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RELAUNCHES REPARATIONS CAMPAIGN

Moda Board and Designer Apologize for Use of Photos of Torture

By EMMA JANSSEN | Deputy News Editor and KATHERINE WEAVER | News Reporter

Content warning: This article contains discussions of the sexual abuse, torture, deaths, and other human rights abuses which occurred in the Abu Ghraib prison.

Following social media backlash, a former designer at Moda, a fashion design–focused RSO, has apologized for including images of torture victims from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in a “mood board” about his

winter fashion collection posted February 24 on Moda’s blog.

Second-year Jake Quinlan’s designs prompted a series of apologies from various branches of Moda, which comprises a blog, magazine, and board that organizes an annual fashion show. Quinlan, who has since been dismissed from Moda, also apologized for his designs in a statement to The Maroon

“In my intellectualization and abstraction of subjects of violence I am fully aware I have inadvertently contributed to their marginalization. I take full responsibility for my failings and apologize for the distress I have caused through my attempted use of the collectivist Moda platform,” Quinlan wrote in an apology statement emailed to The Maroon. “This is a very public failing of my social, moral, and ethical obligations as an artist to consider the entire context of my work, and I apologize to all those who have been harmed.”

The situation centered around a profile of Quinlan published on February 24 on Moda’s blog, which featured a “mood board” that contained two photographs depicting the torture of detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. The inclusion of the images in a piece meant to depict the designer’s inspiration for his collection sparked widespread controversy on campus and on social media. Quinlan’s collection did not debut at the Moda Winter Fashion Show, despite earlier plans.

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Yancy, Hone Advance to Fifth Ward Runoff as Lightfoot Loses Mayoral Race

By MICHAEL McCLURE | Managing Editor

Fifth Ward aldermanic candidates Desmon Yancy and Martina “Tina” Hone will advance to a runoff election on April 4. They accumulated the two highest vote counts among the 11 candidates running to replace incumbent Leslie Hairston, who is retiring after 24 years in office. Full results from the February 28 election were released today with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Yancy, a community organizer and police accountability activist from South Shore, earned 25.97 percent of the vote, while Hone, a University of Chicago alum who most recently worked as the city’s chief engagement officer, earned 18.58 percent. Behind them, in order, were Renita Ward, Wallace Goode, Jocelyn Hare, Joshua Gray, Kris Levy, Gabriel Piemonte, Dialika “Dee” Perkins, Marlene Fisher, and Robert Palmer.

Meanwhile, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to make the mayoral runoff election, losing out to Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson. Lightfoot finished a distant third with 94,890 votes, just over half that of Val-

las. She conceded the race Tuesday evening at 8:45 p.m., less than two hours after polls closed. Lightfoot and the other outgoing City Hall leaders will officially step down in the middle of May.

Vallas, the former superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools and the race’s political moderate, earned 185,743 votes for 32.9 percent of ballots cast. In the April 4 runoff, he will face Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson, who earned 122,093 votes for 21.63 percent of ballots cast.

Lightfoot, who was elected in 2019, is the first sitting mayor of Chicago since Jane Byrne in 1983 to lose reelection. Lightfoot and Byrne are the only two women to have served as mayor of Chicago.

Elsewhere in Hyde Park, with 100 percent of votes tallied, Lamont Robinson, the Illinois state representative for the Fifth District, earned 5,789 votes for Fourth Ward alderman, equivalent to 46.28 percent. Robinson’s tally was more than three times as large as that of any other Fourth Ward candidate.

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With 1,906 votes, Prentice Butler edged Ebony Lucas for second place by just 104 votes in a ward where 12,509 ballots were cast.

The winner between Robinson and Butler will replace outgoing alderman Sophia King, for whom Butler serves as the chief of staff. King vacated the seat to run for mayor, but her bid was unsuccessful. She finished eighth in the mayoral election with 7,191 votes, one place and 3,901 votes behind fellow local politician Kam Buckner, the Illinois State Representative for the 26th district.

In the 20th Ward, Jeanette Taylor narrowly avoided a runoff election, securing a second term in City Hall with 52.6 percent of the vote and defeating challengers Jennifer Maddox and Andre Smith.

For the newly created police district councils, Ephraim Lee, Julia Kline, and Alexander Perez will fill the three seats in the Second Police District, also known as the Wentworth District. Lee, Kline, and Perez earned 27.67, 27.64, and 23.84 percent of the vote, respectively. Coston Plummer, who earned 20.85 percent of the votes, was the only candidate who did not earn a seat.

City clerk Anna Valencia and city treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin were also officially reelected to their posts after running uncontested. Valencia secured 457,007 votes and Conyears-Ervin 442,553.

In light of the Obama Presidential Center’s impending arrival, the Obama Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Coalition placed two referenda on the ballot for Fifth Ward residents. Both passed resoundingly.

An ordinance requesting that the eventual alderman and mayor support a CBA in South Shore ran in precincts 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. This ordinance passed with between 74.51 percent and 95.65 percent support in each of the nine precincts.

Another ordinance to support the construction of at least 75 percent affordable housing in a city-owned vacant lot at East 63rd Street and South Blackstone Avenue appeared on ballots in the 13th and 14th precincts. The measure earned 85.61 and 96.7 percent support, respectively.

A total of 516,764 out of 1,581,564 eligible voters cast ballots in the 2023 municipal elections, for a 32.67 percent turnout.

Show.”

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According to Quinlan, he decided to pull his collection from the Winter Fashion Show; he told The Maroon that “it was for the concern that vocal detractors would not be able to meaningfully differentiate between the models as a medium versus the models as individuals.” However, according to two independent sources who are members of Moda and were present at the show, the majority of the models assigned to wear Quinlan’s designs refused to walk the runway, effectively forcing him to pull his collection.

The “designer profile” on Moda’s blog included a transcript of an interview with Quinlan in which he said, “I think provocation doesn’t allow your work to be resolved as quickly, and it allows for conversation to endure; that is the mark of an artist who will, if not be successful, gain a semblance of notoriety that allows you to continue to circulation [sic] your work in that fashion.” The profile has since been deleted.

Abu Ghraib Prison

Located outside of Baghdad, Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison was the site of numerous human rights violations perpetrated by the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military during the early stages of the Iraq War, which lasted from 2003 to 2011. Those violations included the physical and sexual abuse, torture, and murder of prisoners.

Abu Ghraib became the subject of international outrage when reports and photographs of the torture and deaths from in prison surfaced in 2004. One of the photographs used in Quinlan’s profile shows Ali Shallal al-Qaisi, who was imprisoned at Abu Ghraib in 2003. It is one of the most widely circulated images of the torture and was featured on the cover of The Economist in 2004.

Social Media Backlash

The profile’s appearance on the story of the @Modachicago Instagram account triggered an immediate and widespread response on Twitter and Instagram. A tweet posted at 3:41 p.m. on February 24 by user @borzoinga calling out the incident garnered more than 115,000 views in its first 24 hours online.

Third-year Hala Hersi made numerous

posts on social media criticizing Moda’s actions and response.

“The Iraqi POW at Abu Ghraib were put through horrific abuses at the hands of the U.S. military that were indescribable,” Hersi told The Maroon. “For Jake Quinlan to use images of the Abu Ghraib victims in his work while also stating ... ‘I think provocation doesn’t allow your work to be resolved as quickly’ is incredibly disrespectful and perpetuates a legacy of dehumanizing the suffering of Muslims and Brown people.

“Had his goal really been to facilitate discussion, he would not have centered this work around himself and actually have considered the impacts using these images would have,” Hersi continued.

The Aftermath

Moda removed Quinlan’s profile Friday evening, a few hours after it was posted, and released a statement apologizing for “the lack of attention given to the content posted on February 24, 2023.” In the statement, which was updated at least three times as of this article’s publication, Moda blog editors-in-chief Vivian Li and Matthew Sumera wrote, “[T]here was a picture that wrongly glamorized the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib, which we failed to recognize before publishing.”

The initial paragraph was updated to include Quinlan’s name and the date of publication for his profile. A second paragraph regarding the involvement of the editors was added to emphasize that the editors “[did] not have control over anything other than website content” and were in discussion with the Moda board regarding further actions.

The paragraph was then edited again to say instead: “After recent posting on the Moda Instagram, we would like to directly say that we, Moda Blog, do not support the artistic choices or the justification to objectify the suffering and torture that has happened in Abu Ghraib and that continues to occur.”

In response to The Maroon’s inquiry about the statement’s edits, Li and Sumera wrote: “[W]e were trying our best to get a statement out as soon as possible. At the same time, we were trying to determine how much should be said and how much clarification to give without a proper Board meeting. We were not at the show

(Vivian was on a plane), so we did not fully understand what was occurring.”

“The Blog did not receive information on this collection from other branches and was unaware of the context of Jake’s collection besides talks of it being provocative and trying to be ‘avant garde,’” Li and Sumera told The Maroon over email.

The @Modachicago Instagram account also posted a statement on its story from Quinlan regarding the inclusion of the Abu Ghraib photographs on his profile.

“High art and fashion have often been criticized for perpetuating exclusion, exploitation, and violence against marginalized groups. The following collection brings this conversation of exploitation to the runway. Sensitive themes are addressed in an effort to facilitate discussion and consideration, not aestheticize, promote, or glorify the long-standing suffering marginalized groups have endured under the veneer of fashion,” the statement read.

Li and Sumera criticized Quinlan’s artist statement in their comment to The Maroon. “As past designers ourselves, we do not support Jake’s artist statement and think it’s completely unjustifiable, and we did not appreciate it being posted on Moda’s Instagram.”

According to Moda’s three design directors, Sahana Gopalan, Kristin Wu, and William Hu, “Concerns were brought to the Board by a model about one specific look in [Quinlan’s] collection a few weeks ago, but not through us and not about the collection as a whole or the hurtful and offensive inspirations behind it. Our Presidents agreed to meet with Jake and review the collection. We were told the situation had been resolved when we followed up.”

In response to an inquiry made by The Maroon, Moda’s three design directors also clarified their role in reviewing Quinlan’s project: “Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the board to ensure the show as a safe place for creative expression … regular designers have historically been invited back each year without any competitive selection, and most of the application is optional. Ideas also change throughout the year, so these submissions are considered preliminary and many designers change their concepts/their sketches throughout the year.

“Returning designers can also choose

to do check-ins more infrequently—Jake opted for monthly check-ins where we were told he was completed with his sewing without proper emphasis on content. We take responsibility for this lack of a structured screening process and lack of scrutiny of our returning designers. The design directors are the first line of defense for prevention of these situations and we failed that mission this year. We will not allow that to happen again,” wrote the three design directors.

The design directors also outlined their plans moving forward. “From our end, we are developing meticulous procedures to ensure there is a standard method of prevention and a comprehensive review of anything that walks the runway. This entails returning designers overtly describing the inspirations of their designs, intended messages and themes each year. We will also standardize checkin processes to ensure all directors in the future place high emphasis on visual updates from designers.”

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“We failed to recognize that this collection was not appropriate for the Moda

A censored version of Jake Quinlan’s Designer profile as posted on the @Modachicago Instagram account. The uncensored version of Quinlan’s design profile cover photo as posted by @Modachicago can be found at chicagomaroon.com.

“We want to apologize for the lack of oversight that led to these occurrences.”

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In their comment, the design directors told The Maroon that “Jake has been removed from Moda and will not be involved with this RSO in the future. We absolutely do not stand for any of these ideals and sincerely apologize to the models, designers, volunteers, and attendees who were affected by this incident.”

The editors-in-chief of Moda’s magazine, Grace Feeley and Caitlin Ellithorpe, responding to The Maroon’s inquiry about the controversy, described the three-pronged organizational structure of Moda: “There is a large split in respon-

sibilities between the three magazine, blog, and board divisions. The magazine operates independently from the board and blog. We have no authority in planning the show or choosing and managing designers and models.

“On behalf of the magazine, we do not condone the aestheticization or romanticization of violence. As a student fashion production, we understand Moda has a large platform with which to engage with the student body and showcase student creativity. We do not believe, however, that Moda is the place to amplify intentionally harmful, insensitive, and exploit-

ative messages. On behalf of the entire organization, we apologize for the harm that this event has caused and are appalled by the circumstances that allowed this inappropriate display,” Feeley and Ellithorpe told The Maroon

When reached for comment, Moda Co-Presidents Isabella Park and Gwyneth Howell directed The Maroon to the Board’s official statement, released on Instagram on Sunday, February 26. “This incident was the result of a lack of comprehensive screening and cross-referencing within several subsets of the Board,” the statement reads. “We would

like to emphasize that Moda values creative expression, and in preparation of the show we wanted to avoid censorship of all designers. We failed to recognize that this collection was not appropriate for the Moda Show.”

“We want to apologize for the lack of oversight that led to these occurrences. We further acknowledge that the proliferation of insensitive images and notion of violence and Abu Ghraib has caused harm and discomfort to members of the greater UChicago community,” the statement concludes.

UChicago Medicine Expands Plans for City’s First Freestanding Cancer Facility Based on Community Input

By NAINA PURUSHOTHAMAN | Senior News Reporter

On February 15, UChicago Medicine (UCM) released updated plans for Chicago’s first freestanding cancer facility, located on East 57th Street between South Maryland and Drexel Avenues.

The 575,000-square-foot cancer facility will be an $815 million project with the possibility of future expansion, which is a budget increase from its original plan. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved a permit in March 2022, which began the process and allowed UCM to spend time communicating with cancer patients and survivors in the local community.

A February 15 press release also detailed the 10-month process through which UCM collected and incorporated input from South Side residents. The effort to solicit input from South Side residents consisted of volunteers, a telephone poll, town halls, community meetings, and 200,000 surveys administered in person, on social media, and in newsletters.

According to the press release, the incidence of cancer on the South Side is predicted to rise by 19 percent over the next five years. This statistic puts the South Side at nearly twice the incidence

of the other counties surrounding Chicago.

In the press release, Tom Jackiewicz, president of the UChicago Medicine health system, wrote, “We have an opportunity to build a world-class facility for our patients and the community that propels UChicago Medicine to become the premier destination for comprehensive cancer care, where groundbreaking science and compassionate care meet to provide an unrivaled approach to conquering cancer.”

UCM has had a history of groundbreaking cancer-related discoveries. In 2017, UCM was the first hospital in Illinois to offer therapy for adults with

diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, as well as for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Back in 1943, UCM also laid the groundwork for using chemotherapy to treat cancers.

“We will be building a model for groundbreaking cancer care and prevention, established on the principles of access, equity, dignity and innovation, right here on the South Side of Chicago,” said Mark Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for medical affairs, in UCM’s statement.

Construction on the new facility is set to begin in 2023, and UCMed plans to open it by 2027.

UCAD Relaunches Reparations Campaign With Rally Through Campus

By PETER MAHERAS | Senior News Reporter

Roughly 40 people demanded the University pay reparations to the South Side at a protest organized by UChicago Against Displacement (UCAD) on February 15. The gathering was part of a “relaunch” of UCAD’s campaign to demand reparations.

According to its mission statement, UCAD is a student-led organization that advocates for marginalized communities in the South Side. The group claims University policies are responsible for the displacement of South Side residents.

The march began in front of Wood-

lawn Residential Commons.

“Woodlawn represents or is symbolic of the way that UChicago isn’t respecting its boundaries or the people around them in their community,” an organizer told the group as the rally kicked off.

The protestors then marched north on South Woodlawn Avenue towards the main quad. After briefly stopping there,

they continued to the Regenstein Library. Along the way, the demonstrators chanted various slogans demanding reparations, including “No more displacement, reparations now” and “Hey Pauli, give us our money,” a reference to University President Paul Alivisatos.

At the Regenstein Library, activists

rent increases will only serve to further displace Southside residents.”

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from the Obama Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Coalition, a group of community organizations fighting potential gentrification and displacement in the area around the planned Obama Presidential Center, spoke to the protestors. UCAD is part of the CBA Coalition.

“Not only does [the University] have a connection to slavery, it has its own form of removing [and] institutionally forming policies to further remove and displace Black and brown people from the South Side of Chicago,” CBA activist Yaa Angie said in their speech.

In an email announcing the event, UCAD demanded that the University spend $20 million annually on rental assistance and STEM programs, recommit to not expanding into Woodlawn or Washington Park, expand its employer-assisted housing to low-income neighborhoods,

provide $1 billion in grant funding for affordable housing, and increase transparency about University-owned land.

“This is especially crucial at this moment as the Obama Center in Jackson Park increases land values and, in turn, rental prices,” UCAD wrote in its release. “As residents deal with the economic hardships and an exacerbation of the homelessness crisis caused by COVID-19, these rent increases will only serve to further displace Southside residents.”

After the event, a UCAD organizer who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Maroon that group members hope to use their position as students to amplify the perspectives of South Side residents.

“Overall, I am really hoping that the University hears this and takes it to heart, especially because they might not listen to community members,” the organizer

said. “Since we are current students of a variety of levels at the University, hopefully they’ll be more willing to listen to us.”

UCMed and Legal Aid Chicago Launch $2.6 Million Project to Provide In-Hospital Legal Support to Trauma Patients

By REANNA LEBITSKI | News Reporter

In November 2022, the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCM) launched a novel pilot project with $2.6 million in funding called Recovery Legal Care (RLC) in partnership with Legal Aid Chicago. The program embeds two attorneys in the hospital’s Level I Trauma Center, where they offer bedside legal assistance to patients recovering from intentional violence. Attorneys help navigate complex legal issues, such as housing or employment, with the goal of allowing patients and families to focus on recovery rather than worrying about their legal needs.

