February 16, 2016

Q&A with Jay Williams

Modeling tumor growth

The Duke legend opens up about his book ‘Life Is Not An Accident’ | Sports Page 7

Prof. Richard Durrett has found a way to predict how cancerous tumors will behave | Page 3

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ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH YEAR, ISSUE 77

Slick conditions lead to Monday cancellations Senior awarded Gates-Cambridge scholarship Claire Ballentine The Chronicle

Han Kang | The Chronicle For the second time this semester, classes and a host of other University activities were cancelled Monday due to weather.

Courses to teach black history proposed for DPS, Duke Grace Mok The Chronicle New efforts to teach black history may be coming to Durham Public Schools and the Duke curriculum.

Paul Scott, a local minister and founder of the Messianic Afrikan Nation, called for black history elective courses to be taught at all Durham middle schools and for black history to be a graduation requirement for high school students at a recent meeting of the Durham school board. Scott said he hopes that learning about black history in school will give black students a greater sense of self-identity, increase student engagement and reduce violence in black youth. “[Teaching black history] has been an idea that has been presented in Durham for more than 20 years,” Scott said. “But now in the climate of Black Lives Matter, a lot of people are saying that black history matters as well.”

Scott’s proposal was supported by Durham residents Cheryl Smith and Anita Keith-Foust and former school board member and city councilwoman Jackie Wagstaff, who also spoke at the meeting.

Heidi Carter, chair of the school board, noted that many Durham

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schools already have electives that relate to minority studies and black history, although they are not currently mandatory.

“I think it’s an excellent idea for our students to be more aware of African American people,” Carter said. “Our students and society in general could benefit from a better understanding of race and studies about race.”

She said she did not know whether the best way to increase understanding would be through a single required course, or through integration of black history into the general curriculum.

Carter also noted that new mandatory courses would require additional resources, which the state likely would not provide.

“An ongoing challenge is adequate funding for all the classes that we would like to provide,” Carter said.

Durham Public Schools announced Thursday that it will likely have to cut 140 positions in order to offset a funding shortfall.

Scott said he did not think monetary concerns should matter.

“There have been budget cuts before,” Scott said. “I don’t think it’s going to affect African history [courses].

We hope that people will see the urgency of African American history in the classroom, budget cuts or not.”

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Scott explained that he did not believe that the courses he proposed would require greater staffing. He plans to continue reaching out to local officials, candidates for local school boards across North Carolina and the North Carolina State Board of Education to advocate for his plan.

Scott noted his efforts aim to combat the erasure of black history and make Durham a leader in its instruction.

“Durham has such a rich [black] history... We think that Durham can be the mecca for promoting black history in the classroom,” he said.

Efforts to increase racial awareness in education have also impacted Duke’s ongoing curriculum review process.

The Duke Experience course—one of four possible new requirements proposed in a framework laid out by the Imagining Duke Curriculum Committee to the Arts and Sciences Council—might include a theme such as race and inequality.

Junior Tara Bansal, Duke Student Government vice president for academic affairs, has worked with administration and faculty and organized focus groups to plan for the See BLACK HISTORY on Page 4

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For one Duke senior, pursuing her future ambitions just became a little easier.

Catherine Newman—a chemistry major with a concentration in biochemistry and a minor in biology— was recently selected as a GatesCambridge Scholar, an award that will cover her tuition and living expenses while she studies at the University of Cambridge next year.

“I couldn’t believe [that I had been chosen],” Newman said. “I immediately called my parents and had to check the email again.”

Newman is one of only 35 recipients in the U.S. More than 4,500 applicants competed for 90 spots, 55 of which are reserved for students outside the United States. The Gates-Cambridge Scholarship program—which was established in 2000 with a grant of $210 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—selects recipients based on their intellect, leadership potential and commitment to improving the lives of others.

In addition to tuition, the scholarship will provide Newman with opportunities such as dinners and lectures along with group bonding activities so the scholars See NEWMAN on Page 4

Special to The Chronicle Senior Catherine Newman will study at the University of Cambridge next year.

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Small group of passionate students pursue theater studies Heather Zhou The Chronicle Although Me Too Monologues and Hoof ‘n’ Horn have attracted attention and sold out shows this semester, the success of the performances is not indicative of a large theater studies department.

Duke’s theater studies department— hidden behind the side door of Page Auditorium—is one of its smaller departments, usually graduating just five to 10 majors per year. The department puts on two mainstage plays each year directed by faculty or guest professionals, and Duke Players, a student organization within the department, produces one lab production each semester in addition to an orientation show to introduce freshmen to theater at Duke.

“People don’t usually come to Duke to do theater,” said senior Faye Goodwin, who is a theater studies minor and the former publicity chair of Duke Players. “They come to Duke because they want to go to med school or become engineers. That’s why you often get double majors or minors because people want to be able to do both.”

Goodwin noted that the relatively small size of the department makes it easier for students to work closely with faculty to produce shows and apply what they learn in class to their work—especially through the mainstage professor of the practice in the department.

“Their other majors tend to influence their productions of the department.

She said students can serve as apprentices work whether it’s neuroscience or political for faculty who direct the department’s science, which makes them intellectually interesting to work with.” shows or act in the shows themselves.

O’berski said faculty “You can be involved try to expose students to as a performer or lighting eople don’t usually all elements of theater designer and get course in order to help them come to Duke to do credit for it,” Goodwin see the whole picture— explained. “Sometimes theater. noting that every theater faculty bring in other professionals and you — Faye Goodwin studies major is required to take classes in acting, get to see all these directing, script writing talented people and how and designing before they choose an area professionals work together.”

Faculty also consider the small size and of specialization.

He said students who finish as theater diverse academic interests of students to be unique characters of Duke’s theater studies majors end up doing “millions of different things” after graduation—ranging from department.

“Students can get more attention and acting in Broadway productions to stageget on stage easier when it’s a smaller managing in the Lincoln Center to department,” said Jaybird O’berski, assistant consulting in finance companies.

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Graphic by Carolyn Sun | The Chronicle

Senior Harmony Zhang, who double majors in psychology and theater studies, said she plans on pursing a Master of Fine Arts in acting and is now attending auditions all over the country.

Zhang was planning on being a premed when she first came to Duke, but she changed her mind as she found theater to be her real passion.

“There is a lot more to the human heart than a beating muscle in our body,” Zhang said. “There are stories, that through plays and movies, there are so much we can learn about human feelings and emotions.”

Zhang added that studying at Duke’s theater department helps students to be productive, and to find balance between motivation and stress.

Students like Goodwin, who is not pursing theater as a career, still consider theater experience at Duke to be an important part of their lives.

“

It changes perspective to be able to see things through the eyes of others who have grown up in different cultures, with different sets of attitudes and beliefs.”

Goodwin, who is majoring in biology, said she wants to work in that field after graduation but still plans to do theater in her spare time.

