VOICE The Georgetown
January 26, 2018
Energy Competition Sparks Change but Leaves Questions page 7
How Mr. Burns Made the Stage page 12
2
January 26, 2018
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE Volume 50 • Issue 10
staff editor-in-chief Alex Boyd Managing editor JAKE MAHER news
executive editor lilah burke Features editor ALEX LEWONTIN assistant features editor EMILY JASTER news editor MARGaRET gach assistant news editors noah telerski, katya schwenk
culture
executive editor mike bergin Leisure editor Amy GUAY assistant leisure editors brynn furey, Mary Mei, Xavier Ruffin Sports editor jorge deneve Assistant sports editor Santul Nerkar, Aaron Wolf
“The Metro Burns” by EGAN BARNITT
opinion
contents Editorials
3
Putting the “Feminist” in Finance Rachel Zeide
4
In Search of Strength Emilio Joubert
5
Those Three Words Julia Pinney
6
It’s Not Easy Being Green: Energy Competition Sparks Change but Leaves Questions Noah Telerski
7-9
Expect Delays: Washington Metro Leaves Riders Waiting for Change Santul Nerkar
10
Crossroads: Georgetown’s Newest LGBTQ Community Rebecca Zaritsky
11
How Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play Made the Stage Suna Cha
12-13
Hostiles Contemplates the Violent Moral Quandries of the American Frontier Eman Rahman
14
Hung Liu Honors the Women of China Nancy Garrett
15
The opinions expressed in The Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of The Georgetown Voice. The university subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. All materials copyright The Georgeton Voice, unless otherwise indicated.
editor@georgetownvoice.com Leavey 424 Box 571066 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057
Executive editor CHRIS DUNN voices editor SIENNA BRANCATO Assistant Voices editors Lizz Pankova, Julia Pinney Editorial Board jon block, Nick Gavio, Alli Kaufman, Caitlin Mannering, GRAHAM PIRO, Isaiah seibert, PHillip Steuber, Jack Townsend
halftime
Leisure editor Claire goldberg assistant leisure editors Dajour Evans, Rachel Lock, Eman Rahman Sports editor Beth Cunniff Assistant sports editor Teddy Carey, Jake Gilstrap, Tristan Lee
design
Executive editor Jack Townsend Spread editor Jake Glass Photo Editor Rachel Zeide cover Editor aicha nzie assistant design editors Delaney Corcoran, Margaux Fontaine, Egan Barnitt, Lindsay Reilly Staff designers Matt Buckwald, Rachel Corbally, Alexandra Falkner, Samantha Lee, Sarah Martin, Janis Park, Max Thomas
copy
copy chief audrey bischoff assistant Copy editors Cade Shore, Hannah Song editors Mya Allen, Leanne Almeida, Mica Bernhard, Brendan Clark, Kate Clark, Kate Fin Nancy Garrett, Caroline Geithner, Isabel Paret, Madison Scully, Maya Tenzer, Neha Wasil
online
website editor Anne Freeman Podcast editor Gustav Honl-Stuenkel assistant podcast editor Parker houston social media editor isaiah seibert MULTIMEDIA editor DANIELLE HEWITT
business
general manager naiara parker assistant manager of alumni outreach anna gloor assistant manager of accounts & sales karis hawkins
support
contributing editors Cassidy Jensen, Kaei Li, Graham Piro, Rebecca Zaritsky associate editors Jonny Amon, Emma Francois, Nicholas Gavio, Allison Kaufman, Isabel Lord, Caitlin Mannering, Devon O’Dwyer
Staff writers
Umar asif, MOnica Cho, Rachel Cohen, Annie Coyne, Damian Garcia, jayan hanson, tristan lee, Brynne Long, Shadia Milon, Brice russo, Will Shanahan, cam smith
3
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
As GUSA elections approach, candidates for both the executive and senate will engage in advertising and discussions concerning a number of campus issues. This editorial board has written extensively about what we believe are the most prominent issues facing campus. In the spirit of promoting campus dialogue, we call on GUSA candidates to make the following issues integral parts of their platforms. None of what we list here are specific policy suggestions. Rather, these are the issues we find most important for Georgetown students today, and we urge GUSA candidates to place them at the forefront of their campaigns and debates. A recent email from Provost Robert Groves announced that tuition will increase 3.5 percent in the 2018-19 academic year. While this is short of the university’s initially announced 4 percent, this editorial board is concerned with these regular tuition hikes. We’ve written in the past about how Georgetown’s prohibitively high tuition can hurt its ability to attract low-income students. 2018 will be the seventh straight year of tuition increases. This trend is not sustainable, at Georgetown or at other higher education institutions across the country. GUSA is limited in how much of an impact it can have in this area. But we would like to see candidates put forth realistic, achievable goals toward making a Georgetown education more affordable. Making the Hilltop a more welcoming place to low-income students should be a primary focus of any GUSA candidacy, and promoting achievable affordability goals should be one of the organization’s biggest priorities. GUSA must also take into account the political realities that affect our campus, not the least of which are those af-
fecting undocumented students and those who fall under programs like Temporary Protected Status. Under the administration of Donald Trump, a number of policies have been put into place that threaten the livelihoods of undocumented immigrants across the country. We have written extensively against this trend and have emphasized the importance that Georgetown plays in protecting undocumented members of its community. The next GUSA administration should take this issue seriously, and should advocate for undocumented members of our community wherever and whenever possible. In June 2017, Georgetown announced that it would join a group of universities reaffirming their commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. In a similar vein, we support the university’s initiatives to become a more sustainable campus through recycling and conservation movements, and we call on GUSA candidates to include sustainability as part of their platforms. The FinApp budget process is unfair and insufficient for several groups on campus, specifically Media Board, which represents this publication. FinApp cut Media Board’s budget significantly last year, indicating a sense of hostility towards student media. FinApp is independent from the GUSA executive, but a statement of support from the executive goes a long way toward dissuading any doubts concerning the future of student media on campus. Although it is symbolic, such a statement of support would be indicative of a shift in attitude from prominent student leaders. Over the past few years, joke candidates have been some of the more memorable aspects of the electoral process.
These tickets have ranged from the ridiculous, like the “Hot Chick/Chicken Madness” ticket, to the Heckler’s Luther/ Rohan ticket that won in 2015. Support for these joke tickets arises from general student apathy towards GUSA as a whole. Oftentimes, unrealistic goals and the organization’s insular and occasionally self-important nature spur this satire on the part of students looking to make a joke out of the organization. As the campus saw with the Luther/Rohan ticket, joke candidacies can have significant impacts. They can also be harmful to issues that deserve the full attention of students. If a joke candidate decides to run, a level of self-awareness is necessary so that students can enjoy the humor while not ignoring tangible issues that GUSA is trying to address. More engagement is a good thing, and joke tickets can be conducive to this goal. However, this humor should not come at the expense of important issues with real-world implications. It’s easy to assume that every GUSA election will devolve into meaningless posturing that will continue to foster insularity on the part of the organization. But given GUSA’s potential to affect meaningful change, we believe that these elections can mean something. Further apathy on the part of the student body is likely and unfortunate, but candidates still have the responsibility to promote realistic and meaningful priorities in their campaigns. The issues we have laid out here are by no means comprehensive, nor do we believe that we have all the answers. The only solutions come from continued conversation and dialogue to ensure that Georgetown can be an affordable, sustainable, and welcoming place for all.