Legal Aid Chicago is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance in civil cases to people living in Chicago and suburban Cook County. While RLC attorneys also take on similar legal cases, their placement within a trauma center allows for a different kind of impact.

“Folks may not always think of issues that they’re having as legal issues,”

Recovery Legal Care attorney Carly Loughran said. “And so for folks who are experiencing poverty, experiencing community violence, and have just been shot, having us go to them is the difference between them getting legal representation and them not getting legal representation.”

The medical-legal partnership is among the first of its kind in the United States, as RLC is embedded within UCM’s hospital-based Violence Recovery Program (VRP). Established in 2019, the VRP offers trauma recovery services including mental health support to help patients and families deal with the repercussions of intentional violence such as gunshot wounds, stabbing injuries, and assault.

“First and foremost, [the VRP] allows us to be trauma-informed,” Loughran said. “The [VRP] are all violence recovery specialists who administer psychological first aid to folks right after they’ve experienced really traumatic

events. Building on the relationship they have and coordinating with them allows us to piggyback on those relationships, and makes the patients, who have been given every reason to mistrust the legal system and lawyers, more receptive to our help. So that’s why this partnership is really unique and really beneficial.”

By working with a team of violence intervention specialists, who also help identify patients that RLC can represent, the two lawyers have an increased capacity for managing caseloads and can build stronger relationships with their clients.

According to Loughran, medical-legal partnerships such as Recovery Legal Care operate by recognizing that many of the medical issues that patients present do not have strictly medical solutions. “A person might be coming in because they’ve experienced a gunshot wound, for example. But what caused that individual to be in the environment that caused the injury doesn’t have a medical solution; there isn’t really a medical solution to violence,” she said.

About 40 percent of adult trauma patients treated at UCM have penetrative injuries, typically inflicted by gunshot wounds or stabbings—a percentage that represents violence which disproportionately affects underprivileged communities of color. Recovery Legal Care aims to address the root causes of that violence in the South Side of Chicago within the space of UCM’s trauma center. On top of the hospital’s role in treatment and trauma-informed care in a patient’s recovery process, RLC acknowledges the unique needs of those patients by providing direct access to legal assistance.

“The majority of the patients we work with are young BIPOC men who are vastly underserved by legal aid organizations. We’re hoping that by going to the patients who we know have real needs and working with them in a way that is trauma-informed and tailored to them, that will increase their legal understanding of the environments that they’re operating in, and give them real, CONTINUED ON PG. 5

“[T]hese

Community members protest in front of the Regenstein Library as a part of a UChicago Against Displacement Campaign. courtesy of leo vernor

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tangible solutions,” Loughran said.

Another important aspect of the pilot project is its data collection component, which involves evaluating the program’s own success using legal and electronic health records data, along with ongoing surveys. The research aims to understand how attending to both legal and economic needs benefits a patient’s physical, mental, and social well-being.

“We expect people to have a lower trauma reentry rate, higher quality of life, better mental health status, lower rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, and things like that,” Dr. Tanya Zakrison, trauma surgeon and principal investigator for the two federal grants supporting the data collection research, said.

Zakrison also explained how the program’s research aims to directly address and combat gaps in government services

to South Side communities experiencing violence.

“There’s around 75 percent of the South Side of Chicago who have been victimized directly or witnessed victimization or have a family member who was victimized. They are all qualified for Crime Victim Compensation, yet they never received it,” she said. The Crime Victim Compensation program is an Illinois initiative that offers reimbursement of up to $45,000 for expenses incurred by eligible victims as a result of a violent crime.

The data collection element of RLC opens the door to an impact beyond filling gaps in services such as South Side patients not receiving Crime Victim Compensation. In addition to providing legal aid relating to employment, public benefits, and housing services, its research component collects information about why certain structural inequalities are happening in the first

place. The project’s goal is not to bring patients back up to the economic baseline that had put them at risk of violence; instead, it aims to ascertain and provide legal solutions for the societal risk factors that lead to South Side residents’ experiences of violence.

“If we can identify the [risk factors] that occur in a repeated fashion for our patients, we can go back to the government and say, ‘Hey, this is not acceptable, because these health-harming legal needs that are not being met are leading to firearm violence. So please address this,’” Zakrison said.

On top of collecting data that could be used to urge the government to address violations of civil rights pertaining to firearm violence, the research component of RLC functions to understand how the project is working as it is being implemented. Through studying how a medical-legal partnership within a hospital’s trauma center can provide

real solutions to violence, Loughran believes RLC can better understand its impact and potentially present its program as a model for other hospitals.

By providing legal solutions to South Side residents within UCM’s trauma center and in coordination with its Violence Recovery Program, the project intends to confront the systems of inequality that contribute to their patients’ experiences of intentional violence.

Chicago Park District Moves Promontory Point Closer to Landmark Status

By SOPHIA KANG | News Reporter

The Chicago Park District’s Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on February 15 to “consent to the designation” of Promontory Point, a historic lakefront park, as a Chicago Landmark. This vote reaffirmed the Point’s status as a preliminary landmark, which entitles it to all the legal protections of a Chicago Landmark designation until the final landmark vote before the City Council. If the Point is granted final landmark status, any proposed alterations, demolitions, or construction on or near the Point would be subject to a permit application and review process by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (CCL).

The Park District’s February 15 vote comes after the CCL voted to grant Promontory Point preliminary landmark status on January 12. These decisions follow

nearly 23 years of disagreement between local preservationists and the Park District, which owns Promontory Point, over how to repair the Point’s decaying stepstone revetment. The Park District had previously insisted that replacing the limestone blocks with textured concrete would more effectively control the risk of erosion and storm damage along the lakeshore. The rest of Chicago’s lakefront has already been revetted with textured concrete.

In response, a group called “Save the Point,” which evolved into Promontory Point Conservancy, was launched in 2001 to oppose the Park District’s plan to demolish the Point’s historic limestone.

Jack Spicer, president and founder of Promontory Point Conservancy, told The Maroon in an interview that the preliminary landmark designation by the CCL was

“a recognition and an honor.”

“It was a big reward to all the people in the community who have been working so hard for this,” he said. “We’ve been here since 2000, and it’s just now getting recognized citywide just how important the Point is for so many people, for so many different reasons.”

Debra Hammond, treasurer of Promontory Point Conservancy, said that the CCL’s decision was unexpected.

“I was astonished,” Hammond said. “I just assumed that [the Park District and the Chicago Department of Transportation] would veto it hands down.”

According to Spicer, only twice in the last 30 years has a historic site granted preliminary landmark status been denied final landmark status. If the City Council vote passes, the limestone revetment and other historic features of the Point, including the council rings and the David Wal-

lach Fountain, would be protected against demolition or alteration.

“Everyone hangs out on the rocks because the rocks feel good. They’ve got their own contours; each one is a little distinct. It’s a very sensory experience being on the limestone, and I think that’s part of what makes it so gratifying and pleasant for people,” Hammond said.

“Even in the places where the limestone is deteriorating—I mean, what’s wrong with that?” Spicer added. “[Limestone] is beautiful. Concrete is ugly and forbidding.”

According to Ellen Ma, a second-year and a community action project group leader with the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative, the Point would lose some of its character without the limestone steps.

“It’s always relaxing and de-stressing to go to the Point,” she said. “The limestone

“This is about addressing a justice gap, which is overlapping with the racial wealth gap.”

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steps are a great place to sit down and have a picnic. With the concrete, it’s not exactly the same.”

Illinois State Senator Robert Peters, who grew up in Hyde Park, told The Maroon that the limestone is “something special.”

“When the water’s high and it hits concrete, it’s literally just slime and algae. You can’t even stand on it,” Senator Peters said.

“To turn the Point into a slip-and-slide because you don’t want to preserve it is ridiculous. The Point is a picturesque, beautiful place. Let’s not ruin it.”

At the January 12 hearing, the Park District affirmed its commitment to preserving the Point’s historic limestone.

“We, along with our partners at CDOT [Chicago Department of Transportation], are committed to saving and reusing as much of the existing limestone as pos-

sible,” said Heather Gleason, director of planning and construction at the Park District. She insisted that the Park District takes its “responsibility and obligation to maintain [historic sites] seriously.”

But Spicer suggested that, even with a final landmark designation, there’s “plenty of room for [the Park District] to wiggle out of real preservation.”

“We’re very pleased,” he said, “but we’re also very vigilant here.”

Hammond and Spicer expect the final landmark vote to take place in April, before Alderman Leslie Hairston’s term ends in May. According to Spicer, Hairston “has been supporting [the preservation of the Point’s limestone] from the beginning very strongly.”

“If [repair] is to be done in anything other than limestone,” Hairston said during the January 12 hearing, “it is a nogo for the community.”

University Works With Department of Defense to Assist Service Members Transitioning to Civilian Life

By PETER MAHERAS | Senior News Reporter

The University’s chapter of the nationwide SkillBridge program has placed 17 U.S. military service members in internships across the University, with the University’s Office of Military-Affiliated Communities (OMAC) expecting to work with around 40 more in the near future. The program, launched on campus in October 2021, seeks to provide military personnel in the last six months of their service with valuable work experience and access to higher education during the transition from military to civilian life.

During their internship, service members with an undergraduate degree can apply to the University’s StudentAt-Large: Business programs to take advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in a variety of programs at the University.

In an interview with The Maroon, current SkillBridge intern and U.S. Air Force Major Eric Prosser said service members transitioning away from the military often face challenges in readjusting to civilian life.

“You’re going from one set of structured rules that govern how your life is managed and what you’re doing on a dayto-day basis to a completely separate set of rules that you’re now unfamiliar with,” Prosser said. “It can be pretty intimidating.”

Prosser initially found the University’s program on the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge website and applied

because he was interested in pursuing an advanced degree.

“I really hadn’t considered going back to higher education before, but I did know about the Chicago Booth School of Business, which was quite appealing to me,” Prosser said. “They have a great reputation, and I was also looking to do something that was more in the leadership and management in the private sector.”

For his internship, Prosser works at OMAC helping other prospective SkillBridge interns find placement at the University. He also works on the Veterans Restorative Justice Project, an OMAC initiative that helps veterans in legal proceedings before the Cook County Veterans Treatment Court.

OMAC Director Terrell Odom told The Maroon that the University’s program is unique among SkillBridge programs because it provides participants with the opportunity to transition into higher education.

“A lot of the programs in the country are geared towards ‘Let’s get you into the workforce,’” Odom said. “This one also allows for [service members] to transition into higher education should they be interested in pursuing an advanced degree and academic research.”

According to Odom, financial barriers are what often prevent service members from pursuing higher education after leaving the military.

“If a person had to choose between

work or school, basically taking care of their family or pursuing higher education, chances are they’re going to pick the one that provides for their family,” Odom said. “We’ve been able to allow them to do both, or all, while they’re here at the University.”

The SkillBridge program offers participants the opportunity to improve their resumes before they apply to graduate school. Odom cited the example of two SkillBridge interns who conducted research at UChicago Medicine’s Comprehensive Cancer Center before applying to medical school.

“What they lacked on their applications to make them stronger candidates was the research component,” Odom said. “This allowed them to be able to get that research experience and strengthen their applications to make them stronger candidates for medical school.”

Similarly, Prosser said having access to faculty and staff who can serve as mentors has better prepared him for applying to business school.

“While the SkillBridge program itself can’t guarantee you any admission into any of the programs at the University of Chicago, what [mentors] can do is they can tell you where your weak spots are and what you need to work on if you want to get admission into those programs,” Prosser said. “They know exactly what they’re looking for, and they know exactly where your shortfalls are.”

Odom said not all participants will want to pursue a graduate degree, and

some participants already have advanced degrees. For those participants, the program still offers valuable work experience and employment opportunities that help them enter the civilian workforce. SkillBridge participants without an undergraduate degree can register for courses at the City Colleges of Chicago.

Odom hopes to expand the University’s SkillBridge program to include military spouses seeking internships at the University.

“Families are a big part of our military service,” Odom said. “They’re a big part of our transition and an even bigger part once we become veterans.”

Odom said around 36 academic and professional units at the University have expressed interest in participating in the program. Additionally, Odom hopes to expand the program to include internships at Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. According to the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge website, service members in the program remain employed by the Department of Defense and receive military pay and benefits, so University units incur no cost for participating in the program.

“It’s a win-win for the University,” Odom said. “The University’s academic rigor is tremendous, but it’s based on the ability to have different opinions and different experiences incorporated into that academic rigor. So by bringing these individuals here, it helps to make the University, the medical center, and every other space much better.”

“The Point is a picturesque, beautiful place. Let’s not ruin it.”

Turkish Student Association Raises More than $5,000 to Support Earthquake Recovery

By BIANCA JORTNER | News Reporter

When an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday, February 6, killing upwards of 40,000 people and leaving millions homeless, third-year Ceren Türk knew she wanted to help her loved ones back home. But being thousands of miles away, Türk, the president of UChicago’s Turkish Student Association (TSA), didn’t know how.

“Some of our friends, families are under the wrecks. My family’s thankfully fine, but our friends from high school, our distant relatives, everyone has just been very negatively affected,” she told The Maroon. “We kind of feel very hopeless because we want to actually do a lot, but there’s very limited things that we can do from here.”

As other members of Turkish stu -

dent associations around the United States grappled with the same dilemma, they banded together to raise funds for recovery efforts. For UChicago’s TSA, that first fundraising effort took the form of a bake sale held Thursday, February 9, in Reynolds Club.

Near the conclusion of the bake sale, the TSA had raised more than $5,000, with matched donations bringing that sum to $10,000.

Third-year Can Cönger told The Maroon that UChicago’s TSA has around 60 to 70 undergraduate and graduate members. On Thursday, February 9, at least 10 of them were huddled around a plastic table in Reynolds Club selling a variety of homemade Turkish desserts as well as Turkish coffee and typical bake sale sweets. The large turn-

out for the fundraiser was unexpected, Cönger adds. “Some of our friends went right now to buy more and bake more.”

On campus, TSA also hosted a benefit concert on February 12, where undergraduate Ege Atila performed Turkish songs on the piano. All profits will go toward relief efforts. TSA also held another benefit concert on Saturday, February 18 at Rockefeller Chapel.

Fundraising efforts are also being made by other Turkish student associations nationwide, who have collectively raised over $100,000, according to Cönger. The Turkish Consulate General, located in the heart of downtown Chicago, was also collecting clothing items, painkillers, pads, baby diapers, and blankets to donate to victims in Turkey.

When asked what the community support meant to him, Cönger an -

swered, “We’re happy that somehow we were able to help the efforts [from] abroad, miles away from home.”

The UChicago TSA is accepting donations through their Venmo account @UChicagoTSA.

Compass Group, Parent Company of UChicago Food Sourcer

Chartwells, Accused of Disregarding Animal Welfare

By CAROLYN RUSSELL | News Reporter

Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and images of slaughter and animal abuse.

Compass Group, the parent company of UChicago’s food service provider Chartwells Higher Education, is responding to allegations of animal cruelty in a number of their facilities. Since 2016, animal welfare organization The Humane League (THL) and student organizations at several universities have accused Compass Group of raising chickens and pigs in inhumane conditions.

Chartwells Higher Education, a food service provider for about 300 campuses across the nation, has been UChicago’s campus food service provider since July 2021.

Protests began when New York University student organization Animal Welfare Collective held up signs in front of the uni-

versity’s Weinstein Residence Hall in September 2022. This came after THL made claims about the company’s inhumane treatment of animals, specifically chickens and pigs, in August.

The Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) is a list of expectations created by animal welfare scientists from various nonprofit organizations that supports the welfare of broiler chickens. Since November 2016, more than 200 food companies including Sonic, Red Robin, Starbucks, Chipotle, and Shake Shack have adopted these expectations. In 2016, Compass Group announced new policies in line with the BCC.

Compass Group has committed to improving the welfare of chickens raised for poultry by following the standards set by the BCC and has presented THL with a timeline, THL spokesperson Karen Hirsch told The Maroon in November 2022. Ac-

cording to Hirsch, Compass plans to source certain breeds of chickens called higher-welfare breeds, which grow less rapidly and are less prone to health issues. A study conducted by Global Animal Partnership highlighted the differences between conventional and higher-welfare breeds. “The results were clear: conventional breeds of chicken raised for meat, termed ‘rapid growth’ due to selective breeding that causes the animals to reach market weight unnaturally fast, suffer muscle myopathies, deformities, poor foot health, and have trouble standing or walking,” THL wrote.

Additionally, Hirsch reports that Compass Group has agreed to move away from their live-shackle slaughter method. This method entails the chickens being tossed into shackles made of metal and sent into an electrical water bath, which is meant to render them unconscious before slaughter. According to Hirsch, Compass Group claims that they will present a detailed plan for these changes in 2023.

To enhance pig welfare, Compass Group also plans to move away from gestation crates by summer of 2023, according to Hirsch. Gestation crates are tight cages, only slightly larger than the sows (female pigs) themselves, that sows are forced to live in while they are repeatedly impregnated until they can no longer reproduce, usually around the age of one and a half to two years. Sows typically live for about 20 years.

According to Hirsch, Compass Group will replace gestation crates with a system where the pigs will not live in a crate for longer than seven days.

For the welfare of egg-laying hens, Hirsch told The Maroon that Compass Group plans to eliminate their use of battery cages used to house egg-laying hens, within the next year. These battery cages are stuffed with four to 10 hens, and the bottom of the cages often cause foot problems for many hens.

