Vol. 14 Issue 4 by Backdrop Magazine

BACKDROP SPRING 2021

Melanin in the Media pg.6 Pizza with a Sweet and Spicy Twist

pg.14

How Music Heals Us pg.22

HomeGrown

pg.16 pg.14 backdropmagazine.com

Letter from the Editor

Taylor Linzinmeir | Editor-in-Chief backdropmag@gmail.com

Wow. What a year. At the beginning of the semester, the Executive Board and I talked about only publishing one magazine a semester instead of our usual two. We thought it would be too hard to complete our typical publication cycle due to the pandemic. But we produced four amazing magazines this year. Each magazine is a testament to the fact our team never gave up, no matter how hard publishing a magazine from home can be. This was thanks to people like Photo Editor Ellie Habel, who originally came on board to be the Assistant Photo Editor but stepped up so seamlessly to take on a harder role, and Associate Editor Abby Neff, whose courage to share her story in the Voices section on page 36 has truly inspired me. I’ve loved working with the Backdrop Newbies this year, like Staff Writers Aya Cathey and Caroline Gillen, Associate Editor Sophia Englehart, and Marketing Director Katie Hawkinson. Aya wrote a profile about recent graduate Lexi Murray on page 32 and Caroline wrote a story about pandemic tattoos on page 34. Sophia and Katie contributed with their stories on page 26 and 12, respectively. Although he isn’t new, I’ve also loved working with Jacob Durbin, who created the photostory on Blendon Woods on page 18. I have to acknowledge my Managing Editor Eleanor Bishop and Creative Director Ashley Laflin, who I have relied on so much during this experience. I wish people could see just how much hard work these two put in each issue, from dealing with me everyday to spending late nights designing and editing our magazine. In addition to her duties as Managing Editor, Eleanor also sat down with Nia Dumas to talk about the podcast Melanin in the Media on page 6. Ashley also put in extra work designing the infographic on page 16 with next year’s Creative Director Lainey Douglas. I am so excited to see Lainey’s incredible work in the issues to come. My time as Editor-in-Chief of Backdrop Magazine has come to an end, but I can’t help but be excited. I know that this magazine is in incredibly good hands with Maya Meade as next year’s Editor-inChief and Helen Widman as Managing Editor. You can get a sneak peak of Maya’s work in her story about Ohio University’s coronavirus response on page 8. You can also see Helen’s work in her story on how the definition of fitness is being rewritten on page 28. Although there aren’t enough words to express my gratitude for everyone who has made this year possible, I want to take the time to thank everyone on my Executive Board for their hard work. We truly could not have made this happen without the hard work and dedication from every one of you. Stay well,

backdrop | Spring 2021

SPRING 2021 » VOLUME 14 ISSUE 4

Interested in working with us? Backdrop is an award-winning, student-run magazine aimed at covering current events and culture with OU and Athens as our "backdrop." We are currently recruiting more people for our amazing staff. We have positions available for:

Writers Photographers Designers Social Media Content Creators And More!

If you're interested in joining our team, email backdropmag@gmail.com

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backdrop magazine EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TAYLOR LINZINMEIR MANAGING EDITOR ELEANOR BISHOP ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR HELEN WIDMAN WEB EDITOR NORA MCKEOWN COPY CHIEF LILY ROBY ASSISTANT COPY CHIEF GABRIELLA HAYES ASSOCIATE EDITORS SOPHIA ENGLEHART & ABBY NEFF

CREATIVE DIRECTOR ASHLEY LAFLIN ART DIRECTORS ABIGAIL SUMMERS & LAINEY DOUGLAS DESIGNERS MACEY ELDER, BROOKE GARRETT, JULIA GREENWOOD, CJ

HERR, KIRSTEN KETCHUM PHOTO EDITOR ELLIE HABEL SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR SARAH TODACK SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR & EVENT PLANNER MAYA MEADE MARKETING DIRECTOR KATIE HAWKINSON

SEE "HONEY,

SPICE AND EVERYTHING NICE" PAGE 14 Photo by Taylor Linzinmeir.

backdrop | Spring 2021

CONTENTS FEATURES USING SONGS TO SAVE LIVES

Music therapy can give people healing and comfort, both physically and emotionally. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

DONATING A SECOND CHANCE

This Backdropper is becoming a Living Kidney Donor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Q&A

PHOTO STORY

Nia Dumas uses her podcast to center Black voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Take a walk through Blendon Woods. . . . . . . . 18

NIA KNOWS BEST

THE DROP

PEEK INSIDE THE VAULT Take a look at the past, present and future of OU’s coronavirus precautions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

SO LONG, STANDARDIZED TESTING Why OU has chosen to keep test scores optional for admissions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

FOOD Cover by Dylan Benedict.

KINGS OF COURT STREET

Dive into North End Restaurant Group’s empire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

RECIPE

HONEY, SPICE AND EVERYTHING NICE

Spice things up with this honey, ricotta and red pepper pizza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

INFOGRAPHIC HOME GROWN

A PEACEFUL ESCAPE

HEALTH

REDEFINING FITNESS

These OU alums are paving their way in the online fitness world. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

THE BEAT

THE MAKING OF A MUSICIAN

OU alumna Lexi Murray is forging ahead with her music industry aspirations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

STYLE

GROWING PAINS

Local tattoo parlors have noticed increased demand for tattoos during the pandemic. . . . . 34

VOICES

A SURVIVOR'S STORY IN THE NEWSROOM One Backdropper shares their experience with sexual harassment while working for OU student media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Learn more about the local farms that supply your favorite Athens restaurants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

SPRING 2021 » VOLUME 14 ISSUE 4

backdropmagazine.com

Q&A

Nia knows best BY ELEANOR BISHOP | PHOTO PROVIDED BY NIA DUMAS

Nia Dumas is forging a new path in the OU media scene.

ia Dumas has long been committed to uplifting Black voices, including her own. The Ohio University junior is studying journalism and serves as the president of the Black Student Communications Caucus, OU’s Sigma Gamma Rho Eta Psi sorority chapter and the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Melanin in the Media, her new podcast, is a continuation of that mission. Since launching in February of 2020, Melanin in the Media has grown into a five-person team. Dumas does not have any plans to slow down any time soon.

WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR STARTING THIS PODCAST? One thing was that I didn’t really feel like I belonged at OU … even when I went to go look at The Post or things like that, they did not speak to me; when I walked into the newsrooms, no one looked like me, and then the stories they were covering … they cover large topics, but they don’t understand the subculture and the norms of those things. One thing [The Post] talked about was rap music, and they talked about a rapper like, “Oh he began rapping because he grew up without a dad,” and that lowkey irritated me because … there’s so much

backdrop | Spring 2021

more depth and nuance than that. You don’t understand how systemically that was done. Hip hop in itself is a subculture, and I got sick of people trying to tell our stories for the sake of “diversity and inclusion” when they didn’t have the knowledge to tell our stories. So, I created [the podcast] because I felt that we deserve to have a place where the Black narrative can thrive and feel comfortable.

HOW DID YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR CURRENT CO-HOST, MIKAELA WOODS, AND FORMER CO-HOST, MYLES JAY WORTMAN? I knew [Mikaela] from OU because she used to be a Photo-J major. Myles and I are both on the [Black Student Communications Caucus] board and we’re really good friends. Over the summer, we just said, ‘Let’s set a date, let’s revamp, what do we want to do over this pandemic break that we weren’t able to do? How do we want to refocus? How do we want to restructure the episodes as far as topics, as far as layout?’ And once we did that, we were set to go. That’s when we [added] a PR director, a social media manger, a content editor. All that came after and I’m just really appreciative of them.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TOPICS TO COVER? Usually, we will try to focus on something that involves OU, pertaining to the Black community or Black students at this age group. One thing we have to do first is ask, ‘What is one thing that sets us apart? … At the end of the day, we’re Black college students, so we know what Black college students are going through, especially at PWIs [Predominantly White Institutions]. So, that’s kind of what we focus on, what we feel is important. Sometimes we cover major events; when schools came back, we covered [the coronavirus] and how that affects people of color and we also talked about how Trump was meeting with rappers and things like that. We also go into topics that are very nuanced. One of our more popular episodes was “Appropriation vs. Appreciation,” where we talked about, particularly in the fashion industry, how they steal Black people’s ideas – which is nothing new. One of our latest episodes that we did was involving the inauguration and how Kamala Harris is the first woman of color [Vice President], but that doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed to criticize her just because she’s Black. Everyone’s open to criticism.

