VOICE The Georgetown
September 29, 2017
Bastion of the Arts: The Artist-Owned Touchstone Gallery Highlights DMV Talent
page 8
Cover inspired by Patricia Williams’s “Ordered Complexities” located at Touchstone Gallery.
2
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE Volume 50 • Issue 4
staff editor-in-chief Caitlyn cobb Managing editor alex boyd news
executive editor lilah burke Features editor jonny amon assistant features editor caitlin mannering news editor jake maher assistant news editors michael coyne, noah telerski
culture
executive editor mike bergin Leisure editor devon o’dwyer assistant leisure editors brynn furey, ryan mazalatis, mary mei Sports editor tyler pearre Assistant sports editor beth cunniff, jorge deneve
opinion
untitled by Aicha nzie
contents
Editorials
4
My Grandfather’s God Tyler Pearre
5
Did Georgetown Want Me Back? Tatiana Lebreton
6
The Darkest Night Graham Piro
7
The Artist-Owned Touchstone Gallery Highlights DMV Talent Michael Bergin
8
halftime
Leisure editor emily Jaster assistant leisure editors claire goldberg, julia pinney, eman rahman Sports editor jon block Assistant sports editor phillip steuber
design
Executive editor alli kaufman Spread editor jack townsend Photo Editor Isabel lord cover Editor aicha nzie assistant design editors jake glass, keeho kang, lizz pankova, rachel zeide
copy
Rachel Corboz Becomes the Face of Women’s Soccer Jorge DeNeve
10
Georgetown’s Qatar Campus Adapts to International Crisis Michael Coyne
12
Ten Years Out for Change Katya Schwenk
13
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is Too Much of a Good Thing Graham Piro
14
Emma Stone Shines in Unfocused but Entertaining Biopic Battle of the Sexes Luis E. Borrero
15
The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgeton Voice, unless otherwise indicated.
Executive editor graham piro voices editor cassidy jensen Assistant Voices editors sienna Brancato, rebecca zaritsky Editorial Board Chair chris dunn Editorial Board jon block, caitlyn cobb, Nick Gavio, Alli Kaufman, Caitlin Mannering, GRAHAM PIRO, Isaiah seibert, PHillip Steuber
editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057
copy chief audrey bischoff assistant Copy editors Leanne Almeida, Isabel Paret editors Mica Bernhard, Sienna Brancato, Jack Cashmere, Anna Gloor, Claire Goldberg, Isabel Lord, JuliA PINNEY, Jack Townsend
online
website editor Anne Freeman Podcast editor nick gavio assistant podcast editor Gustav Honl-stuenkel social media editor mica bernhard
business
general manager naiara parker assistant manager of alumni outreach anna gloor assistant manager of accounts & sales karis hawkins
support
contributing editors emma francois, danielle hewitt, kaei li, isaiah seibert associate editors margaret Gach, amy guay, parker houston, alex lewontin, anne paglia, lindsay reilly
Staff writers
MOnica Cho, Brynne Long, Santul nerkar, Brice russo, Katya Schwenk Correction to “Georgetown’s Journey Toward Diversity in STEM” feature story run in 9/15/17 issue: Professor Lisa Singh was incorrectly listed as an associate professor. She was promoted to a full professor effective Aug. 1, 2017.
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
3
READ & Listen ON GEORGETOWNVOICE.COM News Sexual Assault and Misconduct Task Force Proposes Increased Training and Education Katya Schwenk reports on the task force’s latest report on sexual assault on campus, and its recommendations going forward.
sports Football Falls in Lou Little Cup Read Annie Coyne’s coverage of the Georgetown football team’s 35-14 loss to Columbia at the Lou Little Cup on Sept. 23, which broke the Hoyas’ two-game winning streak against the Lions.
leisure Dunst’s Performance as a Grief-Stricken Marijuana Dealer is the Highlight of Half-Baked Drama Woodshock Sam Charaf reviews A24’s Woodshock, a Venice Film Festival competitor, which is “an incoherent meditation on guilt, grief, and drugs that ultimately disappoints.”
podcasts She Runs the World: Kate McNamara on International Politics In this episode of She Runs the World, Dr. Kate McNamara joins Kaei Li and Emily Jaster to discuss recent developments in domestic and international politics. Dr. McNamara served as director of the Mortara Center for International Studies from 2010 to 2016 and is currently a professor of government at Georgetown.
EDITORIALS
4
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
No Place for Hate
In an unacceptable trend of actions meant to intimidate and threaten marginalized communities on campus, four swastikas were reported on Georgetown’s campus in the first four weeks of classes. The first was found in a VCW elevator on Sept. 6; two more were found the next day in an LXR elevator. The fourth swastika was drawn on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, in an LXR women’s restroom alongside messages promoting violence against women. Given the explicit, violent message that swastikas send, we stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. Jewish students belong on our campus and are integral to making our community thrive. Students of all religious backgrounds are welcome at Georgetown and must never face discrimination or hate on the campus they call home. This editorial board condemns these hateful acts of antiSemitism and demands that the university put forth a greater effort to address and prevent them. It is crucial to acknowledge the far-reaching impact of such hate crimes. The swastika is most famously synonymous with the murder of six million Jews, but it also targets people of color, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities. We as a community cannot stand for such cruel expressions of hatred and intolerance. Preventing and addressing bias and hate crimes requires a joint effort by students and staff. The university has resources in place that students should utilize; posters around campus advertise the important message, “If you see something, say something.” Students who witness campus bias should submit reports to the Georgetown Bias Reporting System on the university website or call GUPD and download the LiveSafe app. More must be done on the part of the administration to call these heinous acts what they are. Following each of the first two discoveries of swastikas, Todd Olson, vice president of Student Affairs, and Reverend Mark Bosco, S.J., vice president for Mission and Ministry, emailed the student body to inform them of the occurrence and to “condemn all acts of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and any form
of hate.” After the fourth swastika was found, university President John J. DeGioia emailed the student body as a further affirmation of solidarity with the Jewish community and a rejection of “hatred, racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, sexism, and Islamophobia.” While the administration was right to condemn such hateful acts, it failed to adequately describe them in early correspondence with the students. The first two emails referred to the events accurately, but too ambiguously, as “bias-related incident[s].” It was not until the third email that President DeGioia recognized the graffiti for what it is: “an abhorrent act of anti-Semitism.” Failing to call these incidents what they are, acts of antiSemitism, limits Georgetown’s ability to send a message of inclusivity and to properly handle the seriousness of these incidents. While this may seem like an instance of semantics, its importance cannot be overstated. In March 2009, 10 instances of anti-Semitic or anarchist graffiti were reported to GUPD (known at the time as DPS) within a week, but it took the university nearly three days to inform students via email, and the Senior Jewish Chaplain, Rabbi Harold White, did not find out about the graffiti until Jewish Student Association (JSA) students told him. Those who may be specifically targeted by an act of bias deserve to know, and to see the university condemn the threat to their safety and place on campus. It is time that the Georgetown community—students and faculty alike—takes responsibility for creating a welcoming and inclusive campus environment through concrete action. In spring 2009, students responded to the anti-Semitic graffiti with a rally in Red Square to protest religious intolerance; such a display would be relevant now, when it can seem as though many students treat these issues like just another email to quickly click through. Student organizations must also step up to display inclusivity and solidarity with their fellow Georgetown students. It is up to all of us to create an environment free of hate and fear, and students and their organizations
should not take this challenge lightly. When news broke of the fourth swastika found on campus, members of the JSA and other students chalked Red Square with messages of courage and belonging. Georgetown has a strong tradition of interfaith dialogue and action, with examples like the Interfaith Sandwich Making Coalition or the countless examples of relations between the Jewish and Muslim student associations. Now more than ever, efforts like these are important for the creation of an inclusive and safe campus. In March 2005, Georgetown held a hate crimes forum in response to 17 “bias motivated incidents” that had occurred over the previous two semesters, mostly concerning race, sexual orientation, and gender. The discussion highlighted the problem of overly stringent criteria defining hate crimes, and weighed the importance—and limits—of engaging in dialogue about diversity. Georgetown should revive this discussion to determine how to properly identify hate crimes and hate speech as well as outline punishments for students who commit such crimes. As those who call this campus home, students should be involved in these conversations with the university so that their voices are heard on issues that directly impact their safety, and an event similar to a town hall or forum would be an excellent platform for this. Georgetown’s recent anti-Semitic graffiti is part of a threatening trend across the country. Last week, a swastika was found carved in an elevator and a racial slur was found on an African-American student’s whiteboard at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. This wave of hatred occurred in the wake of the racially-motivated violence in Charlottesville, where the University of Virginia is located, in August. Georgetown needs to embody solidarity in action. The university continuously describes the value of diversity as part of our Jesuit heritage. For the sake of our Jewish community and all those threatened, we must create a Georgetown that lives up to that promise.