Additional reporting contributed by Michael McClure.

TSA Bakesale in Reynolds Club on Thursday, February 9. courtesy of michael mcclure

University works closely with Chartwells to uphold a range

CONTINUED FROM PG. 7

THL has acknowledged the importance of the changes Compass Group has made and its efforts to support animal welfare in the food industry. Vicky Bond, president of THL, said, “We commend Compass Group

and Sodexo for leading the way in the global foodservice industry and releasing implementation plans to reduce the suffering of countless animals in their supply chains.” Sodexo is another food service provider that serves more than 100 million people

every day in more than 50 countries.

University spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said, “The University works closely with Chartwells to uphold a range of best practices in food production and sourcing. We remain in communication

with Chartwells as they continue to enhance sustainability across their supply chain.”

Compass Group declined to comment on the implementation of their new practices.

Doc Films Fundraising for $60,000 in Upgrades Amid Budget Cuts by USG

By GUSTAVO DELGADO

Doc Films is launching a donation drive to fund nearly $60,000 in equipment upgrades to replace audio equipment last updated in 1986. The group, founded in 1932, is one of the oldest student-run film societies in the country, running low-cost screenings at Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall for decades.

Amid the need to update equipment, the RSO had its budget halved by Student Government at the start of the year. This has already led to a reduction in spring quarter screenings. However, Doc Films told The Maroon that it wants neither to limit screenings further nor to increase the $7 ticket price per screening, which has remained consistent for years.

“We want to keep our theater at a low cost but also a high quality. And so I don’t think raising ticket prices [is] really in our future. [Our price] is kind of the ideal price that we think students are down for, that our regular patrons are fine with paying,” said Doc Films General Chair Hannah Yang. “But as of now, we are able to play those screenings, and we want to continue to show as many things as possible, especially because the mission behind Doc [Films] is to fulfill the undergrad film experience, so you can see as many things in the four years that you’re here.”

The upgrades would include a central audio processor to improve sound quality for both classic 35 mm film and modern cinema, a control panel for a more centralized film setup, and a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server to accomModate digital files of movies,

which is the standard for modern film projection.

“Since the [audio] unit is so old, we don’t actually have full capabilities of our theater speaker system; we have two extra channels of surround sound that we can’t actually access because of how old the equipment is,” outgoing General Chair Cameron Poe said in an interview with The Maroon. “So, for something like a new release, we’re kind of missing out on some of the more immersive features of that film, audio-wise.”

Doc Films’s current equipment dates back to the inception of the Max Palevsky Cinema in 1986.

“A control panel basically just lets the projectionist do lights, curtains, audio stuff, all from one centralized location. So right now, we’re basically doing it all manually, running around the booth to all the different units,” Poe said. “So, it would make the lives of our projectionists much easier, and then also make the starts and ends of shows a little bit more seamless.”

If it accrues the funds needed for renovation, Doc Films plans to reduce summer screenings to accommodate the equipment updates starting in June and ending later in August. These are typically lull periods in attendance for Doc Films.

The group’s current plan to achieve their goal includes general fundraising via links, notices, and reaching out to fans of Doc Films. This method has helped Doc Films raise $15,000 thus far.

“We launched our fundraising ini-

tiative with a general newsletter to all of our patrons who follow us on the newsletter and then also on social media, and the support from that has already been great,” Yang said. “We’re hoping to also, if that falls through, look for some grants that we could possibly apply to.”

Students can purchase a $40 quarter pass granting them unlimited access to the approximately 80 Doc Films screen-

ings per quarter. Donations can also be made on their website. This spring quarter, Doc Films will feature a “Three Amigos” series, with films by directors Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro, and Alfonso Cuarón, and a “Sight and Sound” series consisting of the “Greatest Films of All Time” according to the British Film Institute’s annual Sight and Sound poll.

Solana Adedokun & Nikhil Jaiswal

, Co-Editors-in-Chief

Michael McClure, Managing Editor

Allison Ho, Chief Production Officer

Astrid Weinberg & Dylan Zhang, Chief Financial Officers

The Maroon Editorial Board consists of the editors-in-chief and editors of The Maroon

NEWS

Tess Chang, editor Anushka Harve, editor Rachel Wan, editor

GREY CITY Milutin Gjaja, editor Rachel Liu, editor Elena Eisenstadt, editor Eli Wizevich, editor

VIEWPOINTS Irene Qi, head editor Ketan Sengupta, associate editor Eva McCord, associate editor

ARTS

Angélique Alexos, head editor Natalie Manley, head editor Noah Glasgow, deputy editor Zachary Leiter, deputy editor

SPORTS Finn Hartnett, editor Eva McCord, editor Kayla Rubenstein, editor

CROSSWORD Henry Josephson, head editor Pravan Chakravarthy, head editor

COPY Arianne Nguyen, copy chief Caitlin Lozada, copy chief Tejas Narayan, copy chief Kayla Rubenstein, copy chief Erin Choi, copy chief

DESIGN Elena Jochum, design editor Anu Vashist, design editor

PHOTO Han Jiang, editor Angelina Torre, editor Emma-Victoria Banos, editor

PODCASTS Gregory Caesar, chief editor Carter Beckstein, editor Jake Zucker, editor

WEB Michael Plunkett, lead developer

NEWSLETTER Katherine Weaver, editor

SOCIAL MEDIA Phoebe He, engagement editor

BUSINESS

Aisling Murtagh, director of finance

Ananya Sahai, director of community engaegment

Kaelyn Hindshaw director of marketing Nathan Ohana, director of operations

Editor-in-Chief: Editor@ChicagoMaroon.com

Newsroom Phone (312) 918-8023

For advertising inquiries, please contact Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com Circulation

“The

of best practices.”

The Janes: The Story of UChicago’s Clandestine Abortion Ring

By KAYLA RUBENSTEIN | Grey City Contributor

Content warning: This article includes mentions of sexual assault and suicide.

During UChicago’s 1968 first-year orientation, Ellen Diamond wasn’t getting to know her classmates, exploring campus, or getting acclimated to college life. Instead, she spent her first week on campus scouring Hyde Park for a pregnancy test.

Clutching a positive test, Diamond realized that she did not want a child at that time. Yet in the years before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, she could not legally get an abortion in most of the U.S. Diamond was desperate. Fortunately, she had the

resources to travel to Montreal to terminate the pregnancy.

Diamond was not the only person experiencing an unwanted pregnancy during a time in which abortions were illegal. When she later spoke with her mother and grandmother, she learned about her grandmother’s own experiences with abortion—it seemed as if every female relative had had an abortion, Diamond reflected.

In response to needs like those of Diamond, the Jane Collective was born. A clandestine abortion ring run in part by young UChicago students, the Jane Col-

lective organized and performed over 11,000 abortions for those in Chicago between 1965 and 1973. Orchestrating an underground abortion network was no small task; in their fight to advocate for women’s rights, the Janes had to overcome both a system working against them and the risk of arrests.

A quick note on terminology: This article focuses on a time period before a clear vocabulary for discussing transgender and nonbinary people was widely available. Consequently, this article refers to the Janes and the people they helped as women.

1965: The Jane Collective is Born “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane.”

Posters with iterations of this phrase and a phone number attached to it were scattered around Hyde Park and the greater Chicago community, serving as beacons for women seeking to get a then-illegal abortion without leaving any incriminating details for authorities to follow.

The Janes, formally known as the Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation, or the Service colloquially, originated in 1965. The group was founded when a friend asked then–second-year Heather Booth to help him find an abortion provider for his sister, who was “nearly suicidal,” Booth explained in an exclusive interview with The Maroon. Booth had a history of social activism, spanning back to the 1960s’ civil rights movement, when she spent her first-year summer in Mississippi educating Black voters on their rights. While there, three student volunteers were killed by the Ku Klux Klan, and Booth herself was arrested.

“I learned some very key lessons, the most important of which is that if you organize, you can change the world. But you need to organize, and with love at the

center. The other thing is sometimes you need to stand up to illegitimate authority,” Booth said.

Through word of mouth, Booth became known as a person who could connect women to a doctor, Theodore Howard, who ran a clinic on 63rd Street and could perform an abortion. Howard himself also had a background of civil rights advocacy and was, per Booth, a “very courageous civil rights leader” in Mississippi—he gained national attention in part because of his role in calling for the investigation of the murder of Emmett Till.

Booth’s services grew into what was later referred to as the Jane Collective, officially established in 1969. Born in the Hyde Park area due to Booth’s affiliation with the University, the Janes operated throughout Chicago by both UChicago students and women in the greater Chicago area. Within Hyde Park, UChicago students spearheaded local efforts, providing abortions for those who did not have the financial resources to go to places where abortions were legal.

A woman seeking an abortion would first call the number on the poster and leave their information on an answering machine. From there, a Jane member, the position titled “Callback Jane,” would respond to the message and write pertinent information via a two-card system. One card went to a scheduler, called “Big Jane”; “Big Jane” managed the logistics, such as coordinating a location and someone to perform the abortion. The other card went to a counselor.

One such counselor was Sheila Smith Avruch (A.B. ’72).

Avruch joined the Janes in 1971, her third year at the College, after receiving an invitation from a friend’s roommate. She had earlier heard talks of an underground abortion counseling service and attended

From 1969 to 1973, the Janes, which included many UChicago students, facilitated an estimated 11,000 abortions.

Some members of the Janes in 1968. courtesy of heather booth .

CONTINUED FROM PG. 9

her first Janes meeting in the fall.

“It was a little bit strange because when we walked in, the people in the meeting got very paranoid to meet us. They were afraid that we were police spies or something because we hadn’t been invited. No one could vouch for us,” Avruch recalled in an interview with The Maroon. “I think eventually they realized we were not. We went to some subsequent meetings and joined the group.”

As a counselor, Avruch would receive five to seven women per week via a notecard with their names, addresses, telephone numbers, ages, and how far along in their pregnancies they were. After calling and scheduling a time to speak, Avruch talked with each woman individually and detailed the entire abortion process from start to finish.

“I would walk [the women] through what the experience of the abortion was going to be like, so that it wouldn’t be so frightening what had happened,” Avruch said. “I would explain that we’re going to do this and we’re going to give you these pills, we’ll give you some antibiotics, just in case, and we’re going to give you this other pill that will help your uterus contract—that kind of thing.”

Part of counseling entailed providing

each woman with a copy of The Birth Control Handbook and Our Bodies, Ourselves, which was then a revolutionary feminist pamphlet and has since evolved into a full-length novel by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective.

“Back then, most people didn’t have very good information about either birth control or really the functioning of your own body,” Avruch said. “I always thought that the educational part of it was useful.”

The emphasis of the educational aspect of the Janes came in part from Booth’s experience with the resources for women’s health, or lack thereof, at the University. “A friend of mine had been raped at knifepoint in her bed in off-campus housing. We went with her to Student Health for a gynecological exam,” Booth recalled. “She was given a lecture on promiscuity.”

For some Janes, the age gap between themselves and the women receiving abortions, who would sometimes be double the age of the college student counselors, felt noticeable. “I felt young and somewhat inexperienced compared to some of the women I was counseling, because they often were older than me and had children and just had a lot of life experience,” Avruch said.

However, Booth recalled the myriad of emotions Jane affiliates and patients of all ages felt. “The most painful part of it was seeing how fearful many of the women were, who were coming through the service and didn’t feel like they had alternatives,” she said. “But there was also joy to see how grateful they were for having come through Jane.”

“The Front”

When it came time for the abortion, women would be assigned to an apartment called “the Front.” The location of “the Front” varied, but it was often a Hyde Park apartment of UChicago students such as roommates Ellen Diamond (A.B. ’72) and Amy Levine (A.B. ’72).

Students like Diamond and Levine opened not only their homes but their minds and hearts as working with the Janes broadened their understanding of women’s rights activism pre-Roe.

“We were advised to keep the interactions to a minimum, so we just offered them water to drink. We greeted them as they came in, offered them a seat,” Levine

said in an interview with The Maroon. “One of the things that amazed me at the time was that I expected to see nervous teenagers. And in fact, most of the women were women of color, and most of them were in their late 20s, 30s, or even 40s.”

Like Diamond and Levine, Christina West (A.B. ’72), also offered her apartment as a “Front.” She remembers noting how the women who needed the Janes were not who she expected.

“There were women who were clearly mothers already. I think one of them even had a child with her, which was very confusing to me. Many of them were women of color,” West said. “It was at that point I realized that this was such a necessary service.”

“I remember them just looking scared. Looking in their eyes, seeing how scared they were, I would [be] feeling empathy for them,” Diamond recounted in an interview with The Maroon.

Once the women were ready for the abortion, a driver would take them from “the Front” to another apartment, called “the Place.” At “the Place,” Howard would perform the abortions exactly as detailed during the counseling sessions. His fees amounted to about $500 per abortion. Though the Janes were unsuccessful in lowering his operating costs, they were able to sometimes receive two abortions for the price of one or negotiate a pro bono abortion for women who absolutely could not afford the procedure.

Howard was eventually arrested, independent of the Janes, for performing abortions. He was replaced by a man only known as Mike. “Everything was safe and caring and a real community for women coming through,” Booth said. However, after a few years of this operation, the Janes learned that their “doctor” was not, in fact, a licensed medical professional. This created a crossroads for the Janes: Half of the group decided to leave, objecting that the procedures had been unsafe and irresponsible. The remaining Janes chose to learn how to perform the abortions themselves.

“I wasn’t as surprised as I probably should have been, to learn that the doctor was not licensed. I think I sort of had figured it out,” Avruch said. “I got interested in [performing abortions], and I wanted to learn how to do it.”

With the Janes performing abortions

themselves, they dropped their price to $100. However, they never turned anyone away for financial reasons, taking any amount the women were willing and able to pay and sometimes performing operations for free.

The Arrest

At 11 a.m. on May 4, 1972, Avruch stood in “the Place” on her first day facilitating Jane-performed abortions. After a full morning of performing abortions, Avruch heard heavy knocking on the front door that rattled the apartment.

“Suddenly, we heard this huge noise. We realized it must be the police, so we locked the door,” Avruch said. “We then took the [abortion] instruments, looked to make sure nobody was beneath the high rise, and threw them out the window.”

The women, including seven Janes, waited in the bedroom for the police to burst in.

“Eventually the police kicked [the door] in. They were very surprised to see all women in the apartment, but they picked out who [were] the people involved with the Janes and who were the people there for the service,” Avruch said.

The Janes were all arrested and subsequently each charged with 11 counts of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion, which carried a 10-year sentence per count. As the charges were filed, each Jane had their mugshot taken. Avruch garnered a reputation because of it.

“I apparently had the worst, most smirk-looking smile,” she said. “It was because I kept smiling at the person taking my picture because it’s instinctive to smile in the picture. They really didn’t want me to smile. And they were yelling at me, so I was getting bad. They got to me.”

The Janes spent a long night at the police station and women’s prison. The next morning, they were released on bail and began planning their defense. They decided to find one lawyer to defend all of them, keeping their case together.

“We very much wanted a lawyer who wasn’t interested in breaking political borders. We didn’t necessarily want an attorney who was so excited with the idea that he might be able to argue a case before the Supreme Court that he might lose, and

CONTINUED ON PG. 11

“It was at that point I realized that this was such a necessary service.”

Poster used as part of search for three volunteers who were found murdered by the Klan. courtesy of heather booth .

“And if we organize with love at the center, we will change this world.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 10

then we [would] go to jail for a long time. This was not our interest. We were very interested in having the case go away,” Avruch said.

They decided on Jo-Anne Wolfson, who had successfully defended some of the Black Panthers in the past. Their saving grace was Roe v. Wade, which was then sitting before the Supreme Court. Wolfson decided that it would be in the Janes’ best interest to wait to see how the Supreme Court ruled.

Wolfson’s strategy was to continuously file standard motions that the prosecution would have to address. “The prosecution never seemed to get around to addressing these motions,” Avruch said. “Everybody was sort of playing this waiting game.”

Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled to legalize abortion on the basis of privacy, resolving the Janes’ case. The prosecution agreed to not charge them with practicing medicine without a license so long as the Janes did not ask for their medical instruments back and begin practicing again.

Between Avruch’s arrest and the decision, she graduated and moved to California, returning to Chicago whenever subpoenaed. “It was a little strange, because after the arrest, I still had papers to write,” Avruch laughed.

After the seven members’ arrests and the ruling of Roe v. Wade, the Janes ultimately disbanded. “Since legal abortion clinics were opening in Chicago at the time, there was no reason to get the instruments back. Jane fulfilled its function and went away,” Avruch recalls. “I think that all of us felt that, ‘okay, well, women now have a right to abortion, so we will go on to other things.’”

1973: The Next Chapter

The Janes fully believed Roe v. Wade marked the end of the organization, and in a way it did; per their agreement with the State Attorney, the Janes stopped organizing and performing abortions. Some Jane-affiliates, such as Diamond, went on to pursue careers related to their work from this era. Diamond works as a clini-

cal psychologist with a focus on fertility counseling.

Diamond’s experience at Jane also influenced her as a mother. “The whole experience of having gone through an illegal abortion and trying to do some good through Jane has been very impactful, especially because I raised two daughters,” she said. “It was one of the most important things for me in being a parent that I raised them in ways that they understood their sexuality and were protected and could enjoy it.”

Given the secretive work of the Janes, many of the members, especially those from the Class of 1972, have remained close to each other. During Alumni Weekend, May 19–22, 2022, the Janes in that graduating class hosted a panel on women’s rights, focusing on the past, present, and future of abortions.

