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VOICE the georgetown

A REPUBLIC OF LETTERS Promoting social change through poetry

By Emilia Brahm and Dayana Morales Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w March 6, 2014 w Volume 46, Issue 24 w georgetownvoice.com

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march 6, 2014

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Voice Crossword “Tropical Vacation” by Allison Galezo

41. Stocking stuffer 42. Paddle 44. Bikini, e.g.

46. Beach blanket 49. Roman man 51. Letter after “ka” in Spanish 52. SeaWorld performer 54. Ocean motion 58. Where to find good schools?

59. ___ Stream (warm current) 60. The E in FEMA, abbrev.

61. Bronze 62. Affirmative votes 63. Sand hill DOWN

ACROSS 1. Bank deposit 5. Pond organism 9. Post-ER destination 12. Berth place 13. Coral formation 14. Space heater?

15. Opposite of baja 16. Sea bird 17. Waikiki wear 18. Queen of Jordan 20. “That is,” Latin

22. Landing piers 25. Best restaurant for drunken quesadilla runs 26. “Gotcha!”

27. Pond gunk 30. It’s a long story 34. Take plaice 36. Baseball stat 37. Chowder ingredient 38. Beach bag 39. Morays

1. Masseur’s workplace 2. Trouble 3. Snare 4. Had a beer 5. Jason’s ship 6. “Their,” French 7. Men’s hair product 8. ___ of a coin 9. Small island 10. Billiard sticks 11. Military division 19. CIA predecessor

21. Record 22. Silly 23. Buckeye state 24. Group of actors 25. Silent film star Jannings 28. Regatta team 29. Honshu city 31. Below soprano, above tenor 32. London prison 33. Kind of alcohol 35. Present 40. American uncle 43. Science suffix 45. Pulled 46. You’ll probably have at least one before Spring Break starts 47. Olive genus 48. Gradually remove 49. Calif. campus 50. Klutzes 53. Mockingjay song composer 55. Periodic table unit, abbrev.

56. One on their way to sainthood, abbrev.

57. Before

Last Week’s Answers:

editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 46.24 March 6, 2014 Editor-in-Chief: Connor Jones Managing Editor: Julia Tanaka General Manager: Nick Albanese Blog Editor: Isabel Echarte News Editor: Claire Zeng

Sports Editor: Chris Almeida Feature Editor: Lucia He Cover Editors: Noah Buyon, Christina Libre Leisure Editor: Dayana Morales-Gomez Voices Editor: Steven Criss Photo Editor: Ambika Ahuja Design Editors: Pam Shu, Sophia Super Page 13 Editor: Dylan Cutler Creative Directors: Amanda Dominiguez, Kathleen Soriano-Taylor, Madhuri Vairapandi Editors-at-Large: Caitriona Pagni, Ana Smith Assistant Blog Editors: Minali Aggarwal, Ryan Greene, Marisa Hawley, Kenneth Lee, Laura Kurek Assistant News Editors: Shalina Chatlani, Lara Fishbane, Manuela Tobias Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Castano, Brendan Crowley, Jeffrey Lin, Joe Pollicino Assistant Leisure Editors: Emilia Brahm, Daniel Varghese, Joshua Ward Assistant Photo Editors: Gavin Myers, Joshua Raftis Assistant Design Editors: Leila Lebreton, Andie Pine

Staff Writers:

Sourabh Bhat, Max Borowitz, Grace Brennan, John Connor Buckley, James Constant, Alissa Fernandez, Kevin Huggard, Julia LloydGeorge, Jared Kimler, Lucius Lee, Claire McDaniel, Dan Paradis, Kate Riga, Max Roberts, Jackson Sinnenberg, Deborah Sparks

Staff Photographers:

Marla Abdilla, Katherine Landau, Freddy Rosas

Copy Chief: Grace Funsten Copy Editors:

Judy Choi, Lauren Chung, Eleanor Fanto, Allison Galezo, Juan Daniel Gonçalves, Rachel Greene, Sabrina Kayser, Morgan Manger, Ryan Miller, Samantha Mladen, Nicole Steinberg, Dana Suekoff, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Julia Jester Editorial Board:

Chris Almeida, Gavin Bade, Emilia Brahm, Patricia Cipollitti, Steven Criss, Isabel Echarte, Lara Fishbane, Juan Daniel Gonçalves, Ryan Greene, Lucia He, Connor Jones, Jeffrey Lin, Ian Philbrick, Ryan Shymansky, Ana Smith, Julia Tanaka

Managing Directors: Mary Bailey-Frank, Allison Manning

SNOW DAZE

Provost’s snow provisions limit learning Provost Robert Groves announced a new initiative this winter aimed at curbing the amount of lost class time due to inclement weather. Called Academic Continuity Planning, the program seeks to distinguish “between campus closure and class cancellation.” In a letter to Georgetown faculty, Groves indicated that “under the new policy, classes will not be officially canceled in the event of a campus closure.” Yet the Provost’s new policy has the potential to result in unintended consequences.

The Provost’s plan gives professors the option of holding class even in the event of a campus closure. If a professor is unable to make it to campus, Groves’s initiative still requires them to make up lost class time. Options outlined on the Academic Continuity website include mandatory Blackboard discussion threads and lecture captures.

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 424 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Website: georgetownvoice.com Vox Populi: blog.georgetownvoice.com 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. Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board. 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. The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed by Gannett Publishing Services.

All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover: Pen and Sword Cover Design: Christina Libre

Some professors, however, may interpret the requirement to make up lost class time as an impetus to assign more reading and homework instead of asking students to respond to already-assigned materials. Such assignments can take far longer than a normal class period, and are unfair to students who have already completed what has previously been assigned on the syllabus. Furthermore, students with jobs and internships unaffected by university closures may still have to uphold those responsibilities in the event of inclement weather.

Additionally, technology by itself is a poor substitute for classroom-based learning. As anyone who has ever relied on a lecture capture knows, listening to a professor speak through a computer is far different than engaging with the material in class. The potential for glitches also drastically undercuts the ability of professors to

communicate ideas to their students, something which Groves’s program ignores.

In the end, however, the most damaging aspect of the Provost’s policy is that it takes choice away from professors. If the progression of a syllabus is dependent on holding every class, a professor is well within his or her rights to make arrangements with students to convey the relevant missed material. By requiring instructors to make up classes, Groves forces some professors to teach information in a way that they do not feel is ideal, or even useful.

Weather is unpredictable. If a truly substantial number of classes must be cancelled, then holding make-up days at the end of the semester during study days is an acceptable last resort—but students and professors should not be required bear any additional burdens due to the onset of a few days of inclement weather.

SAT-ISFY ME

Testing changes help bridge education gap

The College Board announced sweeping changes to the SAT on Wednesday that would place the college admissions test more in line with what students are expected to learn in high school—skills such as critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning. In making the test more accurately reflect what students learn in high school, the College Board has admirably taken a step to address the institutional disparities that plague higher education. New programs to put free practice tests online and to waive fees for lowincome students further serve this purpose.

Instead of asking students the definitions of arcane words, the test will focus on words that students will more commonly find in college courses, such as “synthesis” and “empirical.”

The writing section will be combined with the reading section, and the essay will become optional, reverting the SAT back to its original 1600 point scale. To reinforce the evidence-based thinking, students will be asked to select a passage in the text that supports their response.

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These changes were designed, in part, to combat the practice of enrolling in expensive test-preparation courses, which act as informal barriers for low-income students.

“It is time for the College Board to say in a clearer voice that the culture and practice of costly test preparation that has arisen around admissions exams drives the perception of inequality and injustice in our country,” College Board President David Coleman said in a speech announcing the changes. “It may not be our fault, but it is our problem.

The College Board’s announcement comes at a time in which D.C. public schools are considering switching to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a group of states that came together to formulate a standardized test that adheres to national Common Core standards.

The standardized test that the District uses now is a “fixed form” test, which means that students are given the same exam as their peers. The Smarter Balanced tests, on

the other hand, offer adaptive testing, which varies the difficulty of the questions based on a student’s performance. Such a testing scheme would better reflect the achievement for students who are behind grade level, which applies to many students in D.C. The Smarter Balanced tests could offer a more comprehensive measure for D.C. students, and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education should strongly consider making the change, for many of the same reasons the College Board has altered its examination practices.

For too long, high school education has emphasized rote memorization. Now that D.C. is moving toward Common Core standards, which are designed to teach critical thinking, the District has a chance to give students the skills they need to succeed in college and the workforce. Along with the SAT being revitalized, the priorities of classroom instruction and standardized testing will finally align.

KEYSTONE LIGHT

XL Dissent protest represents generational fight

Hundreds of student protesters from the group XL Dissent marched from Georgetown University’s Red Square to the White House this past Sunday, where they protested the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline with a mock oil spill and by tying themselves to the White House gates. Although the event ended with over 400 arrests, its chaotic conclusion should not prevent the government from heeding XL Dissent’s call to action to not only prevent construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, but to also take more meaningful efforts to address climate change and environmental damage.

That XL Dissent started their march from Georgetown is notable since President Obama delivered a speech on climate in front of Old North last summer, in which he promised not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline if it would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions.

The protesters should be commended for holding Obama accountable. The Keystone XL pipeline would not only result in significant

greenhouse gas emissions, it also poses an environmental hazard capable of damaging parts of the American ecosystem, such as the fragile Nebraska Sandhills. Most of all, the fact that Obama still has not made a decision on the pipeline demonstrates his lack of commitment to the environmental goals he has long held.

Instead of relying on this pipeline to meet the United States’ energy demands, Obama must invest more of America’s efforts in researching and building new sources of alternative energy. XL Dissent is correct to call for this solution when they demand an end to the XL Keystone pipeline plans.

The 400 arrests that resulted from the protest must not diminish XL Dissent’s credibility or the protest’s overall success. The 400 students who were arrested merely tied themselves to the White House’s gates with plastic zip ties and were charged only with blocking passage of the sidewalks, according to Al Jazeera.

The protesters acted out of a desire to have their message heard and practiced civil disobedience in doing so. They send a strong message to the Obama administration that this nation’s youth will not stand by idly while an older generation makes decisions that may destroy the environment.

The oil executives and politicians who stand in support of the new pipeline will not be impacted by the environmental damage nearly as much as the younger generations—the ones who have been protesting its construction most fervently. The student protesters in XL Dissent rightfully stand up for the young and future generations who will have to live on a much less habitable planet.

Regardless of whether the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, this protest will be remembered as one of the largest youth demonstrations in memory. Obama would be a hypocrite if he fails to notice and realign himself with these environmentalist views—the ones he had promised to the demographic that helped get him elected in the first place.

news

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On the Record with President DeGioia

by Connor Jones The Voice sat down with University President John DeGioia on Tuesday to discuss the accessibility of a Georgetown education. What follows is an abridged transcript of the interview. Paragraph breaks indicate where material was omitted for space.

In real terms, the total cost of attendance at Georgetown has risen 22 percent in the past 10 years. In the same time, the average cost of attendance at private four-year colleges and universities nationwide has risen 22 percent. Is curbing the cost of attendance a priority to keeping Georgetown accessible for students of all backgrounds?

There’s an important balance that we engage in in responding to the expectations of our students and our families, the needs of our faculty, and the competitive context in which we are situated and then the financial reality that’s affecting many of our families. … We were very intentional about slowing the cost of growth.

We had the smallest year over year increases for about three years in a row. … The bottom line is we were growing slower nationally, but also against our competitive peer group, which is very important.