Abhichana Naiyapatana
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
5
The last time I ever saw my grandfather was June 21, 2015. On that day, Father’s Day, he and I sat in his bedroom, which overlooked the lush, if overgrown, front lawn. My dad, driving a brand new tractor he had bought for my grandparents to reduce the time it took to cut the grass, rode up and down the lawn as my grandfather and I watched. Between bites of my grandmother’s signature lasagna, he and I discussed my upcoming freshman year at Georgetown. I told him all of my far-fetched, overly-ambitious plans: managing for the basketball team, joining Blue and Gray, and eventually going to law school to become a sports agent. As we ate and talked, I was reminded of the countless meals we had eaten together at various hospital and rehabilitation facilities over the last eight years. In 2008, on the day my sister graduated from high school, he suffered a severe stroke as we left the gymnasium. His right side was paralyzed, and a full recovery was improbable. That summer, my brother, mom, grandmother, and I spent every day at Shady Grove Hospital Rehabilitation Center, eating at least one meal per day with my wheelchairbound grandfather. I remember the cafeteria assistants bringing the drink cart around and watching him debate aloud what juice he would have that day. No matter if the meal was spaghetti, meatloaf, or chicken pot pie, he almost always chose cranberry—the most vile of juices, in my 17-year-old self ’s opinion. My brother and I quietly ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while my grandfather cracked jokes, making us smile and laugh. We welcomed any distracting gesture. Nothing was going to stop him from realizing his goal of regaining mobility—no amount of soreness, no difficult therapy, no level of emotional unease. He was steadfast in
his pursuit, and I was amazed at the pace of his recovery. In what felt like days—in reality, months—he was able to get himself out of chairs with little assistance and walk with a cane. Not long after, he was walking without his cane, albeit slowly, but it was far more than any of us had ever expected. Throughout his arduous journey, he remained steadfast in his devotion to God. He was convinced that he would be naturally healed by the Lord, and that he could take on anything that came his way. As the problems began adding up, he was certainly discouraged, but, so far as I know, he was always committed to the idea of an omnipotent, merciful God. He lived with my family immediately following his release. I distinctly remember coming home from school each day to find him napping on the couch, which forced me to open the creaky microwave painfully slowly so that I could cook my Hot Pockets without disturbing his rest. I enjoyed this time and will forever remember the smile he had on his face at the breakfast table every morning. Not long after moving back to his own home, a series of falls forced him to return to rehab. Again, he worked incredibly hard to regain mobility, but was never able to return to his initial post-stroke levels of independence. After a host of minor ailments, he suffered a heart attack in November 2014. I remember every detail of the night we found out; the phone call, my dad sprinting to his truck, my incessant tears. He survived and was well enough to celebrate Christmas with us in the rehab facility before eventually returning home once more. Six months later, on June 24, 2015, he passed away. There would be no more cranberry juice, no more joking, no more hugging, and no more running upstairs to see him when we visited his house.
After seeing him work so strenuously for his own health just to be repeatedly knocked down, I became staunchly atheist. While he died steadfast in faith, I hated whatever god he was asking for help. I hated the very idea of an allpowerful, all-good deity. If that truly existed, how could my grandfather—the man most deserving of a peaceful and enjoyable retirement—be reduced to requiring constant trips to the hospital? I wasn’t mad at my grandfather for believing in the power of a god; in fact, I admired the strength of his unabating love. I was, however, absolutely furious with the deity he prayed to. His death intensified this antagonism. Not only did I not believe in this conception of God, but I was sure that there is no afterlife of any kind—no heaven, no hell, nothing but darkness. Consistent with my typical line of thinking, which deals in absolutes, I believed he was permanently gone and that there was no chance I would ever connect with him again. I have harbored these feelings for more than two years, and it has rendered me vulnerable to even the slightest mention of my grandfather. The smallest thought of him can throw my entire day off, as I tumble into existential crisis. I have carefully monitored myself from the moment he passed, ensuring that I never fully opened myself up to any one person. I have feared this same level of pain will one day revisit me. I once thought I couldn’t live without my grandfather. I miss him dearly, but I can’t live with this paralyzing hatred any longer. He completely embraced love every moment he was alive. For me to embrace the opposite is unproductive and disappointing. So, I am letting my former mindset go in the hopes of once again connecting with him. This is not to say that I suddenly believe in an omnipotent and benevolent God, or any other rendering of God. I don’t need to; I simply need to overcome my unbounded hate for that which was so important to my grandfather. I can appreciate this God for providing him with a constant source of comfort outside of his family throughout his journey. Thinking back to my final hour with my grandfather, the clearest memory I have is him crying as we watched my dad mow the lawn. He told me how beautiful the lawn looked and how much he loved his home, his son, my brother, my grandmother, my mother, and me. He was overcome with emotion in the moment—to him, perhaps, it was a final sign from God. This is the type of love that defined his relationship with God and with me. By bridging the gap between his God and myself, I hope that I can properly remember my grandfather for whom he was: the strongest and most kind-hearted man I will ever meet. I love you, Grampy, and, although it will take time, I hope to eventually embody the strength and love you represented.