Many of the women continued to support abortion rights after the disbandment of the Janes, donating to organizations like Planned Parenthood and attending pro-choice rallies. However,

they acknowledge that their work is far from done.

“I think, very soon, women could have fewer rights than they did in 1971,” Avruch said one month before the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling

“This is the most intimate decision of a person’s life, when or whether or with whom we have a child. It’s a fundamental freedom,” Booth said. “Right now, our freedoms are under attack, our reproductive freedom, but also the freedom to vote, the freedom to thrive and prosper for many people. And so we’re really at a knife’s edge in society, between the struggle for freedom and those who want to deny that freedom and create an authoritarian rule.”

A common sentiment shared by the Janes and feminists interviewed by The Maroon was that although the burden now rests on the younger generations, they are not alone.

“I’d like to hear from the younger members of the group, what they think they can be doing at this juncture,” Levine said. “I just want to remind them that local action is what’s going to get things started and effective. There’s no antipathy among collegiate age women now.”

West noted that though the Janes are no longer operational, their work can be resumed.

“I think that it’s potentially something that can be done going forward,” she said.

The work of the Janes not only championed women’s rights in a time when it wasn’t easy or legal but also illuminated the ways that everyday people, regardless of age, can create a lasting impact.

“One of the things that the Janes taught me is that a group of committed people working together can accomplish quite a bit,” Avruch said. “It’s valuable to organize and find like-minded people and join together and be engaged in trying to make the country better.”

Booth echoed this sentiment. “We have to come together. We have to educate, we have to raise the funds, we have to talk to others, we have to recruit people to be involved. We have to show up. To raise our voices, we need to organize. And if we organize with love at the center, we will change this world,” she said. “This will not stand.”

A Women’s Liberation march around 1970. Booth is at the bottom in white, pushing a stroller. courtesy of heather booth .

By DOMINIC ROBOLINO

In February 2022, University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) announced its plans to build the first freestanding cancer center in the city, an $815 million, 80bed endeavor. The new facility aims to increase access to care for Southsiders by enhancing research, screening, and treatment capacity across the inpatient and outpatient setting. By creating dedicated beds for cancer, the new facility is expected to free up existing hospital beds for the treatment of patients with other acute care needs. The University has primarily grounded this decision in references to the cancer burden of the South Side and a commitment to health equity.

UCM notes that cancer is the second leading cause of death on the South Side and that cancer deaths are twice the national average. But—perhaps more importantly—it highlights that UCM’s 2020–21 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) identified cancer as a new priority for the community. By bolstering cancer care, UCM would be addressing an epidemiological need in a manner that aligns with community interest and input.

It sounds great—or, at the very least, sounds great in theory—but the reality isn’t quite that simple. Cancer is the second leading cause of death across all of Chicago and the entire United States. It’s not a problem unique to the South Side. Cancer death rates in UCM’s service area are twice the national average, but, as UCM points out, patients on

Cancer Is Not the Problem

the South Side are far more likely to be diagnosed at later stages, when cancers are more advanced and far less treatable. This, along with the fact that most of the deaths are attributable to lung and prostate cancers, implicates insufficient screening and primary care more than a lack of advanced diagnostics and treatment. But the most upsetting part of UCM’s efforts to justify the construction of its cancer center is its blatant misrepresentation of the results of the CHNA.

The CHNA contains pages of epidemiological data and graphs regarding the prevalence, incidence, and impact of various diseases. But more importantly, it includes community survey data about the reported health needs of different age groups in UCM’s service area. The top five responses for each age group are listed in the report, summarized as follows: “Mental health is the only health issue that appeared across all three age groups, while violent crime, obesity, diabetes, and access to healthy food items were selected by respondents as top needs for two of the three age groups.” Cancer does not crack the top five for any age group. Additionally, in UCM–conducted focus groups, the most commonly identified issues aggregate around four themes: community-wide trauma, mental health, chronic diseases (specifically diabetes and heart disease), and lack of economic opportunity. Still not a single mention of cancer.

Cancer only appears as a priority under UCMC FY (Fiscal

Year) 2023–25 Community Benefit Priorities, which is “based on the results of the community needs assessment.” It fails to mention what part of the assessment is being referenced. This is all very convenient, given the fact that nonprofit hospitals like UCM are required to identify and address community needs in order to maintain their tax exempt status. By self-identifying cancer as a “community benefit priority,” UCM has retroactively prioritized a sector of medical care and research they already planned to enhance. In doing so, the University has effectively gamed the community benefit requirement by disguising its own goals as those of the community. Meanwhile, the South Side’s actual health needs persist unaddressed.

I’m not broadly opposed to the expansion of UCM. The South Side desperately needs more health care. As UCM notes, 56 percent of residents leave the area to access healthcare because of a shortage of local facilities and insurance barriers. One resident from the community focus groups specifically attributes the exodus to local “limitations with Medicare or Medicaid.” But in this regard, UCM is part of the problem. To this day, the University’s adult primary care group accepts virtually no Medicaid patients, aside from a handful of exemptions such as Native American ancestry, certain cancer and transplant care, and co-coverage with Medicare or another private insurer. The South Side needs more mental

health and primary care that is open to all people regardless of insurance payer. Not only is this what the community asked for in UCM’s needs assessment, but outside data also supports the value of this intervention.

In a 2021 report by UIC’s Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design and School of Public Health for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, five areas of the state were identified as facing extreme social vulnerability. In all five of these communities, including South Chicago, three disease groups were identified as the largest contributors to the frequency and intensity of hospitalizations and poor health outcomes: mental illness, particularly bipolar and depressive disorders; substance use disorders, especially alcohol and opioids; and ambulatory care sensitive conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, COPD/asthma, and heart disease. The report identifies increasing access to quality primary and specialty care as the key intervention needed to lower hospitalization rates and improve health outcomes in areas of high social vulnerability such as the South Side.

In 2012, Rahm Emanuel closed half of the city’s 12 mental health clinics, four of which were located on the South Side. This worsened existing disparities in care access in a part of a city already faced with a disproportionately high prevalence of mental illness. Whether addressing the community’s self-reported subjective needs or the aca-

demically identified drivers of healthcare utilization and poor health outcomes, the results are the same. The South Side wants and needs more accessible mental health care and primary care. What they’re getting is a titanic cancer center that skirts their needs. Imagine everything that could be done with $600 million allocated to mental health: inpatient rehab facilities, an addiction research center, outpatient psychiatry and therapy. The possibilities are limitless.

It’s time for the University to lay down the guise of community engagement and honestly address the concerns and needs of its service area. An academic medical center will always be indebted to its patients for the training they provide its students and residents and the data they supply its research adventures. The Affordable Care Act’s Community Benefit requirement was a step in the right direction, but institutional accountability is sorely lacking. As UCM strives for supremacy in cancer care, it should be honest about its motivations—whether they be financial, reputational, or otherwise—instead of halfheartedly manipulating data and misrepresenting community input to falsely legitimize its investments. The University owes the South Side the healthcare it deserves, not just the care UCM wants to provide.

Dominic Robolino is a graduate student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

UChicago Medicine owes the people of the South Side the accessible mental health and primary care they need, not a $600 million cancer center that no one asked for.

Why Is the Administration Using UCPD to Silence Pro-Palestinian Students?

By UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE

Content warning: This article includes violent imagery and discusses genocide and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.

During winter quarter’s #IsraeliMilitaryOffOurCampus campaign, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UChicago has called on members of the University community to boycott former Israeli general Meir Elran’s class on “counter-terrorism,” oppose the presence of the Israeli military on our campus, and demand that the University cut ties with the heavily politicized Israel Institute. Each week, SJP has posted flyers around campus that offer reasons to oppose Elran’s course, providing detailed course critiques and exposés of Elran’s personal and institutional history. And week after week, flyers have been torn down in an attempt to silence Palestinian students and advocates. Despite the fact that the flyers and posters abide by all University posting policies, no steps have been taken by the administration to uphold the integrity of “free speech” on campus. Several reports have been made to the administration detailing specific locations, identifying the number of flyers removed, and even providing photo and video evidence of students suppressing SJP’s right to expression. Unsurprisingly, given its track record of refusing to take

institutional action against apartheid regimes or to punish violations of University policy perpetrated by pro-apartheid groups, the UChicago administration has failed to hold anyone accountable for these repeated infractions.

The University escalated its antagonism toward pro-Palestinian voices on February 2, when SJP and dozens of other members of the broader campus community came together to commemorate the lives of the 10 Palestinians massacred in the Jenin refugee camp on January 26, as well as the more than 36 Palestinians who had been killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces by that point in 2023 alone. Since then, this figure has nearly doubled in light of the massacre Israel perpetrated in the city of Nablus on February 22.

Although this commemoration event had been planned and organized by SJP—an RSO that has conducted more than 10 on-campus events and actions in the last year alone without violating any University policy—the administration decided in advance to treat it as a hostile “threat.” Before the peaceful demonstration even began, a group of armed University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) officers arrived at Cobb Hall, where the action was scheduled to take place. These officers were the UChicago administration’s first line of defense against the free expression of its own students. Despite having broken no rules and disrupted no campus ac -

tivities, students were forcibly barred from entering Cobb Hall, a building open to all students, by campus security agents and armed police officers at the behest of University administrators. Without explanation, officers repeatedly stated that particular students were not allowed to enter the building despite their attestations that they were UChicago students. It is a question left open to the reader how administrative officials were able to distinguish between students participating in the commemoration and other students trying to enter the building. The first student denied entry was a visibly Muslim woman wearing hijab. Given UCPD’s notorious history of racial profiling, this too is unsurprising.

Students participating in the commemoration did not give up trying to enter Cobb, even as they were obstructed by officers who acknowledged that they were “under orders” yet did not have any legitimate reason to prevent entry. Eventually, Dean-on-Call Ingrid Sagor was called to justify the order. Without evidence or explanation, Sagor continued to claim that we were not allowed to enter the building, and even asked students to prove themselves by showing IDs, despite the fact that the only people acting contrary to University policy were the University’s own administrators. According to University policy, the role of the dean-on-call is to “work actively to preserve an environment of spirited and open

discourse and debate, allowing for the opportunity to have all participants contribute to intellectual exchange and full participation in an event.” Clearly, the community allowed to participate in “intellectual exchange” does not include those grieving Palestinian death and affirming Palestinian life—though it does include professors who represent the Israeli military and treat its ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people as the subject of “security studies” courses.

Eventually, the dean-oncall’s stalling tactics and discriminatory ID requests—which were possibly intended to pinpoint and persecute students involved in the action—failed. Students were finally allowed in, apparently under orders from a senior UCPD officer. As campus security held open an emergency door for armed UCPD officers to enter the building, however, an alarm was set off, which Sagor attempted to use to discourage students from progressing further into the building.

Unfazed by the administration’s scare tactics, student organizers made their way past Sagor to the hallway outside Elran’s classroom, where they lined up against the hallway walls displaying the names and pictures of Palestinians killed in Israel’s recent massacre. SJP leaders reminded students to keep staircases, elevators, and doors clear of blockage and to avoid making noise while classes were still in session. This was in keeping with the careful attitude of all students present

toward University policies, as even Sagor admitted in conversations with students after the event. Administrators, officers, and students supportive of Elran, however, did not follow this same standard. After the reading of the names and ages of the martyred Palestinians, participants in the action observed a moment of silence, followed by a short speech about Elran and his class’s contributions to the oppression of the Palestinian people. During this moment of silence, a hostile student tore up SJP’s flyers in front of both UCPD and Sagor. UCPD was caught on camera confirming that they witnessed this destruction of property in front of them, while refusing to implement any disciplinary action against the student. This is not the first time the University has declined to take disciplinary action against anti-Palestinian vandalists in general and this student in particular.

As a Palestinian student speaking at the commemoration said, “Sometimes to be Palestinian means we are in a state of constant mourning. It means that even in burial, we may not find peace.” The commemoration itself took a total of 10 minutes between the passing periods of classes, in keeping with University policy and so as not to disturb ongoing classes.

After leaving the building, Sagor once again approached the student leaders, this time in a more aggressive and condescending tone. When a student remarked that the anti-aborCONTINUED ON PG. 14

The administration’s recent attempt to suppress an on-campus SJP demonstration using armed UCPD officers fits within a larger pattern of anti-Palestinian bias on the part of the University.

A reaffirmed commitment to the free expression of SJP both in an explicit statement and in practice is essential.

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tion and homophobic protests frequently held outside of the Regenstein Library are never met with police presence, while Black and brown students rallying behind Palestine are treated as security threats, Sagor attempted to gaslight the action’s participants, claiming that she had been present for those protests as well and supports causes similar to theirs. Unsurprisingly, Sagor failed to supply any examples of protests organized by established RSOs that, despite being conducted in perfect conformity with University policy, have been met with comparable UCPD presence, denials of entry, or intimidation tactics. Instead, and without any apparent irony or embarrassment, she asserted that SJP had created the appearance of a “threat” by gathering outside Cobb Hall with a small microphone, some pastries, and two carriers of coffee (generously supplied to the organizers by Grounds of Being). After student leaders pointed out that her supposed sympathy for or impartiality toward SJP was a lie, given her coordination with armed police and refusal to admit students into Cobb Hall, she stormed into the building and declined to converse further.

Remarkably, the administration’s antagonism toward SJP and gross violations of University protocol continued even after the protest had ended. One integral component of the protest had been chalking on the sidewalk outside Cobb Hall, in keeping with the University’s policy that chalking is allowed “on campus sidewalks or walkways that can be easily washed away by rain and that will not cause lasting or permanent damage.” Barely one hour after the action

had ended, however, University maintenance personnel were sent to wash the sidewalks of SJP’s messaging. At around the same time, a student who had participated in the demonstration returned to Cobb Hall to retrieve a bag he had forgotten in the building. Without explanation, Sagor denied the student entry to the building unless he first displayed his ID. After explaining to Sagor that he had left his bag in Cobb Hall, Sagor informed the student that he would be permitted to retrieve it only under the accompaniment of one or more armed UCPD of-

ficers. Feeling uncomfortable and threatened by this baseless demand, the student opted to go home instead. These blatantly discriminatory and anti–free speech acts show how far the administration is willing to go in suppressing SJP’s message while catering to the prejudices and demands of Zionist students.

When called out for their history of indifference to attacks on groups like SJP and other majority–BIPOC student organizations on campus, the University often cites the Kalven Report. In addition, in its student code of

conduct, the University asserts that:

“The primary function of a university is to discover and disseminate knowledge by means of research and teaching. To fulfill this function, a free interchange of ideas is necessary not only within the university but also with the larger society. At the University of Chicago, freedom of expression is vital to our shared goal of the pursuit of knowledge. Such freedom comes with a responsibility to welcome and promote this freedom for all, even in disagreement or opposition.”

Ultimately, the administration’s disregard of its own policies and the police response to peaceful, rule-following student demonstrators this month reveals that its support for free speech extends only as far as its own political interests. We call on the administration to apologize for the inappropriate actions of UCPD and the administration at this commemoration, which included obstructing students from entering Cobb Hall without basis, silencing Palestinian students and supporters through the erasure of

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Images of the chalk from before and immediately after the action. Note that chalking facilitated by anti-abortion groups on campus frequently remains for days at a time and is washed away by students—not by maintenance workers. courtesy of university of chicago students for justice in palestine.

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SJP chalking, and refusing to take action against students caught destroying SJP flyers. A reaffirmed commitment to the free expression of SJP both in an explicit statement and in practice is essential.

The SJP campaign against Elran’s course and the Israel Institute more generally has revealed that the UChicago administration is more committed to platforming and protecting the free speech of apartheid military personnel than that of its own students. In the words of a student who recently voiced support for our campaign, then, we turn the question back to the administration and ask:

“Does the University’s commitment to free expression justify its partnership with the Israel Institute today? I hope University administrators share my appreciation [for] Students

for Justice in Palestine for raising this important question. To scrutinize the presence of military officials in the classroom and critique euphemistic military, security, and ethnic nationalist discourses exemplifies the principles of rigorous and open scholarly inquiry which the University claims to hold dear. I urge the University to be transparent about the details of its partnership with the Israel Institute and similar organizations from any country, in particular the U.S.”

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Chicago is UChicago’s chapter of a nationwide network of students dedicated to supporting Palestinians in their struggle for liberation, especially by raising awareness about and organizing against the Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestinian

It’s Time to Make Sports a Core Requirement

By RYAN SANGHAVI

It’s no secret that the lack of a football stadium in UChicago’s Hyde Park campus is a unique trait among universities of similar ranking, but it’s also reflected by the general reputation of anti-athleticism in the student body. UChicago has a worse Niche “athletics” grade (a “C”) than all five universities ranking above it on U.S. News ’s list of best colleges—by more than a full letter grade. At UChicago, we have a Core Cur -

riculum aimed at broadening insights and exploring multiple disciplines, but this pursuit of an expanded skill set should not be limited to academics. The College should include team sports as a Core requirement. There is no more efficient way to unite a group of peers than to put them through a competition in which sweat, tears, loss, and victory are shared. At UChicago, for both naive first-years and seasoned fourth-years, it’s concerningly easy to fall into a routine of

waking up, going to class, and going back to the dorm (rinse, repeat, etc.). Requiring sports— giving every student a team that shares in the successes and losses of competition—provides a clear opportunity to shake off a mundane and solitary routine. Once a peer, now a teammate. Once an academic rival, now an athletic ally. Once a stranger, now someone you see every week, whom you support after failure and cheer on after success. Together, through a team, even the most social of students

can expand their circles. Maybe I sound naive in the claim that mandating sports for everyone combats the troubles of a few, but the social benefits for first-years in particular would be considerable. Getting acclimated to a new school starts only through connections, and there cannot be a surplus of such opportunities.

