Tuesday, October 7, 2014 by The Brown Daily Herald

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BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 83

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

Panelists debate success of Hong Kong protests By MATTHEW JARRELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Five panelists and a large audience wrestled with the complex issues surrounding the recent protests in Hong Kong at a Watson Institute for International Studies-sponsored teach-in Monday. The event, “The Future of Democracy in Hong Kong,” focused on the historical roots, conflicting ideologies and uncertain future of the “Umbrella Revolution,” the current uprising that has captured the world’s attention as it reaches its third week. The protest pivots around the Chinese policy of controlling which candidates are

Legislation on gang activity faces fervent backlash Activists, professors question law’s definition of gangs, caution against potential applications By CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

When Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 signed gang sentencing enhancement legislation into law on July 1, he did so amidst widespread community opposition. Under the legislation, known as “criminal street gang enhancement,” prosecutors can seek an additional 10year sentence for “any person who is convicted of any felony that is knowingly committed for the benefit, at the direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang or criminal street gang member.” The gang enhancement legislation consists of joint bills in the House and Senate, known as the amended “Act Relating to Criminal Procedure.” Four days before Chafee signed the legislation, 22 community organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence and the Providence Youth Student Movement, sent Chafee a letter urging him to veto the bill. The groups detailed their concerns about the broad scope of the bill and the dangers of incarcerating vulnerable youths forced to commit crimes on behalf of gang leaders. Some community members’ » See GANGS, page 2

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allowed to run for Hong Kong’s chief executive office. Some of the panelists at the event expressed solidarity with the movement. Richard Boucher, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute, and Jeffrey Ngo, a Hong Kong native and student at New York University, discussed how they see the protest’s aims as legitimate and correct. Boucher — who served as a diplomat in Hong Kong from 1996 to 1999, the period during which China regained the territory from the British — stressed the uniqueness of Hong Kong’s people and culture, which he said could be lost by China handpicking the candidates that can run. “That sounds like Iranian democracy,” he said. Ngo, who has friends participating in the protests, highlighted the nonviolent and creative aspects of the » See HONG KONG, page 3

ASHLEY SO / HERALD

David Rezvani, visiting professor at Dartmouth, said at a teach-in about the Hong Kong protests Monday that the media has been misleading. “There would be panic” if military force were used, he added.

Code of conduct review slated for spring Policy review, which occurs every five years, will follow a 68 percent year-to-year rise in code violations By FRANCES CHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The University is preparing for its regular review of the Code of Student Conduct next semester in the context of a sharp increase in the number of code violations from the 2012-2013 academic year to the 2013-2014 academic year, according to the community report released last month by the Office of Student Life. The total number of violations increased by 68 percent, jumping from 141 reported incidents in the 20122013 academic year to 237 reported incidents last year, according to the report. One hundred sixty-three of these

violations were dealt with through Dean’s Hearings, which are reserved for violations that are more serious but do not warrant suspension or a permanent record. The number of these hearings is also up from the previous year, when there were 101, according to the report. The number of violations fluctuates annually and depends on several factors, said Yolanda Castillo-Appollonio, associate dean for student life. “It is within reason, and we’ve seen big jumps like this in the past,” she said. One main factor influencing the number of violations is whether the Department of Public Safety reports an incident to the Office of Student Life, Castillo-Appollonio said.

Another potential influence is the recent rise in the number of Community Directors, who are in charge of filling out reports for the residents of the buildings they oversee, she added. Copyright violations due to illegal uploading and downloading may have also affected the fluctuation, as they vary each year and depend on whether companies report incidents to the University, Castillo-Appollonio said. A task force convenes to review the Code of Student Conduct every five years, with the last review occurring in 2010. The task force this spring will include administrators from the Office of Student Life and will likely seek input from undergraduates involved with the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Brown Center for Students of Color and the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, as well

as graduate and medical students, Castillo-Appollonio said. “We will do community-wide presentations and take the community’s input before making our final recommendations,” Castillo-Appollonio added. In response to last spring’s widespread discussion of sexual assault, President Christina Paxson decided to appoint a separate task force to review sexual assault policy, The Herald reported at the time. The separate task force charged with reviewing sexual assault policy will keep the main task force apprised of its progress, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. More sexual assaults have been reported since Bita Shooshani was » See CODE, page 4

Brunonia for $1,000:

Community members compete on ‘Jeopardy!’ By BAYLOR KNOBLOCH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“The title character of this 2013 film was played by David Tomlinson, who was actually seen only in clips from a 1964 film,” read Alex Trebek to the nervous contestants, who waited with pens in hand. It was Final Jeopardy, and Matthew Price, an admission officer, was only $200 behind. As the music faded out, Price’s answer was revealed: “What is ‘Saving Mr. Banks’?” And with that, he had won $22,400, earning the title of “Jeopardy!” champion. This moment of victory aired Sept. 19, when he won one of two games in

FEATURE

which he appeared. He came home with a grand total of $23,400 — the additional $1,000 from his later game. “I won an episode on ‘Jeopardy!’” Price said, almost as if reminding himself of the surreal success. “I do wish I would have won more, but at the end of the day, I can still say I’m a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion. ‘I won on ‘Jeopardy!’’ is in my vocabulary.” Price’s love of trivia goes back to his childhood: The East Providence native was the runner-up in the state geography bee three years in a row, and his favorite book was “The World Almanac.” “Being intellectually curious is such a good quality for anyone to have,” Price said. “There are so many intellectually

Arts & Culture

curious people here on Brown’s campus, and ‘Jeopardy!’ is about learning broadly about so many things,” he added. “It’s a pretty good match, a pretty natural fit between us.” Price is not the only Brown representative on this season of “Jeopardy!,” which marks the show’s 31st year on the air. Sam Heft-Luthy ’16, a computer science and literary arts concentrator and former Herald senior staff writer, flew to Culver City, California, for filming Aug. 5, and his episode will air Oct. 24. The first step in qualifying to compete on “Jeopardy!” is an online test in which trivia lovers answer 50 questions, with 15 seconds allotted for each one. The top scorers from the preliminary round move on to audition in

Commentary

Artist Eduoard Duval-Carrié discusses Haiti’s history and his residency at John Carter Brown

Nudity in the Upspace unites students in celebration of holistic body image

Al-Salem ’17: Brown’s hookup culture promotes stigma against dating

Bai ’16: Making light of heavy political situations, like those in North Korea, is dangerous

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Professors, former diplomat discuss tensions defining the movement, contest China’s response

person in cities throughout the country — auditions from which only the best get the coveted call informing them that they will appear on the show. Heft-Luthy’s audition was in May, and he hunkered down to prepare. “Last year I had a pretty light finals load,” he said. “While other people were sitting on the Main Green reading their books, I had an atlas.” A couple of months later, HeftLuthy got “the call” while working as a software engineer. “I was in D.C. for the summer, but I was taking a trip to New York for the weekend and working from the office there,” he said. “I’m lost in this new office that’s like a crazy maze, and I look at my phone as I’m running around, and I » See JEOPARDY, page 2 t o d ay