HAS THE PODCAST BEEN WELL RECEIVED? Actually, yes. I’m always shocked … It just always surprises me when people DM me, “Hi, I liked this episode of your podcast.” Someone emailed me a few weeks ago asking me if they could use an episode of the podcast and cite it in one of their textbooks ... It’s just always amazing to me, because I feel like, “Oh, people are actually listening.” Because, of course, listeners are important, but I started Melanin in the Media just because I’m a journalism major – this is what I love. This is what I crave to do; I like to make content. I just was like, “Ok, I’m going to produce content and whoever listens, listens, whoever doesn’t, doesn’t.” But overall, we get great feedback. It’s very humbling.

WHAT DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE OF MELANIN IN THE MEDIA? Within the next year, I would love to see my team expand … I want to do more within Melanin in the Media. Not everyone likes to listen to audio, so maybe [we’ll] have a video portion … people can watch it on YouTube. Right now, we’re working on a website, and we’re also working on producing other media content. I have my own podcast called Nia Knows Best, which is also under the Melanin and the Media brand. Mikaela … has something that we also produce called Molding Mindfulness that’s focused on spirituality from African and Native American cultures ... I just really want to create a place where

the Black narrative can thrive, and we can tell our stories. Years from now, I would like to have my own media company and have Melanin in the Media be a subdivision of that, where we produce podcasts for young creators. One thing I really want is to focus on young creators, especially going through college, because we kind of get ignored or thrown to the side. [It’s like], either you have your degree and you’re important or you’re not. That in-between space – nobody really talks about, so I would love to help young media professionals.

WHAT CAN OU STUDENT PUBLICATIONS DO TO BE MORE INCLUSIVE AND CREATE A MORE WELCOMING SPACE FOR STUDENTS OF COLOR? I feel like when people think about “diversity and inclusion” I think they think about it wrong. I think right now the term “diversity and inclusion” is just like, all minorities. [People say], ‘If we have a few Black people and a few women and a few Native Americans and a few Hispanics that’s diversity and inclusion’ — which it’s not that. I don’t like the term because that takes away from all of our independent struggles. There are struggles that only Black people experience. There are things that only the Latinx community experiences that I don’t experience, so I feel like grouping [us together for] “diversity and inclusion” takes away our separate voices. Just because we’re all minorities don’t mean we all have the same things. I think that’s one thing that OU, as a whole, needs to do. They need to rebrand that definition. I would also say step two [is], just because you know [something] is an important story that needs to be covered, [if your publication doesn’t] have anybody equipped to apply context to this story so that it can get told properly, then you shouldn’t tell that story, in my opinion. I think a lot of these publications are mainly white and male, and when you look at OU as a whole, it’s a PWI, so OU is just a microcosm of society, of course it’s going to be majority white. So, I feel like if you don’t understand the subcultures and norms of these things you shouldn’t tell the story … You write a story about how rappers don’t have dads, now someone reading that story who comes from a majority white neighborhood who doesn’t have experience with the Black community or other people of color, they’re going to think that’s the Godforsaken truth. Just because you think a story needs to be told and you’re not equipped to do that, you have to be like, 'If I tell this story will I be able to do it justice or am I doing it a disservice?' I would rather have publications not do anything at all than do something incorrectly. b

Melanin in the Media is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

backdropmagazine.com

THE DROP

peak inside the

An inside look at how OU has handled the pandemic. BY MAYA MEADE | ILLUSTRATION BY ABIGAIL SUMMERS

ince the start of the pandemic, over 500,000 people have died from contracting the coronavirus. According to the New York Times, the small community of Athens County has had 4,631 cases and 33 deaths. The Athens community faces additional challenges when dealing with the pandemic due to being the home of a college campus. Ohio University has implemented a combination of remote and hybrid learning since the spring of 2020, and there have been many adjustments and adaptations to the way students are learning and participating in campus life. With the coronavirus vaccine rolling out and the summer months approaching, OU announced plans for in-person events, summer orientation and classes for the fall semester in 2021. Dr. Gillian Ice, the special assistant to the president for public health operations, says that OU started using Vault, an online health resource that assists men with low testosterone, for their coronavirus tests this spring semester. Last summer, OU considered using Vault for the fall semester, but it was more expensive than other options, so they partnered with CVS once the tests became available to them later. “The logistics of managing the CVS approach to get to the point where we could test everybody just wasn’t as feasible for us as the Vault tests, because the

backdrop | Spring 2021

Vault tests can happen very quickly and people can move through very quickly with a small staff of on-site testers,” Ice says. The combination of efficiency and cost were only part of the decision to switch to Vault tests. Ice says that the “sensitivity and specificity” of the saliva tests that Vault conducts was stronger than the CVS nose swab tests, and result in fewer false negatives and false positives. Lily Degraw, a junior studying retail fashion merchandising at OU, shares her experience living offcampus during both the fall and spring semesters of the 2020-2021 academic year. Last semester, Degraw says that she and her seven roommates were contacted by the university twice about going to get a test for coronavirus but have not been contacted at all this semester. One change she thinks Athens County and OU leadership has made is the relaxing of restrictions. Ultimately, she just wants things to go back to normal. “I would much rather have in-person classes,” she says. “I would just love to go to one class right now that I [find] motivating and [am] involved in.” According to an email from OU President Duane Nellis, Degraw may get her wish. In the email sent to students on March 1, Nellis says, “I write today with good news about our university operations for the summer and fall semesters as we plan toward increased in-person offerings in and out of the classroom. I am pleased to share that we will welcome all students to our campuses this coming Fall Semester.” Kylee Baranek, a sophomore studying strategic communications, reflects on her experiences on campus this year and how she feels about OU including more in-person opportunities. “It makes me very nervous because corona’s not gone, clearly,” Baranek says. “I don’t know. I feel like if they added doing class in-person, I might go to a couple of classes, but events this spring, absolutely not.” The uncertainty of how many students will be vaccinated by the summer worries Baranek, but she hopes things will improve. Baranek lived in her sorority house in the fall and spring of this year and has already seen the differences in campus life as more people have returned each semester. “Last semester doing anything, anywhere the campus was empty,” she says. “It was so weird. This semester I’ll go and get coffee or go to Baker to do something and there’s so many more people. It’s just weird to see

because it’s like normal now.” With more students on campus, coronavirus testing and restrictions will continue on campus. “We anticipate that we’ll need testing through the fall at least,” Ice says. It depends on “the forecast of when the student age population will have access to the vaccine,” and if there “will be enough disruption in transmission so that the rates go down.” According to both Nellis and Ice, there is a lot of planning and uncertainty as the warmer months arrive, but the number of in-person events should still increase. Events like Bobcat Student Orientation, the summer orientation that takes place for incoming OU freshman, will be highly controlled with limited attendance, a mask requirement and social distancing. “They haven’t given me a final plan,” Ice says. “The way that this works is that they’re going to develop a [coronavirus] safety plan, and then a group of us will review it.” With plans still underway and many parts of the pandemic still unknown, the future is still full of uncertainties. While many things are shifting back to life before the pandemic, no one can be sure of the future of life on OU’s campus. Achieving the new normal is largely dependent on vaccines and students to gather responsibly. “The vaccine is going to change the way that the virus behaves,” Ice says. “It’s hard to know ahead of time until we have the data, how it’s going to change. We’re all just giving the best guesses at this point. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and come September, there’s no virus at all. I don’t think we’ll be there, but we can always dream.”b

“

We're all just giving the best guesses at this point.” GILLIAN ICE SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH OPERATIONS

