FEM NEWSMAG PRESENTS SPRING. 21
Biden has approved the sale of $735 million worth of weapons to be sent to Israel to be used to murder Palestinians. As millions of white Americans receive their first and second doses of COVID vaccinations, the vaccine rollout is still failing Black and Latinx people who need immunity.
Spring of 2021 will also be remembered as a turning point in many of our individual lives. Many of us are graduating this year, including me. When lockdowns in the U.S. started in March of last year, I don’t think any of us expected that our entire school year would be virtual. I’m incredibly, incredibly proud of how we took on this extraordinarily challenging year. Not only did we create three outstanding virtual issues and zines, host virtual events, restructure our social media pages, and work to make FEM more accessible, but we also took care of each other. While many of our professors seemed to somehow forget that we were all living through a global pandemic, at FEM, I think we were able to cultivate a culture of care and compassion that made FEM something that added to our lives as opposed to making us even more anxious than we already were. That’s honestly one of the things I’m most proud of from this year. I will always treasure my time spent with the FEM community, and will remember it as the most important and meaningful part of my time in college. This is my last editor’s note before I pass the title of Editor-in-Chief onto Cindy Quach. There is zero doubt in my mind that Cindy will do a fantastic job next year. I’m so excited about what she has in store for FEM, and will be cheering from the sidelines as a proud alumna. For now, want to celebrate all of the members of FEM who are graduating. As Charlie writes in her piece “Green Feast”, “This is a big ceremonious pivot in our lives. Don’t let it pass you by! Cling to it. Celebrate it. What better way to honor this moment rife with exhilaration, joy, grief, tragedy, life, than sharing the bounty of Spring with those you love?”
When I think of the color green, I think of optimism, I think of growth. Not the kind of optimism that ignores reality, but the kind of optimism that digs beneath the surface. Spring of 2021 will be remembered by many as a crucial historical turning point that made people feel optimistic. Between Biden settling into the White House and millions of Americans receiving vaccines, on the surface, sure, things seem different. But here at FEM, we know that praising these kinds of optical forms of progress only hurts marginalized people. As liberals praise our “return to normalcy,”
With love, and signing off, Alana Editor-in-ChiefFrancis-Crow2020-2021
Many of the articles in this issue have to do with unpacking what lies beneath the idea of “progress.” Mar’s article about the politics and history of marijuana unpacks how states legalizing marijuana and white canna-bros opening up dispensaries does not lead to material change for people of color. Shannon and Grace’s essay asserts that art about environmentalism not backed by meaningful critique does more harm than good. Chloë’s piece on recycling thoughtfully points out that corporations’ insistence on recycling as the be-all and end-all of sustainability doesn’t do much besides allow corporations to lure consumers into the idea that they’re making “ethical”
Youchoices.might be thinking, how is any of this optimistic? I happen to think that making specific critiques of power structures and refusing to accept liberal ideas of progress is one of the most optimistic things one can do. Doing so means you believe that we can topple oppressive power structures and move toward liberation and joy for all people. It also means refusing to buy into shallow, capitalist ideas of self-care. As Kelsey points out, in our toxic American work culture, self-care is viewed as something you do so that you can be a better worker. Take too much time for yourself, and you should feel guilty. Charlie’s dinner party recipe piece provides a powerful rebuttal and a reminder to get in touch with your senses, revel in slow food, and connect with the people around you.
STAFFQUARTERSPRING2021 EIC: Alana Francis-Crow Managing Editor: Concepción Esparza POLITICS Section Editor: Mar Escusa Content Editors: Kimia Faroughi, Emma Jacobs Copy Editor: Sophia Obregon Staff Writers: Tessa Fier, Navya Nagubadi, Mar Escusa, Vanessa Diep, Kelsey Ngante DIALOGUE AND OPINION Section Editor: Eva Szilardi-Tierney Content Editors: Shannon Kasinger, Angela Patel Copy Editors: Alexandra Baran, Emma Lehman Staff Writers: Eva Speiser, Ovsanna Avetisyan, Sophia Pulido, Anouska Saraf, Joey Sigala, Ha My Le CAMPUS LIFE Section Editor: Maya Petrick Content Editors: Madison Thantu Copy Editor: Ashley Leung Staff Writers: Chloë Vigil, Bella Nadler, Sarah Huang ENTERTAINMENT Section Editor: Shanahan Europa Content Editors: Kelsey Chan, Eva Szilardi-Tierney Copy Editors: Maya Lu, Olivia Serrano, Natalya Hill Staff Writers: Isabel Armitage, Maribella Cantú, Grace Fang, Ifueko Osarogiagbon, Chloe Xtina, Jessica Thomas, Makayla Williams, Jamila Cummings ARTS AND CREATIVE Section Head: Taryn Slattery Editors: Axel Tirado, Charlie Stuip Staff Writers: Jane Wang, Amanda Mak, Jasmine Kaur, Savannah Spatafora, Pilar Shen-Berro DESIGN Design Heads: Shannon Boland, Grace Ciacciarelli, Lauren Cramer Designers: Ming Chen, Collette Lee, Maizah Ali, Emma Lehman, Hailey Lynaugh, Haiqi Zhou, Karina Remer, Katelynn Perez, Lilah Sniderman, Neha Dihman, Shreya Dodballapur, Maya Lu SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media Manager: Jackie Vanzura Social Media Staff: Lexie Bell, Emily House, Mary McGlinchey SOCIAL PLANNING Section Head: Cindy Quach Social Planning Staff: Anna Mook, Lakshmi Burugupalli, Katelin Murray, Sarahi Lopez, Uwaila Omokaro, Lyndsey Garrett FINANCE Section Heads: Rachel Chau & Mayfair Rucker Finance Staff: Ananya Iyer, Devanshi Agarwal, Isabel Enriquez, Izzie, Ru-Faan Chen Intern: Abby Giardina RADIO Radio Manager: Julia Schreib Radio Staff: Anjali Singhal, Deirdre Mitchell, Delilah Williams, Diana Castro, Emma Lehman, Jamie Jiang, Lavanya Pandey, Naomi Humphrey, Aliah Gaoteote VIDEO Video Heads: Shannon Boland & Natalya Hill Video Producers: Lilah Sniderman, Mary McGlinchey, Cindy Quach, Daniella Hagopian, Ifueko Osarogiagbon Video Interns: Anna Ziser, Cassidy Kohlenberger, Jerylee Perez, Rania Ali CONTENTS DINNER TIME 6 THE WAR ON MARIJUANA: THE VERSATILE DRUG AS A TOOL OF RESISTANCE 8 EVERYTHING ON THE OUTSIDE: WHAT DOES GREEN MEAN TO YOU? 11 WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP TELLING ME TO RECYCLE? 14 RECIPE FOR GREEN JUICE 16 ART VS. THE ANTHROPOCENE 18 GREEN FEAST 22 A GREEN REFLECTIONLISTICLE:OFTHE POP CULTURE TIMES 27 WATER, FOOD, AIR, LAND: STORIES OF THE FRONT LINES 31 THE GREEN PLAYLIST 34
6 FEM GREEN ISSUE DINNER TIME Hailey Lynaugh
Artist Statement: When I sit down with what my mom is sure to remind me is “junk food,” I can’t help but feel like the leafy greens and keto snacks in the fridge grow eyes and glare at me.