Those historic growth rates are driven by the demands we have to meet the expectations of our community, so there’s no day in which a dean or a department chair or a student organization, even families, even donors [don’t] come in here and say ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could just add this to the university portfolio?’ And that’s the balance.

Last year, the Institute for College Access and Success published a study indicating that, as of 2011, 39 percent of Georgetown students graduate with an average of $28,035 in debt—$1,435 more than the national average. How does the problem of student debt relate to problems of accessibility at Georgetown?

Well, it certainly shows that there are issues to pay attention to, number one. Number two, that was the [2011]

GU launches video service to showcase student life

by Kenneth Lee The University launched Georgetown Everywhere, a new video service featuring Georgetown content for web browsers, smartphones, and Roku TV, on Friday.

The service will host student programming, which currently only includes Georgetown Buzz, a new University-funded news show produced by the two-student team of Molly Mitchell (COL ‘14) and Calvin Jackson (COL ‘15).

According to Assistant Vice President for Communications Stacy Kerr, Georgetown Everywhere is designed to be a “onestop shop” for information on the Georgetown student experience and events on campus, and Georgetown Buzz is intended to “allow students to tell their own stories” of Georgetown life.

Based out of the Hariri Building’s Marineau Media Center, Mitchell writes and hosts all episodes of Georgetown Buzz and Jackson films and edits the videos.

According to Mitchell, although the University sponsors the production, she and Jackson have some autonomy in programming.

“It’s not supposed to be like the Voice or The Hoya. It’s coming from the University,” she said.

“We talked about it [with administration], and they obviously approved the clips. … [However,] they want it to come from students so it’s more natural.”

According to Kerr, the University invited film and media studies minors, including Jackson, to apply to host the show. Mitchell is not in the minor but applied for the position after she expressed interest to the minor’s director in broadcast journalism.

Members of Georgetown University Television, the student media club that covers Georgetown events through video, welcomed Georgetown Everywhere but stated they were surprised they were not included in its conception.

“I think they should have involved us, because, as a student group, we’re more in touch with student-run events around campus that are as much Georgetown as any speaker that comes here,” GUTV General Manager Joe Laposata (COL ‘16) said. “It’s important to realize that Georgetown is not simply

number, the [2012] number is less than that. I think the [2011] number reflects the acute circumstances of the financial crisis. The number for [2012] is [$25,500].

We are one of 24 schools that are need-blind full need. … I actually chair that group, called the 568 group. The 568 refers to a passage in Higher Reauthorization Bill about a decade ago. … What it enables us to do is develop a common formula by which we would access the need of the student.

We ask the family to contribute the maximum that they are capable of, according to that formula.

We then ask that they borrow, we ask that they apply for work-study, whatever is left over, we pay the difference. … The borrowing that we expect is only [17,500]. … [Students] with their families are making a decision to borrow more.

Now, that’s worth paying attention to, but by the formula we share with the 24 other schools, we don’t believe it’s necessary. … We understand it, we’re aware of it, but it’s not

a lecture series by high-profile political figures.”

Laposata added GUTV has reached out to the Office of Communications in hopes of collaboration.

Kerr said that Georgetown Everywhere is not intended to compete with GUTV but is rather designed as an “infrastructure to host as much content as possible.” Mitchell, who said she participated in GUTV for two years, believes Georgetown Buzz differs from GUTV. “[It is] student’s perspective driven by the University, whereas GUTV would just be however students want to react to what’s going on,” she said.

Laposata said GUTV will continue to produce coverage, out of the concern that varying perspectives will “completely disappear while Georgetown just continues blasting theirs.” Operations Manager Bailey Holtz (COL ‘14), however, said GUTV may shift its focus as a result of Georgetown Everywhere.

“If we can focus more on the shows that we’re producing, focus more on the creative content that the University can’t make, that’s where I see us going,” she said.

Kerr noted the University is still deciding how to open Georgetown Everywhere, which includes a submission form on its website, to original content submitted by the rest of the community.

Freddy Rosas

Connor Jones wore a hooded cardigan, the most formal piece of clothing he owns.

required by our assessment of their family capability.

You don’t think that the need formula is flawed in any way?

Well, it’s one that we’ve developed in connection with a group of colleges and universities. We’d also say, though, that given the value that one has with a college degree, I would certainly argue that $25,000 is not a high level of borrowing. I would argue that.

How does the problem of student debt relate to problems of accessibility at Georgetown?

We don’t have evidence that our costs are deterring students from attending. We’re a need-blind, full-need school, so we don’t know. We’re ad-

mitting the very best students without any sense of whether they can pay or not. Once they’re here, once they’re admitted, our yield rates are very high among our peer group.

We don’t see that deterring people from attending, and we don’t think that the $25,000 of debt has been a burden for people.

We are monitoring it very closely.

We recognize the importance. You could argue that, why are you packaging at [$17,500] if people are willing to borrow at [25,000]? That could save us a whole lot of money.

The interview will be posted in full on Vox Populi at blog.georgetownvoice.com.

Administrators hesitant on Capitol Hill GUTS route

by James Constant Although top University administrators have examined adding bus stops at the National Mall and Capitol Hill to the Law Center route of the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle, they cautioned it would not be feasible to implement in the near future.

A proposal to extend the route was submitted in November via Georgetown IdeaScale by Anebi Adoga (COL ’16), who introduced it in response to concerns of student interns on Capitol Hill. At the time of print, the proposal had 521 supporters on IdeaScale and 461 attendees at the associated Facebook event.

“The main reason we’re doing this [proposal] is that the Law Center shuttle already goes [by Capitol Hill and the National Mall] and it’s free,” Adoga said. “It’s also a fifteen-minute trip. With the Circulator and the G6, there are a lot of stops in between.” In the proposal, Adoga also suggested expanding the shuttle service to weekends.

When asked about the proposal, however, Vice President of Facilities Management Robin Morey explained that the process of adding

two more stops would require considering other factors.

“We must consider the increase to overall trip times and impacts on the current service and the desired mission of the Law Center route,” Morey wrote in an email to the Voice.

“Additionally, we would be required to coordinate with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the District Department of Transportation and other federal agencies to gain approval to have a bus stop on the Hill or the Mall.”

Morey also expressed a need to analyze the additional costs. He noted, for perspective, that in the spring of 2013, the Office of Transportation Management added a weekend late night shuttle between campus and Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan, requiring $35,000 from its existing budget.

According to Associate Vice President for Federal Relations Scott Fleming, in response to the proposal, a survey will be circulated by the Georgetown University Student Association to gather data on student intern needs. The data will be used to get a sense of how demand would vary during the day and whether there were clusters of internship schedules.

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The forum presented some of the first public details on the renovation.

AMBIKA AHUJA

GU holds first student forum on Ryan-Mulledy renovations

by Caitriona Pagni

Discourse on the potential for Ryan and Mulledy Halls to foster religious dialogue dominated the discourse at the inaugural student forum held by the Office of Residential Living, the Georgetown University Student Association, and renovation firm Ayers Saint Gross on Wednesday. Slated to open as dormitories in fall 2015, the buildings proposed use stems from the buildings’ historical legacy as the former Jesuit residence.

Plans for the new dormitory include flattening the quadrangle formed by Ryan, Mulledy, and Gervase halls into an outdoor green space for student use. The dining hall

and former Jesuit chapel, however, will not be affected and will serve as programming and campus ministry spaces, respectively.

“From what we’ve heard from Georgetown and the Jesuits, those are spaces that ought to be preserved,” said ASG representative Dennis Lynch.

The Office of Residential Living invited students to give ideas on Living Learning Communities and event programming in Ryan and Mulledy. One suggestion was to create LLCs focused on the University’s Catholic identity, which students expressed would fit well with the Old Jesuit Residence’s historical value. Other ideas included making

A steep cost for presidential debates

In 2011, Hofstra University in New York had around 19,000 applicants. In 2013, these numbers grew to almost 27,000 applicants. A 50 percent jump in almost two years is phenomenal, unless of course something exciting occurred on campus in the interim. Well, in 2012, Hofstra University hosted a presidential debate. The previous debate they hosted in 2008 also led to a boost in applications, though only by 20 percent.

Since 2000, college campuses have hosted every presidential and vice-presidential debate.

While many commentators may say that they want to host the event to foster greater on-campus political dialogue, it’s clear from the numbers that there are benefits attached. Many of the schools that host debates are less well known and without strong NCAA teams.

They see hosting debates as a way to get name recognition, which leads to a significant increase in applications, as well as alumni donations. For a school such as Lynn University, which hosted the 2012 foreign policy debate, this pros-

pect was a huge opportunity that they took advantage of.

The name recognition comes at a steep financial cost. The minimum financial commitment for a hosting college is $1.5 million, and that cost doesn’t include any updates that must be done to facilities or security. Hosting consumes a significant portion of hosting colleges’ budgets—the 2000 presidential debate at University of Massachusetts-Boston cost five percent of the school’s yearly budget, leading to student protests.

Student protesters were not the only ones worried about the extensive cost of campus debates.

In November 2013, the Internal Revenue Service proposed changes to regulations for politically active nonprofit groups and questioned whether or not these should extend to colleges. While the proposed regulations were largely due to excessive spending by nonprofits such as Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, the organization clearly took into consideration concerns about presidential debates on college campuses. The proposed regulations would take

the residence a space devoted to inter-religious dialogue and adding features such as a kosher kitchen to appeal to students of diverse religious backgrounds.

“This is a great opportunity to live out our mission and identity through this space,” said Assistant Dean for Residential Living Stephanie Lynch.

While the exact layout of each floor is still under deliberation, the building will consist primarily of eight, six and four-person suites and semi-suites, which are two bedrooms with a shared bathroom.

Dennis Lynch estimated the Old Jesuit Residence could hold a maximum of 160 beds, but the number was reduced to 145 beds by the administration’s design for a more spacious layout to market the space to upperclassmen.

“We want to be in the suites and semi-suite area in order to attract that population [of upperclassmen], but we need to balance that with the need to get a certain bed count,” said Dennis Lynch, referring to the University’s commitment to add 385 beds on-campus by 2015 under the 2010 Campus Plan.

The University will continue these discussions on April 19 with a second open forum for students to give more feedback and ideas about the renovation of Ryan and Mulledy. away tax exemption from social welfare 501(c)(4) nonprofits if they were seen to be involved in excessive political activity.

As it stands, most colleges are nonprofits without a political purpose. And while the proposed changes were largely in response to political nonprofits using their status to shield their donors, the amount of money that universities spend on these debates should not

Union Jack

by Sara Ainsworth

A tri-weekly column about national politics and policy be ignored. Especially when, as UMass-Boston student protesters noted, the college is public and thus government funded.

It’s important that universities, by and large, remain outside of the money game that has become our political campaign system. Requiring that the hosting university shell out millions of dollars is exorbitant and really speaks to how far we’ve come as a nation in terms of making politics all about who has the biggest wallet. The long-term benefits of increased name recognition are

the georgetown voice 5

Tisa, administration near agreement on free speech

by James Constant The Georgetown Speech and Expression Committee is establishing the final details of a memorandum of understanding on free speech policies that was submitted to the committee by outgoing GUSA President Nate Tisa (SFS ‘14) following January’s Free Speech Forum. According to Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson, administrators are on track to release the document before the end of the semester.

In a briefing to the GUSA Senate on Sunday, Tisa said the forthcoming document will comprise both new and modified policies. For example, groups like H*yas for Choice, for instance, that currently have to submit requests to the Center for Student Engagement and the registrar’s office to obtain a classroom for a meeting would now be able to send their requests directly to the registrar’s office, according to Tisa.