“Theater and all the arts are beautiful in ways that you can always find an opportunity to do them, even it’s very small scale,” Goodwin said. “My experience at Duke is good practice for finding the balance of doing both.”

Zhang noted that there are a lot of theater opportunities on campus open to all Duke students. She encouraged students to audition for shows as long as they are interested in people and performance.

“I wish people were more aware of us,” Zhang said. “It’s not about being popular, it’s about sharing stories that we think are important and are relevant to students on campus and that’s why we do what we do.”

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016 | 3

Researchers successfully model tumor growth with limited data Durrett and Talkington tested.

Data collected from a patient who had continuous time, but we discretized the Tumor size was measured immediately already started treatment would be invalid, as model so that it depended on two time The Chronicle after diagnosis, and the treatment would points and we looked at the growth or the immediately before affect the growth change in volume as our one data point per opefully that will be able rate of the tumor, she patient,” Talkington said.

Duke researchers have developed treatment started, mathematical models to predict the growth with the study Durrett explained that the team then to inform doctors about explained. trajectory of cancerous tumors. explaining how to what is going on in the patient’s Although the lack charted the change in tumor volume of Richard Durrett, James B. Duke interpret models of of human data was an a number of patients against a variety of professor of mathematics, and Anne tumor growth using body and make it easier to come obstacle—typically standard models. Their logic was that on the Talkington, an administrative assistant in just two time-point up with a treatment approach. tumor growth correct model, estimated growth rate would the math department who graduated last measurements. models are produced be uncorrelated with the size of the tumor, — Anne Talkington using mice or under and on the incorrect model, the growth Fall, are using probability theory to create a “The problem was model predicting the growth trajectories of with a tumor you can’t other laboratory trajectory of the tumors would change as the different types of tumors. Such predictions just say, ‘I’m going conditions—Durrett size of the tumors changed. may help doctors decide which treatment to to just let this person’s tumor grow and and Talkington were able use math to adjust The intricacy of biological systems prescribe to a particular patient. measure it from time to time,’” Talkington their model to the data. made developing models that were precise “Now we’re learning more about how said. “You’re going to want to treat the “We began with models that were See TUMOR MODELS on Page 4 different types of tumors grow and about person.” originally constructed to work with what growth trajectories they’re taking and how fast they’re growing,” Talkington said. “Hopefully that will be able to inform doctors about what exactly is going on in the patient’s body and make it easier for them to come up with a treatment approach.”

Because there are treatments that are only effective during early stages of certain types of cancer, knowing the growth trajectories of tumors could also help doctors determine the efficacy of particular treatments, Talkington explained.

The method for comparing mathematical models of tumor growth is outlined in a study Durrett and Talkington published online in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.

Talkington explained that the duo met its greatest challenge in developing a model that could utilize the sparse data that can be collected from cancer patients, who often begin treatment as soon as possible after being diagnosed. Ethical and logistical issues prevented the team from taking more Special to The Chronicle than two measurements from each patient Anne Talkington and James B. Duke professor of mathematics Richard Durrett have released a study with their method of analyzing models.

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BLACK HISTORY from page 1 Duke Experience.

“In a lot of primary and secondary schools, black history is often edited or cut out, so I think that we don’t have as comprehensive of an understanding about what diversity means,” Bansal said. “I think that we should have a bigger emphasis on minority culture and really learning about what [diversity] means in the context of Duke, Durham and the United States.”

The proposed Duke Experience course would be a 10-month, team-taught flipped format class that would aim to provide a common experience for incoming students, with smaller seminar style discussions and larger lectures. It may also include different pathways, such as statistics or philosophy, to expose students to broader opportunities at Duke. The idea was met with contention from faculty when initially proposed at the Chronicle File Photo Arts and Sciences Council meeting Jan. 14.

DSG’s Tara Bansal (right) noted that the Arts and Sciences Council has considered making racial awareness part of a new course.

TUMOR MODELS from page 3 but practical given the constraints especially difficult, Durrett said.

“I’m a mathematician so I’d like to report on models I can analyze exactly,” he said. “The biggest challenge is to make a model that is accurate but at the same time is accessible to mathematical work. If a model is too complicated, and biologists want to put every little bit of biology they think is important in there, and that makes it too hard to study. If you have too many parameters it gets hard to see the data.

The main thing is, it’s hard to find an accurate model you can analyze.”

Since publishing the study, Durrett and Talkington have started adapting their models to calculate the growth rates of tumors treated with immunotherapy.

“We’re taking the models we had, we’re making them more complex and we’re adding new equations to represent immune system, treatment and different factors of the patients own immune system,” Talkington said. “Our goal for the next few months is to explore these systems.”

NEWMAN from page 1

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can get acquainted with each other, Newman said.

“The other candidates are just amazing people,” she said. “I can’t wait to meet them all.”

At Cambridge, Newman plans to pursue a master’s degree of philosophy in biological science with a biochemistry concentration in a one-year program, she explained. She said that she hopes to study multi-drug resistance using cryo-electron microscopy, which she has previously done at Duke in the laboratory of Richard Brennan, James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry.

“Cat is a gifted scholar with a strong bent toward understanding biology through the eyes of a chemist, who also still manages her time so effectively that she is able to contribute to the local and world community in so many meaningful ways,” Brennan said in a Duke Today release.

In the future, Newman hopes to earn her Ph.D. as well as a medical degree and is interested in researching proteins to design drugs.

“I see myself in between being a doctor and a researcher,” she said.

Newman noted that she decided to apply for the program because she wanted to explore areas of research before committing to an MD-PhD program. In addition, the location interested her.

“I think studying in the U.K. and getting different perspectives will be cool,” Newman said.

As an undergraduate, Newman has served as a campus chairperson for the Global Medical Brigades program, which conducts one-week service trips to locations like Honduras and collaborates with local communities.

She also has volunteered with Duke Femmes—Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science— which hosts educational programs for girls, she said.

The Mebane, N.C., native was a fellow in the Howard Hughes Research Program and was awarded a Duke Biochemistry Summer Fellowship and the Duke Chemistry Research Fellowship.

Newman noted that she is looking forward to interacting with the other scholars.

“I’m excited to work with the other [scholars] and discuss ideas with them,” she said.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016 | 5

Viennese Ball 2016

Carolyn Chang | The Chronicle Last weekend’s Viennese Ball at the Freeman Center featured a live waltz orchestra and polka band as part of the Duke Wind Symphony’s annual fundraiser.

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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

‘IT FELT LIKE AN AWAKENING’ Cognitive FX therapy producing improvements for Mercedes Riggs’ mother after fall in 2010 Hank Tucker The Chronicle

Anita Riggs struggled with debilitating symptoms stemming from a concussion for five years, but it only took one week of treatment to dramatically improve her life.

Riggs—whose daughter, Mercedes, is a senior guard for the Blue Devils— slipped and hit her head on the ice in October 2010, and soon began experiencing chronic migraines and short-term memory loss, among other complications. The Riggs family visited several hospitals and specialists, but nothing seemed to work until Anita Riggs received a text message from a friend that wound up being life-altering.