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2 metro » GANGS, from page 1 disappointment, though less vocal since the bill’s passing, endures among a diverse range of groups focused on crime in Providence. The persistent opposition highlights contradictory opinions that have developed about crime’s prevalence in the city, its connection to gang activity and the proper approaches to stemming gang violence in affected communities. A contradictory consensus Whether violent crime rates have risen or fallen in Providence is still a matter of debate among community members and politicians. The concern over a recent increase in violent crime catalyzed prosecutors to seek a legal deterrent for gang-related violence, said Joee Lindbeck, special assistant attorney general. Specifically, the shooting death of 12-year-old Aynis Vargas at a graduation party in Hartford Park on June 15, 2013 served as “the impetus for the attorney general to look at what other states had done to combat crime,” said Amy Kempe, public information officer at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. Despite the shooting of Vargas — which the police found to be a result of gang-related violence between the Harriet Street gang, also known as HBlock, and a rival gang known as the Hartford Soldiers — some community members and scholars insist that crime has decreased dramatically in Providence and the violent crimes committed as part of gang activity remain rare and hard to measure. Stefano Bloch, a postdoctoral fellow in urban studies teaching URBN 1230: “Crime and the City” this semester, said cities in the United States have never been safer. This statement may be consistent with recent crime reports from the Providence Police Department. The rate of violent crimes citywide has decreased by 22 percent overall since last year, with a 44 percent decrease in incidents of aggravated assault with a firearm, a 31 percent decrease in robberies with a firearm and a 29 percent

decrease in general robberies, according to a recent weekly crime report. Though the homicide rate has not dropped dramatically, it has remained relatively consistent, numbering 13 so far this year, compared to 11 at the same time last year. When individuals claim crime has gone up or down, “we should always look at it with a raised eyebrow,” said Sean Varano, assistant professor of criminal justice at Roger Williams University’s School of Justice Studies. The prosecutors’ focus on the gangrelated death of Vargas is a case of allowing a particular violent incident to drive public policy, Varano said. “These highly charged emotional situations occur that are devastating to neighborhoods, to families, and we use those as rallying points to pass legislation that is far from perfect,” he added. Teny Gross, executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, who signed the letter to Chafee opposing the legislation, expressed similar concerns about the origins of the sentencing enhancement bill. “I think what was missing was a real discussion on the merits and the costs and the benefits. It passed on the heels of an incident, and that’s not the way an intelligent state in the northeastern United States should be passing laws,” Gross said. The enhancement law is not only a poor solution to the problem but also an added burden on taxpayers, Gross said. In a country with the highest rate of incarceration in the world, “we just committed to putting people in jail a lot longer,” he added. Bloch said the legislation is “an ideological strategy as much as it is a practical legal strategy.” “It’s really appeasing the general public who are engaged in a moral panic against crime,” he said. “Really all legislation like this is doing is speaking to the people who aren’t committing crimes in the first place and really aren’t victims of crime. They’re just paranoid.” Another major concern among critics of the law is the broad definition of what constitutes a gang, which Lindbeck said prosecutors developed after

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

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assessing 42 different states’ definitions. The Rhode Island sentencing enhancement law defines a “criminal street gang” as any “ongoing organization, association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities the commission of criminal or delinquent acts” and “having an identifiable name or common identifiable signs, colors or symbols” marking the group. But the 22 community groups wrote in their letter to Chafee that this definition is so broad that it has little value in distinguishing what a gang is. Though Kempe said the legislation would not be used for non-violent crimes, Varano said he is wary of this claim. “When someone says, ‘(I) promise … I’ll do the right thing,’ that doesn’t satisfy people,” Varano said. “The reality is it gives broad discretion to prosecutors and to the legal system to define certain individuals in groups as gangs. As the legislation is written, it’s exceptionally loose.” Under the legislation’s definition, graffiti writers who are part of tagging crews — groups of graffiti artists that come together to “collaborate on painting productions” and compete with other crews at painting — could

be considered gangs, Bloch said. The community groups’ letter to Chafee also cites graffiti as a pertinent example of the new law’s scope. “Only last year … the General Assembly made some graffiti offenses a felony, punishable by two years in prison. If this legislation passes, an 18-year-old who writes a recognizable gang sign on the side of a bus could face 12 years in prison,” the organizations wrote in the letter to Chafee prior to the bill’s passage. Solving the problem Bloch said the bill will do little to deter potential criminals. “Often, would-be criminals aren’t privy to what’s happening in the state legislature. They’re only confronted with it when they’re arraigned,” he said. Instead, reducing crime begins with investments in society, Gross said, adding that the responsibility for a solution to gang violence is community-wide. “It starts with better reading in elementary (schools). It starts with parents and better housing,” Gross said. The Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence offers a range of programs, including nonviolence training in prisons, adult reentry programs and year-round and summer employment opportunities for adults and youths from

» JEOPARDY, from page 1 see that I have a voicemail. For some reason the call didn’t come through, but I have a voicemail. So I’m running around this office and listening to the voicemail, and I hear, ‘Hi Sam, this is Laurie from ‘Jeopardy!’ Give me a call back when you can.’” He knew this was “the call” and spent the next three hours trying to write code while calling Laurie back every 30 seconds, he said. Finally, while running down the High Line to catch a bus, he made contact. “I finally got through while I was waiting for my bus. It was Laurie from ‘Jeopardy!,’ and they were inviting me to come out to the show in a month. The first thing that I said was, ‘Like, regular, adult ‘Jeopardy!’?’ And of course, when you say that out loud in a bus station, 12 people are like, ‘WHAT?!’” With only a month to prepare for the August film date, Heft-Luthy spent July preparing by making flashcards and studying old episodes. “This is about three months’ worth of back episodes,” he said as he pulled a marble composition book out of his backpack and began flipping through page after page of charts. “I think that it really is a retention thing for me.” In the standard pre-show interview,

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University admission officer Matthew Price poses with “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. Price appeared in two episodes last month, winning in the episode that aired Sept. 19. Heft-Luthy discussed his love of trivia at a young age. “Instead of allowance, when Kids Week was on, my parents would pay me 10 cents for every correct answer that I got,” he said. His love of the show continued, becoming the subject of his college application essay. “My admissions essay talked about how I always wanted to be on it, and how I’ve always been more breadth over depth,” he said. “I think that almost everything has the capacity to be cool and have something bizarre and interesting about it.”

While this may have made him a unique applicant, in Culver City, being a “Jeopardy!” fan is not out of the ordinary. The Hilton DoubleTree there even offers contestants a discounted rate. “There are ‘Jeopardy!’ contestants all around. You go down to the lobby and you see 12 other people with garment bags and stuff like that, and here I am with three loose shirts,” Heft-Luthy said, explaining that contestants bring multiple outfits in case they advance to the next round because episodes

are filmed back to back. “I don’t own a dry-cleaning bag or anything. I’m a 20-year-old kid. I was the youngest one of the group for sure.” Leonard Cooper ’17 had a similar experience when he competed in — and won — the February 2013 “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament. “I was a lot more relaxed going into it than everyone else,” Cooper said. “If you look at the last games, I was in the most casual thing they could possibly let me wear. I actually tried to go up wearing a Hendrix shirt.”