“It’ll save you about five days on approving a request,” he said. The new policy will require only a thirty-minute training exercise by groups.

Policies still under consideration by the SEC regard regulations on taimportant, but not if it’s at the cost of student welfare.

That being said, campus debates are a key part of our political system. For the past four presidential election cycles, there has been as steady increase in voter turnout, particularly for young voters (though the 2012 election upset the trend). While I don’t want to claim that this increase in young voter turnout is due to campus debates, it is an interesting coincidence.

Campus debates do a lot to engage young voters. Most students at universities are first-time voters and haven’t been exposed to the political climate that we at Georgetown take for granted. Hosting a debate gets students talking about politics, whether they want to or not.

The existence of campus debates also coincides with the mission of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is to educate. Teaching young voters about the political process through on-campus events is important to creating an informed generation of voters. At the same time, the exorbitant cost that the CPD charges colleges is prohibitive and calls into question the financials of the organization, which has al-

bling and protest zones. Although the entire University is technically a free speech zone, the MOU focuses on areas reserved exclusively for speech and expression. Tisa hopes to expand them from Red Square to include the Healey Family Student Center lobby, the lobby of the Leavey Center, and Regents Lawn.

“For groups like fraternities, the free speech and expression policy has been used to push them into the shadows,” said Matt Hamblin (COL ’15), a member of the SEC. “They are the ones that are affected by the policy, and we hope it will become a resource for them and other groups.”

The document also serves to clarify issues relating to campus media that may have, according to Tisa, caused confusion in the past. WGTB DJs, for example, are free to talk about contraception on air, as long as they do not advertise for it. Common practice at WGTB, however, is to not discuss contraception.

“There are no content restriction on student media, only some guidelines and limits on the type of advertising the media accepts,” Olson said.

“So this will not be a policy change, but a clarification.”

ready been criticized for being a “secretive tax-exempt organization.”

The CPD should be responsible for paying for the debates while the colleges should be responsible for hosting the event and engaging students in discussions about national issues.

The possibility that the IRS write into law that universities could see their tax exempt status taken away for hosting a campus debate penalizes young voters instead of dealing with the real issue of the business of politics. College debates are critical to the engagement of students in the political process and serve to ignite further discussions. While the IRS’s original proposal is certainly admirable in its attempt to reduce the influence of money on politics, it needs to be careful when it comes to colleges. Though many of the universities host the debates for less than altruistic reasons, they still play a role in educating the American public. Stopping the endless stream of money from nonprofits to candidates should not prevent universities from doing their jobs and informing the next generation of voters.

Have a political purpose with Sara at sainsworth@georgetownvoice.com.

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march 6, 2014

Creighton win bolsters Hoya tournament hopes

by Brendan Crowley They’re not done yet. With their NCAA Tournament hopes hanging in the balance, the Georgetown men’s basketball team (17-12, 8-9 Big East) ran past the No. 13 Creighton Bluejays (23-6, 13-4 Big East) on Tuesday night, winning a key, late-season conference matchup 75-63.

The Hoyas were led by yet another strong performance from their backcourt, which continues to carry the scoring load.

Senior Markel Starks scored 17 points to go along with 11 assists and three steals, while fellow guard sophomore D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera recorded 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Tuesday night, however, the Hoyas also got a much-needed lift from the frontcourt, whose play has been noticeably inconsistent over the past month.

Off the bench, Aaron Bowen scored nine points to go along with four rebounds, while Mikael Hopkins played one of his best games to date, scoring ten points to go along with five rebounds and five blocks.

For Creighton, star senior forward Doug McDermott led all scorers with 22 points, just a shade under his scoring average of 25.9 points per game, the top average in the country. McDermott was visibly bothered by the physical defense of Aaron Bowen and Mikael Hopkins, shooting an inefficient nine for 23 from the field and four for 11 from three-point range.

“Yes, they are two great defenders, got to give them both a lot of credit,” McDermott said.

“You know, Hopkins is one of the more physical defenders I’ve ever faced. … We got off to a slow start, and my shot just wasn’t falling. …

They are great defenders.”

Another bright spot for the Hoyas was junior guard Jabril Trawick, who continued his streak of strong performances on Tuesday night, accumulating 15 points and seven rebounds in a season-high 38 minutes played. Since returning from a broken jaw on Jan. 27, Trawick has scored in double figures in seven out of ten games, notching at least 12 points in the Hoyas’ last six contests.

“Jabril [Trawick] makes a huge difference compared to the first time we played [Georgetown],” said Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott. “He brings a lot of energy, and when he’s knocking down a couple perimeter shots like he did tonight to go with his ability to be physical in the lane, it’s a pretty good combination.”

The victory came on Senior Night for the Hoyas, who honored graduating players Markel Starks, Nate Lubick, Aaron Bowen, Moses Ayegba, and John Caprio before tip-off. All five players are four-year members of the Georgetown basketball program, a rarity for a program with a proclivity for fostering NBA talent before graduation.

For Thompson, the loss of Starks, in particular, next season is a reality that is difficult to face.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t want to think about it,” admitted Thompson. “[These seniors are] a group, [Markel] is a player, that we’re going to miss. I said on television after the game, this is the last home game, but we plan on him playing a few more games in a Georgetown uniform, before everything is said and done.”

For Starks, his journey to the Hilltop has been fruitful, but not without its difficulties.

“I’ll be the first one to tell

After a critical win against Creighton, Georgetown faces no. 6 Villanova.

LUCIA HE

you that schoolwork hasn’t always been my best suit,” said Starks. “I’ve had to work …

You’ve heard [Thompson] say it a number of times and you’ve watched me grow up and I’m a worker. I bring my lunch pail every day and like I said, just to be at this point and finally get here.

“I went through some tough times here just from a mental standpoint and that’s just a part of maturity. That’s just part of becoming a man.

Everything isn’t always going

to go your way. A lot of guys go through situations where they come in and play right away, and they don’t always work. I went through some ups and downs and that’s only made me stronger. That’s only made me persevere and adversity is good.”

Next up for the Hoyas is their final regular season game on the road versus No. 6 Villanova (26-3, 14-2). The Wildcats have only lost three times all season, once to Syracuse and twice to Creighton, and would

clinch the Big East regular season title with a win over Xavier on Thursday. In Georgetown and Villanova’s last meeting, the Wildcats edged the Hoyas 65-60 in an ugly, turnover-filled contest. A win for the Hoyas in Philadelphia would likely put them on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble entering the Big East Tournament.

Follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter for live game updates and commentary throughout Saturday’s matchup in Philadelphia against Villanova.

the sports sermon

“There is no Santa Claus, the economy’s failing, and everything you thought you knew has been a lie all along.

This is why we watch sports, because the real world is too heartbreaking to contemplate. ” - Andrew Sharp

by Chris Almeida If you don’t follow sports, that’s alright with me, but admit it. You don’t have to talk to me about Wins Above Replacement or usage rate, but if you really don’t understand what’s happening during a game, don’t chime in when it seems convenient.

It’s probably not too rare to hear someone say that they think “Obama is doing a bad job” or that they “hate Republicans,” but when questioned further, they have little evidence to back up their claims. The same problem that is readily present in the world of politics exists in the world of sports. All who know me understand that the Atlantic Coast Conference isn’t my favorite group of schools, but the recent happenings within the conference play to my point a bit too well to go unmentioned.

I went to a high school in northern Virginia that sends a large portion of its students to the University of Virginia each year. This year, UVA’s men’s basketball team happens to be having its best season in over a decade. After the team captured the ACC title last week, obviously the enthusiasm was pouring out from the school’s dedicated basketball fans, who have suffered with the team previously. I take issue, however, with the group that only starts talking as their team picks up speed, spouting off #beatopponent tweets for every game, making it clear that

their basketball interest exists in a vacuum.

It would be easy to say that all fans who don’t take their team seriously on a consistent basis should back off and leave the commentary to the “serious” sports community. However, on second thought, it’s obvious that the inclusive aspect of sports is part of what makes the experience so fulfilling at times. In a sellout game at the Verizon Center (though I don’t think we saw one this year), I highly doubt that all 18,000 fans in the arena are well-versed on the teams they are watching, but if you cut off all the fat, what are you left with? Probably an underwhelming crowd.

If you get rid of all the enthusiasm on a campus that builds during a big season, games are just less exciting, and the whole experience means less.

When Georgetown made the Final Four in 2007, I was in Atlanta. Walking around the city, strangers would yell, “Hoya Saxa!” from across the street. Random fans on buses, Hoyas, Buckeyes, Gators, and Bruins alike would exchange feelings of hate toward Billy Packer, CBS’s color commentator at the time. The energy that week was infectious, and with only the diehard fans in attendance, I’m not sure things would have felt quite the same.

This being said, there is a line between cheering on your team and speaking where there is no knowledge. Nobody wants to hear about why Jabari Parker, Joe Harris or C.J. Fair

is “so good” if there is no reasoning behind the claim. Nobody wants to hear you spew random facts about your school that you learned yesterday.

Obviously the best player on a successful team is going to be good at basketball, but leave the analysis to the people who have been watching. Now, this may sound like I’m just being a sports elitist, but these rules apply even at the top of the pundit hierarchy.

It’s even clear when television analysts haven’t done their homework. When a team jumps into the spotlight, it’s not uncommon to hear about the extraordinary exploit that put them there. Last season, I heard a whole lot about Otto Porter ’s game against Syracuse, but little about how Porter had been performing similar heroics all year, or about how the emergence of D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and how the rest of the team stepped up in the absence of Greg Whittington to bring the team to its phenomenal winning streak.

It’s no new point of view to resent the people who jump on the bandwagon. And I’ll even concede that there are some benefits to having a fanbase that is stronger in quantity than quality, but outside of the games, forego the commentary. If you weren’t an expert yesterday, you aren’t today.

Listening to silence is much better than hearing “SEC!” or rather, “ACC!” shouted from the rooftops.

sports

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the georgetown voice 7

Georgetown lax pride hurt by Hofstra D.C. United on the rise

by Kevin Huggard The Georgetown Men’s Lacrosse team (2-2, 0-0 Big East) fell in a close matchup against Hofstra (22, 0-0 CAA) on Saturday, with the Hoyas rallying to tie the game late before losing in overtime. The team started slow, falling behind 6-1 in the second quarter before coming back to force overtime against the Pride. The road loss marks the Hoyas’ second straight defeat after starting the season 2-0.

Leading the way on offense for the Hoyas were junior attackman Reilly O’Connor, junior midfielder Bo Stafford and freshman attackman Devon Lewis, each of whom scored two goals. The team stormed back with a barrage of five second-half goals to bring the game to overtime, but ran out of steam in the overtime period despite dominating the time of possession.

The Hoyas struck first as Lewis scored on a jump shot with 9:26 re-

maining in the first period. But from there Hofstra carried the play, tying the game two minutes after Lewis’ goal and then scoring again to take a 2-1 lead into the second quarter.

Hofstra would continue their run, as penalties put the Hoyas at a twoman disadvantage to start the quarter. The Pride scored only 14 seconds into the period while two-men up, and then followed that goal with another by Hofstra attackman Brier Davis. Davis would add two more goals in the quarter, both coming at even strength.

The momentum began to turn back in the Hoyas’ direction late in the second quarter, as Reilly O’Connor scored with three minutes remaining in the period to end the Pride’s run and cut their lead to 6-2. Graduate student Tyler Knarr won the ensuing face-off for the Hoyas and sprinted down the field to score just seven seconds after O’Connor’s strike.