Over the past twenty years, public opinion on marijuana has flipped with currently two-thirds of Americans supporting legalization, having lived through the failure of the war on drugs and its punitive policies. Senator Scott Wiener expressed how the movement has evolved in support for legalizing the possession of drugs: “The war on drugs has been an abject failure because it is based on the false belief, the false notion, that criminalizing people, arresting them, incarcerating them for possessing, for using drugs, will somehow deter use and improve public safety.”
borders and population movements as direct results of war and imperialism affected the transnational movement of cannabis. The entrance of marijuana to the United States emerged from Mexican citizens who fled from the Mexican Revolution as well as the migration from the Caribbean into the New Orleans area. The convergence of the influx of immigrants with the temperance movement of the early 20th century connected the push for regulation of opiates and the banning of alcohol, enabling racist and xenophobic fears and stereotypes about communities of color. This led to the plant’s illegal status by the 1930s.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, places like New York have allowed marijuana dispensaries to remain open. While the government considers marijuana dispensaries as an essential service, they also continue to lock up Black and Brown people on cannabis charges. In New York, there are 40,000 people imprisoned under marijuana convictions, further adding to the unsafe, inhumane, and uninhabitable conditions of the New York prison system. The prisonindustrial complex upholds the dichotomy of legalization and incarceration, proving the essentiality of police and prison abolition. While communities of color suffer under the police state, the state-led legalization of weed does not consider legislation to include freeing the existing incarcerated populations charged with marijuana-related offenses. Furthermore, the carceral state profits off of BIPOC labor, and more money and resources are funneled into the police and military, rather than the neighborhoods which face institutionalized violence.
8 9FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 THE WAR
While some Democrats such as Chuck Schumer have supported this trend, Biden and Republicans continue to oppose national legalization. Even Vice President Kamala Harris, who proposed the federal legalization of marijuana throughout her presidential campaign, has abandoned this narrative and shifted focus on expunging records and decriminalizing marijuana. These political contradictions have existed throughout Harris’s career as state attorney general of California, with a harsh stance against marijuana legalization and opposition to Prop. 19 in 2010. Moreover, a Washington Free Beacon investigation discovered that Harris prosecuted at least 1,560 people on marijuanarelated offenses between 2011 and 2016. Organizations such as The Last Prisoner Project are calling out this injustice and asking President Biden to grant clemency to individuals incarcerated under federal cannabis-related convictions. The Last Prisoner Project advocates for restorative justice to release and rebuild the lives of those affected by the consequences of cannabis convictions.
While lower-class communities of color cultivate and consume cannabis, imperialist powers prohibit the crop to subdue social unrest and lack of productivity, using racist propaganda and rhetoric to sway the public against “the other”: people who treasure the plant within non-white spaces. Therefore, the history of marijuana is inextricably linked to global politics and targeted cultural violence. In some of the earliest examples of cannabis use, it posed a challenge to religious, economic, and political authorities in East and Southeast Asia, SWANA, and Southern Africa. In 8000 BC, Chinese societies were the initial cannabis farmers, but the rise of Taoism resulted in ostracism and cultural rejection of the psychoactive drug and has since been tied to the stained history of opium in China. Similarly, mainstream Islam dismissed lower-class Sufi Muslims’ belief in spiritual enlightenment through marijuana’s altered state of consciousness. The Egyptian government raided Sufi cannabis farms and destroyed their crops from 12531324, then implemented martial law to burn farming villages to the ground. The cycle of cultivation, consumption, and crackdown of cannabis continued in Egypt for centuries. Marijuana’s role as a medicinal, spiritual, and recreational drug of the working-class alarmed the established social Anotherorder.
Mar
Marijuana culture today embodies growth, joy, and community. With the recent legalization of weed among more and more states in the U.S., policymakers have seized the opportunity to tax weed and legalize it for white profit. However, the mass incarceration of Black and Brown folks on charges of marijuana possession stems from the fear that the drug will threaten white supremacist elitist society.
concern of colonial powers was marijuana’s influence on military power and the labor force. The Indian ruling class and the British governor-general of India advocated for a total ban on marijuana due to distress over national strife in 1790. However, British Parliament capitalized on the labor of Brown people within the cannabis industry to generate revenue. In South Africa, the British and Dutch descendent white authority enacted laws to prohibit indentured Indian laborers from trade, growth, and use of marijuana, framing the drug as a force contaminating society and endangering civil order. The ruling colonial population sought to maintain their position in the racial hierarchy, so they criminalized cannabis within communities of color. The white South African government utilized the plant as a weapon for racialized policing of Indian farmers. In addition, the Portuguese introduced marijuana prohibitions to their African colonies in the early 19th century, including Zambia and Angola, due to the fact that they viewed cannabis as a vice when used by enslaved people. Nonetheless, the colonized peoples brought marijuana with them to the TheAmericas.shifting
The beginning of Nixon’s war on drugs in 1971 exacerbated arrests for pot within Black communities. During the 1970s, Nixon identified his enemies as the anti-war left and Black Americans, then vilified the communities heavily through the criminalization of marijuana and heroin. The drug continued to be a topic of contention with the following administrations’ upholding an anti-drug agenda and spreading anti-Black misinformation through politics and the Despitemedia.the attempts to associate the drug with suspicion and hate, marijuana was incorporated by Black artists throughout the 20th century as a symbol for creativity, expression, and joy. Black musicians like Louis Armstrong included cannabis within the culture of New Orleans’ jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1990s, Black artists were responsible for reintroducing cannabis into mainstream pop culture with albums like Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic,” Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle,” and Cypress Hill’s “Black Sunday.” On an international scale, artists like Bob Marley implemented cannabis within reggae culture. Much of the plant’s discussion today still revolves around the debate on legalization. While international treaties prohibit countries from legalizing marijuana for recreational uses, Canada and Uruguay have legalized pot, with Mexico taking steps to legalize it in the near future. Today, almost half of the U.S. population lives in a state where weed is legalized. Most recently, New Jersey, Virginia, and New York have legalized weed for recreational use.
The current discourse on marijuana needs to re-examine who its legalization is benefitting and who its criminalization
MARIJUANA:ON THE VERSATILE DRUG AS A TOOL RESISTANCEOF Escusa; design by Lauren Leung Cramer
EVERYTHING ON THE OUTSIDE: WHAT DOES GREEN MEAN TO YOU? Jane Wang; design by Shannon Boland
10 11FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 continues to hurt. The American weed industry is valued at more than $18 billion and has provided over 300,000 full-time jobs. For the working class, the weed industry has provided financial independence through the underground marijuana market. However, the legal cannabis industry is dominated by white people who own 81% of cannabis businesses. This calls into question the rise in marijuana usage in educated white suburbia. White people often have financial resources that are not available to BIPOC communities and benefit off of generational wealth. Additionally, white consumers and sellers of weed are almost immune to prison sentences for drug use and instead are given the option for rehabilitation. Conversely, racial profiling and high policing in Black neighborhoods have further driven mass incarceration for drug possession under the police state. It is clear that white wealthy entrepreneurs profit off of something taken from Black culture, which perpetuates cyclical discrimination and violence toward Black communities. The venture capitalists and start-up tech bros of Silicon Valley fail to give credit and invest in Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and their ideas. Funding and business licenses are given to white men, while banks turn away BIPOC women who face more barriers due to socioeconomic status. Not to mention, the raised expectations for people of color exist within all industries, as they have to prove their worth in comparison to the performance of white people. Dispensaries like Sweet Flower, MedMen, and Seth Rogen’s Houseplant are run and catered to white and wealthy communities, omitting BIPOC from safe and comfortable spaces to purchase weed. The war on drugs in the United States directly ties to the school-to-prison pipeline. The increased police presence at schools in communities of color enforces suspension, expulsion, and zero-tolerance policies, specifically harming Black and Brown students and students with disabilities. Once a child or teenager develops a criminal record, their chances of spending time in prison throughout their lifetime significantly increase. In addition, a criminal record hinders the youth’s accessibility to employment and housing opportunities. In the context of schools, a disparity exists among white and Black students being punished for minor offenses, similar to marijuana arrests in the United States. Moreover, marijuana is the drug that most kids get penalized for in school settings, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). The dated D.A.R.E. program, which proposes total abstinence from drugs and alcohol, has fallen short in its effectiveness. The fear-based tactics and manipulative advertising utilized by police officers are dangerous methods in addressing substance use prevention. The presentation of information surrounding drug use misinforms youth about mental and physical health and substance use conditions. Schools must work towards a system of harm reduction to approach individuals without “judgement, coercion, discrimination, or requiring that they stop using drugs as a precondition of support.” The principles of harm reduction involve valuing the rights of people who use drugs, addressing socioeconomic barriers, eliminating stigmatizing language and stereotypes, and encouraging participation of people who use drugs to prioritize their needs in an inclusive, safe, and collaborative way. Harm reduction works to protect the health of people who use drugs, challenge existing harmful policies, and provide alternative and accessible approaches to drug use and treatment.
