8 SPORTS/Softball
NU softball claims first Big Ten title since 2008
Monday, May 15, 2023
AUDIO/NU Declassified: Overture
Garage video game startup aims to combine music and play
5 A&E/Beau Is Afraid
Joaquin Phoenix can’t save A24 horror comedy
Growing up in Chicago, Kevin McLean often spent his afternoons tinkering with small creations in his grandfather’s tool shed. His interests in mechanics carried into adulthood, pushing him to become a facilities technician at Northwestern, where he worked for 14 years.
Weekend mornings at Fountain Square are usually quiet, but Saturday was an exception. By 10
a.m., dozens of white tents lined the block from Davis Street to Grove Street with vendors busy setting up their booths for the third annual Umbrella Arts Festival, a celebration of Asian art, performance, food and crafts.
Overcast weather did not deter
Paws and Claws rescue opens new doors in Evanston
By ASTRY RODRIGUEZ daily senior staffer @astry_tpwkMore than 150 people gathered for Paws and Claws
Cat Rescue’s new cat adoption center’s grand opening in Evanston on Saturday.
Visitors toured the space and saw a handful of small kittens housed behind glass walls playing with interactive toys.
The center, located at 829 Chicago Ave., is Paws and Claws’ first facility. Executive Director Ashlynn Boyce first founded the nonprofit in 2020 with the mission to rescue cats from local shelters at risk of euthanization.
“In Illinois alone, there’s about 6,000 animals euthanized each year,” Boyce said. “That was sort of the driving force.”
The facility features four
cat rooms that allow up to 10 cats to live together, play and be cared for by the volunteer staff. People can also come to the center to meet and adopt the cats.
The center also has a room for ill cats, and will provide an in-house vet and medical equipment for spay and neuter procedures, as well as bigger surgeries like amputations, Boyce said.
Prior to opening the center, Boyce said her organization placed more than 400 cats with foster and adoptive families each year, providing them with medical resources and pet supplies. With the new center, the organization might be able to help over 1,000 cats annually, she said.
“Our intake is going to increase by three times, and those are cats that are at risk of euthanasia in shelters,” Boyce said.
More than 90% of Paws and Claws’ cats come from open admission shelters, which take in the most
» See PAWS , page 6
hundreds of community members from streaming into the event, which was hosted by the Evanston Asian, South Asian Pacific Islander Americans.
Melissa Raman Molitor, the founder of Evanston ASPA, said she first organized the festival in
May 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and antiAsian violence across the country.
“We recognized that there really wasn’t any structure in place, support (and) services for
» See UMBRELLA , page 6
“Kevin could have been successful with any career path he wanted to pursue,” said Chris Papastathis, Kevin McLean’s childhood best friend. “But at the end of the day, he chose what he was most passionate about. I really think that’s why he was such a talented, master electrician.”
Kevin McLean died on April 28 at the age of 50 due to cancerrelated complications and is survived by his wife and two sons. His work at the University lives on in many of the intricate exterior lighting systems on buildings throughout campus. These include color-changing LED lights in the Rebecca Crown Center Clocktower and on the
outside of Deering Library. Deering glows blue for autism awareness in April and pink for breast cancer awareness in October. It will shine with rainbowcolored lights for Pride Month in June.
Supervisor and Chief Electrician John McDonagh said Kevin McLean was the first in the facilities department to advocate for using LED lights, which the U.S. Department of Energy considers to be the most energy-efficient lighting technology.
“People didn’t want to put LEDs in buildings because they thought they weren’t going to last or didn’t trust this technology, but he saw the value in it,” McDonagh said.
Kevin McLean also pushed to update electrical meters oncampus to track the University’s power quality and usage. Additionally, he’d been the first at NU to advocate for the campus GE Current’s LightGrid, which uses smart controls to dim and brighten outdoor lighting throughout the day.
Kevin McLean’s ability to stay up to date with the newest technologies and build relationships with manufacturers and contractors made the above projects possible, McDonagh said.
In 2022, Kevin McLean
» See MCLEAN, page 6
The student-run TEDxNorthwesternU club held its annual conference Sunday afternoon, boasting two student speakers for the first time along with NU professors and other experts.
The theme of the conference was “Synergy,” which emphasized the power of coming together to achieve something greater than its individual parts. TED Talks spanned topics ranging from AI-generated art to composting with worms.
Weinberg junior and co-Executive Director Yoshi D’Souza said he and his team had big shoes to fill after last year’s conference.
“A lot of our TED Talks have gone viral in the past, so we were shooting to get a viral TED Talk this year,” D’Souza said. “That’s our big goal.”
Weinberg junior and coExecutive Director Bella Gibb said the club created a new TikTok account this year with that goal in mind. The account, which promotes the club and engages
students in their own thought experiments, is part of a broader effort to increase TEDxNorthwesternU’s presence on campus.
Because the club faced problems with funding, members came up with creative solutions to their tight budget, D’Souza said. This year, they switched from hiring a professional videography team to contracting RTVF students, which Gibb said was a positive change. They also switched from free admission to $5 tickets.
The speakers were all volunteers. Author and leadership consultant Steven Van Cohen gave a talk on building connections in an unfamiliar place. Van Cohen said the conference was as well run as any event he has done as a professional speaker.
“Everyone is really committed and excited to do this volunteer work, and it showed,” Van Cohen said. “It makes things easier for speakers when you have community coordinators really wanting to make it special. They weren’t just going through the motions, they really took this to heart.”
SESP junior Arthur Lebovitz, who spoke at the event, said the TEDxNorthwesternU
club members did an “over-thetop, incredible” job. He said after growing up watching TED Talks, he was nervous to speak, but the members helped to guide him through the process.
Lebovitz gave a talk on
composting. He spoke about how worms can help generate nutrient-rich soil and combat food waste at the same time. During the pandemic, he said,
» See TEDX , page 6
@shannonmtyler / @charcole27
The window is easy to miss. So much so that, on Fonda Cantina’s first night open late, a few customers doubled back after walking past the entrance. It’s just a bit of orange lettering with an arrow pointing toward a door, hiding in a dimly lit portion of Clark Street.
The Mexican restaurant, which opened three months ago, began its late-night hours Thursday night, launching its slightly inconspicuous walk-up window open from 9 p.m. to midnight.
Just steps away from Northwestern’s campus, Fonda’s new late hours and handmade tacos are already making impressions.
“The fact that they’re doing late-night food, that’s a game changer in Evanston,” Weinberg junior Gage McWeeny said.
The restaurant features Chef Miguel Escobar’s family recipes from Guerrero, Mexico. Managing Partner Sergio Angel said they wanted to bring authentic Mexican food to Evanston customers.
“When you go to Fonda, you’re tasting the everyday food that Miguel eats at his house or the food that I eat in my house, or at gatherings with my family,” Angel said.
Angel said the restaurant wants to keep serving authentic food to the community at later hours. He said they wanted to expand the late-night food options for NU students in particular.
After speaking with several students, Angel said many only bought pizza or chain restaurant food late at night. He wanted to change that by providing an authentic late-night option.
“(I thought) we gotta do something for them, because I know some of them have late classes. They get out at nine, get out at ten. What can we do for them? We don’t want you to just eat the same thing every night,” Angel said.
Those authentic recipes have brought McWeeny back into the spacious restaurant repeatedly.
The al pastor tacos, which he ordered Thursday night, are his favorite, he said.
“I’ve been like five times, and they haven’t been open very long,” McWeeny said. “I’m a fan for sure.”
La Fonda opened in February, and their tacos can also come with carnitas, carne asada, fried fish or fried shrimp. They’re wrapped tightly in aluminum foil — causing Weinberg seniors Ashley Witarsa and Thomas Zhu, who ordered together, to rummage through their shared order to determine which taco was which.
When he finally found his al pastor taco, Zhu wasn’t especially impressed. While they are “not bad,” the taco didn’t have as much depth of flavor and wasn’t as moist as he expected, Zhu said.
However, Fonda’s long hours have changed the game for Zhu. While he’ll stick with Tomate Fresh Kitchen during the daytime — the joint closes at 6 p.m. — Zhu said he’ll “definitely” come back for Fonda’s late-night service.
“I really appreciate (the late-night hours),” Zhu said. “Evanston … it’s ridiculous that there’s no late-night option.”
Currently, just seven Evanston food establishments are open past midnight on Saturdays within one mile of NU, according to Yelp.
Fonda might continue to extend its hours even deeper into the night, according to Fonda’s Senior Managing Partner Michael Lachowicz.
“If it goes well until midnight, we’re gonna stay up until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays because why not?” Lachowicz said.
Angel said Fonda Cantina is a vision he and Escobar had for a long time. They waited for the right time and pursued the restaurant venture with Lachowicz — who the pair both had worked with for more than a decade.
In the three months they have been open, Angel and Lachowicz said the Evanston and NU communities have embraced their vision with open arms.
“We knew it was not going to be hard to be busy here because we have all the followers that we have from the surrounding neighborhoods, but man, the Evanston community, it’s been so wonderful, they’ve been great,” Angel said. shannontyler@u.northwestern.edu colereynolds2026@u.northwestern.edu
Several Northwestern language departments hosted the tables and other events to celebrate the Festival of Languages and Cultures last week. The event organizers hope to teach students about the smaller linguistic programs offered at NU, according to Turkish Prof. Oya Topçuoğlu, the chair of the Council on Language Instruction.
Five language professors, including German Prof. Ingrid Zeller, and three Fulbright language assistants, made the second year of the festival possible.
“It’s really about understanding each other and developing an interest in different cultures and learning about them,” Zeller said. “By having an event like this, I really think that brings the point home.”
Topçuoğlu said the festival aims to celebrate the achievements of language students and the diversity of languages and cultures represented on campus.
She said she hopes to increase enrollment in language programs through the event.
“There are several small language programs on campus that are not necessarily very visible, so NU students are not even aware that those programs exist,” Topçuoğlu said.
Topçuoğlu said the festival is a way to show the student body that learning a new language and becoming familiar with a new culture is important. Those skills allow students to travel with more cultural knowledge, she said.
Portuguese Prof. Ana Thomé Williams, a festival co-organizer, said knowing languages can change students’ futures by introducing new career paths and creating an appreciation for different cultures. Portuguese is also a smaller program at the University, she said.
“At one of the tables, most passing by knew that Portuguese was spoken in Brazil, but they had no idea that Portuguese is also spoken in several countries in Africa,” Williams said.
On Wednesday, Nefise Kaya, a local Turkish Ebru artist, led a hands-on workshop on traditional
Photo courtesy of Ekaterina Mironenko Ekaterina Mironenko, a Fulbright Russian language assistant, stands at a language table in Kresge Hall. The booth was part of NU’s Festival of Languages and Cultures.
paper marbling. Topçuoğlu said cultural events help strengthen students’ connections to local communities.
Weinberg sophomore Jovana Lakic, who studies Turkish, attended the workshop. She said the festival, in addition to creating community, provides an opportunity to better understand the world.
On Thursday, a variety show, presenting cultural poetry, dances and movies, displayed language student skills.
“It’s amazing to see the students come together because of their shared passion for language and cultures and exploring their creativity freely,” Williams said. “The variety show brings a sense of commonality, and I am so impressed by all of the students.”
Fatima Alhammadi, a Fulbright language assistant in Arabic, worked behind the scenes of the festival and was involved with marketing and preparing posters and flyers ahead of time.
Singing in Arabic during the variety show, Alhammadi aimed to highlight the United Arab Emirates.
“Representation is my biggest motive,” Alhammadi said. “There are a lot of Arabic speakers out there who have different dialects and come from different countries.”
Spanish Prof. Raquel Amorese ran a table for her department in Kresge Hall. She said she loved informing students about the Hispanic world as they played trivia at her table.
She said the festival helps students realize how wonderful the language departments are. The event gives students a special opportunity to practice Spanish with each other, Amorese added.
“It’s important to show the diversity of the Northwestern campus,” Amorese said. “We don’t learn a language in a vacuum, it’s about the culture — the food, clothes (and) music.”
Williams is hopeful for the future of the festival and is considering implementing smaller events throughout the year to lead up to the spring festival and variety show.
She said the festival brings a sense of community and belonging, while also allowing individual talents and cultural perspectives to shine through.
“Like languages, this festival only works when everyone comes together and we can support and learn from each other,” Williams said. samantahabashy2026@u.northwestern.edu
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By BEATRICE VILLAFLOR the daily northwestern @beatricedvilla
“Light up the stage because we are caliente. Fuego!” chanted the cast of Dale Duro Latin Dance Company’s spring show. Caliente they were.
Dale Duro performed its spring show “Dale Duro: Worldwide,” at Ryan Family Auditorium with a sold out show Friday and a nearly sold out performance Saturday. The two-hour program featured dances from across Latin America, including salsa, Brazilian funk and merengue.
In keeping with its name, “Worldwide” cycled through partnered dances and large group numbers to explore the subgenres and flexibility within each style.
In one piece, Dale Duro mimed a frisbee match on the beach to the tune of “Después de la Playa” by Bad Bunny. In another, dancers donned national soccer shirts for Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa).”
All the while, the crowd made its enthusiasm known through cheering during each dance or calling out the names of dancers coming up in the next set.
“Mr. Worldwide” — a nickname for rapper Pitbull, who is of Cuban descent — helped inspire the theme. Communication junior Alexandra Romo, one of Dale Duro’s head choreographers, said members began tossing around the idea of a Pitbull-themed show last year.
The senior piece — the penultimate song on the program — is a medley of the rapper’s songs that saw dancers “at the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn,” with one dancer even dressed as Pitbull.
But the event name is more than an homage to the artist.
“We have dances from all over Latin America. So that just fits into the whole ‘worldwide’ theme,” Romo said. “We’re really excited to showcase all of that and be representative of different Latin countries.”
Dancing styles from bachata to champeta, the group emanated high energy in each spin as
members swiveled their hips and stepped across the stage.
In between dances, SESP senior and Dale Duro co-president Gerardo Rodriguez kept the audience equally entertained and informed with punchlines about his upbringing interspersed with the context of the dance styles performed.
By the end of the show, Dale Duro could not be contained. Cast members spilled out into the aisles as they performed the finale in three different styles: reggaeton, dembow and cumbia. Both Romo and her co-head choreographer, Weinberg senior Laurisa Sastoque, said the finale was their favorite piece.
“In the finale, everybody’s onstage. There’s no one backstage. Everyone’s out there and we’re all doing the same thing and it looks so cool,” Romo said. “That was like, ‘wow, we worked so hard, and it looks so good,’ and it’s just rewarding.”
Weinberg freshman Alex Chavez attended Saturday’s performance at the invitation of a friend.
“It makes me feel like I’m back at home. All songs I recognize from my own life and my own
family,” Chavez said. “It’s really brightening up my Saturday.”
Chavez said affinity-based dance groups on campus like Dale Duro play an important role in encouraging students to explore their peers’ experiences.
Sastoque credited Dale Duro for bringing Latine communities on campus together through dance.
She added that her perspective of the Latine experience at Northwestern has changed a lot since her freshman year, when she said she felt there were no big Latine spaces on campus.
Since then, she said Dale Duro has played a role in changing the way Latine people get to know each other and that has allowed her to feel more comfortable on campus.
“I didn’t have many Latin friends. I didn’t speak Spanish ever. So I remember thinking, ‘Oh, okay, I guess this is how it is here,’” Sastoque said. “But then I remember yesterday looking at everyone being like, ‘Oh, wow, it has changed so much.’”
beatricevillaflor2026@u.northwestern.edu
Who said sushi needs to have fish? Even if you love seafood, the “Torched and Pressed” at PLANTA Queen, Chicago will make you forget that you ever liked fish.
PLANTA Queen, or Planta for short, is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants of all time. So the moment I learned there was a Chicago location, I knew I needed to visit it immediately.
As a vegetarian, I’ve always been a fan of plant-based sushi. But, I’ve found that there is a lack of vegetarianbased sushi options at many Japanese restaurants. Beyond consuming the occasional avocado and cucumber roll, this specific dietary restriction can be extremely limiting. So when the waiter’s first words to me after introducing themselves are some variation of “everything at Planta is entirely plant-based,” it can be pretty exciting.
One of Planta’s most unique aspects in comparison to other vegan sushi places is rooted in their ingredients. Rather than relying on tofu or meat substitutes, Planta uses actual fruits and vegetables that are prepared to taste like the traditional food. Any restaurant that can make watermelon taste like tuna, or eggplant like charred freshwater eel, is absolutely worth the trip to me.
Planta is meant to be eaten family style with a sweet spot of 2 to 3 dishes ordered per person. In the interest of being thorough, I tried five menu items — three sushi dishes, one small plate of broccoli and one “signature,” each somehow better than the next.
Starting with sushi, I ordered the Unagi Eggplant
Nigiri and the Ahi Watermelon Nigiri. These plates are fairly reasonably priced, with each dish — consisting of two pieces of sushi on each plate — at $6.25. It is worth every penny.
The explosion of flavors from the Unagi Eggplant Nigiri made the world stop spinning temporarily. This dish consisted of a piece of eggplant, charred to perfection, topped off with a brown miso truffle glaze. The sweet and savory combination is difficult to perfect, and typically hard to come by, but that’s not the case at Planta — especially for the watermelon ahi.
The watermelon’s slight sweetness paired with the sauce’s savoriness was a pleasant surprise. I’m not sure what I expected prior, but the ahi exceeded any expectations I had. Though it wasn’t my favorite dish, only because it has such stiff competition, I would stake my reputation on it all the same.
Moving on to my small plate, I tried the Dan Dan noodles — a staff member recommendation. The dish did not disappoint. The noodles were presented in a creamy coconut sauce with gai lan — or Chinese broccoli — and szechuan kamut. The dish’s creamy nature is enough to make a person wonder “how can this possibly be vegan?” I know I certainly asked that question. The Dan Dan noodles were one of the pricier dishes I tried, at $20.75, but it was incredibly filling, and I would order it again in a heartbeat.
My fourth dish is the restaurant’s best seller, and for good reason, as a Planta dinner would not be complete without the Bang Bang Broccoli. The dish has an actual cult following in New York to the extent that Planta proudly sells Bang Bang merch. If anybody wants to get me a birthday present, look no further. The dish itself is made up of deep fried broccoli topped with a peanut sauce. Crisped to perfection, I feel confident
in reporting that the dish featured the most delicious broccoli I’ve ever tasted. At $14.50 for the entire dish, I’d say it’s well worth it.
For those wondering why I have only described two sushi dishes so far, ponder no longer: I wanted to save the best dish for last.
The “Torched and Pressed” sushi dish was honestly life-changing. The dish, which comes with six pieces at $16.75, features a bed of rice topped with torched avocado and an umami-rich miso truffle glaze. There’s so much flavor enclosed in each small bite of the plate that this dish easily made it to the top of my ranking.
Planta’s delicious food options are only rivaled by the excellent service and relaxed and modern ambiance. The space is bright and airy, with large windows
and chic decorations that strike the perfect balance of luxurious and upscale without being obnoxious.
Growing up vegetarian in Los Angeles, I’ve tried my share of plant based sushi, and let me tell you: Planta blows every other option out of the water. This reporter gives Planta two thumbs up, and I know I’ll be going back at least a few more times this quarter.
All I can say is, if sushi with fish tastes anything like Planta, I finally understand what people mean when they say I’m missing out. However, I have it on good authority that the sushi at Planta is just as good or better than the meaty kind, and I cannot recommend trying it for yourself highly enough.
jaydugar2025@u.northwestern.edu
Warning: This article contains spoilers.
From the mind of Ari Aster, the director behind “Midsommar” and “Hereditary,” comes the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink film “Beau Is Afraid,” starring Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix.
The picture’s three-hour runtime is packed with gorgeous cinematography, but the viewing experience was mostly uncomfortable and somewhat distressing. Though it addresses heavy topics like toxic relationships and depression following a parent’s passing, the storytelling lacks clarity and leaves the viewer grasping at straws to understand the film’s meaning.
The A24 film begins with the birth of Beau Wasserman (Phoenix) but quickly flashes forward to a middle-aged version of the character living in a comically chaotic city environment riddled with poverty — which Beau is drastically afraid of. He is also prescribed pills that
only exacerbate his extreme general anxiety.
After the keys to Beau’s apartment are stolen and he learns his mother Mona (Patti LuPone) has passed away, the mindf--k of the film truly begins. The plot’s departure from Beau’s chaotic urban life leaves behind many loose strings, yielding a disorienting and uncertain path forward for the film. This choice is likely meant to mimic Beau’s own vulnerability and naivety, but ultimately leaves viewers confused.
Upon being hit by a car at the end of the film’s first act, Beau wakes up in the home of an unsettling and controlling “Get Out”-reminiscent family who tries to nurse him back to health.
However, the family only worsens Beau’s confusion, breaking him down and taking the viewer down with him as his reality becomes muddled. Beau winds up fleeing by dashing into a forest where he watches a traveling theatre company’s performance, which seems like a prophetic look into his own life story as the play tracks a man’s search for his family.
This scene yields some of the film’s more visually memorable and impressive shots, as Beau
walks through what appears to be a pop-up storybook in a daydream sparked by the company’s play. The stop-motion and mixed-media elements of the scene mirror the childlike wonder of seeing Beau’s life reimagined for the play, mixing fiction with his own lived experience.
Beau’s journey concludes when he returns to his mother’s home only to learn she had staged her death. By this point of the movie, the line between actual reality and Beau’s perception of it has become irrevocably blurred. The audience’s trust has been broken, which makes it difficult to hold stake in the storyline for fear that it will continue to betray their expectations.
The film’s revelations do not end, however, with Beau’s visit to his mother’s home. Viewers continue to learn about the main protagonists’ psyche up until the film’s conclusion.
Beau is often infantilized and defers to the desires of female characters, generating plenty of internet commentary on his “mommy issues.” Therefore, it is unsurprising to learn Beau’s mother’s abusive tendencies likely contributed to Beau’s entrapment in the disoriented state of mind we find him in. By the end of the film, it is
clear the story is told through Beau’s eyes and harnesses his dynamic mind to tell a story of a dysfunctional mother-son relationship.
Due to the sheer length of the film and its volume of themes and ideas, you could make a multitude of arguments regarding what the film is actually trying to say. Regardless, it fails to say anything to a great depth or extent.
Though Phoenix gives an emotional and commanding performance, it felt like Aster was trying to reach a word count by throwing ideas at a wall and hoping some would stick in the viewer’s mind. In the end, the movie falls a bit flat, with concluding scenes proving surprising but anticlimactic.
Despite this critique, the journey “Beau Is Afraid” takes viewers on is joyous fun, and the visual storytelling shows mastery and creativity in new ways. From eerily painted masks to engaging point-of-view shots, the vibrancy of the film truly finds foundation in the optics — and sometimes optical illusions — it creates.
mjgudino2026@u.northwestern.edu
virginiahunt2026@u.northwestern.edu
Evanston Art Center’s “Découverte: Her Diasporan Chronicles of Self Discovery” exhibit explores the identity of Black women from the context of the greater Black diaspora. The most recent lobby gallery exhibit, which opened May 6 and runs through May 21, features Nigerian artist Laju Sholola and Nigerian Canadian artist Ojo Agi.
Show curator and Evanston-based artist Fran Joy said she paired the artists due to their aesthetics, with both using similar brown tones in their art. Both also have a Nigerian woman’s perspective. Joy said she appreciates art highlighting the beauty of Black women because Black girls throughout the diaspora often grow up teased about their skin and hair.
“Both of these artists are about discovery as a Black woman,” Joy said. “What it said to me was, ‘We are beautiful, we are gorgeous, I feel good about myself.’”
Patricia Andrews-Keenan, founder of Pigment International, a Chicago-based multimedia
publication that reports on Black arts in the African diaspora, attended a gallery reception for the exhibit Saturday.
She said Black representation in art allows Black individuals to see themselves in spaces they had thought were closed off to them. This barrier was not limited to the visual arts.
“I would go to flea markets, and I would find sheet music derogatory,” Andrews-Keenan said. “To see the evolution, to see these kinds of representations … (They have) made all kinds of strides.”
Sholola said she puts part of herself and people who look like her into her paintings, which uses the unique medium of tea to create a spectrum of brown hues. Specifically, she paints skin tones and hair textures similar to hers to tell her own story.
Agi also employs unconventional artistic techniques. She started her career in cartoons and comics and said she struggled to draw Black characters on white paper. To remedy this, Ojo began buying brown paper to use as the base, and as a result, the skin color of her portraits now better suit the background. Using brown paper is part of a process of simply finding “spaces to exist” as a Nigerian
Canadian, Agi said.
During the pandemic, Agi created seven portraits of Black women with a diversity of hairstyles and textures as a cathartic process. Two of them appear in the show.
Chicago resident and Liberian American Massa Massaley said it’s important to showcase beautiful Black women in art to combat negative stereotypes.
Massaley said she could see herself in the artwork on display and added she felt happiness looking at the images. She also appreciated the innovative technical approaches to painting Black people the artists developed, she said.
Joy said “Untitled (bob)” — named for the hairstyle — was her favorite because it looks like “serenity” and a confident version of herself. She added she later “fell in love” with Agi’s other featured piece, “Untitled (bun),” because she resonated with the frustration and strength displayed in the portrait.
“The value inside and thinking good of yourself when others don’t (comes through). Because Black worldwide is Black,” Joy said. “What they see first is your skin. And we have to live with that, and it takes a toll. So I appreciate (Agi and Sholola’s) creative value.”
Ogechi Harry, Agi and Sholola’s representative and founder of Golden Era Collective, an art agency aiming to promote Black creatives, said despite the distinct forms and materials of the two artists, they unite the viewer on a journey.
According to Harry, the two artists offer stories not often told about women of African descent. “We’re talking about vulnerabilities. We’re talking about victories,” Harry said. “We’re talking about power and strength. I mentioned before placemaking and sort of understanding where you fit in.”
Sholola said she wants viewers to be able to imagine the lives of the Black individuals she depicts and understand themselves better in the process.
Agi’s work to uplift Black women through art came as a result of feeling disempowered; in her studies, she found racism and sexism to be barriers to health. Art gave her agency to protest what she saw as injustice.
“I was really astounded by the beauty of both artists’ work,” Massaley said. “These paintings can be very inspirational for Black women.” jonathanaustin2023@u.northwestern.edu
Bienen and Weinberg freshman Raymond Faiella was 12 years old when he first sang Alan Menken’s iconic duet “Suddenly Seymour” from the 1982 musical “Little Shop of Horrors.”
On Friday, he performed the song once again, but this time as the lead role of Seymour Krelborn for more than 200 people in Harris Hall. With three performances this weekend, Faiella and about 60 other Northwestern freshmen brought “Little Shop” to life.
For more than a decade, the Freshman Musical has allowed first-year students to stage a full-scale musical, handling every aspect of production from directing to designing sets, lights and costumes.
“Little Shop of Horrors,” inspired by the 1960 film of the same name, has seen several iterations since its 1982 off-Broadway opening,
including a 1986 film adaptation starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. A revival of the musical opened off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in 2019 and has since featured stars like Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan and former NU student Maude Apatow.
In the program’s director’s note, Communication freshman Phoebe Wrycha said she and the show’s co-producers selected “Little Shop” because its “chaotic, campy, and fun” vibes match those of the Freshman Musical.
Faiella added in addition to being a “fullcircle” moment, playing the role of Seymour Krelborn encouraged him to step outside his comfort zone.
“Something that was really exciting is (the role’s) more comedic than something I would usually do, which has been really fun to play with,” Faiella said. “I usually rely on my singing and act when I have to, but this role has forced me to explore the acting world.”
Faiella and other cast members said the Freshman Musical also allowed them to meet
and bond with their peers.
Communication freshman Lily Ramras, who plays Seymour’s secret work-crush Audrey, said she appreciated the chance to get to know her peers with whom she will be spending the next four years.
Ramras added although her role is usually portrayed as ditzy and naive, she wanted to give the character more depth.
“I ended up loving getting into her character because she’s had a really hard life,” Ramras said. “So you have to find a way to tap into your own experiences and your own emotions to make that role more believable.”
The role challenged her to balance humor and earnestness, she said, as Audrey often cracks jokes about her abusive relationship with Orin Scrivello, a sadistic dentist played by Communication freshman Anthony Milas.
The musical’s plot largely centers on a maneating sentient plant — fondly called Audrey II — that slowly consumes Seymour’s life and the people in it. While “Little Shop” has been one of the most popular musicals for high school and college theatre programs for years, creating Audrey II can prove a challenging feat for groups looking to stage the show on a limited budget.
The plant, described by Music Theatre International as “an anthropomorphic cross between a Venus flytrap and an avocado,” generally takes the form of four progressively larger puppets voiced by an offstage actor and operated by Seymour or unseen puppeteers.
Weinberg freshman Sarah Carley, the lead Audrey II designer for the Freshman Musical, said her team had to be creative when constructing the puppet as the instructions packet included with the script was “pretentious” and unrealistic about the materials and skills available to a low-budget production.
“I was very skeptical at the beginning because the last time I built a puppet was for my third grade book report,” Carley said. “But it’s really been an impressive intersection of all my interests: the math, the physics, the arts and
crafts, and just working with so many people.”
Carley said the two most significant challenges in creating Audrey II were the limited budget and the puppets’ storage and transportation. She added that the unusual layout and dimensions of Harris Hall required the team to be creative with the puppets, including making them deconstructible so they could fit through doorways.
The largest Audrey II puppet created for the production ended up being over 4 feet tall and 7 feet deep.
Faiella added working with the puppeteers and the voice actor for Audrey II was a welcome challenge.
“Working out the timing for those scenes has been a little tricky, but once you get it down, it’s just so fun to perform,” he said. “Finding those reactions based off something that’s not a person or a voice that’s onstage has been really interesting and definitely a cool experience to maneuver.”
jacobwendler2025@u.northwestern.edu
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the Asian American community here, and really it’s due to the lack of visibility and representation,” Molitor said. “So we decided that we would do a little festival … and it’s grown every year since.”
The festival’s name came from the idea that an umbrella can encompass all Asian cultures, she added.
This year’s event featured artists representing various mediums and Asian cultures. While some showcased their artistry and crafts at their booths, others took to the stage at the center of the block to perform songs and dances.
Shalaka Kulkarni, an independent artist representing the organization Mandala Arts, performed the Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam to music from speakers and a beat set by bells she wore on her ankle. While the music drew the audience into the dance, she said the bells help her keep her rhythm.
Kulkarni said she hoped her performance gave the audience a peek into the diversity of Indian art and culture.
“Indian art is not all Bollywood. Bollywood is a film industry, and it’s a little bit different from Indian folk dances and Indian classical dances,” Kulkarni said. “I hope (the audience is) curious and, eventually, they understand the difference between other (arts) in the same culture.”
At her booth beside the stage, Mandy Yom displayed two stacks of “Nami’s New Friend,” a children’s book she wrote based on her own experiences as a first-generation South Korean immigrant.
Yom, who moved to the U.S. at age 8, said she did not know how to speak English and struggled to make friends when she first started school. She hopes to share her story with others through the book, especially children who have had similar experiences.
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he became more interested in environmental work and even adopted some worms of his own. He started posting about them on social media, and he quickly gained a reputation.
“It would be like, ‘Oh, you’re the worm guy,’” Lebovitz said. “And I (was) like, ‘Wait, this is actually something cool that not all people know about,’ and I think that’s a really cool thing to share.”
Lebovitz said his family and friends came out to support him, as well as his fellow members of Cats Who Compost.
While some students like Lebovitz had their first public speaking experiences Sunday, McCormick Prof. Kate Compton, who gave a talk on AI-generated “liquid art,” is a seasoned speaker.
Compton said she was glad to see the
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The book’s illustrations, Yom said, are also inspired by her childhood drawings.
“People want to connect to the books that they read, so if you always have books about a certain culture or race or character, it stereotypes them into one facet,” Yom said. “I think that’s doing an injustice for kids that are coming up because they should really see everyone else’s lives and learn about them.”
Several local leaders, including Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza and Cook County Commissioner Josina Morita, spoke at the festival.
Flanked by signs that read “More Love Less Hate,” “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Asian Hate,” Morita, the first Asian American woman elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, spoke on the importance of building a coalition not just between Asian American communities but also with women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and other marginalized groups.
Morita also touted the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act, which requires all Illinois public schools to include a unit of Asian American history in their curriculum starting in the 2022-23 school year.
“We’re really proud of that (legislation) because we believe that the best response to hate is education,” Morita said. “It’s going to be a community effort to continue to tell our stories.”
Molitor added she hopes the festival will bring a sense of belonging to members of Evanston’s ASPA community and help them “see themselves reflected in their community.”
At the same time, she wanted the event to be an opportunity to raise awareness and educate people about the diversity present within Evanston’s ASPA community.
“Art is a way to build community, it’s a universal language and it brings people together,” she said. caseyhe2026@u.northwestern.edu
initiative students displayed in organizing the TEDxNorthwesternU conference, especially after witnessing a drop in student energy during online school.
Gibbs said she and D’Souza have plans for expanding operations next year. They’re hoping to start a new informal speaker event — separate from the regular conference — where students can give short talks on fun topics that interest them, she said.
In the age of TikTok and shortened attention spans, Gibbs said it’s important to create a space where people have time to share something meaningful to them.
“Nobody is born knowing how to do a TED Talk,” Gibbs said. “If you feel like you have a good idea and something to share, try out for your local TEDx. You never know what’ll happen.”
samanthapowers2026@u.northwestern.edu
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received an Illumination Award of Merit from the Illuminating Engineering Society for his role in implementing LED lighting and smart controls in Alice Millar Chapel. He spent nearly a decade advocating for the funding necessary for the project, which was completed after he left NU a year and a half ago.
“Kevin did the whole design for that project. Even though it (was) put on hold when he was here, it is the result of his hard work,” said Facilities Archivist Mary Beth Dermody.
During his time at NU, Kevin McLean helped Dermody collect drawings and blueprints of buildings on campus for a digital archive to aid those who are doing maintenance or construction at NU. Whenever a co-worker went looking for specific equipment, Kevin McLean always knew exactly where to direct them, Dermody said.
Coworkers and friends, including Papastathis, describe Kevin McLean as “wickedly smart,” generous, loyal and funny. He always took safety measures seriously and insisted on dedicating time to complete projects at the highest quality possible, McDonagh said. He could also diffuse any awkward situation with humor, McDonagh added.
“The twinkle in his eye, I’ll never forget it,” Dermody said with a smile. “When you saw that twinkle in his eye, you went, ‘Oh, something’s coming.’”
Apart from planning larger-scale lighting projects, Kevin McLean also responded to student
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animals and often have to euthanize them, she added.
Boyce said she decided to focus on helping felines because shelters tend to overlook and undersocialize cats, especially black cats.
“Cats and dogs enter U.S. shelters at about the same rate (as dogs),” Boyce said. “But two cats are euthanized for one dog. So that’s already a pretty staggering, staggering statistic.”
Chicago resident Kayla Truckey, who attended the opening, said she transports cats for Paws and Claws through her job at Rescueber, a rescue animal transportation nonprofit. She said she’s excited to support the new Evanston center.
“The attendance is really incredible. The space is beautiful,” Truckey said. “I think it’s really amazing what (Boyce has) been able to accomplish.”
At the opening ceremony, Paws and Claws volunteers handed out free goodie bags from Bentley’s Pet Stuff with cat food and treats.
People interested in adopting a cat could scan a QR code to access an adoption
THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN is not responsible for more than one incorrect insertion of an ad. Corrections must be received by 10am on the day before ad runs again, call 847-4917206. All Classifieds must be paid in advance and are not accepted over the phone. To run online, ad must run in print on same day. The Daily does not knowingly accept misleading or false ads and does not guarantee any ad or claim, or endorse any advertised product or service. Please use caution when answering ads, especially when sending money.
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maintenance requests in residence halls and helped plan the annual facilities department picnic. He once gave the Heimlich Maneuver to a woman choking in one of the dining halls. He saved her life, but didn’t want any public recognition for it, McDonagh said.
“He was always willing to help even without being asked,” said Kevin O’Malley, an NU electrician and one of Kevin McLean’s best friends. “If he overheard a conversation in the shop about a building or project, if he had something to add, he would join in — and often his contribution was the solution.”
Kevin McLean attended Southern Illinois University and worked at multiple electrical companies before coming to Northwestern, O’Malley said. He added that despite Kevin McLean’s passion for his work, he was “first and foremost a father and provider for his family.”
Brenda McLean, who met Kevin McLean in high school and married him 20 years ago, said her husband often helped neighbors with home maintenance and built fun projects for his sons Ethan and Colin — like a backyard ice skating rink every winter. He loved movies, traveling and Mexican cuisine, she said.
“He loved Northwestern. He was so proud of what he did there,” Brenda McLean said. “When they started working on the LED lighting projects, he was so excited that they were upgrading things. He was always thinking of how to make the campus better and safer.”
zellamilfred2025@u.northwestern.edu
requirement page. Some tables offered interactive activities like guessing the amount of treats in a jar for a gift card.
Volunteers also sold merchandise from Paws and Claws, while a food truck from Kona Ice sold Hawaiian shaved ice — with a portion of proceeds going towards the Paws and Claws’ $400,000 fundraising campaign to fund the facility.
Communication senior and field hockey player Alia Marshall, along with several other athletes, volunteered for the day through TrueNU to give back to the Evanston community and participate in civic engagement.
“Paws and Claws is a really fun place to volunteer because of the kittens and it being the grand opening,” Marshall said. Boyce said she hoped the new center will not only save lives but also provide a supportive space for community members to enjoy.
“We’re very community-oriented and we’re just excited to actually have a space to gather,” Boyce said. “Up until this point, it’s been really virtual … So we’re excited to have a space to hold events and to do educational things.” astryrodriguez2025@u.northwestern.edu
When campus environmental activists recently met Weinberg senior Hannah Dembosky, a member of the Associated Student Government Sustainability Committee, said she asked meeting participants what Earth Day meant to them.
While some felt hopeful people still care about the Earth, others were less optimistic.
Some fellow activists, she said, find it difficult to keep fighting for action.
“(Activism) can feel like a constant pushing up against something that’s not really moving at all,” she said.
Dembosky said she thinks addressing climate change is “hopeless” and makes her feel a “very existential dread.” She isn’t alone –– a study published in The Lancet in December 2021 found that almost 60% of people between 16 and 25 feel “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change.
Mental health experts coined the term “climate anxiety” to describe the distress some people undergo when thinking about climate change.
Medill Prof. Abigail Foerstner said climate anxiety describes worries about the future, climate change’s current progression and fear over the lack of a transformative response.
“All of these situations make you feel very vulnerable,” she said. “This is no longer looking ahead at how will this impact us in the future. We can see it now.”
Foerstner said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body that assesses science related to climate change, showed extreme weather caused by climate change is creating irreversible losses.
Her environmental reporting students tell her they feel an existential dread because they feel it’s up to them to address climate change, she added. For others, their anxiety stems from their experiences with climate-related disasters.
“Anyone from the Atlantic coast and the Gulf has seen horrific damage from hurricanes to their own
families or to people that they know and care about,” she said. “This creates uncertainty and worry.”
Michele Forjette, is a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance North America, which is a network of climate-aware therapists. She said displacement due to climate disasters can also cause anxiety.
“One of the biggest things that’s been coming up with people is that they feel like they’re not heard,” she said. “Sometimes they feel that they’re being told that they’re exaggerating.”
Fostering empathy in solution building
SESP freshman Anusha Kumar said her stress grows when she hears about how the U.S. and other countries are not taking adequate steps to solve climate change.
Marginalized communities experience the effects of climate change earlier and to a greater extent, according to a 2021 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report. Kumar said this reality amplifies climate anxiety.
Forjette said she has noticed climate distress surrounding displacement and uncertainty from people with marginalized identities.
“It’s our (climate therapists) responsibility to educate ourselves … and then really listen to the individual and use those skills to help identify their sources of strength,” she said.
Forjette said she sees mental health impacted by climate concerns after disasters and in response to other stressors –– like younger people thinking about how they will cope with change.
Addressing climate anxiety requires validating people’s emotions and helping them process, she said.
“What can be really helpful with that is tapping into their resilience and helping them to stay in the moment,” she said. “They can turn that despair into hopefulness.”
Forjette said maintaining healthy habits, reducing stress and practicing mindfulness can help mitigate climate anxiety. She highlighted the importance of “eco-empathy,” safe communities in which people can discuss their stress about climate change.
Creating a plan for emergencies is also important for anxiety reduction. Forjette also recommends
learning basic response training.
Weinberg sophomore Alexis Schwartz, co-chair of the ASG Sustainability Committee, said her climate anxiety stems from convincing people to care. She feels she is not doing enough for the Earth, but talking with others experiencing similar feelings is helpful.
Last year, Schwartz said the ASG Sustainability Committee partnered with One Book One Northwestern to host climate cafés –– inclusive spaces fostering conversation about climate change.
Schwartz said NU’s sustainability community provides a helpful interconnection for easing climate anxiety.
“We can pull each other out of (those feelings), and that’s why I think the community aspect of sustainability is really important,” she said.
Recently, the ASG Sustainability Committee’s Earth Day GREENOUT event helped promote environmentalism on campus through education and performances. Foerstner also said initiatives like campus gardens and local volunteering help
ease students’ fears about a lack of action.
“Students are really picking up that commitment,” she said. “When we feel we’re doing something, and especially when we see our action taking place within our community, I think that relieves anxiety.”
Dembosky said environmental activism has become a “coping mechanism” for her, allowing her to feel like she’s making a difference.
As a member of Fossil Free NU, Kumar also uses advocacy to alleviate her climate anxiety. She is helping fight for the University to divest from fossil fuels.
While she emphasized the importance of understanding climate change is out of an individuals’ hands, there are still things she thinks people can help with.
“Everyone has different capacities, and I think a big thing is meeting people where they are,” she said. “Prioritizing taking care of yourself, and then also if you have the capacity, taking action within your local community is really important.”
chiarakim2025@u.northwestern.edu
Cornell University Prof. Mary Pat Brady gave a keynote address about gentrification and exploitation at Northwestern’s Latina and Latino Studies Program Spring Symposium Thursday.
The event launched a two-day conference titled “Urban Latinidades: Space, Place and Identity,” brought panelists from around the country to examine the identity and ethnography of Latinidad. Brady teaches literature and Latina/o studies at Cornell, and she is the author of the books “Scales of Captivity: Racial Capitalism and the Latinx Child” and “Extinct Lands, Temporal Geographies: Chicana Literature and the Urgency of Space.”
During her lecture, Brady spoke about the 16thcentury colonial origins of gentrification and labor exploitation in Latin America. She said because colonizers were better served by reducing Latine
people to their market value, they would attempt to strip Latine people of individual identities and treat them as replaceable.
She connected this concept to the present-day stripping of identity from physical spaces through gentrification of Latine neighborhoods in major cities like New York, San Diego and Houston.
“Gentrification insists on the space being only about its market value, and not about the connections and lives and vibrant experiences and cultures that are in this place,” Brady said.
She said in her lecture that 16th-century European colonizers treated Latine people as replaceable to reduce their collective power. Now, in the United States, Brady said more and more Latine authors are writing anti-gentrification novels that aim to reclaim the complexities of Latine neighborhoods, communities and spaces.
“We are our families, and our schools, and our education, and the foods we consume and the dirt that we walk on,” Brady said. “We’re all those things, and to think of ourselves as multiple refuses
the singularizing logic that markets depend on.”
Authors of anti-gentrification novels often face pressure from large publishing houses to pander to the white perspective, Brady added. This influence from the market serves to erase the diversity of the Latine identity, she said.
As a result of the power of big publishers, white consumers can engage with “palatable” gentrification narratives without participating in social movement-building. An example Brady gave was the widespread success of “American Dirt,” a 2020 novel about Mexican Migrants that made Oprah’s Book Club list, yet received criticism for its lack of authenticity.
Deisi Cuate, a Ph.D. candidate in Latinx studies, organized the symposium. She said she’d been inspired by her childhood in New York City, where she was surrounded by a diverse set of peers whose identities went beyond the simplicity of a racial category or ethnic label.
She said she continues to identify beyond the label of Latina today.
“Technically, yes, I am (Latina),” Cuate said. “But before I identify as Latina, I’m Mexican American. And before I identify as Mexican American, I’m a New Yorker.”
Brady thanked Cuate and other members of the Latina and Latino Studies Program for organizing the event. She said advancing an “underappreciated” field in academia takes commitment and fortitude.
African American Studies and Latina and Latino Studies Prof. John Márquez, director of the Latina and Latino Studies Program, said he hopes the spring symposium rebels against traditional methods of studying the Latine community, which often operate under colonial and controlling ideas.
“Our gente did not fight to gain access to universities so that they can learn how to be Latinos,” Márquez said. “They sought the knowledge of how to destroy this world and replace it with another.” samanthapowers2026@u.northwestern.edu
At the start and end of every Northwestern break, Weinberg junior Zach Delson’s class GroupMe crowds with messages from students trying to find people with whom to split Ubers and Lyfts to and from the airport.
Delson said he wanted to streamline the process.
“As summer was coming to an end this year, I saw (those messages) flooding in, and it hit me: There needs to be a service to connect (people) versus them having to text in the GroupMe,” he said.
With McCormick sophomore Grayson Donnelly, Delson co-created SPLIT, a ride-sharing platform for students going to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport from Northwestern’s Evanston campus. The platform currently uses a Google Form where students fill out their name, phone number and preferred destination and times.
SPLIT is currently a resident team at The Garage. The service uses an algorithm to send students between one and three other matches. From there,
students receive each other’s phone numbers to coordinate a time and location to meet. Delson said since its launch during Thanksgiving break, the app has had more than 1,850 forms filled out, facilitated 1,412 matches and saved students about $46,000 in total.
Medill freshman Sophia Pirani said she first tried SPLIT at the start of Winter Break and has since used it a couple other times. According to the platform’s post-ride survey, individual Ubers and Lyfts from O’Hare average about $55, and surge pricing increases the cost to more than $90 at times.
Pirani said using SPLIT has cut her costs down to about $15 per ride. Before she learned of startup, she said she would wait in O’Hare for her Uber or Lyft cost to slightly dip before selecting a $40 ride.
“It’s very, very costly, especially as a college student, to afford to go to O’Hare and come back,” Pirani said. “It’s ridiculous paying like $200 for a flight and having to pay one-fourth of that just to get to (campus).”
NU’s airport transit options have been a topic of discussion among students on campus. Associated Student Government has been working to create a free airport shuttle program on high-travel days to and from the two major airports since it passed legislation in March 2022. However, the University administration’s
reluctance to fund the program has stalled progress.
It takes students about an hour and 10 minutes to travel to the University’s closest airport, O’Hare, by bus, and about two hours using the Chicago Transit Authority. Driving, in comparison, takes about 30-45 minutes, but the costs add up.
Using a ride-sharing tool has several benefits, Delson said, including helping the environment and reducing costs. But student connections have turned out to be the most surprising one.
“A cool thing we’ve found from this is that people actually have made new friends, met a lot of cool people, created new bonds over 45 minutes … someone even went on a date with someone after,” Delson said. “The connection element of meeting new Northwestern peers is one of the most underrated elements of this whole thing.”
Weinberg sophomore Jake Lawrence, a SPLIT user, said he typically tries to talk to the people with whom he rideshares. He said he was able to have a conversation with a fellow economics student about class recommendations.
Weinberg sophomore Noah Edelman said he has saved “hundreds of dollars” with SPLIT so far. He said has enjoyed meeting people from different majors, schools and backgrounds on his rides.
“It was really cool to be put in a situation where we just got to meet new people because that wouldn’t have happened otherwise,” Edelman said. “I still, if I see those people, wave to them or smile at them on the street.”
Donnelly and Delson are working to move the ride-sharing platform off its current Google Form and creating a website display and app. This summer, Donnelly will take part in The Garage’s Jumpstart Pre-Accelerator program, which provides resources and coaching to early-stage student teams.
The platform also aims to start expanding to ridesharing locations besides the airport, Donnelly said. Delson added SPLIT hopes to address transportation problems specific to college students.
But the app might also soon become a place to meet your next NU best friend.
“Some of the feedback we’ve gotten is people are interested in riding with people with similar interests, or similar class standing or similar gender for that matter,” Donnelly said. “We’re looking into incorporating some sort of matching component for people who want specific ride buddies and just forming new connections in that way.”
joannahou2025@u.northwestern.edu
A week after securing the program’s first top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament since 2009, No. 1 Northwestern kicked off its quest for an eighth national title in Martin Stadium on Sunday morning. As the wind whipped onto the cloudcovered lakefront, gutsy underdog No. 15 Michigan stared down the tournament’s favorites in a second-round showdown.
Although the Wolverines (12-8, 3-3 Big Ten) held coach Kelly Amonte Hiller’s team to its lowest scoring output of the season, the Wildcats (18-1, 6-0 Big Ten) conjured up just enough firepower to advance to the quarterfinals in an oldfashioned defensive duel.
It only took senior attacker Erin Coykendall 46 seconds to prance in front of the cage and put NU ahead 1-0. Four minutes later, though, Thompson capitalized off a player-up scenario to level the score.
Wolverine midfielder Erin Garvey grabbed another goal off a player-advantage to capture a 2-1 Michigan lead just after the eight-minute mark. But, graduate student attacker Hailey Rhatigan slipped beyond her defender and ripped a rocket into the net to turn the tide with 2:44 remaining in the period.
Then, graduate student attacker Izzy Scane fired a powerful effort beyond Wolverine goalkeeper Maya Santa-Maria to snatch a 3-2 lead for the Cats as the first quarter concluded.
However, after sophomore defender
Samantha White picked up the second quarter’s opening draw, Michigan suddenly shot out of a cannon. Michigan midfielder Josie Gooch equalized with 13:12 remaining, and Wolverine attacker Jill Smith tallied the go-ahead goal less than three minutes later.
“They’re coming out fighting — good, we need this for ourselves,” White said postgame.
While Coykendall connected with a cutting senior attacker Dylan Amonte atop the crease for a tying score, another NU yellow card gave way to Jill Smith’s second goal of the day.
Despite outshooting the Wolverines 15-9, the Cats jogged into the locker room trailing 5-4.
“The message was that (the) half was over,” Amonte Hiller said. “We had a beautiful opportunity to play two more quarters and look ahead.
After the break, graduate student attacker Elle Hansen didn’t take much time to get NU going, finding twine less than three minutes into the third quarter. But after Michigan midfielder Julia Schwabe handed the Wolverines a 6-5 advantage with 10:24 left in the frame, neither side created more than a sniff at a goal.
With gritty play from both defenses and three more yellow cards issued, Michigan carried its one-goal lead into the fourth quarter.
“Kelly brought us in at the end of the third quarter and (said), ‘You guys can control one thing, and that’s your energy and your effort,’” Coykendall said.
After sophomore midfielder Samantha Smith tallied her game-high fifth draw
control Coykendall responded right on cue, embodying her coach’s words in the final frame’s opening possession.
Just 31 seconds into the most pivotal quarter of the season thus far, Coykendall pump-faked her way beyond her mark before sinking a low-arcing effort past Santa-Maria. As if the game had begun once more, the Cats now had a clean slate in a 6-6 deadlock.
Less than two minutes later, Rhatigan drew a free position attempt in a dangerous locale. She weaved inside, effortlessly flinging a sidearm effort into the top-right corner.
Then, NU’s defense that played beyond itself all day soared to new victory-sealing
heights. Senior midfielder Jane Hansen jarred the ball loose in the Cats’ side of the field, eventually finding its way to Scane’s stick. The Tewaaraton finalist found junior defender Carleigh Mahoney, who slotted home her first goal of the season to extend NU’s advantage to 8-6.
“We talk about having each other’s backs, and Carleigh Mahoney comes (and) scores a huge goal for us,” Coykendall said. “That sparked our energy and we were like, ‘We got this.’”
While Jill Smith hit Schwabe to cut the deficit to one with 4:36 remaining, the Cats killed the clock down to its waning seconds, leaving Michigan with a lastditch opportunity.
On the Hail Mary-like play, the ball fell innocently into White’s stick — placing a muffler on any semblance of an upset alert in an 8-7 NU victory.
The Cats will face No. 8 Loyola Maryland on Thursday, where they’ll look to punch their ticket to a fourth consecutive Final Four in Cary, North Carolina.
“This game is an incredible learning experience,” Amonte Hiller said. “The one thing we do (especially) well at Northwestern lacrosse — we evaluate and learn (to) just go forward with incredible fearlessness.”
jacobepstein2026@u.northwestern.edu
In walk-off fashion, No. 18 Northwestern secured its first conference title since 2008 against Iowa, marking the first time in program history the team won the regular season and conference titles in the same season.
The Wildcats (38-11, 20-3 Big Ten) are the first Big Ten team since Michigan in 2019 to accomplish this feat.
After defeating Iowa 3-1 on Thursday, the Cats steamrolled the reigning conference champs in Nebraska during their semifinal matchup Friday. Thanks to a four-hit shutout from graduate student left-handed pitcher Danielle Williams, the Cats defeated the Cornhuskers in a 8-0 run rule.
With the win, the Cats are headed to the Big Ten conference finals against Indiana on Saturday for the first time since 2018. With momentum strong and team spirit high, the Cats sat in a prime position to snag the conference title.
And they delivered. As expected, Williams performed stellarly once again, allowing only a single unearned run during the entire game. After being named a First Team All-Big Ten honoree for the fourth year straight, Williams also took home Most Outstanding Player of the Big Ten Tournament. She gave up zero earned runs over a total of 14 innings.
Williams’ proficient play in the circle helped save NU, as the Cats didn’t deliver at the plate until the seventh inning, when the team was trailing 1-0. Entering the final half inning, the Cats’ only hit of the contest had come from freshman infielder Kansas Robinson’s double in the first inning.
Graduate student catcher Jordyn Rudd led the seventh inning surge with a base hit, and sophomore infielder Lauren Sciborski pinch ran for her.
Next up, junior infielder Hannah Cady hit another single and legged it out to second, moving runners to second and third with zero outs. From there, graduate student infielder Nikki Cuchran’s walk combined with a wild pitch to
score Sciborski, tying the game at one run a piece.
Senior utility Angela Zedak loaded the bases next to put the Cats in a perfect position, with graduate student infielder Maeve Nelson following at bat.
Adding to a superb Big Ten Career, Nelson singled to right-center field to score Cady and bring the score to 2-1.
The team raced out to Nelson at second base and after, raised the newly acquired hardware, celebrating the end to the program’s 17-year drought of Big Ten Championships.
The Cats are now headed to the NCAA Regionals next weekend, where they face a double elimination style tournament. If NU is victorious, the team will head to NCAA Super Regionals the following weekend, where they would face 16 regional winners in a best-of-three style competition.
And if the Cats continue to dominate there, they could become one of the eight teams heading to the Women’s College World Series in June.
kunjalbastola2026@u.northwestern.edu
The drought persists for Northwestern — this time at Michigan.
The Wolverines (26-22, 13-8 Big Ten) swept the Wildcats (8-38, 3-18 Big Ten) this weekend, outscoring them 32-12 in the three-game series. After its latest 0-3 weekend, NU stretched its conference losing streak to 15.
The Cats trailed from the outset in Game 1. Graduate student right-hander Michael Farinelli struggled on Friday, allowing six runs in three innings of work.
Despite a pair of two-run home runs from senior outfielder Stephen Hrustich and senior outfielder Luke Tanner in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, NU faced an insurmountable deficit. The Wolverines scored runs in each of the first four innings, building an 8-2 advantage entering the fifth inning.
Coupled with issues on the mound, NU also faced difficulties limiting the number of errors on the field. The Cats committed two errors Friday, with both causing multiple runs to score across the game. As a result, NU faced an uphill battle all game and ultimately dropped the opener 12-5.
The Cats put on a far more resilient effort Saturday. Graduate student outfielder Kevin Ferrer put the offense on his back, ensuring that NU responded whenever the Wolverines took the lead.
After an early 1-0 first-inning deficit, Ferrer’s second-inning sacrifice fly following two leadoff hits helped to level the score at one apiece. With the Cats trailing 2-1 in the seventh inning, the outfielder’s RBI single equalized the scores once again.
Meanwhile, freshman left hander Sam Garewal kept NU in the contest all afternoon, pitching five and one-thirds innings and surrendering two runs. Garewal tallied 10 strikeouts Saturday. Yet even when everything looked
promising for NU, the squad still ended up on the losing side of the scoreline. The Wolverines’ three-run eighth inning propelled them to a 5-2 win, handing the Cats their second loss of the weekend.
While NU had already lost the series entering Sunday’s finale, the team showed promise of snapping its lengthy conference losing streak.
The Cats stormed in front in the first inning. With the bases loaded, graduate student catcher Cooper Foard’s two-run single gave NU its first lead of the series. The Cats extended their lead in the third through crafty baserunning. Tanner and Hrustich’s double steal led to a Wolverine error that brought in another run.
However, from the bottom half of the third inning, everything went immediately south for the Cats. After pitching two scoreless innings, junior right-hander Luke Benneche allowed seven runs in his following two innings of work. As a result, the Wolverines scored 8 unanswered runs in the ensuing three innings.
NU suddenly faced a 8-3 deficit entering the seventh inning.
While Ferrer continued to show the fight he displayed all weekend on a two-run home run in the seventh, the Cats’ pitching proved to be their Achilles heel. The Wolverines immediately responded with a six-run seventh inning and brought NU’s deficit to nine after seven innings.
With only two innings remaining in the contest, the Cats couldn’t conjure a comeback and ultimately fell in their fifth consecutive sweep to a conference foe.
This weekend’s series is a testament to NU’s struggles all season long, and there will be many questions raised in the offseason on the future of the program.
The Cats will face Notre Dame on Tuesday at Wrigley Field, hoping that the opportunity to play at a MLB ballpark will help cure their struggles.
aayushyaagarwal2024@u.northwestern.edu