The teams went back-and-forth

THE VOICE

Men’s lacrosse takes on the Harvard Crimson this coming Saturday

Taking it Slowly

My introduction to our nation’s pastime began at a slow and steady pace. I was too young to actually remember when I was graced with my first mitt or instructed to throw a ball to my dad, but I’m sure it was a gleaming moment in the eyes of my parents to see their first son pick up the baseball for the first time, or at least I would hope so. Baseball definitely wasn’t in my genes, so it took quite a bit of grooming during my younger years to get me to embrace the game.

Short vacations out to Palm Springs were never without taking hacks at tennis balls set up on tees.

Trips to the park always meant playing catch with my older sister, which was a challenge mainly because she threw like such a girl. (Love you Tori!) I even still reminisce about the poignant moment when my dad finally told me that I was ready to graduate from soft-woven baseballs

to hardcover and then shortly thereafter faced the uncomfortable realization that I would also have to start wearing that godforsaken piece of plastic—the cup.

Through the emotional turmoil that was batting slumps and the glorious dog piles near the mound, I have earned an appreciation for baseball that is common among all baseball players, former and current. It takes this sort of appreciation to really enjoy watching the game even after playing days may have already passed. It’s a small dagger to my heart every time I hear fellow students rip on baseball because they think it is too slow. They claim nothing ever happens and that the game is just, well, boring. Like most misunderstandings—whether they be sexist, ideological, religious, or, in this case, athletic—this claim that baseball doesn’t move fast enough is born of ignorance.

during the third quarter, as Stafford pulled the Hoyas within two goals on freshman attackman Peter Conley’s assist. Hofstra answered with a goal of their own with 3:38 remaining in the quarter before Lewis sliced through the Pride’s defense and fired home a shot to send the teams into the final break with the score at 7-5.

O’Connor added another significant goal as he broke through the defense early in the fourth quarter, sending the ball past the Pride goalie and into the top left corner. Then, with 10:12 remaining in regulation, Conley scored on an assist from Stafford to tie the game. Now, with momentum on their side, the Hoyas took the lead by way of a Stafford goal on a pass from senior attackman Jeff Fountain with 7:40 left in the game.

After Stafford’s goal, the scoring slowed down for a time as the Hoyas held off attempts by Hofstra to retie the game. Finally those efforts prevailed with just 1:14 left in regulation, as the Pride tied the game on a goal from Mike Malave.

The Hoyas could not manage to find the game-winning goal and eventually gave up the winner on a Pride fast break with only 19 seconds to go in the period.

After a difficult stretch on the road, the Hoyas return to the MultiSport field to take on Harvard on Saturday, March 8.

I admit that for those who have never played the game it is hard to feel the same edge-of-your-seat kind of excitement that I feel whenever the pitcher fires the ball in toward the batter. Those without a connection to the game consider the pauses and breaks in the action

All the Way

by Steven Criss

A bi-weekly column about sports

reasons to dislike it. During these pauses, though, I am constantly considering all of the variables, which heavily contributes to the nerves of watching game. Who’s out on the field, what’s the count, who’s on base, what inning it is, the score, what pitches the pitcher has in his arsenal, which umpire is calling the game, which team is home and which is away… I could go on and on—these all race through my head during the wind-up and

2013 was a year to forget for D.C. United. The capital club was absolutely horrendous, winning just three games the entire season. Their top scorer, midfielder Dwayne De Rosario, managed just eight goals in all competitions, only three of which were scored in league play. Needless to say, another year like the last won’t be tolerated at RFK Stadium.

Thankfully for Head Coach Ben Olsen, D.C. United has not taken its abysmal year lightly, with a number of high profile off-season signings. The most high-profile name joining the Eagles for the coming season is Eddie Johnson.

Goals are what United lacked in 2013, and goals are what Johnson was brought on to deliver. While Johnson did only manage nine goals in 21 games for the Seattle Sounders last season, he’s certainly a step up from any of the strikers currently at Olsen’s disposal.

Another MLS veteran, Fabian Espindola was selected by United in the second stage of the MLS re-entry draft and boasts quite the MLS resume. The 28-year-old native of Argentina played for Real Salt Lake for six seasons before plying his trade at Red Bull Arena last season. Espindola scored nine goals in 28 appearances last season.

United also strengthened their porous defense, bringing in Canadian defender Nana Attakora and Union servant Jeff Parke. Perhaps United’s greatest defensive coup has come in the form of former L.A. Galaxy hardman Sean Franklin. At age 28, Franklin is in the prime of his career, and knows the MLS well.

While United picking up multiple new players means a fresh start for the club, it’s lost a few of its better players. De Rosario spent two and a half seasons at the Capital club and shouldered a large amount of the creative responsibility until the arrival of Silva and the departure of D.C.’s high-profile loss, Andy Najar.

The 20-year-old Hondruan made a $3 million transfer to Belgian club Anderlecht in the offseason, cutting his American career short. Najar was voted MLS Rookie of the Year during the 2010 season and featured for Honduras during the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Thankfully the team has performed admirably in the pre-season as United won its fourth Carolina Challenge Cup challenge, tying the Seattle Sounders 2-2 in the final game and winning the tournament on goal differential.

D.C. United begins its season this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. against the Columbus Crew at RFK Stadium.

release, making the pace of play a negligible concern.

With all the new technology being brought into the game, particularly the expansion of video replay, the speed of baseball games and their overall length has become a considerable worry for some fans.

There almost seems to be no reasonable solution in sight to cut down game length, and God help us if we mention the idea of ditching a few commercials for the sake of shrinking game times. St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright had a stimulating suggestion—expand the strike zone. That would surely counteract the slowdown caused by increased replays, not to mention let pitchers sweat less when on the rubber.

Of course this suggestion cannot be considered feasible, but Wainwright went on to make a statement that is all too valid: “I’m not concerned about it slowing the game if I’m pitching and a call is made that isn’t the right call,” he said. “I would

rather take the two minutes there to get the right call made.”

Although the game receives a ton of flak for being “slow” and “boring,” what needs to be valued over all else is the fairness of the game itself. Again, it takes that aforementioned appreciation for baseball to honestly be able to accept the slower pace in exchange for accuracy, to value game quality over game length. I’m not sure if it’s a lost cause to make an attempt at convincing dissenters that baseball in itself is exciting, but I cannot help but fight back against the claim that it is too slow.

In more than one aspect of life— I’m talking to you, Georgetown students—taking things slowly is definitely the way to go. It shouldn’t be how long the game lasts that matters, it should be about all the other small things that make up this wonderful game and every aspect of its beautiful complexity that make it great.

by Chris Castano

feature

8 the georgetown voice

march 6, 2014

A LITERARY BREED OF JUSTICE · BY ·

Emilia Brahm Dayana Morales Gomez WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night. ….

The parrot / said hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried peach halves.

those little chocolate squares, silver-foil wrapped, the ones I can’t find anywhere. The ones I still taste on my tongue, a taste that lingers, a taste like nothing else.

Mother - when you go “Lingers” by Alex Meyer (GRAD ‘16) --------

Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. The Lannan Center’s first director was English Professor Mark Morris.

“There was a grant, and it was modest at first, but it grew over the years,” Forché said. “It has has been more generous every year for a good while. We’ve had extraordinary support from the Dean, Chester Gillies, from the provost, Robert Groves, and from the President, John DeGioia.”

With a $3 million endowment in 2007, the Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics was added to the English Department.

This position is a revolving appointment held for as much as three years by an international writer. The first Lannan Chair

From “The Colonel,” by Carolyn Forché -------At the end of a long hallway with a low-hanging ceiling in the English Department, the Lannan Center office has little visibility in the larger Georgetown community. Even though several award-winning authors are part of the center, including Director Carolyn Forché, recipient of a the Yale Younger Poets Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and, most recently, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the program has been struggling to find its place within Georgetown’s policy-centric atmosphere geared toward immediate action and tangible results. Carolyn Forché is the director of the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown, a center dealing with the role of poetry, art, and literature in the contemporary world.

In 1981, Forché published her second book of poetry, which addressed her experiences in El Salvador leading up to the civil war. In The Country Between Us, Forché’s poetry calls the American public’s attention to the situation in El Salvador. Forché has dealt with conflict for her entire career, which has included four books of poetry, another fourteen that she edited, authored, or translated, and social advocacy work around the world. “The controversy of poetry and politics erupted. ... Conflict has been with us since the beginning of literature,” Forché said.

-------Mother - when you go to the store, if you would, buy me

J. Patrick Lannan Jr. (CAS ‘60) is the president of the Lannan foundation, which was founded by his father in 1960. According to the Lannan family foundation, it is “dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity, and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities.”

Lannan first returned to Georgetown to create a branch of his family foundation in the early 1990’s, establishing the Lannan Poetry Series. Lannan has continued to fund a variety of initiatives on campus, including the annual Lannan Symposium, Graduate Fellowship, and the Visiting Writer-in-Residence and Distinguished Reader series.

In 2004, Lannan brought the disparate campus-wide initiatives together by funding the creation of the official Georgetown

was Professor Ammiel Alcalay, a poet and prolific translator of Spanish, Arabic, Bosnian, and Hebrew. Dinaw Mengetsu (CAS ‘00) is the current Chair of the foundation.

Mengetsu published his first novel in 2007 and was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.

-------It all started when the blood orange sun cracked and ran down, tumbling, into the valley …

When the floodlight caught us When the parents snored When for hours we debated good bands with bad names ...

It always starts again

when the place we meet is the same as the place we met before and we talk in a script only our eyes can read

counts of the most complex memoirs memories of every character leaving inkprints imprints on the soul.

So boldly marked in ageless pages, it’s as though you wrote and marked infinity with some poetic prose But you did not write because your hands that raised nations never did learn to caress a borrowed pen

From “How Things Run Out,” by Anonymous

From “Paperless Poetry,” by Vivian Ojo (SFS ‘14)

-------In spite of the participation of many renowned authors in the Lannan Center’s activities, it remains relatively unnoticed by the Georgetown community. In 2010, the Center found a home in the remodeled New North 408. It was opened with a reading by Fanny Howe, who, at the time, was the Lannan Chair of Poetry.

Students from any undergraduate or graduate program are able to take part in the seminar. Forché encourages this diversity of students herself—she studied international relations in college even though she knew her vocation was poetry.

Forché noted that there are obvious intersections in the work done by the Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Lannan Center, but a lack of exposure makes it hard to reach those students.

Yet even without campus-wide popularity, the center’s profile is growing. “We’ve grown tremendously in terms of our participation and interest,” Forché said. “The seminar now in the spring is full.

There are more applicants than I can accommodate.” The class is currently made up of 21 students.”

Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics Dinaw Mengestu (COL ‘00) has also noticed the increased interest in the program but acknowledges that lack of resources might limit the number of students the program is able to accept.

“I think the problem is how much the physical space [the center] has on campus.

But there is something to be said about the psychological space,” Mengestu said. “The ultimate goal is to start a conversation within other schools [and not just within the English department]. … There are conversations in the Lannan Center that aren’t happening anywhere else, but I think they are starting to be heard elsewhere.”

-------Why I write? I write because you told me to Because you encountered history and literature but never met a pen or page.

You were right.

Right hands lernt motions of creativity creating a script that spelt first person ac-

feature

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-------The center puts on three kinds of events open to the public: poetry readings and talks, the annual symposium, and a special series called “Matters of Urgency.”

“Matters of Urgency” brings dynamic figures to campus. Last fall, Jake Conroy and Will Potter spoke in New North.

