling, financially and personally.

The gardens are places where everyone can get together and feel that they are part of the community.”

While a few Giving Gardens cannot feed everyone in Grinnell, Dana noted that they can educate the community about different food options and shed light on the fact that there are families who rely on assistance from the community for healthy food. Ultimately, the garden is a place to build community.

“We rely on mutual respect and the basic goodness of people, and we are rarely disappointed!” Dana wrote.

Grinnell’s newest Giving Garden will likely begin operation later this spring.

to which she already seemed to know the answer, Andrew Dunham, owner of the Grinnell Heritage Farmer, did not so much pose a question as offer a concern. Dunham shared his experience of seeking out mental health services for family members in Iowa, only to find that resources are severely lacking.

“I was mostly just wanting to put out there how bad Iowa’s mental health system is,” Dunham said of his question. He mentioned that many politicians claim to aim for “bringing services back into the community,” but said that he knows from experience that there are no community options in Grinnell and that families seeking mental health resources must travel to Des Moines or Iowa City.

Dunham elaborated on the economic burden that a lack of mental health services can place on a community, when police forces often must use their resources to aid those who should have received mental health help sooner.

“I actually met privately with Dave Maxwell about two weeks ago and he gave us almost two hours of his time, and just listened to what we had to say, and threw out some ideas and he wrote a lot of notes,” Dunham said, adding that he appreciated the responsiveness of the representative.

“I think that they’ll do what they can if they can, but at the state level, every day we don’t do something, we’re

5

going backwards. [The mental health crisis is] worse than the Des Moines Register makes it out to be, and they’ve done a lot of exposés on [it].”

A question from another community member during the forum addressed the role of prisons in the mental health crisis. “We’ve been using our prisons as mental health hospitals,” Kapucian said in response.

According to Maxwell, the issue of prison reform has been brought up before. It was suggested by a community member that if inmates with unfair or disproportionate sentences were to be released, significant savings could be made in the prison system.

Many other questions focused on the state budget.

“We’ve heard from mental health, we’ve heard from back fill, we’ve heard from the prison system. … I can’t understand why you’re talking about cutting more taxes [when] all these needs are present. … I know you’ve mentioned several things that would bring the revenue up a little much, but not as much as you’re talking about cutting, so please take a look at that,” said community member Margery Graves.

“I agree, we can’t continue to keep cutting, we have to start reinvesting in some of those areas,” Kapucian said, noting that the senate will begin to look more closely at the budget in the coming months.

League celebrates international women's day

By Rachel Eber eberrach@grinnell.edu On Thursday, March 8, the Grinnell League of Women Voters hosted their third annual International Women’s Day celebration. This year, the event was co-sponsored by S.H.E. Counts and took place at Hotel Grinnell.

The idea of celebrating International Women’s Day in Grinnell came to Terese Grant, co-president of Grinnell’s League of Women Voters chapter, when she was first introduced to the holiday while teaching in China and Ukraine.

“In other places in the world, [International Women’s Day] is kind of a big deal,” Grant said, adding that in many countries women are given special recognition, gifts and sometimes even the day off. In Ukraine, Grant recounted, the teachers received boxes of chocolates. Upon her return to the United States, Grant thought, “well, why don’t we do it here?”

S.H.E. Counts, the event’s co-sponsor, is an organization whose mission is to support girls and women in Grinnell, specifically girls whose parents never attended college.

“S.H.E.” is an acronym for “supporting, helping and empowering,” which is exactly what S.H.E. Counts aims to do. The organization partners with first-generation Grinnell College students, who help the younger girls with math, introduce them to the possibility of attending college and support them in making that possibility a reality. The proceeds from the International Women’s Day event supported the S.H.E. Counts Endowment Fund, which the foundation uses to provide a $500 yearly scholarship for a first-generation Grinnell high school girl to attend college.

The first year that the League of Women Voters hosted this event, they focused on celebrating the women of Grinnell. Last year, they focused on celebrating the future generation of women. This year's theme was “Press for Progress,” and columnist Rekha Basu of the Des Moines Register was the keynote speaker.

In an email to The S&B before the event, Basu noted that the talk offered an opportunity to build upon

the themes of her book, “Finding Her Voice.” The book is a compilation of Basu’s articles on women in the Midwest who have shared their stories about facing adversity or injustice.

“In a larger way, those stories illustrate that women’s ongoing struggle for equal rights is not just a problem in other countries like Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan, but right here in America, and in Iowa,” she wrote. “Patriarchy and good old boy systems endure in spite of all the progress women have made.” The process of sharing their stories, Basu noted, empowers these women.

Basu’s concern for gender equality began at an early age. Both her parents worked in the UN, advocating for human rights, and her mother was particularly involved in the international women’s rights movement.

Growing up reading Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, Basu became aware of the slew of injustices women face — including pay inequity, sexual violenceand discrimination — while also noticing how sexism affected her personally.

“Like most girls, I think, I had to overcome a certain lack of confidence and feelings of being an imposter when I succeeded at something,” Basu wrote.

According to Basu, International Women’s Day has not traditionally been observed in the United States due to its socialist origins and its affiliation with the labor movement. However, both Basu and Grant agree that the holiday is extremely relevant to the modern political climate of the U.S., particularly in the context of the growing #MeToo movement.

To Grant, celebrating International Women’s Day is about recognizing how far women have come, while also recognizing that we still have a long way to go in the fight for equality.

Basu, like Grant, hopes to illustrate the importance of celebrating International Women’s Day in Grinnell.

“I hope women will come away with a sense of how interconnected our fates as women are and the importance of global sisterhood. … Mostly, I hope every woman will feel encouraged to use her voice to speak her truth and help build a more equitable, more just and more humane society.”

ELENA COPELL

The International Women's Day celebration was held at Hotel Grinnell on Thursday evening.