Tyler Pearre is a Junior in the College. He is the Sports Editor of the Voice. Keeho Kang
VOICES
My Grandfather’s God
Carring on: Voice Staffers Speak
VOICES
6
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Did Georgetown Want Me Back? The first people I saw as the elevator doors opened and the GERMS staff wheeled my stretcher through my dorm entrance were two acquaintances. “Don’t worry,” I laughed nervously as I was pushed passed their startled faces, “I’ll be back soon.” I didn’t realize that “soon” would be over a year later. For those not in the know, MLOA stands for Medical Leave of Absence. It is the official title given by CAPS for time spent away from the university by a student, for reasons of physical or mental illness. It was the latter for me. While leaving, I found navigating the university bureaucracy easy, but I found it extremely difficult during my return. As part of my return process, CAPS asked me to reflect on the factors that led me to take a year of leave. The harrowing return process reminded me of how everything else at Georgetown felt before I left. I wondered why it was not simpler, given the number of students I know who take a medical leave, particularly for mental health reasons. I came to the conclusion that the environment Georgetown fosters makes it very easy for students to overload and overwork themselves until they burn out, like I did. I think if I were to draw any lesson from my time away, it is that Georgetown students put too much pressure on themselves. I know this has become a cliché. That weekend in 2016, when I called GERMS on myself, I was somehow going to work on and finish two group projects, start and complete a final portfolio for a class, write an essay for another, do all my regular homework, edit articles for the Voice, and spend the better part of my Saturday at a tournament for my Frisbee team. If that does not sound insane to you, I think you should heed my words. I am not saying that it is bad to be ambitious or hard-working, but the desire to succeed
should not come at the cost of your health or personal happiness. Interacting with students from other universities back home in London helped me put Georgetown’s obsessive work culture into perspective. In the words of my boyfriend, as he stretched out on my bed, ignoring the homework he had left behind at his Canterbury-based university: “People at your university sound crazy, you guys need to relax.” To be perfectly honest, it is hard for me to recall the process of leaving, though I remember it being straightforward. It was quick and rushed, and I was tired and confused. I left mid-April 2016, a month before the end of semester. Before leaving, I spent a week emailing and meeting with all of my professors, extending deadlines and working out how I would take my exams from home. A few forms were signed, and that was that. At this point my medical leave was not official, as I was still laboring under the delusion that I would be able to finish my exams before fall semester 2016. I flew home to London and was admitted into a psychiatric hospital as an inpatient. Over weeks of intensive group therapy it quickly became clear that finishing all my exams before the start of the new term would be impossible. In July of that same year, I hurriedly filled out a few more forms, and my MLOA became official. If leaving was simple, returning was anything but. I spent the larger part of this past summer agonizing over it. CAPS provides MLOA returners with a two-page form detailing the steps they will need to complete in order for their return to be accepted. This form was just the tip of the iceberg. A student wishing to return for fall semester cannot initiate that return until June 1. The deadline for all documents to be
submitted for a successful return is June 30. Under regular circumstances, a month would seem like ample time. But, given the complexity of the CAPS process, and the time it took between emails, it was not. One problem was that the forms were required to be faxed or mailed to the university. I did not have a fax machine. Being situated in London, I had concerns about mailing such vital documents overseas, and did not see how any of them would arrive on time if they were to be posted. The whole process seemed antiquated. Luckily, when I asked to email everything instead, CAPS responded that I could—a week later. In retrospect, it might have been faster to mail everything. My primary concern was this: Starting my return process in June meant that I had missed deadlines for housing applications and pre-registration. To my dismay, I discovered that CAPS did not deal with such issues, and so it was up to me to chase down the appropriate contacts. I was left to juggle three separate entities: the dean’s office, CAPS, and the Office of Residential Living. In order to sort out my housing alone, I had to pass through four different people, which made for a very confusing chain of emails. To make matters worse, my dean was powerless to register me for any classes until he got the all-clear from CAPS. It was mid-July before I was actually registered for any classes. Ultimately, I was lucky. The classes that still had space met my requirements and appealed to me, so I ended up with a nicely organized schedule (no 8 a.m.). My grandparents live 10 minutes from campus, so I was able to obtain a housing exemption and live with them. Returning from an MLOA is strange. How could it not be after a year away? The first day of class was one of the most intimidating days of my life. I left during my sophomore year, and returned as a junior. All my friends are seniors and preparing for their lives post-graduation. Most of the faces I knew are gone and have been replaced by new ones. Nothing is quite as jarring as sitting in Sellinger Lounge, as a junior, and not recognizing a soul. The fear that I will end up friendless and alone after my senior friends graduate is very real, not to mention dealing with the host of awkward questions from acquaintances: Where have you been? What did you do this past year? Were you abroad? (I usually just say yes to that one, since that is not technically a lie.) The university’s process for dealing with MLOAs left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was quite fortunate, but what happens to the students who are not? Students who take an MLOA often do so for mental health issues, which are usually exacerbated by stress. Surely, thrusting them into whatever classes and housing are left is no way to ease their transition back into university life. The process of return itself was so exhausting and time-consuming for me that it felt as though the university did not want me back. It was like I was being tested, to see if I would snap, so that they could be sure I was really deserving of my return.
Tatiana Lebreton is a Junior in the College. She took a medical leave of absence from July 2016 to August 2017. Lizz Pankova
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
7
Everything I needed to know in life, I learned from Batman. Ok, “everything” might be a stretch. What I mean by that statement is that of the countless memorable lines of dialogue from Christopher Nolan’s sublime Dark Knight trilogy, one particular quote from 2005’s Batman Begins has stuck with me. Bruce Wayne tells his trusty butler Alfred the following philosophy: “As a man, I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed. But as a symbol ... I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.” This line did not mean a lot to nine-year-old me sitting in the theater. I was eagerly waiting for Wayne to dress up like a bat and punch bad guys—not wax poetic about the nature of symbols. But little did I know, these words would provide comfort for me during a crisis of faith. During third grade, I became an altar server at my Catholic parish, and remained one until eighth grade. I loved being an altar server because, as cliché as it might sound, I felt like I had an active role in my religious life. I also enjoyed ringing the bells as loudly as I could during the Eucharistic Prayer, but that’s beside the point. I felt connected to the church, to the priests, and to my family, which would put up with going to mass 10 minutes ahead of time so I could get ready.
Whether it’s free speech and the media, equal rights and the courts, or freedom of religion and different religious traditions, our trust in these institutions is vital to a healthy, vibrant society. My experience as an altar server made it incredibly difficult to hear about sex abuse scandals and subsequent cover-ups in the Catholic Church. There wasn’t one clear moment when the magnitude of the scandals hit me. But the piecemeal delivery of the extent of the abuse was almost totally crushing. I couldn’t believe it—how could so many boys in the same position as me be victims of such awful crimes? The more I heard about the scandals, the more I began to drift away from my faith. I felt increasingly disconnected from the very thing that had been so integral to my childhood. The scandals shattered my idealistic image of what the Church was. I didn’t want to associate myself with an institution that covered up such heinous abuse. When I came to Georgetown, my faith was an afterthought. I had bigger issues: class, extracurriculars, how much Easy Mac is appropriate to eat in one sitting, and so on. In meeting people of different religious traditions, and even some of my own, however, I began to see the positive effects that faith has on people’s lives. Yes, my reactions to the scandals were more than warranted. But they did not justify completely turning my back on the Catholic faith. Just like my alienation from the Church
came in bits and pieces, my return has been an ongoing process. The old saying goes that you should never see how the sausage gets made, but it has never really made sense to me until senior year of college. When people ask me what my biggest takeaway from senior year has been so far, my most honest answer is disillusionment. With age comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes a recognition of the imperfections in so many things you hold dear. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when I started to realize this. But the disillusionment appears to be something that has been spreading across American society. Trust in our society has plummeted, whether it’s in the media, or Congress, or the Church, or simply institutions in general. At first glance, this is certainly understandable, and it’s not a new trend. But there’s something discouraging about the disillusionment that can occur when one’s image of an institution comes crashing down to earth. We embody our values in the institutions on which America has been built. Whether it’s free speech and the media, equal rights and the courts, or freedom of religion and different religious traditions, our trust in these institutions is vital to a healthy, vibrant society. And it’s apparent that while trust may wax and wane, its most recent decline may be for good. The question then becomes how we restore that trust. Or perhaps it becomes whether that trust can ever be restored. That is why the quote from Batman Begins means so much to me. Humans are imperfect creatures. My grandfather always said that I should never let anyone get in the way of my relationship with God. I lost my faith in the people who constitute the Church, but I shouldn’t have lost my faith in what the Church stands for: living a righteous, moral, compassionate life, among other things. What the Church stands for is far more important than the individuals who constitute it. The Church, just like any other institution, must be more than a sum of its parts when those parts are inherently flawed. And values must be able to survive the onslaught of human imperfection—including my own. Obviously my experience with the Church is my own, and I definitely can’t claim to speak for everyone. Disillusionment at stark reality is no excuse for abandoning long-held beliefs, or for resigning oneself to the flaws of mankind. Those values are what I hold within myself. An understanding of the power of individuals to hold beliefs so strong that they cannot be damaged by flawed institutions or by the harsh realities of the world is something I’ve gained during my time at Georgetown. It’s one of the lessons I’ve come to appreciate the most, even if it’s not necessarily an easy one to grasp. The next step? Become Batman.
