WRIT Large 2017 by University Writing Program University of Denver

WRITL ARGE

2017

VOLUME 6 INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the sixth volume of WRIT Large, DU’s journal of undergraduate research and writing. The works published herein highlight the quality and diversity of thinking in classrooms across the University of Denver campus. As student editors, we joined the production process in the early stages. More than a hundred students submitted work to WRIT Large; thirty-eight made the first cut. From there, we and the faculty editors debated and discussed different perspectives until we settled on eleven essays that we all felt showcased the excellent writing that DU students did last year. Once selected, each essay underwent a rigorous editing process in which authors collaborated with student and faculty editors to revise and polish their pieces. The writers whose work appears in this volume are daughters and fathers, activists and enthusiasts, historians and critics, creative writers and researchers. Their work varies in length, in topic, and in purpose, but all of the them work to engage readers and leave a lasting impact. Isis Usborne writes about her experience advocating for marriage equality in Hawaii, a cause she passionately believes in and fights for. Paul Elsberg looks closely at the hip hop culture of the Good Life Cafe, a South Central Los Angeles hub that celebrated Afrocentrism, social justice, and the role of music as cultural capital. Kelia Murata, drawing on her experiences in Nagoya, Japan and her own American-Japanese background, writes about the current movement in Japan to regulate and expunge all illicit activities from the music scene. Josiah Ojeda celebrates his graduation from college, a moment he shared with his daughter, and recalls the challenges of balancing his educational commitments with fatherhood. Kate Norris discusses the important and surprising roles women played in the Algerian revolution. Her work honors these brave women while also analyzing the complexities of gender in all societies. Katherine Karayannis explores Amendment 64, a Colorado bill intended to use marijuana sales tax as a source of educational funding, and looks at the loopholes within the amendment that can leave schools without appropriate resources. Leah Tobias reviews the work of artist Maya Lin, who uses her platform as an artist to render the invisible visible and forge a deeper connection with different environments. Lena Kern considers the difficulty of maintaining a Quaker identity in the face of the constant distractions and distancing of social media. Jake Kerr suggests that the debates surrounding important recent medical breakthroughs should prompt us all to take seriously the potential benefits and risks of genetic engineering. Soleil Kohl engages Michelangelo’s struggle with kidney failure as an invitation to consider the relationships between intellect and ailment, as well as Michelangelo and her own father. Kira Pratt argues that Beyoncé’s music videos are a force for progressive thinking to combat de facto racism in modern America. The authors in this volume offer us a glimpse of what is possible for undergraduate writers. As student editors, it was a pleasure to work with these talented authors, and we hope you enjoy WRIT Large 2017, Vol. 6. – Katerina Moore & Avery Niemann, Student Editors

THE TIME “LOVE WON”

Isis Usborne

7 AN INTRODUCTION Dr. Trace Reddell

8 “THIS IS THE LIFE”: The E mpowering M ovement

G ood L ife Cafe

H ip H op

at the

Paul Elsberg 16

“LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY”: Dance Clubs

FIGHTING FOR OUR TOMORROW

Kelia Murata

Japan

Josiah Ojeda 26

BREAKING TRADITION: Algerian Women as Freedom Fighters

Kate Norris 36

MILE HIGH ISSUES: The M ountain

E ducational Funding

Problems

C olorado

Katherine Karayannis 42

THE UNSEEN LANDSCAPE: Water Sculpted by Maya Lin

A QUAKER STUDENT IN THE AGE OF FACEBOOK

THE REAL MEDICAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF

Leah Tobias

Lena Kern

GENETIC ENGINEERING Jake Kerr 68

TRANSLATION

“NOW LET’S GET IN FORMATION”: I dentifying Beyoncé ’s I mpact on

Soleil Kohl

R ace Relations Kira Pratt

A merica

Spotlight on Student Editors

VOL. 6

W R I T L A R G E 2 0 17

Contents

Isis Usborne

WRIT 1633 Advanced Research & Writing | Professor John Tiedemann

THE VOTE THE BUS STOPS JUST OUTSIDE OF CHINATOWN NEAR downtown Honolulu. I jump out into the warm Hawaii weather wearing my pin-adorned canvas backpack, a cut-up t-shirt (on which I had written “ Who Shall Rule? ” over and over again until it made a print), and long, rainbow-colored hair. It is November of 2013, and I am heading to the Capitol to support the legalization of gay marriage in my state. I try to make my steps confident strides, but I’ve never been to a rally like this. I’m alone, nervous but excited. I approach the Capitol and immediately notice the rainbow banners, signs, and leis that adorn hundreds of exuberant figures, some of whom are dancing to upbeat pop/electronic music. Tents are set up offering beverages, pre-made signs are available to those without them, and a giant rainbow flag hangs low to the ground between state and federal flagpoles. Signs are made of cardstock, cardboard, and wood, painted with explosions of colors, spelling out phrases that express justice, equality, and love. I am relieved to find some friends and acquaintances from my high school here as well. We take a picture in front of the rainbow flag. I then raise a sign that reads “ Love has no gender! ” 2

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Toward the other side of the building, still facing busy Punchbowl Street, the mood changes markedly. While the other side is gay (pun intended) and celebratory with the hope of liberation, the people gathered to oppose the bill are incensed by the perceived oppression of their spiritual beliefs and the stifling of their religious traditions. The group is composed mostly of native Hawaiians and other Polynesians, whom missionaries historically targeted for conversion, and they and their children hold the state flag of Hawaii, display signs referencing Adam and Eve, and, above all, admonish politicians to “Let the People Vote! ” Cars go by, their drivers honking and screaming obscenities or escaping the scene quietly. Inside the soaring courtyard of the Capitol, those opposing the bill are egged on by a religious leader, a hostile congressman who leads endless chants demanding a vote, and participants pounding out a deeply haunting beat on sharkskin drums: “LET THE PEOPLE VOTE! LET THE PEOPLE VOTE! LET THE PEOPLE VOTE! ” They glare at us, their powerful voices echoing, demanding uncompromising representation of their views in state policy, no matter the legal consequences for queers. The analytical part of me understands why the chanters are so angry. As mostly native islanders, they have not been able to keep much over the years except their religion, and even that was something forced upon them by foreigners. Their land was taken, their culture appropriated, their population decimated, and their children undereducated in large part because of foreign people and ideas

encroaching on their sacred home. Their current expression, however, seems fueled by hate and fear more than historical grievances. Whatever those motivations, the queers of Hawaii are not afraid to respond to that deafening noise. Gay and lesbian couples proudly parade around with signs challenging the chanters for being “too concerned with other people’s genitalia.” Others remind them that “ Hate is Not Holy.” The upbeat music and dancing continues. I stand by the rainbow-colored signs. After all, no one is forcing native Christians or Mormons to marry same-sex couples in their churches. No one is asking for anything except for respect of humans’ right to freedom from discrimination. This would cost opponents nothing, but would mean the world to same-sex couples who wish to gain the status of legal marriage. As the sky darkens, we file into the courtyard of the symmetrical building. The crowd is physically split down the middle by a rope and later, when some begin to fear for their physical safety, by a line of marriage equality supporters standing hand-inhand, stretching across the space. The bulky old TVs of the legislature are wheeled out so we can watch the vote live. We huddle around the screen, sitting on benches and planters, standing near concrete walls, pacing over the blue mosaic that spans the ground, waiting for the Senate’s decision. My friend Elana and I hold hands. She is a lesbian, I am bisexual, and we have many LGBT friends back at our high school. We aren’t a couple, VOLUME 6

but we place our palms together in a symbolic gesture for those who long to commit to each other for the rest of their lives, to be there for each other in hospitals and on honeymoons, to file joint taxes and have joint bank accounts, to adopt and care for children, and so much more, til death do they part. The votes are cast…

THE HEARING Last week was different. I had arrived at the Capitol on a school bus rather than a city bus, with my teacher, Ms. Perruso, and a handful of classmates instead of by myself. We had prepared testimony to present to legislators at a hearing on the bill, guided by Ms. Perruso. At first, I was reluctant to voice my opinion in such a public forum. After all, I understood why people would oppose the bill—people in our own class did, and I could sympathize (if not empathize) with their position. I wavered between standing in the realm of the analytical and jumping into the stormy ocean of activism.

I knew then that I had to stand up for them, for me, for all of us. Not that I or my friends would ever want to marry anyone, necessarily, but we definitely did want to live in a world free from discrimination and hate.

Ms. Perruso didn’t think much of my conundrum. “You know you have an opinion,” she told me bluntly. Of course she was right. I didn’t see any legal reason why same-sex couples should be denied marriage. I had grown up in the theatre, surrounded by “deviant” sexualities that were understood to be perfectly normal. My mother 4

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wasn’t religious and neither was I, so I had no qualms about same-sex relationships being sinful. Most of my friends were gay, transgender, pansexual, or bisexual (like myself). I knew then that I had to stand up for them, for me, for all of us. Not that I or my friends would ever want to marry anyone, necessarily, but we definitely did want to live in a world free from discrimination and hate. So I testified. It was terrifying and thrilling: those legislators, sitting up on their raised dais behind an imposing wooden table, HAD to listen to me for my three minutes. I called them out on their hypocrisy, on the injustice of the current situation, and on the unconstitutional nature of denying marriage licenses based on an arbitrary category called “gender.” And they didn’t cut me off, berate me, or lecture me. They listened. And so did everyone else. As I waited to testify last week, I had a long conversation with a congenial priest who thought that marriage was a specifically religious institution. He calmly and confidently explained that allowing other interpretations of marriage would open up the possibility of people getting married to animals. I replied that his prediction struck me as logically unsound and tried to explain why. We agreed to disagree, and by the end of our discussion, he gave me his business card and invited me to come to his church. While we were obviously at opposite ends of the political and religious spectrum, we were at least able to hold a civil conversation and even express a sort of friendliness toward each other.

THE HISTORY Of course, many, many others testified for and against the bill as well, drawing on abstract concepts, religious feelings, and historical evidence.

Governor Neil Abercrombie and liberal state legislators declared that they were committed to passing a bill that would legalize marriage equality. That commitment came to fruition in November 2013.

THE VOTE, AGAIN The last vote has been cast: Love wins, 19-4. Leis are thrown into the air, hugs exchanged between strangers, and couples share triumphant kisses. I catch the bus home, brimming with joy and a strange sense of accomplishment. I realize, as I lean back for the long ride, that fighting for a cause I believe in, regardless of what other people might think, definitely feels like doing the right thing. THE FUTURE Soon, the legislators that my classmates and I spoke to will vote on the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act. Their affirmative vote will help push forward a wave of legalized marriage equality, eventually coalescing into a federal decision to support equality in 2015. The first same-sex couple will legally marry on December 2nd in the beautiful state of Hawaii. To celebrate the beauty of this accomplishment, I will wear rainbow eyelashes on the day the bill becomes a law. © Shawn Goldberg / Shutterstock.com

Same-sex marriage in Hawaii has a complicated history. In 1990, three same-sex couples sued the state health department for refusing to issue them marriage licenses. The ensuing case, first known as Baehr v. Miike, and later as Baehr v. Lewin, made its way to the Hawaii Supreme Court, where it was ruled that such a denial of marriage certificates represented a breach of state constitutional rights— essentially, that same-sex marriage should be legal. Members of the federal Congress took notice of this and feared that such a ruling (in this and other states) might force the hand of the federal government into legalizing same-sex marriages in all states. Thus, the Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996, defining marriage under federal law as between one man and one woman. Though it did allow states to enact their own marriage policies, this federal law resulted in benefits for samesex marriages exclusively at the state level. Back in Hawaii, the legalization of marriage equality faced a similar reversal in fortune: a state constitutional amendment was passed in 1998 by popular vote, declaring marriage to be for opposite-sex couples only. After that, there was little to no movement on same-sex marriage in Hawaii until 2012, when civil unions were legalized. One year later,

WORKS CONSULTED Baehr v. Miike. Lambda Legal. Lambda Legal.org, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2016.

“H.R. 3396—104th Congress: Defense of Marriage Act.” US Congress. US Congress, 9 July 1996. Web. 20 Jan. 2016.

Levs, Josh. “Two More States Allow Same-Sex Civil Unions.” CNN. Cable News Network, 2 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Jan. 2016.

“Map: Same-Sex Marriage in the United States.” CNN. Cable News Network, 26 June 2015. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Niesse, Mark. “Hawaii Is Latest Civil Unions Battleground.” AP. Associated Press, 22 Feb. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2016.

Opening image on page 2 © Ted Eytan / Flickr.com/photos/taedc/

VOLUME 6

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image provided by author

Isis Usborne is a junior finishing up her first year at DU as a transfer student from the University of Hawaii. She is majoring in Theatre and Socio-Legal Studies and will soon declare a minor in Philosophy. Isis was born in Austin, Texas, but grew up on the the island of O’ahu in Hawaii; however, she would consider Mililani, Hawaii, to be her hometown. Her hobbies include singing, dancing, going to shows/concerts, reading science fiction novels, and hanging out with friends. A fun fact about Isis is she works as a PBX operator at the Curtis Hotel in downtown Denver.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR In my second quarter at DU, my writing class was instructed to create an essay that was both a narrative and a historical piece. We had to think back on an event that we personally—or one of our family members—had experienced and contextualize it using historical facts, showing its significance in “the big picture.” I eventually landed on an event I had been a part of back in high school that shaped my political participation and activism forever after. Over the course of this story, I came to realize that I can have an opinion and fight for it without feeling pushy or pretentious. I savored the feeling of accomplishment I shared in when victory was achieved. I also expanded my understanding of the workings of the political and legal process itself. I have tried to engage in some sort of political activism ever since, through canvassing for various campaigns, participating in internships, and volunteering at rallies and other events. It was tough to integrate historical facts into this essay since it’s primarily a personal story for me. The background information ended up further highlighting the importance of the event to my state, my community, and my personal growth, as well. Hopefully, I’ll continue to write stories that can be read, performed, or recorded, and my stories will inspire people to be more involved in local political happenings. In the future, I’ll likely have trouble deciding between “doing” and writing—but I suppose I’ll just have to figure out a balance between the two.

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Dr. Trace Reddell

ASEM 2724 (MFJS) Jammin’: Technoculture & Improvisation

The following pair of essays were produced by students of my advanced seminar, “Jammin’: Technoculture & Improvisation.” The course introduces students to the role of improvisation in musical forms ranging from be-bop to EDM. I suggest the act of musical improvisation is, among many things, a response to emerging technological forms such as new instruments, recording technologies, and musical distribution, particularly those enabled by networking technologies. These forms allow musicians and listeners alike to embody new personal as well as collective identities. The class also asks students to explore the ways in which improvisation, or “jamming,” can help them become more nimble critical thinkers, more creative communicators, and better writers. One of the final essay options prompts students to research and write about a distinctive musical scene or subculture, and the pair of essays featured here represent particularly compelling responses to this prompt. For this final essay, students aren’t necessarily required to write about improvisational techniques or forms of music. Rather, improvisational process has informed the genesis and development of ideas and themes, as well as the writing strategies, that capture a personal style. We learned that improvisation and other free writing experiments don’t have to equate to the rushed, the scattered, the lessthan-thoughtful, or the unpolished. Rather, improvisational flow can provoke and sustain a rigorous cultural analysis. Four criteria emerged. First, how does the writer show up in an essay? This includes stylistic decisions, the writer’s “voice,” and, perhaps most importantly, the connection between the writer and his or her subject. Second, how does the music show up in the essay? This can mean not only

image provided by author

AN INTRODUCTION

descriptions of music but an informed, invested, and authoritative discussion of artists, recordings, performances, and environments. Third, what contexts situate the music under consideration? These can consist of the creative trajectories of artists, larger musical genres or scenes, as well as historical, cultural, and geographical frames. And fourth, what overarching theme holds the essay together and propels it along, giving the work a unique and engaging angle on its topic? The theme sustains both the writer’s and the reader’s engagement with the work. Paul Elsberg’s “‘This is the Life’: The Empowering Movement of Hip Hop at the Good Life Café” and Kelia Murata’s “‘Long Road to Recovery’: Dance Clubs in Japan” present fascinating looks at sonic subcultures. Elsberg’s stylistically original, often poetic voice produced one of the most audible essays of the class, melding rap transcriptions and descriptions of musical styles with a vivid portrait of the larger cultural contexts and regional dynamics at work within a unique moment of hip hop history. The thematic elements won’t hit you over the head but develop a subtle yet potent appreciation of “the Good Life” and the ethical obligation to nurture the talents of urban youth. Murata’s presentation of the Japanese popular dance music culture veers from a stunning floor-by-floor sequence describing a sci-fi Disneyesque nightclub to a heartbreaking portrait of the silenced subculture; the musical core of this essay is fittingly explored more through absence than presence. Her fascinating, well-informed exploration is not mere auditory tourism; rather, it offers a perceptive consideration of how cultures are regulated by controlling the means, methods, and places of musical expression. VOLUME 6

Paul Elsberg

ASEM (MFJS) Jammin’: Technoculture & Improvisation | Professor Trace Reddell

A GLARE FROM BRIGHT FLUORESCENTS BOUNCES OFF the soft blue sky and lush green grass. The colors cling to a canvas stretched thin, oscillating with the overcompressed thump bursting out of old house speakers. Da Da Dada dum DA! Your heart skips a beat. Da Da Dada dum DA! Eyes surround you. What will you say to impress them? Neurons fire like lightning bolts through your mind, down your chest, pushing and pulling your limbs back and forth; you are overcome by the power of rhyme, rhythm, and pure emotion burning within. Intensity reaches its boiling point as razor sharp lyricism cuts through trepidation to turn the crowd. Flow is in the air; do you feel it? The crowd bobs and weaves, unified as a community, challenging swords to sharpen swords that will pierce the night sky, revealing freedom through articulate expression in its rawest form. Da Da Dada dum DA! An outstretched arm swings back. Da Da Dada dum…

The music cuts out. The painting is lopsided from the blow. B. Hall gives you a glare; the crowd lets off some steam as you step from the stage, slapping hands on the way to your spot shoulder to shoulder with your peers. On comes the next MC ready for their chance to shine. Wisps of virtuosos swirl with the aromas of fresh produce, coffee beans, and chronic, swelling with the crowd’s energy into the vibe. The room is alive at the Good Life Cafe this Thursday night. 8

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1 2

Finley, “Food Justice.”

3 4

Hampton, Central Avenue Breakdown. Johnson, “Jazz History.”

This is the Life.

(right) Chali 2na © Do512 Drew DeGennaro / Flickr.com/ photos/58530249@N04

(left) Portrait of Tupac © ATOMIC Hot Links / Flickr.com/ photos/7552532@N07

“CENTRAL AVENUE BREAKDOWN” 1 The year is 1989. Journey through the concrete jungle of South Central Los Angeles to Crenshaw and Exposition. At the corner of this intersection sits a small health food store and community space called the Good Life Cafe. Janie Scott-Goodkin and Omar Walker stand behind the register, smiling as their friends shuffle through the aisles of organic, local produce in what is otherwise a “food prison.” 2 The setting sun casts a radiating orange glow onto the tables pushed against the walls to make space for soft whispers from a brass trumpet. Jazz and blues slowly fill the vibrasphere as brushes bounce off cymbals, ricocheting against the linoleum and through your ears. The sound is deeply rooted in the rich jazz history of South Central from the 1930s to the late 1950s.3 In the back sits a small woman gently huddled over the warmth of a steaming cappuccino; as B. Hall watches the facial contortions of the musicians, she is reminded of the intense concentration of her son, R/Kain Blaze, when he raps.4 This scene was the seed that would blossom into a weekly hip hop open mic night for South Central youth to express themselves, as did the great jazz musicians of the past. Thursday nights marked a safe haven for young community members to

forget their differences and come together around the shared experience of live lyricism. According to Zion Butterfly, a regular at the Good Life Cafe, “If you were affiliated in the gang environment, you didn’t really have to submit to that. It gave you an alternative, an option.” 5 The Good Life Cafe fostered new expressions of hip hop and lyrical improvisation that empowered generations to come. At the core of these styles was a relentless pursuit of improvement and a care for the craft. As Chali 2na, another regular, noted, “We all congregated at the Good Life, and it became a mecca for skill.” 6

“SO MANY TEARS” 7 The conversational tones at the Cafe engaged the presence of racial and social injustice woven into the environment over decades. Institutional systems’ long neglect of black communities inflicted deep wounds that reverberated through the music of the times. In an interview from 1992, hip hop icon Tupac Shakur spoke to how his music was grounded in rage over the injustice suffered by black communities: I think that when there’s hopelessness, people revolt because it’s like there’s nothing else. [...] We’re going, is America going to help us ever? [...] All these things are showing us no.8

5 6

Ibid.

7 8

Ibid. Shakur, “So Many Tears.”

Shakur, Tupac Interview on Christmas.

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In another interview from 1994, Shakur elaborated on this long history of injustice and its influence on his expression of self: We asked ten years ago. We was asking with the Panthers […] we was asking with the Civil Rights Movement. [...] We was asking. Those people that were asking, they are all dead or in jail, so now what do you think we are gonna do? 9 Our nation’s negligence poured gasoline on an already volatile environment ready at any moment for a match to strike a state of emergency. That spark came in the form of the Rodney King verdict on April 29, 1992. Local historian and teacher Phillip Chardon recounts the lead up to the South Central riots: Rodney King was severely beaten by the police on March 3, 1991. [...] The mostly white jury in the case against the white officers came back with a verdict of “not guilty” [...] Nobody could believe it. The officers were on tape and they were still not convicted. The feelings of anger and disappointment had built up long enough, and within minutes of the verdict, rioting started in South Central on Florence and Normandie.10 Glass was smashed; guttural screams erupted through the streets over car alarms and sirens. Anger and chaos poured steadily over the tipping point. Infuriated by heartbreak and suffering, a hurricane of fear and rage ripped through storefronts, homes, and everything it touched. Amidst the madness, a stereo uttered bombastic tones to fight the power. The disempowerment created by the Rodney King verdict reflected the hostile 9 10

Shakur, 1994 Interview. Chardon, “LA Riots.”

Aceyalone © Kim Ryan / Flickr.com/ photos/pinksugarproductions

WRIT LARGE: 2017

aesthetic of gangsta rap, but this aggressive braggadocio fueled a culture built on putting others down. Young rappers in South Central were looking for another way to express themselves.

“THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED” 11 Thursday nights at the Good Life signaled a shift from the widely popular confrontational styles of rap to the more contemplative aesthetics in West Coast hip hop. Pioneered by the poetics of Gil Scott-Heron and Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets, and mimicking the sonic riffs of Miles Davis, this revolutionary voice emphasized lyrical prowess and raw expression to offer solutions to the broken social infrastructure. Media characterizations of West Coast hip hop commonly framed South Central musicians as thugs and outcasts not to be taken seriously as valid sources of social commentary. But they drew inspiration from ScottHeron, who espoused that “the revolution will put you in the driver’s seat” when you take control of your life, not when you accept the status quo delivered by your television set, and from the Last Poets, who publicly advocated for the revolutionary role of communal empowerment and support.12 At the Good Life Cafe, hip hop was a source of positivity built by inclusive dynamics and a passion for messages of Afrocentrism and social justice. The artists who emerged from this scene varied in subject matter and style, but the common theme they shared was a dedication to expressing the quality of their character, beliefs, and sense of self in their lyrics. Their message was clear: the ability to articulate your beliefs through music could act 11 12

Scott-Heron, “The Revolution.” Ibid.

The message was clear: the ability to articulate your beliefs through music could act as cultural capital essential to placing you in the driver’s seat. Fight for what you believe in, not with your fists, but with your voice.

13 14

This is the Life. Freestyle Fellowship, “Inner City Boundaries.”

(right) Aceyalone © Kim Ryan / Flickr.com/photos/pinksugarproductions

(left) Self Jupiter © Burgundy fats / Wikimedia Commons

as cultural capital essential to placing you in the driver’s seat. Fight for what you believe in, not with your fists, but with your voice. The Cafe established a framework to encourage creativity through a strict set of rules that constrained the common expressive forms in gangsta rap. A curse word would immediately result in the microphone and music being shut off. This dynamic offered a stark contrast to the gangsta rap scene, popularized by the enraged aesthetic and commercial success of N.W.A. In the words of C.V.E., “It let you know that the West Coast was more than just gang banging.” 13 Other rules like not touching the paintings and not chewing gum encouraged the community to treat the space with care and respect. The rules promoted the health of the community as directly related to the care given by its local citizens. Harsh critique required other musicians to show up and take their craft seriously. The Cafe was notorious for chanting “please pass the mic!” on wack MCs lacking skill and originality. The hundreds of people sardined into the cafe didn’t travel through rush hour traffic to be disappointed. Even famous musicians like Fat Joe weren’t off the hook just because they had a record deal. When Fat Joe came in nonchalant, treating the opportunity with little respect, he was quickly booed off the stage. In such a competitive environment, MCs challenged

one another to progress in ways that put the Cafe, the artists, and their expressive improvisational forms of West Coast hip hop on the map.