Don’t Forget Austin Tice Austin Tice (SFS ’02) is in his sixth year of imprisonment. A freelance journalist, Tice was one of the first on the ground reporting on the Syrian civil war in 2011, demonstrating incredible bravery by providing insight into one of the most dangerous conflicts in the world. In 2012, Tice was kidnapped. He is believed to be alive, imprisoned by an unknown captor. This editorial board finds Tice’s story as heroic as it is devastating, and it urges Georgetown students and the general public to remember Tice. Although there are active campaigns working towards his release, which are supported by Reporters Without Borders and the Georgetown University journalism program,
we encourage students who care about the freedom of information to continue to take up the torch. We do not wish to see the momentum drain from the movement as Tice’s imprisonment stretches beyond the half-decade mark. In addition, although we have been quick to criticize President Donald Trump in the past, we acknowledge his commitment to Tice’s freedom. The Trump administration has been very proactive in their efforts to bring Tice home by setting up a back channel with the Syrian government, although Syria’s government reportedly continues to deny knowing anything about Tice. We commend the Trump administration’s attempts, as it is only through sustained
and continued efforts like these that progress will be made. Tice’s story is an extreme example of the dangers faced by journalists—especially foreign correspondents —around the world. We understand that as many of us in this editorial board are aspiring journalists, our concerns may be insular. But reporters like Tice are telling stories that must be told about human rights abuses and violence in war-torn countries, and it is vital that we keep their safety and security in our minds as much as possible. The lack of progress cannot allow this tragic situation to slip from our minds. In a time when journalism is under attack, it is all the more important that we defend those who risk their health and safety to inform the world.
EDITOIRALS
GUSA Candidates Cannot Ignore Vital Campus Issues
JANUARY 26, 2018
4
Putting the “Feminist” in Finance
VOICES
CARRYING ON: VOICE STAFFERS SPEAK
Egan Barnitt
Picking team members for group projects in my business classes is never easy. First, I scan the room for anyone I know. Upon realizing my classmates are mainly young men I have briefly passed on campus, I search for other women. My search quickly ends when I realize how few women are in my class. Being surrounded by like-minded women studying business is a comfort because, when we work together, I am confident that my ideas will be received with open minds. But when I end up in a group with mostly men, I’m unsure whether I should try to be “one of the guys” or bring attention to the most feminine parts of my identity. Whether I should wear a backwards baseball cap and speak louder than my natural tone or smile coyly and giggle at every joke someone in my group makes. These interactions make me aware that I have no desire to be “one of the guys.” I like to wear high heels and shiny jewelry, binge-watch Gossip Girl, and eat a pint of ice cream after a bad breakup, qualities that the world perceives as feminine. But often, being “one of the guys” means I’m more likely to gain respect. When I force myself to take up more space, raising my voice and trying to dominate the room with my presence, I notice that those around me pay more attention. I see a greater cognizance and care for what I’m saying, simply because I’m speaking louder. My ideas are given greater consideration because they come from someone unafraid to boldly interject. Yet in that moment, I trade in authenticity for attention, because the person who dominates the conversation isn’t me. She’s a character I create every time I have an idea I believe is worth listening to, because only from her lips have they been given their due. The real me always wore her hair long, but I decided to cut it before coming to college because the new style would make me look more “professional.” I decided longer hair was meant for a different me, a daintier, more delicate girl, one
Listen to the accompanying podcast, Fresh Voices, on georgetownvoice.com
who could never make a name for herself in the business world. People who barely know me have asked if I’m a marketing major because they saw me as social and bubbly, and in their minds, jobs at banks were better left for the serious and intense. My mom and grandmother constantly ask whether I’m sure about my major because my job prospects will include long hours and not nearly enough time to start a family. One would hope that in this new era of feminism, full of marches and pink hats, I wouldn’t constantly have to prove that I can be a successful finance major. I wouldn’t have to convince people that being a business school student hasn’t placed me in danger of turning into an “MSBro.” The prevalent “MSBro” stereotype implies a male-centric culture with no natural place for women. It has conflated ambition with being cutthroat and has made status dependent on how loudly, rather than how intelligently, one can speak. Although this stereotype permeates the minds of Georgetown students, being a student in the MSB doesn’t automatically chain you to a destiny in corporate finance. This stereotype often distorts our image of business students and robs them of their academic and professional individuality. My friends call the Hariri building my “snake den” because they believe it’s a place where everyone willingly undercuts friends and classmates to beat the curve. They often joke about how I’m going to turn into an “MSBro” who only values money and internalizes the “work hard, play hard” mentality. My typical response is a canned laugh followed by a quippy remark about how I’m practically already one, even though I know that isn’t true. My lofty aspirations have never manifested themselves in anything other than hard work, and I value respect more than I have ever valued money. In my head, I wonder why friends who have known me for years would ever believe that merely being surrounded by this culture would transform me into someone completely
different. Despite all this, I laugh. It’s just easier. Easier to be a part of the joke than the punch line. But easier isn’t stronger or smarter. Challenging assumptions the world makes about women lets me put my feminism into action. I want people to give female leaders and businesswomen the credit they deserve and for women to pursue difficult careers without people believing they are in over their heads. So many young people walk through the world proudly putting stickers that say feminism on their laptops without acknowledging how important it remains to put these gestures into action. As young people, wanting to create a more accepting world for everyone, it is on us to be acutely aware that the professional arena remains an uneven playing field. The Women’s March and the #MeToo movement aren’t enough to solve these issues. If the people who march and chant for female empowerment do not act upon their fervent beliefs by treating professional women with the respect they deserve, they might as well stay home. The real value lies in putting their values into action every day. I want to work and lead on Wall Street, and I have become that much more aware of the obstacles that lie ahead since coming to Georgetown. The road to professional success requires strength and grace when facing challenges and demands the self-awareness to recognize when I may be forced to question my values. Every time I walk into the MSB, I challenge myself to engage in debate when I believe my ideas have merit. At the same time, I make sure I never lose sight of my authenticity.
Rachel Zeide is a sophomore in the MSB studying finance and international business. She is the photo editor for the Voice, and she enjoys watching hockey and petting every dog she sees.
5
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
VOICES
In Search of Strength
Egan Barnitt
When my mother was on her deathbed, I frequently heard people comment on her strength. She had a catchphrase, “fight like a girl,” and she was the living embodiment of this saying. She beat cancer twice and fell after it came back a third time — stage four breast cancer can knock out even the greatest of fighters. I couldn’t help asking myself exactly what made her so strong. I was at 220. I wasn’t fair to myself, just as life wasn’t entirely fair to me. I was consumed by the lack of justice I felt in my life. In an attempt to stabilize my emotions, I started working out. I was 5-foot-4 and 220 pounds by the end of my freshman year of high school. Unsatisfied, I began going to the gym with my grandmother. She showed me the treadmill — I began running. I remember the first day I stepped onto that treadmill at our local Choice Fitness. My grandma showed me how it worked, and proceeded to leave me in the dust. I couldn’t run a mile. I could barely run at all. I walked as quickly as I could instead. I’m not sure of my exact speed—it could have been three or four mph—but it didn’t matter. What did matter was the fact that my feet began moving below me. I hadn’t found my strength yet, but I’d found my stride. I moved on to 210, 200, 190, and 180. I didn’t begin running for the compliments. I ran to focus my anger. When I was by myself, I would replay all of the hardest moments of my upbringing: learning my mother had cancer, taking constant abuse from my father, not having money for food. When I stepped onto the treadmill, these thoughts still wouldn’t leave my head, but something rather strange happened to them instead. They burned a fire inside of me that motivated me to keep pushing.