Graham Piro is a Senior in the College. He is the Executive Opinion Editor of the Voice.
VOICES
The Darkest Night
Lizz Pankova
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
8
Bastion of the Arts
The Artist-Owned Touchstone Gallery Highlights DMV Talent By Mike Bergin The District of Columbia leads a double life. More than 20 percent of D.C.’s land is federal property, and national politics are the first thing that comes to mind when the city is mentioned. The flash of national politics often bowls over a place that possesses a culture in its own right. Fashion, cuisine, art, and the District’s unique identity as a waypoint between American northeastern and southeastern culture can be all but suppressed, covered up by the city’s austere political landscape. Underneath the surface, though, visible when you look past the Capitol building and the countless monuments, is a city with a culture of its own, where art perseveres, growing through the cracks. Art has found unusual ways to survive. Community is everything to local artists. Although they may be very different, together they form a vibrant, local culture in which mutual support is pivotal. The Touchstone Gallery has taken the idea of community to heart, operating as one of the only artist-owned galleries in D.C. The gallery is disarming at first look. It almost takes a moment to realize you are in an artistic space. Its green awnings blend in with the neighboring businesses and the tall glass offices of K Street are only a few blocks away. Seeking to create their own artistic space, a group of artists came together in 1976 to form the gallery. Originally setting up shop in Dupont Circle, the gallery has changed locations over the years, and is now established on New York Avenue. “They wanted to have control over what they exhibit. So, it was a self-controlled entity where artists make decisions of what to show, when to show, how much they charge for
their work. So it started off as that and it’s still the case,” said Ksenia Grishkova, the gallery director. While the idea of an artist-owned collective seems glorious, allowing artists to take up the mantle of full artistic freedom and liberating them from for-profit middlemen comes at a cost—a lot more hard work and investment from the artists themselves. It is up to the artists to coordinate events, manage the finances, and ensure that their 50 members continue to pay dues and have their art represented. All the while, nearly half of the members hold down other full-time employment. “Basically, we’re running a small business here, and some people are simply interested in how to make it work as a business because we are a business; we have to pay rent; we have to open; we have to sell art; we have to exist,” Grishkova said. In a dedicated community of artists that is constantly changing, Grishkova is a consistent feature, shepherding a swath of styles from morose life-like sculptures to abstract still lifes and pop art. During our interview Grishkova was friendly, always smiling, at least slightly, and bouncing between phone calls from artists. Born in Russia, Grishkova was the daughter of two art conservators. She grew up surrounded by museums and antiques until she became an artist herself. “I rebelled and went to contemporary art but [my parents] stayed with antiques, and this is my rebelling. I’m still in my rebelling stage dealing with contemporary art,” Grishkova said. After working at galleries in Moscow and London, she joined Touchstone in 2007.
Hannah Song
The entire operation was different then. The gallery was renting out a different location with a lease set to expire and only half the number of artists they have in partnership today. “We took a year to find a new location, to build it up, to make this modern, beautiful space, up to gallery standards with the lighting and everything. So the gallery, membership, core membership at the time, all of the members, decided to stay as a gallery and continue to function without the space. So I stayed on board, and I received my base salary still, and we continued to be an entity out of my apartment at the time,” Grishkova said. Working out of her own home wasn’t in her original job description, but it was pivotal in making the gallery what it is today. Touchstone is built upon its artistic community, and those operating it recognize this value in every aspect of their lives. “I worked with electric cooperatives for most of my career, and so I was very familiar with the cooperative concept and the value of the people working together for a common goal to achieve something,” member artist Patricia Williams said. “And that was part of it that was really attractive to me when we actually started talking about being a part of that community and helping each other and supporting each other. … There’s just so many wonderful painters here.” Williams’s exhibit, “Ordered Complexities,” is currently on display at the gallery. Exhibitions rotate monthly, usually with two member artists having an entire “room” of the open floor plan gallery to themselves. Each rotation begins with public opening receptions, ensuring that the pieces are always accessible to the public.
9
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Jake Glass
Accessibility and education are core values that Grishkova seeks to promote for Touchstone. “I think it’s so important for anybody who comes across the gallery to not be intimidated and be welcomed,” Grishkova said. In 2013, Grishkova became the first director of the newly founded Touchstone Foundation for the Arts, a position she still holds today. This 501(c)(3) organization serves as the community outreach wing of the gallery. The gallery has dedicated exhibitions to feature the art of the citizens of its home city. For example, Grishkova has worked in collaboration with Miriam’s Kitchen, an organization dedicated to aiding those experiencing homelessness in D.C. The partnership seeks to provide artistic education and display the work of homeless individuals, providing an outlet for expression as well as a place for them to sell their work on their own terms. Through the Touchstone Foundation, a charitable wing that started in 2013, the gallery has participated in similar projects with inmates as well as underprivileged youth, providing the gallery space for artists who would not have access to it otherwise. The local artistic community is often overlooked in favor of the large-scale attractions that D.C. has to offer its many visitors.
Living in the shadow of the Hirshhorn or the National Gallery can easily obscure local talent. “We’re very blessed that there’s so much of it, and there’s so many opportunities … There’s so [many] individuals, well, you lose sight of the trees because of the forest,” Williams said. Touchstone seeks to mentor those local aspiring artists who are too often overlooked. The gallery worked with New Community ArtSpace this July to create an aptly named project, “I Belong Here – Art of the Shaw Community,” providing classes and displaying works in a variety of styles from diverse member artists. The Touchstone is a home, a sheltered cove, for its owners and patrons. The walls are stark white, and the ceilings high, with a network of contorting, half-painted pipes and corrugated steel, all meant to accentuate the brilliant bursts of color along each wall. Williams’s art focuses on mathematics and patterns, harkening back to her many years as a professional engineer, operating with electric cooperatives to support rural power infrastructure. The main attraction of the small space, however, is the central gallery, exhibiting pieces from all the gallery’s members. A four-armed Barbie doll in a bright pink shadow box is not far
A patron of Touchstone enjoys Patricia Williams’s exhibit, “Ordered Complexities.”
Hannah Song
from a gothic relief made entirely from paper. There is unity in diversity: Works that have no initial connection to each other form one cohesive display. This does not mean things are perfect, however. Especially considering that the will and interest of 50 artists must be equally considered in the process.