The two are better known for their characterization as “eco-terrorists,” a term usually used to refer to radical environmentalists who use violence in the name of their cause. Through a conversation about their book Green is the New Black, the two discussed the semantics of terms like “eco-terrorism,” noting the dangers of such propagandized language.

In addition, the Lannan Center partnered with the Georgetown Solidarity Committee and the GU College Democrats in 2011 to present an event entitled “I am Troy Davis: The Execution of Troy Davis and the Death Penalty.” “[The] audience was people of the District [of Columbia], exonerated inmates, Georgetown students, Amnesty International, and people who were interested in the death penalty issue … people who later became active in the death penalty abolition in Maryland, and they were successful. That night was electric in Copley,” Forché said.

In 2008, Professor McMorris planned “Let Freedom Ring: Art and Democracy in the King Years, 1954-1968.” The Lannan Symposium brought together civil rights leaders who had not seen each other in years.

This year ’s symposium has another compelling lineup. Entitled “Living in a Precarious World: Art, Labor, and the New Economic Precarity,” the 2014 symposium hopes to answer the questions of what it means to be an artist in the new “precariat,” a social state of instability. The webpage describes the event as also seeking to ask, “How do [artists] challenge the rise of precarity, and what, if anything, does it offer as the basis for resistance?”

The symposium will be led by four English professors and one professor from the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Among the topics to be discussed are the penal system, the living wage, and how all this fits into the scope of D.C.

-------He was addicted to those things we are all addicted to: The sibilant near-silence of walking on snow at 3am to visit your mistress.

The elusive inevitability of orgasm and, afterwards, soundless technicolor of contentment, and smiling like a saint seeing God. A pouting, frightened face on billboards, he seemed to regret having left the womb.

Under the unwavering gaze of his unapplauding wife who took the kids, he groaned all the way to the dealer.

From “Phillip Seymour Hoffman is Dead”

by Michael Mungiello (COL ‘16) --------

“In the past, I’d been wary of what struck me as certain vagueness about the study of poetry and somehow the Lannan program made it seem concrete and approachable,” Meyers said.

The class put together by the program is a poetry workshop that hosts distinguished poets and fiction writers once a month, in the last year alone including Ben Marcus, Tope Folarin, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, and others.

“The true worth in the Lannan Center is in its openness to introduce writers to the Georgetown community. Attending last year’s symposium was one of the highlights of my illustrious … Georgetown career,” said Mack Basham (COL ‘14), who is taking the Lannan seminar.

Others share Basham’s appreciation for the course. “The work I’ve done in the seminar and the readings [and] comments from visiting poets and writers has made me much more aware of how language can be

“The controversy of poetry and politics erupted. ... Conflict has been with us since the beginning of literature” Inside the classroom, and within those already involved in the program, the Lannan Center’s mission is thriving.

“Our formula is to get people in, have a meal, talk to each other, hear other peoples’ experience, it’s just to get people to listen to poetry, which I think has just been lost in the last forty years of english learning,” Jessica Williams, the center’s executive assistant, said.

Alex Meyers (GRAD ‘16) is the first year Lannan graduate associate. To him, poetry, together with music, has long been used “as a means of communicating values and unifying a cause. “Poetry can be very much a social expression in addition to being an art form,” he said.

Revolutionary, Meyers’s first novel, was published in January to many positive reviews, including one from the New York Times. Meyers, who has taught high school English and holds an M.A. in theology and an M.F.A. in fiction writing, is also a student in the Lannan seminar.

used. I don’t think it has affected my subject matter as much as the way that I think about words and syntax,” Meyers said.

Meyers sees the center taking him even further in his writing career. “I think the work at the Lannan Center makes me confident that I could teach poetry writing as well.”

Katherine Mitchell (COL ‘15) felt a significant change in her thoughts about writing after taking the course. [Disclosure: Mitchell is a former Voice contributor.] “At Georgetown, [writing is] something that’s kind of hard to justify: wanting to write or anything that doesn’t feel immediately involved in the rest of the world or something like that.

But it is. And that’s part of what the Lannan Center does—is say that writing is inescapably involved in the community that you’re involved in and the rest of the world. You can’t get that out of your language.” Her experience as a Lannan Fellow led to her transfer from the School of Foreign Service to the College to major in English and Philosophy.

the georgetown voice 9 -------We walk home across rocks in an aperture of time Out there, in the black trees, feral hearts beat staccato, the same way starts blink, regardless, seen or unseen A depth to this wild, an ocean unmapped, woods this size could hide whales. Baleen ferns whisper, soft-mouthed, against our skin.

From “Sierra Nevada” by Sophia Stid (COL ‘15) -------So far, the Lannan Center has brought over 300 speakers to Georgetown’s campus. As the visibility grows, so does the conversation.

To some members of the Lannan community, Georgetown’s Jesuit identity play an integral part of the Center’s relevance on campus.

“Because of cura personalis, because of the Jesuit Mission: there is a space here for work in social justice, for the development of critical analysis, and for the development of conscience,” Forché said. “It just seemed I came to a place where everything could be possible.”

“The Lannan Center is helping students to deepen their understanding of the role of culture as they go forward. I’m still in touch with Lannan Fellows from previous years.

One went on to found a library in South Sudan in a refugee camps. Others have gone to Teach for America. There’s a whole book to be written about what the Fellows have gone on to do,” Forche said.

Sophia Stid (COL ‘15), a Lannan Fellow, is grateful for how the center has helped her develop as a writer and find herself as part of a community passionate about the intersection of literature and social justice.

“It’s very encouraging to see how Professor Forché has supported the poets who come and read with us, and how it seems like they all inspire and help one another. … It makes the writer’s life seem less lonely.”

-------There is no other way to say this. He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass. It came alive there. I am tired of fooling around he said. As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves. He swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held the last of his wine in the air. Something for your poetry, no? he said. Some of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.

“The Colonel,” The Country Between Us, Carolyn Forché, May 1978

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

march 6, 2014

On the Record: “Passing Out Pieces” with Mac DeMarco

by Shalina Chatlani & Robin Giles Mac DeMarco, down-to-earth Canadian rocker dude (with a tendency to get a little weird), agreed to discuss his upcoming album Salad Days and his thoughts on the music industry with the Voice.

DeMarco, whose breakout album 2 came out last year, gave some honest, insightful, and hilarious commentary on what it means to be authentic as a professional musician.

We’re really excited about your new album, Salad Days, coming out in April. Your single “Passing out Pieces” was synth-based, which is new for you, and we’re also curious about the name.

“Salad Days” is a saying from Antony and Cleopatra, the Shakespeare play. It refers to a youthful time, but honestly it doesn’t really have much to do with the album that much. As for the synths, when you play guitar for six or seven years you get kind of bored, so it’s a way to mix things up. I don’t really know what I’m doing anyway, so it’s all just fun for me.

In the music industry it seems like a lot of artists are pressured into developing a certain kind of image. You seem to have avoided that with a sort of “anti-image,” but a lot of music reviews have mentioned that it’s hard to tell when you’re being serious. Do you feel like this is true?

I feel like I can be as serious as I need to be, like when I’m writing songs. I wouldn’t even con-

sider myself an “artist” of some kind though—I’m just having a good time. For me, rock and roll is about having fun. I think if I’m being a little chill or goofy, it makes people more comfortable because they don’t think I’m some kind of cool prick. For me, it’s about connecting with people and making them more comfortable. Some people might assume I’m some sort of freak of nature or something, but I’m pretty used to it.

Was this sort of image something that just evolved over time naturally?

It’s really just the way I am.

As far as presenting ourselves as a group, I didn’t want us to be one of those indie rock bands that kick their feet the whole time. People sometimes overassess the way we act, make weird comparisons in interviews. I just think it’s funny. The whole public persona thing—I find it really hilarious.

So, we’ve noticed a bit of androgyny in your album art and music. We were wondering if this was politically motivated or just another way to be goofy?

Well, it doesn’t really reach as deep as being political in any way. I mean I’m up for equal rights and everything, but I’m not really trying to push a message. Yeah, some things are crazy in my eyes, but I’m not trying to say “Fuck you guys!” I’m just being a goofball. If super rightwing Americans get offended or uncomfortable with the way I present myself, that’s fine.

FLICKR

“Oh man, I wish my fingers weren’t so cold, eh?”

There have been a lot of great alternative/indie artists coming out of Montreal recently. Do you feel sort of indebted to, or were you even a part of the Montreal “scene”?

I was a big part of the Vancouver scene, and then I went to Montreal. I didn’t really get along with many of the bands, and the record labels were kind of fucking me around. There’s this misconception nowadays of “I gotta move to Montreal, shit is happening.” It’s really

not. There are some good bands, but none of this shit happened to me until I got signed to a label in New York. I’m really sick of Montreal. It’s fine. It’s cheap. It’s so cheap that you can actually subsidize your life while trying to make music. That part helped, but as far as being a part of anything--I don’t think I was. It’s funny, we played shows there and Arcade Fire was like, “You got good guest lists for the shows, apparently you guys know your shit,” so that was cool.

Do you want some candy?

People often ask me how I ever feel safe as a young woman traveling to such “interesting” places. They remind me to always keep my guard up, to be careful talking to people I don’t know.

Newsflash: when traveling alone in a foreign country, everyone falls into the category of “people I don’t know.”

Take my experience in Turkey.

Without a car, my travel companions and I were denied a spot on the express ferry. Gone was the three-hour ferry that would take us straight to where we needed to go. Instead, we had to spend five hours at a café waiting for a ship that would bring us to an unknown city six hours east of our ideal destination.

When it finally came time to board the ferry, we had no idea where we would go upon reaching the Turkish coast. Find a hotel and deal with it in the morning? Make a beeline for the bus station? In the midst of the debate, we were interrupted by a man sharing the bench—“Nerelisiniz?” he said. “Where are you from?”

It would have been easy to smile politely and avoid the conversation. But, following in suit of our accidental adventure, we started chatting about our travels and our precarious situation. “We need to get to Alanya, do you know that town?”

Miraculously, this guy—Mehmet—knew exactly where Alanya was and happened to have a friend who owned a bus company. He promised us he would take us to this bus company once we crossed the Mediterranean and told us to find him once we got on the ferry.

After losing Mehmet while fumbling with our bags and tick-

ets, we thought we would have a difficult time finding a spot to sit. It turned out that Mehmet had saved us two seats nearby his sister and nephew. We spent the next ten hours napping, snacking, and chatting with Mehmet and his family.

Mehmet knew just the right timing for disembarking from the ferry, and gave us advice for getting through customs. Once off the ship, we stood in a circle and for a solid five minutes exchanged “thanks you’s” and “it was so wonderful to meet you’s” before Mehmet walked us over to his friend’s bus company.

Meeting Mehmet was the best thing that could have happened to my roommate and me that night.

Day Tripper

by Colleen Wood

A bi-weekly column about music We hear our parents’ constant plea of, “Don’t talk to strangers.” It can be hard to shake that message, even as adults, but if we had refused to talk to Mehmet because we didn’t know him, our night in middle-of-nowhere-Taşucu would have been much more difficult.

If I were to heed the advice of my worried extended family, it would be impossible to go anywhere or see much. When traveling, you’ve got to take a leap of faith and trust those around you.

On a separate occasion, I found myself at the main bus station in Baku, Azerbaijan, unable to locate the minibus I needed to visit a friend who lived three hours north. When I called her, she told me I should just get a ride from someone offering a spot in

We just have one more question: why all the cigarettes in your songs and videos?