Let’s move to the issue of general athleticism. The University confirms that roughly 500 students participate in varsity athletics and claims

that 1,100 people participate in club sports. With roughly 7,000 undergraduates, even if we presume that the 1,100 “people” all reference undergraduates and that there is no overlap between varsity and club athletes, fewer than a quarter of undergraduate students would still be on such teams. The risk of physical inactivity is present nationwide, but the College in particular has a duty to its students to mitigate it—particularly in the context of the University’s less-than-ideal

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A static student body promotes unhealthy and antisocial lifestyles. A mandated athletic program can help with that.

Remarkably, the administration’s antagonism toward SJP and gross violations of University protocol continued even after the protest had ended.

SJP’s flyers and posters, such as the one shown at right, have been repeatedly torn down and removed despite abiding by University posting policies. courtesy of university of chicago students for justice in palestine.

Sports aren’t just about meeting other people.

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athletic rating. Suffice it to say, we have some ground to make up. Perhaps some students prefer the fun and social atmosphere of intramural sports. However, the level of intensity necessary to improve one’s athleticism is absent from this type of play, as is the rigor of a consistent, compulsory schedule—some of the key benefits of sports.

Harvard Medical School also reports that physical activity reduces the risk of other health complications and improves one’s mood and mental health. The benefits are clear, but the manifestation is lacking. Not everyone has the adequate willpower and mental fortitude to institute their own workout regimen. Those who won’t hit the gym on their own. Those who won’t go for a run on their own. Those who won’t try a new sport on their own. So let’s do it for them. Sports aren’t just about meeting other people. They’re also about discovering your limits and improving your

mindset regarding competition. They’re about making your body a toolkit as useful as your mind. These are benefits that are absent for many students who elect out of team sports. Let’s be honest: It’s hard to make a claim about the health and wellness of UChicago students—when it comes to overall strength and conditioning—without speculation or a decent amount of anecdotal evidence. Nevertheless, perhaps the stereotypes associated with our institution stem from some level of truth. A chiefly academic school poses no threat to a student body. An unfit one does.

So how do we mandate these ideas? The purpose of the Core Curriculum is to provide “all students with a challenging, common academic foundation before they begin courses specific to their fields of study.” But attributes like social abilities, physical strength, and team spirit are all critical to a student’s well-roundedness that cannot be confined to the classroom. Workplace environ-

ments almost always emphasize the importance of social competency and a team mindset, and these skills can best be learned on the field or court, through open and hasty communication and interaction with teammates. If a student places their focus solely on schoolwork, is it truly fair to them (and to the world that this generation of students will soon lead) to deprive them of these opportunities and skills? The Core challenges us. It makes physics majors take history. It makes math majors take social science courses. Though some would argue that this is impractical, the skill set found within different studies produces a resolve that would otherwise go undiscovered. In a similar fashion, sports equip you with a skill set that no other activity can. So let’s not stop at academics. For students otherwise uninterested in team sports, there is an overwhelming, untapped source of prowess that could enhance everything from agility to motivation to conversation in one’s everyday

life. So to those students who believe that the temporary fatigue of physical exertion overpowers the everlasting development of mind and body that results—I promise you, this is not the

Thoughts from an Egyptian UChicagoan On coursework, Cairo, and making it count.

By SALMA TAGELDIN

The first thing I noticed about UChicago students, at least those on Sidechat, is that they complain a lot. And, having been an international exchange student here for the past quarter, I get it now. As a university, UChicago is as challenging as they come. The humongous reading load, the dreadful midterm exams with 60-something percent as the average grade, and the weekly rush of having to finish problem set after prob -

lem set have all become regular occurrences. Don’t even get me started on the Sosc essays. I thought I was a semi-decent writer before taking Power.

So, yes, compared to my home institution back in Cairo, UChicago is significantly more demanding. The academic stress, deadlines, and the constant embarrassment inherent to my trying to clearly articulate my points in class are indeed looming presences here. Most weeks, my imposter syndrome is through the roof,

even when my grades indicate that I’m arguably doing just fine. Pair this with the fact that I’m more than 6,000 miles away from family and friends, and you can get a sense of why it can be difficult to get through the day without screaming into a pillow or even just feeling lonely. Still, I find myself grateful for UChicago more than anything. Given the combination of my experiences at my home institution and the limited amount of time I have here at UChicago, I urge my fellow students not

to take what our campus has to offer—the good and the complaint-worthy—for granted.

Let’s start with academia. As an exchange student, some of the things that bother degree-seeking students here actually seem to work in my favor. The workload is heavy, but if I forget my impeccably impossible standards regarding my grades, along with my self-imposed performance anxiety, for just a second, I realize that the exact grades I get are not as consequential as I often think they

case. So let’s stay social, let’s stay competitive, and let’s stay challenged. We have a reputation to outgrow.

are. Sure, I would love for my credits to get transferred, but I didn’t pick my courses based on transferability. Instead, I chose them based on interest and how much educational benefit I felt I would gain from taking them as a political science major. By learning more about the topics I would never get to explore otherwise, I am able to enhance my already-present interests. In the considerably less flexible academic environment back home, deterred by either the

Ryan Sanghavi is a first-year in the College.

courtesy of kira davis

CONTINUED FROM PG. 16

deadly bureaucracy or by the inability to speak candidly in class about domestic concerns, it can be difficult to capitalize on the knowledge of professors who truly do want to help and educate you the best they can. And yet, for the aforementioned reasons, it is not always possible, no matter how kind they are. That said, there were a few exceptions, those whose guidance ultimately led me to Hyde Park.

At the same time, I am learning more than I ever did in the majority of my academic career, and not just from books or journal articles either. I am learning from the fluid flow of discussion in class, the ease with which opinions are expressed without barriers, all without the fear of saying the “wrong thing.” And perhaps it’s not always the wrong thing, but the right thing at the wrong time or in the wrong place, depending on who’s listening—and whoever they might be reporting back to. It is an open secret in Cairo that certain students are delegated the responsibility of reporting any semblance of political criticism that may lead to mass action or mobilization, something that used to be common at public universities in the past. Here, in the near absence of this trepidation, I feel a growing sense of safety that I too am allowed to interject in class, to voice what I think, and to disagree freely about real world issues with evidence and respect.

In a gender and sexuality class I took this past quarter, I was able to voice my thoughts on social power structures, specifically how they relate to race, gender, and their intersection in Egypt and the Middle East. More importantly, I heard the perspectives of the Arab dias -

pora living here, ones that differ substantially from mine but that informed me all the same. The only thing I regret is not pointing out more, in this and other classes, the privilege of my classmates, some of whom I felt viewed the issues we discussed as distant, far away, both in space and time from them— issues that are my reality when I return home.

Outside of class, life on campus is, for lack of a better word, an “experience.” Before UChicago, I had never lived in dorms, or even with a roommate. I thought I was destined to hate it all, imagining the horrors of close quarters, shared bathrooms, and rarely cleaned kitchens. Instead, I liked it. It could have something to do with the fact that I am fortunate enough to be placed in Max P, right in the middle of campus, or even that I have an Egyptian roommate, who understands my personal space and is supportive whenever I have one of my routine breakdown-rants at 2 a.m., most commonly about missing my mom or walking by the Nile listening to Mohamed Mounir’s “Shababek.” But what I do know is that it has a ton to do with my house, Woodward, whose resident heads and assistants are always organizing an event of some sort, creating a feeling of familiarity. For example, although I do not celebrate Thanksgiving, having the option to have dinner at the heads’ apartment was a deeply appreciated gesture. Plus, as someone who adores the arts but is not often afforded the opportunity to appreciate them, given the high show prices and the rarity of independent or non–state sanctioned media at home, free tickets to the theater or the opera are deeply appreciated. My

friend and I saw our first opera, Le Comte Ory, and it was such a fun experience. Honestly, for someone who has never really liked partying or large crowds, these trips are a breath of fresh air during hectic weeks.

Speaking of fresh air, I love watching the looks of amazement or shock whenever someone asks what my favorite thing about Chicago is, and I answer, “Oh, the greenery, the weather, the walkability, or the public transport.” There has got to be an irony in this, they would say. It can be hard for them to fathom that green public spaces are special, not a given or simply just an aspect of everyday life. They do not have to fear or cope with them being snatched away, seemingly along with our future, as though they hold no value or significance. In Egypt’s deteriorating, increasingly militarized state-economy, families live in fear for survival each day. Tomorrow is never a guarantee, with little job opportunities and rising inflation. Being able to conceptualize a slightly brighter tomorrow feels like a privilege.

Additionally, I suppose there’s the assumption that when hailing from Cairo, you and the desert are intertwined. Sweltering heat is your “natural habitat.” However, as I explain to all who would listen, it’s hard to bathe in the sun, relax, or catch a bus downtown when you can barely breathe from the pollution or from the feeling that you live in a box of cement with slabs of black tar smeared carelessly on top. Over the past few years, the current regime has seemingly prioritized needless grand infrastructure over longer, sustainable productivity projects. Its insistence on urban development that eliminates walkable areas and in-

stalls concrete bridges in lieu of decades-old public gardens has stifled what little life remained in the major areas of the city of Cairo, including my suburb of Heliopolis. And still, even in the few remaining neighborhoods that remain unmarred by state intrusion, the threat of harassment looms everywhere. In 2013, a UN study claimed that “99.3 percent of Egyptian girls and women surveyed reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime.” Even universities are not safe, with two students brutally murdered in the light of day after rejecting their assailants just this past summer. The possibility of gender-based violence is therefore on a record high despite small boosts in feminist mobilization online.

Thus, living on campus is often a relief. I can finally put on my earphones, whether in broad daylight on the Quad or close to midnight by the Regenstein Library, and walk with my favorite songs on repeat. Invincible, without needing permission and free from pangs of terror. And sure, not constantly sweating makes all the difference, too. For a moment, I feel as free as I have ever been and as thankful as I can be. My time here has made me want to be stronger, to fight harder for a future back home that is full of greenery like Chicago—a future that I recognize will likely never be my own but I hope will be my daughter’s or her daughter’s or, if that’s too optimistic, her daughter’s. When I was 10 years old, hopeful Egyptians, just like myself now, peacefully took to the streets for a better life, for bread, freedom, and social justice. Some lost their lives for it, and as the 12th anniversary of the January revolution passes

by, I remember their sacrifice and work to ensure that it was never for nothing. The streets will always be ours, even if only in our hearts, no matter how they change them.

To leave you on a higher note, my last-but-not-least UChicago highlight has got to be the students. At the start of the year, my academic advisor mentioned that there is much to learn from the University’s student body. Being 22 and close to graduation, I first thought that their words might be an exaggeration. And yet, they were right. There are my classmates, whose identities and reflections have helped me on my quest to understand and find my own through safe, open discussion. There are also housemates, friendly faces stopping by your table at the dimly lit Cobb Café with reassuring words or just a hello.

Best of all, there are the friends you stay up all night with at the library to finish your readings, or at random common rooms playing card games, dancing to an Egyptian song or talking about missing home. Those you explore the city with during the weekends or criticize the dining hall food with together as you reminisce about your mother’s mahshy (stuffed grape vine leaves) and mulukhiyah. As cliche as it sounds, the whole spiel about UChicago being “the place where fun comes to die” can be true if you let it, or if you fail to look past the grades. But with a little help from friends with whom you can rant about it all, you can build the solidarity necessary to combat anything, see past it all, and truly make UChicago your home away from home for the meantime.

Salma Tageldin is a fourthyear at the College.

Outside of class, life on campus is, for lack of a better word, an “experience.”

ARTS

63rd Annual UChicago Folk Festival Roars Back to Passionate, Collaborative Life

After two years of virtual performances, the UChicago Folk Festival returned on campus for a much-anticipated revival.

By ANGELINA TORRE | Associate Arts Editor

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys usually bypass Chicago when driving through the Midwest, but, for the UChicago Folk Fest on February 10 and 11, the Grammy-nominated folk band made the city their destination. “It took us a long time to get here, cause your traffic is really bad,” quipped the band’s mandolinist C.J. Lewandowski, “[But] we’re here, and we’re gonna have a good time.”

The 63rd Annual UChicago Folk Festival featured evening performances on the nights of February 10 and 11 at Mandel Hall and a variety of free workshops in Ida Noyes Hall on Saturday. The festival is a time-honored tradition well-known even beyond UChicago’s campus. When the festival was first founded in the early 1960s, it was applauded by a New York Times critic for “putting the folk back in folk music” at a time when “the popularization of folk music [had] led to many [species] of dilution and hybridization.”

The festival is organized every year by the UChicago Folklore Society, a motley crew of undergrads, alumni, and members of the surrounding community who are passionate about folk music. In the ’60s, the Folklore Society would take road trips across the country to discover and recruit musicians for the festival. Today, the performers are sourced through the Folklore Society’s alumni network, word of mouth, and something co-president Nick Rommel describes as “YouTube rabbit holes”—i.e., allowing himself to get lost on the internet finding cool videos and looking into artists.

This year’s festival was especially exciting for Rommel, who cut his teeth as co-president while the festival was still being held over Zoom. While donors were

generous enough to allow the event to continue over the pandemic, Rommel said the virtual fest lacked “feeling,” and I understood what he meant. Perhaps more than the performances, it is the passion of the people attending and the way they interact that give the Folk Festival its charm. Among my favorite moments were catching bits of ardent conversation about vocal harmonies and coming across impromptu jam sessions that broke out among strangers in every nook of Ida Noyes.

The festival has hosted a number of influential names in folk music, including the Stanley Brothers, the New Lost City Ramblers, and Elizabeth Cotten. Bob Dylan famously auditioned for a spot onstage in the ’60s but was rejected. This year’s performers varied in their folk styles, featuring everything from old-time fiddle, to Louisiana Cajun, to traditional Irish music.

Balfa Toujours kicked off Friday night’s concert with a mix of songs in French and English that got the audience out of their seats and into the aisles dancing. Next was husband-andwife duo Donka and Nikolay Kolev, who played Bulgarian folk music on traditional instruments. The tinny, whisper-like sound of Nikolay’s gadulka—a Bulgarian string instrument whose name means “to make noise, hum or buzz”—surprised the crowd at first but had the audience on their feet sending the Kolevs off stage with a standing ovation.

Next to perform was a trio playing son huasteco music, a traditional Mexican music style known for its flamboyant violin parts. The trio had so much fun on stage that they ignored their two-minute

warning to wrap it up (“one more song, un poquito,” promised violinist Juan Rivera). Henry Barnes and Conner Vlietstra were next on stage and provided old-time folk music history interludes between their own old-time numbers.

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys closed the night festooned with shimmery fabric and cowboy hats. The five-piece band moved around on stage with such ease that I figured their movements were rehearsed. But when I caught up with the band at the end of the night, I found that the contrary was true. They tend to bump into each other more if they plan their movements than if they “let it go natural.”

This was the first time in two years that the festival resumed in-person activities after transitioning to online festivities in 2021, and there was a palpable enthusiasm among the festivalgoers.

“It’s kind of like a living organism,”

Rommel told The Maroon. “It sort of feels like it has a life of its own.”

At one point, I spoke to fiddle player Mitzi Lebensorger, who was jamming on the second-floor stair platform, a “traditional spot” for spontaneous jam sessions. She has been coming to the Folk Fest regularly for 20 years but remembers first coming as a teenager in the ’70s. “I remember I asked Barbara Silverman what shoes she was wearing,” Lebensorger mentioned with a chuckle, “I just liked them.” Names big and small hang out and enjoy music together at the UChicago Folk Festival, with performers casually milling around to talk about their set or express excitement about the Western store in Chicago (I’m looking at you, Po’ Ramblin’ Boys). So why not ask a renowned folk musician where they got their kicks?

Joining Lebensorger on the staircase

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys perform their set to close the Friday night concert in Mandel Hall. courtesy of angelina torre

It’s kind of like a living organism…It sort of feels like it has a life of its own.”

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were a cellist, a mandolinist, and Lebensorger’s nine-year-old nephew Zale, wielding his own fiddle. Zale has attended the festival for a few years now, but this was the first time he had an instrument of his own to play. Sitting on the bench,

his legs weren’t quite long enough to tap his foot in time with the rest of the group. Other workshops included quilting, Scandinavian music, and international folk dance. I started the day with a Jug Band workshop led by Jonas Friddle. Plastic kazoos were handed out to those

without instruments. The workshop’s makeshift band ranged from elementary-school-aged children to seasoned musicians who were all involved and enjoying the fun.

As a fourth-year in the College, I regret that this was my first time attending

the UChicago Folk Festival. It was such a joy to play and hear music in a space filled with people equally passionate about their love of folk. Though I graduate in the spring, I’m reminded of a lyric we learned in the Jug Band workshop: “You may leave, but this’ll bring you back.”

Everything Everywhere All at Once Is an Unhinged Triumph

By VERONICA CHANG | Former Arts Contributor

This review was originally published April 13, 2022. It has been reprinted after Everything Everywhere All At Once claimed seven Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, 2023.