There is unity in diversity: Works that have no initial connection to each other form one cohesive display. “I think it’s a little bit harder for people to get a grasp of what we’re doing when they come as visitors or as buyers,” said Timothy Johnson, Touchstone’s treasurer. “It’s often too hard to impress upon people that … What you see of an artists is only a sampling of what they do.” D.C. is not an easy place for independent art to survive. For all that Grishkova and the owners have accomplished, it is still easy to pass the gallery by on the street without noticing what it is. “Everybody is talking constantly about how Washington is very conservative and how it’s very hard to sell contemporary art and how it’s hard to be in artist. But I think it is hard everywhere to be an artist to begin with,” Grishkova said. “Hard to be an artist and hard to be in the art world. But at the same time I think it’s so important to be in art education everywhere and for everybody’s sake.” Perseverance is a word Grishkova uses when talking about the local arts scene, art in spite of the environment. “I learned there’s a lot of wonderful artists on the local scale and I think that whatever job you have whatever place you find yourself in life, you just gotta make the best out of it. So I come from that approach … It seems like everybody’s talking constantly about dying arts and it’s still here. Things are still happening. There’s such an amazing core of artists in the area in general. There’s so many artists it’s unbelievable,” Grishkova said. “I hope it will be better, and more young artists will take a more active part in it.” Her optimism is infectious and rightfully so. The direction she paved for the gallery ensures that in some small ways, the artistic community will live on. “You see murals coming up; you see public art happening; you see D.C. Commission for the Arts giving out grants to artists; and it’s very encouraging that there’s things happening in the city,” Grishkova said. “So I hope D.C. the city will be a flagship for the arts. I hope on a small level maybe that it can make a change nationwide.”
10
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Out of the Shadows
GU S
POR
TS I NFO
Rachel Corboz Becomes the Face of Women’s Soccer
By Jorge DeNeve The announcer lists the starters, the national anthem plays, and 10 Georgetown women’s soccer players form a pre-match huddle for some last minute advice. It’s almost a ritual for the 10 to group together as the 11th player remains at the bench preparing herself. After a final sip of water, she slowly trots out to join her teammates, the orange captain’s armband on her left bicep and the number 10 on her back. Rushing out onto the field would be unbecoming for the captain. Senior midfielder Rachel Corboz is the creative spark for this Georgetown team. She plays as a number 10, the point guard of soccer, a vital position in head coach Dave Nolan’s attack. She’s always on the ball looking to create scoring opportunities, either by finding the right pass or choosing the right dribble. Rachel extended Georgetown’s years of gifted attacking midfield play to a decade. From 2007-10, Kelly D’Ambrisi (MSB ’11) and now-professional player Ingrid Wells (COL ’11) were the attacking focal points for the Hoyas before passing the mantle on to Rachel’s older sister, former Manchester City women’s player Daphne Corboz (COL ’14).
“She had all the attributes to be a special player at a very young age.” “Probably in the last 10 years, we’ve had four of the best attacking midfielders or number 10s in the country,” Nolan said. Yet, when recruiting the New Jersey club star, he worried that Daphne’s presence at Georgetown could keep Rachel away. Like Rachel, Daphne was the engine behind the Hoyas’ attack. The older Corboz was twice nominated as a semifinalist for
the MAC Hermann Trophy, awarded to the best college player of the year. Previous winners include World Cup champions Mia Hamm and Morgan Brian. Having played for Daphne’s academy, as well as in the same position, Rachel was following in her big sister’s footsteps. But Nolan wasn’t sure that would translate to Rachel joining her at Georgetown. “There was going to be an overlap of one year where I felt maybe Rachel would’ve wanted to play out from under her sister’s shadow at another school,” Nolan said. “That was a fear in the back of my mind, that she would want to blaze her own trail.” Rutgers University was also courting Rachel. Mike O’Neill, head coach of the Scarlet Knights, is also the girl’s director of coaching at the New Jersey Players Development Academy (PDA). Rachel played for O’Neill at PDA Slammers, where the coach formed a good impression of the Corboz soccer machine. Before either sister was born, Rachel’s father, Michel Corboz, played semi-pro in France. Her brother, Mael, currently plays for MSV Duisburg in the second division in Germany after two years with Rutgers and then the University of Maryland. “Rachel was raised on the game, so her understanding of the game was a different level, and then she spent so much time on the game making sure that her technical ability was good, whether that be passing or dribbling,” O’Neill said. “She had all the attributes to be a special player at a very young age.” O’Neill described how the three siblings interacted in their youth, always pushing each other to improve on and off the field. But despite the close bond they developed, and because they attended different high schools, the Corboz sisters had never played together until Rachel became a Hoya. “Ultimately, I chose Georgetown because of the balance between a great school academically and a great soccer team,” Rachel said in an email to the Voice. “I also really wanted to be able to play on the same team as my sister, which was something I never had the chance to do.”
Rachel played more than any other first-years in her class, though she was largely overshadowed by her older sister. Still, Daphne was much harder on Rachel than she was on the other new players. “There was one particular moment where I had to have words with Daphne,” Nolan said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate that she’s tougher just because it’s her sister.” Despite being a first-year, Rachel started in 20 of the Hoyas’ 22 games that season, scoring four goals and setting up eight more en route to a 11-5-6 record for the team and an upset of then-No. 3 West Virginia in the first round of the 2014 NCAA tournament. When Daphne graduated, Rachel took the helm, becoming the star in her sophomore season. She became the offensive focal point, leading the team in both goals (10) and assists (eight), as the Hoyas finished 11-5-4, before losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. “After Daphne graduated I tried not to put too much pressure on myself to fill her shoes,” Rachel said. “I tried to focus on what I did well as a player and what I could do to contribute to the team to make them successful.” What Rachel brings are her quick feet and brilliant vision that unlock opposing defenses. Her dead ball service from either foot allows the Hoyas to better control their attacks on the opposing goalkeeper’s box. She can swing the ball in from either direction, float the ball to the back post, or simply go for goal herself. Her sophomore season was her coming out party—her transformation into the undisputed creator on the pitch for Georgetown. Although the team itself floundered in the NCAA tournament, Rachel’s contributions earned her Big East Midfielder of the Year honors and a third-team All-American spot. Then came the magic. After a 3-0 loss to then-No. 1 Stanford to open her junior year, the Hoyas began to reel off wins, with Rachel at the heart of the team’s offensive prowess. Her overtime goal at O’Neill’s No. 12 Rutgers saw Georgetown’s first win against a ranked opponent that year, before a scintillating free kick finished the comeback from 2-0 against No. 3 Virginia. The
11
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Hoyas dealt No. 2 West Virginia its only loss until the national championship game by the end of September, before hiccupping in league play. By the time the Big East tournament rolled into Shaw Field, Georgetown’s momentum had slipped. But it’s when the stakes are highest that Corboz is at her best. “When we got into the important part of the season, whether it be Big East playoffs or whether it be the NCAA early round games, that’s when your big players show up,” Nolan said. “Your bigger players tend to show up in the big occasions, and she’s always been that for us.” Corboz was directly involved in six of Georgetown’s 14 goals in tournament play, with two of her corners leading to goals en route to the national semifinal, where the team fell to the eventual champions from the University of Southern California. Over the course of the season, Corboz notched 11 goals and 16 assists, directly involved in 44 percent of the Hoyas’ 61 goals scored in 2016 to lead the team to a 20-3-3 record. Her performances throughout the year earned her a first-team All-American nod and a semifinalist nomination for the Hermann Trophy. Through the first 10 games of 2017, Corboz has four goals and four assists, the most impressive finish coming in a 5-0 win against St. Francis. She shook her first defender with a stepover, used a fake shot to create an extra yard of space, and curled a left-footed shot into the top corner. Corboz makes the crowd wait with bated breath when she’s on the ball, anticipating what she’ll do next. Much of her composure comes from Nolan’s coaching. Under his tutelage, she learned how to manage a game on the field and best utilize her teammates’ skillsets. “Rachel may play the right pass but play it to the wrong person, so I think she’s gotten better at that,” Nolan said. “She can identify who’s on the field with her and [has] the understanding that what may be good for one person in that position might be different for another person in the exact same position.” Corboz has become more savvy in what she does and where she spends her effort. She’s improved physically, becoming stronger and more fit. With last year’s Final Four run fresh in her mind, Corboz has set the goal high and drives herself to train harder to achieve it. “A successful season for us would be winning the Big East championship and making it far in the NCAA tournament. We have set a high standard for ourselves coming off of last year and we are ready and determined to have a successful season like that,” Corboz said. “It’s great to get all of this preseason recognition as a team, but in the end it doesn’t mean anything because we have not achieved anything yet this season.” When the season comes to an end, Georgetown will once again lose its star and many other stalwarts in the lineup in a class that Nolan looks on with pride. “They’ve probably been our most dedicated class in terms of what they want from soccer,” Nolan said. “It’s a really good group of kids, every one of them.” With Daphne playing for Sky Blue FC in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Mael playing for Duisburg, Rachel is poised to add to the family legacy. “I would definitely like to continue my soccer career,” Rachel said. O’Neill expects his former star to progress beyond the collegiate level. He recalls that she always had a ball at her feet to continue to improve, either constantly playing or watching the game to learn it better. Despite the added fatigue from attending national team camps and extra trainings, her drive remains strong. “I know that she’s focused on her career at Georgetown but I think–I know–that after her career is over at Georgetown, the next step for players of Rachel’s ability is to go pro,” O’Neill said.