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Sports Teams gear up for spring break competition in Florida

Edited by schultej@grinnell.edu

Athlete Spotlight: Sriram Sugumaran '21

By Quan Tran tranminh2@grinnell.edu When Sriram Sugumaran ’21 reached his senior year of high school, he faced a decision that few student-athletes face in their career: to go Division 1 school or not. Academically, Grinnell felt like the best path to becoming a doctor, but athletically, life without competitive tennis seemed inconceivable. Although it wasn’t an easy decision, Sugumaran decided to try his best at balancing out the two.

“It was a sacrifice. I really wanted to play D1 because it validates all the hard work I’ve done all these years.

But in terms of my future and my career, Grinnell offers me the best of both worlds,” Sugumaran said.

Now, nearly halfway through his second semester and only one month into his first collegiate season, he is making a major impact on the tennis court. Two weeks ago, after the Pioneers’ impressive 9-0 sweep at Macalester, Sugumaran was named Midwest Conference (MWC) Men’s Tennis Performer of the Week. To win such an award this early in his career was, to him, a validation for not just his individual performance but also the team’s hard work.

“I think I played well and it was nice to get the honor. It puts the spotlight on our team and puts Grinnell on the map in our conference,” he said.

Originally from Bettendorf, Iowa, he has played tennis as long as he can remember. He grew up playing basketball and swimming, but tennis has always been his focus. He eventually quit everything else altogether to focus on tennis when he reached high school, and saw a big improvement between his freshman and sophomore year.

Sugumaran’s abilities were no secret in high school. He went 80-3 in his career in singles, won the doubles state championships his junior year and his team made it to the state semifinals for the first time in 14 years during his senior year. He still holds six different school records, both in singles and doubles.

Like many first-year student-athletes, Sugumaran noticed the competitiveness of college sports immediately.

Realizing that he could not take any

opponents lightly at this level became apparent quickly. The intensity he discovered that he had to bring into every match is what has surprised him the most.

“There are some matches in high school I could get away with not having to give my best. But in college, in every single [match] I know I’m gonna play someone who’s gonna push me very hard. … I have to try 100 percent every single match and I know that no matches are gonna be easy for me,” he said.

Now that the tennis season is slowly transitioning to the outdoor season, Sugumaran — who plays a traditional serve-and-volley type of game — admits that there are even more variables that come into play in a single match.

Especially outdoors, no two matches are the same. Players can be affected by the wind, the heat, the light or the mental aspects of the game.

“I generally like indoor more than outdoor just because there are no conditions. … But outdoor, I’ve learnt to cope with a lot of conditions in terms of angle and how I hit my shot. Mentally, I know how to play outside a lot better,” Sugumaran said.

Tennis also runs in Sugumaran’s family. He has an 8-year-old brother who plays tennis, but he was the first one in the family that took tennis at a collegiate level so seriously. Balancing one’s first year of college with the pressures of being the number one player on a successful tennis team can take its toll. When possible, Sugumaran likes to create some free time that he can fill with free reading or chess.

In terms of choosing Grinnell, Sugumaran became familiar with the College through Director of Athletics Andy Hamilton at a tennis showcase in California. Hamilton had been watching him play for a few years, and encouraged him to pursue his tennis and academic goals at Grinnell.

When he reflects on his college decision, Sugumaran has no regrets.

“I love it here. Everything I expected is where it lies right now. In the long run, when I look down the road 20 years from now, I can say I think I made the best decision for my career.”

REINA SHAHI

Sriram Sugumaran ’21 is making an immediate impact on the tennis court.

CONTRIBUTED

Cody Takabuki ’20 on the mound in Florida last spring break. The baseball team plays a busy spring break schedule.

By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu This year, as has been the case since Athletic Director Andy Hamilton was a student at the College in the 1980s, the athletic department will be sending their spring sports teams to warmer weather for some game time and training. The men’s and women’s golf teams will be travelling to Arizona while the men’s and women’s track, men’s and women’s tennis, baseball and softball teams will be travelling to Florida.

“For some teams, the overall goal is really to get some games in, to brush up before we compete for the conference championship. And for other teams, it’s about getting the rust off and moving into the season, or in the case of track, keeping their training going,” Hamilton said.

“From a student-athlete perspective, there’s a real freshness to this because in some ways they can really focus on their sport.”

The women’s track and field team, according to Head Coach Evelyn Freeman, is preparing for their outdoor season after a comparatively short indoor season.

“The trip helps us with the continuity of our training,” Freeman said. It also allows the team to train for events that are constrained in indoor practices, such as javelin, steeple chase, hammer throw, 400 hurtles and discus. It also serves as an opportunity to integrate new athletes transitioning from basketball

or swimming into the team and test out athletes in events for which they have not previously competed.

The track and field teams will compete in a meet at Emory University at the end of their trip, as every team who takes such a trip must compete to comply with NCAA regulations.

“Most people go away for spring break, so we’re going away too,” Freeman said. “If we didn’t have the trip, then we would stay in Grinnell to train, and how many people are we going to hold in Grinnell for two weeks, when the weather’s not great and they’d rather be somewhere else?”

The trip fulfills a different purpose for the baseball team. Baseball Head Coach Tim Hollibaugh’s intent is to get as many games, 14 to be exact, during a period where there are not classes. Many of these games will be against other teams from the colder climates, including Illinois, Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

“The whole goal of break is to get a better sense of our team in terms of how we play, who is going to play — experience, get as many experiences against quality opponents as we can, and really just prepare for our conference season. We play an extremely difficult schedule but the whole goal is to learn from these experiences and eventually get better game by game,” Hollibaugh said.

Like most of the other teams, the track and field teams will take a week for their trip, and the baseball

team will be away the longest at 11 days.