“INNER CITY BOUNDARIES” 14 At the heart of the Good Life scene was the Freestyle Fellowship: P.E.A.C.E., Myka 9, Aceyalone, Self Jupiter, and James Sumbi, their producer. The grade school friends became some of the most talented MCs in South Central. The Fellowship’s emphasis on improvisational forms and dense philosophical experimentation epitomized the complex expression of self in Good Life hip hop: I gotta be righteous, I gotta be me I gotta be conscious, I gotta be free I gotta be able, I gotta attack I gotta be stable, I gotta be black.15

The Freestyle Fellowship was one of the first groups to translate the exploratory practice of improvisational soloing and riffing, shared by diverse artists Miles Davis, Jack Kerouac, and Jackson Pollock, into hip hop freestyling. In The Anthology of Rap, Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois explain, “Together, they [the Fellowship] defined what photographer-writer Brian ‘B+’ Cross has termed Los Angeles’s ‘post-gangsta’ era. [...] Their sound is heavily influenced by jazz music, not simply in their beats, but also in their use of scat.” 16 This style of improvisation differed from confrontational 15 16

Ibid. Bradley and DuBois, The Anthology of Rap.

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Myka 9 © Xersti / Flickr.com/photos/xersti

Our society has problems because our communities aren’t responding to social injustice in ways that empower ourselves and others. Artists at the Good Life demonstrated that hip hop can be the connective tissue that facilitates shared understanding across cultures. Taking pride in our differences allows us to engage in an immensely valuable conversation of what it means to be an individual living with injustice daily.

aesthetics at the time in that it didn’t directly attack another individual. In “We Will Not Tolerate,” the Fellowship echo a firm Afrocentric perspective reflective of the vibes in the Good Life Cafe: We will not tolerate Beating Lynching Burning Whipping Pillaging Torturing MASS MURDERING OF BLACKS We arrrre Not your O-R(rrr)-D-I-N-A-R(rrr)-Yiiiii-R(rrr)-A-PP-E-R(rrr)-N-I(iii)-G-G-E-R(rrr)-S 17 Smooth-as-silk flows weave through a range of jazzy instrumentals built on pre-boom bap styles, exploring the social and environmental influences on the black community’s sense of self. Above all, the Fellowship is clear when they scream, “We will not tolerate FEAR!” 18

“INNER KNOWING” 19 Myka 9 led the fearless Fellowship brigade to new heights of improvisation and self-expression. His impeccable flows took paths seldom followed on journeys through the mind, reveling in the state 17 18 19

Freestyle Fellowship, “We Will Not Tolerate.” Ibid. Myka 9, “Inner Knowing.”

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of being that freestyling facilitates. Long after it became clear the Freestyle Fellowship would not attain commercial success, Myka 9 could still be found in a pink-lit club rumbling “like a stampede of elephants through the jungle of ignorance.” 20 While the Good Life propelled artists like the Freestyle Fellowship to new lyrical heights, many of the artists never found the moxie and business sense to become relevant in the broader public eye. The artists became a prime example of the American music industry’s dedication to the bottom line over originality, skill, and thoughtful content. Volume 10, the stage name of Dino Hawkins, laments, “We almost took over rap, and we made it that fucking close man. It hurts my heart that I still think about it every day of my life!” 21 “WE HOLDING ONTO WHAT’S GOLDEN” 22 The bright spot that carries on the essence of the Good Life Cafe today is Jurassic 5. Growing up, Chali 2na admired the Freestyle Fellowship as talented rappers in the local community. Speeding through sentences like Muhammad Ali tiptoeing around the ring, Chali 2na’s cadence and fast-paced delivery continues to echo techniques often employed by Fellowship members. Rewind to the Fellowship’s “Inner City Boundaries,” where Aceyalone dances through lines with a sense of 20 21 22

Myka 9, Freestyle About Knowledge. This is the Life. Jurassic 5, “What’s Golden.”

Jurassic 5 © Mika Väisänen / Wikimedia Commons

acceleration like his larynx is pressing on a gas improvisational flows that never quite captured the pedal: attention of American popular culture but that set Once we have the knowledge of self as a people South Central free. then we could be free The connection they make in these lyrics lies at And no devil could ever enter the boundaries the root of why the Good Life Cafe is important. I stand in the center around all these sounds I see Our society has problems because our communities Blessin’ Allah that I found the key aren’t responding to social injustice in ways that That’s how we be 23 empower ourselves and others. Artists at the Good Now fast forward to Jurassic 5’s “Freedom.” The Life demonstrated that hip hop can be the consame back and forth oozes through Chali 2na’s nective tissue that facilitates shared understanding expertise with rhyme: across cultures. Taking pride in our differences Yo, seldom travelled by the multitude allows us to engage in an immensely valuable conThe Devil’s gavel has a couple fooled versation of what it means to be an individual livMy culture’s screwed cause this word is ing with injustice daily. Improvisational lyricism is misconstrued a call to action. Stand up and speak for who you Small countries exempt from food cause leaders are, what you believe, and the world you want to 24 have different views see come to fruition. Both artists deliver a similar sense of complete We’re not balling, or shot calling control over complex thoughts, rich with rhyme We take it back to the days of yes y’all-in’ and inflection. They toss lyrics back and forth We holding onto what’s golden like a hot potato, emulating the experimental, (“On a stage I rage and I’m rollin’”) 25

23 24

Freestyle Fellowship, “Inner City Boundaries.”

Jurassic 5, “What’s Golden.”

Jurassic 5, “Freedom.”

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WORKS CITED / PLAYLIST Bradley, Adam, and Andrew DuBois. The Anthology of Rap. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

Chardon, Phillip. “LA Riots.” South Central History. Last modified July 12, 2016. http://www.southcentralhistory.com/ la-riots.php.

Finley, Ron. “Food Injustice: The Revolution Starts in the Garden.” Huffington Post. Last modified May 3, 2014. http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-finley/prison-break_b_4862026.html.

Freestyle Fellowship (musical group). “Inner City Boundaries.” Innercity Griots. Compact Disc. 4th & Broadway. 162-444 050-2. 1993.

Freestyle Fellowship (musical group). “We Will Not Tolerate.” To Whom It May Concern. Vinyl. Sun Music. SM-1001. 1991.

Hampton, Lionel. Central Avenue Breakdown. Vinyl. His Master’s Voice. B 9750. 1949.

Johnson, Arthur. “Jazz History: South Central Los Angeles.” Art Johnson (blog). Last modified July 14, 2014. http:// thedevilsviolin-artjohnson.blogspot.com/2014/07/jazz-history-south-central-los-angeles.html.

Jurassic 5 (musical group). “Freedom.” Freedom. Vinyl. Up Above. UA 3037-1. 2003.

Jurassic 5 (musical group). “What’s Golden.” Power in Numbers. Compact Disc. Interscope. 0694934482. 2002.

Myka 9 (musical group). Freestyle About Knowledge of Self. Video. 4:24. Uploaded February 3, 2016. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=TJ-LWwALFaY.

Myka 9 (musical group). “Inner Knowing.” 1969. Compact Disc. Fake Four. FFINC006. 2009.

Scott-Heron, Gil. “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Vinyl. Flying Dutchman. BDL 1-0613. 1974.

Shakur, Tupac. “So Many Tears.” Me Against the World. Compact Disc. Interscope. 95748-2. 1995.

Shakur, Tupac. 1994 Interview. Video. 5:15. Uploaded on January 11, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMXz

LhbWtmk.

Shakur, Tupac. Tupac Interview on Christmas, Poverty, and Racism. Video. 8:49. Uploaded on December 13, 2009, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOZAq_QDoH0.

This is the Life: How the West Was Won. Directed by Ava DuVernay. 2008. USA: Forward Movement, 2009. DVD.

Opening image on page 8 © Do512 Carrie Kuenzi / Flickr.com/photos/58530249@N04

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Paul Elsberg—who has loved to freestyle rap as a form of self-expression since he was fourteen—graduated from DU in June 2016 with a degree in Emergent Digital Practices and Applied Computing. His home city is the familiar Denver, Colorado. Paul’s hobbies and interests include backpacking, creative technology, and contemporary art.

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR Scrolling through my music library is more and more becoming a journey into my past. Pictures help me look back, but over the past decade I’ve been a person to capture a moment by playing a song before taking out a camera. I love when audio and landscape combine into an experience that gives you the goosebumps—it’s unforgettable. Every so often, when an experience attaches to a song and won’t let go, I start to wonder what circumstances sparked the creation of that sonic landscape. Was it similar to where I’m standing and what I’m feeling? Desperation settles in, and the digging begins, the search for a glimpse into the world that created my memory. My first memorable contact with Jurassic 5 came during a road trip across the New Zealand countryside in the final weeks of my study-abroad quarter. I was sitting outside my tent at the shores of Lake Waikaremoana outside when the song “Freedom” resonated with me. The ground was soft yet covered with droppings from baby ducklings, and the sun glared from over the lush ridgeline. I sat in peace, at a loss for words. It was another 8 months until I saw Jurassic 5. They performed alongside a river in the Poudre Canyon outside of Fort Collins. We danced, in joyous harmony, beside the river under star-filled skies. I remember biting my tongue when they held their microphones to the crowd asking for song recommendations. That question was the spark that triggered this story.

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Kelia Murata

ASEM (MFJS) Jammin’: Technoculture & Improvisation | Professor Trace Reddell

IT DIDN’T HIT ME RIGHT AWAY, THE SUDDEN RUSH OF Nagoya. The energy of the metropolis, Japan’s third-largest city, was astounding. I had already been in the country for a week, but compared to our quaint orientation in rural Inuyama, nothing prepared me for the buzz of Nagoya, particularly its vibrancy at night. The midtown Maruze Ferris wheel and Oasis 21 were up in lights, and while the sudden forest of skyscrapers reminded me of my familiar Denver downtown skyline, instead of business offices whose towers I would never climb, what I saw in front of me were multi-tiered highrise shopping districts, karaoke bars, and restaurants. I was barely unpacked and already feeling lost in the language when I was whisked away on an unexpected excursion with my much more Japanese-proficient friend, Xinwei, on what I would later realize was a group date. Seated on the third floor of the five-story restaurant, we experienced all the regional specialties at the hands of our local hosts, who taught us the “right” way to eat chicken wings in Nagoya. Hyped up on the overwhelming sense of the novelties waiting to be explored and laughing off my terrible attempts at the language, I was ready to dive into the bright and dazzling nightlife that the big city promised me. Without a clue of where I was going, climbing our way through the city streets that would one day become familiar to me, we arrived at another skyscraper, seemingly identical to all the others 16

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Nagoya at night © ESB Professional / Shutterstock.com

in the surrounding district. We fumbled our way to the bouncers as fellow patrons flooded in and out of the blackened double doors, gathering on the sidewalked streets to mingle. Kazuki handed out slips of paper (coupons, it turned out), written in kanji and nearly unreadable in the dim light, all except for the title splashed across the top in large pink lettering: Club ID. The first floor swallowed us up in heavy waves of music more felt than heard, the next floor an odd remix of swingy tracks set to modern light shows. Climbing farther, we entered the pop realm, then the synth floor, and then something akin to reggae. Floor after floor offered sensations and experiences, all stacked together, with the choice of what to dive into being yours, as if you were a kid in a candy store. The masses of clubbers flowed through the space like schools of fish in patterns, following the currents through the different sonic seascapes and biomes of music. The entire building was alive with the thrum of music and bodies, pooling together on dance floors and around bars. The ecological diversity was amazingly bright and breathing with habitats for every musical taste. We melted into our chosen dance floor as a live DJ melded our tracks and crossfaded for an endless stream of sound, never letting the energy drop from an octane high, and we danced until the last train. With Nagoya’s own community so jubilant and thriving that night, you would never know that,

beneath it all, the ecosystem of Japan’s dance club scene was dying. My time spent in Japan was in the winter of 2014, on the precipice of a major sea change as the final battles waged in what has been colloquially referred to as Japan’s “war on dance.” A fight with its roots planted in decades past, it is a war wrought against a law called 風俗営業等の規制及び業務の適正化等に関する法律 (fuuzoku eigyou-tou no kisei oyobi gyomu no tekisei-ka-tou ni kansuru houritsu—Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law), most often written as 風俗営業取締法 (fuzouku eigyou torishimari hou), or the fueiho law, for short. Intended to regulate entertainment spaces in Japan, the fueiho law set its sights on clubs and, more specifically, the dancing they brought about. First written and put into effect in 1948 following Japan’s defeat in WWII, the fueiho law’s original intent was to curb the raging sex industry that was spreading across the country in droves. Cabarets, hostess bars, and pachinko parlors all understandably fell under this umbrella. Dancing soon came under fire, too, since dancing often took place within these more questionable venues. Dance halls were a popular cover for circumventing prostitution laws in the decades surrounding WWII in hopes of capturing the wandering eyes of American soldiers.1 In this way, at least within the eyes of Japanese lawmakers, dancing became directly linked to promiscuity and 1

Taylor, “How American Occupation Led.”

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sex. Despite fifty years of cultural change and more modern attitudes toward dancing in Japan, dancing continues to find itself still targeted by the fueiho law, a law of moral regulation.

Despite the dedication and fervor with which lawmakers watch over other establishments falling under fueiho, the law has only been a real thorn in the side of the Japanese music scene since police started to crack down in 2010. Many events have been attributed to the sudden revival of this law, but most credit it to the death of a young 22-yearold college student outside a nightclub in the America-mura district of Osaka.2 The student succumbed to injuries incurred in a street fight that began within the club.3 Celebrity nightlife scandals and previous drug incidents, some linked to gang activity, have also been cited as reasons for the sudden re-emergence of the law, while other theories attribute it to just another exercise in bureaucracy. It is not known which, if any, of these theories holds up to scrutiny, yet fueiho’s inconsistent enforcement and ambiguous interpretations over the years have allowed law enforcement a great deal of freedom in how they enforce the law.4

No matter the origin, law enforcement quickly descended upon Japanese night clubs in the years following 2010. Osaka’s America-mura district alone saw many raids that led to closures, including Club Azure and the notorious Club Noon, which inspired the documentary film Save the Club Noon.5 The following year saw more hardships befall Osaka’s clubbing scene, with over 20 clubs being issued official warnings, including Triangle and Joule. Others were not so lucky, with clubs like Lunar Club, owned by DJ Shine, being closed down permanently. 2011 saw the highest number of clubs reported to Japanese prosecutors of the decade.6 Fueiho’s influence even reached larger event spaces, such as Studio Partita in Suminoe-ku, Osaka’s take on Tokyo’s famous AgeHa nightclub and event space. Due to the pressure of fueiho and a raid by police in mid-November of 2011, Studio Partita stopped allowing their space to be rented out for any dance-related events.7 This sudden spike in the enforcement of the fueiho law subsequently lead to the decay of the club scene not only in the America-mura district and Osaka as a whole, but in epicenters like Tokyo and Kyushu as well. As police began cracking down on clubs under the pretense of the fueiho law, many smaller clubs were subjected to police raids that would often end in the detainment or arrest of club owners and DJs alike. However, the enforcement of the law was not universal, with police involvement ranging wildly and many cities and individual clubs never feeling their direct force, like my own experience in Nagoya. Big name clubbing chains rarely felt the effects of the law, while smaller establishments

Despite fifty years of cultural change and more modern attitudes toward dancing in Japan, dancing continues to find itself still targeted by the fueiho law, a law of moral regulation.

(left) © kinpi3 / Flickr.com/photos/kinpi (right) © MAHATHIR MOHD YASIN / Shutterstock.com

3 4

Master Blaster, “Is It Safe?” Smorodinskaya, “Will Dancing Unravel?” Taylor, “How American Occupation Led.”

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6 7

Takahiro, “Japan’s Revolution.” Spence, “Japan and EDM.” Fields, “The Fight for Osaka.”

might see constant battle under accusations. It was possible to receive a license to allow for dancing at a given establishment, but the process was extremely difficult and was only granted to clubs that met the conditions, including having a dance floor of at least 66 square meters of open, unobstructed space, as anything smaller might inevitably lead to immoral acts and debauchery. Establishments could only remain open until midnight or, in very special exceptions, 1 a.m. Licensed clubs were still easily stormed for any number of reasons, including reports of music being too loud. Law enforcement could then gain free reign to search the premises or delve into bank accounts of any staff therein, causing temporary shut downs that quickly spiraled into permanent ones. With these niche clubbing scenes under attack and club owners running scared to do business at night, Japan’s diverse sea of highly-specialized musical communities began to drop off the map. With law enforcement not going after the big name brands in the club scene, smaller venues took the brunt of the attack and were subsequently the least likely to survive such actions against them. Local sonic pockets began to burst, and DJs, trying to continue their work, found it increasingly difficult. As one club scene veteran, DJ Emma, said in an interview with a local Japanese culture and fashion

magazine EyesCream, “Every weekend, we DJs are breaking the law.” 8 But the DJs of Japan were not going to take that lying down. As more and more clubs were shut down and the nightclub community dwindled over the years that followed, tensions grew within the community. In the spring of 2013, DJs and rappers alike gathered together to form C4 (Club and Club Culture Conference) as representation for clubs across Japan. Before C4’s formation, Japanese nightclubs didn’t have an associated organization, and in recent years, club owners themselves felt it was too dangerous to gather together due to their work operating in a legal grey area. Instead, the members of C4 became their respective clubs’ representations as they started to come together in discussions with police, politicians, and the public who had been whipped into a fear frenzy by the media over nightclubs’ moral corruption of Japan’s youth. What began as a study session with lawyers about the fueiho law grew into an organization for change.9 Alongside C4, another group of nightclub advocates called “Let’s Dance” came together and, in 2013, submitted a petition of over 160,000 signatures concerning the abolishment of fueiho to The National Diet, Japan’s bicameral legislature, considered the highest organ of state power.10 However, it wasn’t until a group of lawyers joined, 8 9 10

Hadfield, “Japan: No Dancing Please.” Lhooq, “Japan’s War on Dance.” House of Councillors, The National Diet of Japan.

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headed by Kenji Kosaka, that “Let’s Dance” began to make serious headway fighting against what was ultimately a legal issue.11 Through years of gathering together and fighting the laws that bound them, Japan’s nightclub scene is set to have a revival as the fueiho law’s grip on dancing was finally released in 2015, with the official ratification of the reformed law. Clubs are now allowed to stay open past midnight and dance is no longer under attack, as long as establishments uphold the one new restriction: you are only allowed to dance the night away if the dance floor is bright enough. In order to discourage “indecent behavior,” all clubs must be “illuminated with at least 10 lux,” or about as bright as a movie theatre before the show starts. Reportedly, police check-ins will be instantiated in order to enforce this. Anything less than 10 lux will result in the business being classified as an “adult entertainment” area and will be subject to all the restrictions and laws that pertain to it.12 With the fast-approaching 2020 Olympics scheduled to be held in Japan, the expected influx of foreigners will be free to dance the night away as long as they don’t mind being in a state of perpetual twilight. With the official rewrite going into effect this year, the world of dance clubs seems to be in the clear after a hard-fought five years. But, in truth, night clubs still have a long road ahead. The sudden influx of legal action caused significant longterm damage to the core of Japan’s night club scene. It hurt the music. Many clubs themselves might not have experienced raids or police presence, but make no mistake, everyone was affected. As many of the places have died out that once nurtured up-and-coming electronic artists, a lot of new talent fell by the wayside, and it will be a while before the scene can recover enough to once again 11 12

Lhooq, “After a Long Legal Battle.” “Dance Dance Revolution.” © dwphotos / Shutterstock.com

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support them. Club Noon, once known for playing a lead role in discovering new talent for club and major-label music scenes for decades, has been forced to close its doors and cut off its flow of talent into the industry. While EDM, dubstep, house, and other electronic music have taken the rest of the world by storm, Japan has fallen behind. It is one effect of fueiho that I experienced in my time living abroad and coming into contact with Japan’s nightlife first hand. When we walked into Club ID on that first day in Nagoya and got so caught up in the energy it presented, I failed to really take note of the music or, more specifically, the disturbing lack of local music. And I don’t mean I didn’t hear local DJs spinning original tracks; I mean Japanese music as a whole. When it came to all the club’s track listings, none of them originated in Japan. As an American, it took me a while to notice as it seemed perfectly natural to hear all the older-but-still-classic American pop songs being pumped out of the speakers, with the occasional familiar K-pop hit to keep me from noticing the lack of “foreign” sound. It wasn’t until subsequent visits to different clubs that the pattern emerged. As it turns out, the death of nightclubs was much more detrimental to Japan’s electronic scene than just some lost nights out. Remix culture in Japan’s electronic scene was diverse and strong and, more importantly, it was the main way Japan’s music industry was present within its own nightclub culture. The industry-bred pop idol groups coming out of Japan for the last decade or so have been thriving. Each respective company has been faithfully pumping out new idol groups and promoting well-established groups across the country with TV shows, guest appearances, fan meet-ups, and concerts, making them present throughout the country, just not in clubs. Most of

the big radio hit bands coming out of the Japanese music industry are usually categorized as either rock or what is called “idol groups,” whose sound I can only attempt to describe as anime music. J-pop doesn’t actually mean “pop” as we would think about it in the states, but rather just a shorthand for “popular,” referring to whatever is the most prevalent at the time. Instead, Japan seems to have been outsourcing all their clubbing music from America

or Korea, often with many Korean songs being re-sung by their original artists in Japanese. With the loss of the micro-pockets of growing niche DJs being bred in Japan’s extensive nightclub scene, Japan has effectively lost this musical claim to the scene itself. The collateral damage caused by the toxic spill that killed off its musical biodiversity is on its way to recovery, but it seems it still has a way to go.

WORKS CITED “Dance Dance Revolution: Japan to Lift Its 67-year-old Ban on Dancing.” RT International. https://www.rt.com/ news/269491-japan-no-dancing-law/ (accessed June 2016).

Fields, Tim. “The Fight for Osaka.” Resident Advisor Ltd. https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/1515 (accessed October 2016).

Hadfield, James. “Japan: No Dancing Please. What?” IBM: Inspired by Music, February 11, 2014. Blog (accessed June 2016). House of Councillors, The National Diet of Japan. www.sangiin.go.jp/eng/index.htm (accessed October 2016).

Lhooq, Michelle. “After a Long Legal Battle, Japan Finally Lifts Its Notorious ‘No Dancing’ Law.” Thump. https:// thump.vice.com/en_us/article/after-a-long-legal-battle-japan-finally-lifts-its-notorious-no-dancing-law (accessed June 2016).

Lhooq, Michelle. “Japan’s War on Dance: Clubbing in the State of Fueiho.” Thump. https://thump.vice.com/en_au/video/ japans-war-on-dance-clubbing-in-the-state-of-fueiho (accessed June 2016).

Master Blaster [Le Blanc, Steven and Masami M]. “Is it safe to dance yet? Uncertainty continues to reign supreme in

Japan’s club scene.” Rocket News 24: ロケットニュース２４/. http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/10/20/is-it-safe-todance-yet-uncertainty-continues-to-reign-supreme-in-japans-club-scene/ (accessed June 2016).

Saito, Takahiro. “Japan’s Revolution for the Right to Dance.” Ignition. https://medium.com/ignition-int/japan-s-revolution-for-the-right-to-dance-e27008f43247#.uqeuz9yrx (accessed June 2016).

Smorodinskaya, Anastassia. “Will Dancing Unravel the Fabric of Society?” guff.com. http://guff.com/will-dancing-unravel-the-fabric-of-society (accessed June 2016).

Spence, K. “Japan and EDM: The Boom is Imminent [Editorial].” Your EDM, LLC. http://www.youredm.com/2015/

01/15/japan-and-edm/ (accessed October 2016).

Taylor, Adam. “How American Occupation Led to Japan’s ‘War on Dance.’” The Washington Post, June 23, 2015. https://

www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/06/23/how-american-occupation-led-to-japans-war-ondance/ (accessed June 2016).