I don’t even smoke. Just kidding... I’m very addicted to smoking. I think half of my income probably goes to cigarettes. It is funny, I’ll be doing videos and people are like, “Oh you like smoking, why don’t you have another?” Sometimes I find I ended up smoking up to 18 cigarettes in the span of half an hour.

his car. After taking a big breath, I squeezed into the backseat of a stranger’s Lada with a woman wearing a sequined head-covering, a man drinking a foggy liquid from a jar, and an older guy who was on the phone for the entire car ride.

One by one, the other passengers signaled to the driver that they needed to get out until it was just me and the driver left in the car. We lacked a common language, and so for much of the ride we sat in an uncomfortable silence.

But that all changed when a familiar song came on the radio.

With a few hand gestures, we got across our shared affection for the Turkish pop singer. We cranked up the volume and rocked out while cruising through the Caucasus mountains.

This moment would have been impossible without trust.

Obviously while traveling, you should take care to avoid dangerous situations—drugs, guns, illegal border crossings. But at the same time, it doesn’t serve you well to avoid contact with every unfamiliar person or place.

The reality of traveling is that most everything feels unfamiliar at first. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone requires a leap of faith—faith that humanity is generally good.

Too often, we are wary to trust other people for fear of being harmed, of being robbed, but most generally, of being disappointed.

We don’t travel to stay in our comfort zone, though. We travel to experience the vastness of the human experience, and without trust, we risk missing out on beautiful moments.

Make Colleen feel safe at cwood@georgetownvoice.com

georgetownvoice.com

“Spring break forever, bitches.” — Spring Breakers

A sad, honest look at the promised land CONCERT

by Larissa Ong You wouldn’t be wrong to immediately associate the film Bethlehem with the birthplace of Jesus Christ. But Bethlehem’s namesake is instead the site of violence—cold, calculated and endemic violence that leaves no one exempt from its intoxicating grip.

The film unfolds around the relationship between conflicted Israeli Shin Bet officer Razi and his imperious but fragile teenage Palestinian informant, Sanfur. In deciding whether to protect Sanfur or do as his job and religion dictates, Razi’s moral quandary causes a ripple of tragic events. Their relationship takes shape as the film progresses and enters such intense and confusing territory that I almost felt it to be non-platonic, a testament to director Yuval Adler’s ability to add depth and shades to his characters.

Adler’s nonpartisan and balanced depiction of both sides of the conflict, reflected in his dual Palestin-

“No, I am your father.” “Noooooo!”

ian and Israeli cast, earned him the most prestigious nod at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. The film was chosen as Israel’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, perhaps even more remarkable considering Bethlehem’s cast of entirely new actors.

There is nothing quite as apt as gunshots to start the story. The chilling image of children wielding guns, not quite possessing the machismo of seasoned Shin Bet operatives, sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Adler poignantly demonstrates that there is no redeeming recourse to innocence, only short-lived inexperience. For those not acquainted with the geopolitical dynamics and conflict in the Holy Land, the film provides no informational context, leaving the viewers to get up to speed themselves.

The characters’ moral navigations are as confusing as the web of loyalties. To save a friend, one has to kill his brother—to save a father, one has

West end cinema

to befriend the enemy. Even within families, allegiance is divided. The loyalties of each character tear their bonds apart, dooming every kind of human relationship. This film not only blurs the differences between right and wrong, but clouds it until it is obscured.

The nature of the central relationship between Razi and Sanfur takes shape as the film progresses, and enters such intense and confusing territory that it almost feels sexual, a testament to Adler being able to add depth and shades to his characters.

In a film about the danger and trickiness of loyalty, Adler himself stays away from picking a side, which is the ultimate triumph of the film.

Both the Israelis and Palestinians are desperate and diabolical in equal measure. Both kill. Both are bad. And yet, both make your heart break. There is an undeniable sense of humanity present in all the characters, and the austere pride of Islam and Judaism shines through, but in a situation when having any shred of humanity is a liability, how can you pronounce anyone a villain?

Adler’s film doesn’t contain scenes of clichéd bloodbaths. His fight scenes are stripped of extraneous effect and spectacle.When there is death, it is significant and often heart wrenching, but never cloying. To his credit, Adler neither sensationalizes violence nor sugarcoats tragedy, giving an honest look into the little town of Bethlehem.

Friday 03/07 Lorde with Lo-Fang Echostage, 8 p.m., $65 ScHoolboy Q with Isaiah Rashad Fillmore Silver Spring, 8 p.m., $25 Thursday 03/13 Paul Simon & Sting Verizon Center, 8 p.m., $175 Friday 03/14 Dr. Dog 9:30 Club, 8 p.m., $27 Sunday 03/16 Ellie Goulding Echostage, 7 p.m., $58 Wednesday 03/19 Typhoon with Lady Lamb The Beekeeper 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $18 thursday 03/20 Cut Copy Echostage, 7 p.m., $35 Friday 03/21 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. with Chad Valley 9:30 Club, 8 p.m., $16 The Colourist with Night Terrors of 1927 U Street Music Hall, 6:30 p.m., $15

the georgetown voice 11

CALENDAR Saturday 03/22 Dum Dum Girls Black Cat, 9 p.m., $15 How To Dress Well with Forest Swords U Street Music Hall, 7 p.m., $15 Sunday 03/23 Drive-By Truckers with Blitzen Trapper 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $35 Monday 03/24 Warpaint with Kitten & Liz U Street Music Hall, 6 p.m., $20 2Chainz with August Alsina 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $46 Thursday 03/27 John Newman with Jetta 9:30 Club, 7 p.m., $20 friday 03/28 Daley 9:30 Club, 8 p.m., $20 Wednesday 04/02 Real Estate with Pure X Verizon Center, 7:30 p.m., $51 UZ U Street Music Hall, 11 p.m., $15

Lupo Verde howls into the District with authentic flare

by Manuela Tobias At first glance, because of the cheesy Italian music and the complimentary warm homemade bread with cheese, Lupo Verde appears to be just another mediocre American take on the Italian dining experience.

But don’t let the not-quite-dried tomatoes served with an all-too-petite bowl of olive oil fool you. The restaurant offers a cool break from the typical pizza-pasta dichotomy with a variety of delectable and exotic tapas prepared by a South Italian chef, as well as cheese and charcuterie plates prepared in their glass cheese room.

The ambiance is just right, with customers conversing with the bartender and reluctantly watching the Barcelona match, in typical European fashion. The restaurant’s brick walls and unvarnished wood tables offer a warm, rustic embrace. But the brassy

metal of the stair railings, the chains holding up the low-light chandeliers and lanterns, and the pipe running through the ceiling trump the potential for an overwhelmingly romantic atmosphere, creating, instead, an elegantly industrial interior.

The tapas-style portions are limited in size but extravagant in flavor.

The fried vegetables were heaven, packed with sliced, fried zucchini and peppers as well as mint and capers.

The thin-cut, pan-seared potatoes were equally delectable. The burrata disappointed with an overwhelming citric taste, but the cheese’s fresh and soft flavor was commendable.

As for pizza and pasta, expect few choices with unprecedented flavor combinations. The pizzas were individual-sized, reminiscent of flat bread, and served in a warm metal pan, eradicating any hint of formality. The “Statale” eggplant pizza was

saturated with strong, bittersweet flavors and The “RA2” contained radish and had a delectable nutty aftertaste.

But the “A3,” with olives and capers, was a touch too salty. The pomodoro didn’t overwhelm the taste buds, allowing one to focus instead on the richness of the vegetables.

The dessert menu featured an extensive list of Italian liquors, alongside the pasticceria, offering warm chocolate-y goodness and the gelateria, proposing an exotic break from the tiresome chocolate-vanilla-strawberry tradition with flavors like limoncello, almond, and hazelnut.

The tortino al cioccolato was not quite as molten as promised, though the fresh strawberries created an original twist. The coppa del nonno, a hazelnut-flavored coffee and chocolate semifreddo, was a love affair between Nutella and coffee gelato served in a rustic mug.

The seating ranged from small, intimate two-people tables to large, round 10-seaters fitted into the pockets of the brick walls for the feel of a classic Italian dinner table. “We wanted to keep it small and comfortable, not a big space,” Matarazzo said.

A rustic southern Italian restaurant with intense tastes and a cool, authentic European atmosphere, Lupo

Verde is anything but typical, and provides a varied and expansive dining experience. Like the green wolves of it’s namesake, Lupo Verde packs an intense bite.

Lupo Verde 10 a.m.—12 a.m. daily 1401 T Street N.W. lupoverdedc.com

This is what Lau 2 will look like this time next week.

Lupo verde

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

march 6, 2014

C r i t i c a l V o i c es

ScHoolboy Q, Oxymoron, Interscope Records Oxymoron is not an album that goes down easily. From the hook of the first track, where Quincy Hanley, known as ScHoolboy Q, repeatedly screams “Gangsta, Gangsta, Gangsta,” to the end of the final song, simply titled “Fuck LA,” Q’s first release under a major record label immerses us in the abrasive climate of West Coast gang culture.

The album is rife with references to Q’s life as a “gang-banger.” His existence seems to be defined by the destitution that surrounded him.

Drugs, guns and prostitution all find their way into Oxymoron, acknowledging Q’s past and present.

But Oxymoron is also a nod to Q’s future, which comes in the feature of Q’s daughter. Joy Hanley, now three

years old, is depicted on the cover, chin held high, and has speaking lines in many of the songs.

Joy highlights the great irony of Oxymoron; all the hedonistic expositions of drugs, the graphic depictions of sex, the nauseating provocations of violence, Q does to support his daughter. Q’s purpose is ultimately objectively good, but his means are questionable, at best.

The internal struggle is certainly not lost on Q, who grapples with the implications of his lifestyle throughout the album. This is displayed most prominently on “Prescription/Oxymoron,” the two part track that juxtaposes Q’s past addiction to prescription drugs with his decision to begin selling the same pills.

The two sections are in stark opposition to each other, both musically and thematically. During the first half of the song, the music is gentle, almost sensual. Q addresses pills as a lover, equating the rush they give him to an embrace. Here, the pills prevent Q from functioning normally, as he flows in and out of consciousness from withdrawal.

The second half is the polar opposite. A single piano line is accented by a hard beat, peppered by quick, caustic snare hits. Q’s flow in is rough as he repeats “I just stopped selling

A conversation with Ben Marcus

Ben Marcus was a philosophy major at NYU grappling with Wittgenstein and Hegel, planning on continuing his studies at the graduate level. Somewhere in between, he found his calling in writing fiction. Marcus, 46, published his first book of short stories, the delightfully knotty The Age of Wire and String, at age 24, to wide critical acclaim.

He has gone on to publish four books of short stories and two novels, picking up a Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous writing awards along the way. His most recent book of short stories, Leaving the Sea, was published in January (“What have you done?” is my favorite story of the bunch).

Marcus answered student questions this past Tuesday at the Lannan seminar.

Ben Marcus on our mortality: There’s something … more honest about those feelings …

that we’re not going to be alive for very long, that we’re treated to oblivion. I don’t know about you, maybe we’ll survive forever.

I’m not going to be alive for very long—just the fact of that and the weight of that. The endless presence of that fact is unbearable. It’s just essentially unbearable, so we do all lot not to think about it. I like a lot of my entertainment not to remind me of the fact that I’m going to die soon.

On why reading about the inevitability of death is joyful: But somehow, with writing what I like the most is the opposite, is the kind that puts me in direct not confrontation, but proximity to something that is deeply, unassailably true. I think it’s a great power of writing to ... approach a kind of real honesty about our experience. I guess to me there’s something really joyful about writing that feels as though it’s not looking away, shy-

crack today.” The pills are glorified and actively facilitate Q’s lifestyle.