ages 14 to 17 considered to be at high risk of joining gangs or participating in gang-related activity. The institute also utilizes “street workers,” many of whom are former offenders, to respond to conflict on the street and become mentors for highrisk youth. Varano is also a member of the research team for Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce gang violence using federal, local and state resources. Providence received $150,000 in federal funding last October, according to a news release by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. Gross said he would welcome an opportunity to reconsider the bill and to engage in a collaborative and balanced discussion about solutions to gang violence. “We are way beyond in this intelligent society … locking them up and throwing away the key,” he said. “We can’t be working on rumors and fear.” When asked if any criminal sentences had been enhanced under the new law, Lindbeck said the law has been present for only three months. Though there are crimes committed recently that could fall under the law, she said those crimes are still being investigated. Despite this casual attire, Cooper walked away from the games with $75,000. Winning is not uncommon for the Brown community: Cathy Lanctot ’78 P’16 competed in the games in 2007, when she won five games and a total of $117,102. “Brown is a dynamic, intellectual place that doesn’t always take itself too seriously, because, after all, a lot of the questions on ‘Jeopardy!’ are not that serious,” Lanctot said, adding that Brown exposed her to a large variety of interests — perfect training for the game show. “If you told me lots of people from Brown had been on ‘Jeopardy!,’ it wouldn’t surprise me.” Heft-Luthy, just like all “Jeopardy!” contestants, is sworn to secrecy about the outcome of his game, or perhaps games, until the episode’s airdate. “It’s fun not telling people what happened,” Heft-Luthy said. “It’s so much fun to keep it a mystery.” But during filming, one gets caught up in the heat of the moment, leaving little time to think about winning. “You just go. It’s on, it’s happening, it’s over, you’re done, you go back or you don’t go back, and that’s it,” he said. Until the show airs, that is, when Heft-Luthy will get to relive the thrill of the game, and the results will finally be revealed.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

R.I. tops regional poverty rates The state’s people of color remain disproportionately affected by poverty, according to Census data

BY MARIYA BASHKATOVA, METRO EDITOR

Anti-Cianci group folds

An anti-Vincent “Buddy” Cianci group founded by former mayoral candidate Lorne Adrain folded before making any moves to attack the Cianci campaign, WPRI reported. Adrain told WPRI that he will instead gear his efforts toward endorsing Democratic mayoral candidate Jorge Elorza. The third party group had aimed to raise and invest between $500,000 and $1 million in an effort to fight Cianci’s mayoral bid. “Despite Buddy Cianci’s fiscal irresponsibility when he was mayor and the ripple effects his decisions still have on our city, after careful consideration, I believe the best use of my resources and time is to support Jorge Elorza,” Adrain said in a statement.

By DUNCAN GALLAGHER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In 2013, Rhode Island’s poverty rate rose to 14.3 percent — up from 13.7 percent in 2012 — the highest poverty rate in New England, according to data released Sept. 18 by the Census Bureau. This increase fell within the survey’s 1.2 percentage point margin of error. Rhode Island replaced Maine as the state with the highest poverty rate in New England. In 2012, Maine had a poverty rate of 14.9 percent, but this has since fallen to 14 percent. Despite its high ranking within New England, Rhode Island’s poverty rate remains lower than that of the entire nation, which was 15.8 percent in 2013. The poverty rate remains especially high for Rhode Islanders of color, according to a report based on Census Bureau data that was written by The Economic Progress Institute, a Rhode Island based nonprofit that seeks to improve the status of the state’s lowincome residents. In 2013, 37.6 percent of Hispanic or Latino residents and 30 percent of African American residents lived in households with an income below the federal poverty line. Kate Brewster, executive director of the Institute, noted that the change from last year to this year was “not statistically significant,” meaning that the variation fell within the survey’s margin of error. But in any case, “it sends a strong signal that the recovery has been too slow for too many people in our state.” While Rhode Island’s history with poverty cannot be attributed to any single economic phenomenon, many point to the widespread loss of manufacturing jobs over the course of the 20th century and their replacement

» HONG KONG, from page 1 movement. The protesters sit down, they sing songs, and it’s really difficult to see (a protest) anywhere in the world without broken glass and a burning bus. I’m very proud of that,” he said. Ngo displayed an image of protestors parting to let an ambulance through and the protesters’ signs used to indicate services available at the protest sites. Other panelists, while similarly sympathetic to the nonviolent nature of the protests, indicated skepticism of the movement and its potential success. Eli Friedman, a professor at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations, discussed the unrealistic nature of the protest’s goals. He began his remarks by investigating the history of modern China, how the nation has been shaped by imperialism and why that reality would make it difficult for China to accept a more autonomous Hong Kong. He cited the Chinese government’s “fundamental belief that China consists of almost all the territory that was controlled by the Qing dynasty

Elections Round-up

Mayoral candidates debate crime prevention

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with service sector jobs that, Brewster said, “just don’t pay.” Rhode Island’s former leading role in the textile and jewelry industries placed it among the many New England states that were “hard hit by deindustrialization,” said John Logan, professor of sociology. In contrast with the Boston area, which was able to replace its industry with development in other sectors, like health or finance, Rhode Island was not successful in facilitating growth in these areas. Logan said he was skeptical of the state government’s ability to make a meaningful impact on poverty in Rhode Island — calling discussion surrounding it, for the most part, “symbolic politics.” He also noted that lowering taxes on corporations

to create jobs was unlikely to effect meaningful change. Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, said more work could be done by the state to support education and training for those without work. Though the state has provided more housing-related assistance in recent years, many find it hard to move out of subsidized housing without the training necessary to reenter the workforce, he said. “Community organizations have been stretched to the max since the recession hit,” Brewster said. The government must facilitate workforce development and skill training for more competitive, higher earning jobs in order to “build a bridge to the middle class,” she added.

… including Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc” as a central tenet of Communist ideology. This idea arose from colonization and disintegration of the Chinese state early in the 20th century. He argued that any inkling of democracy or further autonomy in Hong Kong “raises the specter of the domino effect,” perhaps destabilizing Tibet or Xinjiang and jeopardizing the unity of China that Beijing treasures. David Rezvani, a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, discussed how media coverage of the protests can be misleading, arguing that the news media has perpetrated misconceptions surrounding the protest movement. China cannot take measures to crack down against Hong Kong because of the latter’s pivotal role in China’s economy, he said, adding that Hong Kong is China’s largest source of foreign direct investment and that “there would be a panic” if any aggressive military action were taken. Rezvani added that the media’s portrayal of the situation as a dispute between a group of pro-democracy citizens and Beijing is misleading. Instead, he said the dispute was between

those citizens and the Hong Kong business community, which abhors the concept of an internal democracy. Democracy would expand welfare and regulations, hampering Hong Kong’s relatively unfettered capitalism, he added. Robert Lee, an associate professor of American Studies, expanded on Rezvani’s points. The power of the business elite, Lee said, has created a suite of issues in Hong Kong that extend beyond a mere lack of democracy. As an example, he discussed how Indonesian and Philippino female migrant workers, who work under what he called terrible conditions, have primarily spearheaded the “unheralded and invisible Occupy movement.” Hong Kong has the greatest wealth inequality of any developed country and a huge housing crisis, Lee said, adding that the protests “mask a deep set of social fissures.” Ethnic tensions between Cantonese and Mandarin speakers may pose more of a barrier to improvement than the absence of democracy, he added. Student input reflected a variety of views. During the follow-up question-and-answer session, one student

Cianci announced his plans to improve public safety in Providence during a press conference Friday, WPRI reported. The mayoral candidate said that if elected, he will allocate funds toward police force expansion after eliminating excess spending from the city’s budget, WPRI reported. “As mayor, the first thing I’m going to do is order an audit of the city budget to identify waste, fraud and abuse,” Cianci said. But the Elorza campaign attacked Cianci’s history of crime prevention in Providence in a press release sent out the same day. “The Cianci record is characterized by rising crime, failure to implement community policing, constant political interference in the Providence Police Department and widespread corruption,” wrote David Ortiz, spokesman for the Elorza campaign, in the press release. Ortiz added that Cianci’s last six years as mayor were marked by an increase in violent crime in Providence, even though crime rates fell in Rhode Island and across the country. Between 1997 and 2002, Cianci’s last years in office, violent crime rates in Providence rose from 674.8 per 100,000 people in 1997 to 734.9 per 100,000 people in 2002. But Providence violent crime rates also showed a net decrease if analyzed over Cianci’s entire term from 1991 to 2002, Politifact reported. In the mayoral debate on Sept. 30, Elorza said he plans to apply for federal public safety grants and use the funds to increase the Providence police force to 490 officers. During his press conference, Cianci criticized Elorza’s plans to use federal grants, calling it impractical given current federal budget constraints, Rhode Island Public Radio reported.