Opening image on page 16 © J. Henning Buchholz / Shutterstock.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image provided by author

Kelia Murata, from Greeley, Colorado, graduated from the University of Denver in 2016 with a degree in Video Game Development and Animation and minors in Emergent Digital Practices and Japanese. She is following her passion for video games, currently working for a small video game development company called One Room Schoolhouse. Her personal philosophy of living without regret is that if you are going to do something, you might as well do your best.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR Tasked with finding a musical scene, culture, or artist to discuss in our final work for the “Jammin’: Technoculture and Improvisation” ASEM, I struggled to find a subject I felt I had the necessary command over. Surrounded by my well-informed and passionate peers as we discussed musical improvisation cultures with which I had little personal experience, I found myself compelled to write about a musical scene I had personally experienced, one that was uniquely mine. For a course built upon the ideas of improvisational writing and technoculture, what better scene to discuss than clubbing culture and live music DJs, and what better location to give my personal voice to than the clubbing culture of Japan. After my time abroad in Nagoya, I was inspired not only by my own personal experiences with Japan’s nightlife, but also by how my experiences differed so widely from the experiences of others as recent law enforcement changes have shifted the musical scene.

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Josiah Ojeda

COMM 1012 Speaking on Ideas That Matter | Professor Shaundi Newbolt

THESE WORDS ARE DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO BELIEVED in me before I believed in myself. To those facing their fears, sharpening their axes, swinging their swords, and bellowing fiercely as they charge into the skirmish. My daughter was born in April, 2013. A sweet smile and wonder in her eyes. My older brother told me, “Step up. Be a father.” I fought. I won custody four months later. I missed out on many of her firsts.

The cold sting of winter wakes me. I shudder as I see my warm puff of breath move towards the top of my truck’s camper shell. Pulling the blankets closer to my body, I look to the corner where my space heater is turning, keeping me from freezing through the night. I look over to my alarm. It’s 5:00 a.m. Time for me to start the day. I pull off my PJs and pull on my cold pants, leg by leg. I grab my jacket, open my camper window, and jump out of the tailgate, into the arctic tundra. Outside, I fight for the first couple breaths. I deftly put on my gloves, waiting to feel warmth. As I have every morning during the one-hundred-foot walk, I roll up my extension cord to the side of Sturm Hall and think of all the sacrifices I am making. I temper my focus on my vision. Everything I am going through will pay off. VOLUME 6

Fifteen weeks. Fifteen weeks since seeing my Sugar Bear. The time for freedom was coming. The future I wouldn’t miss. Parent-teacher conferences, games, dance recitals.

so thick. “Go back to Mexico, you wetback!” The ridicule and jokes rolled off of me. I never gave up, and this was no different, just another battle.

The seed from the avocado hit the bottom of the trash. My cousin frantically enters the room. “Do you know your truck door is open?” My vision blurs, RED. My heart races and pounds in my ears. My cheeks burn and my temples throb. A boa constrictor is squeezing the life out of my chest. Class books, countless pages of highlighted notes, my computer, and 40 pages worth of writing and research—my future of graduating. GONE! With new purpose, I turn towards my truck. I must find the person who stole my belongings, my hard work. I race towards Colfax, ready to find a thief. Instead, I have a chance to think, to remember my daughter and my vision. “Life doesn’t give you what you want, it gives you what you deserve.” My anger changes to determination.

I am here. I am in the moment. At first everything is sight and sound—lights, muffled voices, a blur of black, crimson, and gold. Euphoria, an intoxicating thing. A smile never left my face. I stand up, I sit down. I hear my name for the first time, and I walk with purpose and pride. I laughed at points throughout my college career, I lost all faith in myself. Yet, here I was: COLLEGE GRADUATE. I walk hand-in-hand with my daughter, my graduation cap about to fall off her head, as she looks up at me. I smile and she returns the smile. I look into her blue eyes, feel her tiny hands in mine, wrapped around my finger, and know she will do great things. She was with me all along, and we graduated college today.

Pure determination fueled me in grade school. Disparities between what I lacked and the others had. I was treated as an outcast. If it weren’t for the sun, my skin wouldn’t have been

image provided by author Opening images on page 23 © LP Picard

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Why live when we can thrive, We will leave a mark, We will transcend yesterday, We will become tomorrow’s vision. We will do it together, you and I.

Josiah Isavel Ojeda graduated in June 2016 with a major in Criminology and minors in Business Administration, Spanish, and Communications. He is from Denver, Colorado, and his hobbies include trail hiking, 4x4, physical training, reading, and spending time with his daughter. In addition, he is a mentor to underprivileged youth. His personal philosophy is, “Live and love with your whole heart; then you can say you experienced life without reserve.”

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR My name is Josiah Isavel Ojeda. I am a first generation COLLEGE GRADUATE success story. I am a CREATOR, leaving a legacy for others to follow and forging a new history for my family. I am a SINGLE FATHER, growing daily and learning new definitions of love with my beautiful daughter, Naevea Rae. The majority of my life has been an uphill battle, and I have always had the feeling that everything was working against me. I have faced many obstacles, and I have waged war with countless demons over the course of my 24 short years. If I hadn’t learned how to face my fears, I would have never become the individual I am today. Through all these trials and tribulations, I discovered that I have a raging fire that resides within my soul. When I set my mind to something, I achieve it. I am in the Business of Mankind. My goal is to help others who are between a rock and a hard place. I think that a lot of times, when an individual believes that they have hit rock bottom, they are not able to see any positives in their situation. Life is difficult, and success is something that you have to work for. You have to put in hard work, sweat, and tears. When you want to bring your vision to fruition, you’re going to come face to face with some daunting obstacles. If you push through them, you’ll come out on the other side a changed person. My goal is to help others realize their full potential. One of my mentors once told me, “Sometimes you have to believe in someone else’s belief in you...until your own belief kicks in!” I have seen success in my own life because of the support systems I have developed through relationships with mentors. If my words help even one person, I have made an impact. I am no one special, just another single Latino American father wanting to create a stable future for my daughter, and I hope my story inspires others.

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Kate Norris

HIST 3375 Empire: Revolt & Repression | Professor Elizabeth Campbell

INTRODUCTION AFTER HER ARREST IN 1960, ALGERIAN MILITANT DJAMILA Boupacha was subjected to systematic torture and rape at the hands of the French in order to compel a confession for her involvement in the bombing of a café in Algiers during the Algerian War (Whaley-Eager, 2008). Although Boupacha became an international symbol of women’s sacrifice during the Algerian War, she was not alone in her efforts for national freedom. At the heart and soul of the Algerian struggle for independence, thousands of women like Boupacha, veiled and unveiled, challenged the traditional Algerian social structure while fighting for freedom from the French on the front lines of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). As Frantz Fanon (1967) so aptly writes in his book A Dying Colonialism: “This woman who was writing the heroic pages of Algerian history was, in so doing, bursting the bounds of the narrow in which she had lived without responsibility, and was at the same time participating in the destruction of colonialism and in the birth of a new woman” (p. 107). In a 26

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French administrative control, violated traditional Muslim social, political, and cultural values that formed the bedrock of Algerian culture for so long. The Algerian War was an effort to preserve and restore the Islamic values their nation had been built upon, free from the influence of European colonizers. And, in so doing, for the first time in this Islamic nation’s history, women like Djamila Boupacha were sacrificing their lives alongside men for the independence of their country. In this essay, I consider why women like Djamila Boupacha so eagerly chose to fight—and die—for a nation whose Islamic foundations had only designated a limited number of personal rights to them prior to the war. To support this argument, I focus primarily on three points of explanation and reasoning. First, women were fighting for the preservation of the dignity provided to them by Islam. Second, their sacrifice was in dedication to and protection of the men whom they perceived as having built their great nation. And finally, false promises and patriotic propaganda broadcast by the FLN essentially brainwashed these brave women into believing they were fighting for more than independence—they were fighting for equality. But as I show, this was not the case.

Clockwise from top left: Algiers © Pichugin Dmitry / Shutterstock.com, Maqam Echahid (Martyrs’ Memorial) © hecke61 / Shutterstock.com, “Landing of the French army in Sidi Fredj” © Morphart Creation / Shutterstock.com, © Dmitry Kaminsky / Shutterstock.com

nation where Islamic values permeate all structures of society, female involvement in Algeria’s war for independence illustrates the fascinating juxtaposition between Algeria’s deeply held ethnoreligious traditions and the nontraditional means the FLN took to gain sovereignty from France between 1954 and 1962. Traced back to November 1, 1954, the Algerian War began when a group of Algerian militants known as the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) initiated a series of thirty fatal attacks against French police and military personnel around French-occupied Algeria. With fragility and paranoia at its peak, the FLN broadcast a radio message through Radio Cairo that called on all Muslims in Algeria to unify for the “restoration of the Algerian state, sovereign, democratic, and social, within the framework of the principles of Islam” (Evans & Phillips, 2008, pp. 56–57). Prior to these polarizing events, Algeria had been subdued under the weight of oppressive French colonization for 124 years. For the first time, widespread mobilization of Algerians against France was becoming strikingly apparent to both nations, inciting widespread hope for the people of Algeria. This cry for unity included Algerian women as well. Unlike many other colonized nations at the time, Algeria was considered to be completely under the French administration’s control, with large hoards of French nationals emigrating to Algeria in order to establish farms and begin new lives (Manar, 2014, p. 34). This large influx of French immigrants (known as pied-noirs, or “black feet”), acting in congruence with overwhelming

THE PRESERVATION OF DIGNITY Built upon the patriarchal foundations of Islam, Algerian society left little room for gender non-conformity, both in historic and contemporary times. The fourth Surah of the Qur’an—titled An-Nisa or, in English, “The Women”—makes this quite clear, VOLUME 6

stating, “Men are in charge of women by right of what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend for maintenance from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in the husband’s absence what Allah would have them guard” (Qur’an, An-Nisa 4.34). At the onset of the war in 1954, France saw Algeria’s marginalization of its women as an opportunity to “keep Algeria French” by winning over “the hearts and minds” of Algeria’s female population (Sambron, qtd. in Vince, 2010, pp. 445-6). To accomplish this, the French quickly initiated a program of propaganda in 1955 that promised Algerian women emancipation from what was seen as an oppressive and patriarchal society. At the heart of France’s plan was a series of social reforms aimed at Westernizing Algerian culture and retaining the “l’Algérie française” by promoting education, employment, and voting rights for women (Vince, 2010, p. 446). The French also initiated a series of public unveilings in the streets of Algiers, seeing the veil as a symbol of oppression (Racco, 2014).

Impassioned by the FLN’s call to protect their “dignity and validity,” and enticed by the prospect of national independence from their oppressive colonizers, thousands of women quickly became involved in war efforts, breaking centuries-old traditions in the name of freedom and a new beginning for their struggling nation.

Ultimately, this propaganda yielded little success due to counter-actions taken promptly by the FLN as well as preexisting beliefs among Algerian women, many of whom regarded the veil as a sign of dignity for themselves and respect for their religion. In response to the French, the FLN promptly released counter-propaganda that emphasized the necessity for Algerian people to resist the Western rhetoric of the French and hold on to their deeply-rooted religious and family values at all costs. At the heart of this propaganda was the image of a traditionally-veiled Algerian woman. The FLN used this image as a representation of the national identity they were fighting to preserve (Keddie, 2006) 28

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by portraying the veil as a symbol of the “dignity and validity of all native customs coming under attack and the need to affirm them as a means of resistance to Western domination” (Ahmed, 1992, p. 164). Impassioned by the FLN’s call to protect their “dignity and validity,” and enticed by the prospect of national independence from their oppressive colonizers, thousands of women quickly became involved in war efforts, breaking centuries-old traditions in the name of freedom and a new beginning for their struggling nation. However, threatened by the presence of women who were actively pushing the boundaries of Algerian tradition by joining the insurgency, the FLN encouraged women who did join to help through what they deemed “patriotic motherhood,” an idea that encouraged women to be good mothers and wives in order to “preserve traditional moral standards” for Algeria’s next generations (Helie-Lucas, 2004, p. 108). The idea was that women could assist the men in the insurgency against France by retaining Algerian traditionality and thus protecting the social, military, and political patriarchy. Men in the FLN and non-military Algerian men did not want women’s involvement to “disturb the social order in the future” (Helie-Lucas, 2004, p. 107). However, this did not stop women from joining the insurgency.

SACRIFICING TO PROTECT THEIR MEN AND COUNTRY WOMEN JOIN THE FIGHT

The roles taken on by women who joined the insurgency varied greatly, and most were not involved directly in wartime violence. Women were always in compliance with their male counterparts when it came to which roles they would assume, not only because men were the ones in leadership positions but also because their upbringing and customs had emphasized subservience to the socially superior male. Although an “enduring and iconic image” of the Algerian war is of Muslim women—often disguised in European dress—transporting bombs, guns, and documents over French checkpoints, these women made up a very small fraction of Algeria’s overall female insurgent population. Furthermore, these seemingly powerful women actually had very few capacities as insurgents due to the leadership and oversight of the men in the FLN (MacMaster, 2007, p. 317).

(left) © Movies in LA / Flickr.com/photos/moviesinla (right) still from The Battle of Algiers © Rachel Ann Cauilan / rachelannc.wordpress.com

Known as fidayates, these urban-based militant women played an integral role in the functioning of terrorist cells within the FLN. An analysis of the backgrounds and duties of the women chosen to act within these terrorist organizations reveals various common threads, as explored by MacMaster in Burning the Veil (2012). First, fidayates generally came from trusted nationalist or bourgeois families, and many had received primary education in an era when only 1 in 10 Algerian Muslim women completed primary schooling. Samia Lasekhdari and Zohra Drif, for example, were law students in university when recruited. Djamila Bouhired was recruited by her uncle, the well-known FLN militant Mustapha Bouhired (Vince, 2009, p. 317). These school and family relationships provided the FLN with a reason to trust in the women recruited to carry out terrorist acts. Second, despite the integral role played by these women within their respective terrorist cells, command was still entirely in the hands of men. Although the women were often required to break the norms of respectability by wearing makeup, removing their veils, and wearing European dress to pass French checkpoints, this was all controlled by male decision-makers. A classic illustration of this can be seen in an iconic scene from Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 film The Battle of Algiers in which three women are shown huddled around a mirror, removing their white haïks and applying makeup while tense, warlike drum music beats rhythmically in the background. Portrayed as brave warriors going into battle, these women receive orders from a male insurgent before

venturing past French checkpoints into Algiers in their “Europeanized” dress, where they will later plant baskets containing bombs in crowded locales. However, although this scene portrays the women as equals in the Algerian War, Leonhardt (2013) notes that this is an “unrealistic depiction,” as no woman was ever in a leadership position within the FLN. Although the three women depicted in the film hold powerful roles—as they did during the true bombings in Algiers—their activities were closely managed by male FLN leaders such as the well-known Saadi Yacef, who is shown in the film giving the women strict orders and rules before they set out on their mission. Another critique, as explored by University of Portsmouth lecturer Natalya Vince, is that “the women chosen for such tasks often already looked and dressed in a European way and were part of a tiny minority who had received a French education alongside European students” (Vince, 2010, p. 452). This immediately disqualified the 80 percent majority of FLN women who came from rural areas and had little opportunity to adopt European customs and dress. The fidayates were truly a rarity rather than the norm. Ultimately, regardless of whether a woman was an urban fidayate or a rural moudjahidines, attitudes from male FLN militants were non-discriminatory between these two groups, and the breaching of traditional gender roles by these women was “tolerated” by men because the war “demanded every sacrifice” (MacMaster, 2009, p. 317). As written by Fanon (1965), “Fathers no longer had any choice. VOLUME 6

Their constant fear of shame became illogical in the great tragedy which the people were living” (p. 94). DJAMILA BOUPACHA

Perhaps the most internationally recognized of the fidayates is Djamila Boupacha, a nationalist militant who joined the FLN at the age of 20 in hopes of liberating her country from colonial rule. Boupacha’s story provides a captivating illustration of the approaches the French military took regarding female insurgents and the ways in which they took advantage of Algeria’s fierce Islamic tradition to punish these women. After her arrest in 1960 for allegedly bombing a café, Boupacha was subjected to torture and rape at the hands of the French military. Her treatment would later “arouse the most extraordinary storm, not only in France but all over the world” (de Beauvoir & Halimi, 1962, p. 194). Sexual torture was the crux of her punishment, used as a weapon to “subvert the assumed values of sexuality in Algerian communities” by turning women into pariahs in their communities due to the loss of their virginity (Kunkle, 2013, p. 8). According to Ryan Kunkle, historian at the University of Iowa, sexual violation of these women was also seen as a tool to emasculate Algerian men because they had failed to protect their women from such humiliations. When Boupacha was arrested, French military forces were well aware of women’s inconspicuous roles in the insurgency, particularly the planting of bombs while disguised in Western dress. In response, Algerian women became the target of French military policy and were subjected to routine—and often violating—frisks, which involved the inspection of a woman’s pelvic area and were often conducted in front of family members and friends in order to humiliate the women (Kunkle, still from The Battle of Algiers © Rachel Ann Cauilan / rachelannc.wordpress.com

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2013, p. 8). Rutgers University professor Meredeth Turshen estimates that around 2,200 women were arrested and tortured during Algeria’s war for independence, and rape was consistently a “potent method of torture and abuse for women suspected of being nationalists” due to its violation of deeprooted Islamic values that emphasize the virtue of sexual purity (Turshen, 2002, p. 891). Gisèle Halimi, Boupacha’s legal counsel in her subsequent trial, went on to write a book about her client in 1962 (co-written with Simone de Beauvoir), aptly titled Djamila Boupacha. Simone de Beauvoir and Gisèle Halimi (1962) explain in graphic detail the abuse Boupacha endured, writing that she had been “deflowered” by French militants using a beer bottle, leaving her “passed out in a pool of her own blood” (pp. 35-40). Along with rape, Boupacha was subjected to electroshocks, cigarette burns, water torture, and beatings so bad that they caused “hemithoracic displacement” (p. 34). Miraculously, Boupacha never provided names or details of the FLN to her torturers, displaying her ceaseless resilience and dedication to the cause held by so many women in the Algerian War. ZOHRA DRIF

Another well-known fidayate is Zohra Drif, a law student best known for her involvement in the Milk Bar bombing of 1956 as well as her relationship with FLN leader Saadi Yacef. The daughter of a well-known Algerian judge, Drif ’s first exposure to nationalist resistance came during her high school years when she learned of the 1945 massacre of around 45,000 Algerian protesters in Sétif at the hands of the French. In 1955, Drif joined underground forces of the FLN; “she made a conscious choice of violence in 1956 because political response to French violence had proved ineffective”

The Arrest of Zohra Drif © Saber68 [Public Domain] / Wikimedia Commons.

[Public Domain] / Wikimedia Commons. Back row: Djamila Bouhired, Yacef Saadi, Hassiba Bent-Bouali. Front row: Samia Lakhdari, Omar (Yacef Saadi’s nephew), Ali la Pointe, and Zohra Drif.

(Rholetter, 2011, p. 426). On September 30, 1956, Zohra Drif, Djamila Bouhired, and Samia Lakhdari successfully smuggled bombs across French checkpoints under the instruction of FLN leader Saadi Yacef, an event that would later be depicted on film in The Battle of Algiers. According to Yacef, these women were chosen based on their “feminine allure and European looks,” believing they could easily pass as French and thus pass checkpoints without wariness from officers (Horne, 1977/2006, p. 185). This had proven effective in the past; even infamous French General Paul Aussaresses described an instance in which Ali-la-Pointe “managed to elude our patrols because he was disguised as a woman” (p. 143). After the women had cut their hair, removed their veils, applied makeup, and dressed in French garb, patrol officers in Algiers quickly overlooked them as they crossed the various checkpoints around Algiers. These women were instructed to plant bombs in carefully selected French sites in Algiers including the Milk Bar—a popular French gathering spot—and the downtown office of Air France. With a bomb concealed in her beach bag, Drif entered the Milk Bar, ordered a drink and slid the bag under a chair before paying her tab and leaving casually without suspicion. Fellow fidayates Samia Lakhdari and Djamila Bouhired had both successfully placed their bombs at the cafeteria on Rue Michelet and the Air France office. Minutes later, both Drif and Lakhdari’s bombs exploded with such force that three people were killed, fifty were injured, and a dozen suffered amputated limbs. Only Djamila Bouhired’s bomb failed to detonate due to a faulty timer (Horne, 1977/2006, p. 186). A 1950 Time Magazine article, “Capture of the Chief,” dubbed Drif and Yacef “uncrowned

monarchs” in the Algerian War for their tandem organization of FLN attacks. In one iconic image of her arrest in 1957, Zohra Drif can be seen exiting a building surrounded by four men, three of whom are dressed in French military attire. Despite the cruel nature of the deadly crimes for which she was arrested, her face seems demure, and her hands are touching in a way that almost suggests naiveté. The arrest of Yacef and Drif marked the conclusion of the Battle of Algiers, which persisted from September 30, 1956 to September 24, 1957 and took the lives of many FLN fighters and French soldiers (Horne, 1977/2006, p. 571). In 1958, Drif was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and was imprisoned in the women’s ward of the Barbarossa prison in Algiers. Drif suggests that women’s involvement was essential because the French stripped Algerian men of the means to protect their women, both physically and psychologically. This again demonstrates just how deeply rooted Algeria’s Islamic tradition truly was, even among women who sacrificed everything for the cause.

In 1961, while still incarcerated, Drif composed and published a 20-page memoir titled La Mort de Mes Frères. Despite her great sacrifice to her country, Drif actively retains the subservient stereotypes of women in Algerian society. Drif ’s conceptualization of women comes almost exclusively from their labeling as a mother, sister, or wife. Their sacrifice—rape, death, torture, and loss—occurred in the fight to restore the threatened masculinity of the Algerian patriarchy (Vince, 2010, p. 220). This is demonstrated in one fascinating quote from La VOLUME 6

(left) © http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=664878djamila.jpg

Mort de Mes Frères in which Drif (1960) writes that women’s participation in the conflict is “natural” because Algerian women have seen their brothers, their husbands and their sons tortured and massacred before their eyes. Young girls have been raped in their houses of the Casbah, and across all of Algeria, in front of their brothers and fathers, who are powerless under the threat of the gun. (p. 9) Drif suggests that women’s involvement was essential because the French stripped Algerian men of the means to protect their women, both physically and psychologically. This again demonstrates just how deeply rooted Algeria’s Islamic tradition truly was, even among women who sacrificed everything for the cause. DJAMILA BOUHIRED

Another famous fidayate named Djamila Bouhired, a bomber during the Battle of Algiers alongside Zohra Drif, achieved astonishing recognition in Algeria and abroad for her hardships as a woman during the Algerian War and her subsequent trial. Bouhired was even the subject of numerous productions, including the film Djamila l’Algérienne by Youcef Chahine (1958), the book Pour Djamila Bouhired by Georges Arnaud and Jacques Verges (1957), and numerous songs that recognize and idolize her sacrifice (Amrane-Minne, 1996, p. 345). The promotional poster of Djamila l’Algérienne is especially telling; Bouhired’s portrait rests in the foreground with an Algerian flag tied to a 32

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gun waving behind her. Around this portrait is a smaller scene of men fighting against each other on the battlefield, symbolizing her central importance and role in the conflict (Chahine, 1958). Although very little literature is written about Bouhired’s personal life, her arrest and subsequent trial as a fidayate is adequately documented. Sentenced to death in 1957 for her role in the cafe bombing during the Battle of Algiers, Bouhired was quickly represented by an anti-colonialist French lawyer named Jacques Vergès, whom she would go on to marry in 1963. Vergès countered the arguments of the French government using what he called “the strategy of disruption” or “rupture strategy,” accusing the prosecutors of committing the same terrorist acts being alleged against the defendant (Kuhlman, 2002). In his wake, Vergès developed a massive public relations campaign on behalf of Bouhired and Algerian prisoners like her. The government of France quickly found itself pressured by both domestic and foreign entities, leading to the postponement of Bouhired’s execution and her subsequent release towards the end of the war (Kuhlman, 2002, p. 176).