I’d forget how far I was running. I’d keep going to the point of complete exhaustion, and when I thought I had nothing left, I’d turn up the incline all the way and walk uphill as quickly as possible. I became focused, unstoppable. I slammed through 170, hit 160, and stopped at 150. I’d reached the lightest I’d ever been, and among the compliments, I began to hear faint hints of worry from my grandmother, the very person who got me into the gym. I was getting quite light for my height, and I had little to no muscle tone. I was no longer familiar with the face I saw in the mirror. Had I grown too deeply in love with the fact that I was losing weight? I ran a Spartan Race to test my endurance and found myself more than capable of handling the distance part of the run , but I hit a brick wall at the strength tests, and embarrassingly, had to skip an obstacle because I was unable to lift a 50pound stone for the required number of reps. I realized that I had lost track of what strength meant. In both a literal and metaphorical sense, I was running to avoid feeling the way I did before. Running gave me a sense of control over my life, and I feared that I had grown too attached to it. Instead of facing the abuse I’d dealt with growing up, and dealing with the pain of seeing my mother pass, I ran away. I found a way to avoid confronting these emotions. I realized my strength at 190. I started lifting. I began eating more. I learned to use a barbell. I realized that my mother didn’t run away from her constant fight against cancer, but rather tackled it head on. I wanted to emulate this. The gym is a community; I shared my pursuit of strength with the people I met there. I made friends instead of slamming my headphones over my ears and ignoring everyone as I ran. I
realized that I found a part of my strength in the other people training. It was also a family: Joel and Emmanuel, two men whom I only knew as The Greek Guys, and so many others. When we were in the gym together, we shared our victories. My mother’s strength was also of community. I realized that no matter what, there had always been someone around to listen to my mother, to hold her hand when neuropathy set in and she couldn’t feel anything. She was a beacon of hope, and she inspired the people around her. I’ve come to find joy in my time at the gym, and I continue to lift (and even run!) to this day. In my journey to discover exactly what strength is, I also came to understand the very thing that made my mother so strong. It wasn’t her ability to win physical fights (of which she won many) or the fact that she found a way to feed us when we had no money to our name (which also happened quite often). Her strength was found within the web of people she knew that loved her and cared about her story. I try to bring her love for community into every single space I enter at Georgetown.
Emilio Joubert is a junior in the College majoring in Italian. He is a low-income, first generation college student.
VOICES
6
JANUARY 26, 2018
Those Three Words
I remember the first time I said “I love you.” My best friend Scarlet and I were driving home from the beach. When going to the beach in Los Angeles, you have to time your departure correctly or else the drive home can easily turn into a two-anda-half hour, traffic-laden ordeal. Scarlet loves the beach, so she usually pushes me toward a later departure time. I don’t mind. It means the drive home is framed by the setting sun. And the ethereal golden hour of light, along with the pleasant feeling of salty hair and muscles tired from diving under breaking waves, always seems to be when the best moments happen. I had an idea of how I would fall in love. I think I had watched too many Disney Channel movies where the perfect guy just walks right into the girl’s life, or more accurately walks right into her, leading to the quintessential high school meetcute, books scattering across the floor. I soon learned that in real life, girls wear backpacks. I didn’t realize the greatest love of my high school years would be my best friend. My friendship with Scarlet has taught me much more about love than all the bumbling dates I’ve been on. I hesitate in trying to define love. But I feel that love, both romantic and platonic, is really quite simple. It is wanting to be in someone’s presence. It is keeping someone in your mind as you move through your day. It is gratitude for someone’s existence. Platonic love is arguably the gentler variety, less complicated by overwhelming emotions and confusing gestures. But that doesn’t mean it is any less meaningful. Telling Scarlet I loved her on that summer night felt incredibly significant. Of course, I had said those three words countless times to my mom and dad, my aunts and uncles. But this time was different because Scarlet wasn’t part of my family. Family, you love no matter what. Scarlet was the first person I chose to love. And in that moment, sitting in the passenger seat of her Prius, my legs curled up because of the pile of empty water bottles at my feet, I couldn’t not tell her. Our love for each other was a pretty established fact. We were inseparable. Having four classes together our junior year definitely helped. Chemistry was our greatest adventure. We got stuck in the last row on the first day of class, and there we remained. Both of us managed to have mental breakdowns in chemistry at least once a week. Mine were mostly due to the boy sitting in the front row who was unknowingly breaking my heart, hers because a lot of AP Chemistry must be simply accepted and memorized rather than understood. We loved sitting in the back, though. We could whisper about how bored we were, give each other funny looks in response to
DELANEY CORCORAN
our teacher’s corny jokes, and play tic-tac-toe on the desk with our pencil erasers. Sitting in the back also came in handy for the Wednesdays when we needed to dart back to the corner lab station so Scarlet could hide her flip-flops from safety-conscious eyes. Labs were always interesting. Her carefree, anything-goes nature balanced out my stressed, perfectionist attitude, and we somehow managed to always churn out a lab report, even if we had to make up a few data points in the process.
We talked recently about the words “I love you.” One of our favorite songs is “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol. Early in the song are the lyrics, “Those three words/Are said too much/ They’re not enough.” It only struck me recently how apt these lyrics are for our relationship. “I love you” is a meaningful phrase, but there are moments when it doesn’t need to be said. Like the night we spent, again in her Prius, parked by her house with our seats leaning all the way back looking at the stars, both a bit speechless by all the emotions of being 17 that we were experiencing by each other’s side. Sometimes the silence of the moment already says those three words. Since going to college, I’ve noticed that I tell Scarlet I love her a lot more than I used to. I’m not in her presence every day anymore. And in her absence, I only have words. Whether it’s in a text, at the end of a phone call, or during one of the goofy voicemails that I’ve started leaving her because she’s a chemical engineering major and often in lab when I call, these words have taken on more importance than before. I’ve learned almost everything I know about love from Scarlet. And she continues to teach me. I spent time with her when I was home for Christmas, but it felt different because Scarlet wasn’t feeling well. Scarlet and I have always complemented each other. She, full of seemingly boundless energy, for whom deadlines and rules were always just a suggestion, has a way of getting me out of my own head. And I, who enjoy structure and comfort, and have always been on the mellower side, reminded Scarlet when she really did have to do the English reading. But this break, suddenly, the roles we have inhabited for the duration of our friendship were switched. I was the one with lots of energy, looking to go on adventures. And she was the one being the more careful voice of reason between us. It was jarring for me at first to see Scarlet so unlike her usual self. I had to adapt. We spent a lot more time sitting than I think either one of us was used to when we’re together. There was no going on a run and then Scarlet cajoling me to do an ab workout with her. Going to the beach (I know, only in LA) was too exhausting a prospect. But that’s okay. These past few weeks, Scarlet taught me that love is meeting someone where they are. And I’ll meet Scarlet anywhere.
Julia Pinney is a sophomore in the College. She is an assistant Halftime leisure editor for the Voice.