Students are asked to pay a per diem amount that ranges from $5075, an amount that is subsidized by funds from the athletic department’s budget. Hollibaugh suggested that if athletes express need, there are funds available to offset their personal costs to make the trip accessible to the entire team. For teams like track, Freeman encourages everyone to come, but out of a 61-athlete combined men’s and women’s team, between 30 and 35 athletes will be attending this year.

“Although it’s a big operation to do this kind of thing, we’re trying to do it as cost-effectively as possible,” Hamilton said. The baseball and track and field teams will take buses to keep costs low for their large teams. Teams like tennis will only bring select players, such as those in their starting lineup. Some teams will rent out condos and cook instead of going out each night.

These communal living situations provide an opportunity for team bonding, which Freeman cites as particularly important, and a component to a team’s success that is often overlooked amid classes and practices. Since the teams will be on break, the coaches try to build in opportunities to go to the beach and relax in between practices or games.

“It’s an opportunity for our athletic programs to get really valuable athletic competition. Not every school in our league gets an opportunity to go,” Hamilton said.

Rueter's Digest: DeMar Derozan's public dialogue about depression disrupts mental health stigmas in sports

By Sam Rueter ruetersa@grinnell.edu During NBA All-Star festivities in late February, Toronto Raptors superstar DeMar DeRozan made the most important shot of the weekend. All it took were six little words: “This depression get the best of me,” strung together in a tweet at five in the morning, for the midrange specialist to force the NBA community to confront one of its least talked about epidemics: mental illness.

DeRozan, who divulged in an interview with the Toronto Star that he has struggled with depression his entire life, is not the first NBA player to speak openly about his dealings with mental health, however, he certainly is the most famous to do so.

In 2012, first round draft pick Royce White made headlines when he announced he would refuse to sign with the Houston Rockets until they included a clause in his contract that would allow him to travel by bus instead of by plane. For White, flying was a major trigger of anxiety, and thus he thought the

CONTRIBUTED

DeMar Derozan of the Toronto Raptors recently opened up about depression.

team had an obligation to accommodate his medical needs as well as teach administrative personnel relevant mental health training techniques.

The NBA and the Rockets disagreed with him, and soon thereafter White left the league, all the while maintaining that the NBA needed to improve its policies for governing and treating players dealing with mental illness.

Aside from DeRozan and

White, the only other headline-worthy moment related to mental health in the NBA was when Larry Sanders, a dominant and athletic man, walked away from his $44 million contract in 2015 because he needed help with anxiety and depression.

At 27 years old, Sanders was in the prime of his career.

Due to the prevalence of mental illness sufferers in this country, it is relatively surprising that it is not a bigger topic in basketball and

sports in general. According to a recent study by the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), about 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness each year. Statistically speaking, that would mean that there could be close to 100 players on NBA teams right now dealing with mental health issues while receiving little or no help from the league and their franchises, who are not obligated to provide specific training programs or treatment plans to address such issues.

Though outside pressure is mounting to recognize the legitimacy of mental illness in schools and workplaces, in the locker room and on the court, it is still very much a taboo subject. Admitting to an invisible illness can be emasculating, and thus player health is restricted by archaic definitions of masculinity which are often propagated in media publications and by the players themselves. This false equivalency of mental anguish with weaknesses, probably deriving from the invisible nature of such afflictions, does a disservice both to sufferers and those who attempt to treat them.

“It’s one of them things that no

matter how indestructible we look like we are, we’re all human at the end of the day,” DeRozan told the Toronto Star following his initial tweet. “We all got feelings … all of that. Sometimes … it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world is on top of you.”

This kind of vulnerability from a professional athlete is especially refreshing considering the way in which the media celebrate their toughness — often framed as problematic war and battle analogies — and lambast their moments of humanity, their tears and their misses and their failures.

As such, the NBA must do everything in its power to accommodate the needs and wishes of one of its most vulnerable populations of players, many of whom may be scared to admit their struggles for fear of ostracization, stigmatization and degradation.

If young kids and fans can follow DeRozan’s lead and learn that it is okay to struggle, and, more importantly, okay to talk about it, then hopefully the national discourse surrounding mental illness in America can change for the better.

Arts

Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu

Bob's Underground Cafe hosts writer's open-mic

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Grinnell Orchestra to perform this weekend

By Ben Mikek mikekben@grinnell.edu

ELENA COPELL

Students and faculty alike came to the writer’s open-mic, hosted by the English SEPC, to share their works.

By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu The English student educational policy committee (SEPC) brought open-mic back to Bob’s Underground Café this week on Thursday, March 9, from 8 to 10 p.m., for writers and listeners. In previous years, openmic nights were hosted at Bob’s on a bi-weekly basis. Historically, Bob’s open-mic nights have featured standup comedy, singing and readings.

Since Bob’s has been on hiatus this year, closed until further notice, students have not had access to a casual setting in which to share their work or passion.

"We have an active student body that has ideas and creating an open-mic space I think is important for that."

deavor so when you get those opportunities to share your work and hear the works of other people and bounce inspirations off each other it can be a really great and supportive environment,” Baumgartel said.

"Writing is such a solitary endeavor so when you get those opportunities to share your work ... it can be a really great and supportive environment."

Andrea Baumgartel '19 While the open-mic was supported by the English Department, as the SEPC is encouraged to host events outside of its departmental tasks, the event celebrated the creativity of writers across majors.

Megan Tcheng '19 "Because poetry is such a large term, there are so many forms of it and so many ways “People at Grinnell are constant- you can write poetry and read ly creating things — we have an acit." tive student body that has ideas and creating an open-mic space I think is important for that, just to allow people to see what other people are doing and have that shared space,” said Megan Tcheng ’19, a member of the English SEPC. For SEPC member Andrea Baumgartel ’19, the workshopping aspect of creative writing classes has been especially rewarding, and an opportunity that she feels may be hard to find outside of the classroom setting.