Raimondo portrait removed

After Democratic candidate for governor Gina Raimondo accepted an endorsement from Planned Parenthood and spoke in support of abortion rights and access to women’s reproductive care, Raimondo’s alma mater, Catholic preparatory school La Salle Academy in Providence, removed her photograph from a wall of notable alums, the Providence Journal reported. Following days of controversy and press coverage over the decision, La Salle Academy took down all 25 photographs of alums from its “Wall of Notables,” because it had become a “distraction” to learning, La Salle Academy President Thomas Gerrow told the ProJo. Moving forward, the school hopes to establish criteria for determining whose pictures should go on the wall. Though U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a fellow La Salle alum, has also espoused pro-choice views on abortion, his photograph remained on the wall after Raimondo’s was taken down, RIPR reported. His photo was only removed from the wall along when the entire display was dismantled, the ProJo reported. Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence publically announced that Gina Raimondo deserved to lose her spot of recognition on the wall for her pro-abortion views. When Raimondo “distanced herself from the church, when she chose Planned Parenthood over the church, she took her own picture off the wall,” Tobin told WPRO. compared the current protests and the 1989 ones in Tiananmen Square, saying that the critical difference between them is that the majority of people on the mainland do not sympathize with the movement in Hong Kong. Another student questioned the attitudes of the protesters. The threat of staying in squares until all their needs are met “resembles us whining to our parents when we were little,” he said. Ngo responded, saying that the student’s claim undermines the seriousness of the issue. “What they’re calling for is legitimate,” he said. Audience reactions following the teach-in also demonstrated varying

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opinions. Jeron Impreso ’17 echoed Friedman’s thoughts on China’s opposition to the protesters’ calls. “If China decides to go along with ‘one country, two systems,’ and Hong Kong decides to become more autonomous, this conflicts with the idea of a united China,” he said. Lynn Ha ’17 also expressed concerns about full-scale implementation of Western-style democracy, though she approached the issue from the perspective of Hong Kong, rather than that of China. “It’s important to know that there’s a variety of systems out there, and you can’t just say, ‘democracy is the one for Hong Kong,’” she said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

This time around, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ fights the loneliness Chastain, McAvoy performances shine in film’s look at disrupted relationships, adding nuance to despair By DREW WILLIAMS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The comfortable silence draping the couple is interrupted by the end of the meal. The woman takes off her heels. “I’ll get a head start, then you follow when you think they aren’t looking,” she says. Seconds later, he sprints out of the restaurant, urging her on with the waiter in hot pursuit. Panting, they collapse together in a park, dine-and-dash successful. The two intertwined bodies are silhouettes in the grass, illuminated by swirling fireflies. “There’s only one heart in this body. Have mercy on me,” he says. So far, so rom-com. “Shut up,” she responds. This opening scene exemplifies “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” at its best. Never quite attempting to be heartbreaking, it stealthily shifts from cutesy to melancholy to a kind of wistfulness tinged with irrational optimism in its intimate look at a grieving couple and the impassable chasm that develops in their separate approaches to loss. In other words, it’s not about The

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Beatles. The woman, played by a technically perfect Jessica Chastain, is named Eleanor Rigby. Director Ned Benson deals with this particular mystery — is she the Eleanor Rigby? — quickly. “My parents stood next to each other waiting for a band to never show,” El intones to an inquisitive professor, describing the meet-cute that resulted in her name. But “Disappearance” is nothing if not a look at lonely people, all of them or just a pair. A few minutes in, a suicidal Eleanor combs the railings of a bridge, finding a suitable spot to scale in order to jump into the waters below. Her husband, Conor — played by James McAvoy — visits her in the hospital. Then she is gone. Much of the rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game. Conor is consistently one step behind in discovering the location of his wife, as is the couple in contemplating why the relationship has entered such tumultuous waters. Eleanor’s disappearance is both a semblance and a genuine act of desperation. Leaving her and Conor’s apartment in New York, she simply moves across the city to the house of her musician

mother and psychologist father, well within Conor’s tracking abilities. But she attempts to begin an entirely new life, going back to college for courses on the human condition in what may be both a ploy to gain the psychiatric help she refuses from her father and a way to remake her scarred past. (We learn she discontinued her dissertation on French artisans due to a pregnancy.) The film was created under unique circumstances — not as a complete work but as two separate ones, entitled “Him” and “Her,” each examining the perspective of its respective pronounbearer. Benson edited the films, which collectively run over three hours long, together into a meshed look at the relationship as a whole. For the sake of moviegoers, it’s probably good that he did. The ensemble cast is excellent, with Viola Davis as Eleanor’s professor-turned-shrink, William Hurt as Eleanor’s father and Ciarán Hinds as Conor’s father, a renowned New York restauranteur from whom Conor draws inspiration for his own sidewalk barrestaurant. But the script wastes much of this talent on the sort of overdone philosophizing that belies the incredible work that Chastain and McAvoy put in to make their characters three-dimensional. Meaningless lines like “we live in a

world full of probablys” and “a shooting star only lasts a second, but isn’t it better to have seen it?” simply take up screentime. No one except El and Conor has an answer to their relationship, leaving the audience wondering why Benson insists on repeating the question to anyone gracing the screen. The bright spot in the supporting actor category is Bill Hader as Conor’s best friend and business partner Stuart. Stuart is the mediocre chef at Conor’s failing restaurant and is the only thing stopping Conor’s character from being enveloped in tidal waves of despair — the sort of friend who questions him on why he refuses to ask for his father’s help and who throws kale at him when he deserves it. Conor’s quarter-life crisis adds a perfect foil to El’s more profound moroseness. In Hader and McAvoy’s best moments, the film hops genres to become a male version of “Girls” — something the director must recognize, as he blatantly steals a car accident scene from season one of the show. But McAvoy and Chastain undoubtedly carry the film, making up for its less disciplined screenwriting moments. As long-time lovers tend to do, they gravitate back toward each other, like magnets coming close but never quite touching. It’s these scenes that draw

IN CONVERSATION

Duval-Carrié: ‘It’s like building a hero’ Artist confronts reimagining of Haitian history, creates new landscapes to celebrate unique culture By ZACK BU CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The work of Edouard Duval-Carrié, artist-in-residence at the John Carter Brown Library, attempts to rebuild the lost narratives of history. A new book edited by Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice director Anthony Bogues, entitled “From the Revolution in the Tropics to Imagined Landscapes,” explores this and other dimensions of Duval-Carrié’s career. Bogues and Duval-Carrié gave a book talk and signing Monday evening in the center’s gallery. Duval-Carrié sat down with The Herald to discuss the collaborations that gave rise to the book, the nexus between his work and Haitian history and an art project he conceived especially for Brown, “The Many Faces of Toussaint L’Ouverture.” Herald: So you were born in Haiti, your family moved to Puerto Rico, you studied in Canada and France. How has your experience as a “global citizen” contributed to your aesthetic view? Duval-Carrié: Somebody I know said that I’m the most cosmopolitan of Haitian artists. I always wanted to be inserted into the history of Haitian art, or follow it through, or take it from where it was and move it to somewhere else. And I think that my work is totally entrenched in Haitian history and culture. I’m pushing it to become more of

