THE MIRROR Independent student newspaper
Week of October 9, 2019
Vol. 45 Iss. 5
Fetty Wap to Perform at Red Sea Madness By Danielle Sondgeroth Contributing Writer
via email, the decision was at least somewhat student driven. “We started the artist selection process by first deciding on the date of the event, October 25. We reached out to our agent to determine which artists were available on that date, and then we looked into how much it would cost to bring the different artists to campus,” she said. “FUSA values student feedback, so we posted a survey asking students which genre they would prefer to see. We had great participation in our Life@Fairfield survey with 594 responses and the top choice selected was rap/hip hop. With this information we went back to the artists and decided that from the top voted genre, Fetty Wap was the best option.” Fetty Wap has been in the music industry since 2013 but broke into the music scene in 2015 with his debut single and instant hit,
“Trap Queen.” Since then, he’s been a staple in the rap world, releasing a number of other singles that made it onto the Top 10 in the US charts and winning the Best New Artist Award at the 2015 VMAs. In previous years, Fairfield has hosted a slew of popular artists, including T-Pain in 2017 and DNCE in 2018. The concerts are always well-attended and are followed by free food outside of Alumni Hall. The night will begin with performances from the university’s sports teams, including the cheer and dance teams with a pep rally to kick off the new season for the varsity basketball team. This year, Fairfield plans to have food trucks from the ever-popular Colony Grill, Super Duper Weenie, and Garden Catering with meals included in each student’s ticket. Most students go to Red Sea Madness for the concert but end up staying for the free food, including sophomore Julianna Gentile. “The food trucks are awesome,” she said. “I totally recommend going.” Gentile attended the event as a freshman and thoroughly enjoyed it but isn’t planning to attend for a second year in a row. Tickets for Red Sea Madness are currently on sale for $30 for students and $35 for guests over the age of 18. The price was reduced from last year’s $45, reportedly deterring some students from going. Unlike in previous years when the tickets were sold out, only 872 tickets were sold last year down from a record attendance of 1900 people in 2017 according to a previous article in the Fairfield Mirror and a page on News@Fairfield. “The tickets were expensive,” Gentile said. “Now that they’re cheaper and it’s a rapper a lot of people like, I think a ton of people will go.” According to a post on the university’s website, there are only 2000 tickets being sold and they “may sell out.” “The student reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and we eagerly counting down the days until Fetty Wap performs on campus,” Monahan said.
Fairfield University revealed the artist performing at its annual fall concert Wednesday. Fetty Wap is set to perform at the university’s traditional Red Sea Madness event on October 25. The concert announcement occurred at half-time during a Fairfield U men’s soccer game against Rider. Once the artist was revealed, a loud cheer went up from the crowd. Onlookers smiled and clapped, still excited even as they left Lessing Field and headed back to their dorms. As she headed out from the field, Courtney Kobus, ’22, was genuinely excited about the concert. “I’m very excited because I love Fetty Wap,” she said. “I love rap so it should be a good time,” affirmed Chris McCormick, ’22. “I’m excited. I wasn’t expecting him but I’m not disappointed at all,” said Mary di Graci, ’23. Of course, some students were even more enthusiastic about the choice of this year’s artist. Another student, Zachary Olszewski, ’23, said, “I can’t wait to get down and boogie with my fellow students.” “So far, the response has been the most positive in my 4 years at Fairfield,” said Thomas Boutros, the programming director in FUSA via email. “I personally cannot wait for this year’s concert.” However, some students were less enthused leaving the stadium. Chelsey Gabriel, ’22, wasn’t too excited about this year’s artist choice. “I’m not the biggest rap fan. Honestly, I think [the artist] is interesting, but I don’t love the choice,” she said. “I feel like the odd man out.” When she found out that the tickets are $30 for students, Gabriel said that she “probably won’t go.” Gabriel isn’t the only student conflicted over buying a ticket. “I bought a ticket, but I know none of Fetty Wap’s songs,” said Bridget Morrisey, ‘22. “I’d never heard of him before last night.” While some students may be confused and wonder how this year’s artist was Photo Courtesy of Fetty Wap’s Twitter picked, according to FUSA President Claire Monahan Fetty Wap first hit the mainstream with his debut “Trap Queen,” which dominated the charts in 2015.
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The Power of Ambassador Samantha Power By Lexi Thimble Editor-in-Chief
“It seems the right time to ask, what are each of us normally not that these times suddenly require us to be?” That was how Ambassador Samantha Power closed her talk at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on Oct. 2. For approximately an hour she expounded upon a variety of topics, speaking at great length about the current impact of polarization in politics both here in the United States and abroad, the question of whether democracy has been irreparably tarnished (Power as an idealist does not believe it has) and the concept of “shrinking the change,” of average people make their own small societal contributions to affect striking change. Before she even stepped on the Quick Center stage, however, Ambassador Power took time to speak with The Mirror about her career and the themes discussed in her new book, “The Education of an Idealist.” Power spoke first about her transition from being a war reporter, covering genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, to her role as a foreign policy advisor in President Barack Obama’s cabinet. “When you’re a journalist, [you have] to be able to bridge that distance between what you’re seeing and what your readers are living, which is very different,” Power explained. “If you’re living through a war, how do you describe that so it will feel resonant?” Power found a parallel between this challenge of communicating such visceral
of his attention she could ask him to focus on America’s concepts effectively in her work in the White House. role abroad when there was so much turmoil happening at “Something very similar [happens] in the Situation home. Doing this while simultaneously trying to achieve Room,” she said. “You’re trying to convey the urgency of, let’s say, sexual violence in a conflict or mass refugee Continue Reading POWER On Page 2 flight or child soldiers being recruited, but you’re with a bunch of people who are not living in that world, so how do you convey it? It’s very similar.” Her biggest challenge in taking on a role similar to the ones she had previously criticized as an activist was how to first and foremost affect the change that she wished to see. It took a learning curve of a few months to understand how that process worked, and to figure out how to communicate with what she termed an audience “rooted in a set of domestic constraints.” The Obama administration took office in January of 2009, in the midst of an economic crisis that was costing millions of Americans their jobs. Power had to shift her expectations of Julia Crews / The Mirror President Obama during this Power and Thimble discuss Power’s new book, “The Education of an Idealist.” time, figuring out how much