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THE DROP

So Long, Standardized Testing

Universities across the country decided to suspend ACT and SAT requirements at the beginning of the pandemic, but Ohio University’s test-optional pathway is here to stay. BY ABBY NEFF | ILLUSTRATIONS BY BROOKE GARRETT

hen the coronavirus pandemic started, Ohio University took swift action to alter campus instruction. Students moved out of their dorms, campus buildings were shut down and classes were moved to virtual instruction. One of the most significant changes made by the administration was the elimination of the standardized test score requirement for freshman applying to OU. The initial announcement came in late June, when OU joined several universities in temporarily suspending the ACT and SAT test score requirement for freshman applying to their respective schools, including Harvard, Cornell and the University of Washington. Rob Callahan, the interim assistant vice president and director of undergraduate admissions at OU, says standardized test scores are less useful for predicting the success of prospective students. Rather, a student’s GPA and the rigor of the academic courses the individual took in high school are the two best indicators of

backdrop | Spring 2021

an incoming freshman’s capabilities. “So, a student who has a strong GPA, let’s say a three-plus or above, who’s exhausted the most rigorous curriculum available to them in their high school - those are the students that we know overtime, historically, tend to perform well in college level courses,” Callahan says. “While the assessments — the SAT and ACT scores — have some reliability, they’re less useful for predictable purposes.” According to a study released in 2014 by the National Association for College Admission counseling, students who took advantage of the test-optional pathway at their respective institutions, identified as “non-submitters” by researchers, provided several benefits for the university overall, including an expansion of applicant pools, an increase in minority student enrollments and allowed for students with learning differences to succeed. “The conversation around access is really important for Ohio University,” Callahan says. “And the assessments do create a

barrier to the application process.” OU has experienced a steady decline in enrollment since the fall semester of 2014, according to data provided by the university’s Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness. During the fall semester in 2019, there were 4,750 enrolled in the freshman cohort. In 2014, there were 5,374 students enrolled in that freshman class. Callahan says the reasons why OU didn’t eliminate the test score requirement sooner are nuanced and complicated. “Test scores impact selection processes for scholarships. They impact admission to more selective programs. They’re tied into national rankings. They’re tied into how we report to the state eligibility requirements and placement,” Callahan says. “So, there’s a lot of factors that are impacted.” Although financial aid offices can use standardized test scores to determine scholarship awards, a student will not be impacted if they decide not to submit. Valerie Miller, the director of the office

of student financial aid and scholarships, says the primary scholarship program for freshman applicants is the “OHIO Excellence Awards” program. “All admitted students receive full scholarship consideration, regardless of tests. In most cases, standardized test scores [ACT or SAT], if available, are considered only if doing so increases a student’s award eligibility,” Miller says. The Department of Psychology at Columbia University published a study in 2003 that focused on students that are usually stereotyped — Black, Hispanic, low-income and female students — and their performance on standardized tests. The researchers found that this group performed better on standardized tests when they were encouraged to view their academic difficulties as an opportunity to grow, rather than a fixed attribute due to their identity. “Being evaluated in a stereotyped domain is sufficient to trigger the trademark responses associated with stereotype threat — lack of enjoyment of the educational process, increased anxiety and stress, and, ultimately, underperformance,” the study says. McKenna Christy is an incoming freshman that didn’t submit a standardized test score when she applied to OU. She plans on studying journalism through the Innovation Scholars program. “I just felt it wasn’t a reflection on my intellect, and I have always struggled taking tests and especially standardized tests, so I knew the ACT was going to be hard for me,” she says. “And I could just never get my score up to where I thought [it] was a good representation of my skills in classes and classrooms.” Christy submitted other documents, like her transcripts, personal essay and activities, through Common App, a program that allows students to apply to more than 900 colleges worldwide. She says her high school has always placed pressure on students to study and perform well on the ACT and the SAT exams. “I personally think [the test-optional pathway] is great, because I know when I was a sophomore and even a freshman, it was my number one stressor. It wasn’t

even grades or my skillset. It was literally just the ACT,” Christy says. “And I felt that, at the time, I felt like I wouldn’t get in anywhere.” For Callahan, the test-optional pathway has been an important policy change, both personally and professionally. He says he’s happy to see institutions across the country increasing opportunities for students that come from underrepresented populations, as well as areas that don’t have appropriate access to training for exam preparation. Callahan grew up in southeastern Ohio and was a firstgeneration college student. “I joke because I’m still just a kid from the 740 ... I love — I really do appreciate the access component of our mission,” he says. b

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FOOD

Kings of Court Street North End Tacos owner David Cornwell shares how a family business turned into a new student staple. BY KATIE HAWKINSON | PHOTO BY DYLAN BENEDICT

argaritas and street tacos serve as the star of the menu for North End Kitchen and Bar. The upscale, modern bar is the newest addition to the ongoing transformation of the north end of Court Street. This is owner David Cornwell’s third restaurant on Court Street; his resume also includes J Bar and Courtside Pizza. Cornwell’s career as a restaurateur began in the late ‘90s when his dad (owner of Cornwell Properties) opened Courtside Pizza Kitchen. Fresh out of college, David took over as the restaurant manager as his dad lost interest in running a restaurant. By 2000, they chose to install a bar and make Courtside into the place it is today. “When I was in school … there wasn’t much going on in that block,” Cornwell says. “It was just a dead block. So when we put in Courtside, it kind of made that block take off a little bit.”

backdrop | Spring 2021

Cornwell maintained Courtside Pizza until 2011, when he purchased another student bar known as “The Junction.” After a total renovation, The J Bar was born. From a base line of four brick walls and not much else, Cornwell renovated J Bar into a student hangout worthy of its spot in the middle of Court Street. Two floors and two bars fill this student-loved space, and he’s worked to keep the charm of the original bar, with exposed brick and similar specials, like the famous “Junction Juice.” Cornwell’s newest restaurant opportunity came as a different Cornwell family business closed. Cornwell Jewelers, located at 77 North Court St., closed in 2019. The business had been serving uptown Athens since 1832 and was passed through his family for generations. When it came to deciding what to do with the property, the Cornwell’s decided they wanted to keep it. “Being around all the college students that work for us, I usually ask questions,” Cornwell says. “So when I asked what was missing in Athens, and a majority of students said a taco bar was what we were lacking.” From here, plans began to form for the new restaurant in the location. Today, the restaurant features a full bar and large garage doors that allow for indoor/outdoor dining. According to their website, the bar is themed around one of the building’s earlier iterations, a Pure Oil gas station. “We knew it was going to have an open-air, open ceiling, we knew we wanted it to have a new feel,” Cornwell said. “It was hard for us to set up a new building like it’s been there for a long time.” According to Cornwell, the creation of the restaurant was a collaborative project in almost every way. Jen Cornwell, David’s wife, developed

the menu, developing tacos, burritos and quesadillas. It has even expanded since opening, with new burritos and a separate brunch menu. For drinks, J Bar and Courtside Pizza’s bar manager created a menu that features 12 different kinds of tequila. As Ohio moves into spring, guests can be seen on the porch enjoying the latest margarita special or a breakfast quesadilla. Renovations and opening a restaurant during a pandemic presented several unique challenges to the North End. “It was difficult on one end to create a whole new restaurant based on a concept we’ve never done,” Cornwell said. “Adding in the pandemic added some more hoops to jump through.” Opening the restaurant itself was challenging. The opening was delayed from August to November, then pushed back to January. “We finally decided to open in January because we were like ‘When is this going to end?’” Cornwell says. “We needed to start getting a return on our investment.” While business has been successful since their opening, Cornwell says the pandemic is still providing obstacles to their business. Curfews, barriers and limited seating have all had to be quickly worked into plans since opening. “We were really excited about the garage doors, so we’re just waiting for a nice enough day that we can open them up all day,” Cornwell says. The open flow of the garage doors allows for a greater amount of air circulation, giving some extra protection as people return to bars for the spring. North End seeks to become another student bar staple, joining the ranks of Cornwell’s other properties that are known for good food, good drinks and good vibes. b

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RECIPE

HONEY, SPICE and everything

NICE

RECIPE & PHOTO BY TAYLOR LINZINMEIR

Grab a slice of something nice — and surprisingly sweet — with this honey, ricotta and red pepper pizza.

TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS | MAKES: 2 PIZZAS

Pizza Dough (makes two crusts):

Pizza toppings:

• 3 1/2-4 cups bread flour, plus more for rolling the dough

• 1 jar pizza sauce

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 bag shredded Italian cheese

• 1 packet instant dry yeast

• 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

• 2 teaspoons salt

• Honey to taste

• A few shakes of basil and oregano

• Red pepper flakes to taste

• 4 tablespoons olive oil • 1 1/2 cups warm water

backdrop | Spring 2021

Honey, ricotta and red pepper flakes make for a surprisingly sweet dish.

Pizza Dough:

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine flour, sugar, yeast, basil, oregano and salt in a bowl. 2. While mixing, add in water and 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Topping: • Once your dough is ready, top with as much sauce and shredded cheese you deem necessary.

3. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour a tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too dry, add more water a tablespoon at a time.

• Add a few dollops of ricotta cheese.

4. Flour a smooth surface, like a table or countertop, and knead the dough into a firm ball.

• When your pizza is ready, drizzle honey over top and

Bake for 15 minutes.

add a generous shaking of red pepper flakes.

5. Grease the inside of a large bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil and place the dough inside. Cover and let sit in a warm, dry place for one hour. 6. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Divide the dough into two balls on your floured surface. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes. 7. Roll the dough into two large circles and carefully place on oiled baking sheets.

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INFOGRAPHIC

Home Grown

Explore all the locally farmed food in and around Athens, Ohio. BY MAYA MEADE | ILLUSTRATIONS BY ASHLEY LAFLIN

High Bottom Farm | Guysville, Ohio High Bottom Farm practices an all natural diet, no hormones or antibiotics, and is free range when it comes to their animals.

Where to find it:

Athens Farmers Market, C&E Market, Green Edge Gardens CSA, Seaman’s Cardinal Super Market, The Village Bakery & Café

E GG S

HIGHBOTTOMFARM.COM

Melody Holler Farm | Pomeroy, Ohio Melody Holler Farm practices an all natural diet, no hormones or antibiotics, and is free range with their animals. They practice sustainable and regenerative agriculture. They offer 100% Grass-fed, A2/A2 raw milk herd shares, ground beef, heritage pastured pork and raised-on-mom rose veal.

Where to find it:

Curbside pickup at the farm

P ORK & BE E F

MELODYHOLLERFARM.COM

Starline Organics, LLC | Athens, Ohio Starline Organics LLC is a small-scale sustainable farm. They use sustainable farming practices as well as organic standards.

Where to find it:

Bakeries, restaurants, the Athens Farmers Market and microdistilleries within 20 miles of the farm

(740) 517-1032

backdrop | Spring 2021

GR A IN

Dexter Run Farms | Meigs County, Ohio Dexter Run Farms is the primary source of the Pork & Pickles brand. They raise and sell their product.

Where to find it:

Athens Farmers Market

PORKNPICKLES.COM/DEXTER-RUN-FARM-BEEF

P ORK , BE E F & PRODUCE

Green Edge Gardens | Amesville, Ohio Green Edge Gardens is a small scale indoor microgreen farm that produces all year round.

Where to find it:

Athens Farmers Market

(765) 413-2373

MU SHRO OMS & PRODUCE

Snowville Creamery | Pomeroy, Ohio Snowville Creamery sources their milk from small local farms where the cows can graze on grass and are fed non-GMO diets and have no artificial growth hormones.

Where to find it: Casa Nueva

SNOWVILLECREAMERY.COM

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MIL K , CRE A M, YOGUR T & CHE E SE

Shagbark Seed & Mill | Athens, Ohio Shagbark Seed & Mill offers Ohio-grown, certified organic dry beans and freshly milled grains. They also are sponsors of the Ohio Paw Paw Festival and Nelsonville Music Festival.

Where to find it:

Casa Nueva, the Athens Farmers Market, Athena Cinema, Avalanche Pizza

SHAGBARKMILL.COM

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DR Y BE A NS A ND F RE SHLY MIL L E D GR A INS backdropmagazine.com 17

PHOTO STORY

A PEACEFUL

ESCAPE BY JACOB DURBIN | PHOTOS BY JACOB DURBIN

backdrop | Spring 2021

A weathered wooden fence sits between the Brookside Trail and Ripple Rock Creek.

Blendon Woods serves as a refuge from daily life - especially during the pandemic.

hike through a park any time of year can serve as a peaceful escape from daily life. For residents of the Columbus area, there are many parks scattered around the city for anyone to enjoy at their leisure. BlendonWoods is situated on the northeast side of the city. With a heavy blanket of snow in the winter of 2021, its peaceful setting and diverse wildlife was a sight to behold. Located within the park are interconnected hiking and crosscountry skiing trails, dense forests and open meadows. “As you enter the park you are immediately immersed in the oakhickory forest,” says Heather Williamson, manager of Blendon Woods. “Blendon Woods is approx. 650 acres with a 118 acre Waterfowl Refuge, this is a great place to observe wildlife in a natural setting. More than 230 species of birds have been sighted at the park. . . In the winter we offer ice skating on our half-acre pond and cross country skiing.” Williamson has had a nearly two-decade career with Metro Parks, with her career beginning in 2001. She’s been the park manager at Blendon Woods for the past four years. “I am in charge of scheduling the ranger, naturalist and maintenance staff, maintain our operating budget, manage our natural resource plan and schedule the projects that improve the facilities/amenities in the park,” Williamson says. “I like being able to get out in the park and be involved.” Parks like Blendon Woods proved popular during the past year, serving as an escape from daily life amidst the pandemic. “I really enjoyed seeing all the families come out together as a unit to explore nature during the pandemic,” Williamson says. “Our attendance increased 40 percent in 2020. It makes me satisfied knowing that those folks chose to come to my park and that only pushes me to strive harder at providing the very best for the public. I love the outdoors and feel very blessed to have a career in something that I love doing everyday.” b

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A close-up of a red-bellied woodpecker seen from the observation deck at the end of the Lake Trail.

The Lake Trail features signs giving brief descriptions and stories about the wildlife found in the park.

backdrop | Spring 2021

A curious squirrel shows interest in having its picture taken.

Another bucolic view of Ripple Rock Creek.

“

I really enjoyed seeing all the families come out together as a unit to explore nature during the pandemic.” HEATHER WILLIAMSON MANAGER OF BLENDON WOODS

The Lake Trail features signs giving brief descriptions and stories about the wildlife found in the park.

Geese and ducks of various breeds gather at Thoreau Lake. Situated at the end of the Lake Trail within the Walden Waterfowl Refuge, this is a popular area for birdwatchers that has two observation decks, with one overlooking the lake.

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FEATURE

USING SONGS TO

SAVE LIVES Erin Spring, an Ohio University alumna and board-certified music therapist, emphasizes the importance of using music therapy to heal. BY HELEN WIDMAN | PHOTOS BY AMELIA HOLOWAY KRALES AND JEREMY HATFIELD

hospital patient with an aggressive brain tumor writhes in pain, shaking uncontrollably and gripping his son and daughter’s hands. The doctors and nurses have tried everything to calm his agitation, but to no avail. For a brief moment, the patient’s suffering seems endless. Enter Erin Spring, a board-certified music therapist (MTBC), who deftly whips out her guitar and starts to play the patient’s favorite country tunes by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, matching her playing speed to the rhythm of the patient’s agitation. Spring strums and sings until the patient starts to loosen his grip on his children. The patient begins to visibly relax while Spring matches his energy. Finally, he lies flat on the bed. His eyes are closed, and Spring’s gentle hum is the only thing keeping him calm. Experiences like this one, as told by Spring, are some of the ways that music therapy impacts lives. According to Very Well Mind, Music therapy is a profession in which music is used to confront physical, cognitive, social and emotional issues within a patient. Although it is traditionally associated with hospital patients, it can actually be used to help a wide variety of people. “[Music therapy is] really about providing people with an opportunity to use the arts for healing and wellness and learning,” Spring says.

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Spring, who became a certified music therapist in 2007, holds a bachelor and master’s degree in music and music therapy from Ohio University. In 2010, she founded Central Ohio Music Therapy, LLC, a private practice for music therapy. She currently serves as the organization’s executive director and is also an adjunct professor and supervisor for music therapy at OU. Although music therapy is still developing as a profession, the idea of healing with music has been around for centuries. According to the American Music Therapy Association website, “The 20th century profession formally began after World War I and World War II when community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, went to Veterans’ hospitals around the country to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars.” Spring says that the state of Ohio is looking to start licensing art and music therapists in order to increase access to their services, because many education and healthcare providers must hold a state license in order to be hired as therapists and for their clients to access music therapy services. Although MT-BC is a national certification for music therapists, according to the Certification Board for Music Therapists website, in most states it is not enough. The state licensing for

music therapy differs by state. Spring says that they hope to have a bill re-introduced in the Ohio Senate with bipartisan sponsors minority leader Senator Kenny Yuko and Senator Andrew Brenner. “We hope to have a companion bill introduced in the Ohio House, as well, this year,” she says. While there is no typical day-to-day routine of a music therapist, Spring says that she has been able to work with all age groups over the years, including hospice and neuro patients, elders and children. She also helps coordinate a children’s music therapy program at the Athens Library called “Sprouting Melodies.” At OU, students studying music therapy gain experience by working with this same variety of people. Lucy TschetterGaus, a sophomore at OU studying music therapy, says she discovered music therapy while volunteering at a clinic near her home in Roswell, Georgia, and pursued her passion for it at OU. “I think it’s really cool, because I think music therapy hasn't even reached its peak in discoveries yet, and to be in the major while it's kind of still developing and the public is getting to know more and more about it and how effective it is, it’s really cool,” Tschetter-Gaus says. “But obviously there are parts of the brain that can't be reached through physical

“

[Music therapy is] really about providing people with an opportunity to use the arts for healing and wellness and learning.” ERIN SPRING BOARD-CERTIFIED MUSIC THERAPIST

BELOW Erin Spring plays guitar to a hospice patient. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

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Erin Spring often plays music that is familiar to the patient. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

rehabilitation.” She is currently working with older adults from 80 to 90 for her practicum, trying to touch on physical and cognitive domains as well as practicing receptive music listening for relaxation. “Some common goals we have are [to] increase or maintain movement or increase [or] maintain relaxation [and] increase socialization since they haven't had a ton of visitors with [the coronavirus]." Tschetter-Gaus says. “A big one that we try to work on is socializing them with each other and with us.” Due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the last year, many people have been left isolated in their homes. They have been away from experiences that bring them joy. The preforming arts industry has taken a major financial hit, because concerts, performances and exhibits have been canceled or postponed. Despite not reaching every patient in-person this year, Spring says that music therapists rose to the occasion by bringing music therapy to patients virtually. “We, as a profession, you know, some of us had done some virtual telehealth before, but it wasn't a terribly common practice and doing music therapy via virtual is a challenge

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because of the timing,” Spring says. “But a lot of music therapists really jumped in and said ‘Okay, we have to figure this out,’ because all of a sudden so many of our clients are isolated and they're under stimulated and not able to socialize when they're having their whole world turned upside down like the rest of us.” Despite the challenges of shifting music therapy to a virtual platform to reach certain patients, Spring is pleased with how much outreach virtual music therapy has been able to achieve. “Music therapists really, I think, jumped in and met the challenge really well and innovated and provided so many virtual services to reach so many people and really now we can reach even more than we did before,” she says. Spring believes that the pandemic highlighted the importance of the arts. “I think one thing that the pandemic has really shown us is that music is really just so universal and so vital to our lives,” she says. “It's not just a luxury, the music and the arts, we need them, just as much as we need so many other things.” One important principle in music therapy is the iso-principle, which is a term coined in 1948 by Ira Altshulter that

defines the method of mood management Spring used to deescalate the brain tumor patient’s agitation. According to Music Therapy Time, a blog by Erin Seibert, MT-BC, the iso-principle plays a large role in the profession. “Everything in music therapy is about iso-principle,” Seibert writes. “You cannot connect to someone in an effective way without connecting to them emotionally, which also affects mentality and spirituality; or physiologically, which affects physicality. Engaging with others and mirroring their affect or emotional state is the most important way you can build rapport, garner trust, and more quickly connect to someone in music therapy.” Mood can play a role in the types of music people gravitate toward. Spring says that while people tend to naturally gravitate toward music that matches our mood, it is important to let ourselves feel any low emotions we have and then be able to move out of that state later. Tschetter-Gaus says that listening to sad music while sad can actually help an individual in the long run. “If you listen to happy music, then you're trying to suppress emotion, [but] if you can just listen to a sad song and feel sad you feel like this sense of relief because you're just experiencing the emotion full out,” Tschetter-Gaus says. Spring also says listening to sad music when sad oftentimes feels more correct than trying to forcefully engage in a happier activity. “Being able to listen to music that reflects how we're feeling, it can help us kind of get through that because music generally is an enjoyable thing, even if it is sad music,” Spring says. “And it gives us an opportunity to really, I think, sometimes feel our emotions more deeply and process them.” b

BELOW Erin Spring plays guitar and sings to a group in a nursing home. Spring has been able to play to hospice and neuro patients, elders and children over the years. | Photo by Jeremy Hatfield

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FEATURE

Donating a Second Chance

Ohio University sophomore (and Backdropper) Maya Meade shares her journey on what it’s like to be a living kidney donor. BY SOPHIA ENGLEHART | ILLUSTRATION BY ABIGAIL SUMMERS

aya Meade, a sophomore studying journalism and minoring in political science at Ohio University, is an organ donor. For Meade, it is more than a heart icon stamped on her driver’s license. Meade is a living donor, which means that she is choosing to donate one of her kidneys to almost a complete stranger while she is still living. “I don’t know him personally, the person that’s getting the kidney. I have never met him,” Meade says. This all started when Meade was babysitting for a woman who was trying to get a kidney donation for her father. “She found out that she was not approved to do the surgery,” Meade says. “And I was like, ‘Well, I know that you mentioned that your blood type was A negative; mine is, too. And since you couldn’t do this donation, I’ll at least go through the testing to see if I can do it.’” With that, Meade started the process of becoming a living organ donor and is scheduled to donate her kidney in May. “[It was] really spur of the moment,” Meade says. “When I offered it to her, I hadn’t really thought it through, but I just had the idea and I said it to her and I was like, ‘It could happen.’” According to the Donate Life Ohio website, living organ donation is a process when an individual voluntarily decides to donate an organ of choice to another person. That type of donation differs from a normal donation process, which usually occurs when a registered organ donor dies and their organs are utilized for living patients in need of a transplant. “For people to get a living donor, the benefits [are that it] generally decreases your time on waiting for

backdrop | Spring 2021

an organ because ... you can wait three to five years on the deceased donor list,” says Dana Mason, a former transplant social worker and the Independent Living Donor Advocate at Ohio State University. Mason says another benefit of a living donor is that they can undergo more tests and thus give more information about themselves. Mason works with donors to help them throughout the process of finding a recipient. Living Donor is a program directly affiliated with Ohio State University hospitals and consists of both a Living Kidney and Living Liver Donor program. The first step in the process of living organ donation is having matching blood types. Before the actual donation, living organ donors have to complete a series of qualifications, including a urine test, antibody screening, a psychological evaluation and other medical tests. At OSU, donors also have to be approved by a patient selection committee, which is when members of every medical department evaluate if the transplant should go through or if the organ should be donated to another person on the waiting list. This was the case for Meade, who is undergoing what she described as “a domino effect,” or what doctors call a kidney paired donation (KPD). Instead of directly donating to the original recipient, Meade’s kidney will be going to another, younger donor in need. Then that individual’s original donor will be giving their kidney to Meade’s original recipient. Due to her age compared to her recipient, Meade’s kidney has a longer life span and will benefit a younger patient in need of the kidney more than the original, older recipient.

“In that situation, what happens is you have one set of a donor and recipient. They [OSU] don’t feel that it’s not the right blood ... or tissue type or ... it may make more sense to have that organ go to a younger person,” Mason says. “Then what happens is you have another group of two people and they switched the donors.” Most bodies have a pair of kidneys that act as a filter for the organs, flushing out waste and cleaning the bloodstream. Typically, one kidney is used in the transplant process, and the remaining kidney is able to fully compensate for the rest of the body. “What happens is that [the] remaining kidney kind of increases in size to pick up the slack,” Mason says. “They won’t have the same level of kidney function ... but ... you gain about 75 percent to 80 percent of that kidney function [back].” Kidney donations, as stated by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, are the organs in highest demand for transplants, with currently 91,109 Americans waiting to receive a kidney. According to Mason, 3,011 people in Ohio are waiting for a transplant, and 2,246 of those are waiting for a kidney transplant. Meade had to go through several physical and psychological tests which she was able to complete them last semester while staying in her hometown of Oxford. “I started the process in August,” Meade says. “I think I had my first tests in September and then I was approved at the beginning of December. So it took a couple of months to do all of the tests.” Through the process of undergoing tests and prepping for donating, Meade’s family and the family she offered to donate have been a big source of support. “They’re supportive, but obviously they’re just nervous,” Meade says. “I’ve never had to do any kind of surgery and if they can’t come with me because of COVID, I think my mom might be very upset.” Despite having never been part of a major surgery, the transplant surgery is the last worry on Meade’s mind. Because of coronavirus protocol in hospitals, Meade will not be permitted to have visitors after she gets out of surgery or during the three days she will be in recovery, which is something she admits is stressful. “I’m not really afraid anything will go wrong,” she says. “But I think if I do have to do it alone, that’s kind of the scariest part. I don’t really want to have to stay in the hospital for three days alone.” As the countdown to Meade’s transplant surgery begins and things become more and more real, Meade hasn't wavered in her resolve. “When I told them [my parents] at first,they were like, ‘Why aren’t you like scared?’ I said, ‘There’s not really any reason to be scared,’” Meade says. “I had no reason not to. I just wanted to help someone that needed it.” b

copy & paste

Maya Meade is Backdrop's social media coordinator and event planner and next years editor-in- cheif.

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HEALTH

REDEFINING FITNESS Ohio University alums and fitness trainers Katie Filippi and Stefana Avara share their stories of social media success. BY HELEN WIDMAN | PHOTOS PROVIDED BY KATIE FILIPPI AND STEFANA AVARA

aintaining a healthy lifestyle can be a challenge for many college students — even without a global pandemic. For Katie Filippi, an Ohio University alumna, and Stefana Avara, a master’s student at OU, the obstacles are well worth it. Filippi, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in food nutrition and science in 2018, now lives in Hawaii and runs her own virtual fitness company, Nutrition Clearly. She also works part-time as a clinical dietician. Filippi filed an LLC for Nutrition Clearly before making the move to Hawaii with her husband in 2019, but she didn’t move forward with the business until months after they got settled. When the coronavirus shut the world down in early 2020, Filippi noticed the demand for virtual fitness training was increasing. Filippi says that although Nutrition Clearly was meant to be virtual from the start, she was worried about starting her virtual training during a time when so many people were struggling financially and losing jobs. “And I was like, is this even a good time? But it really didn't affect anything at all once I was doing it. People were still interested and still signed up to work with me,” she says. When she started at OU, Filippi says she was introverted, but becoming a Supplemental Instruction (SI) leader and a teaching assistant helped her get out of her shell. She started her fitness Instagram, now called @katiefilippi_rd, her sophomore year at OU, and the account has grown tremendously since then, especially during the pandemic. As of this March she has 119,000 followers. Although Filippi didn’t initially envision running a company, Nutrition Clearly has allowed her to be more creative in her career. “I think there's something that draws me to it, like the flexibility and doing it your own way [and] creating what you

backdrop | Spring 2021

want,” she says. “You can really do what makes you happy.” Like Filippi, Avara has grown her social media presence during the pandemic. Avara completed her undergraduate degree in 2020 and is currently studying for a dual master’s degree in business and sports administration. Avara has amassed a significant following on Instagram and TikTok under the name @defining.fitness. Her Instagram account currently has more than 70,000 followers. Avara originally started her fitness account on Instagram when she was a freshman at OU in 2017. She wanted to hold herself accountable during her fitness journey, but she deleted it because no one else was filming and posting fit-

“

I think there’s something that draws me to it, like the flexibility and doing it your own way [and] creating what you want. You can really do what makes you happy.” KATIE FILIPPI OHIO UNIVERSITY ALUMNA FOUNDER OF NUTRITION CLEARLY

Katie Filippi in Hawaii

Stefana Avara

ness content at the time. She remade the account in 2019 and started using TikTok in February of 2020 to post more fitness content. “That was before the pandemic, there wasn't a huge market for it,” Avara says. “And then, I remember I had my first ‘viral video,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I think that this could really grow.’” Although many of her TikToks have at least tens of thousands of views on them, the first time she broke a million views occurred in March 2020 with a video titled, “Grow Your Booty & Lose Weight at Home,” which gained more than 2.8 million views. Nearly a year later the TikTok account now has 370,000 followers and 5.7 million likes totaled across all videos. Aside from her role as a student and social media entrepreneur, Avara also is a certified personal trainer. Avara has worked with clients from 30 different countries since becoming certified in her sophomore year at OU. “I try to get my workout done in the morning and do all my filming in the morning and then I have my clients,” Avara says. “I work with about an average of 50 girls a month on a

rolling basis, and I do daily check-ins with them and just kind of make sure that they're doing okay every day. But it all comes down to time management and prioritizing the things that really matter.” Avara connects with her clients through various Facebook fitness communities every other month in order to create her own Facebook fitness group with them. “The Facebook program offers a community-based approach to fitness and motivation,” Avara says. “The women in the group get to communicate, connect and motivate each other during the month program. The program offers workouts, giveaways, recipes, one-on-one Facetimes with me and more.” She also offers personalized training online and in-person. “The personal training plan offers an individualized, wholistic approach to health,” Avara says. “The fitness guides are specifically tailored to each individual client and incorporate any equipment or goals the client has. People can register for personal training on my website.” Her website, definingfitness.org, has training and recipe guides available for purchase.

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Filippi working out at Ping

Filippi also works with her clients on a monthly basis. Her virtual bootcamps are available to purchase each month through the Nutrition Clearly website. “The whole drive behind what I do and the kinds of programs I offer, the services, it's very much for realizing [a client’s] potential and understand that they don't have to fit into what other people are doing to be successful,” Filippi says. “Health can be so many different things, and I don't think people can really understand that with how much diet culture there is, especially on social media,” she says. “ I think the vision is to just help people find their version of healthy and what that looks like for them.” Filippi also strives to focus on helping her clients break the cycle of doing things that aren’t working for them in order to figure out what does work. “It's easy to think of it as just, ‘What foods should I eat? What workouts should I do?’ And I think people do themselves a lot of disservice by just thinking about it [in] that way of what you should or shouldn't do,” Filippi says. “Be-

backdrop | Spring 2021

Filippi working out now

cause ‘should’ and ‘shouldn't’ means there's a right or wrong way. And when you think you're doing something wrong, you think you're failing, and that's what sabotages yourself, and you think you can't do it. I really work hard with my girls to say there is no ‘should’ or ‘shouldn't,’ it's just your way.” During the past year, Avara has also been able to foster an encouraging fitness community on her growing social media platforms. “I would say that the pandemic significantly helped my social media growth. And it definitely is a direct result of people looking for home alternatives, and just realizing that they have a lot more time on their hands,” Avara says. She says that the pandemic has given her the ability to create fitness content geared toward those looking for home workouts. It has also given her more time to connect with clients since she doesn’t have to work somewhere in-person. Posting content authentically and consistently also plays a factor in Avara’s social media success. Avara says that while it is important to be yourself and keep it real with your follow-

Avara at Ping Recreation Center at OU

ers about going out and enjoying life, you wouldn’t want to give them all the details about blacking out on Court Street. She advises smaller accounts to remember that there is a fine line between being transparent and maintaining a professional attitude and that posting content consistently is another essential. “Social media content creation for me is literally a full time job, I spend a lot of time creating my content, but it pays off,” she says. “You just have to be consistent.” Avara says she has been working on a project she plans to release in the near future and feels optimistic about it. “On top of that, I'm continuously increasing the amount of personal training clients I take each month, and also doing brand deals with bigger brands, which has been definitely a learning process to learn how to communicate professionally with companies on your own terms because no one teaches you that in undergrad,” she says. In terms of growth, Filippi also hopes to expand her virtual training programs in the next year to be accessible to a wider

range of clients. Her objective is to give her clients the option to train at their own pace, since all of the virtual bootcamps are currently based off of Filippi’s availability and schedule. As for living a healthy lifestyle in college, Filippi says, “Just going through college in general, I think people need to use that time to really think about the person that they want to be, because you're going into college, out of high school. And you're not going to be the same person when you go in and when you go out, so it's really thinking about what version of yourself do you want to be, what does that look like and what is it going to take for you to accomplish that.” b

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THE BEAT

The Making of a

Musician OU alumni Lexi Murray and Anthony Enos turned a dream into a reality. BY AYA CATHEY | PHOTOS BY ELLIE HABEL

“It would be awesome [to have a career in music] but the songwriting is more of my goal right now,” Murray says. “I love writing songs and experimenting with genres and arrangements. I think that comes from my experience in band and symphonic band. Whether I was playing the trumpet or being in a rock band, working with other people on arrangements was really cool to me.” She graduated with a dual degree in strategic communication and music production in December 2020. During her time as an undergraduate student, she was a member of several organizations, including the OU Audio Engineering Society (AES), OU Women In Media Industry (WIMI) and the OU Multimedia Society (OUMS). Murray took full advantage of her time at OU. In December 2019, she studied abroad through the OHIO Screenwriting and Documentary Storytelling program in Spain. As treasurer Lexi Murray is a singer, songwriter, and music of Turn It Gold, a nonprofit organization fighting to bring industry professional from Columbus, Ohio. awareness to childhood cancer, she has traveled to and volunteered in Houston, Texas. Additionally, Murray held two internships. She worked as a publicist for Kovert Creative, a communication, marketing, and entertainment firm in New York City, and more recently worked as a music assistant at Creative Control Entertainment, a music supervision agency in Los Angeles. During her time exi Murray has always had a love of music and at Creative Control, she was credited in several 2020 films, songwriting. She wrote her first song in the including Echo Boomers, Christmas in Vienna, Carlos second grade, played the piano and trumpet since Almaraz: Playing With Fire, and Feliz NaviDAD. elementary school and was in a band all through She was also a leader within her major. During her junior middle and high school. year, she successfully advocated for a baby grand piano to “The first song that I can remember writing was a shitty little be installed in the RTV studio of the Schoonover Center tune, but the music has always been in me,” Murray says. for Communications. Due to her efforts, countless music Murray is a singer, songwriter and music industry professional production students can easily access a piano and pursue their from Columbus, Ohio. She is an Ohio University alumnus music. In March 2020, Murray became the first student to and currently works as the PR Coordinator for the Guild of be inducted into the Dean’s Leadership Circle for her efforts Music Supervisors, a nonprofit with, according to its website, in acquiring the piano and her leadership roles in numerous “the mission to promote the craft of music supervision for the campus organizations. In November 2020, Murray performed mutual benefit of all media stakeholders in film, television, in the third annual Brick City Records Baker’s dozen concert games, advertising, trailers and emerging media.” series before graduating at the end of the semester. Murray aspires to be more directly involved in the music Murray is an experimental artist who doesn’t fit into a business. As a part of her studies at OU, she took classes focused single genre. She describes her style as pop overall, but more on the recording industry and they inspired her to pursue work accurately, alternative pop or soft rock. Her influences range in music production. Alongside songwriting, she is looking at from bands such as Journey and Mayday Parade to Sara professions in music supervision or licensing and copywriting.

backdrop | Spring 2021

Bareilles and Billy Joel. During the writing process, Murray pulls inspiration from everywhere. Sometimes, she is inspired by random lyrics and will write them down on her phone notes app. “I’ll play around with piano melodies, or get a random melody in my head, and sing it into my voice memos,” she says. “Later I’ll sit down at the piano and try to play what I sang in the memo. Usually, I’ll start with a theme based on emotion, and then I sit at the piano with chords I’ve written and dabble with melodies that fall within the key signature based on the chords I’ve written.” On Jan. 22, Murray debuted her first single, “Release,” and her second single, “Blasé Road,” was released on Feb. 19. Her most recent single, “Table 44” was released on March 26. She plans to come out with a few more songs before releasing the full 12 track EP. Murray wrote the vocals and piano of “Release” when she was 15 years old. At 16, she used her own drum kit to write the drumbeat. She also produced the bass with the help of a friend from her orchestra class. More recently, she hired musicians to play several parts, including the bass, ambient and lead guitar, to give the song the fullest sound possible. “It’s really exciting because that’s the song I started with for this whole series of music I’m releasing,” Murray says. “It’s my very first full song that I’m really proud of. It’s funny because I think the lyrics are more accurate to today’s world now than it was then. For instance, the line ‘say goodbye to the world you think you live in’ is like how we’re all trying to say goodbye to 2020. It’s cool how that ended up working out.” All three singles can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and YouTube.

“

I love writing songs and experimenting with genres and arrangements. I think that comes from my experience in band and symphonic band.” LEXI MURRAY OHIO UNIVERISTY ALUMNA Anthony Enos is a freelance audio engineer, a post-production specialist and a recent graduate of Ohio University. During his time at OU, he was a music producer and audio engineer at Brick City Records and befriended Murray through their audio

production and recording industry courses. He has produced three albums of his own and currently serves as the mixing and mastering engineer on Murray’s EP. Enos began contributing to the project last year. A passionate musician himself, Anthony started creating music around 14 years old and built his own studio. The two bonded over their young start to music production and their love of experimenting with multiple genres. “What makes me passionate about this project and the reason I offered to do it is because I know as an artist and an engineer that you want the project to be everything it can be,” Enos says. “To be honest, Lexi was really down about the project when she came to me and I would like to be a cheerleader for all the artists I work with.” He describes Murray’s style as pop, R&B, and alternative with a “Disney-esque” vibe, due to the princess-like sound of her voice. Enos also says Adele is a large influence on her, and the two often joke about how her songs are written “in the image that Adele would be singing them.” “We’ve been taking it a song at a time and addressing things together,” Enos says. “Each song started as instrumental tracks with one vocal track, and I suggested we rerecord some of them and get some doubles and harmonies in. She’s so talented and it’s really cool that everything is composed by her — the instrumentals sound awesome, as well as the vocals, and everything is coming together.” Enos has been a loyal friend and patient audio engineer. Since they are both detail-oriented artists, they dedicate a lot of time to re-recording and making sure every track is perfect. “Lexi is a perfectionist, so throughout the process, I’ve said, ‘Let’s re-record this. I know it will take longer and you don’t want to do it, but we’ll get a better product in the end.’ I started helping her on this EP because when things got tough, I didn’t want her to toss in the towel,” Enos says. Enos cherishes the opportunity to work with a friend rather than the acquaintances or strangers he usually completes projects with. “I would tell people to listen to Lexi’s album because you can tell there was a lot poured into it," Enos says. “This wasn’t a short process. It’s been over 3 years of writing and recording to get to everything where it is today. I would tell people that if you want to hear a project that someone really put their all into, this is the one.” Murray’s music is incredibly soulful because she puts her heart into every piece of her work. Her songs are written entirely by her and produced with live instrumentation for a lively and diverse sound. For those new to the music industry, her advice is this: “Remember why you made your music in the first place,” she says. “I feel like artists go through phases where they start to hate their music because they’ve listened to so many different versions of each mix and after recording it for so long, it is a very difficult mindset to get out of sometimes. It helps to keep in mind what your music means to you and remember it is all about that.” b

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STYLE

Growing PAINS

Citlali Elena gives a tattoo at Skin Hooked Tattoos where she is an apprentice at.

During the global pandemic, more and more people have turned to skin art to memorialize the growth and change they have endured. BY CAROLINE GILLEN | PHOTOS BY CITLALI ELENA

uring stressful times, humans sometimes have a habit of turning toward art and selfexpression. The coronavirus pandemic has caused dramatic growth and change, which many people have chosen to memorialize in the form of a tattoo. According to The New York Times, the sales for stick and poke kits, which are tattoos that can be done at home without a professional, have increased tremendously during the pandemic as people have been spending extra time inside their homes and have decided to create their own skin art. Tattoo shops have also felt the impact of the demands of tattoos. Skin Hooked Tattoos on Court Street has certainly felt the weight of the influx of tattoos when some of the pandemic restrictions were loosened, and the ink shop felt it once again when Ohio University students came back to campus. Citlali Elena graduated in 2019 from OU with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a concentration in painting and drawing, in addition to an art history minor. After graduating, Elena was mentored by Shawn

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Hooks, tattoo artist and owner of Skin Hooked Tattoos, as well as Charlie Vieregge, a tattooist and the shop manager. Elena practiced tattooing on fake skin and herself for a while before officially becoming a tattoo apprentice at Skin Hooked Tattoos. “I think people are kind of bored right now,” Elena said, sharing what she believes caused the spike in tattoos. “They want something to do that is interesting but not too dangerous, as we keep a safe practice at the shop. There have been a lot of first-timers coming in, those who have never had a tattoo before, and because I usually do minimalist stuff a lot of people come to me for their first tattoos and it’s really cute. I’ve been getting a lot of little flowers, mostly meant to represent growth during these times.” According to the Smithsonian Magazine, tattooing is one of humanity’s earliest art forms, dating back to 2000 BC. The art of tattoos is important to numerous cultures across the globe, from Native American culture and India’s henna to New Zealand’s Maori Tribe facial tattoos. Over the last few decades, tattoos have gradually made their way into pop culture. About 145 million United States citizens have at least one tattoo and the numbers

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A medusa tattoo on Emily Paris done by Citlali Elena at Skin Hooked Tattoos.

I got her handwriting saying ‘I love you,’ so she wouldn’t be mad.” SAMMIE COTTRELL OU FRESHMEN

are only continuing to grow. Sammie Cottrell, an OU freshman studying social work, got her first tattoo during the pandemic right after the national shut down was lifted. “I got two tattoos,” Cottrell said. “The one on the side of my forearm is my mom’s handwriting. The second one is right above my elbow and says, ‘Still I rise,’ and it is really meaningful to me. I have been thinking about getting a tattoo since I was 16 but have been putting it off because I had work or softball. The pandemic gave me the freedom to think about it and finally do it.” Not everyone in her immediate circle was too pleased by Cottrell’s decision to get tattoos. “My mom was really opposed to me getting tattoos and I knew she would at least prefer for me to get a tattoo that could be easily covered,” Cottrell said. “So I got her handwriting saying, ‘I love you,’ so she wouldn’t be mad.” Tattoos as an art form can help some people adapt to troubling or unfamiliar situations and symbolize how those obstacles were overcome. “A lot of people that come in after their tattoos tell me it’s a therapeutic experience because sometimes pain can be grounding and the way that the art is done,” Elena says. “It’s painful but there is also a relationship that is formed between the artist and person getting tattooed.” b

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VOICES

A SURVIVOR’S STORY IN THE NEWSROOM

Backdrop Associate Editor Abby Neff shares her story of sexual harassment in campus media at OU and explores the consequences brought forth by the lack of women in journalism. When I applied to Ohio University, I had to write a scholarship essay about my journalism experience. I focused on one article that I wrote with two other students about sexual assault and harassment at our high school. While I was reporting, I listened to teenage girls share their experiences with sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape. It was intense, but I never saw myself in any of their stories. I didn’t believe something like that could happen to me until last year when I was sexually harassed by an editor. I was working for a student publication at OU. I was a freshman. Newsrooms are often overcrowded with male journalists. According to a survey published in 2018 by the News Leaders Association, women make up about 41.7 percent of newsroom employees overall. The Women’s Media Center published a study in 2019 that examined the status of women in U.S. media. According to the WMC’s annual review, men still make up the majority of individuals in broadcast, print, internet and wire service outlets. Out of rank-and-file journalists, white women made up 30.4 percent of a newsroom. The issue is compounded when looking at race. According to WMC’s 2018 report on “The Status of Women of Color in U.S. Media,” also examining rank-and-file journalists, Black women only made up 2.78 %, Hispanic women were 2.71%, women of Asian descent were 2.63% and 0.04% were Hawaiian and Pacific Islander. Another survey by NLA in 2018 found that 0.25% of women in journalism overall were Native American, not including freelancers. After I read about the sexual harassment lawsuits filed against a journalism professor at OU, I decided it was time to come forward with my own experience of sexual harassment — not just as a student journalist, but as a woman in a society that silences survivors. The newsroom I was working in felt like a boy’s club. Most of my editors were male, and they were all friends. My relationship with one editor, in particular, started as a friendly and professional one. I was warned early in the

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STORY BY ABBY NEFF | ILLUSTRATIONS BY JULIA GREENWOOD semester that this editor had a history of making female staffers uncomfortable. The allegations included stories that he followed women home after parties and made possessive comments toward women who were in relationships with other people. Executive staff members told me I could come forward if he ever made me feel uncomfortable. I wanted to believe them. For a while I did, until it was clear I was on my own. One night, I was at a party and he was there. We sparked friendly conversation while other people passed by us. “What if they think we’re together?” he says to me as I sit against a wall beside him, watching the drunken people in the room cluster onto a couch. “What?” I reply. Silence followed. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2018 found that 59% of women and 27% of men say they were sexually harassed at work or outside of work. Among the women who say they were sexually harassed, over half claim it happened to them both in and outside of work. What I found interesting from this study was that Americans tended to be more concerned about men getting away with sexual harassment and survivors not being believed than men being fired prematurely. The experience I had with editors in this student publication was the opposite of that sentiment. I was promoted to a higher editing position and began working closely with this editor, even though I told him I didn’t want the position in the first place. I learned later he had the final say in hiring me. He was still my superior, as I was only an assistant editor. As a team, we worked well together. We shared editing styles, gathered staff writers to address grammar and clarifications for interviews — you know, journalism. Our relationship changed pretty quickly. He started approaching me while I studied in the journalism building between classes. He would send me messages through Slack, a messaging app for professional organizations, teasing me both publicly and privately. He would try to

distract me while I was editing articles in the newsroom. Eventually, he started to silo me into a separate room with him, away from the rest of our staff. I felt uncomfortable. I stopped going to the journalism building in between classes to avoid him. One night in the newsroom, he asked me how I felt about him in a personal, non-professional way. My stomach dropped and my blood grew cold. I remember thinking, “Is this really happening?” Finally, a colleague revealed to me that this editor had expressed a romantic and sexual interest in me and was sharing his feelings with the other executive staff members. No one was supposed to tell me. I resigned the next day. A Nieman report published in 2014 found that since the 1980s, the number of female students enrolled in communication schools was equal to their male counterparts — and sometimes exceeded to the majority. The same number of women as men enter the industry right after graduation. And yet, women bow out of the field earlier than men. According to researchers, the biggest reason for the decline is a difference in lifestyle for both men and women, such as family obligations and schedule flexibility. As a result, there is a lack of women at the top in leadership roles. What happens if someone like my editor has a better chance of getting a leadership role in the industry than me? When I resigned, I thought this editor might resign, too, or be removed. Executive staff members sent me texts and rang my phone off the line. One of them told me they had a bad feeling about the arrangement from the beginning. Another one told me I was going to be reprimanded for the professional issues associated with my decision, and that it was unfair I had requested this editor’s removal. I was overwhelmed with betrayal and anger, but most of all, I felt so alone. His friends, my superiors, expressed their support for him. He was not removed. In fact, he was promoted to one

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of the highest leadership positions at the publication. An executive staff member told me that no matter where I go and what newsroom I work in, there will always be a blend of personal and professional relationships. My relationship with this editor was neither personal nor professional. It was violating. I did not feel safe. My body did not feel safe. And I am not the only person who has felt that way because of a man. More importantly, I felt unsafe because of the system that allowed him to continue serving as an editor, despite his well-known history of predatory behavior. For the past year, I have felt so ashamed. It felt as though the situation was my fault, and that if I had said less, done more and kept my head down, it wouldn’t have happened to me. I felt like I had a target on my back if I ever decided to speak out. During that period of emotional isolation, I discovered bell hooks, a Black feminist author and social activist. A quote from her book, “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love,” resonated with me. She says, “The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead, patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.” Sexual harassment does not exclusively start in professional industries. It starts on campuses, in classrooms, at bars, at work, on the street. In order to heal, we must acknowledge what is broken. I don’t have any regrets, and I no longer feel guilty for sharing my story. Because it is just that: my story. Not his, not theirs, but mine. I am not a woman scorned. I’m on a path toward forgiveness, but not without seeking justice. b

I don’t have any regrets, and I no longer feel guilty for

sharing my story. Because it is just that: my story. Not his, not theirs, but mine. I am not a woman scorned. I’m on a path toward forgiveness, but not without seeking justice.” b The Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program can be reached at 740-591-4266. More information about SAOP can be found at https://www.saopseoh.org/. Any Ohio University student can reach OU’s Survivor Advocacy Program at 740-597-7233, and more information about the program can be found at https://www.ohio.edu/survivor.

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Exhibit A. BY DANTE CATANZARITE

Dante Catanzarite is an Ohio University student studying integrated media. He’s also the creator of clothing brand Inferno & Co. Here’s some of his work, in his own words:

LEFT This is my roommate Justin Carlson. While ordering samples of a women's romper for our summer collection, we accidentally received a men’s size! Capitalizing on this opportunity, we saw no better way to wear this romper other than having the Champagne of Beers (Miller High Life), while living the High Life. He looked so good, we’ve decided to release both a men’s and women's version of the romper this summer.

RIGHT A Sailor and a Cowboy exchange tales of old while wearing The Nautical sweater and our fall Mr. Mojo Risin’ jacket. These two items were pivotal in expanding our product uniqueness and diversity. We are constantly adding new men’s —and soon to be women’s—items!

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ABOVE

These shirts were a part of our first ever release. A little rough around the edges, but these boys emphasize their disregard for the opinions of others by their sheer ignorance. Some may call it trailblazing; some may be so bold as to call it pioneering.

ABOVE

The story of Inferno & Co. is of hard work, perseverance, vision, determination and sweat. But mostly, my sweat. I started the company amidst the pandemic with the central theme being clothing for “Grit n’ Grind.” Grit is a beautiful word, which simply means to have an unrelenting will to achieve one's goals. It not only fits my life philosophy, but furthermore Grit is ubiquitous and is not defined by race, color, creed, class or gender. Simply, my brand is merely a reflection of those striving to achieve the ultimate goal of “True Grit.”

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@BACKDROPMAG

Vol. 14 Issue 4

Articles inside

VOICES

THE BEAT

STYLE

HEALTH

Why OU has chosen to keep test scores optional for admissions

PHOTO STORY

DONATING A SECOND CHANCE

Take a look at the past, present and future of OU’s coronavirus precautions

Q&A