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
7
VOICES
It’s Not Easy Being Green Energy Competition Sparks Change but Leaves Questions By Noah Telerski
When you think of Fargo, North Dakota, energy efficiency is not the first thing that comes to mind. Most likely it is the cold or the 1996 Coen brothers film of the same name. But over the last three years, as a part of a wider, national competition, they have made efforts to go green. Their work paid off, and on Dec. 18, 2017, they were crowned the winner of the Georgetown University Energy Prize. Though the town found itself empowered by the competition, they also discovered that the prize might not be everything they had expected. First announced in April 2014, the prize aimed to provide the spark that communities across the country needed to attain their sustainability goals. For Fargo, a city in an oil-rich red state, it was exactly that. “With no hesitation I can say that this was a catalyst for our city. In a place and a region where talking about these things is not easy, it was the best thing to happen for being green in Fargo,” said Malini Srivastava, the project lead for efargo, the group which spearheaded the city’s efforts during the competition. Srivastava said the competition provided an opportunity for the city to strive for the sustainability goals laid out in its community-sourced, 20-year plan. “The community wants this. They want renewable energy sources, they want the safety that brighter, more efficient street lighting provides, they want to reduce carbon emissions,” Srivastava said. “Efargo wants to make this vision happen. The Energy Prize gave us goals to formulate solutions to achieve this vision.” Srivastava, who is a faculty member at North Dakota State University, developed a program with her graduate students centered on games that tried to make learning about energy efficiency fun. Srivastava described games developed for the city’s schools, where students would learn about an energy-saving
idea each week and then brainstorm ways to make their school more efficient. Srivastava’s team measured the weekly energy usage of each building, and the schools competed to see which could reduce energy use the most. There were also demonstrations for community events. “These were fun and simple to communicate to kids these ideas about energy efficiency and their parents as well who would be watching them. We passed out free light bulbs we got with grant money and had just a few minutes of their time, but this strategy worked really well,” Srivastava said. The games yielded strong returns, with data showing almost immediate energy reductions. The second phase included an assessment of the city’s municipal properties. Srivastava said municipal energy usage dropped by a few percentage points, but more importantly, they established a framework to continue to see future reductions. This framework includes building codes that set a higher bar for efficiency on municipal buildings and appropriations of city money for sustainability projects. Uwe Brandes, the current executive director of the Energy Prize, described in an email to the Voice the judging criteria that was used to select the 10 finalists and declare Fargo the winner. These categories included innovation, replicability, equitability, involvement of education and the community, and total energy savings. This mixture of qualitative and quantitative measurements was designed to allow the judges to reward creative new ideas they thought would work in other communities. What drove Fargo and 200 other cities like it to invest their precious time and money into grassroots initiatives like these? The spark the Energy Prize created to launch these projects was the promise of a big reward. Initially, the prize described
in the Competition Guidelines included “a projected $5M prize purse, to be spent on energy-efficiency programs that reward the community as a whole, for example to ensure the continuing implementation of long term plan.” The day the competition was announced, April 23, 2014, the university issued a press release introducing the contest and the prize that came with it. “One lucky community with a population between 5,000 and 250,000 will receive $5 million in 2017 to support sustainable energy-saving innovations,” the statement reads. The next day, the Voice wrote that according to Francis Slakey, executive director of the Energy Prize at the time, the prize money would come from a number of sponsors and partnerships with the university. News outlets and other organizations began reporting the $5 million prize, including Forbes and the National League of Cities. During the course of the competition, local papers published headlines highlighting the gaudy sum, like “Madison named semifinalist in $5 million Georgetown Energy Prize” from the Badger Herald, or “Vermont capital in running for $5m energy efficiency prize” from the Burlington Free Press. Following the competition, on Dec. 18, 2017, the Bismark Tribune ran the headline “Fargo bags $5 million prize for energy saving in national competition.” But, by the time Fargo was declared the winner, the prize package described on the Energy Prize website had changed. It included access to various energy consultations and tuition for one person to complete a master or executive master of professional studies degree or an online certificate program through the School of Continuing Studies. Lastly, the prize would include “consulting services by the National Energy and Water Infrastructure Exchange (NEWIE) toward the shared goal of developing a $5 million energy efficiency ‘dream project’ by enabling the community to secure $5 million in financing.”
8
JANUARY 26, 2018
In bold, at the bottom of the “Prize” section, the site read, “This prize package does not include a cash distribution.” The program plan that Fargo submitted during the semifinal application process included a section where they described what they would do if they won the prize. Srivastava said they wanted to create a permanent think tank modeled after efargo to continue to work on improving energy efficiency in the city. “The best thing about the prize was the momentum it created and license to really be innovative, and we want to create a home for more ideas and more momentum,” Srivastava said. However, receiving financing and not a cash prize could present some challenges. “When asked at the time, I thought it might be cash and not financing. We really want to do our original plan, and we aren’t sure how financing will change that plan,” Srivastava said. “While having it financed specifically for energy uses prevents it from disappearing into some general fund, it also restricts what we can do with the money. And, we need favorable terms on the loan to make that happen.” University spokesperson Rachel Pugh wrote in an email to the Voice that Fargo will work with NEWIE toward getting the financing for the project they decide to undertake. “Two of the nation’s leading energy efficiency financing experts with NEWIE will provide assistance in project development and contractor selection, and they will work to enable the community to secure the necessary financing to implement the project,” Pugh wrote. “NEWIE will be working with Fargo on delivering this aspect of the prize in the weeks ahead.” The first hint that the prize purse might not include cash came on May 3, 2017, when Version 8.3 of the competition guidelines was posted to the Energy Prize website (when the competition was launched, Version 6.0 was current). Where it once read, “projected $5M purse,” the new guidelines read, “the winning community will receive a prize to support energy-efficiency programs that reward the community as a whole, for example to ensure the continuing implementation of long term plan.”
Some communities took notice, but not for a number of months after the new guidelines were released. The team leading the efforts of Houghton County, Michigan, one of the northernmost counties in the state’s Upper Peninsula and one of the smallest communities participating in the competition, first brought it to the attention of the Houghton City Council in October 2017. As reported by the Daily Mining Gazette, Melissa Davis, who led the Houghton Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) which coordinated with the community during the competition, was concerned about the change in the prize. Sarah Green, president of the board of New Power Tour, Inc., the nonprofit behind HEET, and a member of the faculty at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, said this is because Houghton could not enter into the financial burden of a $5 million dollar loan. “We put in a final report last spring, after which we were notified that we were finalists. That was when we were told it was a $5 million loan, not a prize,” Green said. When notified they were finalists, Houghton received a “Finalist Participant Agreement” they had to sign to move on in the competition. The agreement released Georgetown and its employees or representatives from any liability regarding the competition and also clarified that “the Prize Package does not include a cash prize.” Houghton did not sign it and did not advance to the final round. After declining to sign the agreement, Davis wrote a letter to university President John DeGioia, which Green shared with the Voice. In it, she described HEET’s frustration with the change in the prize and accused Georgetown of a bait-andswitch. “Without explanation, we are now asked to accept that GUEP [Georgetown University Energy Prize] is and seemingly always was intended to be an opportunity to incur debt,” Davis wrote. “With this bait-and-switch, the University’s reputation and its commitment to principles of justice and service of others is at risk. Georgetown University owes it to every GUEP competitor to use its vast wealth to fund the GUEP $5 million cash prize, as originally promised.”