“Writing is such a solitary en-

Andrea Baumgartel '19 English SEPC member Steven Duong ’19 encouraged people to share any works that they were proud of, whether it be poems, short stories or memoirs. Baumgartel, who attended the Concerned Black Students Showcase on March 2, said that she heard many poems recited and hoped that those students attend the event as well.

“Because poetry is such a large term, there are so many forms of it and so many ways you can write poetry and read it,” Baumgartel said.

“With that being said, we want range — people can read five minutes of something they’ve been working on. It can be in progress, it doesn’t have to be polished,” Tcheng added.

The event aimed to extend beyond students in the English department and invited faculty and staff to also attend. According to Duong and Baumgartel, both Professors Carolyn Jacobsen and John Garrison attended.

"I think our main goal is to try to ... create creative space where ideas can be shared."

Andrea Baumgartel '19 It was also important to members of the SEPC that those who just wanted to listen felt comfortable attending the event in support of their peers.

“I think our main goal is to try to create these spaces not just for students who are directly involved in the English department but to create creative space where ideas can be shared and just encourage that side of the Grinnell community to be active and find opportunities to share their work and get feedback and be heard,” Tcheng said.

“It’s definitely like a guinea pig though, we haven’t done this before,” Duong said. Baumgartel added that the event has the potential to be carried over by future SEPC members in the years to come.

On March 10, the Grinnell Symphony Orchestra, directed by Visiting Director of Orchestras Jaemi Loeb will perform its first concert of the spring semester. Loeb, who is leading the orchestra during the 2017-2018 academic year while regular director Professor Eric McIntyre is on sabbatical, will direct three pieces. Each piece has distinct musical, emotional and historical differences from the other two pieces.

The concert will begin with Charles Griffes’ “Poem,” featuring a flute solo by Kirsten Gillis ’18, who won the annual concerto competition to place this composition on the program.

“I’ve been playing this piece for over a year now,” Gillis said. “The orchestra has three or four months to learn it and play it, and that can be hard because [the] orchestra has so much less time.”

“Poem” communicates varying emotions. “[‘Poem’] definitely does have this somber feel to it, but there’s also really fun and uplifting parts of it,” Gillis said. “The beginning is very pensive — I feel like it’s thinking about what’s going to happen — and then all of a sudden you get hit with this fast stuff and it gets really fun.”

“Poem” will be followed on stage by an innovative modern composition, Richard Ford’s “Bolts of Melody.” This piece crosses the boundaries of art forms, musically referencing the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Loeb, who knows the composer who conducted the world premiere of the piece in 2011, has directed “Bolts of Melody” before.

The piece contains “quotations from [Emily Dickinson’s] poems, and some sort of exploration of … the concept of finishing a work—what does it mean to be finished?” Loeb said. “That’s a thing that poets, writ-

ers, composers, painters, all kinds of artists really struggle with. To me that’s really fascinating because as a performer, that’s not so much an issue; its finished when you walk out on stage and do it.”

After this reflection on completion, the orchestra will close the concert with Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kijé,” originally composed as a film score in 1934.

"It's kind of like celebration music. It kind of sounds as if we were playing for some kind of wedding."

Mayu Sakae '20 “It’s kind of like celebration music. It kind of sounds as if we were playing for some kind of wedding,” said Mayu Sakae ’20, a violinist.

The piece, which maintains notes of humor from its cinematic origins, has deep historic roots. “‘Lieutenant Kijé’ … from this standpoint sounds very Russian. In [Prokofiev’s] day, there were some naysayers about how Russian his music was,” Loeb said. “He had fled the Soviet Union, and in doing this movie score, he had high hopes of getting into everyone’s good graces.”

The concert, then, will attempt to unite three pieces from very different times and styles. Regardless, members noted teamwork helped the concert become reality.

“It’s really a group effort. …

When everyone does it together, it’s just really awesome,” said Marie Spychala ’18, who plays the flute.

The concert will begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 10. According to Sakae, there should be one simple takeaway. “[The audience should leave feeling] encouraged or happy,” she said. “I guess it comes back to the positive attitude.”

SARAH RUIZ

The orchestra will perform on Saturday, March 10 at Sebring Lewis.

"Drawing and Conversation" with Tara Shukla

By Zoe Fruchter fruchter@grinnell.edu

tion, of trying to find truth and what does that mean,” Shukla said.

Shukla reflected on the process of being observed as both fun and enlightening.

Last March 6 and 7, Canadian-Iowan artist Tara Shukla offered Grinnell community members a rare look at her artistic process by hosting “Drawing and Conversation,” a part of the events centered around Faulconer Gallery’s exhibit “Making Life Visible,” which runs through June 10.

Shukla’s drawings are intricate and life-like. The works she contributed to “Making Life Visible” depict larger-than-life bones in delicate yet forceful detail.

"I was here on community day so I had a lot of kids come in, and that was really fun because they wanted to know what all the materials were and how I used them."

Tara Shukla “I was here on community day so I had a lot of kids come in, and that was really fun because they wanted to know what all the materials were and how I used them,” Shukla said, gesturing to a container filled with charcoal pencils and smudging sticks.

"My drawings are simple but they have a long process, they take a long time to do."

Tara Shukla “My drawings are simple but they have a long process, they take a long time to do. And that’s a part of the viewing experience, understanding that someone made these by hand ... this is a way of highlighting that. Even though I make things that are finished objects they imply a process, so it’s nice for people to see the process,” Shukla said, in reference to allowing visitors to observe her work.

Shukla is originally from Canada, where she earned both her bachelor and master of fine arts degrees.

She has shown her work throughout Canada, including solo exhibitions

SARAH RUIZ

Tara Shukla did a live drawing at Faulconer Gallery and engaged in conversation with gallery visitors. in Kingston, Montreal and Toronto.