While cannabis has an imperialist and violent history, it has also provided pleasure and prosperity for individuals. Cannabis researcher, author, and ethnobotanist Rob Clarke believes that cannabis seems to be one of the most useful plants that humans have ever come across. Mutualistic coevolution has affected the progress of human society alongside plants like cannabis. The variety found within the chemicals of cannabis helps the human body maintain homeostasis and a balanced internal system. From just one kind of crop, humans can absorb protein, build and craft with the fiber, and employ medicinal and cultural methods for our minds and bodies. The multifaceted nature of cannabis illustrates how poor working-class communities of color embraced marijuana use with exuberance in the face of oppression by the elite. While the United States moves towards legalization, we must acknowledge how the nation state’s war on drugs and prohibition of cannabis stems from international and colonial military powers.
12 13FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21
Theinhabitants.realityof
Reducing, reusing, and recycling can be reductionist in its own right; in the most ideal world, dismantling capitalism would make the attainment of both personal and larger scale sustainability goals more accessible. Beyond the harm that capitalism itself causes the planet (e.g. valuing profit with little to no consideration for environmental or human impact), promoting reducing and reusing on both a large and personal scale would be more effective without corporations interfering and acting in their own best interest, rather than the interest of the planet and its
Reducing and reusing are generally more sustainable than recycling for several reasons; they cut down on emissions from shipping and don’t rely on the manufacturing of new products, the processes of which are often not environmentally friendly. Additionally, the process of recycling in America is inherently flawed. When an individual sets out their recycling, the assumption is often that it is taken and recycled responsibly by their city or state. In reality, when recycling is contaminated by non-recyclable materials, which happens frequently, the goods recycled end up in a landfill anyways. What is left is then commonly shipped overseas, where it is also discarded in landfills or left to pollute water and countryside due to lack of infrastructure, and causes health and environmental hazards for residents.
Chloë Vigil; design by Shannon Boland
Since several countries (including China and Thailand, among others) banned the export of waste from the United States, the U.S. has had to grapple with its own lack of recycling infrastructure, leading to even more waste. While the United States should not completely give up and throw everything in landfills, we — particularly those in power— must grapple with the reality of present day recycling and adjust accordingly, as we attempt to create a more sustainable recycling system
Reduce, reuse, recycle, recycle, recycle. The ever-present symbol of green branding is the familiar green triangle made up of three arrows; an ode to the three pillars of sustainability. However, when the needs of the planet interfere with the desires of capitalism — encouraging lower consumption and reusing what one already owns is not the premier marketing strategy of most corporations — those in power shift the narrative to benefit the upper class. In the case of reducing, reusing, and recycling, the shift in question minimizes the emphasis on reducing and reusing, in favor of pushing recycling as the golden standard of sustainability. The shift of the three Rs is sneaky — unable to disavow sustainability efforts altogether, companies instead manipulate consumer perception of their eco-friendly practices (which frequently manifests as greenwashing) based upon what is convenient to them. The ultimate goal of corporations is to generate profit, impact on the planet or people be damned. By manufacturing the belief that sustainability is an individual choice, marked by the purchase of new, shiny, green labeled products (forget people in low-income communities who have been practicing sustainable living long before it was “trendy” ––these corporations rely on newness), companies are able to adopt an eco-conscious persona while profiting off of Theconsumers.orderof the three Rs is not accidental. Reducing and reusing should generally be practiced before recycling. For example, if you do not need new clothes, the most sustainable option is to forgo shopping. If you cannot reduce your clothing consumption, you might choose to reuse old clothes by mending them or wearing handme-downs. Reusing old or previously owned clothing is valuable from a sustainability standpoint, as new clothing often has negative environmental impacts (e.g. certain dyes polluting waterways, the pollution associated with shipping products, etc.) and potentially feeds into systems of labor abuse common among fashion brands. Finally, if neither reducing nor reusing is an option, you may want to invest in a piece of clothing that utilizes recycled material.
14 15FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP TELLING ME TO RECYCLE?
climate change requires large-scale, systemic change in addition to individual action (when possible).
Being aware of how corporations manipulate sustainability efforts (such as through the emphasis on recycling over reducing and reusing), allows one to better advocate for change and make informed sustainability decisions.
A whole lime 4 tablespoons white sugar 1 cup sparkling mineral water
“Baaaabe...what? I never did that. Are you really gonna trust your eyes over me?” was the last thing I heard.
PutRumall ingredients in juicer, serve over ice.
16 17FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 RECIPE FOR GREEN JUICE Eva Speiser; design by Collette Lee Do you struggle to eat your daily greens? This may be the green juice that changes your whole perspective. Before I was 18, hated the color green. Though many of you know me as Sam, 23 year-old environmentalist, billionaire philanthropist, and Green blogger extraordinaire, I was actually the kid who had to be reminded to eat her fruits and vegetables. It got to the point that my friends nicknamed me “Scurvy Sam” in middle school, because I kept getting scurvy. But who could blame me? I would sooner die than eat a lime. Green food simply reminded me of germs because of that green goblin Mucinex mascot (I think it’s an ad for cold medicine, actually; I’ve never tried it.)
But five years ago, when I was a senior in high school, a stranger planted a seed of change in my mind. I saw my soon-to-be boyfriend selling duct tape wallets at a recycled goods fair in West LA, and it was at that moment that everything changed. It was as if God himself came down from heaven, punched me in the jaw, and told me I had to get to know this handsome 17 year-old with the scraggly beard and leather necklaces. His bright green eyes were so beautiful that they made me second guess every opinion I’d ever had, including my opinion of green. had never cared much about the environment beyond spending more time online shopping on Reformation than FashionNova. But Ched, which was short for Cheddar Johnson, showed me a different way. That Friday night, we went out to an under-18 bar, and he told me about his startup company. He had a sick idea for a t-shirt with a tree on it, and I came up with a brilliant plan for marketing it: we could tell people we would plant a tree for every t-shirt sold, whether or not we actually did it. I had never seen anyone look at me like that before. think he fell in love right then and there. As we sipped the lime sodas that he ordered without asking me, was taking my first step into the world of “green” living. We dated for a few days before he told me I needed to be doing more for the environment. My job at Burger King (which had just introduced more vegan options) wasn’t cutting it. I should start my own environmentally friendly business, because “that would be so hot.” I’d always wanted to open a restaurant with my best friend after high school, but now I was considering throwing it away because Ched wanted us to go live in a yurt. Of course I eventually agreed. We ran away from our homes, armed with only a stainless steel juicer belonging to his dad, Lyndon P. Johnson (no relation), and the clothes on our backs. The yurt turned out to be deep in the upsettingly green forests of Guatemala, and although Ched didn’t speak Spanish, we made it work. We found a community of likeminded individuals, mostly 20-somethings from LA or the Bay Area, and set up a nice little collective. They all loved his tree shirt business. I decided I needed my own thing, and settled upon making juice. Every morning, I would go to the community gardens and pick fruits and vegetables. At first I avoided all the green ones, but under the guiding hand of Ched’s passionate love, started introducing green foods into my beverage creations. As Ched’s business grew, we decided to rope in more of our friends from the yurt community. Our best friends (and fellow lovers) Dick and Juniper Rose-Sunset joined as our treasurer and head of marketing. On Sundays, we would meet to talk about our business, which was doing well, given that we had received a considerable investment from Ched’s dad, Lyndon P. Johnson. Everything was perfect. When we arrived at our six month anniversary of living in the yurt, I wanted to do something nice for us. I thought it would be romantic to surprise Ched with my most ambitious creation yet, a flaming juice cocktail with real alcohol. I was about to enter Juniper and Dick’s yurt to ask if they had any martini glasses when I saw Ched cheating on me with Juniper Rose-Sunset. I was furious; it took all of my self control to not scream at them right then and there. had seen enough, and I silently snuck away from the yurt. In hindsight, I should have seen it coming; she had no marketing experience. I decided the show must go on. I made our drinks, popped two unmarked pills I found in Ched’s hammock, and prepared to give my farewell address. Ched and Juniper Rose-Sunset were sitting outside.