With Rachel’s senior season a month-and-a-half in the books, the magic is almost over on the Hilltop. Inevitably, there will be a decisive set piece that determines Georgetown’s fate in this year’s tournament. As the curly-haired midfielder steps up to take the shot, the crowd will sit on the edge of its seat, ready to jump up and roar if the ball bulges the back of the net. She’s done it so many times now that when there’s a free kick in shooting range, the Georgetown faithful expect her to succeed.
Soon, Rachel will be on the field in the NWSL. When she inevitably arrives at the Washington Spirit’s Maureen Hendricks Field in Germantown, either home or away, the same fans that cheered her on at Shaw Field will be able to see her make her slow trot from the bench once again. Maybe Sky Blue will take her, reuniting the Corboz sisters once again. But until the draft, the yellow grass of a home game in November beckons Rachel to light up the gloomy afternoon one more time.
Top: Corboz plays a pass in the attacking third against Rutgers. Bottom: Corboz looks for options upfield.
GU SPORTS INFO
12
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
delaney corcoran
Georgetown’s Qatar Campus Adapts to International Crisis By Michael Coyne
Students at Georgetown’s campus in Doha, Qatar (GU-Q) resumed classes on schedule in late August, in a host country newly isolated from its international neighbors. As the Qatar diplomatic crisis enters its fourth month, there are few signs of an imminent resolution. However, life goes on at GU-Q, where faculty, administrators, and students alike are learning to adapt to a more unpredictable international environment. Since early June, several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have cut their diplomatic relationships with Qatar. The roots of this dispute are complex, but the embargoing countries frequently cite their disapproval of Qatar’s alleged links to terrorism financing and its relatively close relationship with Iran. A student from GU-Q currently studying on Georgetown’s main campus who prefers to remain unidentified described the crisis as shocking since Qatar has a long history of cooperating with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a group of six Arab countries that coordinate foreign and economic policy. The student said that the rapid breakdown of these strong international relationships was an shock for many Qataris, especially since Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE cancelled food and medicine exports to Qatar during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. However, the student also emphasized that Qatar quickly re-sourced these vital goods from new suppliers in Turkey and that the impact of the embargo was primarily emotional, rather than economic. However, other students think that Qatar’s relationship with the rest of the GCC has been deteriorating for some time, especially because of the Qatar-backed broadcaster Al Jazeera. “I know Al Jazeera was very important to people during the Arab spring—it was the one channel that showed, actually, what was going on,” said Hadeil Ali, a graduate student at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies who has worked in Qatar. “There were 13 demands that Saudi Arabia and Egypt gave to Qatar [during the 2017 crisis] and one of them was shutting Al Jazeera, which I think was related to freedom of speech and freedom of expression that these countries [Saudi Arabia and others] do not believe in.” On the ground in Doha, GU-Q’s status as part of Doha’s Education City complex, a hub for foreign universities, is an asset when it comes to addressing security concerns. “There is frequent coordination and cooperation with all of the campuses of American universities in Education City,” Moamer Qazafi, GU-Q’s chief communications officer, wrote in an email to the Voice. “The departments from each university—such as
Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Communications, Facilities and Risk Management—also have jointly scheduled meetings that they participate in to ensure wide coordination on issues of joint concern.” However, Dr. Gerd Nonneman, a professor of International Relations & Gulf Studies at GU-Q, does not think that the crisis is scaring students away from studying in Qatar. “Among the first-year students alone we have 23 nationalities—including our first students ever from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia,” Nonneman wrote in an email to the Voice. “We might even have benefited from the deterrent effect that Trump’s position on immigration seems to be having on students who might otherwise have gone to the U.S. to study,” Nonneman wrote. Nonneman also argued that having the crisis hit so close to home is a unique opportunity for students and faculty alike. “I have incorporated it [the crisis] into my own course on the Political Economy of the Gulf, we’ve had a ‘Behind the Headlines’ community event on the subject, students have recorded me for a video project on the subject, we will put on a public event at our Centre for Regional and International Studies,” he wrote. “In some ways, this is a fascinating time to be in the Gulf.” GU-Q does employ faculty members originally from some of the countries currently at odds with Qatar, al-
Georgetown’s campus in Education City, Qatar.
though the crisis has not prevented these professors from teaching in Doha. “We have not lost professors from the affected countries, and we are encouraged to see our Egyptian faculty were able to go on vacation for the summer and return to work in August,” Qazafi wrote. Similarly, students from the embargoing countries have not been prevented from studying at Georgetown, although some have left the Doha campus. “There were two Bahraini and two Saudi Arabian students that could have been affected; one of our Bahraini students was planning on studying abroad in the United Kingdom and her plans have not changed. One Saudi student is now studying abroad in the United States. The remaining two students are continuing their education in Qatar,” Qazafi wrote. The unidentified student from GU-Q agreed that no one they know has been forced to abandon their Georgetown education because of the crisis. However, the student also said that some of their peers from embargoing countries felt uncomfortable about going to school in Qatar after the crisis and that while they were able to move to another campus, it was a long and difficult process. Claire Goldberg contributed reporting.