Oxymoron is the paradoxical portrait of a man who can’t break free from self-destruction. Q recognizes his personal failings, yet lacks the capacity to overcome them. Despite an unfortunate feature from 2Chainz and a couple of lackluster songs, the album is compelling and deserves our consideration, no matter how hard of a pill it is to swallow.

Voice’s Choices: “Prescription/ Oxymoron,” “Hell of a Life” —Daniel Varghese

Real Estate, Atlas, Domino Recording Company Real Estate has finally waded out of the shallowness of beerdrenched suburbia. While their preing away. It’s not glossing over, being evasive about the basic fact of our existence. But on the other hand you can’t just write ‘Oh, holy shit, we’re going to die!’

On the development of his writing style: I used to… put one word after another and notice the effect.

Well, that makes me feel nothing, so I’m going to throw it away.

But, oh, that actually is starting

Under the Covers

by Emilia Brahm A bi-weekly literary column to stir something up ... That often involved a pretty laborious, congested complicated kind of language. And everyone just said this is unreadable I have no idea what you’re talking about. That was a real surprise to me, I thought this was like a thriller.

On his word-surgery in The Age of Wire and String: I felt as though I had been writing with a kind of magni-

vious efforts laid the foundations for the dissonant genre of suburban surf rock with flawless instrumentals and gorgeous vocals, the substance in the songwriting has been significantly lacking. But in Atlas, Real Estate injects legitimate meaning into their lyrics—melancholy and introspective, they display a side of the New Jersey group that we have all been missing.

Opener “Had to Hear” sets an upbeat, mellow tone from the initial simple, driving guitar melody omnipresent in the band’s genre. The ethereal instrumental passages underscore the nostalgia flowing through the LP, creating an instantly familiar and welcoming tonal atmosphere.

Though the album’s welcoming nature may seem contradictory given its disheartening themes, Matt Mondanile’s bright guitar passages and frontman Martin Courtney’s voice of silk effectively draw listeners in prior to smoothly and painlessly injecting thoughts of darkness into their minds as though they had always been there, lurking just beyond the reaches of conscious thought.

Courtney’s somber vocals on “How Might I Live” epitomize this anguish as he croons, “How might I live to betray you / How might I live to say you’re not the one I love,” just fying glass and tweezers and I was doing microscopic surgery on the air and I was stitching the most gorgeous little weirdo thing and then I was spray shining them. And then I was like, injecting life and batting them up into the air and I was making these gorgeous little spectacles.

On his transformation of writing styles: I wanted to sort of sever all ties to that for awhile and see who I was and what I cared about and what kind of writing I would do.

For instance, before I wrote The Flame Alphabet I wouldn’t have written a sentence like “He got in his car and went to work…”

On the loss of wonder: I’m forty-six, and all my sense of surprise and wonder has pretty much been killed off.

I remember once, just looking at a tree and being sort of decimated by fact of it. … Every object in the world is completely uncanny and almost unbearable. I find

as the leisurely clean guitar chords and melodies establish a seemingly benign tone.

Mid-album instrumental interlude “April’s Song” further underscores Real Estate’s mastery of non-vocal elements. Though the track features recurring passages that under normal circumstances would grow tiresome, Mondanile introduces a string bend or two at the exact moment where such repetition would otherwise direct the listener to skip the track.

The album doesn’t contain any musical qualities that are extraneous or unsupported. Each song is beyond airtight as the chords, vocals, guitar runs, and percussive elements seamlessly complement each other to elevate Atlas as a whole to higher horizons. As the lyrics and instrumentation blend into a continuous soporific element that envelops the listener in a pensive aural paradise, only one flaw stands out: the LP hardly lasts 37 minutes. Fortunately, mashing the repeat button serves only to further complete Real Estate’s Atlas.

Voice’s Choices: “Talking Backwards,” “How Might I Live” —Kirill Makarenko that perspective pretty elusive, hard to get to.

On mythology as a cure: Mythologizing with language, in other words, disfiguring things and taking animals apart and exchanging one limb from another and making a kind of beautiful disorder out of the thing we live in allows us to feel afresh that crazy beauty and strangeness of the world.

[I have] a real love and appreciation... for mythology. I think language is enormously powerful in that respect.

On the “rookie mode” of world literature: The kinds of things you can do with [language], I don’t think we’ve really scratched the surface. I think literature is still sort of in a rookie mode in it’s career with the kinds of things it can do to us. I think it still hasn’t really been tapped.

Chat Emilia up at ebrahm@ georgetownvoice.com

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page thirteen

the georgetown voice 13

— Dylan Cutler

voices

14 the georgetown voice

march 6, 2014

No solution, no end, and no hope in sight for American war on drugs

by Noah Buyon We Americans love our wars.

There are literal ones (The War on Terror), metaphorical ones (The War on Poverty), and downright silly ones (The War on Christmas). While we haven’t won any of these wars per se, I think the argument can be made that we’re fighting, and fighting hard. There is one exception, though. We’ve long since lost this war. As Ellis Carver of The Wire will tell you, “You can’t even call this shit a war: wars end.”

Whatever you call it, the cost of defeat is unmistakable: a trillion dollars wasted, and 500,000 people imprisoned, on American soil no less. What “war,” you ask? The War on Drugs, or as The Wire’s Omar Little might term it, “the game.”

Allow me to draw upon The Wire one last time. Its creator, David Simon, said of the War on Drugs: “Say it this way, because it’s more honest … ‘Let’s just get rid of the bottom 15 percent of the country. Let’s lock ‘em up.

In fact, let’s see if we can make money off of locking them up.’ …

At that point, why don’t you just say, ‘Kill the poor. If we kill the poor, we’re going to be a lot better off?’ Because that’s what the Drug War has become.”

Hyperbole, perhaps, but the essential point remains—that the American War on Drugs has contracted crippling mission creep.

The fight is no longer about curbing the nation’s addictions.

It has devolved into a cash cow for bloated law enforcement agencies and private contractors.

The War on Drugs has become a $51 billion annual feeding frenzy, wherein the American justice system arrests and incarcerates a steadily increasing number of citizens in order to show progress on a stat-plot, rather than on a city street.

Since Richard Nixon launched the Drug War in the 1970s, the American prison population has grown by 705 percent. In the same time, drug use has only increased. That is what failure looks like. So says the Global Commis-

sion on Drug Policy, a 22-person body that includes Kofi Annan and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker—the group’s groundbreaking 2011 report notes, “Vast expenditures on criminalization and repressive measures directed at producers, traffickers, and consumers of illegal drugs have clearly failed to effectively curtail supply or consumption.”

But why? Like my Facebook relationship status, it’s complicated. Fundamentally, though, the American approach to illicit drugs closely resembles that of a medieval doctor: bleeding the nation of perceived corruption— even amputating the undesirable parts. The “producers, traffickers, and consumers” listed in the GCDP report are treated by the American justice system as a cancerous monolith that needs to be cut out, instead of as diverse groupings of sick and shattered people—most of whom are not beyond the point of salvation.

Drugs and the Drug War are easy to critique, but nigh impos-

sible to solve. I don’t have the solution to what ails the addicted nation. What I’d like to address, instead, is a dangerous misconception about who it is that we’re fighting in our crusade against narcotics. Who’s to blame?

A segment of the documentary The House I Live In details the experiences of Shanequa Benitez, an ex-drug dealer. She says, “Basically, [the Drug Trade] is just about survival. I feel like sometimes cops and shit [never ask] ‘Damn, was this your choice’?” Benitez lives in Yonkers, NY, in a housing project called Cromwell Towers.

I live 20 minutes away, give or take. I’ve driven past Cromwell Towers. I’ve gone out to eat maybe six blocks away. I’m not trying to say, in any way, that I share in Benitez’s life, but I’m nonetheless struck, shocked, even, by our proximity. She’s alleged to be an enemy—the enemy—in the War on Drugs, and she lives the next city over.

That’s not how I choose to see my neighbor. Benitez isn’t the enemy. She’s just as much a victim

of our national drug policy as the politicians who can’t afford to be perceived as being soft on crime, or the police officers who can’t afford to skip out on pay raises and promotions by not pursuing easy drug targets.

When it comes to the faces of the Drug War—Shanequa Benitez, the Barksdale drug ring and Baltimore PD of The Wire, or whoever it is that siphons so much weed into New South—it is essential to remember that, good or bad, all combatants are victims of some sort.

The Drug War isn’t being won by shadowy kingpins in the inner city. It’s being lost, in one way or another, by all of us. So instead of castigating our neighbors, let’s recognize that we’re all caught in the same vicious cycle when it comes to this endless war.

Noah Buyon is a freshman in the College. He prefers his favorite spicy sausage broiled to perfection and hopes to one day work at Citibank.

Middle class bears burden of unemployment and wage woes

by Roey Hadar At the end of 2013, Congress tentatively agreed to extend expiring unemployment benefits immediately upon its return in 2014. They voted on Feb. 6, and the bill failed a cloture vote by a margin of 59-41.

You read that right. Failed—with 59 votes out of 100. Even while the solidly Republican House of Representatives would likely not act if the bill were passed, the Senate vote was a symbolic failure, and the most

recent of many middle fingers that certain members of Congress have flipped in the direction of America’s middle class.

Because 41 Senators decided to vote against cloture, millions of Americans now no longer receive the benefits they need to pay off bills, put food on their tables, or even get to job interviews. Furthermore, President Obama proposed a hike of the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which, while it has been applied to federal contractors,

LEILA LEBRETON

Inaction by Republicans in Congress means a colder winter for those on minimum wage.

has still not been enacted in workplaces nationwide.

Congress needs to get off its tail and extend unemployment benefits.

The minimum wage must go up as well. Both these initiatives would provide significant boosts to the still-lagging economy, as lower- and middle-class citizens would have a few hundred more dollars every month to spend on necessities or the occasional pleasures. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the United States is missing out on 200,000 jobs that could be created in 2014 with an extension, and a report from Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee indicated that the country lost $400 million from its economy one week after benefits expired.

An increase in the minimum wage would also put more money in the pockets of American consumers. A CBO report on the proposed $10.10 minimum wage shows that real income would increase by $5 billion for families under the poverty line, boost their average family income by 3 percent, and lift 900,000 people out of poverty.

It is also about time the minimum wage is raised, since the last hike occurred over five years ago. Also, according to a 2012 Center for Economic and Policy Research study, the minimum wage would be over

$20 per hour if it were adjusted to keep pace with productivity from 1968 to the present day.

American workers are suffering, and we have to help them. Our government has not served the people.

Congress settled for one stimulus that, while slowing the economy’s freefall, did not provide the extensive job programs necessary to get people to work. After a few years of watered-down bills meant to provide at least some help to the struggling middle class, Congress was afflicted with severe polarization, sacrificing people’s livelihoods for the sake of petty political fights.

Now our economy has been strangled with sequestration and tax hikes in an attempt to solve a nonexistent debt crisis. The deficit may have gone down, but the burden of the cost has fallen on the middle class because Congress ignored the economic truth that a government must spend to escape a recession even if it means raising the deficit, and then pay off the deficit when the economy is at full strength.

Now we are stuck in a nearly permanent state of deficit-hawk austerity and sluggish economic growth.

President Obama and Congress must act. They need to pass an unemployment benefit extension as soon as possible and then raise the minimum wage. Fortunately, the president has

proposed a 2015 budget that would increase spending on domestic programs like education, job training, and energy efficiency that can all help boost the economy and keep it strong in the years to come.