FALSIFIED PROPAGANDA AND LACK OF PROGRESS Despite such fierce dedication by Boupacha, Drif, Bouhired, and women like them, very few women received national praise or recognition for their sacrifices, notwithstanding years of misleading propaganda released by the FLN guaranteeing compensation and equal opportunity for the

women involved. In an effort to recruit both Algerian men and women in the face of conflict, FLN members readily used women in misleading propaganda efforts, advertising that “[w]omen could only achieve equality by fighting for a country freed from colonial domination” (MacMaster, 2007, pp. 92-93). The FLN’s wartime newspaper El Moudjahid played an integral role in this misleading propaganda, publishing weekly diary excerpts by a young female militant and celebrating the sacrifice of female fighters in the war against colonialism through romanticized stories (Leonhardt, 2013). One piece of evidence from Wilaya IV proclaimed, Algerian women! Listen! Do you not hear the boots of the French occupier clicking on the road? Do you not hear the screams of the massacres or tortured Algerian women and men? Do you not hear the proud call of Djamila Bouhired? ... Heroic and martyrised Algeria has its gaze fixed on you. (“Appel de l’ALN aux femmes Algériennes,” 1954) The primary goal of this propaganda was to provide an active resistance to French efforts to emancipate women and unify the country, not necessarily to recruit female fighters. However, the unfortunate fact remained: women were still seen as subservient in Algerian society. No amount of sacrifice could propel all women to total societal equality. Heroic female FLN figures like Djamila Bouhired remained a rarity. When the war began to degenerate, the falsity of the propagandized promises became apparent. The equality promised to them was nothing more than smoke: the majority of women in Algeria still found traditional stereotypes and discrimination to be a reality of their daily lives. Many male soldiers did not want women trained in combat and were concerned with the “sexual vulnerability” of their female counterparts, particularly among women required to deal with French soldiers in European dress (Leonhardt, 2013, p. 13). Urban Moudjahidine were less concerned by women’s proactive role in the insurgency, as the majority of them had been exposed to more “modern” women in their city environments. Moudjahidine in rural wilayas, alternatively, became hostile in the face of young, educated Algerian women. Having rarely been

exposed to the modern, educated Algerian woman, these men remained bound to traditional, patriarchal notions of gender. Women active in rural wilaya ranks were often met by blatant misogyny among illiterate soldiers who viewed these women as a “scandal and a disturbing sexual temptation” rather than as teammates in the fight for their country’s liberation. Men believed it was their duty to supervise these new female insurgents by imposing “draconian regulations,” such as segregated sleeping arrangements and degrading virginity tests (MacMaster, 2009, p. 320). MacMaster (2009) notes that these men often had a tendency to come around gradually to these women. As written by FLN member Yamina Cherrad, There were some [men] who took us for girls who had come to get married; they could not understand that we also wanted to be militants and to work...certain soldiers were scornful, they tried to assert their superiority. Later, with the passing of months, they came to recognize our worth, especially during a skirmish or on operations. (Aitsiselmi, p. 145) One publication from an FLN journal (1956) even proclaimed “a new era in the Liberation of women... It is no exaggeration to say that nothing could be achieved without their aid” (MacMaster, 2009, p. 321). The traditional Algerian gender roles were not truly changed in the face of war. For the majority of women in the FLN, the roles provided to them often fulfilled gender roles as closely as possible; Algerian women involved directly in combat were an absolute rarity. The majority of women involved in the Algerian War acted as nurses and aids to male insurgents and were never allowed to gain ranks in the military. When Dr. Mustapha Laliam joined the FLN, for example, the more experienced female doctor, Dr. Nafissa Haloum, was immediately demoted and Dr. Laliam was made her superior (MacMaster, 2009, p. 321). So, although the male-dominated FLN saw the value of women in the fight for independence, they did not necessarily see them as equals. The women were to carry out the roles designated to them for centuries, remaining safely within patriarchal control.

Opening image on page 26 “The Real Battle of Algiers” © Jacques Massu, Plon, 1971 [Public Domain] / Wikimedia Commons

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REFERENCES Ahmed, L. (1992). Women and gender in Islam. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Aitsiselmi, K. (2009). La femme Algérienne: De la bataille d’Alger au code de famille. In A. S. Fell (Ed.), Femmes face a la guerre (pp. 243–262). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Algeria: Capture of the chief. (1957, October 07). Time Magazine, 70(15). Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/ magazine/article/0,9171,809954,00.html

Amrane-Minne, D. D. (1996). Des femmes dans la Guerre d’Algérie. Paris, France: Karthal.

Aussaresses, P. (2002). The battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and counterterrorism in Algeria. New York: Enigma. Chahine, Y. (1958). Djamila l’Algérienne [Promotional film poster]. Retrieved October 30, 2016.

de Beauvoir, S., & Halimi, G. (1962). Djamila Boupacha: The story of the torture a young Algerian girl which shocked liberal French opinion. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Drif, Z. (1960). La mort de mes frères. Paris, France: Maspero.

Evans, M., & Phillips, J. (2008). Algeria: Anger of the dispossessed. New Haven: Yale University Press. Fanon, F. (1967). A dying colonialism. Atlanta, GA: Grove Press.

Helie-Lucas, M. A. (2004). Women, nationalism, and religion in the Algerian liberation struggle. In M. Badran & M. Cooke (Eds.), Opening the gates: A century of Arab feminist writing (2nd ed., pp. 104–114). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Horne, A. (1977/2006). A savage war of peace: Algeria, 1954–1962. New York, NY: NYRB Classics.

Keddie, N. R. (2006). Women in the Middle East: Past and present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Kuhlman, E. A. (2002). A to z of women in world history. New York, NY: Facts on File Publishers.

Kunkle, R. (2013). ‘We must shout the truth to the rooftops’: Gisèle Halimi, Djamila Boupacha, and sexual politics in the Algerian War of Independence. The Iowa Historic Review, 4(1), pp. 5–24.

Leonhardt, A. (2013). Between two jailers: Women’s experience during colonialism, war, and independence in Algeria (unpublished thesis). Portland State University, Portland.

MacMaster, N. (2007). The colonial ‘émancipation’ of Algerian women: The marriage law of 1959 and the failure of legislation on women’s rights in the post-independence era. Vienna Journal of African Studies, 12, pp. 91–116.

MacMaster, N. (2009). Burning the veil: The Algerian war and the emancipation of Muslim women, 1954–62. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Manar, E. P. (2014). Algerian War for Independence. In C. Johnson (Ed.), Worldmark modern conflict and diplomacy (pp. 34–39). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.

Racco, P. (2014). The dynamism of the veil: Veiling and unveiling as a means of creating identity in Algeria and France. The Undergraduate Historical Journal at UC Merced, 1(1), pp. 1–7.

Rholetter, W. (2011). Zohra Drif-Bitat. In M. Z. Zeiss, C. K. Oyster, & J. E. Sloan (Eds.), The encyclopedia of women in today’s world: Volume 1. New York, NY: Sage Publications.

Turshen, M. (2002). Algerian women in the liberation struggle and the civil war: From active participants to passive victims? Social Research, 69(3), pp. 889–911.

Vince, N. (2010). Transgressing boundaries: Gender, race, religion, and ‘Françaises Musulmanes’ during the Algerian War of Independence. French Historical Studies, 33(3), pp. 445–474.

Whaley-Eager, P. (2008). From freedom fighters to terrorists: Women and political violence. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. 34

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Kate Norris is a senior from Parker, Colorado, who is studying Psychology. She enjoys distance running and watching hockey. One of her hidden talents includes being able to quote the script of Happy Gilmore by heart.

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR The rippling aftershocks of colonization are apparent all over the globe. During the course of human history, countless nations and cultures have been marred and subjugated under the tremendous weight of colonization. Colonizers rarely came quietly. Based on a complex of superiority, they asserted their dominance over people living in their invaded lands with brute force and inflexible credences. In the process, histories, cultures, and societies have been compromised in the name of imperialism. Independence from colonizers was rarely mutual; instead, a large proportion of colonized nations were forced to engage in brutal wars in order to gain independence. Algeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s war for independence from France from 1954 to 1962 is such an example. What makes this war so remarkable was the dedication of Algerian women during the conflict; their sacrifice defied centuries of patriarchal Islamic ideology that was the bedrock of their culture and politics. Inspired by their fierce love for their country, I wrote the following paper to honor the women involved, while simultaneously uncovering the patriarchal injustices thrust upon them before, during, and after the war. It is my hope that the following essay will lead readers to reevaluate the gender inequality prevalent not only in Islamic nations, but around the world and on our own soil.

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Katherine Karayannis

WRIT 1633 Advanced Research & Writing | Professor Heather Martin

NESTLED AMIDST THE TREE-LINED SIDE STREETS OF A bustling middle-class neighborhood, Charles Hay World School appears to be a typical elementary school in the quaint Colorado suburb of Englewood. As our car jostles into the small parking lot beside the school, I notice the endless potholes and jagged sidewalks that greet worn-out asphalt. Within the brick building, narrow ceiling tiles, yellowed from age, loom over my head, reflecting the eerie, immiscible glow of natural and incandescent light. The too-warm temperature emanating from the radiator embraces me uncomfortably as my footsteps echo down the barren hallway. Our group passes through the door of Mr. Rodeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sixth-grade classroom. Each child, sweaty and exhausted from recess, slumped over a desk, pokes their head up and gives a shy smile and a small wave. My first-year writing class, full of University of Denver students, trickles into the already-crowded room for our weekly mentoring session. After several groups leave for the library, there is finally enough space for the remaining students and their DU mentors to fit into the classroom. When asked about the progress of their research papers, my students scroll through pages of Word documents on their tablets, proud of their most recent revisions. I glance around the room while my small group of students focuses on the task at hand. No electrical outlet is empty; dormant iPad chargers line the walls, while the few bookshelves in the classroom remain half-filled. 36

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educational funding as long as the base per-pupil allotment stays the same (Colorado General Assembly). Since 2010, the negative factor shortcut has allowed the Colorado Legislature to re-allocate $6 billion from the educational budget (Robles, “Colorado’s Education Formula”). In a 4-3 decision in September 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Amendment 23 constitutional, as the language does not explicitly state that money cannot be withdrawn from educational spending. iPads in hand, two boys giggle at something off-task, making me question the focus on technology in their education. In Colorado, the “base” per-student for the 2015–2016 school year was just short of $6,300. While this may appear sufficient, Colorado lags behind national per-student spending by over $3,000 (“Colorado State Highlights”). The emphasis on new-age technology over improvement of fundamentals seems too familiar in the Colorado educational system. With an additional $3,000 a year, how many more field trips or interactive lessons could the students have that would allow them to experience the world outside of school, rather than the virtual reality they have become so familiar with through a glass screen? What lessons are they missing due to money diverted from their education to other unknown state funds? In an attempt to compensate for the disproportionate gap, Colorado looked for creative sources for educational funding. In 2012, Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana by passing Amendment 64, which created a 15% excise tax on the sale of the product to be used to fund education. The first $40 million is strictly designated for the construction of new schools via the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund. Although

(left) © Josh / Flickr.com/photos/telemarkskier (right) © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com

The children are so focused on their technology that I wonder if they ever question what else is missing from their academic experience. Do they wonder what other learning opportunities they could have if the school had enough money, or at least the amount of money the school should have? Inadequate school funding is an issue that impacts the lives of students and the larger community, the economic health of Colorado, and our nation’s ability to compete on the world stage. To combat this issue, Colorado implemented legislation intended to increase educational funding, specifically Amendments 23 and 64 and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Through loopholes, reinterpretations, and a disregard of the original intent, these three pieces of legislation cost the state and its children billions of dollars. For the last several years, Colorado has fallen to the back of the pack in spending per pupil, ranking an anemic 43rd in the nation despite ranking 13th in average household income (“State Personal Income”). When Colorado fell behind the rest of the country for educational spending in 2000, voters passed Amendment 23 as a safeguard to stay ahead of increasing taxes. The amendment states: “[T]he statewide ‘base’ in the school finance act [must] be increased by at least inflation plus one percent for ten years—through FY 2010-11—and at the rate of inflation thereafter” (Colorado General Assembly). Due to the economic recession and other statewide budget cuts in 2009, the Colorado Legislature reinterpreted Amendment 23, which resulted in a significant gap between purported and actual spending. Through a mechanism known as the “negative factor,” which promotes cutting funds for educational spending while still claiming legal compliance, money can now be withdrawn from

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new schools are vital to education, Amendment 64 ignores strengthening existing schools, improving curricula, or hiring more teachers. As a high school student in Colorado Springs, I rarely thought about the impact of school funding. It was a running joke that the school spent thousands of dollars on a pendulum that regularly broke instead of on windows that opened. Despite a few odd financial decisions, my school was stateof-the-art. Only an hour away, however, Pueblo Central High School is anything but modern. My volleyball team always talked about the lack of air conditioning and the surplus of mold in the corners of the locker rooms. The school was a mess; it seemed that year after year, little was done to fix it. The first few schools that received funding from Amendment 64 are in the affluent towns of Aspen and Glenwood Springs (Ward). It seems slightly ironic that underprivileged, overpopulated schools must suffer in questionable conditions while those in wealthier, less-populated areas get millions of © Jeffrey Beall / Flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey

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taxpayer dollars for brand-new schools. Shouldn’t the money from Amendment 64 be dispensed to schools where the structure and integrity of the learning environment is crumbling faster than the educational budget? After studying the impact of funding capabilities for recreational marijuana, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that “funding stipulated in the recreational-pot legislation is ‘miniscule’ compared to school construction needs” (Wong). Furthermore, the money from marijuana taxes could all be taken away, simply because of another legislative action. Adopted in 1992, TABOR prohibits any tax increase without a vote by the people. The law limits how much the state can keep and how much it can spend, making it the strictest revenue and spending limit in the nation. Therefore, unless voters say otherwise, Colorado must return extra revenue to taxpayers if the state reaps more tax money than projected (“Colorado School Funding and You”).

It seems slightly ironic that underprivileged, overpopulated schools must suffer in questionable conditions while those in wealthier, lesspopulated areas get millions of taxpayer dollars for brand-new schools. Shouldn’t the money from Amendment 64 be dispensed to schools where the structure and integrity of the learning environment is crumbling faster than the educational budget?

gap for minorities, or providing better, safer learning environments for at-risk students, the voids that efficient educational spending could fill are endless. Often, immediate fixes are suggested without an understanding of long-term repercussions. At Charles Hay, the ceiling tiles are the color of a coffee stain, and the sorrowful, cement block halls seem claustrophobic. Instead of enhancing the physical learning environment, the school invested in giving each child an iPad. On the day I visited, sitting in front of me were two twelveyear-old boys holding over a thousand dollars of technology in their hands, but I could see little return value. The immediate and flashy change to education seems to draw attention, but is it worth it? As with Amendment 64, new technology and new schools continue to be the focus of investments rather than ensuring that the foundations of learning, such as appropriate reading levels, comfortable learning environments, and the literal foundation of the building are acceptable and pass inspection. Is this change really helping schools, or does it merely give students a false sense of security in their educational careers, one that could shatter as easily as their iPads? Amendment 64 was meant to be the savior of school funding for Colorado’s future and decrease the existing deficit. However, Weil noted how “Amendment 64 is too volatile for funding. Marijuana is still illegal federally, meaning it could be taken away at any time. When dealing with such a large debt, ideally, a steady source of money is wanted.” When asked if construction of schools is the best place to allocate the amendment’s money, Weil stressed that “there are schools where the air is unbreathable, where you cannot drink from the water fountains, where conditions are dangerous. The schools are literally crumbling.” (left & right) © RomanR / Shutterstock.com (center) © azure1 / Shutterstock.com

One organization is striving to create awareness about inadequate educational funding in Colorado. Lisa Weil is the Executive Director of Great Education Colorado, a non-profit that implements grass-roots activism to spread awareness of educational issues at local and state levels by empowering one person at a time. As Colorado continues to lead the nation in progressive changes, Weil explained to me, more than 100,000 new residents flock to the state each year. “Colorado has an incredible quality of life,” Weil said. “As more people move here, it puts restrictions on the already strained budget. We’re not able to keep up with the current kids we have,” she continued, so when you add even more kids, it puts more strain on the school system. This is evident from the lack of space in the Charles Hay classroom. The closets where the children keep their things are jammed full and hardly close. The tables are cluttered from cramming too many children together. The room is constantly buzzing with the soft hum of side conversations, making it difficult for many to concentrate on the topic at hand. “We need really high quality schools and you cannot do that with shrinking resources. It’s going to hurt Colorado’s economy; who would move to a state that cannot support their kids?” asked Weil. In addition to increased funding levels, other changes are also required to bring Colorado students into the top quartile of performance. Weil explained, Money alone will not get our education system to the point we want. For the twenty-first century, it is right to increase the expectations of students, but you cannot do that at the same time you decrease funding. Money alone will not solve the issues, but the problems cannot get solved without it. Whether this money goes to filling the achievement

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“This is not fair to our kids; this is not fair to Colorado. Showing kids that the adults in their community care where they learn, the quality where they sit, and their safety, it’s a huge message.” — Lisa Weil

Weil explained that to address the problems in school funding, we need “a sense of urgency.” She said, “This is not fair to our kids; this is not fair to Colorado. Showing kids that the adults in their community care where they learn, the quality where they sit, and their safety, it’s a huge message.” As my Charles Hay students continue to do their research, I contemplate their educational future and whether funding shortfalls will limit their potential to be all they can be. What if their schools received the $3,000 more every year in educational funding that Colorado once supplied? How much more could they grow? Denver Senator Mike Johnston puts the issue most simply, stating, “Colorado never really recovered after the recession. The needs have

continued to increase across Colorado, and our funding hasn’t matched that” (Robles, “Colorado School Funding”). As more families move to Colorado, more students will flood into already overcrowded and underfunded school systems. Charles Hay is an ordinary suburban elementary school filled with extraordinary children. At the end of my mentorship with the boys in my group, I was beyond impressed with the research papers they wrote. If these two boys (as well as the rest of their class) can achieve so much with so little, imagine what they could do if their educational career was funded and supported as intended.

WORKS CITED Colorado General Assembly. Amendment 23: A Brief Overview. Feb. 2001. PDF.

“Colorado State Highlights.” Preparing to Launch: Early Childhood Academic Countdown. Education Week. 2015, 1–12.

“Colorado School Funding and You.” Great Education Colorado. Great Education Colorado, 1 Feb. 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. Robles, Yesenia. “Colorado School Funding Disparities on Rise, Educators Call for Change.” The Denver Post. Digital First Media, 23 Aug. 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.

Robles, Yesenia. “Colorado’s Education Formula That Cuts Funding Ruled Constitutional.” The Denver Post. Digital First Media, 21 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

“State Personal Income: Second Quarter 2016.” Web blog post. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). US Department of Commerce, 28 Sept. 2016. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.

Ward, Bob. “Colorado Marijuana Taxes Are Helping Schools Build.” AspenTimes.com. Swift Communications, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

Weil, Lisa. Personal Interview. 12 Feb. 2016.

Wong, Alia. “The False Promise of Marijuana Money in Education.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 4 May 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.

Opening images on page 36 (left) © robert cicchetti / Shutterstock.com, (center) © Cora Reed / Shutterstock.com, (right) © ImagePixel / Shutterstock.com

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Katherine Karayannis is a sophomore Accounting major. She is from beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, volunteering, going to concerts, and nannying.

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR In my advanced writing class, the common theme was education. Half our time was spent in the classroom learning, while the other half was spent mentoring sixth-grade students. The experience was meant to inspire a topic for a research paper that could potentially encourage real change. I struggled for a while to come up with a topic that interested meâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I could talk about standardized testing, the achievement gap, teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compensation, the list goes on. I finally decided on Amendment 64, which is unique to Colorado and provides for educational funding with marijuana sales tax. As I began my research, I quickly realized the legislation had loopholes that changed the meaning behind the intentions. While my personal high school career was not limited due to lack of educational funding, I know that is not the case around the state, or the country. My hope is that Colorado residents read my paper and understand how poorly-written laws can influence the economy and state as a whole, along with understanding how important educational funding is, both nationally and globally.

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Leah Tobias

ASEM (Art History) Art & The Environment | Professor Annabeth Headrick

THE RELATIVELY NEW FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL ART allows artists to take their art outside and to combine creativity with a passion for protecting the environment. Early pioneers of environmental art began using the Earth as a canvas to create works completely composed of natural surroundings. Maya Lin, a modern environmental artist, brings the Earth into her art through both indoor and outdoor installations. Lin makes unseen landscapes visible through works that solicit sensory experiences to encourage a critical awareness of the surrounding environment. A particularly strong focus of Lin’s art is water, which she successfully brings indoors and on land, offering a completely new view of aquatic landscapes. Lin presents water in a way that is not normally apparent to the human eye, often by presenting underwater terrain or isolating a body of water from its surrounding landform. By doing so, she invites her viewers to witness the generally unseen “landscapes” that water creates. Her art effectively suggests the significance of water resources as whole environments apart from their associated landscapes. When working with water, Lin utilizes the boundaries it creates with land to reflect the many boundaries she exists between. Lin encourages a critical engagement with nature, stimulating a closer relationship between human and environment, which is often necessary in developing a desire to protect it. 42

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1 2 3 4 5

Andrews, “Outside In,” 74. Solnit, As Eve Said, 47. Ibid, 47. Andrews, “Outside In,” 76. Ibid, 69.

landscapes that were much more populated, so they sought canvases in the wilderness. European land artists were experiencing nature, working within it, and bringing back evidence, often in the form of photography. Not often did they create actual, permanent land art like American land artists. Lin exists at the boundary of these two influences. Material and site are very important to her art, but it is also very natural and poetic.6 Adding to her European and American land art influences is Lin’s Asian influence, which contributes a strong connection to and awareness of nature experienced through her art.7 Lin was born to Chinese immigrant parents in Ohio in 1959, and she graduated from Yale in 1981 with a degree in sculpture and architecture. Although she was raised in American culture, she has become more conscious of how her work is influenced by both her Eastern and Western heritages.8 Lin’s art may appear simple at first glance but requires much reflection and thought. Her work has often been seen as minimalist for its simple media and lines, but it holds a strong and deep meaning.9 Minimalist artwork is known for an avoidance of symbolism and emotion in favor of attention to material.10 Lin’s work opposes this 6 7 8 9 10

(left) © WBUR Boston (AP Photo/Jackie Johnston) / Flickr.com/photos/wbur (right) © The Kozy Shack / Flickr.com/photos/peebot

Nature is at the foundation of all of Lin’s work. Her goal is to create pieces that offer a relationship between humans and the natural world.1 Nature is an essential component of humanity, and Lin wants people to realize this and protect it. Landscape is evidence of nature’s complex processes, and Lin uses this idea to make nature more visible and comprehensible. In contemporary art, landscape is often not recognized by artists as scenery but as the systems that humans inhabit.2 Landscape in this context is ubiquitous; it includes every aspect of life including human thought and action.3 Lin incorporates the complexities of landscape into her sculpture to facilitate a better understanding of these vast environments. Lin has filled her own specific niche within the historical realm of environmental art. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, American land artists such as Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer used the Earth as a canvas in a very overwhelming way by creating massive land sculptures reminiscent of the male heroic gesture.4 These artists were drawn to the open lands of the West where vast land canvases were plentiful.5 European land artists like Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy took a less invasive and more natural approach. They were working in

Ibid, 70. Ibid, 72. Lin, Boundaries, 5:15. Min, “Entropic Designs.” Abramson, “Maya Lin.”

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idea because while she does use simple materials and shapes, her work represents something much larger than itself, and its significance outside of the gallery or site is clear. This significance is up for interpretation to each viewer. Lin does not force a set opinion or message through her art but instead allows viewers to come to their own conclusions. Deep thought evoked by her work creates spaces of meditation directly related to her Asian background and influence. Lin relates this to her upbringing and how her parents never told her and her brother what to do but instead allowed them to make their own choices.11 Lin has been influenced by her “otherness” in the way she views the world. She grew up in the United States but has never been seen as completely American because of her skin tone. She attributes the feeling of being other to shaping the way she looks at the landscape “as if from a distance, a third-person observer.” 12 Lin’s ability to look at the Earth as a third-person observer is clearly reflected in how she recreates water landscapes. Lin’s main strategy with water is taking an expansive environment and consolidating its features into sculpture. Lin strongly believes that water is going to become one of the biggest conversations in the coming years. Fresh water as a resource and salt water as a threat to populations through rising sea levels are significant issues. In her work, it is clear that Lin has a strong interest for

boundaries of water—where the land ends and the water begins. She states, “I am extremely interested in the water’s edge, and thinking about sea level and understanding how transmutable and temporal that boundary between land and sea actually is. I’m very committed to doing something to help us understand and move quicker.” 13 Not only is she interested in the boundaries aquatic landscapes create, but Lin’s work often exists at a boundary. In her autobiographical book Boundaries, Lin opens by saying, “I feel I exist on the boundaries. Somewhere between science and art, art and architecture, public and private, east and west. I am always trying to find a balance between these opposing forces, finding the place where opposites meet.” 14 This feeling is clearly reflected in all of her art, whether it is through a strong eastern influence, highly technology-involved art, or bringing landscapes where they are not normally found. Folding the Chesapeake (2015) plays with the boundary between inside and outside and between water and land. Folding the Chesapeake is an indoor sculpture of marbles flowing throughout a gallery room, which becomes an outdoor experience. The marbles are brought together in the shape of the Chesapeake Bay if it were seen from an aerial view. Each marble could represent a multitude of things—organisms, water molecules, or ripples. The myriad possibilities contribute to the message

Lin, Boundaries, 4:05. Ibid, 5:15.