Anyways, here’s the recipe.
I began my speech. “I shall speak to you now about challenge and opportunity. Earlier today, I witnessed Ched transform from the man of my dreams, to the beast of my Inightmares.”tookastep closer and looked into his eyes, which I had just noticed were actually blue and not green. Had it all been a lie? I lost my temper. “Ched… I loved you. I trusted you. I left high school senior year to go to Guatemala with you. And how do you repay me? By cheating with that trollop Juniper Rose-Sunset!”
Green Juice - Serves 2 Solid Handful of Mint
Edit: A lot of you guys are claiming that this “isn’t juice” and “is not even green”. Please free your minds from the traditional notions of green juice. Thanks!
Author’s Note Lots of you seem to have questions about things other than the juice recipe. Please respect my privacy and that of my late ex-boyfriend Ched. Enjoy the juice!
I don’t know what those pills were, but at this point my vision blurred out, and I threw my flaming solo cup of absinthe, kale, grass, and olives at Ched. I heard later that my actions caused him to catch on fire, which, though it was not my intention, I was not entirely mad about. In a fit of rage, I assume I walked back to Los Angeles by myself with the juicer. It wasn’t too bad because I was blacked out for most of it. But when I got back home and my parents asked me where I had been for the last six months, I spit out a “fuck off” and collapsed. I woke up three days later with my laptop open in front of me. On it was an open Google Doc titled “Recie forGreen Juicew.” At some point in my stupor, I had written the most brilliant recipe of all time. It was time to reunite with the one constant in my life, Ched’s dad Lyndon P. Johnson’s juicer, and try it out. It was the most delicious thing had ever tasted. I had glass after glass and felt euphoric. So euphoric, in fact, I almost forgot Ched and everything that had happened over the last six months. As the years went on, my brief stint with Ched became a faint memory. Ched’s business continued to sky-rocket even without the help of me and Juniper Rose-Sunset. On his website it still says woman-founded business, and I am pretty sure the company has not planted a single tree. His idea was so successful that many lesser environmentalists copied it, including his former business partner Dick. The two were recently involved in a multimillion dollar lawsuit. The lawyer representing Ched was none other than his father, famous prosecutor Lyndon P. Johnson. Juniper RoseSunset, who now goes by Rose, went back to school for a business degree and now works full time in advertising. Her newest client? Exxon Mobil. As for myself, the juice became more of a passion project. In a way, I did accomplish my goal of having a restaurant, as the youngest ever senior sales manager of McDonalds. My generous salary allowed me to buy a new juicer, even better than the one we stole from Ched’s dad. Somehow everything worked itself out. And it was all thanks to Ched’s determination to convert me to an environmentalist, and to everyone’s hard work and unshakable character.
Some famous contemporary projects on the topic of climate change demonstrate the harmful impact of the liberal conception of activism. On the streets of the United Kingdom, iconic and anonymous graffiti artist Banksy directly addresses the topic of climate change. Banksy has been lauded by art-world elites for pieces centered around the destruction of the natural environment and the impact of climate change on individuals. Most recently, he has received attention for the upcoming auction of his 2009 oil painting “Subject to Availability,” his version of a sweeping landscape scene by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt. The work mirrors Bierstadt’s with the exception of an asterisk near the central mountain, which alerts Though the combined text and landscape gestures vaguely to larger themes of resource extraction, the painfully obvious takeaway –– “climate change is real, and bad” ––dances around assigning blame in the climate crisis while allowing museum elites to pay lip service to progressivism. Despite neither saying nor doing anything tangible to fight against the climate crisis, this piece is currently valued between $4 and $6.9 million and praised in the art world as “an intervention” with a “prophetic dimension” that has a “witty dialogue with the art historical canon [that] brings the painting sharply into the current context of the climate crisis.” This grandiose reception for such a simple statement reveals how depictions of societal problems become oversimplified, commodified, and conflated with meaningful change while the systemic roots of climate change remain in place. Examining famed Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s work in comparison to Banksy’s raises a similar issue on a more global scale. Eliasson is recognized by the general public and news media for “Ice Watch,” an installation he cocreated with geologist Minik Rosing for the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. “Ice Watch” consists of a group of icebergs arranged in front of the Place du Panthéon. Alongside the melting ice, the circular layout of the installation resembles a clock face, referencing the idea that time is running out to save the planet. Similar to “Subject to Availability,” Eliasson’s work appears successful in attracting passerby and potentially surface-level awareness about the general topic of climate change: photographs of the installation during the time of the Paris negotiations depict individuals gathering around and interacting with the piece. However, looking more closely at “Ice Watch” begs further questions about the and function of ‘art about climate change’: chiefly, who is this art for? Whether an individual viewer physically interacts with the installation or believes in global warming, it is common knowledge that the polar
Shannon Boland and Grace Ciacciarelli; design by Shannon Boland
the viewer to a small text at the bottom of the scene that contextualizes the title of the work: “*Subject to availability for a limited period only.”
This year on Earth Day, pop artist Todd Goldman released a line of global warming themed NFTs to raise awareness about climate change. Non-fungible tokens are a type of cryptocurrency in which people can buy a receipt verifying they are the sole owner of the unique piece of digital art. His NFTs had punny slogan designs, such as one which read, “This Blows! Save the Whales!” Goldman is one of thousands of artists and creatives who have started turning their art into digital currency. Controversy surrounding the NFT market has ballooned in a matter of months. At the forefront of the critique is a heated debate concerning the hyper-commodification of NFTs and the egregious environmental footprint left in their wake. Because of the technology needed to verify blockchain transactions, a single sale of an NFT produces roughly the equivalent of two months of household electricity. Like fluctuating stock options, NFTs are constantly sold and resold in order to flip them for a higher profit. Their harmful impacts on the environment have hardly deterred individuals and franchises from hopping on the NFT train: the Golden State Warriors, Trisha Patyas, and even internet personas known for 2010s viral memes. Artists who have previously incorporated environmentalist commentary into their work have drawn sharp criticism for participating in the NFT market. When Gorillaz announced they would sell NFTs as part of their new merch, fans of the Plastic Beach creators expressed disappointment with the band. It may be easy to interpret the controversy as a byproduct of the evolving cryptocurrency market, but the recent discourse around NFTs is reflective of a larger debate surrounding the political responsibility of artists in the fight against climate change.
18 19FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 ART VS. THE ANTHROPOCENE
20 21FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 ice caps are melting. Little more than a playground for passerby, the piece does not include any new or specific data that could provide viewers with more understanding on the implications of the Paris negotiations. Additionally, the process of creating the piece required a wealth of labor and resources that actually detracted from its environmentalist message: after being selected from the ocean, the ice blocks were “dragged back into the harbor, lifted up by heavy cranes, stored in icehouses, and then transferred by container ship to Denmark before a tenhour trip, by truck, to Paris.”
Compared to generic reminders to save the whales or ominous warnings about global catastrophe, Arsanios’s work arises out of personal concern for the crisis in her hometown. Her clear accusation against the bureaucratic redevelopment initiatives and real estate boom serves as a specific indictment that demonstrates the current, ongoing harm being done. Still, in the face of a city drowning in rubbish, it can be difficult to quantify the impact of an art exhibit on the other side of the world. The intentional practices of a handful of artists are not a solution to climate change, but instead transform how art claiming to be environmental activism is conceived beyond museums. The sustainable work of Saraceno and his collaborators with Aerocene actively fights against the guilt-ridden messaging of individual responsibility and dystopian despair that is commonplace in climate change installations. While no one is under the illusion that hot air balloons alone will save the planet, the tangible steps toward a world no longer dependent on burning fossil fuels is radically more productive than nihilistic fear mongering about our impending doom.
The ethics of “Ice Watch” become even more questionable when examining its source of funding. The installation was financed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charity organization that allowed founder Michael Bloomberg to develop “a national infrastructure of influence, imagemaking, and unspoken suasion that has helped transform [him from being] a former Republican mayor of New York City to a plausible contender for the Democratic nomination.” Similar to “Subject to Availability,” “Ice Watch” fails to achieve anything besides simply visualizing empty platitudes about environmental collapse. The work of the Democratic Party billionaire-bankrolled artist could never meaningfully critique corporations and the American government’s role in exacerbating climate change. Instead, the installation relies purely on its ambiguous symbolic function that “hopefully (hopefully?!) prods those attending the UN Climate Summit as well as the general public to act on tackling climate change (how?!).” “Ice Watch” tackles the climate crisis via a set of shallow, individualist aims cloaked in activist language. Much like the inadequate results of the Paris Climate Accord themselves, the piece neglects to address the destructive impact of global imperialism and labor exploitation on the environment. How, then, can artists approach the subject of climate change in meaningful and impactful ways? Delving deeper into the history of contemporary environmental art reveals a number of exciting ideas. Argentinian contemporary artist Tomás Saraceno’s signature floating installations reimagine flight by not using fossil fuels as part of his broader mediation on ways of inhabiting the world without harming the earth. The open-source project Aerocene he founded in 2007 began with an endeavor to create a floating sculpture out of reused plastic bags. Since then, it has grown to involve a collaborative, cross discipline community of artists and academics. The title Aerocene is not coincidental; it directly contrasts the concept of the Anthropocene, a term coined for the current geological age in which human activity is the dominant factor in environmental change. Fundamental to Saraceno’s work is the unambiguously optimistic belief that collaboration can prevail against “colonial ambitions that have depleted the world.” Encouraged by the earlier success of Aerocene, Saraceno and his colleagues have created a solar heated hot air balloon that uses no fuel. Compared to the flashier works of Banksy and Eliasson which exist to make statements within the art world, Saraceno’s body of work prompts collaborative resistance against the
InAnthropocene.contrasttothe airborne works of Saraceno, American artist Mel Chin has looked to the earth to sculpt the ecology of toxic fields. In addition to ecology, the artist has named surrealism and criticism of US foreign policy as some of the main themes that can be traced throughout his lengthy career. As part of his decades-long project Revival Field, Chin has used hyperaccumulator plants to draw heavy metals such as lead and cadmium from the soil. Revival Field, first developed in 1989, has since been a pioneer in the exercise of green remediation to carve pollution out of the earth. Fundred Dollar Bill is a participatory art project Chin began in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to foster community engagement within school districts and neighborhoods at risk of lead poisoning in New Orleans. The public art-initiative works with teachers to invite children to draw their own take on a hundred dollar bill, called a “fundred,” which is then collected and displayed as part of a tangible representation of individual voices demanding a future without childhood lead poisoning. While Fundred
Dollar Bill shares the aspirational goals of other art projects to raise awareness, Chin’s work differs from examples such as “Ice Watch” because the emphasis is not on the artist nor the impersonal concept of global warming, but rather on each “fundred” creator and their own relationship to the personal issue of lead poisoning in their backyard.
Lebanese multimedia artist Marwa Arsanios has focused on the changing dynamic between land and sea on Beirut’s coastline. She put Beirut’s overflowing landfills in the spotlight during her 2016 - 2017 exhibition with the Hammer Museum. The overflowing landfills arose in the wake of 90s neoliberal incentives and the subsequent rapid construction boom. The landfill overflow is so extreme that it has physically expanded the city’s coastline. Arsanios presents her work through drawings, photography, video, and 3D models. Her arial mappings of redeveloped districts elucidate the legacy of colonial mapping present in neoliberal expansion. By depicting the direct impact of government negligence on the human and non-human inhabitants of the city, Arsanios explores competing visions of Beirut caught between neoliberal calls to progress and the long-lasting toll of such bureaucratic entanglements.
TIMELINE OF PARTY PREP Day 1 Get your shrub marinating in the fridge. Day 2 Grocery shop! Day 3 Prepare galette crust and green gazpacho, chill. Day 4 - Day of Party Prepare for guests, cook the rest of your meal, enjoy.
Amuse-bouche literally translates to “it amuses the mouth.” It is a beautiful and bite sized alternative to an appetizer. Here’s another fun word: gazpacho! Which is a sexy name for a divisive meal: cold soup. This cold soup is served in small but potent portions to stimulate the palette. Lemon and serrano give it mouthwatering brightness, and a generous pour of olive oil makes it luscious and herbaceous. This green gazpacho is worth getting out the blender for and could be served in small bowls or tumblers.
A basic shrub combines fruit (or sometimes vegetables) with vinegar and sugar to make a no-cook, non-saccharine syrup. This time last year, I started making shrubs to mix in my cocktails. It was a fun way to make my newfound love of gin into a hobby. But you can just as easily stir an ounce of shrub into seltzer water to make a delicious soda! I am partial to rhubarb or plum shrubs, but strawberries or apricots would be lovely. You can play around with spices too! Throw a couple cardamom pods or peppercorns in there if you’re feeling frisky. Bottom line, this is an easy way to make vibrant and not-too-sweet syrup out of any fruit. Combine your fruit, sugar, and salt in an airtight container and close. A large mason jar would be perfect. Shake your jar to distribute your ingredients and leave on your countertop for between 1-3 hours, depending on the softness of your fruit or how hot your kitchen is. The hotter or softer it is, the quicker the fruit will release its juices. Once the fruit has released its juices and its fragrance has intensified, add your vinegar. If you want a milder flavor, go with apple cider vinegar. Let your flavors meld in the fridge for at least 24 hours before straining into another container. You can use the leftover fruit in or on pancakes, or if you used rhubarb, as a garnish for your drink. Experiment with stirring an ounce or so of shrub in your soda water or cocktails! When serving at a dinner party, you can set it up as an ingredient in a make-your-owndrink station.
Roughly chop your vegetables (make sure to peel the strings off those snap peas!) and combine in the blender with your herbs, avocado, olive oil, and lemon juice. Blend until creamy, add seasoning as you go. Don’t be shy with the salt, as chilled foods are milder on the palate. Now here’s where things get dicey. Take your gazpacho and push it through a sieve into another container. This process, while it may seem like overkill, gives the soup a luscious, almost mousse like texture. If you want to skip this step, omit the peas as they are the most fibrous ingredient. Chill in the fridge until serving. Garnish with mint and lemon zest. Pour yourself a glass to sip while you cook! You deserve it!
AMUSE BOUCHE - GREEN GAZPACHO
The verdant smells of late Spring: sticky sweetness of berries whose ripeness is verging on fermentation, the sun pulling late winter rains from the earth, the funk of wild garlic sprouting. Spring aches with life, and as we get vaccinated, we ache for life too! You might be reuniting with friends after months apart, or maybe you are enjoying Spring within the intimacy of your pod. This is a big ceremonious pivot in our lives. Don’t let it pass you by! Cling to it. Celebrate it. What better way to honor this moment rife with exhilaration, joy, grief, tragedy, life, than sharing the bounty of Spring with those you love? Cooking, for me, is about taking my time back. My phone, the algorithm, Zoom rooms, I consider them all bandits of my time. The idea of “self-care” has been capitalized and reproduced to oblivion. Self-care has been transfigured into an online shopping culture in order to curate the ultimate lifestyle, the ultimate nest. It has become an insular and addictive collection of things. I have found myself looking for thrills in online shopping carts after a long day (or year) in the digital void. Now I want a different kind of thrill, a tactile, nourishing, and earnest one. Why has personal wellbeing been transfigured into shopping or doing something for yourself in your limited freetime? Why filter our lives through capitalist segmentations of when and how we can attend to ourselves? James Baldwin writes on sensuality: “To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.” The pleasure of life is not something that can be bought and sold back to us. While I am interpreting this quote outside of its original context, cooking, or breaking bread, is how I respect myself in a capitalist society that respects neither my time nor my intelligence. Sharing the pleasure of thoughtful, fresh, delicious food with those I love is the effort in which I rejoice in the force of life. Buttery pie crust, zippy dressings on seasonal vegetables, glowing cocktails in coupe glasses. But most of all the faces of those eating it, the laughter, the satisfaction, the sensuality. This menu is seasonal, vegan friendly, and adaptable to your timetable and budget. If at any point you are not enjoying the process, ask for help, take a load off, downsize, and you will be down to the dregs of your drink and the last smear of sauce on your plate, relishing in good company before you know it.
3. While the galette is in the oven: assemble your salad and prepare your fruit + topping for the dessert 4. 10-20 minutes before your galette is done, serve 5.gazpachoServegalette and salad 6. Talk, laugh, digest, enjoy each other. Drag this out. This is the golden hour of a dinner party. 7. Assemble dessert, serve. 8. Talk, laugh, digest, and for the love of god let someone else do the dishes.
1. Set table/drinks station 2. Prepare galette
DRINK - ALL-PURPOSE SHRUB
TIMELINE FOR DAY OF THE PARTY
22 23FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 GREEN FEAST Charlie Stuip; design by Lauren Cramer
Assembly: Dust a flat and empty surface with flour and place your chilled, wrapped dough on it. Hit with a floured rolling pin, or improvised rolling implement, to flatten. Unwrap the dough and roll it out, rotating it every roll. Flip and re-dust with flour as necessary. Once rolled, your dough should be about ⅛ inch thick and one inch wider than a pie plate, but don’t worry about the shape or thickness too much. Gently fold your dough shape into quarters and place on the plastic wrap in the fridge to chill. In the meantime, fetch a jar of mustard, capers (if using), goat cheese, and a knife, clean your work surface and lightly grease a sheet pan with olive oil. Retrieve your dough, unfold, and place on the sheet pan. Smear a layer of goat cheese and mustard across the dough and sprinkle lightly with capers. Spread your onions and zucchini mixture across dough about an inch from the edge. Take the outer ring of dough and slice slits into it at 1-2 inch intervals, folding these pieces over each other. When the edges of your gallette are sealed, pop it in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. Halfway into the baking time, prepare the side salad. Roughly chop the nuts. Quarter your fruit. Dice the shallot and whisk with ¼ cup of olive oil and ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar. Gently toss the nuts, arugula, and apricots into enough vinaigrette to coat. Save the rest of your vinaigrette for another salad.
After all that baking and futzing with amuse-bouche and shrubs, who wants to make a complicated dessert? With strawberries in season, you don’t have to do much. This no-bake layered dessert is certain to please. Prepare it before you make your galette filling, or have your sous-chef do it at the same time. Halve the strawberries and coat with brown sugar and lime juice in a bowl, let sit at room temperature until juicy and fragrant. Crush
Crust: 1-3 days before serving, prepare your pie crust. Combine your dry ingredients in a metal mixing bowl and combine. Put the bowl in the freezer, while you cube your butter into small-ish pieces. Retrieve your bowl and incorporate your butter into the dry ingredients with your hands for a few minutes, or until the dough starts to get sandy. Add your water bit by bit, mixing it into the dough with your hands. When the dough starts to come together, flatten it down onto the bottom of the bowl and fold it in half like a book –– this creates layers and gives the crust a flaky texture. It will be messy, but once you flatten and fold a few more times, the dough will start to come together. Once your dough has come together, which should take between 4-6 folds, push the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap or a ziplock bag. Chill overnight.
Filling: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Chop your spring onions and garlic. With a vegetable peeler or a mandolin, shave your zucchini into thin wide strips. Bring your pan to medium heat and pour in some olive oil. Add your onions and garlic, sprinkling red chili flake, black pepper, and zaatar (if using) to toast the spices. Once the aromatics have softened and are starting to brown, scrape into a bowl and add zucchini to the pan in batches. Cook until lightly browned, for 2-3 minutes. Scrape into the bowl with the aromatics. Place in the fridge to chill.
24 25FEM GREEN ISSUE SPRING 21 I am a former galette skeptic. I considered it a pretentious and elusive sibling to the pie. But I have been converted! This gallette is in my top five quarantine creations. A galette, because it is baked on a sheet pan, has a perfect crispy crust every time. It is flat and sturdy, making it easy to cut and easy to eat with your hands. This galette has a flakey, buttery crust and is filled with zucchini, spring onions, and goat cheese. Served with a simple tangy salad, this main dish is decadent while retaining the buoyancy of Spring.
DESSERT - STRAWBERRY FOOLS
Kelsey
Ngante; design by Katelynn Perez
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You’ve reached the watery dregs of your dinner party. It is a balmy evening. Your body is warm, relaxed, and nourished. Conversation meanders and drifts, someone scrapes the last bit of cream from their dessert. The sound of water and dishes in the sink floats from the kitchen. You make eye contact with a close friend and laugh without knowing why. Savor this. Capture it in your body and your gut. Remember what this moment tastes like.
A GREEN POPREFLECTIONLISTICLEOFTHECULTURETIMES
We’ve passed the one year mark of the start of the pandemic. I feel like none of us have really taken the time to grasp that we are really in the midst of a global plague. Things changed like the universe flipped a lightswitch on March 15th, 2020. When I say “things,” I actually mean life as we know it, and specifically the capitalist work structure to which we had become accustomed. Who knew it would only take a global health crisis to puncture a hole in the unsustainable work-life culture we’ve cultivated over the past forever? The pandemic has forced us to reapproach the way that we view everything, from what brings us pleasure (apparently for a lot of people it’s baking sourdough bread) to how media consumption fills the void social interaction typically would. Our new-age-home-office-Zoom structure for the nonessential employee means you can do pajamas in bed for work meetings and ice cream breaks. There isn’t a clear line of demarcation between the work space and the home space, and that’s the problem. When your place of rest also functions as an office desk and your leisurely activities intertwine with billable hours, the difference between a rest at home and a break at work becomes indistinguishable.
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1. Surprise! Celebrities Get Sad Too - Celebrities lost it within a week. There were those terrible compilation videos singing various late 20th century soft hits and posting “we’ll get through this together.” That is, until celebrities proceeded to whisk off to tropical islands at the height of lockdown. I love how the celebrity version of being there for each other is posting a heartfelt show tune from Cancun.
5. The Tik Tok Takeover - From the ashes of Musical. ly rose dancing-skit app TikTok, in arguably the most successful remarketing makeover of the decade. By Summer 2020 there were 100 million monthly active users on the app, which was an 800% increase from their pre-pandemic 2018 numbers. Where are all these dancing white children coming from? Why are there “content houses” where teenaged influencers share Los Angeles mansions to make content?
7. Reddit is the Answer - Your white man professor may be tenured and decades deep into academia, but what does he know that you don’t? You’re not going to put “how to fall in love” in the Zoom chat for your 200 seat Soc lecture, but you can Google it and add “reddit.”
8. The Depop Thrifter Lore - The TikTok industrial complex is hilarious. Alternative thrifters gasped in terror as herds of white girls in Air Force 1’s posted cutesy “underrated thrift stores in [insert hometown].” A popular pandemic meme was that of the Depop scammer, half real and half fictionalized mythical creature arising at thrift stores to steal your cute finds, resell them on Depop at 500%, and then steal your first born child or however the lore goes. It’s between them and a cishet man in streaky nail polish fighting you for an ASOS circle skirt because you can’t make it in a content house as a cishet man without a little baiting. In the style of Britney Spears, does anyone think toxic masculinity is a good thing? The influx of thrifters is a mixed bag. On the one hand, increased thrifting benefits the environment (more people reusing, less clothing waste), but on the other thrift gentrification displaces resources from lower income communities who rely on thrift stores. In either case, there’s a lot more competition looking at scarves in the thrift store. It’ll be a three way tie between average reader thrifter, a Depop scammer, and a cishet man adopting queer aesthetics for likes.
2. Baking! - Everyone was making bread at one point in the arts and crafts era of quarantine. The baking time period existed in that brief window when people believed that quarantine would last less time than it did and has, so it functioned as more of a free month for personal projects. This was before it dawned on me that it wasn’t normal for everyone to suddenly spurt with happiness at the ability to express themselves creatively and have free time. It feels sort of dystopian to look back at an era that was framed as a fun time to hate your kids and learn to cross stitch. I wasn’t a baker, but my peers here at FEM sure were and baked some sweet treats that you may virtually indulge in by watching them do it on the FEM Newsmagazine Youtube.
Work is still work even if you’re in your pajamas and eating in bed. The thin veil separating our previous willingness to work has been lifted. Now that the barrier between home and work life is so muddled, institutions expect us to pick up the slack on our own time and take our mental health seriously via a heartfelt email with no extensions, additional allowed absences, or clemency. The federal and state governments are trying their darndest to steamroll us “back to normal,” even though the curtain is opening on the unsustainable ways in which our “normal” existed in terms of health –– in the workplace, in academia, physically, and mentally. It’s hard to imagine that at one point we were supposed to do all of this flawlessly on our own. So we’ve discovered a new form of “freedom.” We can split our screens between Netflix and a muted Zoom lecture or take a walk in the middle of a staff meeting. People are jumping for joy at the new hobbies and skills to collect like Pokemon cards under the guise of “finally having the time for it.” What does that mean for the way the American capitalist system functioned before if it takes a global health crisis for people to have the time to learn how to We’vecrochet?been trained to have faith in the American operative of capitalism –– that having to pay for health care and education makes us appreciate it more, that anyone can work their way to the top if their bootstraps are pulled up happily enough and then you’ll have all the time in the world to meditate. What does the pandemic’s screeching halt to the unsustainable ways we operated before mean in how Americans see the concept of work? Our system functions when people don’t know the value of their labor, when everyone’s main prerogative is to be as productive as possible at all times. This is part of the reason why there’s an immense push to return back to work –– not for people’s safety, but to stimulate the economy. The priority is to open up American businesses even if it means at the expense of people’s health. No, capitalism, it’s not that “no one wants to work anymore” as the signs outside of some restaurants would like you to believe. It’s that nobody wants to be abused by a system that doesn’t protect them. How is it that the grocery store and restaurant “hero” essential workers are expected to get to work happily when the federal minimum wage is as low as $7.25 an hour and doesn’t guarantee any benefits? The veneer of capitalism is chipping away the longer the pandemic goes on (and on, and on it feels like). However, there is a brief bit of light at the end of this tunnel. At the time of this article, approximately 49.1% of Californians and 45.6% of the total U.S. population have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. As of April 19th, everyone in the United States above the age of 16 is eligible to receive the vaccine in all 50 states and Washington D.C. It is a bit disheartening to watch the elusive “herd immunity” proposed at the beginning of the pandemic slip further out of reach as vaccination rates slow and new variant strains rise in frequency. There seems to be a silent acknowledgment that our tussle with coronavirus is far from over and that we’re currently on the fast track for harm reduction as opposed to an end-allbe-all coronavirus-free existence. Either way, Chancellor Gene Block says UCLA and our undergraduate population of over 30,000 students is fine to open at 50% to 100% capacity this fall* (at the time of this article). Is that the best decision? For my mental health, maybe! Despite the trash fire that the past year has been, knowing that we are making progress towards a semblance of previrus life gives me solace. In that vein comes the theme for this issue: Green. Green, to me, has always been the color of growth and ushering in the new life that comes with spring. I find it helpful to remember there is growth towards something greater than the isolating confines the recent times have created. I personally have already discovered the silliness in the rapid birth and decay of trends people have been coming up with to keep busy. This listicle is by no means a goodbye to Coronavirus. Instead, consider it a respectful reflection of what the last year has thrusted upon us. A combination of my own personal bits of wisdom and snarky disdain for the ghosts of fad past.
To conclude the Green theme and this fun reflection of pandemic era growths and wisdoms, I’ve decided to do an inaugural pandemic baking project of key lime cupcakes.
Adding the word “reddit” to any Google search is the fastest way to learn the truths of this world, I’ve found.
6. Chloe x Halle are Legends of Outdoor Performances - Early on in the pandemic (a metric measured by either Year 1 or Year 2), the R&B not-twins duo Chloe x Halle released their Grammy nominated album “Ungodly Hour.” More monumental than the album drop was their consistent outdoor virtual performances of the break out single “Do It”.
3. Netflix Binging - I don’t think there is any actionable policy the Biden administration could pull through that would be a more unifying measure than the nationwide binge of “Tiger King.” The natural solution to being back at home for months on end has been diving into the Netflix catalog. There was a point in time I was almost certain that I had consumed every piece of media ever made. The guilt you felt emailing for an extension after watching a season of a show instead of doing a work assignment was misplaced. With all the decorative “take time for yourself” emails offices and school departments were sending out, actually taking the time for yourself should’ve been the expectation, not the exception.
4. Taking Walks Actually Kinda Helps - I despise whenever someone’s advice for feeling better is going outside and exercising. I despise it even more when it works. This is one of those cases.
While the pandemic has highlighted the flawed way we approach work culture in the United States, it has also highlighted the opportunity for people to discover hobbies in a way that wasn’t possible before. We’ve finally begun to challenge the idea that every aspect of our being has to contribute to some form of productivity to have meaning. As we transition to the next stage of the pandemic, we must re-evaluate how we approach sustainability in all forms. What does a sustainable concept of work look like as we deconstruct capitalist productivity quotas in the return phase? We can’t just slip back into grinding ourselves to dust after experiencing our first sip of freedom. How can we ask for institutions to accommodate the times and mental health of the general public without the presence of a “keep everything closed” global health crisis? In the meantime, we can continue our personal growth projects and collecting of wisdoms without guilt of not being productive enough. Why should productivity be the consistent end goal? What about productivity is more conducive to self growth and life experience than actually living life? If anything should be taken away from my ramblings, it is that any time spent doing something you enjoy is time well spent. You should feel guilt free when you shut your computer, leave your Zoom meetings, and do the things that make you happy instead. I know will be when I make these cupcakes!
1/2 cup butter or non dairy vegan substitute, softened 3/4 cup sugar
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup 2% milk or non dairy substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3-3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar Directions Preheat oven to 350°. Line 16 muffin cups with paper or foil liners.
Fill prepared cups two-thirds full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
Key Lime Cupcake Recipe from “Taste of
Home” with slight additions for vegan substitutions. Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For frosting, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and lime zest until blended. Beat in lime juice and vanilla. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Refrigerate until serving.