Fargo, North Dakota
Green wrote in an email to the Voice that as of Jan. 23, 2018 they had not received a response to their letter, which they sent on Nov. 15, 2017. HEET’s efforts focused on weatherizing housing for low-income residents, and Green said that with hopes of winning the $5 million prize, they put off updating houses heated with wood or propane because those did not count towards the measurable energy usage they were reporting for the competition. Green added that the group focused more on Houghton than the surrounding areas, which also needed assistance, with the expectation that if they won they would be able to help these outlying communities. “We’re pretty pissed. It’s pretty egregious behavior from Georgetown as an institution that trumpets values of helping others,” Green said. “People got very excited about the energy prize, and our work was done entirely on a volunteer basis, driven by Melissa Davis.” Green said the change in the purse would have been more tolerable if it had been better communicated to the participating communities. “If there had been an emergency that caused the prize to change from $5 million to $3 million or $1 million, some communication would have taken the sting out, but that never came.” Houghton was not the only community disappointed in Georgetown following what they saw as a lack of communication and transparency. Park City, Utah, in Summit County, had similar complaints. Lisa Yoder, the sustainability coordinator for Summit County, said that they found out about the changes to the purse “accidentally” when they checked the Energy Prize website wondering why they had not received any updates. “On occasion we would happen to come across an update rather than being sent to us as a competitor, as a participant. We got them by happenstance, including, in fact, the notice of who won, and that we did not become a finalist,” Yoder said. Yoder also added that Summit County had learned that it did not advance to the final round when the Voice contacted it for an interview. “That came from you. That’s the first I saw of it,
Houghton County, Michigan
n
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
9
Takoma Park, Maryland and I circulated it. We didn’t even get that from the university,” Yoder said. Yoder said that the city spent $117,000 during the two-year energy measurement phase, but they believed it would be a worthwhile investment. “The county had decided to compete regardless of the outcome. Our intent was that it was a good thing for our community, it was in line with our goals, it was in line with what we were already pursuing. So we were completely on board with participating. The great disappointment, with the whole thing was the non-communication,” Yoder said. Yoder found this especially frustrating when the announcement of the finalists was pushed back without notification. In the original competition guidelines, the period for the “Finalist Selection, Judging, and Awards” was scheduled to last from January 2017 to June 2017. In the current version, that same period is August 2017 to December 2017. The 10 finalists were announced on Nov. 21, 2017 in an Energy Prize press release, and Fargo was declared the winner on Dec. 18, 2017. Brandes was tasked with communicating with the 200 communities who entered the competition, and then the 50 semifinalists who participated in the energy saving phase. He used email as the main method of communication. “We have been in regular communication with finalists since September [2017]. All communities were updated by email in April 2017, and communities that were not advancing to the final round received written notification prior to the announcement,” Brandes wrote. “We worked very hard to make sure all communities could celebrate their successes, even if they were not in the top 10 and even if they were not the winner.” Brandes also wrote that the final details of the prize, including the financing portion, were confirmed by email and telephone with the finalists in September 2017. Throughout the competition, Yoder said her team had trouble reporting data to the competition. Summit County struggled with the data entry dashboard where communities reported data for natural gas and electricity use. Yoder described several unsuccessful attempts to check that her data was accurately entered.
According to Green, Houghton experienced similar problems. Brandes addressed these issues in his email to the Voice. “While we recognize the dashboard did not work as planned, we worked to ensure that communities were able to access their data and were able to update it through our online portal.” Takoma Park, Maryland, is just a short Metro ride from Georgetown, and another community that competed for the prize. Their community was able to earn a third place tie with Bellingham, Washington, and reduced their municipal and residential gas usage by 25 percent, according to Gina Mathias, Takoma Park’s sustainability manager. Mathias also said that volunteers knocked on 5,500 of the nearly 7,000 doors in the city, spreading the word about the competition and the ways in which people could make their homes more efficient. “We focused on leveraging Power Maryland utility sponsored programs, quick home energy check ups, free audits, and rebate programs for energy star appliances,” Mathias said. “We provided free energy coaching for energy reduction and provided services on what people could expect to pay for certain appliances or energy work done on their homes to see if they were getting a fair price.” The most important aspect of Takoma Park’s campaign in Mathias’ eyes was the level of visibility their team created for the contest. According to Mathias, they had bright yellow yard signs, tabled at community events, went on local access television, and even created a parody “movie trailer” featuring the town’s mayor. Mathias said Takoma Park did not experience the same difficulties with communication or with online data entry that other communities did. Something Mathias stressed was that even though they did not win the competition, and even with the change in the prize, the community is glad it participated. “We’re not disappointed by it. We didn’t win so we don’t feel like we are missing out. We were doing this, contest prize money or not, to reach our city’s
Park City, Utah
EGan Barnitt
goals,” Mathias said. She added that had they won, they were excited about the offer of consulting because services like that would normally be outside their budget. In Takoma Park, much like in Fargo, the competition motivated people to try and do something for their community. “Having it be a contest on a national scale, that was a huge driver that really excited people. Energy efficiency is not on a normal person’s to-do list, and it’s not always a priority for small businesses, but the extra visibility really helped,” Mathias said. “It meant a lot to the people who participated that we had real results and that we are not just saying things about Takoma Park being green, but that we’re actually making progress and doing things.” Brandes said the communities could be proud of their measurable results. “Communities participating in the prize collectively saved 11.5 trillion BTUs of energy, reducing their carbon emissions by an estimated 2.76 million metric tons—the equivalent of taking one car off the road for every 30 minutes of the competition—and saving nearly $100 million from municipal and household energy budgets,” Brandes wrote. On top of the numbers, Brandes also believes that the community networks created in these towns as they tried to become more efficient will endure and continue to create results. “Overall, the competing cities proved that small and medium-sized communities across the United States are in the position to design and promote innovative strategies and further national and international conversations about energy use,” Brandes wrote. “Their ingenuity and effective performance show us what is possible and will serve as valuable models for other communities seeking to innovate their practices.” For Yoder, even with the missed opportunity and Park City’s frustrations, the competition was ultimately positive for their community. “We appreciate the opportunity to be rallied and for bringing our community behind the effort. We just regret the way that it ended,” Yoder said. “But our efforts continue, our results continue. That was always the goal. Win or lose it would be good for us.”
10
January 26, 2018
Expect Delays: Washington Metro Leaves Riders Waiting for Change Grace Laria (SFS ’19) was on the Metro near Friendship Heights in March 2017, when an electrical fire broke out and passengers were evacuated. “The lights in the car went off and the train stopped,” Laria wrote in an email to the Voice. “I didn’t really think anything of it because the D.C. Metro is so finicky, but then a Metro attendant burst into the car from the one ahead of us, yelling for everyone to get out of the way and move to the back of the train.” Laria said she remembers an acrid smell and heard three explosions, signs of the fire that had occurred under one of the train cars. “Every time the doors opened as we passed from car to car the train would fill with a foul smelling smoke, smelling like chemicals, not like a typical wood burning fire, and people started coughing,” Laria said. Stories of delays and closures are also common among riders. Sam Seitz (SFS ’19) recounted a Saturday morning in January 2017, when an unexpected series of shutdowns prevented him from reaching the Wiehle-Reston station. “I got to Rosslyn at around 7:30, 7:40, and the entrance was completely gated up,” Seitz said. “I waited around for five, 10 minutes, until an attendant came out and said the station was temporarily closed and that it was unknown when it will open.” Seitz then walked from Rosslyn to Foggy Bottom, where the entrance to the Metro station was also closed. A deeper dive into the history and structure of the Metro reveals not only individual negative experiences but also organizational limitations that have affected the system, which serves the residents of the greater Washington area. According to a 2017 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) report, Metro ridership declined 12 percent last year. WMATA forecasted around a $125 million loss in earnings. A poll conducted by the Washington Post shows 52 percent of riders evaluate the Metro as “not so good” or “poor.” Daniel Rathbone, former chief of the Transportation Planning Division at the Fairfax County Department of Transportation and an adjunct professor at Georgetown, identifies the Metro’s unreliability as a primary cause of the growing discontent among D.C. area riders.
“We are in a situation where when people make a choice between what mode of transportation they should take, reliability becomes a very important factor to consider, in terms of whether they should go by car, bus, or rail,” Rathbone said. A reliable system that takes a long time, Rathbone contended, is preferable to a faster system with greater volatility. Some, including former Metro General Manager David Gunn, have pointed to harmful budget decreases of the Metro by D.C. politicians who serve on the Metro Board of Directors. Gunn told the Washingtonian that funds allocated for rail services were instead transferred to handicap services and buses. For Gunn, these cuts have further hamstrung a system which, according to Washingtonian, collects just 2 percent of its funding via money directly from taxes. Faiz Siddiqui of The Washington Post has suggested that the rising popularity of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have played a role in Metro’s falling revenue. However, certain organizational deficiencies endemic to the original Metro system still haunt the system today. According to a 2015 report from Washingtonian, the Metro was hastily put together in the 1960s as highway lobbyists called to scrap the project, and the federal government made aims to take over the system. Metro planners decided to divide control of the system among political appointees from D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government. This arrangement has raised concerns over unclear accountability for the Metro’s woes by prominent critics of the system. One of these popular critics is Unsuck the DC Metro, an anonymous blog and Twitter account that tracks the Metro’s problems. The lack of clear leadership means it is difficult to direct complaints about the system to any one person, wrote a representative of the blog in a message to the Voice. “They [WMATA] are not accountable to anyone,” wrote the representative. “Who owns Metro? The [general manager]? No. The Board? No. The lack of accountability trickles from the top to the bottom.” Rathbone also said the planned expansion of the Metro into suburbs and newly redeveloped areas will loom large over the system’s future sustainability.