Folding the Chesapeake (left) © ctj71081 / Flickr.com/photos/55267995@N04 (right) © Bex Walton / Flickr.com/photos/bexwalton

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Sheffield, The Expressive Edge, 68. Lin, Boundaries, 5:03.

Bodies of Water © Glenn Kraeck / Flickr.com/photos/dapaw

In the twenty-first century, it is nearly impossible to look at landscape without an environmentally conscious eye. Maya Lin is always sending a message through her art, but it is rarely stated explicitly. Lin allows her sculptures to speak for themselves. Often her approach is to “stay back, list the facts and let you conclude it for me.”

of the complexities of river systems. Through her choice of medium, placement, and color, Lin successfully brings the emotional feelings of water indoors. Hundreds of tiny effervescent turquoise marbles make up a winding and dominating river system. The color of the marbles reflects the light in a way that is reminiscent of water. The idea that the marbles easily flowed onto the floor and assumed a shape in such togetherness is cathartic and reassuring, but the twists and curves up the walls, over vents and onto the ceiling, create an opposing, overwhelming feeling. The marbles cannot only move across the floor but have taken over entire walls, ignoring the existence of building features such as electrical sockets and windows. Similar to how humans have dominated the natural world, this sculpture dominates the room in which it exists. Folding the Chesapeake shows the Chesapeake Bay as an individual system and successfully places its viewer on a boundary between inside and outside. The unseen landscape of water is explored in Bodies of Water (2006), a series of three wooden casts of landlocked seas throughout the world. The Caspian Sea, the Red Sea and the Black Sea are all endangered because of increased surrounding human population and industrial pollution. In Caspian Sea, Lin uses layers of Baltic birch plywood to show the 3D shape of the Caspian Sea.15 The use of wood is significant because it is a substance existing in nature. The use of layers and smaller parts contributing to the whole is prominent in Lin’s work. The layers may represent the different

environments that exist in an aquatic environment like the Caspian Sea.16 She takes the immense volume of water and shrinks it down into layers of plywood. While the depth of the sculpture is exaggerated, the surface is to scale, giving an exact representation of the edges of the sea. With these three sculptures, Lin is making an entire body of threatened water visible to the human eye. Normally, a person can stand on a coast and see the expanse of a sea but never know its shape, contours and details. Lin has argued that what we don’t see, we pollute. If people know the landscape as a separate environment, they are more inclined to see its significance. The massive seas are transformed into small, wooden sculptures, which allows them to be seen as fragile and breakable objects worthy of protection. By making a sea the size of a table, Lin is effectively using perspective. While in reality the Caspian Sea is much larger than any human, consequences of human action can completely dominate such an environment just as a human feels dominant over this small sculpture. Additionally, the viewer is inclined to imagine the landscape around the sea, which has been removed from its environment. This actively involves the viewer in creating an environment and developing a stronger connection than existed previously.17 In order to depict unseen landscapes, Lin must look at the Earth in complicated ways. Technology and science offer a modern method of viewing areas of the landscape that humans couldn’t always see. Lin explains: “We have the capacity to see our world differently through the lens of technology. I

TenBrink, “Maya Lin’s Environmental Installations,” 11.

Ibid, 6. Ibid, 13.

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(left) Water Line & (right) Pin River Columbia © The Kozy Shack / Flickr.com/photos/peebot

would say that I’m no different from an eighteenth century landscape painter, but I have more than my eyes to look at nature.” 18 Water Line (2008) is a line of aluminum tubing tracing through space representing the underwater topography that rises to become Bouvet Island in Antarctica. Bouvet Island is very small, only four miles long and three miles wide, but represents an immense underwater mountain range.19 People do not often realize how expansive and complicated landscapes underwater are. Through Water Line, Lin gives the opportunity to understand this unbelievably large environment that exists but is generally unseen. Lin was able to develop a topographic rendering of the seascape with the help of scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.20 Water Line is an artistic interpretation of data points, which may be interpreted by scientists in a completely different way. Lin analyzes data as an artist and an architect to construct the data into shapes and sizes humans can grasp. Water Line emerges from the gallery walls, giving it a sense of continuity apart from what can be seen. As the viewer walks under the outline, they can imagine themselves under the terrain. This presents ambiguity when determining where the land ends, where the water begins, and where the sky exists. This boundary challenges viewers to think of the environment as a whole instead of separating ocean floor, ocean, and land. Water Line also shows

a boundary between handmade and technological. This work is clearly highly technology-involved, contributing to an interplay between computer-produced images and human-produced drawings. Further, the tubing mimics drawn lines but exists as a sculpture. Water Line exists at many boundaries and requires deep inspection and reflection to reach an understanding of the environment it creates. In the twenty-first century, it is nearly impossible to look at landscape without an environmentally conscious eye. Lin is always sending a message through her art, but it is rarely stated explicitly. Lin allows her sculptures to speak for themselves. Often her approach is to “stay back, list the facts and let you conclude it for me.” 21 She does not associate opinions with her pieces but instead lets the viewer reflect and understand the meaning on their own. This idea resounds in her Pin Rivers, which she has been creating since 2006. She has created Pin Rivers of waterways throughout the world, including the Columbia River, Colorado River, Hudson River, and Danube River. These sculptures offer a linear view of rivers composed of tens of thousands of small silver pins. In one of many pin pieces, titled Pin River Columbia, Lin maps out the Columbia River with silver pins placed directly onto a gallery wall. The pins present slightly exaggerated swelling at eleven dam sites on the river.22 Similar to Folding the Chesapeake, the tiny components of the

19 20

Solnit, As Eve Said, 47. Andrews, “Outside In,” 61. Ibid, 66.

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Lashnits, Maya Lin, 5. Andrews, “Outside In,” 61.

sculpture, in this case silver pins, contribute to the understanding of the complex ecosystems that exist in water. The Pin River installations can be viewed from many angles and cast shadows, making the viewer think about what the river might once have been and how it has changed.23 Through looking at past events, Lin hopes she can encourage people to better protect the future. Another pin piece represents the boundaries of Hurricane Sandy’s floodplain. In order to plan and protect against future detrimental storms, knowledge and awareness of flood plains is essential. Lin has stressed that we have destroyed the natural line of defenses against storms like Hurricane Sandy, including oyster beds and salt marshes.24 She never says her art is clearly presenting this idea but hopes the presentation of facts in the form of art encourages people to think more deeply about what is being shown. Lin is slightly more explicit with her message in Silver River (2009). Silver River is a cast of the Colorado River formed by reclaimed silver. It is installed behind the registration desk of the CityCenter Aria in Las Vegas.25 By displaying the Colorado River in a city that depends on the river as a source for life, Lin is certainly saying something about its conservation. This is a very site-specific piece that holds more meaning when viewed in the context of Las Vegas. The Colorado River is a lifeline for much of Nevada, a naturally desert environment. Lin wants people in Las Vegas to realize how much they depend on this system of water and how their overuse is depleting it. The silver swells

at Lake Powell and Lake Mead are unnatural reservoirs resulting from massive dams at two points in the Colorado River.26 Similar to the swelling in Pin Rivers, Lin encourages humans to think about their effect on river systems and how this impacts the environment overall. It is again significant that the sculpture provides people a view of the river in its entirety. It is a common theme that Lin brings water indoors, but in her wave field sculptures she brings it onto land. Storm King Wavefield (2009) is a permanent installation at the Storm King Art Center in New York.27 It is a work of art but also a land reclamation project, contributing to its environmental implications. This eleven-acre expansion was once a gravel pit supplying material for the Thruway but is now an organic environment.28 The mounds consist of low-impact grass with a natural irrigation system. Through these natural methods, the art can evolve with the environment and become part of it. In Storm King Wavefield, Lin literally sculpted waves into the land. Storm King Wavefield is the largest of Lin’s wave fields with some of the waves as tall as fifteen feet. The swelling hills in the land were inspired by mid-ocean waves—specifically, recurring Stokes waves. The Stokes wave theory is used in determining wave physics and their potential impacts when building in coastal areas.29 Lin’s use of the motif is more art-based, echoing the surrounding mountains and hills. This creates an environment she hopes people get lost in and come to for meditation and reflection.30 These recurring

25 26

Ibid. Peterson, “Sculpture at CityCenter’s Aria.” Ibid.

28 29 30

Cotter, “Where the Ocean Meets.” Deitsch, “Maya Lin’s Perpetual Landscapes.” Lashnits, Maya Lin, 70. Cotter, “Where the Ocean Meets.”

Two views of Silver River (left) © Jim G / Flickr.com/photos/jimg944 (right) © Laura Kogler / Flickr.com/photos/lkogler

Min, “Entropic Designs.”

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Lin is most predominately known for her memorials, including the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, Women’s Table, and the Civil Rights Memorial. Both Women’s Table and the Civil Rights Memorial represent an unseen landscape of water—the water table. Lin does not intend these works to be fountains but instead water tables, lending them a connection to the natural, underground reserves of water that exist below Earth’s surface.33 Lin controlled the source of water to these sculptures, so the water appeared to come to the surface naturally like a spring, just as springs emerge from the water

table.34 People do not often think of water tables as aquatic sources like rivers and oceans, but a great amount of the Earth’s water does exist underground in this unseen landscape. The Civil Rights Memorial, opened in 1989, is a memorial to the Civil Rights Movement and its victims. For this piece, Lin decided to use water as the center of this work after reading a quote from Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “We are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” 35 She knew she wanted to incorporate King’s idea of water to connect the past with the future.36 The sculpture is a twelve-foot-diameter granite disk inscribed with names of forty freedom fighters and important events of the Civil Rights Movement. Behind this structure is a granite wall inscribed with King’s quote. Water flows across the table at an imperceptible rate,37 appearing still until someone interacts with it or the water reaches the edge of the sculpture. The particular granite of the sculpture appears matte when dry, but when covered with water it is reflective.38 Therefore, water brings the sculpture to life. This successfully portrays the power of water and connects it to Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote. He compares water to justice, which should flow throughout the world, and Lin translates this respectful interpretation of water into the sculpture. People are able to interact with it and become part of the sculpture, and perhaps therefore also part of the fight for justice. Lin brings invisible environments to the surface, providing people with the opportunity to see the landscape in a new way. Her work spans many disciplines but maintains philosophical footings and environmental implications. Her indoor installations such as Water Line and Caspian Sea use the lens of technology to explore landscapes that are otherwise unseen by humans. Each of her works encourages exploration of interrelationships between humans and nature by showing the boundaries and resulting interconnections between

waves represent an unseen landscape because they only exist in the open ocean. Not everyone has had the experience of traveling through the open ocean, but Lin gives the opportunity to experience this on land. The use of waves reflects the significance of water but also develops from Lin’s use of boundaries. In this sculpture, waves are a metaphor for the idea of edge and boundary because there really is no beginning and end in their shape.31 There is additionally a boundary between land and water, between sculpture and Earth, and between natural and artificial. Lin’s fascination with oceans is clear: “I stared at the ocean for hours, trying to find a beginning and end. But of course there is none.” 32 Storm King Wavefield is a permanent sculpture but with low environmental impact. Lin has made an ocean environment fit into the Earth, which provokes thought about the interconnection of land and water.

Maya Lin brings invisible environments to the surface, providing people with the opportunity to see the landscape in a new way. Her work spans many disciplines but maintains philosophical footings and environmental implications.

32 33

Sheffield, The Expressive Edge. Ibid. Lin, Boundaries, 5:03.

35 36 37 38

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Beardsley, “Hidden in Plain View,” 93. Lin, Boundaries, 5:10. Ibid, 6:14. Ibid, 5:15. Sheffield, The Expressive Edge, 69.

table. Lin realizes the significance of water in a world pained by social injustice and climate change and seeks to make it visible to people in a multitude of ways to inspire deeper thought and personal connection. Lin uses art to focus on specific landscapes that may otherwise be ignored.

Storm King Wavefield © Elijah Porter / Flickr.com/photos/elijahporter

landscapes. Lin shows the power of water throughout her work in pieces including Folding the Chesapeake, Storm King Wavefield, and the Civil Rights Memorial. In each of these works, water is a dominating feature that overcomes an indoor space, creates waves in the land, or brings life to a granite

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abramson, Daniel. “Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism.” Critical Inquiry 22, 4 (1996): 679–709.

Andrews, Richard. “Outside In: Maya Lin’s Systematic Landscapes.” Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 2006.

Beardsley, John. “Hidden in Plain View: The Land Art of Maya Lin.” Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 2006.

Cotter, Holland. “Where the Ocean Meets the Mountains.” The New York Times, May 7, 2009.

Deitsch, Dina. “Maya Lin’s Perpetual Landscapes and Storm King Wavefield.” Woman’s Art Journal 30 (2009): 3–10. Fleming, Jeff. “Maya Lin: Topologies.” Southern Quarterly 37 (1999): 59 Lashnits, Tom. Maya Lin. New York: Chelsea House, 2007.

Lin, Maya Ying. Boundaries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Lebowitz, Cathy. “Maya Lin: Building Nature.” Art in America 96, 5 (2008): 152–157.

“Maya Lin.” Orlando Museum of Art. Accessed 10 November 2016, http://omart.org/exhibitions/maya_lin

Min, Susette. “Entropic Designs: A Review of Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes and Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970 at the De Young Museum.” American Quarterly 61, 1 (2009): 193–215.

Peterson, Kristen. “Sculpture at CityCenter’s Aria Designed to Provoke Thought about Water.” The Las Vegas Sun, October 2009.

Sheffield, Margaret Blair. The Expressive Edge. Milano: Charta, 2009.

Solnit, Rebecca. As Eve Said to the Serpent. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001.

TenBrink, Marisa. “Maya Lin’s Environmental Installations: Bringing the Outside In.” Honors Senior Paper, South Dakota State University. Accessed 10 February 2016, https://www.kon.org/urc/v9/Interconnected-Through-Art/ tenbrink.pdf

Opening image on page 42 Folding the Chesapeake © ctj71081 / Flickr.com/photos/55267995@N04

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image provided by author

Leah Tobias, who comes from St. Louis, Missouri, graduated from the University of Denver in 2016 with a degree in Biology. Her favorite part of her DU experience was the time she spent studying abroad in Ecuador. Her hobbies include skiing, hiking, and camping.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR Writing about art has been one of the most difficult academic tasks I have encountered. It is easy to second guess yourself and feel silly when asked to analyze a poem or a work of art, but I believe it is one of the best ways to push your brain to its limits. You have to let yourself be vulnerable and experience the emotions that art is meant to convey. As a biology major, I spent most of my four years at the University of Denver taking science courses like Genetics and Organic Chemistry, writing lab reports, and memorizing details of the human body. My advanced seminar, Art and the Environment, presented an opportunity to use my brain in a completely different way. I was challenged to think about and discuss abstract ideas to find deeper meanings behind works of environmental art. Before taking this course, I had not known about the realm of environmental art; through my studies, I grew to greatly appreciate it. The foundation of my paper emerged from my responses to Maya Linâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and the realization that all of my favorite Lin works are inspired by water. As an artist and an environmentalist, she sees the Earth in a completely unique way and encourages critical awareness of our surroundings. The focus of my essay is sharing how Lin sees and presents water in a way no other artist does.

WRIT LARGE: 2017

Lena Kern

WRIT 1122 Rhetoric & Academic Writing | Professor Blake Sanz

I NEVER KNEW I WAS RAISED QUAKER. ACTUALLY, I WAS formally raised Presbyterian. I went to a Presbyterian preschool attached to my Presbyterian church. My parents taught Sunday school, and we sang Sunday school songs at bedtime. I drank grape juice at communion and prayed to God every night. I knew that Grandpa was up in Heaven, that Jesus loved me, and that Pastor Brett was Dad’s brother. I was three when Mom brought salamander eggs from the local pond to my preschool show-and-tell. I was four when I went to my first summer camp, rustic and Quaker-influenced, in the Maryland foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. I was five when I first vouched for the life of a caterpillar. Around the same age, I learned to make fire. Before long, I also learned to catch salamanders, raise tadpoles, pick edible berries, and carve twig pens. At home, I didn’t want Grandma to babysit because she couldn’t fathom that my parents didn’t make me wear shoes. VOLUME 6

You would think that, with the Quaker emphasis on personal connection, social media would allow me to feel more connected than ever, but I don’t. My connections are fleeting, shallow, and deceptively lonely.

The summer after I turned ten, I went to my first sleep-away camp, where I fell in love with being Quaker. Every morning as we raised the flag, we held hands in a circle and sang: “God has created a new day / Silver and green and gold. / Live that the sunset may find us / Worthy his gifts to hold.” Circles were important in other ways, too. We sat in circles when resolving a conflict. Around a campfire, we sang Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game.” For the same reason, the infinity symbol was chosen to represent the camp. Years later, my friends and I completed our own loop by returning to work as counselors. Every day at that first sleep-away, we chose our activities, and every night, our counselor kissed us goodnight. I remember thinking that I’d never been in a place where I felt I belonged more. On Sundays, we would bring blankets into the woods, listen to the birds, and look at the light through the trees. Some kids would sleep, some would write or strum a guitar, and then silence would fall again. This was the only kind of Sunday service that I ever felt within me, and through it I bound myself to the lifestyle.

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And this truth defines Quakerism: it devotes itself more to a lifestyle than to a deity. Some Quakers are theist, some are nontheist, and some do not define themselves by a belief in a conventional god but find spirituality within their relationships, their inner selves, and nature. Worship happens in a meetinghouse, without the guidance of any authority. Members sit in silence until someone is moved to speak to the room, to offer a perspective, an experience, a reflection. At those summer camps, we had cell service—maybe—if we stood on top of a rock. Enough to call an ambulance if we needed one. But most nights, I would make a fire while my co-counselor, the camp nurse, and her children cooked dinner in the dining hall. These friendships, they weren’t based on compatibility. They were based on a lifestyle. Quakerism doesn’t choose you. You choose it. No one comes knocking on your door saying, “Please consider joining the Society of Friends or you’re going to Hell.” I chose it because of our Sunday summer meetings in the woods. I found myself, as a ten-year-old child, and I found myself every summer after that.

You would think that, with the Quaker emphasis on personal connection, social media would allow me to feel more connected than ever, but I don’t. I have begun to realize that in my online world—reading about activism rather than enacting change, messaging my friends rather than reading with them—my connections are fleeting, shallow, and deceptively lonely. When people ask me if I’m a Quaker, I say yes. But then I think, Am I? Two years ago, I was. I felt like one. Last summer I sat in a meetinghouse in Burlington, Vermont, and I felt wholly Quaker. After one meeting, an elderly woman shared her son’s heartbreaking battle with Leukemia, similar to one my sister has fought. I didn’t know this woman, but she wrote down her number. “Call me any time,” she said. That was the kind of community I was a part of. But am I still? Can I be a Quaker without a community? Can I be a Quaker when I would rather watch The Young Turks call out Donald Trump’s psychopathy than venture into the living room to share that space with my roommate? Can I be a Quaker when I make more eye contact with my laptop screen than the girl I’ve lived with for the past two years? One night, I heard my roommate crying. I looked up from my BuzzFeed video in alarm. But then I remembered her words from the previous night: “You’re being overdramatic.” I’d come to her to confide something, and she’d shut me down. I hovered my finger above the button to pause the video, but her betrayal the night before filled me up like smoke, and I returned my eyes to my screen. I was not proud of myself. Forgiving is a virtue, giving is essential, and I felt in that moment like I had forgotten how to do both. As children in Maryland, my friends and I would take pens and a pocketknife

(left & right) © dolphfyn / Shutterstock.com (center) © Dewayne Flowers / Shutterstock.com

When I tell people that I am Quaker, I frequently get asked, “Do Quakers reject technology?” I think that it is less that they reject technology and more that they—we—are wary of its influence. In Stranger Things, the Netflix original series, the main characters discover an alternative world called “The Upside Down.” It mirrors the real world, but in a way that reflects the antithesis of the real world. Its ugly side. And unfortunately, the way I use Facebook reflects The Upside Down of the Quaker ideals I have come to love: presence in the moment, conscientiousness in my relationships. When I write (when I actually write, which is not often nowadays), I write until I am satisfied. My thoughts have a certain rhythm. But I don’t feel my writing anymore. When I open my copy of The Essential Rumi, I remember how I used to read it at camp, but that has changed, too. Once, my friend and I sat on a bridge above a small stream, surrounded by the green forests of beech, birch, and sassafras. There, we talked about our lives, and I read from Khalil Gibran’s “On Joy and Sorrow.” In that time of my life, reading, writing, talking, and making art were meditative. Now, when I am on Facebook, everything is noise. The memes demand a smirk, the Vines replay without prompt, and the dramatic headlines shamelessly offer click bait. Everything is screaming, “Look at me!” There is no silence in Facebook. When two Quakers sit together, the silence is so present that you can feel it open awareness between them. It’s a holistic type of being together. I used to sit at Red Emma’s, a coffee shop on North Avenue, to have a cup of tea with a friend. Our conversations could last for hours. But the conversation didn’t define those afternoons. Rather, it was the idleness between the anecdotes. The sunlight through the glass panes. The way the steam rose between us.

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and carve our names into drawings that looked like trees, under quotes from Rumi. Back then, I used Rumi’s words to reflect how I lived, not to remind me how I should. Joni Mitchell sings, “We can’t return we can only look / Behind from where we came / And go round and round and round / In the circle game.” Nowadays, I am less bothered by the fluctuations of who I am and who I’m not. And yet, throughout the years since those summer camps, there have been times when I felt like I was cupping my hands, trying to hold some form of myself in my fingers, only to watch it slip away. I thought that if I let it out, it would be gone forever. It would mean that I was fundamentally changed. But every time

that worry emerges, something in my environment shifts—my friends, my city, my memories—and I find that part of myself again. Today, I don’t see the changes in me as linear. I am all that I have ever been. As contexts change, I will meet parts of myself over and over. I am Quaker today in an imperfect way. I think Joni Mitchell’s song applies to me: my life is a circle game. There will always be seasons in which I feel close to Quakerism and others when I will feel more detached. And like circles, change is infinite. Nothing is permanently left behind. Some days, at my lowest, I still feel like Quakerism evades me. But maybe it’s not crouching in exile. Maybe it’s just waiting patiently for me to come home.

I think Joni Mitchell’s song applies to me: my life is a circle game. There will always be seasons in which I feel close to Quakerism and others when I will feel more detached. And like circles, change is infinite.

Opening images on page 51 © Fotovika / Shutterstock.com & © JaysonPhotography / Shutterstock.com

WRIT LARGE: 2017

Lena Kern is a senior from Baltimore, Maryland. She plans to graduate in the spring with a double major in International Studies and Psychology. Her favorite hobbies include camping, snowboarding, and crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay.

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR This is an adaptation of an essay initially submitted for my WRIT 1122 course. The assignment was to write about a unique way that I interact with technology in my life. The only thing I could think of was my struggle between my Quaker ideals and my actual behavior. The hardest thing about adapting this piece for WRIT Large was entering again into my mindset of last year. Since that time, my circumstances have changed, my relationships have developed, and my attitudes toward the fluidity of identity have evolved, as well.

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Jake Kerr

ASEM (Biological Sciences) Bioethics in Today’s Society | Professor Lawrence Berliner

INTRODUCTION BOKANOVSKY’S PROCESS WAS INTRODUCED TO THE world by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel Brave New World. This fictional technique of human cloning and genetic engineering riveted the imagination of our society. The Process is described as such: “a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress” (Huxley). Even more riveting were the implications of such a technique, which gave scientists the ability to control the development of these embryos, physiologically and intellectually. The result was the formation of a tiered caste system, based on intelligence and physical fitness, which determined one’s role in society. Sleep hypnosis, or “hypnopaedia,” was used to further solidify the acceptance of these castes. Children are programmed to recite their Class Consciousness proverbs: “Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse” (Huxley).