The friend had seen a commercial on TV about a new revolutionary treatment called Cognitive FX to Jesús Hidalgo | The Chronicle help treat concussion patients. Riggs Mercedes Riggs’ mother, Anita, has made a drastic improvement in her recovery from a recorded the news the next day and concussion sustained in October 2010, thanks to a new medical therapy called Cognitive FX. saw the commercial, and she was broke off and started to develop this a functional NCI, she customizes his or surprised to see that the co-founder of imaging technique,” Fong said. “She her treatment based on which areas of the clinic was Dr. Alina Fong, who she found her way back in, and when the brain need work. saw for help at a local hospital soon she saw that it was me again, she got The treatment itself is a week-long after her injury. excited because we did as much as we grueling boot camp—patients come to “Anita first came to me about could with her.” the clinic for eight hours each day and five years ago, when she first got Fong developed her Cognitive FX undergo a series of brain stimulation her head injury, when I was working therapy through 10 years of research and exercises, balance exercises, memory for a hospital out there. We did our data collection. The treatment is centered games and cardio targeted at the parts best with the hospital model that she around functional neurocognitive of their brain that need the most help. could, but she just struggled so much. imaging (NCI) scans, which provide Patients are so mentally drained after She went off to try to do some other more details than a normal structural the first day that they are not allowed types of therapies and then I actually MRI. Once Fong puts a patient through to drive home, but once the week is

over, they have another functional NCI scan that usually shows marked improvement.

Austin Collie, a former NFL player whose football career was cut short by three concussions, is one of the clinic’s success stories and now spreads awareness of its work alongside Dr. Fong.

“Whether you notice a drastic difference or not, the follow-up fNCI scan is kind of what tells you, ‘Look at the difference,’” Collie said last week during a visit with Fong to Durham.

“The fact that we’re able to actually hold tangible evidence that we’re getting better—in the neurological world, [proof] really doesn’t exist unless it’s physical damage, but you can’t cognitively hold something up until [Cognitive FX] and say, ‘Hey, I’ve gotten better, here’s the proof.’”

Riggs wanted to try the revolutionary treatment, but the first hurdle to clear was funding. Her oldest daughter, Vanessa, set up a GoFundMe account in October to raise the $9,000 that the treatment costs, and the Duke program helped spread the word of the fundraising campaign until it reached its goal, with Mercedes Riggs and her teammates and coaches sharing the account on social media.

Riggs started her treatment Nov. 30 and immediately noticed a drastic change.

After the end of the first day at the clinic in Provo, Utah, just a short drive from her See RIGGS on Page 9

SWIMMING & DIVING

Shanley shakes off surgery to lead breaststrokers David Rieder The Chronicle Ashleigh Shanley held onto the wall, tears streaming down her face. She had managed to finish the race, but the pain was unbearable.

“I’m a little bit of a biological freak, and I have extra muscles in my elbow. My ulnar nerve popped out of its normal spot when I was stretching in weights before the Richmond meet my freshman year,” Shanley said. “Right before my 200 IM, it popped out [again].”

Shanley swam the event anyway, a decision that, in hindsight, she admits might have been ill-advised.

“We all knew [she was hurt] because she couldn’t get out of the pool,” teammate Colleen Wixted said. “[Athletic trainer Kevin Ortega] had to come over and physically pick her up out of the pool.”

Shanley pushed through the remainder of the season, getting on Duke’s team bound for

the ACC championships, but she came down with mononucleosis the week of the meet.

Shanley struggled through that 2014 meet, finishing 32nd in the 100-yard breaststroke and 34th in the 200-yard distance, not coming close to her season-best times.

With the impending graduation of talented breaststrokers Christine Wixted and Emily Barber, Shanley focused on getting healthy so she could return for her sophomore year to lead the team in the breaststroke events.

But her elbow pain remained a nuisance.

That June, doctors finally identified the problem, and Shanley had surgery to remove the extra muscle on July 3, 2014, in Michigan.

She was confined to a cast for 10 days and could not train fully for months.

But as soon as she got the cast removed, Shanley re-entered the pool to do whatever she could. She could not move her arm, so she just started kicking. She had no interest See SHANLEY on Page 8

Special to The Chronicle Junior Ashleigh Shanley has put together a career season, returning to peak form after surgery to remove extra muscles in her elbow following the 2013-14 campaign.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016 | 7

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Q&A: Jay Williams on ‘Life Is Not An Accident’ Everything changed for Jay Williams in June 2003, when the former Blue Devil point guard crashed his motorcycle in Chicago and sustained serious leg injuries that curtailed his NBA career.

The Chronicle’s Ryan Hoerger spoke with Williams, now an ESPN college basketball analyst, about his new memoir, ‘Life Is Not An Accident.’ Their conversation has been condensed for clarity. A longer version can be read online.

The Chronicle: There are so many different things that you touch on in this book, well beyond just the motorcycle crash. What was it like going through the process of putting it on paper?

Jay Williams: There were a lot of things in my past that I tried to compartmentalize to try to move on with my life. And I think we all do that to a certain extent, right? We try to push the negatives all the way to the back and just focus on the positives. For so long, I was climbing this mountain of frustration because I was trying to get back all the things that I felt that I had lost. It wasn’t until I finally forced myself to stop and reflect about how far I’d climbed until I realized ‘Wow—there’s so much here that I’ve done in the past 13 years, I feel like I’m a 65-year-old man, even though I’m only 34.’ Writing the book was cathartic and extremely difficult at the same time, because you often wonder, ‘How much do I want to share with the general public about my private life? Do I want to talk about issues with my parents, do I want to talk about my relationship with Coach K?’ It finally got to the point where you realize that I’m just like everybody else—everybody has their demons that they struggle with.

I was tired of being held captive to my own misery.

Q & A

TC: This feels like a book that has the potential to help other people open up about their own issues. Do you agree?

JW: When I was writing the book, I had a lot of friends who were going through their own “accidents.” My girlfriend went through a divorce that was horrific. I went through friends that lost their jobs during the financial crisis and I watched them and their families go through their accidents. Losing a loved one—we’ve all experienced some of these, and we all handle them differently. I got to a certain point where I said ‘I hope my character isn’t defined by this accident, but how I pick myself up after the accident.’ You talk about the ways that Coach K has enabled me to be better prepared for life—that comes back to something he’s been saying to me since I was 17 years old. ‘I’m not going to ridicule you or chastise you for a turnover—I want to see what you do after that turnover. That shows me more about your character than turning the ball over. I want you to think next play’ and that’s a philosophy I had to incorporate into my life.

TC: The first chapter details everything that happened on that day in June 2003 leading up to the motorcycle accident.

It’s pretty vivid and graphic, and lots of people would try to wipe that from their minds. Why start with it?