courtesy of Georgetown University
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Ten Years Out for
13
By Katya Schwenk
matt buckwald
“We are at our very best when we recognize our responsibility to one another,” university President John DeGioia said on Wednesday. “The work we are able to do today has been made possible by the efforts of those who have come before us, and by the moments in time when our community has come together in extraordinary ways.” He stood in the HFSC social room, where alumni from across the country gathered with present students and faculty on Sep. 27 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Out for Change Campaign. This student movement in 2007 urged the university to provide improved support for LGBTQ students, eventually leading to the establishment of the LGBTQ Resource Center in the spring of 2008. Wednesday’s event was, in part, a celebration of the successes of the center, which for years has been an important community place for LGBTQ students on campus. When DeGioia rose to give his welcoming remarks on Wednesday, he faced a room of students and faculty dedicated to LGBTQ advocacy at Georgetown, many of whom are involved in the center. A decade earlier, on Oct. 24, 2007, DeGioia stood in the ICC Auditorium to address a similar audience. That fall, two hate crimes related to sexual orientation had rattled the student body. In one incident, an assailant attacked a Georgetown undergraduate on campus, shouting anti-gay slurs. The Bias Reporting System data at that time indicated that prejudice related to gender or sexual orientation motivated 70 percent of all hate crimes at Georgetown. In the wake of the hate crimes, students protested what they described as a lack of support for LGBTQ students on campus, and a vague, insufficient response protocol for bias-related incidents. From these demonstrations rose the Out for Change Campaign, whose trademark was a yellow T-shirt with the words “I Am.” In one now-infamous incident, students alleged that when they marched to Healy Hall to deliver their campaign’s demands, security personnel selectively refused to allow any person wearing an Out for Change shirt to enter the building. The campaign pushed for what student advocates had been demanding for years: additional resources for LGBTQ students, information sessions on LGBTQ issues, and a new, more transparent protocol for hate crimes. But for Julia Reticker-Flynn (SFS ’08), who was a senior involved at the time, Out for Change was about more than just policy. “The campaign was really twofold. It was to advocate for a stronger set of resources and support for LGBTQ students, but also to advocate for a culture shift on campus,” she said. The campaign asked for support from the student body, as well as the administration.
They received it from both. “I think there was widespread student support for LGBTQ students that we honestly hadn’t seen before at the university,” Reticker-Flynn said, noting that the campaign was not made up of a single group, but rather a coalition of student organizations, alumni, and faculty. Jason Resendez (COL ’08), who served on the board of GU Pride at the time, said this solidarity was crucial to the success of the campaign. “Hoyas from all walks of life joined together and demanded the institution live up to the values it’s so comfortable printing on brochures and sign posts,” Resendez wrote in an email to the Voice.
Georgetown Pride members stand in front of Healy Hall, date unknown.
VOICE ARCHIVES
DeGioia’s speech that October promised action on their demands. It was a substantial victory for the campaign. “I would like to propose that our community work together on a more comprehensive initiative to strengthen Georgetown’s approach to addressing the needs of LGBTQ students,” DeGioia said in 2007. “I would like us to get to work right away.” That evening, he went on to establish three working groups on LGBTQ issues on campus. Their subsequent reports shaped the university’s response to the campaign. “In many ways, it was what we were looking for,” Reticker-Flynn said of DeGioia’s statements. “I think many of us were really pleasantly surprised at the very public and very proactive stance that DeGioia voiced during that meeting.” In the year that followed, the university established the LGBTQ Resource Center, complete with two full-time staff members, becoming the first Catholic institution in the nation
to do so. The administration overhauled the bias incident reporting system and changed university police training protocol. Sivagami Subbaraman, whom the university hired to lead the resource center in 2008, believes the campaign’s success was representative of Georgetown’s student culture. “The way I see it, there is always a call by students about a justice issue,” she wrote in an email to the Voice. “In turn, the institution responds to this call in a way that is thoughtful and strong, and leads to institutional change and transformation. I do believe that this call and response is at the heart of the Georgetown experience.” For Subbamaran, to honor the Out for Change campaign is to honor the work of students going back decades. LGBTQ student organizations on campus long precede the Out for Change campaign. In 1980, the Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown Law and the Gay People of Georgetown University sued the university for discrimination, arguing that Georgetown’s refusal to grant them recognition and access to facilities and funding was illegal. They won a partial victory in 1987, when the judge ruled that the university must grant them the same access to resources as other organizations, although not official recognition. By 2002, Georgetown University Pride had gained university recognition, and Georgetown had hired a part-time LGBTQ resource coordinator. And since 2007, under Subbaraman’s leadership, the scope of the LGBTQ resource center has expanded. The center now offers weekly coffee hours, hosts speakers, and furthers campus advocacy work. Wednesday’s event recognized, too, the work of current students dedicated to LGBTQ issues on campus. Several LGBTQ student groups will host a Queer Leadership Summit for the first time this year. The center is launching a mentorship program for new students to expand the resource center’s presence and community on campus. Grace Smith (COL ’18) helped launch this new mentorship program. She spoke of the importance of Out for Change for members of the resource center, old and new. “The Out for Change Campaign celebration will remind the wider Georgetown community and the campus queer community that our origins are in resistance, that our resilience has defined us, and that our strength lies in collective, compassionate action,” she wrote in an email to the Voice. “We are because we were and always have been.” Beginning Oct. 7, the LGBTQ Resource Center will celebrate OUTober, an annual celebration of LGBTQ identity, featuring speakers, forums, and celebrations throughout the month. The kick-off event is Coming Out Day. As is Georgetown tradition, students will run proudly that afternoon through an open door in Red Square, once again sporting bright T-shirts that read, “i Am.”
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
LEISURE
14
Kingsman:
The Golden Circle Is Too Much of a Good Thing
IMDB
IMDB
Few films are made with as little restraint as Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Writer and director Matthew Vaughn manages to squeeze jaw-dropping action, political commentary, Elton John, betrayals, relationship drama, an over-the-top villain, sacrifices, and a massive cast into two hours and 20 minutes. The result is a film that feels so overstuffed that it’s a testament to Vaughn’s skill as a director that it doesn’t totally collapse under its own weight. Indeed, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is an undoubtedly zany and extremely enjoyable time at the movies, even if the sheer quantity of content in the film ends up being more exhausting than exhilarating. The film picks up where its predecessor, 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, left off. Taron Egerton plays Eggsy, who has adopted the codename “Galahad” previously held by his deceased mentor, played by Colin Firth. (Don’t worry, Firth comes back from the dead because apparently nothing was left on the cutting room floor.) The viewer is quickly thrust into a car chase barely two minutes into the film, and the action is undeniably awesome. Vaughn directs with a kinetic energy that is practically palpable, and he seamlessly mixes in practical stunts with CGI effects. Once the plot of the film gets underway in earnest, though, the flaws begin to show. There’s simply too much of everything in the movie. Juggling these different elements could have worked, except for the fact that bringing back Firth actually proves to be a narrative mistake. Mark Strong reprises his role from the first film and is joined by newcomers Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, and Pedro Pascal. Julianne Moore’s villainous Poppy chews every inch of scenery in sight, and in case that wasn’t enough, a cameo from the aforementioned Elton John puts the cherry on top of the extensive cast. The script adds another layer of complication by essentially recreating the mentor-mentee bond between Firth and Egerton that made the first Kingsman so great. The audience already knows and understands the relationship,
yet the film still feels the need to go to great lengths to reunite the two characters and wastes time explaining how Firth returns instead of developing the new characters in any interesting way. The result is new characters who are shortchanged and old characters who tread familiar ground. For a film so obsessed with overkill, Kingsman feels strangely empty.