a universal language, in the sense of the history of Haiti and the history of the new world. It’s not that specific of just Haiti — it’s all about slavery, it’s all about colonialism, it’s all about relationships between powerful countries and little nations. I’m very fascinated by the JCB here, where I was invited to consult on their vast collection of materials, not strictly on Haiti but the whole trans-Atlantic trade. All of this gets into my work. Your work has always been pretty colorful and kaleidoscopic. I’m wondering, what role does color play in your work? Well, it’s a trademark, and I’ve studied the ideas of Caribbean visions. After the Monroe Doctrine, the United States didn’t want all these islands to do business with Europe anymore. So people in the Caribbean were like, “How are we going to survive?” So the United States had to scramble to create new markets for whatever the products were in the Caribbean. They sent down a battery of artists to cover this, and they created an image to make it attractive to New York investors. In one sweep they created this idea of what the Caribbean should look like. I did a whole exhibit, called “Imaginary Landscapes,” revisiting these artists. So since we are talking about “Imaginary Landscapes,” it’s your perception of what the Caribbean is? It’s not just my perceptions. It’s what

these artists have created centuries ago, and I think that they created a fabricated image. Because if you look at them carefully, it’s all beautiful, lush landscapes. They are practically non-existent, so I’ve added to the imagination by putting my artworks at night. I just pushed to the ultimate, because if you go to the Caribbean, it’s very urban, very dense. My artwork is like a commentary on what they created. So this book, “From the Revolution in the Tropics to Imagined Landscapes,” is an overview of your art career. Did Bogues approach you for the book? Originally, it was just a catalog for the Pérez Art Museum at Miami, which presented “Imagined Landscapes.” But he wanted to do something more, so he did a whole study of my career. I’m pleased and happy. I provided images, and there are extensive interviews with me. Can you talk more about symbolism and connotations of your works in connection to the history of Haiti? Well, Haiti is a very complex country. It’s all of Africa in a very small space, because when the French came to colonize, they went to Africa and they picked up slaves from everywhere. And then the revolution happened, and all these people who never knew each other converged. They created a new language and a new religion, a religion called voodoo. It was the first black republic. They try to copy and try adopting a modern democracy. I think it’s really important in

the history. What do you think of voodoo, and what’s the relationship between your artworks and voodoo? I’d like to look at voodoo, because religion tells a lot about politics and what people think. I use it as a social commentary. I find it so fascinating that voodoo consists of so many religions, and it becomes more colorful the more I study it. Voodoo has about three hundred gods, a very crowded cosmogony. It’s always in flux. It plays a huge role in Haiti’s process of trying to become a modern democracy. Your exhibition here, “Many Faces of Toussaint L’Ouverture” — that’s specifically created for the University? I’m the first artist-in-residence at the JCB, which is really dedicated to the history of the New World. I’m delighted that I’m invited to create this little project. We talked about this idea of Toussiant L’Ouverture, who is a major figure who fights for freedoms for slaves in history. I’ve always been interested in him — he’s very controversial, he’s a monument. He’s a major figure that brought liberty for the whole African world. Even though he was the governor for Haiti and the first black general for the French army, there were no portraits of him. So we went through all the books that had imaginary images of him, and I played with that. It’s like building a hero. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

the audience in. Each failed attempt at recreating the opening scene’s bliss is more excruciating than the last, drawing well-deserved comparisons to 2010’s heart-rending relationship drama “Blue Valentine.” Chastain wears every look with the burden of a woman suffering from profound depression — someone tired of pretending to be okay but somehow unable to stop doing so. Eleanor’s every response is as forced as Chastain’s fake smiles are effortless. At times, McAvoy proves an unworthy foil, occasionally teetering into angry-schoolboy territory as he tries to win Eleanor back but always righting himself back into the role of a desperate man with nothing left to lose. At heart, Conor is a child anyway: While El tries to gain back her life by going to college, Conor follows her and regresses to the adolescent method of communication known as note-passing. The film’s most aesthetically striking shots are of Conor stalking Eleanor around New York. The people on the busy streets are oblivious and blurred, while a vibrant Eleanor stands out in stark contrast. This reoccurring visual underlies Benson’s central challenge — whether Conor and Eleanor’s relationship plunges them farther into a world of lonely people or whether it’s the only thing that can save them from it.

» CODE, from page 1 hired as the Coordinator of Sexual Assault Prevention and Advocacy in 2011, Klawunn added. But the increase in reported sexual assaults should be viewed in a positive light, since it likely results from an increase in reporting rather than in incidents, Shooshani said. Shooshani added that she believes students may feel more comfortable reporting incidents to her because “they know they have an advocate” when seeking her support. “The statistics about the prevalence rates have stayed the same over the years ... that one in five women and one in 33 men have experienced sexual assault,” she said. While more incidents of sexual assault have been reported, the number of reported incidents of sexual misconduct has remained relatively stable since Shooshani assumed her role. There were three reported incidents of sexual misconduct — defined in the report as conduct that “involves non-consensual physical contact of a sexual nature” or “includes one or more of the following: penetration, violent physical force, or injury” — in the 2013-2014 academic year. This number remained consistent with those reported in the two prior academic years.

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

fit to print

SATELLITE DINING JOSIAH’S Hummus Plate BLUE ROOM Chicken Saag and Avial Coconut Vegetable Curry Soups: Organic Butternut Squash, Turkey Sausage and Kale, Three Bean Chili ANDREWS COMMONS Pastas: Meatball, Mac and Cheese

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Italian Sausage and Pepper Sandwich, Beet and Kale Vegan Patty, Cajun Turkey Cutlet

Grecian Style Beef, Vegan Mediterranean Stew, Siena Roasted Couscous, Antipasto

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, Krinkle Cut Fries, Oreo Chocolate Chip Fudge Bar

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo Stir Fry, Swiss Steak, Chicken Soup with Tortellini, Garlic Bread

sudoku

ZEIN KHLEIF / HERALD

Misbah Noorani ’17 and Sophia Ashai ’16, campus representatives for the New York Times, advertise the paper’s Academic Pass, which gives Brown students and faculty members free access to content, in the Blue Room.

comics Cat Ears | Najatee’ McNeil ’17

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Los Angeles Times Puzzle c r o sDaily s w oCrossword rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 18th Greek letter 6 Instagram account creator 10 Gunpowder container 13 Contest submission 14 Campus sports gp. 15 Call, retro-style 16 Symbol of a good try 18 To be, to Cato 19 Just okay 20 Place to apply gloss 21 Use unwisely, as time 22 Movie for all 26 Organ near the stomach 29 Playground threat 32 Rips 33 Clash of clans 34 Ornamental pond fish 35 JFK postings 36 Straight-A student’s bane 38 Show sleepiness 39 Christmas tree 40 Follow one’s new job, in Realtorspeak 41 Private student 42 Go up alone 44 Persian Gulf ships 45 “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” author 48 Gaze intently 50 Before, to Frost 51 Like skyscrapers 55 Bee flat? 56 Noted O.J. Simpson attorney 59 Bone-dry 60 Bartlett cousin 61 Like the man of one’s dreams 62 Marry 63 ‘’Yeah, sure!’’ 64 Tractor maker

7 Check (out) 8 Musical skill 9 Singer in an interrogation room? 10 Musical inspired by “The Taming of the Shrew” 11 Fort Worth-toDallas direction 12 Merriment 15 Passed out cards 17 Caramel-topped custard dessert 21 Like some very bad pitches 23 Legal matter 24 God, in Grenoble 25 Reasons for school absences 26 Sheet music quintet, and with 31-Down, what the first letters of 16-, 22-, 36-, 45and 56-Across represent 27 Danger 28 “Seinfeld” cocreator 30 Farther down 31 See 26-Down 33 Progressive Insurance spokeswoman

36 “Dracula” star Lugosi 37 Furrow the fields 38 Christmas season 40 Part on stage 41 Muscle spasm 43 Destroy, as files 44 Premium plane seat, usually 46 Pee Wee in Brooklyn

47 Upright 48 “Pygmalion” playwright 49 Radial __ 52 Out of the wind 53 Goneril’s father 54 Country singer Lovett 56 Source of DVD warnings 57 Easy throw 58 Help out

Moving Parts | Odie ’17

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

calendar

10/07/14

TODAY 6 P.M. QUO VADIS, LATIN AMERICA?