JW: It felt like I was having the accident all over again.

We had the first idea to open up the book with the accident because I just wanted to get it out of the way. The point was to start with what people would consider one of the worst days of my life, but also show the perspective at the end of the book about how one of the worst days of my life became one of the best days. I think that’s the overall mantra of the book—How did I turn one of the worst days of my life into one of the best days of my life? My accident was painful, but it was also extremely meaningful, because it shifted the path of my life. I’m not saying the path I was going down was ultimately going to be destructive, but it could have been. People associate money and fame with success in life, and the two don’t necessarily go together. Just because you have millions of dollars doesn’t

necessarily make you mature, or make you live a better life than someone who maybe doesn’t have the money.

TC: You make the point in the book about your accident not occurring during the social media age. How do you think things would have been different had the accident been subjected to today’s new cycle?

JW: I’m sure it would’ve been difficult, but one of the things that’s a blessing in the way our times are changing is that the news cycle is so quick that it would be constantly discussed, but we’re quick to move on to the next topic as well. There’s always something that the media is throwing down your throat. It would’ve been more difficult and easy See WILLIAMS on Page 8

Jack Dolgin | The Chronicle Jay Williams signed copies of his book last week in Durham.

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SHANLEY from page 6 in redshirting the upcoming season, so she set a firm target for a return to competition, even though she knew such a quick turnaround would defy the odds.

“My motivation was our first meet against Pitt in October last year,” Shanley said. “My sister was a senior at Carnegie Melon─which is right across the street─and so it was my goal to be back swimming and competing at that meet. My parents were going to come up, and she was going to see me swim.”

When Shanley returned to Duke in August for her sophomore season, her teammates saw her determination to get past the injury as quickly as possible and get back on the right track.

“I think she tried, not necessarily hide it, but [to] come off in a way that [said] ‘I’m not injured, and I’m not going to let this affect me, and I’m going to do everything I can to rehabilitate and get back to where I was before,’” Colleen Wixted said.

Shanley pulled off the improbably quick comeback. After doctors cleared her to return to competition in late September, she swam against the Panthers on October 11, 2014, as planned. She even managed to beat her times from the previous year’s ACC championships, but she quickly realized her sophomore campaign would be very much a rebuilding one.

Classmate Liza Bragg watched as Shanley struggled to balance her own expectations of a quick return to top form and the likelihood that the process would be more drawn-out.

“It was tough for her because she was just getting back in the swing of things, and not everyone understood what she had

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gone through,” Bragg said. “She made a ton of progress throughout the year, but it was definitely really, really hard for her sophomore year, just gaining back strength, not necessarily being able to do full practices until midway through the season.”

Shanley landed on her second-consecutive ACC championship squad that season, and she moved inside the top 30 in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke. She also helped both Duke medley relay squads finish in the top 10. Still, Shanley was far from satisfied, having failed to swim a personal best since the Nike Cup early in her freshman season.

Finally at full strength, Shanley remained in Durham during the summer to train with her teammates and Duke head coach Dan Colella.

“We’re always our own worst critic,” Colella said. “I think she finally realized that what she went through was something that was going to take some time to really get back to full strength. She’s just been incredibly persistent.

She’s done a great job of doing the things that she needs to do in and out of the pool, and her swimming this year speaks to that.”

Last fall, all that hard work began to pay off. Swimming in a home meet against Florida State in mid-October, Shanley recorded her first personal-best time in almost two years, touching in 1:03.12 in the 100-yard breaststroke, knocking four-tenths of a second off her previous best to clinch her first-ever collegiate victory. She went on to win the 200yard breaststroke that day as well.

“My first thought was ‘Thank God my mom finally saw me have a good race in college,’” Shanley said. “It was just so exciting. I had been stuck at that time for so long─high-1:03s, high1:03s and just couldn’t seem to get a best time.

Once I did that, I mentally relaxed.”

Shanley said her approach to the sport has totally changed in the past year. With her injuries behind her, she has finally learned to have fun with it, quash stress about her times and enjoy every moment along the way. That spirit came from Christine Wixted and Barber, and now Shanley is providing the same type of leadership to her cohort of breaststroke specialists, of which she is now the elder stateswoman.

“I think that’s where she’s been really great, being that leader in the breaststroke group, really showing the others...what fast really is,” Colella said.

Her teammates agree. Colleen Wixted said Shanley has grown into her role as a team leader, being more forthcoming with her opinions and providing encouragement and advice for younger teammates. Freshman breaststroker Susan Hynes credited Shanley with setting a high standard in practice and ensuring that her teammates are performing to their fullest potential.

Backed by that leadership and her success in the pool, Duke’s program has reached new heights since Shanley’s class arrived on campus. The Blue Devils will be a strong contender at this week’s ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C., hoping to bring home the first top-five finish since 1981, and Shanley will be a big part of that effort.

But after all the setbacks along the way to her first two ACC meets, Shanley just wants to keep her mind on swimming fast, letting the rest fall into place.

“I just want to focus on getting best times at ACCs and having fun,” she said. “Finally having a good ACCs would be the icing on the cake for this year.”

WILLIAMS from page 7 at the same time, whereas back then a lot of stuff came out in print. The news cycle was a lot slower, so there was more time to focus on the story, and there was a ton of follow-up that occurred with it. So it was give-and-take, different scenarios, but it was still difficult at that given moment because when the initial blurt of news comes out, everybody rushes to your attention. And that’s not when times are most difficult.

The times become most difficult when everybody moves on to the next news cycle issue, and you’re left alone in your own misery. It’s easy to become a prisoner of your past.

TC: Looking back at everything you poured into this book, is there something that stands out to you—how do you define your career?

JW: It’s a scope, it’s a story. It’s somebody that was never deemed good enough in high school, but you get the attention, you make it. I had a rocky freshman year for Coach K and I decided to skip going home, stay [in Durham] and work my tail off to become a two-time National Player of the Year and score 2,079 points in three years. I always joke with J.J. [Redick] that he would have never had the record [if I’d stayed for four years]. And it’s a guy who gets drafted second overall and goes to the Bulls and then has an accident, and has picked himself back up. I think if I could describe my story and my career, I’m a fighter, man, I’m a competitor. I still am in every aspect of my life, and basketball was just a vehicle that brought that attribute out.

LAMP What you need to know:

LAMP Language, Arts, and Media Program Duke

What’s Your Story?

Equivalent to courses SP204 and SP303 Ideal for students from SP203 Active use and study of Spanish Cultural studies Food production and consumption

If we gave you a microphone, a stage, and an audience, what would you say?

Environmental and labor issues Culinary arts Trips to farms, markets, and restaurants Collaborative and individual research projects For more details, see: http://sites.duke.edu/spanish311/

Find Your Story

Tuesday, February 16 7:00-8:30 pm East Duke 209 An exploration of storytelling with Jeff Polish

Tell Your Story

Wednesday, March 23 7:00-9:00 pm Doris Duke Center The selected storytellers share their stories live

Find more information at http://sites.duke.edu/lampatduke/

The course includes: Trips to NC farms, markets, and Peruvian restaurants, and a capstone research project and presentation on food production and consumption.