She moved to the U.S. to teach at a small liberal arts school in Colorado and then came to Grinnell. In Iowa, Shukla has held solo exhibitions at the Des Moines Botanical Center and University of Iowa hospitals.

Her work’s inclusion in “Making Life Visible” marks Shukla’s third show at Grinnell, following “Ani-

mas” in 2008 at the Grinnell Community Art Gallery and “Intimate Nature” in Grinnell College’s Smith Gallery.

“Making Life Visible” is the product of collaboration between Leslie Wright, director of the Faulconer Gallery, and Professor Jackie Brown, biology. The show aims to explore how the visual image func-

tions in both fine art and biology, and the intersections between the two disciplines.

“I was asked to participate in this exhibit because my work uses the format and syntax of scientific illustration. It isn’t scientific illustration ... but it asks the question: what is the role of observation in art and what is the project of observa-

"They know I'm always drawing but they don't know what I'm doing so that was fun."

Tara Shukla She also noted that a wide variety of community members had come to see her draw including students, retired college teachers and even her friends.

“They know I’m always drawing but they don’t know what I’m doing so that was fun,” Shukla added with a laugh.

Arts

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Edited by suetamay@grinnell.edu

Nandita Banik

By Quan Minh Tran tranminh2@grinnell.edu Nandita Banik ’20 started dancing at the age of two, and at the age of five and a half, she started to take lessons. From then, dancing has always been an important part of her life. She has experience in various genres, from Indian classical and Bollywood to hip hop, jazz and other contemporary dances. Her dance style, Banik said, includes a little bit of everything.

"Even though it's been coined as a dance form, it's actually kind of like a fusion of different kinds of dance forms together."

Nandita Banik '20 “Even though [Bollywood has] been coined as a dance form, it’s actually kind of like a fusion of different kinds of dance forms together.

So it’s well-known to be uplifting and upbeat, but it has more variety to it,” she said.

So far at Grinnell, Banik has performed Bollywood dances in Diwali, the traditional Hindu festival of lights, and the International Student Organization’s (ISO) Cultural Evening. She is also part of the Grinnell Bollywood Dhamaka club.

During her first year, her inter-

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Nandita Banik ’20 performs with Ridhika Agrawal ’20 at the International Students Organization Culture Evening. est in dance led Banik to acting. She was assistant manager for a student production and took Introduction to Acting with Leslie Delmenico, theater. She found that her background in dance informed her acting.

“Actually, I’d say the acting has a lot of influence from my dancing.

When I go on stage to act, I think my dancing background has helped me to bring [out] my facial expression and to be confident on stage,” Banik said.

Banik also expresses her love of dance through her YouTube dance videos. For her, dancing has always been a stress-reliever and in the past,

it helped her get through difficult times. Banik started to make her YouTube videos when she found herself in a similarly stressful time in Grinnell.

“During spring semester my first year, I was really stressed [out] and [still] wasn’t used to Grinnell culture.

So I started going to [the] Bucksbaum [Dance] Studio for fun and dancing on my own. And I made those videos and put [them] up for fun. I got good feedback so I just kept doing it,” she said.

She dances to a variety of songs, including Hindi music as well as

Zenizen and Madison McFerrin come to Gardner

By Kelly Page pagekell@grinnell.edu This Saturday, March 10, a capella future soul singer Madison McFerrin and nu-jazz-influenced musician Zenizen will perform in Gardner Lounge. Doors will open at 8 p.m., Zenizen will begin her set at 8:15 p.m. and Madison McFerrin will take the stage at 9:15 p.m.

Brooklyn-based musician McFerrin creates soul music with barely any instrumentation. Instead, she constructs music using her voice and the snapping or clapping of her hands looped over themselves, with what the New York Times described as “wonderful vocal dexterity, deftly swerving from sharp, clearly enunciated staccato bursts to fluttery, free-form melismata.”

McFerrin is the daughter of Grammy-Award-winning jazz musician Bobby McFerrin, whose pop-

ular song “Don’t Worry Be Happy” is the only a capella song to reach number one on the Billboard Top 100. McFerrin follows her father’s legacy of inventiveness in music.

After studying at Berklee College of Music, McFerrin released two EPs, “Finding Foundations, Vol. I” in 2016 and the second volume in 2018. Vol. I maintains joyfulness as McFerrin addresses ex-lovers and expresses the need to love yourself.

Her more recent release, “Finding Foundations: Vol. II” extends some of the same musical motifs as Vol. I, experimenting even more with layered a capella harmonies. Her track “Insane,” in which McFerrin sings about her obsession with a lover, shows her feelings through increasing tension and urgency built upon layered staccato harmonies, which provide a background for McFerrin’s lyrics.

Since McFerrin started releas-

ART BY CASSIDY CHRISTIANSEN

Zenizen and Madison McFerrin will perform this weekend in Gardner Lounge.

ing music, she has been gaining attention from listeners and critics. DJ Gilles Peterson featured her song “No Time To Lose” on “Brownswood Bubblers,” his series of compilations of emerging talent.

After that, she performed at the Arroyo Seco Weekend music festival in Pasadena, California.

In performance, she can be expected to pay tribute to the greats of music, like when she covered “Toxic” by Britney Spears at a recent show at Dartmouth College. She asks that the audience stand near her, to share in her music.

Also performing on Saturday is Zenizen, the musical project of Opal Hoyt. She is an Alaska native who has lived everywhere from Jamaica to Brooklyn, but records her music in Australia. The diversity of Hoyt’s past landscapes mirrors the variety of places her music brings its listeners. On the Zenizen Facebook page, Hoyt cites Minnie Riperton, Mariah Carey and London nu-jazz as her main influences. She also states that she “is committed to modern psychedelia, poetry and groove.” Zenizen’s songs are driven by melodic bass lines and hush drums, which provide a backdrop to her voice as it climbs and unfurls through her lyrics.