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genetic eugenics in the not-too-distant future. In the film, biometric registries classify “valids” and “in-valids” based on their genetic makeup, thus either qualifying them for high-level occupations or assigning them to more menial tasks. These fictional representations of science going too far provide humbling and thought-provoking cultural narratives. By imagining worlds that could be, we explore the ethical pitfalls that could eventually lead us to these dystopian futures. Pondering the ethical use of emerging technologies in this way should be encouraged. However, we must avoid taking these fictional scenarios as accurate predictions of our future.

(left) © Chris Drumm / Flickr.com/photos/cdrummbks (center) © Dale Chumbley / Flickr.com/photos/dalechumbley (right) © Moshe Reuveni / Flickr.com/photos/reuvenim

An entertaining social commentary about a dystopian society whose scientific progress rots a civilization from the inside out, Brave New World shows the dangers of omitting moral dialogue from technological advancement. This disturbing prediction about humankind’s possible future still raises concerns for many about the direction of our evolution, especially considering the new developments in biotechnology in the past several decades. But are these concerns that still haunt us more than 80 years later viable, or are they simply stemming from a paranoid fascination with dystopian expectations? In the middle of the twentieth century, DNA was discovered to be the fabric of all genetic material, the building block of life. With this discovery came vast new scientific progress, inventions, medical breakthroughs, and above all the ability to manipulate nature on a molecular level. Geneticists and researchers from around the world are treating diseases, improving health, and finding new ways to grant life to those who previously would have had little hope of survival. At the same time, the possibility of creating “designer babies,” who are genetically modified to be smarter, more attractive, more athletic, and more disease resistant might be just around the corner. As technology advances, medical benefits clearly grow, but so do other potential uses of genetic engineering that can stoke the flames of public fear. For nearly a century, futuristic technologies of genetic trait selection and manipulation have been conceptualized in numerous forms of popular media, art, literature, and film. For some, contemporary developments in genetic engineering make fictional dystopias like Huxley’s Brave New World look like possible realities. Andrew Nichols’ 1997 film Gattaca also explores a world shaped by

By imagining worlds that could be, we explore the ethical pitfalls that could eventually lead us to these dystopian futures. Pondering the ethical use of emerging technologies in this way should be encouraged. However, we must avoid taking these fictional scenarios as accurate predictions of our future.

News stories from around the world speak of how close we could be to these dystopian futures. Organizations such as the Campaign Against Human Genetic Engineering warn of the inability to control or regulate such technology and advise against “playing God.” They call for an international ban of most genetic engineering practices, claiming that it will only lead to the creation of eugenic societies (King). Brendan Foht writes in The National Review that “[c]onservatives and today’s progressives ought to share a concern about VOLUME 6

the risks of a potential new type of eugenics to harm minorities and the disabled.” Even Daniel Kevles, a historian at Yale University, reminds attendees at a gene-editing summit in late 2015, “Eugenics was not unique to the Nazis…It could—and did—happen everywhere” (qtd. in Lewis). Clearly, there is a deeply rooted concern that genetic manipulation can lead to eugenics or classist societies where one’s genotype rules their social status. But can and will genetic engineering truly lead to the futures that Huxley and many others have often portrayed? Overwhelmingly, I am inclined to say no. Our technologies are decades if not centuries away from being able to rewrite a genome completely and create a true “designer baby,” and we would need more than the advancement of technology in order to live within one of these dystopian worlds. We would also require the complete regression of current law. The severe lack of morality in these fictional worlds defies all sorts of logical human capability in deteriorating our values in human rights. Paranoia must not be the leading motivation for our decisions, especially when the very obvious benefits of genetic engineering outweigh the potential and unlikely risks of eugenics. These fears speak to the overall lack of knowledge of this emerging field. It is time to move the conversation about genetic engineering from the realm of dystopian fear and back into the realm of rational discussion. When we start to pay attention to the experts in the field (e.g., medical practitioners, geneticists, biomedical engineers), we discover that there is a much more rational, balanced, and sensible conversation going on. Yes, there are many ethical implications around genetic engineering. But we need to set aside the fear and paranoia that have been planted in our minds by the media. Instead of allowing these nightmares

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to control our thoughts, we need to take a step back to have a rational and critical conversation about what we can currently do, what we may be able to do in the future, and how we can analyze the more likely ethical implications of such technology. In the words of CRISPR co-inventor Dr. Jennifer Doudna: “We can now edit our DNA. Let’s do it wisely” (2015). As Doudna suggests, we need to open a dialogue that avoids the fear of prospective technologies and takes seriously the more realistic ethical implications of how a patient or a society might be affected by scientific advancements.

MODERN TECHNOLOGIES In order to better consider these ethical implications, it is important to address the current state of genetic science and observe how the trajectory of genetic manipulation diverges from science fiction. As previously mentioned, we are decades away from possessing the ability to build a designer baby. Thus, we should analyze the ethical implications of the technologies we have now and plan to have in the next several years. This will shift the debate into the more realistic realm of ethical considerations. Moving forward, I will discuss two key technologies, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), and I will analyze their medical benefits and the ethical implications they pose. Invented in 1993, PGD is a form of prenatal diagnosis performed on embryos prior to implantation on the uterine wall. Through this process, scientists are able to select embryos produced via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) that are free of particular genetic diseases or chromosomal abnormalities in order to maximize the outcome of the IVF (Stern). According to Dr. Harvey Stern at the

Genetics & IVF Institute, patients who receive this treatment are typically women or couples whose child may be at risk for various genetic disorders or may be infected with a condition that would be highly detrimental to the health of the infant. More often than not, PGD is performed when an at-risk embryo is identified. Action is usually taken if the identified genetic disease or condition will significantly reduce the lifespan or wellbeing of the child. While this technique cannot yet be used to remove harmful genes or repair genetic mutations, Stern states that this process is important in that pregnant women can “preferentially use embryos that are predicted not to be defective.” In other words, PGD gives patients the option to either keep or discard human embryos based on their genetic traits. While PGD is now commonly used in situations involving high-risk patients, perhaps the more significant genetic manipulation technique is CRISPR Cas9. Nothing short of the most promising new genomic editing procedure, CRIPSR enables researchers to modify the genetic code of food, animals, and even humans. By first modifying the DNA of a virus cell, genetic information can be delivered to an individual target cell, where a special protein known as a Cas9 nuclease will cut the cell’s genome at a desired location. This allows scientists to delete or insert specific segments of DNA with incredible precision. This technology has already been used to change the DNA in mice, monkeys, and plants. Scientists in Philadelphia have shown that they are able to remove integrated viral DNA human cells infected with

HIV, providing new treatments that reduce damage caused by the virus. Scientists around the world are now beginning to use CRISPR to change the individual genome of human embryos. While CRISPR has given us the ability to modify our DNA, current testing in humans is very limited, especially in the US, where federal regulations and medical ethics boards treat the technology with great sensitivity. While several experiments are already being conducted in China, a country with historically less regulation around biotechnology, the first clinical trial using CRISPR in the US was only just approved by a federal biosafety and ethics panel in June 2016. This University of Pennsylvania study uses CRISPR to genetically alter immune cells known as T-helper cells in order to more effectively battle several kinds of cancer. In addition to the panel’s initial approval, this research still requires the consent of the Food and Drug Administration as well as the medical centers where the research will be conducted. If the study gets the green light from these entities, it would be the very first of its kind and would mark a new age of genetic engineering in humans (Begley). Both PGD and CRISPR illustrate the incredible medical benefits of genetic engineering. However, with a technology this important and powerful, scientists, politicians, and other groups around the world are keeping a close eye on the implications this technology has for our society. Even Jennifer Doudna has publically called for a “global conversation” to consider all of the ethical and societal implications of such technology. VOLUME 6

CURRENT MEDICAL BENEFITS X-SCID

A genetic condition known as X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency disorder (X-SCID) is an X-chromosome mutation that results in the complete knockout of the immune system (Allenspach Rawlings, and Scharenberg, 2015). Individuals with this genetic disorder live a maximum of 12-14 years, and only under the strict supervision of medical professionals. Children with this disease are commonly known as “bubble” children, because they must be separated from most human contact in order to avoid the risk of fatal infections. As a genetic recessive sex-linked disease, X-SCID occurs exclusively in males, with rare exceptions. While females have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), males have two distinct sex chromosomes (XY). With only one copy of the X-chromosome, males need only one recessive allele to get the disease. Doctors who have discovered the presence of the X-SCID trait through PGD analysis have previously recommended that the embryo be destroyed (Allenspach, Rawlings, and Scharenberg, 2015). However, with modern advancements in genetic manipulation, scientists are now able to remove the Y-chromosome of the embryo and replace it with an X-chromosome, thus avoiding this fatal condition. During the procedure, the biological gender of the embryo will change from male to female. While the living child will still be a carrier for the disease (i.e., having the ability to pass the disease down to their offspring), she will not have it.

The idea of “selecting, not perfecting” is now a fairly common maxim used by doctors in this field... [taking] PGD as a form of “passive engineering.” If we are able to harness its abilities for the medical benevolence that it offers, medical professionals will use it.

X-SCID is a rare genetic disorder, but it is an example that highlights the possibilities of future applications for PGD. Many other diseases, such as hemophilia A and B, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, affect one biological gender with a higher frequency than the 60

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other (Aghajanova). By learning how these genetics affect our susceptibility to certain diseases, we will be able to significantly reduce the likelihood of an individual being diagnosed with such a disease after a simple genetic screening and subsequent manipulation. At a 2013 scientific convention regarding this technology, the Director of the Office of Science Quality and Integrity, Dr. Alan Thornhill, gave a speech titled, “Genetic Testing in Assisted Reproduction: Selecting, Not Perfecting?” in which he describes science’s duty not to select for or against certain traits using this technology. The idea of “selecting, not perfecting” is now a fairly common maxim used by doctors in this field. Convention correspondent Stephanie Saulter recounts the overwhelming agreement to Dr. Thornhill’s statements. She recounts, “To the best of my recollection, no one in the audience argued that the illnesses PGD can detect should not be prevented wherever possible” (Saulter). She later stated that the sentiment of the convention took PGD as a form of “passive engineering.” In other words, if we are able to harness its abilities for the medical benevolence that it offers, medical professionals will use it. BRCA GENES

While PGD provides one of the most accurate and effective forms of genetic testing and manipulation in human embryos, many other non-embryonic genetic tests exist. We can detect many genetic variations quickly and accurately. Once detected, the goal is that CRISPR will eventually be able to remove faulty or defective genes and replace them with healthy ones. One very common genetic test is for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These genes are responsible for the production of special tumor suppressant proteins that help repair damaged DNA. If either of these genes are mutated or otherwise altered, the proteins will not be properly produced. Damaged DNA may not be repaired properly, resulting in the increased likelihood of genetic alterations that lead to cancer. Unfortunately, many genetic mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are heritable; they are passed down from generation to generation. These specific inherited mutations significantly increase the risk of female breast and ovarian cancer. In fact, mutations of these genes account for between 20-25% of all cases of

of our DNA’s role in our susceptibility to particular diseases continues to grow exponentially. A very real medical benefit of having the ability to modify our DNA is the reduction of mutations in the human gene pool that increase our risk for life threatening or debilitating diseases. If we have the knowledge of how our genes increase disease risk, the obvious next step is to utilize technology like CRISPR to remove these genetic problems and make the entire population healthier. We are virtually creating a genetic vaccine with the potential to drastically lower, if not eliminate, the rates of harmful diseases in our species.

hereditary breast cancer (Easton), nearly 10% of all breast cancers (Campeau, Foulkes, and Tischkowitz), and about 15% of all ovarian cancer (Pal, Permuth-Wey, Betts, et al.). About 12% of women in the general population will develop breast cancer at some point during their lives. This statistic skyrockets to about 60% for women who inherit a BRCA1 mutation. Women with this mutation are also 30 times more likely to develop ovarian cancer (National Cancer Institute). Currently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends women who have a family history of breast, ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer to be evaluated by a genetic counselor to determine if a harmful mutation is present. When a mutation has been identified, consistent medical attention can help spot cancerous tumors at early stages of development. Years from now, mutations of these genes will be corrected before birth, and the rate of mutation for these genes will decrease dramatically. CRISPR will theoretically allow scientists to compare the healthy BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene sequences to those of a mutated gene. When a harmful mutation has been identified, it will be removed and replaced with a healthy version of the same gene. Not only will this reduce the susceptibility of breast and ovarian cancer in the specific individual, but the same individual will now no longer be able to pass on a mutated form of the gene to their offspring. After many generations, this genetic defect will be almost completely eradicated from the population. Our knowledge of BRCA1 and BRCA2 extends much further than most other cancer-causing mutations. As new research is conducted, more specific genetic combinations are being linked to the increased risk for many diseases: from cancer to Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s disease. Knowledge

TELOMERES AND AGING

This is only the beginning of the future medical benefits of our genetic engineering. Many believe that genetic manipulation will eventually slow the effects of aging. In recent years, there has been growing evidence to suggest that telomere length can affect the pace of aging and the onset of age-associated diseases (Shammas). Telomeres are long, repetitive sequences of DNA at the very tips of a chromosome. They protect the important information within our genetic data and make it possible for cells to divide. Telomeres have been compared to the plastic tips of shoelaces because they prevent the ends of chromosomes from fraying or sticking together. However, each time a cell divides, the telomeres shorten in length. When they get too short, it will cut into the genetic data and prevent the cell from dividing. The cell either dies or is rendered “senescent.” Research has shown that this shortening process is associated with aging, cancer, and an increased risk of death. Geneticists at the University of Utah have found that people over the age of sixty with short telomeres are three times more likely to die from heart disease and also VOLUME 6

more likely to die from infectious disease. In a way, the telomere is like a genetic bomb fuse (Genetic Science). An enzyme known as telomerase extends the length of telomeres and, in young cells, keeps the telomeres from wearing down. As cells begin to divide repeatedly, there is not enough telomerase, so the telomeres will shorten. In cancer cells, the cell divides uncontrollably, resulting in the enhanced shortening of telomeres. Sometimes, this can cause death in the cancer cell. However, the cancer cell will often escape this fate by producing more telomerase enzymes at an increased rate, resulting in slower cell death and a more deadly disease. Telomerase production has also been known to actually make some lines of cancer cells immortal. An immortal line of non-cancerous cells is yet to be made. However, Dr. Richard Cawthon, a geneticist at the University of Utah, explains the potential medical benefits of this: If we used telomerase to ‘immortalize’ human cells, we may be able to mass produce cells for transplantation, including insulin-producing cells to cure diabetes, muscle cells for treating muscular dystrophy, cartilage cells for certain kinds of arthritis, and skin cells for healing severe burns and wounds. An unlimited supply of normal human cells grown in the laboratory would also help efforts to test new drugs and gene therapies. (Genetic Science) The medical benefits of harnessing our body’s use of telomerase to prevent aging and disease are immeasurable. Entire organs could be built for the purposes of transplantation, and providing samples of human cells to pharmaceutical laboratories would vastly increase the effectiveness of medications and decrease side effects and time-to-market.

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REFLECTION ON THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES X-SCID AND PGD IMPLICATIONS

An article in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics outlines a hypothetical scenario in which a couple goes to a doctor and asks the doctor to ensure that their next child is a boy. The doctor replies that gender selections have been made for patients in the past, but only on grounds of potential medical conditions associated with a particular sex. The couple pushes that they are interested in having a boy so that the father can take him fishing and play baseball with him. This commentary, written by Dr. Lusine Aghajanova, outlines the ethical dangers of selecting sex. Aghajanova states, “One of the concerns of elective sex selection is sex discrimination that results in an imbalance in the sex ratio within a given society. This already exists in China and India, where male children are particularly favored” (Aghajanova). No doubt, PGD sex selection, which has increased to nearly 100% accuracy, has the potential to contribute to gender imbalances and gender-based discrimination. Sex selection for sex-linked disease prevention is well established and widely used, but the non-medical reasons are the area of continuing debate. The lack of regulation in many countries, especially the US, needs to be modified to address these issues of potential gender bias. Non-medical sex selection needs to be extremely well regulated, and legislators need to work together with doctors to come up with solutions to find the exceptions on when elected selection will be used appropriately. Expanding and improving legislation on this issue will help prevent the scientific and medical expansion of gender bias. Aghajanova notes the perspective of Dr. Mark Hughes, “one of the pioneers of

PGD in the US,” who states that ‘“[y]our gender is not a disease, last time I checked. There’s no pathology. There’s no suffering. There’s no illness. And I don’t think doctors have any business being there.”

BRCA AND OTHER GENE-EDITING IMPLICATIONS Similar to selecting an embryo based on its phenotypic profile (i.e., its gender, appearance) with PGD, CRISPR provides us with the potential to select or change an embryo based on the genotypic profile (i.e., the actual genetic code within the DNA) and thus raises additional ethical considerations. True genomic discrimination or bias does not yet exist; that is, we don’t judge others based on the combination of nucleic acids that make up their DNA. Instead, current discrimination and marginalization are mostly based on physical appearance or outward personality traits. However, genetic testing is now becoming increasingly affordable, with some full genomic analyses costing around $100. Many scientists anticipate that genetic testing will become a standard medical practice for physicians and geneticists within the next decade. Most people will then have an entire script of their genetic code integrated into their medical records for their doctors to read. While this will begin to help physicians determine the most effective treatments for their patients, there is always the risk that this information could fall into the hands of insurance companies. If this happens, it may be likely that insurance companies will use the genetic code of a patient to either include or deny coverage. This is because genetic susceptibility to disease is not necessarily considered a pre-existing condition. Contemporary legislation has changed definitions of pre-existing conditions to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage on this basis. As

a legal gray area, genetic mutation doesn’t guarantee that an individual will ever get the condition or disease; it just increases the likelihood of being diagnosed. As the law slowly catches up with science, there is the potential for abuse, and people with an unfortunate genetic makeup could be denied medical insurance coverage. Once more significant genetic engineering begins to occur, such as editing mutated BRCA genes, an additional problem is apparent. Those who have not received any form of genetic manipulation could become a liability to insurance companies. They may carry increased risks of life-threatening diseases and become a burden on the healthcare system. Because these individuals are not genetically altered to reduce disease susceptibility, insurance companies may have the opportunity to charge greater premiums or reduce coverage. This could become a major problem since the people who are unable to receive the genetic manipulation treatments in the first place will likely be less affluent and therefore potentially marginalized even further. Regardless, issues of potential insurance and healthcare marginalization will not likely lead to genetic classism. These real complications and concerns hardly represent the dystopian fantasies that feed our paranoia.

GENETICALLY INCREASING TELOMERASE PRODUCTION AND THE EFFECTS OF REDUCED AGING Virtually the entire goal of modern medicine is to increase the lifespan of human beings and increase the overall health of the public. Aging remains something not fully understood. If theories around telomeres and telomerase are correct, then stopping telomere shortening could add between 10 and 30 years to our lifetime. To many in the medical VOLUME 6

Based on the average lifespan in the US of 78.7 years, according to WorldBank.

community, this would represent a pivotal breakthrough. But there are also many social implications that come with such increased lifespans. As the population grows from seven to ten billion people by 2050 (United Nations), overpopulation will continue to threaten the planet. If we suddenly increase the human lifespan by 13% to 38%,1 the global population will increase at an accelerated pace. Affluent societies that have the means to genetically improve telomerase activity would be affected the most.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS The genetic code of an organism represents the precise combination of traits passed down by generations of ancestors, selectively chosen through a process known as natural selection. Our DNA is a remnant of all of our evolutionary ancestors. While it changes very little from one generation to the next, hundreds of millions of years of change and mutation, selected for changes in an organism’s environment, result in new species. New generations develop the genetic makeup to increase their “fitness” (i.e., their ability to pass their genes down to the next generation). Through natural selection, unfit organisms will slowly die off and have their genetic code removed from the species. Those who survive will be left with more relevant genes that will improve their likelihood of survival.

Genetic manipulation represents a new frontier in health innovation and biotechnology.... We must determine how to regulate these new developments effectively without sacrificing the very advancements that could improve human health.

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One of the gifts and curses of genetic modification is that by adding or removing genes that result in the addition of beneficial traits in humans, the overall human population will be better off. Increasing the inheritability of favorable traits, such as anti-cancer genes or higher levels of erythropoietin for endurance in sports, will result in entire lineages that possess these traits. Genetic diseases would become obsolete. Cancer rates would plummet by genetically bolstering cancer fighting parts of the body. This process, which I call “artificial evolution,” would cause our entire species to possess traits that increase our survivability and fitness. The pool of beneficial genetics would increase while the pool of detrimental genes would slowly fall away. Natural selection is a double-edged sword, however. We must consider what will happen to those individuals who are unable to receive genetic modification or are unlucky enough to not come from a genetically “superior” lineage. Certainly, they will be less fit—less able to survive. They will perish more easily, and therefore their genes will be removed from the human race. In terms of utilitarian ethics, this is perfectly reasonable. Introducing beneficial genes into a species so that one day all individuals might have that gene is justifiable, even if the genetically “inferior” suffer in term. While this may be considered ethical in a utilitarian lens, there are many problems with this argument. Consistent genetic engineering across many generations will result in non-genetically modified lineages going extinct. This means that in order to thrive in a world dominated by genetically modified humans, one must be modified in order to pass on one’s genes and extend the lineage. This may be the most overarching ethical issue regarding genetic engineering. If we are forced to

receive genetic engineering or risk our entire genetic lineage, those who choose not to be modified or do not have the means to receive genetic treatment will be significantly worse off. What emerges after all non-genetically modified humans have perished is a society with theoretically high disease resistance. But is this society worth having if it could mean the destruction or marginalization of all the lineages unable to receive genetic manipulation? Although a somewhat speculative argument, artificial evolution begins as a means to do good and provide something highly beneficial to an entire species but could still result in an entirely new form of discrimination. While this is not the same as eugenics on the basis of genotype, it is a utilitarian view on how this technology may affect the entire species over the course of a century or longer. However, even before artificial evolution begins, the practice of genetic manipulation could result in damage to the overall genetic diversity of the population. Genetic diversity is incredibly important as diversity makes a population more resistant to serious environmental changes or traumatic events that could wipe out a portion of the human population (e.g., a supervirus or an asteroid hitting Earth). The survival of the species relies on its ability to adapt. An example of this is sickle-cell anemia, which is a harmful genetic disease that reduces the ability of red blood cells to transport oxygen in the bloodstream. Individuals who have heterozygous alleles for the disease (i.e., one dominant non-anemic gene and one recessive anemic gene) are in fact highly protected against malaria, thus explaining the prevalence of this mutation in geographic regions where malaria is endemic (Instituto). If this gene is completely eradicated from the population, then our susceptibility to malaria increases dramatically. The final ethical concern concerns the safety of manipulating human genes. Chinese experiments using CRISPR have shown that the technology can adjust the DNA in human embryos effectively in a target site, but that this frequently causes unintended, â&#x20AC;&#x153;off-targetâ&#x20AC;? effects on various parts of the genome. These accidental changes can lead to genetic complications, which often can be fatal. There is currently not enough data on CRISPR studies to prevent this from happening indefinitely.

While the technology is improving, and this problem should not be a significant factor in decades to come, safety considerations need to be a priority for doctors and researchers using this technology on humans.

CONCLUSION While it is clear that the benefits of genetic engineering could change the entire healthcare industry and offer momentous improvements to the health of many people, many real ethical considerations exist. Their implications exist outside of the realm of science fiction; our technologies will not lead us down a path to genetic eugenics or a new caste system determined by DNA. However, concerns related to gender bias, genetic discrimination, health insurance, overpopulation, and artificial evolution are matters that the public must not only be aware of but also address before they become serious problems. The time has come to reject our fears and paranoia, which stems from the media and dystopian science fiction, and have serious discussions about the real and logical implications of these emerging technologies. In closing, genetic manipulation represents a new frontier in health innovation and biotechnology. Moving forward in a thoughtful and balanced manner will be no easy task, however. We must determine how to regulate these new developments effectively without sacrificing the very advancements that could improve human health. International communities must come together in order to decide who will receive genetic manipulation and how it will be fairly used. The public needs to move the conversation out of the realm of science fiction and into the realm of critical thinking and rationality in order to better communicate with the doctors and lawyers who must deal with the ethical issues surrounding this new technology. Though we are decades away from being able to fully implement this technology, these ethical considerations need to begin to be addressed today. However, falling into the trap of using dystopian literature or cinema as our basis for these ethical considerations will stunt the development of genetic engineering and delay its medical benefits from reaching the public.