The result is a film that feels so overstuffed that it’s a testament to Vaughn’s skill as a director that it doesn’t totally collapse under its own weight. Now, this isn’t to say that the film doesn’t make these new characters memorable. Tatum, Bridges, Pascal, and Moore all feel like caricatures ripped straight out of a comic book, and their antics will have audiences in stitches. There are more laughout-loud moments here than in most new comedies, which fuel pacing that rarely skips a beat. The pacing is also helped by several eye-popping action scenes, which are all gorgeously shot. A particular highlight is a breathtaking stunt involving a ski lift that stretches the suspension of disbelief. The story is a fairly paint-by-numbers affair involving Moore’s Poppy and her plan to distribute poisoned marijuana around the world. After many of the British Kingsmen are killed, Egerton and Strong travel across the pond to America, where they encounter the Statesmen, led by Bridges, Tatum, and Berry. Moore doesn’t get too much to do besides sit around and be evil, but she relishes her role enough that Poppy still makes
for a good villain. As the film progresses, the sheer number of events makes it easy to lose the plot, especially when the entire world is suddenly threatened by Poppy’s drug distribution. While the central narrative seems straightforward enough, the film lacks the compelling character arcs of the first Kingsman and gets bogged down as it tries to do too much. For example, there’s a subplot involving the president of the United States’ willingness to lie to the American people for the ends of appeasing Moore’s villain. It’s darkly funny and adds a layer of political commentary to the film, but one can’t help but ask: what’s the point? Sure, Bruce Greenwood’s turn as megalomaniacal leader of the free world is deliciously fiendish, but it adds nothing to the story or to our main characters. Vaughn could have cut the whole subplot and lost nothing from the story. It’s exactly this type of overkill that entertains the viewer at the cost of telling a cohesive narrative with satisfying character arcs. To the film’s credit, one of the few things it does better than its predecessor is in its sincerity. It loses a lot of the irreverence of the first film for the sake of providing emotional payoffs towards the climax. Unfortunately, the sheer weight and quantity of the proceedings leaves the viewer numb to character sacrifices and deaths. But harping on the movie’s negatives could dissuade action cinema-lovers from going to see Kingsman. Anyone who wants an entertainingly brainless way to waste two hours and change could do a lot worse than this. It’s a shame that Kingsman is so overboard because between Egerton’s confident performance, the inventive action scenes, and the more genuine feel of the movie, this film could have been the rare sequel that improves on its predecessor. Instead, Kingsman: The Golden Circle will have to take its place in the pantheon of films whose creators received complete creative freedom, and proceeded to blow it sky-high.
By Graham Piro
15
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
LEISURE
Emma Stone Shines in Unfocused but Entertaining Biopic Battle of the Sexes By Luis E. Borrero
Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in Battle of the Sexes.
Battle of the Sexes employs a largely impractical structure to tell the story of how two tennis giants of opposite sexes went head-to-head in a legendary match in 1973. Starring Emma Stone as tennis legend and feminist icon Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as the openly chauvinistic, retired tennis champion Bobby Riggs, the movie introduces the audience to its protagonists in two separate stories concerning each individual at different points in their lives. Although these are compelling stories, their paths do not cross until more than 50 minutes into the movie, making the initial scenes seem like watching two distinct, unrelated films. For everything that makes this sports biopic frustrating, however, there are just enough moments of brilliance scattered throughout and an exhilarating final act that make the experience worthwhile. The audience first meets Billie Jean King in the early ‘70s as she had just become the biggest female tennis player in the world. For those who doubted Stone’s Oscar for her role in La La Land, Battle of the Sexes confirms why she is currently considered one of the finest actresses of her generation. As King, Stone is funny, vulnerable, insecure, fierce, but above all, relatable. King believes that her success may help her achieve equal pay for male and female tennis players. Yet this endeavor is cut short when she and a group of fellow players are kicked out of the national league when they refuse to accept a lower wage. The bulk of the film focuses on developing this plotline, where King and her friends decide to create their own tournament. They expect to prove to the men, especially former player and TV commentator Jack Kramer (a hilariously self-justifying and condescending Bill Pullman), that female athletes are just as worthy as their male counterparts. It is heartwarming and inspiring to watch these women fight for their rights, especially while their personal lives are harder than what their public personas may suggest. This is certainly true for King, who at the time was struggling with her sexuality and her marriage. Andrea Riseborough plays King’s hairdresser and eventual lover in an understated but effective performance that helps the audience understand King’s insecurities and reservations, adding depth to Stone’s character. Conversely, Austin Stowell plays King’s supportive husband, understanding and
good to a fault. Upon discovering his wife’s infidelity with another woman, he does not lose his poise but rather accepts her and gives her the space to make up her mind. The other side of the split narrative focuses on Bobby Riggs, a retired tennis player whose boring life has led him to a gambling addiction. He is always looking for something to do and cannot stand being inactive, a formula for comedy gold in the hands of the actor who plays him. Steve Carell is excellent in capturing the eccentric, larger than life persona of Riggs, bringing some of the film’s biggest laughs. His story also includes a subplot regarding his marriage to and separation from American socialite Priscilla Wheelan, played by a deliciously cold and amusing Elizabeth Shue, which provides much needed gravitas to Carell’s arc.
As King, Stone is funny, vulnerable, insecure, fierce, but above all, relatable.
The movie suffers from a lack of urgency and intrigue for most of its first half as each protagonist clearly has his and her own conflicts and interests, yet there is no central struggle to make the viewer care about where their shared story is headed. Battle of the Sexes effectively touches upon several timely themes, like gender equality, aging, sexual identity, and addiction, but fails to present a bigger picture of the core battle itself, both in its literal and metaphorical sense.
IMDB
The protagonists’ stories blend into a single narrative after Riggs’s wife leaves him and he finally decides to call King and request the titular Battle of the Sexes. She initially says no and the movie delves into an unnecessary subplot regarding Riggs’s less famous match against British player Margaret Court, King’s main rival. When Court loses, King realizes she needs to teach Riggs a lesson. By this point the film starts working towards its full potential and we are given a superb montage detailing the behind-the-scenes preparation before the match. On one hand we have King, training daily with assured determination, her mind solely focused on the upcoming match; on the other there is Riggs, who only cares about being in the spotlight and considers the whole ordeal a joke. Once the match arrives, the suspense grips the audience and does not let go until the winner is finally revealed. The movie perfectly captures the essence of the ‘70s through Mary Zophres’s costumes and Linus Sandgren’s delicate cinematography, featuring grainy dark colors and intimate close-ups. Nicholas Britell’s score is appropriately subtle and understated, creating suitable themes for every situation, without letting its sweeping undertones take over. Although writer Simon Beaufoy won an Oscar for his work in Slumdog Millionaire, the film’s dialogue lacks a certain spark and wit. Stone and Carell are more than capable performers, but the lines they are given often seem lackluster and trivial. As for the Little Miss Sunshine alumni’s direction, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris direct the film with grace and rhythm, never being showy but always keeping things interesting and compelling. Themes that could have dipped into preachy territory are successfully nuanced and kept under control. Overall, Battle of the Sexes is an enjoyable crowdpleaser. It has some fine comedy and its drama remains emotionally engaging throughout. Still, the film suffers from an initially unfocused approach that fortunately does not compromise the entire experience, but it does hinder the film’s ability to create a cohesive and more impactful narrative. Despite its stumbles along the way, the ending offers a satisfying and riveting payoff, perhaps even as grand as the real battle itself.
Egan Barnitt