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese or non dairy cream cheese substitute, 1/4softenedcupbutter or vegan butter substitute, softened 2 teaspoons grated Key lime zest
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. In another bowl, whisk cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
WATER, FOOD, AIR, LAND: STORIES OF THE FRONT LINES Tessa Fier, design by Hailey Lynaugh
FROSTING:
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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2 teaspoons Key lime juice
2 large eggs, room temperature (6 tablespoons of Just Egg or similar vegan substitutes also do the trick)
3 teaspoons baking powder
water according to Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, some people deserve to be poisoned. it turns out you can put a price on anything. in San Salvador and Flint: a corporate ventriloquist, a flyover photoshoot. this planet has a longer memory than any of us. there is a monster with so many heads and new ones growing like cancer (on every evening news channel, plaster casts cough up Neoliberal Rationalism). out of each mouth it says Trust me, Patriot, there is dignity in Murder. the leeches in their suits bleed blue and red veins. naked violence has no conscience. in Tacuba, the water remembers the taste of blood and the smell of greed; the causal chain adds shining steel links. these waterlogged mouths know guilt like a lover. two hours east of UCLA, Nestlé makes $7.8 billion a year by bloodletting rivers and leaving dry mountain husks. a perverted water cycle: poison the spring or empty the aquifer—bottle—sell at Market Rates to the thieved. water shapeshifts: life, a coffin. food “the World Bank is going to save the world” sounds true, depending on your sources. the cool barrels of rifles, debt like a chain. diagnosis: blunt force trauma, internal bleeding, a shell. this planet has a long memory—only some inherit it. between 1750 and 1850, the industrial core shifted from India to England as the British forced Indian textiles to the grave at gunpoint—colonized the land—drove cotton seeds into the millet fields—starved the soil— plundered the white gold—buried the planet in fabric and, when there still weren’t enough buyers, sent the rest to Indian ports. agriculture’s cradle is starving. the voices come from every corner saying that the Economy is Rational— it enshrines the rights of corporations to patent forms of life, criminalizes the sale and exchange of Indigenous seed varieties, and forces so many Indian farmers into debt that there is an ongoing suicide epidemic. thousands of years of memory in a seed. air the moon doesn’t come out anymore. get fried by a magnifying glass. ashy smokestack lungs cough up a gray landscape. cells multiply in the shadows of Cancer Alley. boxes pile up, bound for anywhere in the eye of the satellite. final destination: purgatory (landfill). this time the monster says you can solve your problems by Buying— each purchase a bandaid. life in a bell jar: the city-factories smolder—burnt-orange—full of canaries. the air contorts: puddled smog in Chinatown and whip-fresh on the crests of Bel Air. this planet remembers every shroud it’s ever sown, every grave it’s ever dug. economic logic says capitalism is the natural order of things, and that it will grow Forever. fresh air sells for 20 cents a breath. uncontrolled expansion? diagnosis: cancer. land after an unknowably long existence, 200 years is a silent eye-blink. industrialization spreads like disease and carves up life and land. in Mindanao mining companies gouge out the innards of mountains and plantations steal the land above. the colonizer’s religion processes guilt like a factory. it tears apart fate and stitches it back along crooked seams with bony hands. violence is a shapeshifter. eminent domain, condemnation, seizure. on every channel, the monster heads say in unison that Looting is unAmerican as if it wasn’t this country’s founding doctrine. twin altars of profit and violence. this planet’s memory is etched into the land for those who still know how to read it.
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continuous resistance against environmental degradation is primarily led by those who experience the most repeated, brutal colonial violence. these are often Indigenous and Black communities, whose knowledge, organizing, and stewardship are criminalized by neoliberal governments as threats to the capitalist system. Ursula K Le Guin said: “we can choose: we can go on building and destroying until we either destroy ourselves or destroy the ability of our world to sustain us. or we can make something more of ourselves.” in an unlivable society, radical hope is a powerful tool of resistance and restoration. optimism in liberatory organizing abounds, including in the movements referenced above: the Tacuba water defenders, Lumad schools, and protests by Indian farmers against further neoliberalization of agriculture. there are innumerable examples beyond these, like Land Back, the Palestinian liberation movement, and factory occupations in Bangladesh. the salvation of the planet and the liberation of all people cannot be accomplished without the destruction of capitalism and colonialism. everywhere capitalism walks, a grave grows in its boot tread.
capitalism was built by theft and hammered into place with violence. new york, paris, london—all were built by wealth extracted through colonialism. see: mining tunnels snaking under the Andes, enslaved people massacred up and down the Americas, metal-poisoned water and lost limbs, borders slashed into the land like scars, and the seizure of huge swaths of land from Indigenous communities. there is history, and there is mythology. colonialism has not ended, and will not so long as capitalism continues. nor will the astronomical inequality: wealth and poverty, white supremacy and anti-Blackness, and gender based violence. centuries of evidence has proven that for capitalism to have winners, it must have even more losers. colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism—all these variations of the same monster—are thriving in trade agreements and forever wars, choking the world. look to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ways in which Global North countries have stepped on the necks of the Global South for vaccine access, refused to break patents, and continued the same destructive practices that led to the pandemic without a moment of reflection. while media and politicians discuss re-opening, there has been little mainstream discussion of radical alternatives to unlivable present circumstances. at the same time, the idea that the planet was healing because of the absence of human activity spread across social media despite the fact that air pollution indexes remained high around the world. with cars off the streets and planes out of the sky, studies confirmed what many already knew: the vast majority of pollution comes from industry and the transport of goods. thus, capitalist production is the disease. humans aren’t necessarily harmful to the planet; rather, we are stitched in with its history. we evolved with this planet, and our health is directly tied to its health. the idea that we are detached from our environment and at odds with nature is propaganda to desensitize us to the violent destruction of our only home.
DELILAH WILLIAMS: Reminders by Mariah the Scientist — Mariah the Scientist mixes her angelic voice and lyrics with nostalgic 80s synth beats to create the melodic sound that is “Reminders.” A reminder of relationships that hold in the muscle memory of our own metaphorical “dead gardens.” It is an ode to regrowing our own gardens of life anew again.
4 Degrees by ANOHNI — Themes of climate change and environmental destruction are explored through ANOHNI’s hypnotic voice on this track. She directly critiques the lack of world responses to the environmental damage and global warming, mentioning their claim that it’s “just 4 degrees.” It is a demand for change if we want to avoid the inevitable incurring damage to the world and thus life as we know it before it is too late.
Boombox Warfare by Xiuhtezcatl and Jaden Smith — Indigenous rapper Xiuhtezcatl offers an insightful view of both climate change and governmental greed from his first-person experience living under these conditions. In his song along with Jaden Smith, they touch on issues prevalent on tribal lands and reservations and the lasting impact of environmental damage on both his people and the world as a collective. It is a call to action for people to listen to Indigenous people first in these issues that disproportionately affect them and for young people globally to implement these changes for a better future. Through music and art, we can utilize creativity to produce meaningful change.
Revolution by Greentea Peng — We know we need a revolution, and that’s when those in power start appropriating the language of revolution. “Feels like a revolution / But whose revolution?”
Radio Department
JAMIE JIANG: Rainforest by Noname — Do I even need to explain this? One of my favorite lines: “Took the wretched out the earth and called it baby Fanon.” As per usual, Noname is doing revolutionary and she is doing reality. This song addresses the crisis of this planet throughout, tying closely to class, race, and gender.
Monte Carlo by Remi Wolf — Proud bisexual Remi Wolf sings about new money, having lots of it, and spending it on women. “Baby / I’m gonna eat a bunch of fancy cheese” is the best seduction.
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Get Free by Major Lazer —This song featuring Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors tackles the gentrification and oppression faced by communities of color against large, money-hungry powers. Instead, it offers a chance to foster communities strong enough to resist these powers and to rise above these issues in order to dream of and reimagine their own futures free of mistreatment. The answer to restoring these communities lies in the people and community, not government powers that seek to exploit them.
FEM NEWSMAG 2021