Opening image on page 56 ÂŠ Chepko Danil Vitalevich / Shutterstock.com

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WORKS CITED Aghajanova, Lusine. “Sex Selection For Nonhealth-Related Reasons.” American Medical Association (AMA) Journal of Ethics 14.2 (2012): 105–11. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

Allenspach, Eric, David J. Rawlings, and Andrew Scharenberg. “X-Linked Severe Combined Immunodeficiency.” University of Washington, Seattle, 2015. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

Begley, Sharon. “Federal Panel Approves First Use of CRISPR in Humans.” Stat. Stat, 21 Jun. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Campeau, Philippe M., William D. Foulkes, and Marc D. Tischkowitz. “Hereditary Breast Cancer: New Genetic Developments, New Therapeutic Avenues. Human Genetics 124.1 (2008): 31–42.

Doudna, Jennifer. “We Can Now Edit Our DNA. But Let’s Do It Wisely.” TED. TED, 2015. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

Easton, Douglas F. “How Many More Breast Cancer Predisposition Genes Are There?” Breast Cancer Research 1.1 (1999): 14–17.

Foht, Brendan. “The Case Against Human Gene Editing.” National Review. National Review, 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. 1932. Archive.org, nd. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia. “Mystery Solved: How Sickle Hemoglobin Protects Against Malaria.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 April 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

King, David. “The Threat of Human Genetic Engineering.” Human Genetics Alert, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Lewis, Tanya. “There Are Really Good Reasons Why We Should—and Shouldn’t—Genetically Engineer Human Embryos.” Business Insider. Business Insider.org, 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Miller, Seumas, and Michael J. Selgelid. “Ethical And Philosophical Consideration Of The Dual-Use Dilemma in The

Biological Sciences.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. US National Library of Medicine, 2007. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

National Cancer Institute. “BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing.” National Cancer Institute. National Institute of Health, 1 Apr. 2015. Web. 10 Nov 2016.

Pal, Tuya, Jenny Permuth-Wey, Judith A. Betts, Jeffrey P. Krischer, James Florica, Hector Arango, James LaPolla, et al. “BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutations Account for a Large Proportion of Ovarian Carcinoma Cases.” Cancer 104.12 (2005): 2807–816.

Saulter, Stephanie. “Trusting The Future? Ethics Of Human Genetic Modification.” LiveScience. LiveScience, 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

Shammas, Masood A. “Telemores, Lifestyle, Cancer, and Aging.” Current Opinions in Clinical Nutrition Metabolic Care 14.1 (2011): 28–34.

Shellenbarger, Sue. “On The Job, Beauty Is More Than Skin-Deep.” Wall Street Journal. WSJ.org, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Stern, Harvey. “What Is PGD?” Genetics & IVF Institute. Genetics & IVF Institute, 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

Thornhill, Alan. “Genetic Testing In Assisted Reproduction: Selecting, Not Perfecting?” British Library. British Library, 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

United Nations. “World Population Projected to Reach 9.7 Billion by 2050.” United Nations DESA. United Nations, 29 Jul. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

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Jake Kerr, originally from Evergreen, Colorado, graduated from the University of Denver in 2016 with a degree in Molecular Biology. He enjoys playing the guitar, skiing, rock climbing, and skinny dipping. Few people know that Jake has a birthmark shaped like Abraham Lincoln.

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR I wrote this piece for a bioethics class, a course I felt a compelling social responsibility to take. I am a technologist at heart, and after finishing my degree in molecular biology, this was even more apparent. I have always been obsessed with new innovations that will progress society and improve humanity. As I am also an entrepreneur, it is my dream to go into biomedical engineering to study immuno-oncology—manipulating the immune system to battle cancer—and to one day start my own company. Many of the aspects of immuno-oncology rely on genetic manipulation of white blood cells for treatments. After doing some research on the subject of genetic manipulation and engineering, I was immersed in the ethical debate that surrounded it. The classes I had taken on the subject of genetics outlined the leaps and bounds that have been made in the realm of science by understanding the foundation of life on a molecular level. I had been taught the medical benefits of genetics without the same diligence being given to the ethical issues. As somebody who wants to use genetic engineering to create new treatments and cure diseases, I felt that it was my responsibility to understand where the fear around this technology stems from and to

analyze important ethical questions in order to provide the most amount of good and the least amount of harm to my fellow humans. Through my research, I found that many of the tensions accompanying genetic engineering are derived from the perceptions of science we see in culture. Artwork, literature, movies, and media can occasionally shift our acuity away from rationality and further into the realm of paranoia. In this essay, I hoped to capture the critical arguments that surround genetic engineering and to move the dialogue away from the realm of fear and suspicion in order to resume a rational discussion on using this emergent technology wisely. It is time to disregard the dystopian worlds depicted by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell and involve everyone in the conversation regarding the very real medical benefits—and detriments—of such powerful, new technology. I am happy, and in fact eager, to discuss this piece and the ethical implications of genetic engineering more in depth with those who are interested. If you have questions, comments, or are interested in the dialogue, please email me at Jake.Kerr@du.edu.

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Translation

Soleil Kohl

WRIT 1733 Honors Writing | Professor David Daniels

1 A BODY IS A COMPOSITE. BONES AT THE BASE. 206. LIGaments connect them to joints. Layer upon layer of muscle for protection, the glue that holds it all together. Organs cradled: brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, liver, large and small intestines, bladder. Blood, pumped by the heart and transported by the intertwining circulatory system. Lungs holding air—in, out; inflate, deflate. Complexity encased in an equally intricate dermis. Body cloaked by the epidermis. Michelangelo began dissecting deceased bodies as early as 18. He kept it secret. No one at the time would approve—obviously sacrilege. Bodily fascination promoted with scalpels and knives. Exploration of the functional meat that makes us work. He guided his hands carefully over flesh, exploring the delicacy of skin and the sturdiness of muscle, trying to feel the once living sculpture that God created. “The kidneys… …are sophisticated trash collectors. …remove wastes and extra water from the blood to form urine.” “The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist. They are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of the spine. 68

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Every day, the two kidneys filter about 120 to 150 quarts of blood to produce about 1 to 2 quarts of urine, composed of wastes and extra fluid.” They are a major organ, and have a grasp over other bodily duties: “Kidneys have five main functions: removal of waste and extra fluid, control of blood pressure, the ability to make red blood cells, production of vitamin D to keep bones healthy, and control of pH levels.” In his 70s, Michelangelo was diagnosed with nephrolithiasis, commonly known as kidney stones. “[M]y health is in the condition, what with renal and urinary calculi, and pleurisy, that is the common lot of all old people.” It progressed and plagued him the rest of his life, an inescapable fate.

There is a kidney in God Separating the Waters from the Firmament:

Michelangelo’s obsession with anatomy is said to be reflected in his art. “Defying the church with science,” they say—The Creation of Adam is said to represent the human brain:

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Somehow I find the ambiguity sad. I watch water play. I answer my own answer. He was plagued by his stones: “Morning and evening for about two months I’ve been drinking the water from a spring about 40 miles from Rome, which breaks up the stone.” He found comfort: “I already have a wife who is too much for me; one who keeps me unceasingly struggling on. It is my art, and my works are my children.” “I burn, I consume myself, I cry; O sweet lot! and on this my heart is nourished. Does anyone live only on his death, On pain, and on sufferings, as I? Ah cruel bowman, you can tell exactly When to bring quiet to our anxious, brief Unhappiness, using your hand’s strength; For he who lives on death will never die.” Even God couldn’t stop Michelangelo’s depression. © Stavrida / Shutterstock.com

2 One day Cynde says, “Your dad wants to donate his body to science when he dies. This means that you won’t have an open-casket funeral or his ashes. Is that okay?” He wasn’t dead yet, but I felt that if he were, it would be fine. My dad once stole a human skull from the medical lab. He kept it secret. Whiter than bone should be—obviously bleached. Cranium held together with screws and hooks. Teeth falling out for years; only the most stubborn remain. He guides my hand with his and traces the riverbeds where veins and arteries once flowed, trying to transfer his years of medical knowledge through touch. My dad organizes his pills. There are four in each box for M, W, and F; an extra in T and TH. He is plagued by his stones: “The first thing I did when I was diagnosed with kidney stones was cut out all caffeine, like Coke and coffee, and start drinking a lot more water.” My dad once cut open a duck to give us an anatomy lesson. There were lots of animals living across lots of land. He wanted us to learn all about them. I remember sitting on the grass while he held the duck by its neck, guts on display. “This is the trachea, this is the esophagus….” I was mortified. 70

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Cynde once told me, “I have to go—if anything happens, call 9-1-1 immediately. I’m counting on you.” I held the phone and hesitated to dial while my father, discolored and pale, puked into the backyard. Michaelangelo wrote poems about dying: “The wind’s smoke, the sun’s shadow. We have been men like you, Just as you are, sad and merry, We are now, though, as you see, Earth in the sun, of life bereft. Everything must come to death.” My dad named me after the sun—a solar eclipse on my birthday gave him the opportunity to call me “soleil”—the thing the dark sky lacked. He thought a name made a difference. Everything must come to death. He is David. He creates himself in his art:

Intelligence leads to madness. When the puzzle cannot be solved, the intelligent are restless. It is a perpetual and cyclical frustration. Michelangelo knew what it was like. My father knows what it is like. Everything must come to death. He prefers cutting metal and acrylic paints. He relies on inspiration to strike him like lightning. He is an obsessive perfectionist; he does not stop until all is excellent. He translates the unattainable into everything he’s ever done.

Everything must come to death, so we make art. We make translations. We make the sun. VOLUME 6

3 Michelangelo cuts away the stone that is not the figure. I cut. I chop. I chip away. I leave only enough words for the figure. I leave only enough letters on the page for Beauty. I create a language.

I am keen. I do not like to be weighed down. I know perpetual, cyclical frustration. I am David’s artifact, his translation. “You are wonderful, my sweet Soleil.” I flower.

Then I consider my anatomy, subtle in its sprouting. Born into the sun; I cannot be the sun. I abandon science. I embrace the unkempt. I reflect on the language of light.

And still I know everything must come to death. And I am left to sort. And I piece together my relics. little sales of leather and such beautiful beautiful, beautiful beautiful—

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “Michelangelo began dissecting deceased bodies as early as 18…”

Eknoyan, Garabed. “Michelangelo: Art, Anatomy, and the Kidney.” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health 57.3 (2000): 1190–1201. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

“The kidneys…are sophisticated trash collectors…have five main functions”

“Your Kidneys and How They Work.” WebMD. WEBMD, Web. 18 Oct. 2016. “The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs…composed of wastes and extra fluid.”

“Your Kidneys and How They Work.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, May 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

“…my health is in the condition…”

Carden, Robert W. Michelangelo: A Record of His Life as Told in His Own Letters and Papers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. Print.

Graphic interpretations of The Creation of Adam and God Separating the Waters from the Firmament

Abrahams, Simon. “Quick Guide to the Sistine Chapel.” Every Painter Paints Himself. 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. “Morning and evening…”

Moran, Michael E. Urolithiasis: A Comprehensive History. New York: Springer, 2014. Print.

“I already have a wife…”

“I burn, I consume myself, I cry…”

“The wind’s smoke, the sun’s shadow…”

Wallace, William. Drawings, Poetry, and Miscellaneous Studies. New York: Garland P, 1995. Print.

“little sales of leather and such, beautiful beautiful, beautiful beautiful—” Stein, Gertrude. Tender Buttons. New York: Dover P, 1997. Print.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Soleil Kohl is a second-year student from Dallas, Texas, majoring in Emergent Digital Practices and Philosophy with minors in Mathematics, Leadership, and Writing. In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano, analyzing problems, and performing with DU’s premiere comedy improv team, Skintight Outrage. Soleil hates the laughing emoji with a burning passion because it depersonalizes people’s reactions to humor. Her largest personal goal is to understand people’s personal and social identities.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR There were not many rules for this WRIT 1733 project beyond “do research on something you care about.” I stumbled upon a study that discussed the possibility that Michelangelo’s (speculated) kidney problems influenced his art, and I immediately saw a connection between him and my father, who suffers from Chronic Kidney Disease. Both men are artists and fascinated by the human body. Both are plagued with kidney problems and their own psyche turning against them. Both are fathers of brilliance. This piece is an ode to my father, to myself, and to art. It is written by two writers—Soleil in the spring, and me presently—both equally important contributors. Last year, I had an engineering degree in mind, until I was slowly exposed to the humanities through WRIT 1122 and 1733. Writing’s introspective, critical, and messy nature allows me to explore the world and my place in it. I now “embrace the unkempt” and push to expand myself in all the disciplines I study. This paper is an expansion, too. My newfound love for writing comes, in part, from my friends and peers, specifically my good friend Aristotle, who always gives advice I need to hear and pushes me to flourish as a thinker. The wisdom I gather from others is the only wisdom I have, so to anyone who has ever challenged me, thank you. I want to continue to absorb literature to explore the deep realms of thought, and I hope to inspire others to think as much as I do.

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Kira Pratt

WRIT 1133 Research & Writing | Professor Kara Taczak

INTRODUCTION IN THE 1990s, R&B GROUP DESTINY’S CHILD DOMINATED the music industry, garnering Grammy acclaim and reaching the top spots of Billboard ’s music charts (“Beyoncé,” 2016). With hits like “Bootylicious” and “Say My Name,” the group commanded audiences across the nation. However, one member stood out among the allblack female trio. Beyoncé Knowles emerged as the singer destined for a lucrative solo career. Since her ascent to musical stardom, Beyoncé has made a name, a brand, and an empire for herself, becoming one of the foremost black artists of our generation. She has propelled herself to the apex of the music industry, breaking ground with her entrepreneurial prowess, philanthropic inclination, and undeniable artistry. Though she has often been reduced to the image of her diva-powered persona “Sasha Fierce,” she has consistently created songs and music videos that transcend triviality and incite discussion and controversy for their social implications. VOLUME 6

Captivating audiences across racial, ethnic, and class lines over two decades, the “conundrum of Beyoncé” amounts to this: that “she is for everyone, and yet she is not for everyone” (Blay, 2016). Even with her success, Beyoncé has not been shy to incorporate strong political messages into her music. Ranging in thematic content from feminism, embodied by “Run the World” (2011), to pointed challenges against the institutions of the state and the police, exemplified by “Superpower” (2013), “Beyoncé has always been political—you just didn’t notice” (Blay, 2016). Effectively, not until the release of “Formation” from the album Lemonade did Americans take notice of Beyoncé’s poignant imagery of black culture and the black experience in America. The project blatantly made references to black power and Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, and the Black Lives Matter movement—which has itself been an inflammatory topic over the last few years. After her Super Bowl performance of “Formation,” in which she and her dancers donned apparel reminiscent of the Black Panthers, the nation splintered, with some exalting the display and others denigrating it, calling it a “race-baiting stunt” of “hate speech and racism” (Moyer, 2016). And yet, as angered as some people were by the demonstration, Beyoncé continues to be largely idolized as an irreplaceable pop culture icon.

the races in America? Or have her recent projects, like “Formation” and Lemonade, driven a wedge between black and white audiences? These questions led me to review existing research that revealed a substantial gap in this area. While extensive examination has analyzed the singer from a feminist perspective, or even a black feminist perspective, studies focusing explicitly on Beyoncé’s impact on America’s understanding of race or race relations are virtually nonexistent. A few sources address Beyoncé’s impact on race in America, though they contextualize her with the newly established precedence of the Obamas, which ultimately misses the locus of my inquiry. The dearth of research on Beyoncé solely in a conversation of race therefore compelled me to conduct my own investigation into the topic, centered on the question: “How has the iconic power and influence of Beyoncé’s musical art affected race relations between black and white communities in America?” In the effort to corroborate my findings, I utilized secondary research based in studies of critical race theory, cultural theory, and “colorblind” contact theory. Although I was unable to identify a single, unilateral influence on race relations stemming from Beyoncé’s recent work, the collective assessments of the singer provided by the research results indicate positive prospects in terms of improving race relations. Too much concern regarding the evident lack of hegemonic impact by Beyoncé and her music fails to recognize the auxiliary role her artistic empire maintains in enabling discussion between black and white communities. Although the actual power of Beyoncé is remarkably different than that which I had initially assumed, it is nonetheless influential in encouraging progress for racial dynamics.

LITERATURE REVIEW LOCATING BEYONCÉ

The situation, then, is complicated and paradoxical. Is it that Americans—black and white alike—are listening and relating to the social justice messages purported in Beyoncé’s music? Can Beyoncé then be viewed as a political activist figure for social change? In assuming that role, can it be surmised that Beyoncé and her infectious music have facilitated the discussion and relation between 76

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While the singer appears to be what some have termed “ethnically ambiguous,” the majority of her racial lineage is black; her father is African American, and her mother is black Creole (Griffin, 2011, p. 137). As such, Beyoncé has often walked a fine line that has allowed her to transcend audiences and appeal to both black and white communities. As John Arlidge of The Guardian has remarked, “Beyoncé, a black American, often wears her hair

blond” (2004). Additionally, having grown up “relatively privileged, in...‘a dream house’...in the suburbs of Houston,” Beyoncé’s voice arguably “testifies only to anodyne suburbia” (Dubler, 2014, p. 390). Indeed, according to Farah Griffin, “Beyoncé fits within the niche of the fair-skinned, possibly mixed race, sexual beauty” (Griffin, 2011, p. 138). Moreover, “she is never heard lamenting the lack of options available to her because of her race” (Griffin, 2011, p. 138). Although this inoffensive, relatable presentation allows her to occupy a form of “model minority” status for white communities, it is criticized by some as behavior that perpetuates the ideology of “white washed” black people. In “Black Culture: A Societal Problem,” Quamesha Brown asserts that “[i]dealizing whiteness has been a problem in the black community since the demolishment of segregation” (Brown, 2015, p. 10). She explains that Since America is a country that relies heavily on physical attributes to determine if a person is worthy of value, black people have had to change qualities about themselves in an effort to have the nation place more value in them... the standard of beauty has been warped from a natural black look that celebrates beauty from the homeland to a more white washed version of blackness that attempts to imitate physical qualities of white people; some of those qualities being...lighter skin tones, straighter hair, and makeup that covers the natural sheen of black skin tones. Mass media has amplified the need for blacks to be closer to the white

ideal of beauty by having idols who are near to it such as the well-known singer Beyoncé. (Brown, 2015, p. 10)

Griffin reasons that this “veneration of mixed race identity may challenge white supremacist hierarchies, but it can also accommodate a continued degradation of blackness” (Griffin, 2011, p. 140). In Beyoncé, then, there is an apparent, inherent strain that exists between black and white communities. Based on the information above, white communities who praise Beyoncé mark her as an ideal for black communities, thus perpetuating the subjugation of the black race. However, I had conjectured at this point that this aesthetically placid, “white-washed” presentation of Beyoncé would be shattered by her recent influx of black images and references. Accordingly, I anticipated discordant reactions in the forthcoming evidence. “COLORBLIND” SOCIETY

Another level of comprehension that was necessary to consider for this analysis was the social climate surrounding Beyoncé—that is, to understand what ideological climate permeates the society examined in my primary research. Numerous scholars have put forth the notion of a “colorblind” society, moving toward an ideal of “ethnic ambiguity” in aesthetic appearance as well as cultural displays. As Arlidge describes it, “Trying to define people by the old race labels just doesn’t work any more [sic]...that doesn’t undermine the fact that culture and heritage are an integral part of life, but there is more to it than just VOLUME 6

colour” (Arlidge, 2004). But “[w]hile many blacks and Asians are casting aside the old ethnic labels as crude and outmoded, many white youngsters are embracing so-called ‘black’ lifestyle and culture in fashion, grooming, music, sport and language” (Arlidge, 2004). The question, then, is how this blending and sharing of cultures—this cross-racial, cross-cultural contact—impacts racial consciousness in national discussions of systemic racism. One research study that sought to analyze the most effective means for promoting antiracism argues that “due to the modern-day prevalence of colorblind racism, the impact of interracial contact on whites’ racial consciousness is limited” (O’Brien & Korgen, 2007, p. 356). Further, O’Brien and Korgen contend that “[e]ven when interracial contact is part of white antiracists’ experiences, it often is but one small step in a process of sensitization to an antiracist counterideology” (p. 356). Although under a colorblind culture “[t]he barriers between black and white” appear to be “really coming down” (Arlidge, 2004), the tendency is for a “minimization of racism” to occur (O’Brien & Korgen, 2007, p. 358). This phenomenon “is simply the outlook that racial discrimination is rare, and occurs only in isolated, fluke incidents, if at all...this frame is a major source of a great ‘perception gap’ between blacks and whites about the extent of contemporary discrimination” (O’Brien & Korgen, 2007, p. 359). In order to combat this disparity, the study indicates that interaction with an ideological source more influential than a friend of the opposite race, for example, is necessary. According to O’Brien and Korgen (2007), there are several ways to become antiracist outside of interracial contact. Other categories of influence involve “exposure to an alternative ideology—an ideology that explicitly acknowledge[s] power

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relationships in some way without seeking to minimize such relationships as the dominant colorblind discourse does” (p. 365). Actually, “artistic and political expressions of people of color (often in testimonial fashion) can have an effect similar to actual contact with whites in the antiracist process of sensitization” (O’Brien & Korgen, 2007, p. 370). In other words, cultural artifacts such as Beyoncé’s “Formation” and Lemonade, for example, are proven to be impactful for their alternative approaches to promoting an antiracist counterideology. Therefore, her recent projects could potentially encourage sensitization to the persisting race issues often glossed over by society’s colorblind lens. Perhaps, then, Beyoncé and her music can serve as constructive, intermediary forces to the benefit of race relations between blacks and whites in America. CULTURAL THEORY

Given the deficiency of information about Beyoncé’s influence on race, the final element that needed to be applied to this current inquiry was the field of critical race theory. Critical Race Theory includes the disciplines of Africana Critical Theory and Black Existential Philosophy. Between these two subcategories, there is a considerable amount of crossover; fundamentally, both are “concerned with the critique of Black subjugation and dehumanization” (Bassey, 2007, p. 916). They are methodologies “[t]o reclaim a centered place in economic, social, or political contexts,” by “first find[ing] centering in a (philosophical), cultural and psychological sense” (Bassey, 2007, p. 916). With concentrated energy devoted to the embrace of race-consciousness, Critical Race Theory aims to reexamine the terms by which race and racism have been negotiated in American consciousness, and to recover and

revitalize the radical tradition of race-consciousness among African Americans and other peoples of color—a tradition that was discarded when integration, assimilation and the ideal of color-blindness became the official norms of racial enlightenment.” (Rabaka, 2006, p. 40)

In effect, Critical Race Theory is the overarching, intellectual tool that enables and encourages persons of color to respond to and begin to reverse the trend of societal colorblindness. Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X—often alluded to by Beyoncé as of late—was one such advocate, “concerned about African American consciousness as a whole” and “the meaning of being Black in America” (Bassey, 2007, p. 919). He was a preeminent figure in the promotion of “cultural pride and the celebration of black people” as well as “Black cultural expression” (Bassey, 2007, p. 919). Along with him, esteemed black scholar W. E. B. DuBois also “urged...that African Americans ‘must develop their own distinct and ‘superior’ culture within the context of the American social system while simultaneously fighting to eliminate ‘the color line’—the social, political, economic, and legal barrier of racial segregation” (Dunn, as qtd. in Bassey, 2007, p. 928). Despite persistent opinions that “the way of life of black folk is no more than an imitation,” a distinguishable black subculture has emerged in society (Cole, 2014, p. 52). Converging on “the element of blackness”—a cornerstone of this subculture—are two “consistent and important themes in black American life...soul and style” (Cole, 2014, p. 53). To produce a dimensional representation of this defined black culture requires another integral aspect of critical race theory: the signifier. Stuart Hall has argued that Black culture, “[i]n its expressivity, its musicality, its orality, in its rich, deep, varied attention to speech, in its inflections toward the vernacular and the local, in its rich production of counter-narratives, and above all, in its metaphorical use of the musical vocabulary” (Hall, 2009, p. 378), often draws extensively from use of the black signifier. Henry Louis Gates has added that “[b]y supplanting [a] received term’s associated concept, the black vernacular tradition created a homonymic pun of the profoundest sort, thereby marking its sense of difference from the rest of the English community of speakers” and thus, forming the crux of the notion of signification (Gates, 1998, p. 47).