Not many of us at Georgetown are directly relying on unemployment benefits, but we all know someone who is on them, whose parents are on them, or who relies on a minimum wage job. Most students here work for minimum wage or close to it. While the District is ahead of the curve on this issue with its upcoming minimum wage raise to $11.50 by 2016, those who work in Maryland, Northern Virginia, or at home over the summer will need this raise to bring in more money to be able to spend at school or to pay off student loan interest a bit early.

Of course, all of this is for naught if the Republicans play their typical spoiler role and continue to block any sort of progress. We can only hope that they come to their senses, but then again, that probably won’t happen any time soon.

Roey Hadar is a freshman in the SFS. He has resorted to game-time “performances” in order pay for his Hilltop education because minimum wage won’t cut it these days.

voices

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 15

Deaf community finds home at Georgetown with GU Signs

by Mary Bridget Smith The Georgetown campus enjoys a privileged location in our nation’s capital, perched atop the Potomac, within walking distance of the National Mall and countless museums.

All of this you can find in the stacks and stacks of mail Georgetown undoubtedly sent to your home in an attempt to persuade you to finally send in your enrollment deposit.

(And, hey, apparently it worked.)

What those shiny pamphlets failed to mention, though, is that Washington, D.C., also serves as the de facto capital of America’s Deaf community, and is home to the world’s only

university for the deaf and hard-ofhearing, Gallaudet University.

For attending university in the largest Deaf hub in America, Georgetown students have precious little access to the Deaf community’s language, American Sign Language.

ASL is a natural language, completely separate from English, with its own grammar and syntax resembling Mandarin Chinese more than English. Georgetown does not offer a single class in the language of our peers at Gallaudet, forcing interested students to trek to GW or Gallaudet for classes through the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

GU Signs—challenging what hands can do since 2013.

LEILA LEBRETON

Ziptied to the cause

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of marching from Red Square to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with more than 1000 students and young people from across the country. We marched to make it clear to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry that the infamous Keystone XL pipeline project won’t be approved without a fight. Three of the bravest Hoya women I know, Caroline James, Chloe Lazarus, and Michelle Stearn, rose to the occasion, joining the nearly 400 protesters arrested for zip-tying themselves to the White House fence.

To the Georgetown students awoken by the energetic “Hey, Obama, we don’t want your pipeline drama!” chants at 10 a.m., I’m

sorry your sleep was cut short. But I’m not sorry that this movement made itself heard at the site where, in a speech last July, President Obama promised to seriously consider the impact on carbon emissions the pipeline will have.

The pipeline, which would transport 830,000 tons of the dirtiest oil on Earth—tar sands oil—daily, would indeed have a significant negative effect on the climate. But almost six years since TransCanada, the company responsible for the project, filed its first presidential permit application and after nearly three years of public opposition, Obama has yet to make a decision.

An incredible amount of effort has been put into stopping this pipe-

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Attempting to fill that gap is GU Signs, an entirely student-run club offering free ASL lessons every other Thursday night, and of which I am a board member. The club also facilitates cultural field trips to places like Gallaudet’s campus and the ASL Poetry Slam at Busboys and Poets. All of this is aimed at filling in where Georgetown has left off in terms of getting Georgetown students acquainted with and involved in D.C.’s vibrant but little-publicized Deaf community, a task that Georgetown’s course offerings have insufficiently accomplished.

I originally became involved in the Deaf community sometime around middle school. I received my first hearing aid in the third grade, but for many years thought very little about my status as hard-of-hearing beyond being frustrated. I constantly misheard people and had to ask “What?” way more often than the other kids. The bulky speaker that sat on my desk in elementary school, amplifying my teacher’s voice and attracting my classmates’ attention did little to endear to me the idea of openly identifying as hard-of-hearing. I even took up the trombone in the fourth grade (why I was ever allowed near a brass instrument is

anyone’s guess), and today I’m an appropriately loud, raucous, and out-of-tune member of the Georgetown Pep Band. Honestly, to people who don’t happen to glance at the funny bit of plastic in my left ear, I don’t seem all that Deaf. I certainly didn’t think of myself as such, even years after I got my first aid.

That changed for me when I found a YouTube video of a student interpreting “Party in the USA” (yes, Miley Cyrus, no shame) into ASL. I became completely infatuated with slowly copying each sign until I could sign the song myself from memory. The idea of there being a language that didn’t force me to strain my eyes staring at people’s mouths to figure out what they were saying was a revelation I welcomed.

Slowly but surely, I learned more and more songs, and by high school, I was able to hold conversations in the language.

That’s not to say being hard-ofhearing or deaf (or knowing someone who is) is the only or even best reason to learn to sign. During the peak of GUSA campaign season, I can tell you from experience that opening the door to the seventh dorm-stormer in the last hour and answering them only in sign language is the surest way to escape hearing yet another

line over the past few years by tens of thousands of activists. Why has so much energy been devoted towards stopping KXL, though, when there are so many other environmental crises worthy of our concern?

Tar sands oil is particularly terrible for the climate. The fuel produces 17 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than regular oil. It is not at all clear that Canada’s tar sands

international lines, the pipeline involves the United States government as a key outside player. As American citizens, we are seizing this invaluable chance to leverage our country’s clout to make a lasting statement against this kind of dirty oil. Obama’s decision has the potential to set new norms for action on climate change.

It’s important to recognize, too, that opposition to the pipeline is not just about climate change.

It’s a social justice issue. Fossil fuel extraction and refinement disproportionately affects low-income and minority communities across North America and tar sands are no exception. In northern Alberta, where most of this activity is based, disadvantaged First Nations communities are seeing their forests razed, rivers poisoned, and wildlife going extinct. Each barrel of oil from tar sands surface mining requires two to four barrels of freshwater and produces a startling one and a half barrels of toxic waste—even though this is held in massive “tailings ponds,” it is estimated that approximately four billion liters of

Carrying On

by Patricia Cipollitti A rotating column by senior Voice staffers

oil would be extracted regardless of whether or not this pipeline is built.

This possibility depends upon oil prices staying high, for which there is no guarantee, and upon whether other means for transporting the oil are cheap enough to keep tar sands profitable. Prohibitive transportation costs also stifle Canada’s ability to sell this oil to other countries.

More importantly, though, we’re talking about the bigger picture. Because KXL would cross

election platform. Situations may even arise on the weekend when, for one reason or another, you’ve found yourself in the midst of a large crowd of people with music blaring in the background. As everyone else shouts to be heard, wouldn’t it be nice to have a conversation where you could listen with your eyes? At the very least, you’d be less likely to lose your voice. The potential for sneaky cross-room conversation is also endless, as I can attest.

Georgetown students have endless reasons to learn to sign, yet so few of them do. This low number of students is partly the fault of the lack of convenient course offerings for students, but as we push for change, GU Signs stands ready to help you in your valiant quest to scare off doorknockers, or to ease the frustration of those who are tired of (and frankly not very good at) lip-reading, like yours truly. It’s time for Georgetown and its students to truly embrace their place in the middle of Deaf America, especially if it means one less knock on your door.

Mary Bridget Smith is a freshman in the College. I think we could all take a page out of her book next year when GUSA elections return.

this waste leaks into local rivers. Not only does this threaten the cultural and spiritual identities of these communities, but it puts already underprivileged groups at higher risk of negative health effects.

Any benefits to our economy that this pipeline would bring (and at 50 permanent jobs, these gains are slim at best) are surely outweighed by the egregious environmental and social effects of tar sands extraction.

They’re also outweighed by the 518 barrels of oil per year that, according to the State Department, would inevitably spill along the length of the pipeline.

Sunday’s arrests represented an escalation for this movement, but they were far from unnecessary. The arrests were our way of transmitting the increasingly desperate plea of communities directly threatened by this project and others like it. As allies living far from the front lines of this struggle, we can at least speak truth to power here in Washington, D.C. As long as threats to human and planetary well-being continue to exist, we’ll keep on speaking— President Obama can count on that.

Genetic Information is One Way to Make Sense of the Soul It was Einstein who said, not to ever memorize something you can simply reference, even he would be surprised by how literally we followed his direction.

For all hours of the day the television streams information; more on one broadcast than in the daily paper; more on that newspaper than in medieval man’s lifetime.

Yet the troughs in the sofa seem so empty when you rise to use the restroom.

–Maciej Kietlinski

Ivy Jane During church she fills a page with firsts.

I watch nervously, but they are innocent: friend-making, driving, ear-piercing, kissing, dog-owning; telling stories.

She digs through VHS tapes, pauses one smiling, captivated: guys, watch.

The cat’s got his mouth round her baby head, she is still before rescue, builds to screaming.

In San Francisco she orders a burger over-easy.

After practicing how to pronounce prix fixe, she asks the waiter for the grand prix menu.

Ivy laughs hardest when Maggie tells this later.

We love our story girl so hard our family’s language is Ivy-tales.

We retell so much that what we don’t feels dim with untruth: Maggie and I sit on basement carpet, little Ivy elephant-marches down as always, carrying her first own news like a folded note, to be passed or burned.

My birth dad died yesterday.

She says the words of it and we grab her hands, wait for her face to match the words, but she’s blank.

We learn then that she controls her stories; this one will not be canonized.

–Grace Brown

Death at Twelve The child stayed hunched over the coffin panting like a man over a woman after making love.

Soft blackberries under sharp leaves. Being carried by the ankles upside down as the grandfather slapped the child’s stomach crying out ‘fish for sale’ in another language. Their laughter broke the furniture and windows. It fell onto people walking outside and split their skulls open. A story about a contest between the sun and the wind. His words were soft clay. Old banana peel skin. The child was twelve.

The grandfather was a sparrow.

The child is sucking the nipple of vanity with faltering gasps, clinging to the coffin. He knows the mourners watch him like monsters. What they do not know is that in nightmares a bug crawls into the child’s ear and starts a family inside the brain. Children and grandchildren bugs. The dream ravages the child’s body. Nauseous terror. He can assume it. Marriages will not work. Fighting, drinking, cut knuckles and wet palms will not work.

The child stayed before noon struck and while it struck and after the reverberations stopped. The child learns Death’s love was stronger than his own. In this the child becomes a boy.

Sleep and age make the same smell in your mouth. The child won’t brush his teeth anymore. He binge sleeps. Now he regards animals with reverence. He can’t start conversations. He can’t end conversations. Displacement bites the inside of his cheeks. The solidity of the old man’s gait. The stubborn wood of the coffin the child imprecates and implores.

–Michael Mungiello

Poems from Students in the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice

A Touch of Darkness Our arms, like blind snakes, slithered across the moonlit marble, struggling to find each other through the darkness of a Karachi whose veins were slit of any power, no filament lit to reveal our deviant embraces – your chest a miniature furnace, coffee-warm breath mingled like steam to heat the ice-white floor biting our bodies as the winter whooshed, ghost-like beyond the shivering curtains that conspire to hide us from the dawn Adhan, narrowing its twilight eyes, softly warning Prayer is better than sleep.

There is a beauty in piercing the darkness of judgment by making love, finding freedom in luminous iron chests – fragrant dahlias.

Love is no one’s commodity. They try to keep its utterances pure, stuff dark bleach-soaked cotton down our gullets – and even though I have coughed it up in the land of the free, my arms bypass Lady Liberty’s torch that glows condescending, savior-like off the eastern coast, inviting – and become longing Leviathans, wade through the Atlantic and Arabian seas to get back to you.

I’d rather make love by the mighty minarets, the call to prayer in our ears, the mullahs damning us to the eternal incandescence of our sweet-smelling hells.

-Bassam F. Sidiki