Ricardo Lagos, former Chilean president and current University professor-at-large, will present on the geopolitical future of Latin America. A reception will follow the speech. Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum

TOMORROW 5 P.M. ERICA CHENOWETH — THE ELECTORAL DETERMINANTS OF COUNTERTERRORISM

Erica Chenoweth, one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2013, will speak on voting and its relation to international relations and peace. Watson Institute

7 P.M. PASS INTRO TO PHOTOSHOP

CIS sponsors a Photoshop class for those who wish to gain an introductory knowledge of the program. Sign-ups online. Watson Center 269

DOWN 1 Goes out with 2 Data 3 Classic Pontiacs 4 “Won’t you be my neighbor?” TV host 5 Nautical consent 6 Not up to the job By Ron Toth and C.C. Burnikel

8 P.M. REP. DAVID CICILLINE ’83

10/07/14

The Brown Democrats host a Rhode Island representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. He will discuss the current congressional climate and answer questions. Wilson 101

6 P.M. THROW OUT THE CAREER PATH AND FIND A JOB YOU LOVE

Joel Schwartz ’08 speaks on his undergraduate experience and how it has led to careers in asset managment, electrical engineering and medical entrepreneurship. CareerLAB 6:30 P.M. ‘MIAMI BOHEME: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL JOURNEY’

The director will speak following the film. Avon Cinema

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

EDITORIAL

Keep Providence safe, not just College Hill Last year, crime was at an all-time low in Providence, according to the 2013 reports released by the Providence Police Department. In tandem with the University’s increasing number of resources directed toward safety on College Hill, this means enhanced security for Brown students. There has been a big leap from just the blue light alarm system and SafeRide, as students now benefit from an expanded shuttle service and on-call shuttle routes, as well as the student-run Safewalk. In addition, more security personnel are now stationed at different locations around campus each evening. Of course, it is of utmost importance that students remain vigilant in Providence, just like in any other city. Unfortunate events do indeed occur. In May 2013, a student fell into a coma after being punched on Thayer Street. In January 2013, a student was attacked with a knife and crowbar, as well as robbed, by three men outside of what used to be the Gate. And a knife assault at the intersection of Brown and Waterman streets injured a student in October 2012. But today, the increasing number of services available on College Hill should ensure safer travel from point A to point B than ever before. While safety has improved in the area on and off campus, both the providers of the services and those who use them should be aware of residual issues that have sprung from reduced crime rates on and around College Hill. Creating a safety bubble around the University is a positive change for those it encompasses, but studies have shown that increased safety in urban areas — which leads to gentrification as upper-middleclass residents move back to the neighborhoods — often pushes crime to peripheral areas. In Providence, crime rates in Olneyville, South Providence and Chad Brown are the highest in the greater metropolitan area. All of these areas are situated just outside of College Hill. Such contingent issues should be addressed by both the Brown Department of Public Safety and the PPD as a joint force for the broader population. The Providence police already has community partnerships in places like Olneyville, and it should continue to maintain such connections in order to reach the most vulnerable spots in areas neighboring College Hill. But this also calls for students’ help. Brown students are also members of a larger community, and as citizens of Providence, they should get off campus to participate in the city whenever possible. University programs through Brown’s Swearer Center for Public Service (for example, Brown Elementary Arts Mentoring), as well as volunteer opportunities available in Providence, can help develop a larger safety network throughout the region, instead of localizing it on College Hill.

A N G E L IA WA N G

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

“It reminds you of all the parts of your body.” — Anne Fosburg ’17

See NUDITY on page 8.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: Natasha Bluth ’15, Alexander Kaplan ’15, Katherine Pollock ’16 and James Rattner ’15. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

Why are we scared of dating? SARA AL-SALEM opinions columnist

I started off freshman year with a loud declaration to the world that I was not going to fall for the first cute boy who smiled my way. I mean, my goodness, I was here for education! To strive to become a well-rounded human being! To gain experience for the real world! How could I have time for boys if I was planning on single-handedly conquering my own little version of the universe? That was the plan, at least. I had this armor set up before I even set foot on this campus, because I envisioned college to be one big romance-fest like I’d seen in all of my CW television shows: A bunch of attractive, hormonal 20-somethings landlocked on one campus. I thought walking through campus would be like darting Cupid at every corner, and I was not interested in that. I had to keep my head straight on my shoulders. But here’s the thing I majorly overlooked. I should have realized that CW is not a source on which I — or anyone, for that matter — should base beliefs. College is not a place where couples appear out of thin air. If anything, I’ve come to re-

sent just how much Brown’s dating scene emulates its academic system: an open curriculum that eschews typical dating regimes. To understand this, let’s dissect what constitutes “typical dating regimes.” For a drawn-out explanation, watch any chick flick available on Netflix, featuring characters that go on candle-lit dinners after professing their love to windowsills.

tlemen who kept a good 500-mile distance between themselves and any notion of dating, I’ve begun to accept that college is a place for 20-somethings to be as selfish as they can ever get. I think the rest of our lives will require us to sacrifice something as employees, parents or spouses. So why give up this fouryear period of pure self-interest to someone else when it’s most people’s

al,” but it’s within this hookup culture that the rare couples on campus exist. A lot of the couples I know are two people who spent every weekend “hooking up” only to realize, after several months, that they’d been exclusively hooking up with one another and that the commitment was not as terrible as previously perceived. So they begin to tentatively date, and voila! They turn into a

Brown’s dating scene emulates its academic system: an open curriculum that eschews typical dating regimes.

For a shorter explanation, dating is modern-day courting. A tango between two people, if you will. In place of an invitation to go out to dinner, there’s a Facebook message that reads, “What are you up to tonight?” Why would this upset me if I strolled into college without any intention for romance anyway? Valid question. Here’s why I’ve begun to pick at this wound that CW created: I thought I had a choice not to date. I didn’t realize it’d be set in stone. After fawning over certain gen-

only chance to let every selfish part of themselves unfurl? College students shy away from dating because love is not selfish. Without trying to sound like a worn-out Nicholas Sparks novel, I do think love is the most selfless thing someone can give himself or herself up to, and that is terrifying. But the campus of hormonal young adults still exists. So in place of dating, hookup culture begins. Here, nonchalance and masked emotions thrive. Everyone puts up a front that they’re “only trying to keep it casu-

couple. What is flawed about this system is that all those romantics who stay at home are doomed to stay single. It’s a grim-sounding conclusion, but it’s one I firmly believe is Brown’s curse. You’ll fall for someone who fits in either of these three categories: those who have been dating the same person long before coming to Brown, those who only meet romantic potentials in a hookup environment or those who are stuck in their own rooms with their own fears of the no-dating stigma on campus.