“There’s been millions, if not billions of dollars of investment made by developers at transit stations in D.C.,” Rathbone said. “A perfect example is the Ballston corridor, with a lot of high density development around the station.” Rathbone explained that developers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into high-density residential buildings with the expectation that a reliable railway would be built nearby. Ideally, according to Rathbone, more people in the coming years will live within walking distance of a Metro rail station, largely because the developments would become accessible by rail. This process could also be self-reinforcing. If people see the Metro as the easiest way to access these high-density developments, then the system has a future, as Rathbone sees it. But in order for the Metro (and Washingtonians) to experience this reality, there need to be clear alterations to the status quo. On this point, Rathbone and Unsuck the DC Metro share similar views on the necessity of heightened citizen involvement, albeit on different scales. “I think riders should be represented on the board of directors,” wrote the Unsuck the DC Metro representative. “Right now, the Metro is effectively run by local developers. The compact needs to be blown up, the board needs to be blown up. There needs to be a pressure point on which the public can voice its concerns. There isn’t one.” Unsuck the DC Metro is pessimistic about the Riders Advisory Council, the current body that acts as an intermediary between riders and WMATA. The representative referred to the council as “a sham.” “Continued citizen participation is such an important part of transportation and transportation planning,” Rathbone said. For continued success, questions around the location of the line, stations, and impact on the community would need to be answered with the help of the public. “The bottom line is public participation from the start has to be there,” Rathbone said. “And [citizens] need to be seen as not only providing their opinion, but also as participants.”
By Santul Nerkar
11
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Crossroads: Georgetown’s NewEst LGBTQ Community By Rebecca Zaritsky
The Office of Residential Living has approved Crossroads, a Living Learning Community (LLC) focused on explorations of gender and sexuality, to launch in the fall of 2018. LLCs are residences at Georgetown dedicated to the exploration of a particular focus through immersion. According to Crossroads’ mission statement, the purpose of the LLC is to help students consider questions of gender and sexuality. Grace Smith (COL ’18) is one of the students who spearheaded the effort to create the LLC as a member of GUSA’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Policy coalition. She underscored Crossroads’ welcoming spirit. “[The LLC] says: come as you are; be who you are; love how you do; and we’ll make a home for you,” Smith wrote in an email to the Voice. Georgetown has had a strained relationship with its LGBTQ students at times in the past. A group called Gay People of Georgetown (later renamed GU Pride) sued the university over concerns of inequality in 1980. However, following 2007’s “Out for Change” campaign, a student-led movement pushing for inclusion of LGBTQ students on campus in response to multiple violent incidents, Georgetown became the first Catholic university to have an LGBTQ Resource Center. The road to approval for Crossroads has not been direct. Georgetown’s Office of Residential Living at first rejected the LLC proposal in April 2017. Catholic doctrine opposes sexual activity between members of the same sex, and Smith said the initial LLC rejection was due to the challenge of balancing Crossroads’ mission with Georgetown’s Catholic identity. In response, students and supporting faculty refined their goals
for Crossroads, meeting with administrators to discuss and adjust their plans. In an email to the Voice, Sivagami Subbaraman, director of the LGBTQ Resource Center, wrote that she was happy with the development. “We are pleased that this student initiative is moving forward,” Subbaraman wrote. She continued to write that students have worked to determine a productive context for Crossroads to succeed. Smith emphasized the importance of merging the mission of Crossroads with Georgetown’s Catholic history. “For a Catholic university specifically, it makes a profound and radical statement that religion does not have to be mutually exclusive with the freedom to understand, challenge, and grow through and with expressions of and reflection on gender and sexuality,” she wrote. GUSA President Kamar Mack (COL ’19) said the effort to create the LLC mirrored the efforts of other students groups to gain a dedicated space for discussion and reflection of their identities at Georgetown. Black House, for instance, was chartered 40 years ago to provide such a space for black Georgetown students. “Black students at the time petitioned the university to give us a space for intimate discussions, for programming, for understanding what it means to be black at Georgetown and be black in America,” Mack said. “So [Crossroads] hits those same heartstrings for me knowing that this will now be a place for students to explore themselves.” However, Crossroads’ approval has faced criticism from conservative Catholic organizations, who believe the decision undermines Georgetown’s Catholic values.
“As one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent Catholic universities, Georgetown is continuing to flout Catholic Church teaching on human sexuality by allowing LGBT-only living facilities for students for the 2018–19 school year,” reads an article on Church Militant, a Catholic news source. Amelia Irvine (COL ’19), president of Love Saxa, a Georgetown student organization promoting traditional Catholic teachings on sexuality and relationships, wrote in an email to the Voice that the new LLC is the continuation of a series of moves by Georgetown away from its Catholic foundation. “Georgetown is sacrificing its Catholic identity on the altar of progressive secularism,” Irvine wrote. “Rather than follow the teaching given by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount to be a light to the world, Georgetown has decided to hide under the proverbial basket, to the detriment of its students.” Even proponents of Crossroads have reservations about its impact, worrying that the university will see it as a final solution to anti-LGBTQ bias at Georgetown. “We hope that the LLC is a sign of continued and active support, and that the University does not consider it a cureall for homophobia and transphobia on campus,” wrote Chad Gasman, President of GU Pride, in an email to the Voice. Smith also said there was a need for forward motion in fully accepting LGBTQ students, and hopes the university will continue making LGBTQ students feel welcome on the Hilltop. “This should be a practice beyond a single room, dorm, hall, or area,” Smith wrote. “It should be a campuswide commitment.”
JANUARY 26, 2018
12
Photos Isabella Perera; Design Jake Glass
By Suna Cha The Simpsons have come to campus. Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society and Nomadic Theater collaborated to bring Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play to Poulton Hall. Adapted from The Simpsons episode “Cape Feare,” Mr. Burns is a colorful meta-narrative infused with an amalgam of dark humor, nostalgia, music, drama, tension, and action. More importantly, it suggests deeper questions about the purpose of entertainment, the problematic status of technology, and our ability to persevere through adversity. Set in post-apocalyptic America, the show follows a dynamic group of survivors who struggle to find hope in the midst of fear, anxiety, and loss. The world has disintegrated into a meaningless void, conquered by man-made technology and nuclear power. Divided into three parts with an intermission after the second act, the show takes the audience through time from “the very near future” to “every story [ending] on a dark and raging river.” The first act develops slowly with dialogue and storytelling. The group tries to recount from memory “Cape Feare,” in which Bart Simpson receives a death threat from vengeful criminal Sideshow Bob. In the second act, the group attempts the art of imitation and their own unique characterization of The Simpsons. Their reminiscences become a staged reality as they begin performing as a theater troupe, but a conflict divides the group, torn between producing meaningless entertainment or a significant message. In the third and final act, the tensions culminate in a climactic, postmodern musical number, challenging the boundaries of creativity and illuminating the impact of love. Mr. Burns debuted in May 2012 in Washington before moving to New York City. The script captivated director Johnny Monday (COL ’18), who began trying to bring the show to Georgetown last March. “I chose this play for a variety of reasons. I literally found it through a friend as we were looking for shows to apply to direct with. I think it resonates with a modern audience because nothing feels new anymore, so why not do a play about the world ending mixed with The Simpsons?”