To schedule an interview, come to the information session or email spanish@duke.edu with the subject heading of Spanish 311. Registration begins February 22, 2016.

INFORMATION SESSION Tuesday, February 16, 6-7pm Allen 103 If you are interested in signing up, come on Tuesday to eat some Peruvian food and speak to the professors and to a student who’s taken the course! https://www.facebook.com/events/16 96845660528240/

The Chronicle

www.dukechroniclesports.com www.dukechronicle.com

RIGGS from page 6

treatment, I could already tell,” Riggs said. “Just changes in her voice and the energy level that she had—right away, there were changes.”

Anita Riggs is showing signs of her energetic self that family members were used to before the injury, and Riggs and her husband, Bill, made their first trip of the season to Durham to watch Mercedes play against No. 10 Florida State and Wake Forest last week.

Recovery is still a long and tiresome process, and Anita Riggs has a routine of daily brain exercises to maintain the progress she experienced during her week at the Cognitive FX clinic. But after years of wondering if there was any hope, the Riggs family found the solution they were looking for. sudoku_520A “Just because you went through the treatment, you’re not done.... I’ve 1 6 2 been living a certain way for five years.

5 4 My body’s been used to doing certain 7 6 things, and now we’re trying to change 2 3 those habits,” Riggs said. “I do feel a lot 5 4 1 better. I have more quality of life.”

house, a light bulb went off. ”Toward the end of the first evening, after going through all my different treatments that day, I sat down with the occupational therapist.

He had me write notes, because he was giving me some recommendations on strategies to help me throughout the day,” Riggs said. “I looked down at my notes when I was done, and I just could see the notes were very organized and concise, which they hadn’t been for five years. For me, it felt like an awakening that happened in the brain. That’s the best word I can use.”

Thousands of miles away, Mercedes Riggs was finishing up her fall semester at Duke, but she immediately sensed that her mother was getting better.

“A couple weeks after the treatment, I finally got to go home—that was around Christmas break—so I saw it in person, but the first time I called her after her

3 1 7 8 6 4

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Countdown to Summer Session 2016 ▪ 2/15 Bookbagging begins for Term 1 & Term 2 ▪ 2/22 Pre-registration opens at 7:30 am ▪ Late March: HDRL posts the Summer Housing Application on its website ▪ 5/18 Term 1 rst day of class, 4 & 6-week sessions ▪ Late May/Early June: Special start dates for some online classes ▪ 7/5 Term 2 rst day of class, 6-week session ▪ 7/12 Term 2 rst day of class, 4-week session

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Crossword ACROSS 1 Like “War and Peace,” famously 5 Exposed 10 StubHub’s parent 14 Instrument that begins an orchestra’s tune-up 15 Gushes onstage, say 17 Tip of Italy, once?

18 Most of the leading characters in “Babe” 20 To-do 21 Recipe no.

22 Queen of Sparta 23 Downed, as a meal 25 Tiny bit 26 Fitness program popularized in the 1990s 28 Things kids make in the winter 31 Skip over 33 Sitting room

34 Where Oman Air is headquartered 37 Apiece 38 Refs. that may occupy whole shelves 41 Elle Decor reader … or any of the names hidden in 18-, 28-, 52and 66-Across?

45 Casting need 46 His, to Hilaire 47 “See?!”

48 ___-Lorraine 51 Hard-to-read character 52 Aerial navigation beacon 55 “In my view …”

59 Poehler of “Sisters” 60 Birthplace of the Baath Party: Abbr.

61 Any of las Filipinas 63 Towing org.

64 Karate studio

66 Serious setback for a kicker 69 Youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs, familiarly 70 Think creatively 71 Tiny matter 72 Lee side, informally 73 Dashboard array 74 Trait origin

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE G O B I

I R O N

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A S K W I N E C O W P E B E L Y L O N O P A S E M I D E

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27 “Time to Say Goodbye” tenor Andrea 29 Many David Brooks pieces 30 Looked up, in a way

Edited by Will Shortz 1

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55

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73

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PUZZLE BY ZHOUQIN BURNIKEL

32 “Lord, is ___?”

34 Old Russian space station 35 Jean-Luc Godard’s “___ Femme Coquette” 36 Reliable source of money 37 Hog the mirror, maybe 39 Susan of “L.A. Law” 40 Madeira Mrs. 42 Recognition from the Academy

43 Poker great Ungar 44 ___ Sea (Italy/Greece separator) 49 Message that might be laid out in coconuts on a beach 50 Early IndoEuropean 51 Scalp 52 Missile tracker 53 Love, to Casanova

54 Radner of comedy 56 Brown a bit 57 Sorkin who created HBO’s “The Newsroom” 58 “I rock!”

62 Tells a tale 65 Has too much, in brief 67 ___ pond (ornamental pool) 68 Spree

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/studentcrosswords.

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

“

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y

The Chronicle

10 | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

L

Learning to read and reading to learn

ast week, we wrote about the importance of writing purposefully—putting quality over quantity and producing thoughtful, well-planned pieces instead of empty commentaries. Today we turn to the quality and depth we ought to require of our reading. Oldfashioned as it sounds, people do not read in the same way they used to. We go through Buzzfeed listicles like potato chips and skim Facebook’s trending stories and Twitter’s 140-character blasts for news. While we crave intelligence and informed opinions, our attention spans are shorter and our time more thinly stretched.

Research shows that although web traffic is soaring, most people fail to read past a headline or the first paragraph of an article. While a person might open 10 different news links, it is likely that beyond absorbing titles and keywords, they do not gain much else. The tendency to reach for easily consumable material is understandable. People are surrounded by a veritable 24/7 buffet of delicious, addictive junk. It is easy to ignore or only explore the surface of a tough 5-thousand word New Yorker article when there exist a mélange of flashy, easily digestible 100-word news recaps watered down with gifs and hashtags.

There is an opportunity cost to sitting down

and thoughtfully engaging material: time not spent scanning the front pages of Reddit and Buzzfeed; time not spent lounging in the common room with friends; time not spent falling asleep to Netflix asking if we are still there. When we neglect to maintain a healthy reading diet, we slip into a habit of reading via high-volume, low-depth checks of our favorite news sites and Twitter feeds. When that happens, minds aren’t challenged, opinions aren’t tested and strengthened, and meaningful

Editorial conversations can’t take place.

It is important to slow down—to stop chowing down at that buffet and to instead be thoughtful about our information intake. Sitting down to read a nice long-form article or essay and then letting that information or the arguments made marinate in the mind allows for the enrichment of perspectives.