Some people might say this kind of culture of romance — or whatever this is — empowers every individual and breaks power norms. I do agree with the destruction of power norms and the idea that boys can only ask girls out, but I don’t believe this precludes dating. I think a campus can foster both empowerment and a dating culture without pitting the two against each other. Could it be possible to create a space that encourages equal dating platforms without shunning the idea of courtship and actually showing emotion and interest? Let’s remember those pining away by Faunce steps or writing that Brown Admirers post for the umpteenth time when we make grand statements like “dating is outdated and overrated.” Let’s strive toward a campus with more fluidity in its dating scene. I entered freshman year thinking I had a choice when it came to the outcome of my love life. But settling into my sophomore year, I realize it’s not really up to me anyway.

Sara Al-Salem ’17 is making the most elaborate move to let everyone know she’s single and ready to mingle and can be reached at sara_al-salem@brown.edu.

North Korea needs relief, just not through comedy DIANA BAI opinions columnist

I had originally finished the final sentence of this column last Tuesday. Because I consider completion of any kind a cause for celebration, I decided to shirk an assignment deadline and attend “Sounds of Music from North Korea: A Concert with Professor Cheol Woong Kim,” an event sponsored by the student organizations Liberation in North Korea, Korean International Students Association and Korean American Students Association. Following this concert, I returned to my room and proceeded to sidestep the finishing-induced gratification I felt only hours ago — as well as that same assignment deadline — to rewrite my column. To preface the following critique, I will first articulate my relationship to the concert’s general topic. North Korea frightens me. The political infrastructure, social isolation and general moral framework have three distinct human rights implications. First, the lack of a democratically structured justice system gives the government enough autonomy to commit human rights atrocities. Simply, extrajudicial cruelty can and does happen. Prison camps, buried in remote rural lands, are near-impossible to escape and have been compared to Russian gulags and Nazi concentration camps. Second, the isolation North Korean citizens experience creates either overwhelming fear or overwhelming reverence for the nation-state. Either way, this isolation promotes reactionary radicalism.

Third, the lack of commitment to international sovereign standards of morality leads other nations to fear North Korea’s engagement with nuclear technology. The international adoption of passive deterrence as a means to deal with North Korean threats, as opposed to more active alternatives, is a byproduct of this fear. So any time North Korea is brought up in conversation, my first reaction is to think of the unrelenting human rights violations and how any solution to stop their progression has

sation. Limitations do exist for speech. Speech can be contemptible. Speech has been the impetus for visceral harm. America’s emphasis on the First Amendment merely ensures that debates are about these limitations and where they exist. The First Amendment guarantees that such conversation about restriction stays a relative, rather than an absolute, one. In light of this relativity, I’m merely commenting on how speech — namely comedy about North Korea — may not necessarily cause visceral harm but actively works to

When levity is brought to a situation that neither solicits nor needs it, the perilous implication is normalization.

been idealistic at best. That’s why North Korea frightens me. The pervasiveness of North Korea as a source of comedy has been dangerous. Comedy functions to bring levity to situations in which it is both warranted and unwarranted, but the danger is acutely associated with the latter. I know I have just made a risky correlation. Freedom of speech is not only a constitutional right but also a fundamental dogma of the United States. Americans can be promised one thing absolutely: We have the right to hold beliefs and converse about them. And on the occasion that someone impedes these rights, there are sure to be free-speech radicals to defend you earnestly. Of course, this is a terribly general conver-

continue it. When levity is brought to a situation that neither solicits nor needs it, the perilous implication is normalization. Though I’m all too aware that violations occurring in North Korea are too embedded in a context of military conflict for activists alone to ameliorate them, these solemn matters should be thought of before Kim Jong Un’s sizable aesthetic, jokes of nukes and, most recently, James Franco’s folly. That said, I will regress back to the conversation of Cheol Woong Kim’s concert and what I found so distinctly problematic. Kim’s a funny guy. He was also a privileged North Korean child — one who drove a Mercedes and had his bouts with women and debauchery. Though not very evident from his

piano performance at Brown, he must also be a very gifted and skilled pianist, as he attended both the Pyongyang Conservatory of Music and Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. His defining moment of rebellion against North Korean tyranny was when he attempted to serenade a woman through Western music and got caught doing so. To find freedom for his hands and autonomy over his music, Kim left his affluent Pyongyang life behind and escaped to China. His presence on the Salomon stage was a testament to his found freedom. Now, this is not to demonize privilege. Nor is it to devalue the search for musical freedom. As a classical pianist who considered attending conservatory herself, I’m well aware of how essential liberation in musical selection is to a musician. Thus, this column is not to criticize Kim or his lifestyle, which was indeed more tumultuous than mine has been. Yet the picture he painted of North Korea was not one that has aided the North Korean liberation movement, and I walked out of his speech-laced performance radically upset with the picture he did paint: one full of extravagance and only soft chastisement of what is an utterly corrupted nation. Loosely translating his final words from Korean to English, Kim concluded by saying, “I do not have qualms with North Korean politics or infrastructure, I would just like to spread the value of having musical freedom and how essential that is.” Is it a stretch to call this statement propaganda? Perhaps. But I for one have plenty of problems with the North Korean government and human rights atrocities that went completely unaddressed by this pianist-turneddefector.

Diana Bai ’16 may be reached at diana_bai@brown.edu.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD arts & culture Nudity ‘becomes a forum’ in the Upspace This year’s events included nude yoga, body painting, a lecture series and a nude open mic event By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Four-, five- and six-fingered hand prints snake along Production Workshop Upspace’s walls, interspersed with questions and statements like “how many people have you seen naked?” and “#freethenipple,” all in multicolored chalk. A student plays a cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Mykonos” on his guitar while audience members peel off layers of clothing. PW’s third annual Nudity in the Upspace week of events began Monday with “Nude Arts and Crafts// Body Painting,” continuing throughout the week with nude yoga, a minilecture series on bodies in different contexts and a nude movie and board games night. The week culminated Friday with the centerpiece of Nudity in the Upspace — “A Piece of Devised Nudity” — and concluded Saturday with “Nude Open Mic Night.” The naked truth Nudity in the Upspace began with a stroke of luck in spring 2012. Part of a family that was extremely open about nudity, Becca Wolinsky ’14 said she conceived of the idea for Nudity in the Upspace during her sophomore year, after streaking in her first-year dorm and participating in the Naked Donut Run. She then entered her idea in the PW lottery, pulling in fellow sophomore Camila Pacheco-Fores ’14 as a co-coordinator for the event, she said. The pair returned to campus to see how Nudity in the Upspace evolved in their absence and performed at the open mic. Nudity in the Upspace aims to create a space to talk about how bodies interact in different ways, depending on different contexts, Pacheco-Fores said. “Part of that is stripping the body

of any of its additions,” she said, adding that the program ushers in discussions about body image, race and sexuality through nudity without the usual sexualized connotations. Though campus is perpetually abuzz with vocalized thoughts about these issues, Nudity in the Upspace provides an experiential angle to the slew of academic words, PachecoFores said. “The naked body becomes a forum.” In order for Nudity in the Upspace to function with the dynamic of respect and openness that defines it today, the event upholds strict guidelines. Phones and bags are forbidden, participants must respect all bodies within the space and all experiences shared must remain confidential — testimonials are not to be taken outside the Upspace. As each event begins, coordinators Cherise Morris ’16 and Sam Keamy-Minor ’16 repeat their upbeat mantra, “What is said here stays here, but what is learned here leaves here.” The guidelines exist to recognize the serious and personal nature of the thoughts expressed during Nudity in the Upspace, Wolinsky said. Anne Fosburg ’17 led her first nude yoga class Tuesday as part of Nudity in the Upspace. Yoga establishes a connection between mind and body, and being naked enhances the freedom that traditionally accompanies yoga, Fosburg said. “It reminds you of all the parts of your body.” Un-dress rehearsal While, in past years, the devised piece has run twice, this year it was performed three times at 6, 8 and 11 p.m. Friday. “The devised piece is the crux of it, for all of us,” Wolinsky said. Morris said the devised piece begins with the actors each performing monologues that they wrote. The individuals then come together after their monologues, presenting group sketches and more humorous segments. Morris said she looked out at the audience and saw three of her best