How do you begin to dissect a movie that’s literally titled Everything Everywhere All at Once? It defies explanation, defies being broken down or classified into any one thing—it’s a comedy, it’s a martial arts action flick done in the style of Stephen Chow, it’s a hopeless love story, it’s a Wong Kar-Wai homage, it’s a family drama, it’s a story about queer pride—it’s Everything you could think of, with film references and whiplashing emotions Everywhere, given unabashedly to the audience All at Once.

I’m reluctant to reduce a film of this scope and magnitude to something so simple as a love letter—Everything Everywhere All at Once feels more like a million shouts of love into an implausible void. But the story at its core is exactly that. It’s a mother pulling together her family, tackling generational and cultural differences to do so (while also learning the encompassing totality of love in the face of the insidious lure of nihilism). Michelle Yeoh stars (and absolutely shines) as Evelyn, a tired laundromat owner who must navigate the skills and emotions of her multiverse selves to save the universe, her family, and her taxes. Along for the ride: Evelyn’s husband, the loving and gentle Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, whose surprising versatility—jumping between martial arts expert, clueless dad, and hopeless ro-

mantic—ends up forming a large part of the film’s emotional core); her daughter, the defiantly lost Joy (Stephanie Hsu); and her father, the perpetually cranky Gong Gong (James Hong).

Directed and written by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, the film uses absurdity to mask its deeply moving and heartfelt messages. As the duo’s sophomore film outing, following 2016’s Swiss Army Man starring Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse, Everything Everywhere All at Once contains all the zany chaos and physical comedy expected from two millennials who cut their directing teeth on music videos like “Turn Down for What.” You’re laughing one second, then suddenly you’re crying, but you’re also still laughing, because onscreen, Harry Shum Jr. is crying over a raccoon and everything suddenly makes sense. And nothing makes sense. Still with me?

The traditional idea of The Chosen One (think Harry Potter from Harry Potter, Neo from The Matrix, Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender) is that they possess certain special qualities and powers such that only they can save the world. Everything Everywhere All at Once takes the opposite approach, having Laundromat Evelyn be the least successful Evelyn in all the multiverses; she is The Chosen One precisely because she has none of the qualities of The One. Rather than use the idea of the multiverse as fanservice or a cheap gimmick, this allows the Daniels to use the multiverse’s possibilities to set up Evelyn’s character conceit: to save the

world, Evelyn must tap into the potential displayed by her multiverse selves while also accepting the choices, sacrifices, and resulting dissatisfaction of her own universe.

Of course, this conceit would be nothing without Yeoh’s masterful performance. Evelyn is a role that was written for Yeoh, showcasing Yeoh’s accustomed elegance and martial arts wizardry (echoing earlier roles in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or more recently, Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi ). But there’s also vulnerability, butt-plug fight scenes, romantic waltzing with hot dog fingers, and so many other emotional depths that Yeoh plumbs and displays. You keep wondering how Hollywood has never had Yeoh in a headlining role before now (answer: racism), and why no one else has ever made an Asian immigrant mother the star of a Chosen One story (answer: also racism).

Everything Everywhere All at Once is not an Immigrant Story. But its expression of common immigrant stories and conflicts is unexpectedly heartfelt and authentic. There’s the trilingual switching between English, Mandarin, and Cantonese—sometimes mid-sentence—to signal generational disconnect. Evelyn’s crabby misremembering of Ratatouille as “Raccaccoonie” which becomes the film’s best running gag. And ultimately, the generational conflict of parental pressure and obligations: Gong Gong never fully accepts Evelyn, while Evelyn continues to take care of him in his old age. And a generation later, Evelyn initially refuses to fully accept Joy because of the latter’s queer identity, which mimics the casual

homophobia of many an immigrant parent who are “fine” with their kids dating the same gender, but like. Not really fine.

All of this is wrapped up in a non-stop bombastic tour of the multiverse. The multiverse, as a concept, is at its best when it’s purposely unhinged—something Daniels know how to lean into. Although the worldbuilding and exposition gets heavy, leaving less time for certain character resolutions (Gong Gong’s sudden acceptance of Joy’s girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel) is a little ham-fisted), there’s enough action and comedy that the exploration never feels slow. In the end, Everything Everywhere All at Once urges us to be kind. Even as we hurtle through the multiverse, even as we are surrounded by chaos and nihilism—be kind.

I’d be remiss in this review if I did not mention my own Asian immigrant mother, who has provided critical reactions and lines for some of my other The Chicago Maroon reviews. There were so many moments in Everything Everywhere All at Once where I thought, that’s exactly what my mom would do here. That’s definitely something she would say—wait, my mom would make a great (and hilarious) multiverse hero. So, this review is for my mom, who will not understand why she would be the best multiverse hero and lightheartedly complain about it anyway.

(When I told my mom why Evelyn reminded me of her, she brusquely dismissed the comparison to ask whether Everything Everywhere All at Once is a good movie. Is it worth seeing in theaters? Yes, Mom. It is.)

This review is for my mom, who would be the best multiverse-jumping hero.

Right To Be Forgotten Is a Welcome, If Somewhat Distracted, Portrayal of Internet Privacy Debates

By ZACHARY LEITER | Deputy Arts Editor

In Edgewater Glen, Chicago, Raven Theatre’s production of Sharyn Rothstein’s Right To Be Forgotten is powerful, touching, and opportune. The play, which premiered in Washington, D.C., four years ago, follows Derril Lark, a painfully awkward 20-something literature student, as he brings a suit against big tech for internet privacy violations. Ten years ago, Lark stalked a high school classmate he barely knew—something the play is, thankfully, morally unequivocal about. After going to said classmate and apologizing to her, Lark desires the ability to take down online mentions of his past faults. This is not, however, a play about forgiveness, so much as it is a play about the internet’s ability to contort real life and preserve those distortions.

That we should have more of our conversations in person is hardly a novel aspect of the current zeitgeist—where Right

To Be Forgotten excels is that it rarely says this aloud and only tangentially shows it. At times, Rothstein’s dialogue surrounding free speech is a touch too showy, though many of the drama’s lines are more poignant—Lark’s musings on renaming himself, especially. Asked by his lawyer why he didn’t simply change his name, he remarks, “If I could be anyone, I could just as easily be no one.” The play’s title is somewhat of a misnomer; Lark is not so much fighting to be forgotten as he is struggling to be remembered

differently.

And, past a few nonsense lines—lines like “the Internet is us… it’s me”—Right To Be Forgotten’s dialogue is gratifyingly realistic. Where this play flourishes is in its portrayal of significant social debates through the lens of individual interactions. Right To Be Forgotten practices what it preaches: we should focus more on human interaction and less on corporate talking points and labels such as “pro–free speech.”

Such a focus works only with a strong cast, and Right To Be Forgotten delivers on that front. In particular, Adam Shalzi as Lark and Susaan Jamshidi as his lawyer, Marta Lee, shine. Lark is a difficult character to portray, but Shalzi plays him with just the right balance of sympathy and scrutiny. Crucially, Shalzi also leans into Lark’s nerdiness without making it a joke, a crutch, or, worst of all, a caricature. His shoulders, his tone, his expending of energy—all are part of a character who feels authentic and lived in. Jamshidi’s Lee is even more genuine in her emotion. She is a woman driven by an outré desire for a combination of performative accomplishment and genuine triumph, accompanied consistently by a flamboyant apathy toward how she is perceived. She exists onstage loudly, heavily, ostentatiously, joyously, and at times carelessly. The genuine quasi-friendship that forms between Lee and Lark—the former a loner

by choice, the latter through ostracism—is sensitive and charming.

In supporting roles, Kelsey Elyse Rodriguez is amusing and cheerful as Lark’s (non-stalked) romantic interest Sarita; Lucy Carapetyan, despite some exaggerated delivery, lends much-needed humanity to the anti-privacy argument as corporate lawyer Annie Zahirovic. It is also only through onstage interactions between Zahirovic and Lee that Lee’s character is fully expanded and expressed.

If Raven Theatre’s Right To Be Forgotten has a weakness, it is that the stage design, though creative, falls just short and hampers the play’s message. Credit should be given to director Sarah Gitenstein and scenic designer Jeffrey D. Kmiec for taking a serious risk in placing Right To Be Forgotten’s subdued plot on a massive stage. In the scenes when Gitenstein and Kmiec stick to such a conceptualization—two or three characters at a small table in the corner of a large, mostly unlit stage—the effect is one of startling isolation, but too frequently, such direction is compromised by actors placed center stage or blocked to traverse the stage. Then, honestly, the stage’s size is merely annoying.

The aforementioned massive, generally empty stage is ringed by a series of large floor-to-ceiling screens, which scroll through expository tweets, blog posts, and the like during scene transitions. It’s an interesting idea and one of the better uses of screens I’ve seen in a

play; however, the screens are so constant that they are not only overwhelming in their stream of information but also distracting in their flashing and scrolling. To get slightly meta, perhaps Raven Theatre wants to remind the audience that screens are distracting, but what they’ve really done is fall culprit to distracting the audience themselves.

What they’re distracting from is a series of powerful, well-acted scenes complemented by sharp visual design. A checkerboard of troffer lights boxes the stage in from above, creating the effect of both spotlighting and depressing the action. Finnegan Chu’s costume design is drab enough to be realistic, but funky enough to entertain—Lee’s floral blouses in particular are equal parts appropriate and absurd.

Right To Be Forgotten succeeds, as a whole, in humanizing ideas that are inherently difficult to empathize with. And yes, perhaps avoiding the traps of impersonality is as difficult as Right To Be Forgotten suggests; Raven Theatre themselves at times fall prey to the allure of stilted language and technological capacity. By the play’s end, though, what’s clear is that Right To Be Forgotten has at the very least tried diligently and innovatively to restore personal connection to a COVID-altered world. Where the play failed to fully do so, well, often so do we.

Raven Theatre’s production of Sharyn Rothstein’s Right To Be Forgotten is in Edgewater Glen through March 26.

Everything on Daniels, Everywhere and All at Once

By VERONICA CHANG | Former Arts Contributor

This interview was originally published April 13, 2022, and printed April 21, 2022. It has been reprinted after Everything Everywhere All At Once won seven Oscars at

the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, 2023. Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, sat down with The Maroon and Loyola Phoenix to discuss their new film, Everything Everywhere All at Once

The following interview has been

lightly edited for clarity because both Kwan and Scheinert love giving answers which are impossible to transcribe, talking over each other, and interjecting without abandon. Which makes for a fun

CONTINUED ON PG. 21

The Maroon sits down with directing duo Daniels to discuss Michelle Yeoh, The Matrix, blending genres, creating chaos, and everything Everything Everywhere All at Once.

We’re breaking the rules, just smashing genres within the same shots.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 20

interview, but a terrible transcription.

Loyola Phoenix (LP): What made you guys want to make an original multiverse story versus something that already had existing IP?

Daniel Scheinert (DS): I think we’re pretty bad at IP. Honestly, it’s intimidating. There [are] already fans that you might piss off.

Daniel Kwan (DK): Our whole process is destroying things or making things the wrong way. And if we did that with IP, [it’d be] like what Rian Johnson did with Star Wars. I think that’s the best Star Wars—there’s your headline. I think [Johnson’s Star Wars] is better than the originals.

DS: And we don’t have thick enough skin to handle the backlash.

DK: But to us, those multiverse movies are fun because they give you the satisfaction of seeing your favorite characters all in one space. [Playing Super Smash Brothers, the video game franchise], was one of the first times when I was growing up where I was like—this is amazing, Pikachu and Mario in the same game, how cool, which is like wish fulfillment. But we aren’t excited about what’s fulfilling.

Steve Jobs always [said], don’t give the customer what they want, give them what they don’t know they need. And to me, the multiverse is such a beautiful, terrifying idea that if you really leaned into [it], you could create something really philosophical and challenging. And so [we decided]: Let’s lean into it. Let’s stare at infinity. Let’s destroy the story and destroy what people think movies should be, and hopefully give them something that they haven’t seen before. Because that’s what people are craving right now.

Chicago Maroon (CM): As a directing duo, how do you decide what projects you want to work on together, versus what you want to work on solo? And once you do decide, how does it all work?

DS: Enthusiasm—we try to win as much as possible, we try to just let passionate enthusiasm dictate what we do. Luckily, we have a ton of overlap and work well together and are constantly trying to improve our collaborative process.

DK: If one of us isn’t into something, that usually means maybe it’s not worth pursuing, even within the projects them-

selves. Like if there’s a scene we’re fighting over, that usually means that scene has a problem. And once we connect, and we agree, then we’re like, “Okay, there’s something really special here” because we have very similar tastes but very different approaches to the creative process [Kwan’s background is in animation, while Scheinert’s is in improv]. And so, if something can survive that gauntlet of our clerical scrutiny, then that means we found something special.

But how do we collaborate? That changes with every project.

DS: [Kwan] loves video games, and so [we’ve tossed] around ideas for video games, but I don’t know if we could co-create one, because I just don’t know enough about them. One day, [Kwan] might make one without me—that would make sense. I shouldn’t co-create a game because I’ve only played a couple.

LP: Michelle Yeoh is one of the greatest actors of all time. First, how did you guys end up casting her?

DS: We asked her ironically—there’s [another headline] for you.

LP: My headline is I don’t think she’s ever been better than she [is] in this movie.

DS: We started in the same place you’re in, which is, “[Yeoh] is just awesome.” And we were like, [we’re writing] a movie about a Chinese American family, who might be in it? Michelle Yeoh. But we never guessed that she’d be so right for the part. I think we thought we’d have to coach the humor and vulnerability out of this powerful, confident, woman because of the roles she’s played a lot lately [Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi ]. But she’s so funny and vulnerable and weird in real life—turns out we just wrote a role where she got to spread her wings, and all we had to do was film it.

DK: Yeah, she finally got to show all these other parts of her that I think she’s, subconsciously or consciously, been dying to show the world. She even told us that when she first read the script, she got chills because she realized this [role was truly insane].

CM: One of the things I really loved in the film was the trilingualism, with the characters switching between Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, sometimes even mid-sentence. What was the writing pro-

cess for that like?

DK: My dad’s family is from Hong Kong; my mom’s family is from Taiwan. [So going to my grandparent’s] house on my dad’s side was kind of [chaotic] because I don’t understand Cantonese at all. It really did feel like we could never fully communicate with each other because my mom was trying to translate between us and like when we did talk, it was mostly like… [laughs], and that was that. That’s basically the extent of our conversations. [So] it felt really perfect for a movie about the multiverse, which is about people in different worlds, [to have characters] speaking different languages [and] talking past each other.

We wanted to really lean into how separated the family was at the beginning. At the beginning, they can’t talk to each other fully, and it’s really frustrating. We knew by the end when [Evelyn] finally gives the speech to her father, that that speech would have to try to pull [the family] all together. And so that monologue starts in Cantonese, moves to English, moves to Mandarin, comes back to Cantonese, and then ends in English to try to pull it all together.

DS: When we gave the translated script to [Yeoh], she was like, “What are you guys doing? Like, it’s hard enough to act, but now you’re making me switch languages five times in one speech.”

DK: Some people watch it, and they’re like, why are you guys switching [back and forth]? That’s so confusing. While other people who, who’ve lived that experience [are] like, oh, wow, I’ve never seen that type of, that kind of relationship on the screen. So, we were very intentional. We worked really hard to know exactly that that line would be English, that line would be Cantonese.

DS: It was a collaboration ultimately between us having written a script entirely in English and italicizing things that would switch and then we cast the movie and our cast had different levels of comfort in those three languages. So, we were like, oh, we can lean into that. Our producer [Jonathan Wang] spoke better Mandarin than [Kwan], and he collaborated with the actors and especially with [the wife of Ke Huy Quan, who plays Waymond in the film], who ended up being the translator on set. So [Kwan] and [Wang] would work

a lot on the Chinglish lines, then [Quan’s wife] would help us make sure the [Cantonese] and Mandarin was good, and then she checked with the actors.

DK: By the way, before this job, [Quan’s wife] used to work for Wong Kar-Wai. So her Cantonese and Mandarin are [both really good]—she was the perfect person for the job.

LP: At times, Everything Everywhere All at Once feels like a comedy movie; at times, it feels like an action-comedy; at times, it’s a family drama. But it never felt messy—how did you guys seamlessly blend all those genres together?

DK: We don’t believe you. It was a little messy.

DS: [When we were editing certain scenes], we were like, these two scenes aren’t working. [The scenes] need more whiplash. The audience needs to know that [it’s chaotic].

DK: [Within music], whenever you make a mistake, if you repeat [it] enough times it becomes a drumbeat. And so, to us, we were doing a lot of things you weren’t supposed to do.

DS: Good quote.

DK: We’re breaking the rules, just smashing genres within the same shots. We’re doing all the things you [aren’t] supposed to do, so we realized [we] had to make it super obvious. We’re like, look, we know we’re doing this, and we’re doing it on purpose. Come along with us, you’re in good hands. And if you’re willing to come, we’re [going to] have a fun time.

I think especially younger audiences will really latch on, because you guys are so media literate and film literate, you guys understand [things like genre language]. This is [probably] how your brain already works.

DS: [This] makes me think about our editing process. Thanks to our editor on our first movie [Swiss Army Man]—he kind of introduced us to the idea of screening the movie for three or four people every two weeks, so that we could see the state of things once we had a rough cut. And so we spent months just testing it on a few people and just trying to see, “Did we lose them? Did they get confused? Were they off the rails for too long?” And trying to figure out like, how we can use music and editing and pacing to balance [the movie]

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“The world around us is constantly reminding us of the movies we live in.”

CONTINUED FROM PG. 21

and make sure that it was only confusing when we wanted it to be. Never in a bad way, but hopefully in a way that makes you feel how Evelyn feels. But it took a long time.

CM: Both of you have stated that this movie is “100% a response to The Matrix.” So I’m going to ask: Evelyn versus Neo. Who’s going to win in a fight?

DK: Which Neo are we talking about? Neo from [The Matrix: Resurrections] or Neo from the original trilogy?

CM: Can you answer both?

DK: Okay. I think Neo in Resurrections, [he and Evelyn] wouldn’t fight. They’d just kind of sit down and have coffee [and everybody would have a nice time].

[Or there’d be techno music] and they’d have sex. That’s what they would do in Reloaded because in [The Matrix: Reloaded ] they put on techno music, and they have the whole underground sex scene. There’s your headline: they drink tea together, and in Reloaded, they would have sex.

DS: Right, and then in [The Matrix], I don’t know. Evelyn at the end versus Neo at the end is a tough one.

DK: I think [Yeoh as Evelyn] would definitely destroy Neo. She’s got that third eye, and Neo in The Matrix is only powerful in the matrix—in the real world, he’s just a guy. In our movie, [Evelyn] is all

powerful in the real world.

DS: That’s a semantics game.

DK: It’s okay, the nerds want the semantics.

LP: Speaking of The Matrix, there’s a lot of [different film homages] in this movie—the Wong Kar-Wai–esque one between the movie star Evelyn, and the man she never ended up with. That’s a reference to In the Mood for Love, right?

DS: Yeah. Our editor was like no, In the Mood for Love has a completely different color palette. He thinks [that scene] looks more like [Wong Kar Wai’s] other work. But regardless, it was very, very fun to play on that.

LP: I thought it was great. Are there any other media you guys were consuming while making this that might have ended up in the film, whether purposely or inadvertently?

DK: The really obvious stuff was stuff we grew up on [like The Matrix]. We weren’t watching [that stuff] while we were making [Everything Everywhere All at Once]. It was just the stuff that happened to be in our brains because [they’ve been] injected into our DNA at this point. The stuff we were watching was actually the things that were breaking all the rules, because we needed to find the courage and blueprints for how other people did that. And so Holy Motors was one that I love

that, like, really surprised me. Another one is Tribe Nine

DS: Is this the anime?

DK: Yes.

DS: Yeah, bonkers.

DK: Even just going back to It’s a Wonderful Life It’s a Wonderful Life has a weird structure—it’s night, then for about 50 percent of it is a flashback, and then [the main character] goes into this nihilistic place where he suddenly realizes his existence actually matters. Same with Groundhog Day Groundhog Day was, for its time, [this] super innovative structure [that] kind of destroyed what you thought you [could] do. But both of those managed to do it in a way that felt more or less accessible.

The references [the reason] why we do this, because that’s just how everyone thinks. And now everyone thinks in terms of movies. We’re not trying to [be like Family Guy], we’re not trying to, to like wink at the audience. It’s like, to me, [references are] the most honest way to tell stories. The world around us is constantly reminding us of the movies we live in. And so the references weren’t what we were watching. We were watching the stuff that was trying to push the medium further than what most people did. And hopefully that’s what [this film] feels like.

DS: And then watching YouTube clips

of kung fu movies, just being like, “How did they do that?” A lot of [Stephen Chow too].

DK: And actually [The Grandmaster] was a big influence too. The fight scenes in the movie, [specifically] the train sequence. We used that sequence as a reference in [a lot of] different ways. So yeah, all of that.

CM: Last question, really quick. There’s so much humor and comedy in this movie—who has a better sense of humor?

DK: [Scheinert is] the comedy guy. He’s better since [his background is in improv], but I don’t like comedy. So I have a different kind of tolerance.

DS: We have different senses of humor. Like [Kwan] can watch more sitcoms than me—I can’t stand them. I like [comedy that’s] kind of being a little meaner, and you can bring it to the masses in a nice way. It’s like, oh, there’s a broad joke. [Kwan’s] got way better Twitter sense of humor than me. Like I don’t understand how to write a funny tweet.

DK: How hard it is.

DS: Yeah, [I can’t do that]. But I can make better jokes in a Q&A.

DK: For sure. He’s like the comedy improv guy.

DS: I like to give answers that are impossible to transcribe.

Justin Tranter Gives Back to The Chicago Academy for the Arts

By SOFIA HRYCYSZYN | Arts Reporter

Waiting in line at The Chicago Academy for the Arts annual showcase, a tall man sporting a houndstooth beret approached me. With a smile, he told me about his freshman son’s involvement in the theater department, one of the six concentrations offered at “The Academy.” Our conversation was cut short when a man in a blue suit waved everyone in line through the doors and into the Athenaeum Center, ignoring their

lack of tickets. Walking into the theater, the sense of community was apparent. Groups broke off and chit chatted, exchanging smiles with the blue-suited man, Jason Patera, the head of school. While I felt a little like an outsider, the energy was so warm and welcoming that being an onlooker wasn’t so uncomfortable. I settled into my seat and waited for the performance to begin.

The Chicago Academy for the Arts

is a private high school with a unique class setup that allows students to focus on their art department of choice–theater, musical theater, dance, media arts, music, or visual arts–while obtaining a rigorous academic education. The showcase displayed a range of the students’ art, most of it truly impressive for their ages. One particularly powerful performance was “Storm,” a contemporary routine choreographed by three-time Ruth Page Award winning Randy Duncan. The dancers moved

in time to Sam Harris’s ’80s pop hit “Suffer the Innocent,” which opens with rhythmic percussion and soft vocals, but gradually transitions into a heart-wrenching plea that “God, save the children.” With sharp movements and raised hands, the dancers entered the emotional world of the song, their faces communicating intense grief and stress. Being high schoolers, they had a personal connection to whatever was at stake, and the viewer was constant-

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Justin Tranter, songwriter and activist, visits their alma mater, The Chicago Academy for the Arts, in celebration of recent donation.

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ly reminded that they were begging for their own salvation.

This being the first showcase since the start of the pandemic, parents and families hadn’t seen their children perform with the rest of the school. The excitement and pride in the room was palpable—people weren’t just proud of their own children, but of what the community had accomplished as a whole.

The night culminated with a group rendition of Imagine Dragons hit, “Enemy.” The song was written by school alum Justin Tranter, who joined the students on stage for the final act. Throughout the performance, the en -

ergy rose as the number of student vocalists and dancers grew behind Tranter and their two co-lead singers, both students. The piece was dynamic, featuring what seemed to be all of The Academy’s students on stage. It showcased a collection of the costumes that had been used throughout the night, and was reflective of the show’s atmosphere—what the hosts had repeatedly called “a big group project.”

As the song ended, Tranter stepped to the front of the stage. Facing the crowd in elegant flared black pants and a tan sweater, they explained how much the school had done for them in terms of the support network the school provid-

ed. For Tranter, attending The Academy was a turning point in their life, and they remarked that the school “saved my life and my family’s life.” They attribute the person and the artist that they are today to the community and the quality of the arts education they received at the school. Since graduating from the school’s musical theater department in 1998, Tranter has become an accomplished songwriter and activist, writing hits for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Julia Michaels among others, while also earning recognition from the ACLU of Southern California for Tranter’s LGBT and climate activism.

Ending the night with a call to action for families and alumni to open their wallets in support of the school, Justin announced that their recent $500,000 donation will be used to offer scholarships and financial aid to allow students the same opportunities that Tranter found life-altering. Throughout the showcase, students and parents glowed with excitement. There were inside jokes shared between community members, a tight connection between staff and alumni, and an astonishing amount of talent. The vibrant community fosters talent and growth, and it’s clear that The Academy is everything that Tranter claims it is.

Landon Conrath and Yam Haus Are Sincere and Celebratory at the Beat Kitchen

By ADVAITA SOOD | Arts Reporter

When I first streamed Landon Conrath’s music, I envisioned myself staring distantly out a window into the evening or lying face-up on a bed with a pain-masking gaze. His music was made for a scene from any coming-ofage story depicting pensive young-adult angst. However, a lot of indie-pop music that tries to be in those scenes have a mawkish seriousness that causes me to cringe convulsively. Conrath’s 2022 album Nothing Matters Anyway comes across as a genuine, relatable expression of the troubles of venturing into adulthood. Perhaps it is because the electronic synths and guitar riffs characteristic of melancholic indie-pop are lent a certain lightness by the danceable drumbeats that populate most of the songs on the album, or perhaps it is because the humor of Conrath’s wonderfully impressionistic lyrics make them more relatable. This is what I expected from Conrath’s show at the Beat Kitchen: him playing his songs as they appear on their tracks—low-key yet emotive—and the audience swaying or bobbing our heads

lightly as we were transported to one of the aforementioned melancholy scenes to sift through our troubles. That is not what happened.

From the first punchy drumbeat to the first resounding strum of an electronic guitar to the first maniacal yell of an inebriated fangirl, I realized the concert was going to be different. I had expected danceable but understated drums, resplendent but soft guitars, and audience members operating at frequencies appropriate to such sounds. However, the show was closer to a head-banging rock concert than to an indie-pop show. It was the same notes and words in the same order, the same voice and instruments, but different energy. The instrumentals were louder and more forceful, as were Conrath’s vocals, and where the indie-pop lead usually stands planted before the microphone (perhaps with that distant expression), Conrath jumped around, danced in a gleefully awkward manner, regularly made faces at his bandmates, cracked jokes, and conversed with his audience. At one

point during the performance, he began a song in the wrong key, realized this half a minute into the song (though we, the audience, remained blissfully unaware), laughed, stopped the song, apologized to the audience, and restarted. Even on stage, Conrath seemed like a goofy musician-friend everyone knew, which made his songs all the more relatable. And while his songs on Spotify seem steeped in resigned melancholy, during the live performance, he encouraged us to rejoice in our collective melancholy. “Nothing matters anyway!” was celebrated as a tenet of happy life rather than lamented as it is in the album version of his song “Trader Joe’s.” The concert changed the way I listen to Conrath, for I realized that what separates him from the mass of corny indie-pop bands and artists is not merely the sincerity of his music but also his willingness to celebrate—rather than whine about—the troubles of youth.

Following Conrath’s set was Yam Haus—the show’s main act—whose songs had some of the grooviest beats and guitar riffs that I have ever heard. The pop band, comprised of members Lars Pruitt

(vocals and guitar), Seth Blum (guitar), Jake Felstow (drums), and Zach Beinlich (bass), continued Conrath’s similarly life-affirming music, though without the angsty undertones. Their setlist ranged from sunny, energetic bops like “West Coast” to heady tunes like “Novocaine,” with every song capturing some of the joys of being alive. “In many ways, we live in a post-apocalyptic world, but it’s also beautiful, and this is the beautiful part,” said Pruitt before launching into a particularly groovy electropop number titled “The Thrill.” Pruitt himself was very much the quirky, entertaining, Freddie Mercury–type lead, with his flawless vocals and weird, almost graceful dance moves. Of course, a large part of this enjoyment stemmed from the audience the entire night, who erupted into mass hysteria the second Conrath opened his mouth until well after Yam Haus had left the stage (such was to be expected after the maniacal yell of an inebriated fangirl). And so, to anyone looking to swap out their pain-masking gaze for a pain-rejoicing, life-affirming dance, I recommend that you give Landon Conrath and Yam Haus a listen.

“

The showcase displayed a range of the students’ art, most of it truly impressive for their ages.”

Hyde Park’s Unassailable Pastime

By FINN HARTNETT | Head Sports Editor

At the University of Chicago, little is sacred. The College does its best to restrict the aspects of campus that bring students any semblance of joy. The beloved Botany Pond has been closed since the autumn, for reasons that seem vague at best. Library hours have been reduced; coffee shops have closed down. Even the songbirds that dot the main quad during autumn nights head south the moment winter in Chicago rears its ugly head. They know better than anyone that nothing lasts here.

Nothing, that is, except Hyde Park pickup soccer.

Pickup soccer has existed for decades in Hyde Park, and continues to persist today. A few times a week, friends and strangers, old and young, from far and wide, band together in the neighborhood to play the world’s game. The schedules of UChicago’s athletic facilities are pored over in order to find time and space to play, and eager participants are informed of possible times and locations via Facebook, WhatsApp, or email list. Eventually, a time and location will be determined. Someone will bring a ball, and if no cones are available to use as goals, jackets and water bottles will do.

The University, as is their wont, tries its best to restrict the amount that pickup is played on campus. UChicago’s athletic facilities, particularly for open-field sports like soccer, are pitiful in number, and the three available to pickup each present various problems. Stagg Field is closed in winter, and almost always occupied by varsity sports teams during fall and spring. Campus South Athletic Field, the turf field across from Woodlawn Commons which is a favorite of pickup groups, is likewise closed in winter, and often reserved by varsity or club teams during other seasons. (It should be noted that pickup soccer players, in not enjoying the organizational status of

RSOs such as club soccer, cannot reserve the fields for themselves, and must look for gaps in the schedules to play.)

The Henry Crown Field House, used during winter when the weather and lack of open facilities makes it impossible to play outside, does not allow persons not directly affiliated with UChicago inside without a membership fee, which presents a problem for the dozens of Hyde Park residents or recently graduated students looking to play. Although pickup soccer’s numbers are reduced in Crown, this location also suffers from overcrowding, as basketball, volleyball, and club and varsity soccer players jockey for space on the second floor.

Nevertheless, pickup soccer survives through it all. The various existing groups scour the schedules for free space, pouncing like leopards when the time is right. Gangs of players politic and make compromises with other groups in order to carve out fields. During autumn quarter, for example, after the ultimate frisbee RSO reserved South Field during Tuesday and Thursday evenings, a treaty was quickly negotiated where pickup was able to claim a third of the field for themselves.

These negotiations often lead to friendships and feuds with the other athletic groups on campus. The frisbee RSO might be loyal friends, for example, but the same cannot be said of the varsity lacrosse team, who during summer would not allow several pickup soccer stalwarts onto the field to warm up until sometime after their scheduled slot expired.

The club soccer RSO, on the other hand, are pickup soccer’s congenial coworkers, often playing at the same time at the same locations. Sometimes, when facilities are busy, the two groups might scrap over the right to play in the same area; nevertheless, relations are generally good.

Even after finding grass, turf, or hard

ground on which to play on, there are further logistical concerns which foreshadow the beginning of a pickup match. An odd number of players from which to make even teams is a common problem— usually, one side will just take the extra player. There is often adjusting of teams during games, as people come and go. Similarly, the borders of the playing field are tinkered with as the game grows and shrinks.

When games get large enough, some kind of uniform is necessary so as to identify one’s teammates. In a world where no one is organized or devoted enough to bring pinnies, this usually takes the shape of light- versus dark-colored shirts, but depending on the kind of shirts people have on, this too might be shifted by the populace. (“Blue and black shirts against white and red. Good?” Good.)

During sessions where more players show up than there is space to accommodate them, three or four teams might be organized, switching off every two goals, or every 15 minutes.

It is important to acknowledge the swiftness and relative ease with which these logistics are straightened out. These groups, often made up of total strangers, are able to come together and create compromises that suit every one of them. The U.S. Congress would blush from the ease in which a group of random Hyde Park residents, most of whom barely know each other, are able to sort their shit out when collective legs itch to kick something around. As Henry Davis writes in his excellent essay on the politics of pickup, “Where there is no system of coercion, it becomes necessary for everyone—yes, every single person—to agree to a plan of action that no one violently objects to.” There is a kind of political identity forged on the field before every match; the body politic must act together in order to ensure its survival (have a good game).

Indeed: Hyde Park pickup soccer is a societal sphere Rousseau would have

been proud of. (Given he was Swiss, he probably wouldn’t have made a bad midfielder, either.) Once you step onto the pitch, there is no hierarchy; the masses rule without any monarch present to shape their thinking. There is culture, there is tradition, and there is a kind of common-sense law. Nothing else governs pickup players.

The logistics that playing pickup entails may sound tiring to those who just want to kick a ball around after a long day of class, and there is no doubt they can be frustrating. There’s nothing worse than an evening when, after all the work that comes with organizing a game, you change, throw a water bottle and cleats into your bag, and make the walk over to the field before realizing there’s no damn space to play.

Those moments, though, are rare. When the pickup community sets out to play, there’s not much that can stop them. When the field they intend to play at is taken, they, like songbirds, migrate to greener pastures.

In fact, it is during moments like these, where the group faces what is in essence a struggle to survive, when the collective spirit of Hyde Park pickup soccer shines through the brightest. I’ve hitched a ride to Stagg Field from South in the station wagon of a middle-aged British man, and used my free Lyft rides to transport gaggles of unknown grad students.

Those involved in Hyde Park pickup soccer are nothing if not stubborn. Weather conditions rarely deter pickup. During my first year at the College, I came out every week to play scrimmages on the Midway Plaisance—already a terrible place to play, because of how bumpy the grass is—during a wet autumn when significant patches of the field had turned to brown mud. During one memorable game we ran about on the Midway in snow and hail. “These are the real players, the ones who came out today,” someone declared CONTINUED ON PG. 25

A love letter to Hyde Park pickup soccer, the sport that will never die.

CONTINUED FROM PG. 24

at one point. I was just glad I’d brought a hat and gloves.

It was the coronavirus, perhaps above all else, which showed off the indomitable nature of Hyde Park pickup. UChicago, unsurprisingly, kept the outdoor as well as indoor fields, closed to non-varsity sports for all of 2020 and 2021. It was tragic—but the decision still didn’t derail pickup entirely. I remember routinely scaling a construction fence on Woodlawn Avenue with a group of bravehearted undergrads so we could sneak into South Field and have a kickabout. Often, we got kicked out by University staff. Once, the campus police even showed up, flanking the field from the outside while we collectively shat ourselves. We couldn’t leave through either entrance without going up to them and owning up to climbing the fence. They rolled their eyes, told us not to do it again, and let us off the hook.

Pickup games are played in bitter cold, searing heat, and heavy rain. A few Saturdays ago, a group spent 30 minutes shoveling snow off the ground just so they could get a 5v5 going. I’m a little embarrassed to say I didn’t show up to that one.

Thanks to an ever-gentrifying neighborhood, a lack of initiatives taken by the University, and the unfounded neuroticism that still plagues many students, there exists a deep disconnect between UChicago students and the neighboring communities of Hyde Park and Woodlawn. Pickup soccer, in all its human splendor, is an activity which works, completely unintentionally, to stitch this disconnect closed. The sport has introduced me to a plethora of grad students, faculty, and locals I would have never otherwise met. The sport is also definitionally diverse. That soccer is multicultural is obvious, but what is less so is that owing to the relative lack of American appreciation for it, that same multiculturalism persists down to the level of pickup soccer. This is especially the case in large cities. New York City pickup is famously ruled by Arabic and African players; in Chicago, Indians, Black Americans, Koreans, Chinese, and Mexicans are all frequently found dotting the pitch. It often feels as if

all the ethnic tensions in the world could be solved not in the boardroom but in and around the 16-yard box.

Come to a large Hyde Park pickup game, then, preferably an outdoor one in decent weather. Breathe in the grassy air. You might see a couple of old men huffing about, with their shorts pulled high and their shirts tucked in. They’re not much for dribbling—or any kind of running, really. But once in a while they’ll ping a pass across the pitch that would make Hakim Ziyech proud. You might see young kids, thrown onto the pitch by dads hoping they have a prodigy on their hands. Everyone goes easy on them. You might see some incredibly fit people running around, with enormous calves. The men rip their shirts off the moment it gets warm enough to do so. You might see some people who aren’t so fit. There are short people, tall people, attractive people, ugly people. People yelling at each other in Spanish, or in Chinese. All are welcome.

Soccer is a unifying force, no matter your background or your personality. The talkative and trusting introduce themselves and have chats with fellow players during warm-ups. The sport that binds you is an immediate conversation start-

er—even if that conversation just entails throwing some digs towards someone else’s jersey. And if you’re not inclined to talk, if you don’t say a word to anyone before or after the game, well, no one will judge you for it. Messi barely talks, either.

Despite the inherent joy and catharsis that comes with pickup soccer in Hyde Park, the games themselves are not celebratory. Far from it. The matches start quickly, with sweat and anger mingling in the afternoon air. Your blood starts to pump; the bruises and aches you had this morning fade in the face of the field in front of you. The narrative arc is in motion, and for all the collective spirit we share, we are helpless to stop it. Goals and tackles fly in; high fives are doled out for each player. There are a few players who might go down easily for fouls, and sometimes arguments break out regarding a certain tackle. Personal vendettas might emerge: He tackled me hard? He’s going to get tackled hard in a minute.

There are injuries, no doubt. Bruises, turf burns, and sore muscles come with the territory, but occasionally, you’ll pick up something worse. My leg once got badly tangled up with an opposition player as I was sprinting after the ball. He got

up fine, but I badly messed up something in my right leg. I walked with pain for a few weeks, and my pickup career went on hiatus. Even scarier was a concussion I received as a first-year, after getting bowled over by a big Brit. My nose exploded with blood. The guy didn’t even apologize. “Football is not a matter of life and death,” the Liverpool manager Bill Shankly is rumored to have said. “It is much, much more important than that.”

But all the adversity, in the end, just makes one more convinced that pickup in Hyde Park is destined to live forever. The moments of beauty that pockmark pickup matches are why the community turns out every week, through all the hardship, battered and bruised. The pulling-off of an absurd skill, the scoring of a perfect team goal. Getting the ball off a really good player, or a really bad player scoring a great goal. We are put on this earth not to live but to feel alive, and I have never felt more alive at the University of Chicago than after whacking one into the net from 20 yards away and hearing the friends and strangers around me yelp with appreciation.

courtesy of finn hartnett

“It often feels as if all the ethnic tensions in the world could be solved not in the boardroom but in and around the 16-yard box.”

Can the Monsters of the Midway Bare Their Fangs in 2023?

By VICTOR ROBERTS | Sports Reporter

Where Are They?

The Chicago Bears are entering the 2023 off-season with a treasure trove of resources at their disposal. With the team holding the number one overall pick in the 2023 draft, and the highest cap space in the NFL, it is no wonder that many analysts have the Bears making a splash in the upcoming season should they draft well and fill their holes this off-season. There is good reason for the Bears faithful to have hope for the 20222023 season.

Needs

A traditional moniker for the Bears was “The Monsters of the Midway.” The team historically boasted a mean defense that scared any and all who opposed them. Even throughout the 2010s, the Bears produced two of the best defenses ever in 2012 and 2018 by DVOA metrics. Quarterback Justin Fields does need new offensive weapons to continue his growth, but a disciplined defense would also greatly help ease pressure on him. During the 2022 season, Fields was often forced to play from behind, causing the Bears to change their offensive game plan to try and catch up. This issue could be mitigated if the Bears put together a better defense that doesn’t leave the offense in big deficits.

On the other hand, the offensive side of the ball is not much better off. I believe that other main priorities this off-season should be a star wide receiver and an improved offensive line, as the “trenches” are often considered the backbone of a team. Giving a young quarterback time to think and process his reads in the pocket is important to their development as a passer. If the Bears can give Justin Fields some protection and a sure-handed target, magic may happen.

The Bears are a team with a lot of holes, and this off-season the front office must figure out which holes need to be filled first. The front office will not be able to fill every need in one off-season, but if they go about it right, they can

mask positions that are lower in quality by surrounding them with newly injected talent. To begin this analysis, let’s address the positions I believe the Bears do not need to prioritize this off-season.

Quarterback: Pretty self-explanatory. Justin Fields is him.

Tight End: I find the Bears having to sign a top five TE if they are going to replace Cole Kmet. He’s young, cheap, and has flashed immense potential. Personally, I would keep him in 2023.

Cornerback : The CBs currently on the team are young and growing. I think giving Jaylon Johnson, Jaylon Jones, and Josh Blackwell time to continue to adapt will be helpful for the upcoming season. However, adding a corner in free agency would not be a bad idea.

Safety: Like the cornerbacks, while the Bears’s safety core is not anything particularly special, they have the potential to be a solid group in 2023. With Kyler Gordon, Jaquan Brisker, and Eddie Jackson hopefully returning from the injury reserve, they should show some promise.

Linebacker : While this should be a position the Bears look to upgrade in the off-season, Nicholas Morrow and particularly Jack Sanborn showed some upside in 2022, so it is much lower in priority; perhaps bringing in a veteran linebacker or drafting one on Day 2 would be beneficial.

The First Overall Pick: Should They Keep It?

The Bears find themselves in an interesting position regarding the upcoming draft. With how well Justin Fields performed last season—he boasted 3380 total yards of offense and 25 touchdowns to 11 turnovers—there is little reason for them to draft a new quarterback, historically the most common thing to do with the first pick of the draft. Instead it would be smart to trade the pick for a haul of other picks from a team in need of a quarterback, such as the Colts, Raiders, Panthers, or frankly any of the NFC South. Many NFL reporters have said this is what the Bears plan to do. Dov Kleiman stated on

February 1 that “The Bears have decided to go ahead with Justin Fields as the franchise QB and will try to trade the 1st overall pick in the draft… Fields impressed the Bears organization on how he handled the 2022 season.”

While I believe this to be a smart move that could set the Bears up for success, as they would receive a king’s ransom for their pick, I do think there is some merit in holding on to the number one overall pick and drafting a monster of a defensive tackle in Jalen Carter, or even the best edge rusher of this year’s draft in Will Anderson. There is never a guarantee that the picks a team receives will land on hits, no matter how many of them a team has. However, the likelihood of hitting on a star player is much higher the higher up a team drafts, meaning that should the Bears stay at number one, there is a much higher chance of them landing a cornerstone for their franchise, and a generational player to rebuild the franchise around.

While I do present two options that teams have done in the past, I believe that the latter option of holding on to the

number one overall pick would not be the wisest decision for the Bears; they simply have too many holes to fill, and the more picks they can accrue for this draft, the better off they will likely be. Trading it away is the right choice.

Offensive Help

The Bears have a daunting task at hand in trying to rebuild their offensive line. However, I believe they already have a few pieces that may expedite the process. Braxton Jones played very well for a rookie in 2022, and the Bears are expected to start him in 2023. They also liked the performances of left guard Cody Whitehair and center Sam Mustipher, with guard Lucas Patrick coming off IR next year. An area that does need immediate attention, however, is right tackle. There are no standout free agent tackles this off-season, so this may need to be an area that is addressed through the draft.

On another note, I think a great player Chicago could add to the offensive line is Isaac Seumalo, a free agent right guard for the Philadelphia Eagles. The Bears

The Chicago Bears playing at Soldier Field on November 16, 2022 photo courtesy of michel sauret.

The Chicago Bears look to go from the bottom feeders of the NFC North to the golden standard.

CONTINUED FROM PG. 26

already have the solid Teven Jenkins at right guard, but by switching around some positions, this would be a solid pickup. Seumalo has played himself out of Philadelphia’s price range, being stout this entire season, allowing only one sack and earning himself a Pro Bowl alternate nod.

Seumalo is also part of an elite run offense in Philly that could be mimicked in Chicago, considering the Bears possess a mobile quarterback in Justin Fields and a solid running back group in Khalil Herbert and David Montgomery. The Bears should definitely prioritize maintaining their one-two punch in the run game. Having a backfield consisting of two running backs has proved to be an effective strategy to change pace and keep players healthier—just look at Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon in Kansas City, or Kenneth Gainwell and Miles Sanders in Philidelphia. The pieces are in place to recreate those teams’ same magic. Montgomery was a disruptive workhorse with Khalil Herbert showing impressive flashes of talent in 2022.

The Bears should certainly look to resign Montgomery for the right price. However, if the Bears do lose Montgomery this spring, the good news is that there are a plethora of other quality running backs to choose from. A-list free agents include the likes of Saquon Barkley, Tony Pollard, Jamaal Williams, and Miles Sanders. While I do believe these guys are all exceptional backs, their price range should be out of the question for a rebuilding Bears team. Instead, I suggest looking for a back with major upside, such as Devin Singletary from the Buffalo Bills or James Robinson from the New York Jets. Both should be available for cheap, and Robinson especially will be looking to prove himself in new scenery. After two campaigns that saw him around 1000 scrimmage yards in back-to-back years, he will be looking to bounce back in the 2023 season.

Defensive Help

On the defensive side of the ball, free agents Yannick Ngakoue from the Indianapolis Colts and Daron Payne from

the Washington Commanders should be priorities. Payne should be a no-brainer; at the age of 25, he still has plenty of football-playing years ahead of him. He is also coming off a 12-sack, 20-QB-hit season, and is a pure disrupter up the middle of the line. Another interesting development is the Chargers potentially releasing Khalil Mack due to being unable to afford his wages this upcoming season. Is a reunion between the two sides in the cards? Personally, I believe only for the right price. Mack is a phenomenal player, but he’s on the wrong side of 30, and his production has begun to dip. I believe that the draft is chiefly where the Bears should look for defensive help; there are plenty of promising edge rushers available. They should also keep close eyes on how Dominique Robinson, Armon Watts, and Justin Jones develop, but they clearly need help along a line that was last in almost every metric this past season

Wide Receiver

I’m sure that the Bears’ front office is paying close attention to the success that bringing in a star wide receiver does for your quarterback. The young quarterbacks for Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles, Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts, each made significant leaps in their game with the addition of Stefon Diggs and A.J. Brown respectively. The interesting decision will be whether the Bears want to get their wide receiver of the future through the draft or via trade. Here are a couple options I believe are feasible:

Trading draft assets for Bengals WR Tee Higgins seems like a smart move considering the resources the Bears have, as well as the cap space to get a long-term deal done with the young wide receiver. Tee Higgins will be entering his fourth season coming off back-to-back 1000yard campaigns, not to mention doing so while playing second fiddle to fellow Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. At only 24 years old, this move would be a huge get for Justin Fields and the Bears’ offense.

A situation to keep an eye on has been what’s going on in Los Angeles, where there is much discussion about the pos-

sibility of the Chargers releasing Keenan Allen as a victim of the cap. Should the Chargers go through with this (highly questionable) decision, I believe the Bears should be all over signing Keenan Allen. One thing to note is Allen’s durability. Allen only played 10 games last season due to a nagging hamstring injury, and as we’ve seen with older receivers like Julio Jones, this can be an injury that greatly hampers a receiver’s game. However, prior to this season, Allen’s fewest games played was 14, and his lowest yards in a season was 992. He is very much a quality receiver worth getting a contract considering the Bears’ cap situation. My only comment on this decision is that I would not let this signing stop the Bears from also getting a younger receiver to pair with Allen, either through the draft or in free agency.

Speaking of current free agents, someone who might be looking for a change of scenery might be Allen Lazard, at least pending Aaron Rodgers’ future plans. Although he is yet to prove himself as a bona fide first-choice receiver, he would come relatively cheap and would be a great number two to whichever wide receiver you wanted to pair with him. Another solid choice would be D. J. Chark, who had a 30-reception, 503-yard, three-touchdown season in 2022 for the Detroit Lions. He has the makings of an excellent

deep threat that could help tune Justin Field’s long ball.

Overview

Fortunately for the Bears, the NFC North will no longer be controlled by the juggernaut that is the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is likely to lose four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers next season after missing the playoffs due to a disappointing 8–9 season. Unfortunately for the Bears, in Green Bay’s stead now enter two challengers: the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. As of right now, the Bears are behind both of these franchises. The key will be to not fall too far behind, as the gap will only widen in the coming years if the Bears remain complacent and unaggressive.

The Bears have the potential to be a very fun team to watch this upcoming year. However, it is all contingent on how Ryan Poles, Matt Eberflus, and the rest of the Bears front office treat this off-season. If they take advantage of Justin Fields’ rookie contract and go all in by providing the surrounding pieces, I think they will find success similar to other teams in recent memory, such as the Bengals and Eagles. On the contrary, if they are conservative with their resources, they will waste a valuable window that comes with a young quarterback.

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“The Bears are a team with a lot of holes, and this off-season the front office must figure out which holes need to be filled first.”

ACROSS

1 “I want to be on this email too”

5 Garb for visiting a garbhagriha

9 So-called “weapons of war,” in Sting’s “Shape of My Heart”

14 Once-South African skincare brand

15 “Sign me up!”

16 Apt name for the only horse to have defeated the legendary Man o’ War in a race

17 Skin hole

18 *“You definitely have to play your instrument as loud as possible here”

20 Setting in S.F.

21 Vegans avoid it

22 Leafcutter, e.g.

23 She once said, “It’s not much of a tail, but I’m sort of attached to it”

27 With 56-Across, Great Barrier Reef home

30 *“Follow me for a Tollywood movie”

35 Statement of pride

36 Doodoo

37 Climber’s challenge

40 “No way!”

43 Cat of an early 2010s meme

44 Popular board game once called Settlers

46 Inspiration for the Aeneid

48 *“Yum... I smell pasta cooking”

54 Uses The Chicago Manual of Style, e.g.

55 Purity measures

56 See 27-Across

58 ___ All That

61 Chasm

62 Semi-favorable odds at a casino, or a description of the beginnings of the starred clues

66 Notable red illeist

67 Star Wars show whose name is made up of two conjunctions

68 Fort that does not actually contain American gold reserves, contrary to public perception

69 Classmate

70 ___ nova

71 Concerning

72 Ain’t different?

DOWN

1 It only makes up 2.5% of pennies

2 2016 Chainsmokers/Halsey hit

3 They go for a reason

4 Sauron is represented by one

5 Norse earth goddess

6 Dual type of radio

7 Teeming (with)

8 “Bet you didn’t know this”

9 Mongrel, maybe

10 ’60s music purchases

11 The standard

12 Capital of Switzerland

13 “Leave it,” editorially

CROSSWORD 57. Four-Point Play

By PRAVAN CHAKRAVARTHY | Head Crossword Editor

crossword by pravan chakravarthy

19 Alternatively, in textspeak

24 Discipline that welcomes you into the fold?

25 Part of a drum struck to accompany a joke

26 Thick & Fluffy brand

28 Fix

29 Into pieces

31 Terse laugh

32 Lannister patriarch, in Game of Thrones

33 Marilyn Monroe portrayer de Armas

34 Far in the distance, quaintly

37 Religious popular music genre: Abbr.

38 Battering ___

39 Credit them for change

41 Outdated, often

42 John ___: Chapter 4

45 Turner of an 1831 slave rebellion

47 “I finally figured out the answer to this clue!”

49 “___ la vie!”

50 Third-century Buddhist ruler

51 They sang, “You can check out anytime you’d like, but you can never leave”

52 Pistil go-with

53 League of Legends, e.g.

56 Emulate Brutus, to Julius Caesar

57 “Hmm... I’m gonna pass”

59 A looooong time

60 What comes out through the nose (but hopefully not in through the mouth)

63 Figure of dawn

64 Baseball stat

65 Nine-member Korean-Chinese boy band

66 Type of Pen