With the possibility of a 10-month Duke Experience course for first-years in the current curriculum revision proposal, students will have an academically structured opportunity to practice this kind of mindful reading and engagement. It

“Physical space is the reason for this. The Bryan center used to be a true student center, in the 80s with art studios and community space. now you are lucky to get a seat in mcdonalds. And Page used to have a bar that also had games and social areas.”

— “despoina19” commenting on the Feb. 10 column “A Duke divided”

LETTERS POLICY The Chronicle welcomes submissions in the form of letters to the editor or guest columns. Submissions must include the author’s name, signature, department or class, and for purposes of identification, phone number and local address.

Letters should not exceed 325 words; contact the editorial department for information regarding guest columns.

The Chronicle will not publish anonymous or form letters or letters that are promotional in nature. The Chronicle reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, clarity and style and the right to withhold letters based on the discretion of the editorial page editor.

”

Direct submissions to: E-mail: chronicleletters@duke.edu Editorial Page Department The Chronicle Box 90858, Durham, NC 27708 Phone: (919) 684-2663 Fax: (919) 684-4696

The Chronicle

Inc. 1993

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CHRISSY BECK, General Manager CLAIRE BALLENTINE, University Editor SARAH KERMAN, Local & National Editor ABIGAIL XIE, Health & Science Editor LILY COAD, Sports Photography Editor ELIZABETH DJINIS, Recess Managing Editor TOM VOSBURGH, Editorial Page Managing Editor EMMA BACCELLIERI, Towerview Editor MATTHEW ROCK, Towerview Photography Editor ALEENA KAREDIYA, Special Projects Editor SOPHIE TURNER, Special Projects Photography Editor MICHELLE MENCHACA, Recruitment Chair SAMANTHA NEAL, Senior News Reporter MEGAN HAVEN, Advertising Director MARY WEAVER, Operations Manager

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The Chronicle is published by the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., a non-profit corporation independent of Duke University. The opinions expressed in this newspaper are not necessarily those of Duke University, its students, faculty, staff, administration or trustees. Unsigned editorials represent the majority view of the editorial board. Columns, letters and cartoons represent the views of the authors.

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would add to course to incorporate student- and faculty-sourced books taken over months to dig into, reflect on and respond to in writing and discussion. Being held accountable to take time and engage lengthy works gives insight that most students do not reach on their own.

Ultimately, thoughtful engagement need not even take the form of reading articles and books.

Consuming almost any kind of explorative work presents an opportunity for meaningful reflection.

The digital world features a range of writing quality, but fantastic thought-provoking works are still easily available at our fingertips. Deep television like “The Wire”, podcasts like “Intelligence Squared” and swaths of well-produced documentary series offer exciting ways to stimulate the mind.

Walking through life reading blurbs is no way to experience the world. In the same line of reasoning, neither is absorbing a constant flow of information from one source. Reading and learning should push past confirmation bias, challenge views and suggest discomfort to the point of fairly challenging your opinions. If we want to move conversation past the point of senseless chatter and spark serious discussions, we all ought to devote more time to reading meaningful pieces.

Underfunded N.C. state pension programs

onlinecomment

Est. 1905

The Chronicle

T

he good news for North Carolina employees and businesses? N.C. appears to have the third-healthiest pension fund differential in the country according to investment research from Morningstar. The bad news? It’s still underfunded.

Before I delve into the importance of this phenomenon, let’s tear down some of the verbiage.

A public pension program, by its simplest definition, entitles eligible employees to a stream of income (“pension”) upon retirement. When I talk of a

the financial crisis, state governments overestimated the present value of their future cash flows based on investments they had made. The high projections for future gains based on these investments led state governments to make lower contributions to their pension funds with the expectations of higher returns in the future that would allow them to cover these gaps. When these investments went south during the financial crisis, the pension programs lost out. Even when markets recovered, states discovered that their

Ajay Desai DENARII & EAGLES state’s underfunded pension program, I am explicitly referring to the lack of sufficient monetary allocation by that state to fund future pension obligations.

So what happened with the constitutional requirement that states maintain balanced budgets?

Well, most public pension funds are defined benefit programs as opposed to defined contribution programs. These defined benefit programs create legal obligations to pay future benefits. Future pension obligations are not explicit debt obligations that need to be accounted for in the state’s same-year budget.

However, continuously underfunding these obligations leads to future debt even if it isn’t accounted for in the state’s same-year accounting statements.

In North Carolina, we have a fund that is quite healthy.

Workers have paid into the program, along with the state government, in order to ensure that N.C. workers receive the benefits to which they are legally entitled.

In most other states and municipalities, however, the equivalent public pension programs lack sufficient funding to cover the costs of all of the obligations that these programs will incur in the future. The states of Kentucky and Illinois, for example, currently maintain pension funds that are capable of covering only a little more than half of their underfunded liabilities. The city of Chicago maintains underfunded liabilities at a magnitude of 10 times its revenue. The Los Angeles Times released an article just a few weeks ago discussing how “years of overoptimistic stock purchases and inadequate contributions have left it [California Public Employees Retirement System] terribly vulnerable, and just a few years of down markets could leave it insolvent.” Outside of state and municipal governments, some corporations also have underfunded pension obligations—something to keep in mind for investors while performing valuation calculations.

But let’s focus on the public pension deficits.

How did this even happen? It appears that, prior to

contribution obligations had increased, still leaving a gap between the return on their investments and their underfunded liabilities. More recently, we have even seen the desperation of state pension funds to invest in higher risk, higher return ventures in an attempt to recoup losses, which has only further endangered state programs.

So why does any of this matter to us? In the long run, it is likely that you and I, the future employees and retirees who will pay into and derive support from these pension funds, might be affected by current inadequacies in the system. It is not yet clear what policies certain states and municipalities will employ in order to ameliorate the deficiencies in this system, but we know that as legal obligations, these pensions will have to be fulfilled one way or another. Perhaps heavier taxes, reduced government spending on other programs or altered benefits might be the choice. We have seen states challenged in court for attempts to reduce benefits or increase contribution requirements. The possibility of bailouts for states and municipalities that cannot cover their pension obligations is also being discussed, but generally, experts in the field believe that bailouts would provide the wrong incentives to local governments. In any case, this is a serious concern for our generation, which might be left with the consequences of the failures of this obligatory program.

It is no secret that there is an urgent need for pension contribution reform in order to ensure that the contractually-specified post-employment income of future workers is fulfilled without sacrificing the interests of future generations and business. This issue will come into play sooner or later. It just hasn’t quite hit us yet.

Ajay Desai is a Trinity freshman. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays.

The Chronicle

www.dukechronicle.com commentary

Union-busting at Duke: a brief history

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his week, contingent faculty at Duke took the historic step of filing for a union election. The decision comes in response to the administration’s ongoing attempts to replace stable, fulltime, tenure track jobs with part-time, precarious, low-wage positions. Predictably, the burden of these policies is distributed unevenly across race and gender lines; while roughly 40 percent of Duke’s teaching staff

What is often overlooked, however, is that they did so in support of a general strike of Black housekeepers, groundskeepers and cafeteria employees (later joined by white service workers) that brought university operations to a standstill. In the face of this, President Knight finally acceded to the demand for a minimum wage, although it would be five more years before Local 77 achieved union recognition.