Q U I E T G R E E N E XC AVAT I O N

friends naked and crying. Overcome with emotion, she cried too hard to finish the piece’s last line, spoken in unison by all the actors. “I didn’t fully understand the impact this show is capable of making for some people who really resonated with some of the pieces,” Morris said. Though this year’s devised piece touched on many serious issues reverberating throughout campus — particularly race and gender —, the performers retained the “lighthearted, fun goofiness that has been a part of the week in the past,” PachecoFores said. Second skin Though the basic structure of Nudity in the Upspace has remained consistent throughout the past three years, the annual event has gone through ideological shifts since its conception. The event’s first year centered on concepts of body positivity and seeing the beauty in all human figures. And the second year moved towards selfacceptance, away from the mantra that one necessarily needs to love his or her body, Wolinsky said. This year’s theme rebounded back to body positivity, but through no intentional thematic direction by the coordinators, Morris said. Full exposure Nudity in the Upspace attracts a diverse crowd every year, consistently stuffing the Upspace to its limits. Nudity in the Upspace’s yearly demographic includes some of campus’ more devoted nudists, curious firstyears and students who want to “hear people share stories,” Wolinsky said. The diversity of Nudity in the Upspace’s audience sets it apart from the rest of PW’s productions, PachecoFores said, adding that the hype and publicity surrounding Nudity in the Upspace attracts a wider audience every year. Nudity is required during participation-based events such as yoga and body painting. For audience-based events like Open Mic Night and the

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Isobel Heck ’16, a Herald science and research editor, and Niyo Moraza Keeswood ’16 sift through excavated material as part of ARCH 1900: “The Archaeology of College Hill.” devised piece, clothing is optional. Some spectators de-layer throughout the night, creating an audience in various degrees of nudity — the underwear-clad join the fully sweatered and the birthday-suited, showing solidarity with and support for the nude performers, Wolinsky said. Nudity in the Upspace fosters a new way of learning that is experiential rather than academic, and participating as a naked audience member heightens this experience, Fosburg said. The urge to strip down as an audience member stems from the will to “shed a layer of my defense,” breaking down the “wall between spectator and performer,” Pacheco-Fores said. “It’s really powerful that this week can create a space where complete strangers are fine to show up and be so intimate together,” Morris said. Ria Vaidya ’16 attended nude body painting and the open mic for the past

two years. Coming from a conservative background, Vaidya said though many opportunities such as naked parties exist on campus to explore naked bodies in a public context, Nudity in the Upspace is the only event that explicitly creates a comfortable safe space. Vaidya added that the event has allowed her the chance to learn about different body shapes and sizes. Her conservative background has caused her discomfort with nakedness in other contexts, so the forum Nudity in the Upspace provides has been educational, she said. “We have our bodies for our entire lives, so they’re worth exploring,” Fosburg said. “Nakedness is provocative and it gets people in the room, but it gets people to talk about things that aren’t just nudity,” Wolinsky said. “The naked body makes it that much more powerful.”

Compilation album ‘Work’ clings to its underground roots Nicolas Jaar ’12 redefines music through boundarypushing sounds, rejecting mainstream influence By HISYAM TAKIUDIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

One word: Unconventional. This word links the many dimensions one can use to describe Other People’s new compilation album, “Work.” To start off, the album’s concept itself is nonconformist. Other People is a subscription-based imprint that releases new music every week to its users. Only naivete can drive a budding artist these days to refuse a deal with the big leagues or so music executives would think. As Nicolas Jaar ’12 — the mastermind of Other People and the curator of “Work” — said to the Guardian outright back in 2012, “I’m never going to sign for a major label, period.” That appears to be his running thought even now. “Work” is Jaar screaming opposition to big-name labels loud

REVIEW

and clear. The first track, titled “The President’s Answering Machine,” is actually a recording of an unanswered phone call, a direct jab at those who try to pull him from the underground scene. This theme echoes throughout the album. Oftentimes, listeners categorize music based on perceptions of respective genres, such as including Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” on your dance playlist and John Mayer’s “Paradise Valley” on your relax playlist. But that idea does not apply to “Work.” While a listener cannot simply place all of the tracks in a single category, it is immediately evident that “Work” lives up to the original ideals of electronica by touching on a wide range of musical elements. There are hints of jazz (“Freedom”), African tribal fusion (“B2 (Dub)”) and even Lana Del Rey-esque styling (“Things Behind the Sun”) lurking in every corner of the album. And this is not Other People

attempting to fuse genres for mainstream popularity like Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” and Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise.” Far from that, “Work” entails an exploration into the furthest reaches of its genre. It retells the excitement and passion for music, and Jaar has done a good job in ensuring that all the artists involved in this project share the same ideals. It’s made by and for the most enthusiastic music lovers. But upon further examination of the little details in “Work,” a greater stake emerges. Casual listeners would probably say that after the first half, the album diverts into nonsensical terrains. It may appear that way, given the prominence of white noise on the median track, “SSCS (Powell’s “Lift Off ” Mix),” which gives the initial impression that something has gone wrong with the recording. The track is probably the most genre-stretching opus on the album, and therefore is one of its strongest moments. It is unmistakably a postmodern art form, reshaping the confines by which we define music, much like how Marcel Duchamp shocked the world with his “Fountain” urinal art.

“Work” celebrates the flaws in sounds, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Laziness seems to mark much of today’s marketed music, but it would be hard to deny that “Work” has been fully thought through. As chaotic as the track may seem, Jelinek and Ancient Astronaut must have spent considerable time perfecting the sequencing in their “Work” piece “B2.” Each layer runs on different time signatures, and the result is as brilliant as it can be. Such technical details resonate across the album. “Work” masters its balance in sounds. A lot of artists struggle to do this — even those who have set foot in the industry for decades. This is where talent comes in. Darkside’s “What They Say” is perhaps the prime example of this. It’s like a perfectly woven piece of cloth, each layer threading through the other seamlessly without disrupting each other’s presence. The album is indeed an impressive collection, but, despite tracks like “What They Say,” it is far from perfect. The idea of unconventionality seems to

oversaturate the album. It takes guts and succeeds at times but shows cracks in the weaker tracks like “Gone Too Soon,” another Darkside track. Even ignoring the repetitive and generic lyrics, the group’s attempts to deviate land it on the mainstream road. A big chunk of it feels very Pharrell-produced. There’s even a direct sampling from Pharrell’s “Come Get It Bae.” It is by far the most forgettable song on the album. Unoriginality persists at times. “Things Behind the Sun” not only sounds like it could have come out of Del Rey’s “Ultraviolence,” but the vocalist Tamara actually possesses an eerily similar voice. It’s still a haunting track and perhaps the most marketable. Overall, the spirit of nonconformity takes a toll on the album’s brilliance. The enforcement of that idea exhausts listeners. There’s a point when enough is enough. But perhaps that’s why this album deserves some respect. It takes a lot of risks, landing in territories most artists avoid. Despite some imperfections, “Work” remains a sumptuous offering.