Her song “Follow the Leader” is based on her observations of a group of teenagers she saw in Australia. According to Pitchfork, “The song unfurls slowly and joyously, Hoyt’s voice lingering and echoing as she sings from the perspective of a group of friends waiting ‘with baited breath’ for a leader to guide their mischief.”

On a feature for Tidal, Hoyt lists five albums that have shaped her life, which included the soundtrack of Hairspray, “Spice” by The Spice Girls and “Black and White” by The Pointer Sisters. Though it might not be immediately obvious whether any sounds from these albums appear in Zenizen’s music, they are all reflected in Hoyt’s pleasing melodies, which pull listeners into her songs.

American pop music. Her most recent video is of her dancing a form of Indian classical to “Young, Dumb and Broke” by Khalid. She makes note every time she finds a potential song that she may want to dance to or choreograph.

Banik acknowledges the difficulty of keeping such an independent project consistent while also keeping up with her other commitments.

Sometimes it takes her up to a month to choreograph, dance, record and edit, reshooting until she is satisfied with her video. Nevertheless, the channel is building slowly but surely,

and has been met with great praise.

One of her recent videos, a cover on a song by a famous dancer, Kiran Jopale, received a shout out from the artist himself on Instagram.

“I picked up his choreography, filmed myself and put it up to my Instagram and just tagged him in it.

I didn’t think he would actually see it but he did,” Banik said. “He was like ‘This is very cool and I want to put it on my story.’ So I sent him the video and he featured a link of it.”

Having grown up with dance, Banik cannot imagine a life without it. Still, she admits there was a time when dancing didn’t hold much value to her.

“I was going through the weird stages of transitioning and my body was changing and it was uncomfortable and I [hated] it every part of it.

So between 12 and 15, I hated dancing,” she said. “But then I fell back in love with it. It’s like a part of my identity … that I couldn’t let go,” While Banik has not had time to take dance lessons recently, she still finds opportunities to dance whenever she can. Currently, she is planning to join the big Bollywood group that performs at the ISO Cultural Evening every year. She is also working on two new choreographies, one of which involves dancing in high heels.

While she admitted that she has not given much thought to dancing professionally, Banik smiled and added, “never say never.”

Writers@Grinnell: Douglas Trevor

CONTRIBUTED

Douglas Trevor read from his collection of short stories “The Book of Wonders.”

By Mayo Sueta suetamay@grinnell.edu Last Friday, March 2, Writers@ Grinnell welcomed author Douglas Trevor to campus to read from his newest book, “The Book of Wonders,” and answer questions about writing.

According to his website, Trevor’s novel “Girls I Know” won the 2013 Balcones Fiction Prize and his short story collection “The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space” won the 2005 Iowa Short Fiction Award. He was also a finalist for the 2006 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction.

He has been published in The Iowa Review, New Letters and the Michigan Quarterly Review, among others.

Professor Dean Bakopoulos, English, introduced Trevor at the lunch as an “accomplished writer” who is “known around the literary community as an incredibly nice and helpful guy.”

Trevor first talked about his newest short story collection, “The Book of Wonders.” Each student at the event received a free, signed copy.

“I kind of wanted to step back from the process of … working in the form of a longer narrative because I wanted to find a different voice for this book I was trying to write,” Trevor said.

As Trevor worked on some of the short stories in the collection, he found a similarity between the themes.

“I [was] working on these two stories that seemed utterly entirely different, and [I realized] that, actually, they’re connected … because they’re both thinking about the relationships that we have to books, and the rela-

tionship we have to learning and the relationship we have through books with other people,” Trevor said. “I was sort of interested in that experience and I started to think … I’m going to do a collection of stories and they’re all having something to do with failed relationships to one degree or another and some kind of investment in storytelling or some kind of relationship that people have with books.”

After reading from “Book of Wonders,” Trevor answered questions that students had about writing. One student asked advice on how to cut down stories and get used to getting rid of sentences that may not be necessary for a piece. To this, Trevor answered that it may not be the worst thing to have to cut stories down.

“It’s really hard because … we use the word revision but a lot of the time, we just use the word cut … because a lot of the time … what we do when we’re revising is, we take things out,” Trevor said. “So you might be the kind of writer whose early drafts of a ten page story is 30 pages long. And you just have to learn how to reduce, but it might be advantageous for you … to inhabit that and not feel like you need to short circuit that and try to leave things out before you know if you need them or not. It’s always better to have to cut something than to finish a story and feel like the story is empty in some way.”

Trevor added that the process of writing does not have to be linear.

“Write the part of the story that you’re most interested in first. … Inhabit that part and see what happens there.”

Opinions

Edited by fentonma@grinnell.edu

Film in Stock: Highlights of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival

by Martha Beliveau With the Oscars over, upsets and all, it’s time to look forward. The submissions and winners of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival make it hard not to get excited over the upcoming films that will grace our screens this year. In my more optimistic moments, I like to think this list of winners foreshadows a move toward more woman-centered and woman-created content, as well as content created by and about people of color. Here’s to cinema in 2018.

“And Breathe Normally” by Ísold Uggadóttir Writer-director Ísold Uggadóttir’s first full-length film focuses on the relationship between two women: a single mother from Iceland (played

by Kristín Thóra Haraldsdóttir) and a refugee from Guinea-Bissau (played

by Babetida Sadjo) as they struggle through systems of power. From the trailer, which was 75 percent in Icelandic, this film seems like no other, particularly because of the intensely specific relationship that serves as its foundation. “And Breathe Normally” won Uggadóttir Sundance’s Directing Award in the category of Dramatic World Cinema.

“Sorry to Bother You” by Boots Riley Directed by musician and firsttime director Boots Riley (yes, that Boots Riley), the cast of this film alone deems it worthy of a watch: Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Lakeith Stanfield, David Cross, Danny Glover and Steven Yeun all star. As

with any satire, the description of this film seems a bit ridiculous. According to interviews with the director, the film centers on a telemarketer (played by Stanfield) as he navigates structures of racism and classism in a not-so-parallel universe. While no description does the film justice, it definitely is at the top of my list this year. The film premiered at Sundance and should be in select theaters this summer.

“This Is Home: a Refugee Story” by Alexandra Shiva American documentary maker Alexandra Shiva follows four Syrian families living in Baltimore. Shiva’s notable other credit includes 2015’s Peabody Award-winner “How to Dance in Ohio,” which focuses on four autistic teenagers as they prepare for a school dance. As a reference for Shiva’s work, “How to Dance in Ohio,” documentary shows the filmmaker’s ability to let the subjects frame their own stories through the genre. From the reviews I’ve read, “This Is Home: a Refugee Story” similarly does not reinvent the genre, but uses the existing mold of documentary film to humanize a largely underrepresented group of people, a theme throughout Shiva’s work. “This Is Home: a Refugee Story” won the Audience Award in the category of World Cinema Documentary.

“Butterflies” by Tolga Karaçelik As the most entertaining 48 seconds I have ever spent, I highly recommend watching the teaser trailer for this film. Admittedly ridiculous, it depicts a man dressed in an astronaut suit in a rural village trying to get cattle to move out of the way while the theme music of “2001: A Space Odyssey” plays. The tagline of the film, in context of the teaser trailer, says it all: “There is nothing more danger-

Dusty

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by Phoebe Schreckinger

ous than an astronaut with nothing to lose.” Turkish director Tolga Karaçelik adds to the list of reasons why Turkish cinema is in the midst of a golden age with “Butterflies,” which follows three unknowingly-related siblings as they navigate life after their father passes away. Shot in just eighteen days, “Butterflies” follows Karaçelik’s other films “Toll Booth” (2010) and “Ivy” (2015), the latter of which was nominated for the same Sundance prize that “Butterflies” won, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in drama.

“The Tale” by Jennifer Fox As a warning, this film portrays childhood abuse very vividly, as it looks as writer-director Jennifer Fox’s own experiences in a fictionalized form. “The Tale” investigates how an adult navigates childhood trauma and the trick of time and memory. Fox previously directed several documentary films, most notably “Beirut: The Last Home Movie” (1986) and “My Reincarnation” (2011). Even more, Fox acted as her own cinematographer for three of her six films. Beyond the fascinatingly horrifying narrative, this film had to make the list out of my love for Laura Dern, which arose rather recently out of Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women” from 2015. Laura Dern has proven that she shines best in roles that demand subtlety, and “The Tale” sounds like such a venue for this talent. “The Tale” was submitted to Sundance in the category of U.S. Dramatic Competition.

Further notables from 2018 Sundance include “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” by Desiree Akhavan, “Monster” by Anthony Mandler, “The Kindergarten Teacher” by Sara Colangelo, “Monsters and Men” by Reinaldo Marcus Green and “Blaze” by Ethan Hawke.

Loudspeaker: The "Hounds of Love" are h(a)unting me

by Maxwell Fenton In 1978, a 19-year-old Kate Bush released her debut single “Wuthering Heights” on the EMI label. The eerie, falsetto-driven tribute to Emily Brontë’s equally unsettling novel was an unexpected hit, climbing to No. 1 on British music charts and remaining in the position for four weeks. This momentous event kicked off Bush’s career, firmly entrenching her in public consciousness as a daring and new voice in British music. What made Bush’s music so remarkable was not only its creative heft, but also her age and gender. It was particularly unusual for a young woman singer to gain such critical and commercial success, but also to do so by performing her own deeply personal and idiosyncratic material. The music industry at this point was dominated by male performers, songwriters, producers and executives. The female singers who enjoyed success did so by performing material written for them by men rather than their own creative visions.

But Kate Bush’s work flew in the face of this traditional order, combining her own deeply personal and innovative songwriting with unique instrumentation. It allowed for a creative vision that was uniquely hers rather than one purely at the behest of record companies or male writers.

Bush kept up a period of intense creativity after the release of

“Wuthering Heights.” She embarked on a number of major creative projects, creating four unique and boldly experimental records from 1978 to 1982. Though none of these records reached the commercial success of her debut single, they enjoyed remarkable critical success, leading one reviewer to call her albums “wholly unfettered mistress-pieces.” 1985 marked Kate Bush’s seventh year in the public eye. After a disappointing commercial debut for 1982’s “The Dreaming,” perhaps her most experimental album, Bush retreated to her family’s farmhouse in East Wickham.

In one of the barns, she constructed a large 48-track studio, allowing her to create music as she pleased. In the three years between 1982 and 1985, Bush took several months away from music to spend time with her family and boyfriend. She was creatively spent until January of 1984, when she began recording demos for a new album that would go down in music history. After a few years of planning and recording, Kate Bush re-entered music in 1985 with “Hounds of Love.”

It was particularly unusual for a young woman singer to gain such critical and commercial success, but also to do so by performing her own deeply personal and idiosyncratic material.

Like all of Bush’s music, this record would be fiercely creative.

“Hounds of Love” is ultimately two discrete, separate pieces of music, as the album consists of two distinct

The Scarlet & Black Staff Editors-in-Chief News Editors Features Editor Sports Editor Arts Editor Community Editor Opinions Editor Copy Editors Graphics Editor Photo Editor Video Editor Business Manager Staff Writer Honorary Editor

Lily Bohlke Emma Friedlander Alice Herman Candace Mettle Amanda Weber Jackson Schulte Mayo Sueta Ben Mikek Maxwell Fenton Kelly Page Chloe Wray Lica Ishida Andrew Tucker Helena Gruensteidl Riley Murphy Kate Irwin Grace Zabriskie

sides. The first side consists of more accessible, traditional art-pop tracks, while the second is a progressive symphonic suite about the fear of drowning while drifting in water. The first side of the album lends the album its name, and all of the five tracks on this side would become classic Bush tracks. Its opener, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” tackles Bush’s complex relationship with gender politics and femininity. The “deal with God” in the title is Bush’s request to “swap places” with a man, so that the two may understand each other’s perspectives, asking the lyrical question “we both matter, don’t we?” The song gradually grows in orchestration, starting and ending as a rollicking opener to a boldly experimental album. The album’s title track is next. “Hounds of Love” opens with a quote from British horror film “Night of the Demon” — “it's in the trees, it's coming!” Comparing the feeling of love with being pursued by hunting hounds, Bush’s vocal acrobatics are on full display as she imitates dogs howling and reaches an apex of passion when she declares she will “throw her shoes in the lake.”

The remainder of the first side is equally daring. “The Big Sky” is a song about misplaced childhood and finding pictures in the clouds. “Mother Stands for Comfort” sees a return to the disturbing in Bush’s work, a song about a mother murdering her child. “Cloudbusting” is an equally bizarre tribute to Austrian psychoanalyst-meets-American inventor Wilhelm Reich, who invented a gun to shoot at clouds to make rain, the aforementioned “cloudbuster” of the song. The wide array of topics and

themes is indicative of Bush’s creativity as an artist and musician. But for the unique lyrics and perspectives offered in these songs, they all generally follow traditional pop formats and are particularly accessible within Bush’s larger oeuvre. The flipside of the album, titled “The Ninth Wave,” represents some of Bush’s most experimental work. The entire second side consists of this experimental suite, the protagonist of which is drifting in the ocean with only a lifejacket to keep her afloat. The first song of this suite, “And Dream of Sheep,” describes to the listener that she is unable to sleep since she will drown, but “can’t be left to her imagination” because of what she will see. It is followed by “Under Ice,” a dream of the protagonist about the mysterious things that drift under ice floes while people skate on them.

“Cloudbusting” is an equally bizarre tribute to Austrian psychoanalyst-meets-American inventor Wilhelm Reich, who invented a gun to shoot at clouds to make rain, the aforementioned “cloudbuster” of the song.

As “The Ninth Wave” continues, its protagonist is slowly pulled under the water and begins to drown. Her hallucinations grow more strange and violent as she is deprived of oxygen.

The unsettling fantasy of “Under Ice” is followed by “Waking the Witch,” which begins with a chorus of voices and whale sounds commanding

the protagonist to wake up from her dreaming, before breaking down into a wildly orchestral and disturbing series of accusations — a chorus of demonic voices declares her to be “guilty” of the crime of witchcraft.

By “Jig of Life,” a conversation between the drowning woman and her future self in English pastoral style, there seems a real risk that she will die a drowning death. Her future commands her to “C’mon and let me live, girl!” as she pleas for the opportunity to live. But even this pleading does not reach her. In “Hello Earth,” reminiscent of funeral dirges, organ hymns, and orchestral music, the drowning woman is on the verge of death as rescue teams attempt to find her and “get her out of the waves.”

She has disconnected from her body, her consciousness floating as her life ebbs away and she sees the Earth below her. In a mournful nod to her Catholic upbringing, Bush includes Gregorian chants and Irish music as part of this focus on dying. But even as she is close to a drowning death, she gains renewed strength and survives in “The Morning Fog,” the closing track to “The Ninth Wave” suite.

As the more upbeat and pop-inspired song concludes, she promises she will tell all her loved ones how much she loves them and will live her life more fully in response to her near-death experience. Thirty-three years after the release of “Hounds of Love,” it is a record that remains startling in its subject matter as well as its sheer originality. As the album concludes, the listener is not only confronted with a lesson on the value of living fully but the full scope of Kate Bush’s creativity and artistic innovation.

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Looming.

Arbitrary Analysis Social Calendar

Fortune Cookies

Girl Scout Cookies

Snedge

This week, Maxwell Fenton '19 and Alice Herman '18 polled students asking: This Is Not My Beautiful House or This Is Not My Beautiful Wife?

Friday

7:15 p.m. Lady Bird @ Harris Cinema 9:00 p.m. Stand-Up Comedy Show @ Loose 1st Lounge

Saturday​

JRC

7:30 p.m. Image of an Unknown Young Woman @ Bucksbaum 191 - Flanagan Theater 9:00 p.m. Madison McFerrin / Zenizen @ Gardner Lounge 10:00 p.m. Mary B. James @ Harris Center

Pub Quiz 1. The Shape of Butt Juice 2. Egg Yolks and Dad Jones 3. Two Girls, One Pub, and Friends

Like what you see?

ARH

check us out:

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Rants & Raves:

ANDREW TUCKER

Smart Cookies The Signs as Witchy Singers

Aries: Björk Taurus: Charli XCX Gemini: Marina Diamandis Cancer: FKA Twigs Leo: Stevie Nicks Virgo: Grimes Libra: Taylor Momsen Scorpio: Lana del Rey Sagittarius: Azealia Banks Capricorn: Lorde Aquarius: Siouxsie Sioux Pisces: Sky Ferreira — Sister Aurora Impulse

Students speak about what’s on their minds in 80 words or fewer, and you’re invited! If you have a rant or a rave, email it to [newspapr] or [fentonma]

Blood bank blues

Mountains of Madness

Björked

Conveyor boys

Someone tell the blood bank to quit calling 15 times a day. There's one big reason why they don't want my blood

Here's hoping Guillermo del Toro's Best Director Oscar gets him the clout and cash to tackle Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

I'm a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl.

The traffic pattern at the exit to the dining hall needs a serious revision.

Placing silverware in the depository before setting down a tray has the potential to improve efficiency immensely.

- Hemo/Homo

- Wilbur Whateley

- Bachelorette

- something something

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