Art(ists) of the moment

“I

miss the old Kanye, straight from the gold Kanye/Chop up the soul Kanye, set on his goals Kanye/I hate the new Kanye, the bad mood Kanye/ The always rude Kanye, spaz in the news Kanye… See I invented Kanye, it wasn’t any Kanyes/And now I look and look around and it’s so many Kanye’s/I used to love Kanye, I used to love Kanye.”

So go some of the incredibly self-aware, self-referential and retrospective lyrics in the song, “I Love Kanye,” from “The Life of Pablo,” Kanye West’s latest artistic venture,

Bennett Carpenter

Jackson Prince

(G)RAD LEFT

PARENTHETICALS

are now contingent, more than 50 percent of faculty of color—and more than 60 percent of female faculty—labor off the tenure track. As our faculty take a stand for long-term contracts, health care and fair pay, it seems an opportune moment to look back at the history of wage suppression and union-busting here at Duke, which has been chronicled by Erik Ludwig.

Our journey through history takes us back to 1963. Duke, one of the last major universities to desegregate, has just admitted its first Black undergraduate students.

Restrooms on campus remain segregated; there is a separate entrance to Wallace Wade Stadium marked “colored.” There are no Black faculty, administrators or trustees.

There are, however, plenty of Black workers. They are clustered in a variety of service positions, predominately housekeeping, groundskeeping and food service. Here there is segregation of a different sort—in the cafeteria, for instance, where Black women bus tables and prepare food, while white women serve as cashiers.

(Managers are white and male.) Black women make an average of $0.85 per hour and Black men about ten cents more, although the federal minimum wage is $1.25. They are required to address white students as “mister” and “miss.”

In 1965, Black workers on campus organize the Duke Employees Benevolent Society and affiliate as AFSCME Local 77.

The administration refuses to recognize the Local and, despite modest pay raises, Black workers continue to make well below the federally-mandated minimum wage. (In the words of President Douglas Knight, “it is far more important both for the University and the region to make certain that salaries continue to rise for more skilled people than [for] those who receive minimum compensation”). Meanwhile, Duke launches an ambitious $200 million construction and renovation project.

In 1966, two Black maids associated with the union effort are fired without cause.

Shirley Ramsey, the first Black worker to be promoted to the position of cashier, is also dismissed. Despite this, the organizing effort continues. In 1967, Local 77 launches a five-day picket. More than 200 students and faculty join the workers’ picket line.

In response, President Knight announces a ban on “disruptive” demonstrations and a “No Solicitation Policy” forbidding union discussion in work areas on campus.

Undaunted, Local 77 plans an all-strike of university service workers for the first full week of April 1968. Then, on April 4th, Martin Luther King Jr. is killed.

The ensuing “Silent Vigil” is often portrayed as a spontaneous, student-led protest. In reality, it was the product of many years of planning, organizing and coalition building by Black workers (and primarily Black women). True, more than 2,000 students camped out on the quad— the largest demonstration in Duke’s history.

This victory, one of the first for the union movement on campus, would also be among its last. If workers had learned new lessons from these long years of struggle, the administration had as well. Multiple subsequent attempts of Duke University Hospital workers to unionize would be beaten back by the administration’s forceful anti-union efforts, including firing and intimidating workers suspected of union sympathies and hiring anti-union consultants to the tune of some $500 per day. (In contrast, many hospital workers were still paid only minimum wage.)

Getting back into our time machine and setting the dial for 2016, what looks different now than in 1968? Many things have changed. We no longer have segregated bathrooms or a “colored” entrance to the stadium. Our student body is considerably more diverse. We have some Black administrators and Black faculty. We have three Black trustees.

On the other hand, the majority of workers of color on campus continue to be clustered in a few sectors—primarily housekeeping, groundskeeping and food service. Today only 3 percent of tenured faculty are Black (and only 9 percent of administrators). Meanwhile, almost 84 percent of non-exempt service workers are Black and Latin@. Local 77 still exists, and some of our service workers benefit from it. Most, however, do not—including hospital workers as well as part-time, temporary and contract campus workers.

These non-unionized workers are paid as little as $7.25 an hour, lack benefits and are frequently fired every summer, even after working at Duke for many years. Meanwhile, the University continues to remain less concerned with fair wages than with multimillion dollar construction projects.

Unionization cannot fully resolve the problem of race, class and gender inequality, but it’s a very good place to start. Studies repeatedly show that unionization reduces both the racial and gender wage gap by more than half. Nor are the benefits merely material; at a conversation on campus diversity early last week, members of the California Faculty Association explained how their union achieved significant gains, including developing “unconscious bias” tools for hiring committees which led to significant increases in staff and faculty diversity across ranks.

Building strong unions both helps to increase diversity within ranks and to narrow the wealth gap between them.

Perhaps the most striking difference between 1968 and 2016, however, is the pervasive apathy of today’s campus culture.

In 1968, more than 2,000 students protested in solidarity with the demands of campus workers for racial, social and economic justice. Where are such students today?

Bennett Carpenter is a graduate student in the literature department. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016 | 11

released this weekend.

The album is a radical departure from the works of the artist Kanye refers to as “the old Kanye.” The rapper suggests in the unproduced a cappella track, that this album is a result of an evolution of his “invented” persona. We are warned that, although we may prefer “the old Kanye,” we must accept the fact that we’re now faced with “the bad mood Kanye,” a product of this moment in his artistic journey and in his life.

In listening to the album, it feels as if Kanye is asking us to change our perception of who Kanye West is, who he was and where he’s headed. The revolutionary mind behind “The College Dropout” is now a suburban father of two, co-starring in a docu-soap reality show on E!, championing an over-priced fashion line, losing Twitter battles to his ex-girlfriend, a member of the Kardashian family.

Kanye’s life has drastically changed, and his music has followed.

Yet, so it is with all artists and their art.

Just as art is reflective of its time, so, too, is it an extension, or even a mirror, of the artists themselves. All artists operate within the reality of their own life circumstances, outside of the influence of their contemporaries or even of their own artistic journey.

Kids, marriages, divorces, deaths, critical and financial success, drugs, age, world issues; it all affects an artist as much as any of us. The significant difference is that most of us—as we evolve—don’t release a steady stream of words, images or music to chronicle our lives for the world to appreciate.

Some artists are able to surf on the crest of their circumstances, separating their art from the violent waves of change that affect their personal lives. They build on their careers and evolve as artists, regardless of their respective conditions. Dickens. Rauschenberg. The Eagles. Woody Allen.

However, these are the exceptions, as most artists get caught in the waves, resulting in art that can’t help but embody the way they feel at any given moment.