The choice aligned with Monday’s personal taste as well: “I have loved The Simpsons since I was very young. It is a show that captures a moment and an attitude of pure irony, which is perfectly juxtaposed in a show like this where the stakes of these characters’ lives are anything but ironic. They must approach life with the utmost sincerity and anxiety.” Monday worked with producer Cameron Bell (COL ’19), stage manager Amelia Walsh (SFS ’20), and technical director Leyland Reilly (SFS ’20) to assemble a team of designers and other production staff members in May 2017. Casting and rehearsals began in October. But even a nearly year-long production came down to the wire. “We actually came back about five days early from winter break to do the bulk of set building and rehearsal work,” Bell said. “It has really been a long haul with lots going on from start to finish.” For Bell, the collaboration between M&B and Nomadic was both the most challenging and the most fun part of the production. “Juggling two clubs made for some logistical challenges as one would expect, but like I said, it was an absolute joy to watch my friends from both clubs bring their immense talents together to make this happen.” Appropriately, the cast creates an electric atmosphere in the theater with their characters. Michael Riga (COL ’21) feels a personal connection to his character, Matt. “We have a lot in common with one another. We both love to tell stories, for example. Most of my dialogue in Act I is recounting an episode of The Simpsons which feels just like something I’d do in real life.” Meanwhile, Riga’s other part, Scratchy, has a very different persona: a demonic cartoon cat and henchman for Mr. Burns. Riga’s partners—Jenny the human and Itchy the mouse— are both portrayed by Cristin Crowley (MSB ’20). For Crowley, it was challenging “to imagine a life in which the world has ended, and essentially everyone you ever knew and loved had died.” She added, “As an actress, I love performing, whereas Jenny is
more than happy to stay more offstage to write the scripts and direct the scenes their acting troupe performs.” Riga credits his real life friendship with Crowley for their chemistry on stage. “Cristin and I had worked together on Exit, Pursued by a Bear earlier this year so when we read together as Matt and Jenny at callbacks, it felt super natural and comfortable with barely any practice,” Riga said. Technical elements of the show are critical in fleshing out the post-apocalyptic world and establishing the show’s ominous yet playful tone. Jemma Fagler (COL ’18) focused on crafting three distinct sets and refining the stage to correspond with each setting. The campfire in Act I is a bare-bones scene around which the ghostly survivors could gather and humorously recount a specific episode from The Simpsons, contrasting sharply with the grounded reality of a dystopian world. With a mix of humor and tragedy, the air is mostly bleak and grim. In Act II, the set transforms into a bright studio apartment as furniture shuffles behind the curtains, and the show elevates its conception of entertainment and comic relief. Thanks to the stage’s deep theater, a houseboat remains hidden behind the walls until it is revealed in Act III for a dramatic showdown between Bart and Sideshow Bob. This final sequence is the most like a cartoon and even avant-garde, as fantastical elements are combined with song. In addition to the set design, costumes and music highlight the lively aspects of the performance. The caricatures of the Simpsons would not be complete without the yellow masks that outline their heads and clothing that resembles the trademark color of their attire, like Marge’s turquoise green dress and iconic tall tree of blue hair. Signs with red paint for each act are eerily familiar to Sideshow Bob’s striking way of writing with the blood of his finger. Nearly identical to the episode’s soundtrack, the play’s music also contributes to the creepy air as student conductor James Khoury (COL ’20) assembled a small band of five musicians to play live for each show. The cast also amplifies the musical numbers with song and dance during
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Top, right: Actors in Mr. Burns discuss the nuclear apocalypse that knocked out the power grid. commercial breaks and the dramatic finale. With varying settings and characters, music is the unifying force that resonates with a catchy theme. When it comes to viewing a show, personal taste and genres swing the pendulum of the audience’s interest. “I think young people can really resonate with this production,” Monday said. “Creatives and those that are worried about their future. Really anybody that feels a pressure from an outside world that seems doomed for destruction.” “[This show is for] anyone who is curious about pop culture and its collective interpretation and memory, the apocalypse, nuclear disasters, The Simpsons, or musicals,” Bell added. “We like to think we’re covering a wide range.” Fantasy is often dismissed as trivial, but this co-production champions love and creativity in a mundane, hateful world. Sometimes it requires cognitive estrangement, distorting the normal and familiar to help us see and understand a different truth and reality. Etched with humor and covered with yellow masks, the faces of Mr. Burns remind us that we have to leave reality and enter the unimaginable to open ourselves up to a myriad of possibilities. It is this magical, cosmic element of imagination that helps us evaluate our perception and reach a higher understanding of the world and ourselves. “Art is something that will always survive,” Crowley said. “No matter what, society will always find a way to entertain themselves.”
13
14
January 26, 2018
FliCkr
Hostiles Contemplates the Violent Moral Quandaries of the American Frontier As the D. H. Lawrence quote that opens the film makes clear, “the essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer ... it has never yet melted.” This thesis is borne out by the litany of killings that follows, leaving friend and foe alike hanged, beaten, butchered, and buried. Following in the line of his earlier, hypnotically bleak takes on American mythmaking, Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace, Crazy Heart) injects a gritty integrity and plaintive poetry into Hostiles, an elegiac, deconstructionist neo-Western that attempts to examine the “cowboys and Indians” myth that permeates American frontier cinema. In 1892 New Mexico, we find Rosalee Quaid (Rosamund Pike) alone and traumatized as her family is savagely murdered by a Comanche raiding party. Just a few miles south, Capt. Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale, broiling with his usual rage) has just finished rounding up an Apache family for imprisonment at the isolated Fort Berringer, where he treats other Native American prisoners with a similar degree of savagery. The point is clear: Hatred is native to us all. It’s a familiar theme, but Cooper has no intention of reinventing the wheel. The director is less interested in saying something new than he is in reiterating something old, only in a more grizzled voice. What ensues is a tough but tender tale of blood and dust, as Blocker is ordered to escort one of his prisoners, an old Cheyenne chief named Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi of Last of the Mohicans, Dances With Wolves, and Avatar), and his family back to their tribal land in Montana. Back in his time, Yellow Hawk was a vicious killer of white men, and it offends Blocker’s principles to let someone like him go free. But the once-proud chief has been mellowed by cancer and seven years in an Army prison. He now serves as the exception who challenges Blocker’s stereotypes—the “good Indian” whose company will bring Blocker and his band of racist cavalry officers around. An accomplished ensemble cast breathes life into the film’s moral quandaries. Bale and Pike are at the top of their game. Yet the film intentionally depicts them with figurative and sometimes literal blood on their hands. Before the events of Hostiles begin, they’ve been complicit in the repopulation of the West and are symbols of why the land is painted in a crimson red. Even so, both are wary of Native Americans after losing so much, and both actors play the weight of that loss with humane grace. These characters express themselves most eloquent-
ly through gestures rather than words, especially Bale, who is tanned-leather tough as a character who doesn’t verbalize much, but given enough strong, silent screen time that viewers can read volumes into his performance. Pike, as well, imbues her own intangible qualities within the damaged Rosalee through her trademark distraught scowl. Blocker’s team is rounded out by the acting talents of Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons, Jonathan Majors, and Call Me By Your Name’s own Timothée Chalamet. But the standout of the cast is easily Native American Hollywood legend Studi as the old dying warrior on his final journey. With his leonine features and regal gait, Studi’s stoic Yellow Hawk offers an imposing counterpoint to Bale’s embittered Blocker, quietly drawing our attention away from the captain’s invasive angst towards a more profound sense of indigenous pathos and loss. In a lesser actor’s hands, Yellow Hawk could have become little more than a cipher to prick this white man’s conscience. Yet Studi makes him the center of the drama, commanding the screen with captivating gravitas. And so this motley crew makes their way across the feral
The point is clear: Hatred is native to us all. American frontier. As usual, Cooper poses masculinity as the greatest obstacle to change. Also as usual, he does so by criticizing the most gendered male behavior: All the men are strong, silent types with thick hides and wounded hearts. Every conversation is a pissing contest, every glance has the potential to explode into carnage. All that rage and hate, however, are the beginning footwork for the real journey of the film, the one towards reconciliation. In terms of that journey, Hostiles comes closest to Unforgiven as any neo-Western in interrogating the toxic masculinity of the frontier and its indelibly violent nature. Within this economy of violence, there are atrocities on every
side, an uncomfortable equivalence that seems designed to provoke thorny debate rather than offer palatable answers, yet redemption does not seem like a foreseeable conclusion. The bleak thrust of Hostiles recalls the existential guilt of Clint Eastwood’s William Munny: “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man.” Those words hang like dark clouds over this revisionist American odyssey, as Blocker and his loyal friend Sgt. Metz (Cochrane) long for the lost simplicity of bygone battles, when spilled guts and righteous retribution were the stuff of the “good days,” when you knew who to shoot and be done with it. All they’ve got now are the shades of grey that color the vast plains of the frontier, periodically sprayed over with red. The Wild West has never looked more beautiful or been more foreboding. Cooper’s directing style is undeniably elegant, from its unhurried pace to the rich, widescreen imagery. Making the most of that scenery, cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi eschews close-ups in favor of carefully blocked, painterly compositions. His camera captures the harsh beauty of landscapes that shift from jagged rocks and perilous ravines to verdant valleys beneath glowing skies. When the rains come, you can feel the deluge seeping into your bones, clinging like wet mud. And a sinewy sound design enhances the visuals tenfold, truly giving audiences the experience of being a part of this sullen journey. Most impressive, however, is Max Richter’s brooding score, which seems to seep from the landscape itself as it moves inexorably from grief and torment toward a state of grace. Cellos and violins lend voice to a recurrent silent-scream visual motif, while individual themes subtly suggest each character’s connection to (or alienation from) these desert lands. Hostiles finds its footing as it reckons with the moral underpinnings of the Western genre itself. These movies are defined by the lawless and unforgiving world in which they take place, a fiercely contested stretch of desert where the hardest part of staying alive is living with yourself. There is an undeniably affecting melancholy that permeates the exquisite craftsmanship of Hostiles and its harrowing performances. In its effort to unpack the legend of a bygone age it leaves a solemn yet effective eulogy for the West in its wake.
By Eman Rahman
15
THE GEORGETOWN VOICE
Hung Liu Honors the Women of China By Nancy Garrett
Hung Liu in Print, the latest featured exhibit from the National Museum for Women in the Arts, is pensive, meditative. It displays a number of Hung’s prints and tapestries, all of which commemorate and elevate the most frequently ignored figures in Chinese history: women. Using her signature layered style, Hung shows viewers the perseverance and majesty of China’s women, whether they are prostitutes, laborers, or simply sisters. Born in 1948, Hung draws inspiration largely from her experiences growing up in rural China, where she worked as an agricultural laborer during the height of the Cultural Revolution. During her time working in China, Hung acquired a deep understanding of the hardship and sorrow that Chinese women have endured historically and continue to experience today. When she could find time outside of work, Hung practiced art as often as she could, and she quickly tired of agricultural toil. In 1984, after years of hard labor in rice fields, Hung left China for San Diego, where she was able to pursue her lifelong interest in art by studying at the University of California, San Diego. Despite emigrating, her youth in China remains the bedrock of her work, and she is able to both honor and elevate China’s history through her insightful prints. Hung’s work touches on a number of elements in Chinese history, including footbinding, the legacy of courtesans, and the toil of women in agriculture. In her series “Seven Poses,” Hung displays a diverse array of prostitutes whose images hail from historic photographs and who sit either alone or in pairs, staring invitingly at the viewer. Though Hung recreates the portraits with realistic depth, the women are surrounded by animals and flowers depicted in the traditional two-dimensional Chinese style. This juxtaposition, combined with Hung’s use of floating circles—a reference to the Chinese calligraphic marking for the end of a sentence—creates a layered effect that brings these often-forgotten Chinese women into dynamic detail for the viewer. In another historically charged print titled “Winter Blossom,” Hung honors Zhen Fei, a 19th century woman known not only as mistress to the emperor, but also as an active political influencer in the emperor’s court. In the woodblock print, Zhen poses regally in traditional court attire, her face framed by a cherry blossom branch. Hung incorporates an idiosyncratic twist to the piece: Dark lines all but drip down the print, making it look as if Zhen is peering through a curtain of dark rain, adding an air of mystery to her stare. This motif of dripping, runny lines is common in Hung’s prints. She sometimes achieves this effect by pouring acid on the piece, or using special printmaking techniques that she developed through continual experimentation and work with
master printmakers. The lines incorporate an element of darkness to her works, conjuring images of tears and sweat that surround and cover the women she depicts. In the “Seven Poses” series, the lines disturb what would otherwise be a crisp rendering of the courtesans, suggesting that there is perhaps a darker truth behind the flowers and colorful robes. Similarly, in her large-scale tapestry titled “Rainmaker” that dominates the exhibit space, Hung expertly manipulates the threads to cover her subject: a young girl with dragonflies dancing in her hair during a gray, dreary rain shower. At close range, the thread work is seemingly random, but, at scale, the minute stitches cast the girl and her waterlogged surroundings in stunning detail. Hung uses the drips effectively in her diptych “Women in Arms I” and “Women in Arms II” to show the plight of the typical Chinese woman during the Cultural Revolution. Printed in dramatic black and white, both lithographs show three women arm in arm, one as children with their backs to the viewer and the other as adults, harrowed by war and hardship. The young girls seem to skip away from the viewer, blissfully ignorant of their unforeseeable yet inevitable experiences with adversity. Fast-forward to adulthood and the women stand in uniform with expressions of anger, sorrow, and exhaustion, looking toward something haunting that the viewer can only guess. Both trios are speckled with those same sentence-ending circles that Hung uses in her other works, but, in striking contrast, the older women are heavily smattered with black ink that looks like dripping blood. In a piece charged with a similar social commentary, Hung shows two workers—a mother and daughter—bent over double and pulling an unseen boat by ropes tied around their waists. The print “Mu Nu/Yellow River,” is executed in an ethereal style, with blotches of gray and soft red floating around the women in a manner akin to watercolor. These blotches, accompanied by more of Hung’s stylistic drippings, also make reference to the sweat, grief, and oppression of proletarian women. The women’s position, bent with their hands almost touching the ground, recalls images of a work animal pulling a plow, a further commentary on the degradation of Chinese workers. Hung’s work acts in many ways as commemoration and celebration of Chinese women, all of whom she depicts in a style that is simultaneously sensitive to tradition and refreshingly creative. Her work, from the style to the subject matter, forces the viewer to redefine their understanding of printmaking. Ultimately, through her dynamic visual portrayal of Chinese women, Hung communicates to the viewers a firm stance regarding the Chinese women of history: They are not to be forgotten.
© HUng Liu Photos by LEe Stalsworth
baaaaaalk balk balk balk balk …
Don’t be a chicken, try Wingo’s! 3207 O St. NW | 202-338-2478
Open until 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday GoCards accepted!
The Voice