In laymen’s terms, “Signifyin(g)...is the figurative difference between the literal and the metaphorical, between surface and latent meaning” (Gates, 1998, p. 82)—a black rhetorical device (Gates, 1998, p. 75). It is exemplified in Beyoncé’s “Formation,” when she unabashedly asserts that “When he f**k me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster,” or when she celebrates her “Negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils” (Brown, Frost, Hogan, Mike Will Made It, & Knowles, 2016); they are clever nods to that which is inextricably black.

Stuart Hall has argued that Black culture, “[i]n its expressivity, its musicality, its orality, in its rich, deep, varied attention to speech, in its inflections toward the vernacular and the local, in its rich production of counter-narratives, and above all, in its metaphorical use of the musical vocabulary,” often draws extensively from use of the black signifier.

A project that is celebratory in its presentation of black culture aligns itself with Africana critical theory in its “emancipatory thought that ‘may be utilized to critique domination and discrimination and provide a basis for theory and praxis in the interest of liberation,’” according to Rabaka (as cited in Bassey, 2007, p. 932). Indeed, a central component of critical race theory’s criticism “is directed at the established order’s claims of colorblindness and racially-neutral rule” (Rabaka, 2006, p. 39). However, its tenets also acquiesce, acknowledging that “it will never be enough for the racially oppressed to repudiate racism” (Rabaka, 2006, p. 40). For that reason, it is crucial that Beyoncé’s artistic demonstrations incorporate critical race theory. According to Bassey, Black existential philosophy’s call “for recognizing the situation or lived-in context of Africana people’s being-in-theworld” and Africana critical theory’s collectivizing impetus formatted in a way that has been estimated to have a pointed impact on the “antiracist process of sensitization” is much more effective for combatting the intractability of colorblind rule (Bassey, 2007, p. 915; O’Brien & Korgen, 2007, p. 370). Beyoncé occupies this powerful intersection with a position not unlike those of the decades before her (e.g., James Brown, Aretha Franklin) who, as VOLUME 6

Gilroy observed, “[enjoyed] a public voice...to blend the contradictory elements of the Black Power movement into an uneasy unity and to create an anti-racist current among whites” (2009 p. 355).

METHODS Research for this project primarily consisted of the circulation of a survey to a total of 188 respondents and the organization of interviews with two experts on media and race. These approaches focused on obtaining qualitative measures of people’s reactions to Beyoncé and her music. Still, some questions utilized a quantitative approach, seeking a statistical value for the number of people who felt a certain way about the singer. Early in the process, I narrowed my survey subjects to a demographic most likely to engage meaningfully with Beyoncé—or at least be aware of popular culture conversations about her. Therefore, the sample population parameters were set to individuals eighteen-to-thirty-five years of age with an emphasis on those who identify as at least partially black or partially white. I operationalized the concept of “race relations” as the black/white binary in America because that was the glaring juxtaposition that developed from the initial release of “Formation.” Recognizing the demographic constraints of my immediate social environment in Denver, Colorado, though, I decided to make the survey inclusive of all racial identities. The concern

was that, if marginalized just to people who identify as white or black, the white population would overwhelm the black response, rendering any conversation about race relations invalid. Plus, I did not feel that a difference in racial identity connoted an unawareness of dynamics. With the desire to build an ample base of respondents, it did not make sense to exclude non-blacks and non-whites. As a result, the survey had a common question base up to a point, but it then diverged to accommodate for the differing experiences, perceptions, and attitudes of various racial identities and experiences. For scholarly insight for this research project, I interviewed Dr. Charles Benson,1 who is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies. His research “centers on the nexus of children’s culture and gender studies” and the socializing process that occurs through the diffusion of media to children. I also interviewed Dr. Kelsey Hughes,2 who, at the time, taught classes on race and popular culture, the rhetoric of consumption, and the foundations of communication. Her study of rhetoric centers on “understanding how messages persuade people—looking at a text and viewing what impact it has on people in the world” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Given their occupations within academia and the applicability of their concentrations to my topic, Dr. Benson and Dr. Hughes were unquestionably suitable experts for this endeavor. It was an added benefit that 1 2

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Name has been changed. Name has been changed.

RESULTS As I have previously qualified, the results of my surveys and interviews are complicated. One hundred and eighty-eight survey responses and two interviews produced a wide array of reactions and commentaries on Beyoncé, “Formation,” Lemonade, and contemporary issues surrounding race in America. Despite the inconclusiveness of the data, some prominent themes emerged with some interesting implications. To begin, the evidence demonstrates that the majority of the people who filled out the survey were people who were already somewhat inclined to be receptive to and recognize the importance of the racial themes and messages in Beyoncé’s work. Approximately 49% (n=86; N=177) of people surveyed submitted that they are “very conscious of race and the role it plays in shaping social interactions and outcomes.” Another 37% (n=65; N=177) answered that they are “aware of race” and they “somewhat understand the role it plays in shaping

social interactions and outcomes.” This coincides with the 99% (n=175; N=177) of respondents who recognize either lingering tensions between blacks and whites or the discernible presence of racism still today. Hence, the reason 72% (n=78; N=108) of respondents would feel comfortable to some extent “critically discussing the racial themes, images, and messages in ‘Formation’ and/or Lemonade with someone of the opposite race.” However, as Benson commented in his interview, he does not believe there will be any real consequences or social implications resulting from this latest episode of Beyoncé. He concedes: “We’ll talk about it vigorously in the Academy, and at faculty parties, but let’s be honest: the people who need to be talking about it won’t be” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Other data follow similar lines in finding the instigation of actual social change a dubious prospect. While Benson anticipates only a fleeting debacle in the media, he submits that, soon, “we’ll forget all about Lemonade to hurry up and talk about how ‘post-racial’ our society is” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Hughes, on the other hand, expects that “Beyoncé will be under scrutiny for a long time—especially by her white audiences” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Even so, she also perceives Beyoncé’s recent work as “[s]mall steps...that are going to have big consequences”; she argues that it will at least start people talking (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). One surveyor responded in kind, explaining that “Beyoncé is attempting to get her audience to question, think about, and respond to where we currently stand.” Another writes: “I find it hard to believe that her music alone covers the topic in a manner that opens and closes the debate,” though the respondent adds:

Benson, who identifies as a New Orleans Creole, or black male, could speak to that perspective, while Hughes, who identifies as a Caucasian female, could speak to that viewpoint. Interpretation of the data that I collected involved a system of coding. I began by color-coding interview transcripts, separating colors based on the themes that emerged in secondary research (enumerated above). Direct correlations—positive or negative—arose in many of the responses and were thusly coded together. Following that dissection, I read through each survey response and highlighted answers with parallels to that which had been stated in the interviews or discovered in the secondary research. The result is a close synthesis of the data obtained from each method.

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“I’m thrilled that a pop-star is tackling such an issue, and I would be interested to see other arguments/approaches from musicians.” Furthermore, the repetition of responses that denied an impact by Beyoncé on their “understanding[s] of—and feelings regarding—race” due to more substantial education or influence from other social agents reinforces the notion that, like Hughes says, not any “one single person can change race relations in America, or conversations about race relations in America” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Hughes explains: “In popular culture, change happens over time in small veins...Beyoncé is one voice and she’s the start of something...but I don’t think it will fall on her shoulders” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016).

While it may not bring the two communities together in absolute accordance, Beyoncé’s platform seems to open up a space which, in the words of one survey participant, “allows us to understand and talk about race more openly because of her influence in pop culture....”

Data also indicate that Beyoncé is as palatable as ever across racial lines. Although there is some contention between Benson’s and Hughes’s perceptions of the manner in which Beyoncé was able to cross over as a black artist into white audiences— Hughes attributing it to strategic “identity work” to appeal to white listeners, and Benson holding firm that “[she] crossed over to a white audience on black terms” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016; Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016)—the resounding answer from

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them along with those surveyed is that she inarguably did so. Based on survey responses, it would appear that Beyoncé has managed to form a sort of convergence point between black and white communities. Yet, about 70% (n=108; N=155) of respondents either feel neutral/unsure of or do not agree with the question, “Do you feel that you can relate to the other race (black/white) better because of/through Beyoncé and her music?” While it may not bring the two communities together in absolute accordance, Beyoncé’s platform seems to open up a space which, in the words of one survey participant, “allows us to understand and talk about race more openly because of her influence in pop culture,” and “in ways that are provocative, challenging, engaging, etc.” Overall, the primary research results turned out to be quite compelling, with several additional themes emerging within the survey and interview responses. Participants contributed thoughts regarding Beyoncé as a black woman and feminist, the increasing occurrences of black victimization through police brutality, and the consequence of a public figure like Beyoncé making politically charged statements on race in modern American society. Under different circumstances, some of these commentaries could provide substantive material for an intersectional-feminist analysis approach. Regarding the profuse mentions of the national prevalence of police brutality, survey participants covered both ends of the spectrum— some finding the black power imagery inflammatory and divisive and others praising its honest acknowledgement. Additionally, a theme connecting much of the discussion together was the consideration of Beyoncé’s position in society as a global superstar. A debate emerged across the responses as people considered

to be socially aware and sensitive for the purpose of fostering awareness and negating them as mere impositions of “the money making business.” In fact, one respondent criticized Beyoncé for “taking a stand now because she has a huge platform and... taking advantage and using it.” Whether or not the driving force behind “Formation” and Lemonade was monetary is unclear; in any case, the conversation spurred by the projects has provided significant stimulation for ensuing racial discussions.

what, exactly, was the driving force behind these recent projects. As one survey participant supposed, this media explosion from “Formation” and Lemonade was motivated by current events; before Trayvon Martin, the respondent stated, none of these projects would have been as easily accepted by the public. The participant claimed that there is “a time and place for everything,” and that its efficacy, now, is only pertinent due to recent racially charged events in America over the past few years. Hughes echoed this, expressing that “Before people could hear about these tragedies [like Ferguson], it was easier to write this off ” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). She reiterates the notion of strategy in both the artistic and political choices that Beyoncé has made throughout her career, emphasizing that “[t]he timing is just too perfect” for these creations to be happenstance (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Benson expressed his hope for the authenticity of the messages within the music and videos as “genuine social activism” that utilizes a “platform...for good” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Critically, though, he admits that “as a Frankfurt School-steeped media scholar” he has to acknowledge that “it’s also calculated for maximum salability.” He explains that “it’s a safe protest from a safe platform, produced by the culture industry in order for the masses to also participate safely in protest that does not actually directly challenge the system” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). On this matter, survey respondents were also conflicted between believing Beyoncé’s actions

DISCUSSION In terms of filling the gap of existing research about Beyoncé and race, it is hard to say that my project qualitatively achieved that. On one hand, I acquired substantial information about how Beyoncé is located in contemporary American society today—whether it is colorblind or not. Yet, as any media analyst would say, it is not operable nor quantifiable to measure the impact Beyoncé has had on any social force like race relations. That delves more into media theories that hypothesize whether media have a direct, “hypodermic needle” influence on consumers or a more negotiated meaning of the messages contained on behalf of the active viewer’s predispositions and social experiences. At some point in the conclusion of my findings in this project, it has to be enough to say that Beyoncé, at the very least, is getting people to talk about race. As Benson concludes: “Every artist that gets people talking openly about race, class, and gender in this society instead of pretending all three of those categories are ‘just fine’ is someone who is making VOLUME 6

a positive contribution to moving society forward” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Viewing the varied reception of Beyoncé’s depictions of black culture was particularly interesting. Before I divulge the data, I feel it is imperative to share an important thought from Stuart Hall, from the collection Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, as a reminder of the nature of popular culture. He cautions “that popular culture, commodified and stereotyped as it often is, is not at all, as we sometimes think of it, the arena where we find who we really are, the truth of our experience. It is an arena that is profoundly mythic” (Hall, 2009, p. 382). In extension, he explains that “[b]y definition, black popular culture is a contradictory space...a sight of strategic contestation” that “can never be simplified or explained in terms of the simple binary oppositions” that it is “habitually” reduced to (Hall, 2009, p. 378). These points are necessary to be mindful of because variances in reactions to Beyoncé and her projects are expected; however, those variances do not negate their influential power. Moreover, these songs and videos are not sites of reality; they re-present reality in a narrative meant to encourage social action. What is depicted in the imagery is not illustrative of the entire issue. These sentiments were tangibly reflected across the collection of data from primary research, as elements of Beyoncé’s work were admired by some and censured by others. One participant stated that “everyone goes through those struggles daily, especially in the black community,” and especially among black women, though another respondent expressed that Beyoncé’s depiction of black culture and the black experience were not entirely accurate because “she doesn’t perpetuate the ideas of all black people. Just the southern poor.” In fact, one

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respondent in the survey admitted a level of discomfort with how she uses language in the projects, “such as the word ‘negro.’” The individual feels that “she normalizes the use,” which “is negative for [the respondent] because it allows white people to think its [sic] okay to sing.” Conversely, Cole argues that this reclamation of the word is a rallying point for the black community (Cole, 2014). Ultimately, this space of contestation surrounding Beyoncé, “Formation,” and Lemonade reinforces that previously expressed “conundrum of Beyoncé” articulated by Blay: “that she is for everyone, and yet she is not for everyone” (Blay, 2016). Understandably, it may be this very contention—which is so central to Beyoncé’s art—that has contributed to tension within black and white audiences. Hughes says that “[Beyoncé’s] positioned in a place where so many different types of people love her,” though she recognizes a potential shock value in the release of these recent unapologetic displays of blackness (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). She qualifies her stance, adding “it shouldn’t be shock. We should have known all along that Beyoncé was black and probably had something to say...” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Benson, agreeing with the point that “we should have known” Beyoncé would have something to say rejects, however, that this whole episode was novel and revolutionary. He asserts that “the truth is, few artists have gotten away with being so unapologetic about blackness in white spaces with as much success as she has had” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). He continues: “I find the whole controversy over ‘Formation’ hilarious. White audiences were reminded that Beyoncé’s black and proud, and some didn’t like it very much” (Benson, personal

communication, May 9, 2016). Benson admonishes those who responded in shock for forgetting where Beyoncé comes from, underscoring that she is “a black woman with a black woman’s concerns about the world” (Benson, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Hughes places this struggle to negotiate this image of Beyoncé by some viewers as the perpetual “desire of us for her to perform whiteness” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). She even supports it with an instance in a class she was teaching about Beyoncé in which students rewrote the lyrics to “Formation” in ways white people could understood, replacing “Red Lobster” with “Denny’s,” for example (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016)—which, as an aside, I find to be a gross distortion. Some analysts declare that “If you want to participate, indulge, be entertained” by Beyoncé and her musical creations, “you must acknowledge black lives and black issues in the process” (Blay, 2016). And, to some extent, that is where that power stems from. Blay has proposed that Beyoncé has been playing the long game. She’s used her universal appeal to gain the kind of success that results in access and power. She’s situated herself so firmly at the top of the mainstream music food chain that no criticism...can stop her from making music that’s more blatantly black and blatantly political than ever. With this power comes a much wider reach, as her white fans, lured by the gospel of the “Independent Woman,” are being forced to engage with her blackness and black issues in a real way. (Blay, 2016) Hughes takes an identical position on the concept, claiming that she sees a strategic thread running throughout her career: “I think Beyoncé played the game—got her foot in the door, built up some power and can now speak her mind and be political about it” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). Regardless of whether or not she has “made racism grow in the United States” through a redefinition of racial lines that “[makes] us have to use race as something that defines us”—compared to an identity based in accomplishment—as one survey respondent articulated, Beyoncé has brought an element of visibility and recognition of race to the national consciousness that has the potential to grow through careful cultivation.

CONCLUSION As one survey participant declared, “There is a lack of knowledge about racism in America and to pretend it doesn’t exist or is a thing of the past needs to be reversed”; and, embodied in her recent projects, it seems that Beyoncé is “telling us colorblindness is not an option” (Hughes, personal communication, May 9, 2016). But whether or not Beyoncé’s recent music and videos have been potent in projecting this message is largely irrelevant in analytic discussion of her social influence. Studies exploring the significance of black-white contact in a “colorblind” society conjecture that direct interpersonal relations between races are not as impactful in reforming prejudice and biases as other social resources that espouse progressive and antiracist ideology (O’Brien & Korgen, 2007). This process of sensitization “can include experiences with other...faith-based organizations, antiracist organizations, and art/literature that makes problematic the dominant ideology” of racism (O’Brien & Korgen, 2007, p. 376). By forcing “white fans... to engage with her blackness and black issues in a real way” (Blay, 2016), Beyoncé, in the very least, is providing an outlet for certain, receptive individuals to begin the racial sensitization process. Survey results even substantiate this point, as several participants expressed similar sentiments that Beyoncé has “definitely prompted [them] to think about the issues being discussed more than...before.”

Beyoncé, in the very least, is providing an outlet for certain, receptive individuals to begin the racial sensitization process. Survey results even substantiate this point, as several participants expressed similar sentiments that Beyoncé has “definitely prompted [them] to think about the issues being discussed more than...before.”

In this respect, her influence is constrained because of the variability of audience interpretations of her work—demonstrated by the spectrum of reactions received in this project. Even so, the functional purpose, here, appears to be the centripetal force that her music exerts on racialized audiences. Given the 59% (n=91; N=155) of respondents who felt likely “to listen to Beyoncé’s music or share VOLUME 6

her music videos with a person of the opposite race” and the 72% (n=78; N=108) who felt comfortable “critically discussing the racial themes, images, and messages in ‘Formation’ and/or Lemonade with someone of the opposite race,” it is reasonable to conclude that Beyoncé is a relatable point across races that people may converge upon for discourse. This appears to be true whether the discourse regards the cultural significance of donning a blonde weave or the political choice to incorporate Black Lives

Matter imagery into a music video. Although she does not have a singular effect on race relations in America, as I previously surmised, Beyoncé’s music videos derive sociological power from their ability to open up and encourage communication and dialogue between races. Perhaps, then, Beyoncé, in combination with other black activist artists, can bolster the strength of progressivism to combat de facto racism as it endures in modern America.

REFERENCES Arlidge, J. (2004, Jan. 4). Forget black, forget white. EA is what’s hot. The Observer. Retrieved May 9, 2016 from http:// www.ligali.org/pdf/ethnically_ambiguous.pdf

Bassey, M. O. (2007). What is Africana critical theory or black existential philosophy? Journal of Black Studies, 37(6), pp. 914–935.

Beyoncé. (2016). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Beyonce

Blay, Z. (2016, Feb. 9). Beyoncé has always been political: You just didn’t notice. Huffington Post Black Voices. Retrieved May 9, 2016.

Brown, K., Frost, J., Hogan, A., Mike Will Made It, & Knowles, B. (2016). Formation [Recorded by Beyoncé]. On Lemonade [CD]. New York, NY: Parkwood Entertainment.

Brown, Q. (2015). Black culture: A societal problem. Undergraduate theses—Unrestricted, Paper 45. Retrieved May 9, 2016 from Washington University Open Scholarship.

Cole, J. B. (1970). Culture: Negro, black and nigger. The Black Scholar, 44(3), pp. 52–57.

Dubler, J. (2014). Shit white people say about Beyoncé. Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 97(3), pp. 385–392.

Dunn, F. (1993). The educational philosophies of Washington, DuBois, and Houston: Laying the foundations for Afro-Centrism and Multiculturalism. The Journal of Negro Education, 62(1), pp. 24–34.

Gates Jr., H. L. (1998). The signifying monkey: A theory of African-American literary criticism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Gilroy, P. (2009). “Get up, get into it, and get involved”: Soul, civil right and black power. In J. Storey (Ed.), Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader (4th ed.). (pp. 355–364). Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Griffin, F. J. (2011). At last…?: Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, race & history. Daedalus, 140(1), pp. 131–141.

Hall, S. (2009). What is this “black” in black popular culture? In J. Storey (Ed.), Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader (4th ed.). (pp. 374–382). Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.

Moyer, J. W. (16 Feb. 2016). Anti-Beyoncé and pro-Beyoncé forces may rumble at NFL headquarters today. The Washington Post.

O’Brien, E., & Korgen, K. O. (2007). It’s the message, not the messenger: The declining significance of black-white contact in a “colorblind” society. Sociological Inquiry, 77(3), pp. 356–82.

Rabaka, R. (2006). W. E. B. Dubois’ “The Comet” and contributions to critical race theory: An essay on black radical politics and anti-racist social ethics. Ethnic Studies Review, 29(1), pp. 22–III.

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Kira Pratt is a second year student from Fort Collins, Colorado, majoring in Sociology and Media Studies. Kira is a big music person; she plays the saxophone and guitar and sings with the DU a capella group Exit 205. In addition to music, Kira enjoys drawing, reading, and taking long naps in the afternoon sun. She is infamous for her tendency to cry when she laughs.

image provided by author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR Do you remember where you were when Beyoncé released her visual album Lemonade in April of 2016? Well, I do. I was in the Johnson-MacFarlane classroom with a group of friends, watching, rapt by the sheer power and beauty of the songstress and her creation. I’m not a self-proclaimed super-fan of Beyoncé; however, I can vibe with classics like “Crazy in Love,” “Love on Top,” and “Countdown.” When Beyoncé surprise-released her song and video for “Formation” and delivered a striking performance that basically stole the whole show at the Super Bowl in early February, she immediately captured my attention. Not only was it a notable break from some of her previous work, but the spectacle captured attention in the media and within my immediate surroundings. The prime time came for me to incorporate Beyoncé’s media frenzy into a research project for my WRIT 1133 course. Besides being my first major writing project in college, this was my first time creating a full, independent research project from start to finish. Although it proved to be a challenging endeavor that did not go entirely as planned, I am extremely proud of this final outcome, and I am eager to share it.

VOLUME 6

Spotlight on Student Editors Katerina Moore Kat Moore, originally from Parker, Colorado, is a sophomore majoring in International Business and minoring in Chinese. She loves to be taken away by the music she listens to, whether it is through her headphones or at a concert. Writing is a passion of hers, and she always strives to push herself to further expand her writing skills. Kat enjoyed her position as a student editor for WRIT Large and found it to be a positive learning experience.

Avery Niemann

Avery Niemann is a sophomore from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, majoring in Biology and Sociology. She is a member of the University of Denver DI swim team. Outside of swimming and school, she loves to spend time with her horse, Ivan, or baking her famous chocolate chip cookies.

We are pleased to announce a call for Undergraduate Editors We are looking for DU undergraduates to join our Editorial Board for the 2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2018 academic year. Activities will be concentrated in mid-to-late June and the fall quarter. Your responsibilities will include (1) collaborating with other faculty and student members of the Editorial Board to choose submissions and (2) working closely with selected authors to edit their work for publication. This volunteer position is an exciting opportunity to gain experience with reviewing and editing. If you are interested in being a part of WRIT Large, please contact the Editorial Board at writlarge.du@gmail.com by May 1, 2017.

We are pleased to announce our annual call for submissions We welcome not only essays and research papers but also scientific and business reports, creative nonfiction, multimodal projects, and more. If accepted for publication, your work will appear in the 2018 issue. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Texts may be submitted electronically (by students or by instructors on behalf of students, with their permission) to the Editorial Board at writlarge.du@gmail.com by Friday June 9, 2017. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submissions must be the original, previously unpublished work of the authors (group submissions are also accepted). Authors must assume full responsibility for the accuracy and documentation of their submission, and a bibliography must be included, when appropriate. Please limit each submission to 20 double-spaced pages or fewer. 88

WRIT LARGE: 2017

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are very grateful to Doug Hesse and the DU Writing Program for funding and supporting this project. We extend our thanks to the new members of our staff who have helped us expand and enhance this year’s publication: Libby Catchings, Katerina Moore, Avery Niemann, Keith Rhodes, and David Riche.

2016–2017 EDITORIAL BOARD Managing Editors: David Daniels, Megan Kelly, Heather Martin, Juli Parrish, and LP Picard Faculty Editors: Allan Borst, Jennifer Campbell, Libby Catchings, April Chapman-Ludwig, Sarah Hart Micke, Matthew Hill, Kamila Kinyon, Polly Reid, Keith Rhodes, David Riche, Blake Sanz, Carol Samson, Geoff Stacks, Kara Taczak, and John Tiedemann Student Editors: Katerina Moore and Avery Niemann

WRIT Large is published by the Writing Program at the University of Denver

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the University Writing Program at the University of Denver.

www.du.edu/writing writing@du.edu 303.871.7448 2150 E. Evans Ave., Denver, CO 80208 Design and Typesetting: LP Picard

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WRIT Large is published by the University Writing Program at the University of Denver www.du.edu/writing Cover image: ÂŠ Basheer Tome / Flickr.com