I think about Pablo Picasso—probably because Kanye intended for us to—and his ongoing departures from and arrivals upon various artistic approaches. Some of Picasso’s most highly-praised work was born out of his “Blue Period,” during which he was profoundly depressed after the suicide of one of his close friends. Picasso painted from the depths of despair, his personal despondency inevitably embedded in his product.

And then Picasso’s mood elevated after

meeting his soon-to-be French mistress, leading to what is called his “Rose Period,” in which his work was equally glorious.

Artists are human, and more often than not, much more in touch with their feelings than civilians—or they like to think they are.

They can’t help but express themselves and their personal narratives in their art, and upon us. Some artists’ lives change dramatically and their art reflects those changes gloriously, albeit often erratically.

That’s Picasso. That’s Alanis Morissette, writing songs about the PTSD she experienced

after the mind-blowing success of “Jagged Little Pill.” That’s Chance the Rapper finding God after acid, that’s author Cormac McCarthy desperate to protect the son he had at an advanced age, in the father-son journey on “The Road.”

Other sensitive creative types get churned up in the choppy surf of their own life circumstances, and their resulting art isn’t merely erratic; it suffers and too often fails to retain the listeners, readers and fans who had once enthusiastically accompanied these artists on their paths.

That’s Andy Warhol getting stale and bored, and Lil Wayne and Steven King getting way too high.

From the perspective of the listener/ reader/viewer/critic/consumer in all of this, well ... we don’t pull much weight on the frontend. We’re at the whim of the artists. Whatever they’re feeling or doing or being—or trying not to feel or do or be—inherently finds itself in the art we’re given.

Where we find our voice is in our response.

We have the all-important choice of whether to consciously follow an artist further into their journey by caring about the art. Whether we believe in it. Whether we like it.

I love Kanye. I love his unapologetic ego.

I love his resourcefulness and willingness to spotlight others. I love the truth he spills into his words and his production and the chronicle of his journey that is his discography. I love Kanye’s continued ambition, his willingness to review, reinvent, redesign and test us.

But I don’t know if I’m able to show that love for the “bad mood Kanye” I’ve been introduced to in “The Life of Pablo” just yet.

I appreciate the artistry, the collaboration, the emphasis on production, the continuation of his narrative. But the album’s reactive and flat, trendy, lacking the raw, proactive power I felt when I met “the old Kanye.”

Who knows? Maybe it just has to do with who I am at this exact moment on my journey as a listener. Either way, I personally hope that he surfs out of this wave, I hope it was therapeutic.

All we can do with any artist is empathize with him, as he handles life’s tiny ripples as well as its big breakers, only later to sort out exactly how we feel about the art that comes out of that set.

I do hope Kanye finds his Rose Period.

With or without the French mistress.

Jackson Prince is a Trinity freshman. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays.

Interested in reading more Opinion?

Check out the Opinion pages at www.dukechronicle.com/opinion

12 | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016

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The Chronicle

February 16-22 EXHIBITIONS Full Exposure: Paul and Damon McCarthy’s Pirate Party. An exhibition of photographs by Paul and Damon McCarthy, co-organized by Duke undergraduate students. Thru March 13, 2016 Reality of My Surroundings: The Contemporary Collection, demonstrating the museum’s ongoing commitment to collecting contemporary work by global artists, with a focus on artists of African descent. Thru July 10, 2016.

The New Galleries: A Collection Come to Light. Thru September 18, 2016.

Odili Donald Odita. Two large-scale murals by visiting artist and abstract painter Odili Donald Odita have been commissioned by the Nasher Museum; one is at Duke and one is in downtown Durham. Thru October 1, 2017.

EVENTS February 16 Lecture Series in Musicology. Julia Cumming (McGill University). “Choirbooks and Partbooks: Different Formats, Different Affordances.” 4:30pm, Room 104, Biddle Music Bldg. Free.

Cartel Land. With stunning access amidst danger and violence, Cartel Land viscerally exposes two contemporary vigilante movements, one on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Part of the Full Frame Winter Series. 7pm, Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre. Free.

February 17 Rick Prelinger Artist Talk. MFA|EDA visiting artist Prelinger gives an artist talk and an archival moving image presentation. 6:30pm, Full Frame Theater. Free.

(MFA) February 18 Exhibition Opens to Public. A Material Legacy: The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection of Contemporary Art. 10am-9pm. Thru June 26, 2016.

February 19 Dancing the African Diaspora. Embodying the Afrofuture conference. Biannual conference organized by the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance.

See cadd-online.org.

Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion. When the Wolves Came In. 8pm, Reynolds Industries Theater. tickets.duke.edu February 20 Ciompi Quartet with Kyo-Shin-An Arts. Debussy: String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10; Zhou Long: Poems from Tang (commissioned by the Ciompi Quartet); James Nyoraku Schlefer: Dream Corner, for Japanese Sankyoku and String Quartet. Presented by Duke Performances. 8pm, Baldwin Auditorium. $25 Gen. Public; $15 age 30 & under; $10 Students.

Dancing the African Diaspora. Embodying the Afrofuture conference. (See February 19) Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion. When the Wolves Came In. (See February 19) February 21 Faculty Chamber Music Concert. Music by Ravel, Villa-Lobos and Brahms, performed by Duke faculty members Elizabeth Linnartz, soprano; Laura Byrne, harp; Randy Reed, guitar; Rachel Niketopoulos, horn; Eric Pritchard, violin; Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone. 3pm, Baldwin Auditorium. Free.

Vespers Ensemble Spring Concert. Miserere: Lenten Baroque Music. A collection of rarely-heard choral and orchestral compositions focusing on the contemplative nature of the season of Lent. In collaboration with Capella Baroque and the Mallarmé HIP Festival. 7:30pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Free.

Dancing the African Diaspora: Embodying the Afrofuture conference. (See February 19) February 22 Apps, Maps & Models. A Symposium on Digital Pedagogy and Research in Art History, Archaeology and Visual Studies. 8:30am-6:30pm. Nasher Museum.

Free but registration required.

SCREEN/SOCIETY All events are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are at 7pm in the Richard White Lecture Hall, East Campus.

(G) = Griffith Film Theater, Bryan Center. (FFT) = Full Frame Theater, ATC. (FHI) = Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, C105 (“Garage”). All events subject to change – for details and updates, see: ami.duke.edu/screensociety February 16 Bab El-Oued City 2016 African Film Festival February 19 Speculation Nation (FFT) +Q&A w/ dirs. Bill Brown & Sabine Gruffat AMI Showcase—AMI Faculty Spotlight February 22 Experimental Shorts from the 53rd Ann Arbor Film Festival AMI Showcase ami.duke.edu/screensociety/schedule

This message is brought to you by the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Chapel Music, Duke Dance Program, Duke Music Department, Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts, Nasher Museum of Art, Screen/Society, Department of Theater Studies with support from the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts.