The Georgetown Voice, December 1, 2017

VOICE The Georgetown

Best of 2017: Movies and Music page 12

December 1, 2017

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December 1, 2017

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE Volume 51 • Issue 1

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

“Jack Eats a snowflake” by EGAN BARNITT

opinion

contents Editorials Carrying On: (Don’t) Say My Name Kaei Li

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“Waving Betsy Ross’s Flag Higher” Joy Kim

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“Just Keep Swimming” Dajour Evans

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One Year Later: Students Reflect on the National Political Climate Caitlyn Cobb

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Green Machine: The Fastest Men’s Cross-Country Runner in the Big East Nick Gavio

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Best of 2017: Movies and Music Voice Staff

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Two Shades of War: Nenad Zaric at the Artist’s Proof Gallery Mike Bergin

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The National Gallery of Art Contextualizes Jackson Pollock’s Masterpiece “Mural” Gustav Honl-Steunkel

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Correction to “The Beat that Goes and Goes” run in the 11/17/17 issue: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated that Rare Essence band member Quentin “Shortydud” Ivey’s name is Quentin Ivy. 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, caitlyn cobb, 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, Nancy Garrett, Caroline Geithner, Isabel Paret, Madison Scully, Maya Tenzer

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, Nicholas Gavio, Allison Kaufman, Caitlin Mannering, Devon O’Dwyer

Staff writers

Umar asif, MOnica Cho, Rachel Cohen, Annie Coyne, Damien Garcia, jayan hanson, tristan lee, Brynne Long, Shadia Milon, Brice russo, Will Shanahan, cam smith

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THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Read & Listen on georgetownvoice.com NEWS Hoya Roundtable Program Begins with Discussion on Tuition Staff writer Alice Ye covers this year’s first Hoya Roundtable, which included discussion between Georgetown administrators and students. The presentation focused on the future of tuition rates and financial aid. Read more for full coverage and quotes.

UNICEF-Georgetown Puts Spotlight on Women’s Empowerment UNICEF-Georgetown’s 15th annual international development conference fostered discussion on achieving global women’s empowerment and narrowing gender inequality. Voice staff writer Shadia Milon details the panel, where experience included work in NGOs, USAID, and research.

SPORTS Women’s Basketball Goes 1-2 at the Challenge in Music City Sports assistant editor Aaron Wolf explains everything you need to know about the women’s basketball team’s tournament over Thanksgiving break. The Hoyas snapped their losing streak with a 55-54 victory over Northwestern to finish off Nashville’s Music City Challenge. Meanwhile, Chattanooga dominated the tournament and swept the competition.

LEISURE Despite a Predictable Plot, Coco is a Dazzling and Heartwarming Story Social media editor Danielle Hewitt reviews Disney Pixar’s latest film, Coco. The box office smash boasts a winning combo of impeccable animation and a heartwarming, though formulaic story.

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DECEMBER 1, 2017

EDITORIALS

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Georgetown Must Reckon With Bill Clinton’s Past In the weeks since The New York Times and The New Yorker reported allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein, the floodgates have opened for similar accusations against powerful men in Hollywood and politics. Victims have come forth with accusations against Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Roy Moore, and Democratic Senator Al Franken, among others.

These controversies have sparked one of the largest conversations about sexual assault and sexual harassment in the United States since Anita Hill’s accusation against Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991. Since the allegations against Weinstein, women and men took to social media to share their own stories of sexual assault and harassment using the hashtag “#MeToo.” This movement has created what seems to be a watershed moment in America’s history with sexual assault. Now, more than ever, it seems as though victims are being believed as they share their stories, forcing a national reckoning over the reported behaviors of predatory men in power.

As the nation addresses its issues of sexual assault and harassment, this editorial board calls on Georgetown University administrators and students to do the same.

While not reported in recent years, accusations of sexual harassment, assault, and rape against Georgetown alumnus and former President Bill Clinton surfaced in the late 1990s.

At the time, the three women who publicly accused Clinton of sexual assault were dismissed and victim-blamed by Democrats and feminists alike.

As an editorial board, we firmly believe and support survivors of sexual assault. We ask that the university do this as well by finally believing the women who accused Clinton of

sex crimes and separating themselves from the former president. President DeGioia should write a letter to the university’s students and faculty stating that this campus is a safe space for survivors. In addition, we should not allow an accused sex offender to speak on campus. We recognize that we cannot ask the world to stop associating Clinton with Georgetown.

However, the university can take steps to make it clear it does not and will not support Clinton in the future.

A separation from Georgetown’s most famous alumnus certainly won’t be easy, but it is morally imperative that the university demonstrate its refusal to tolerate sexual misconduct. If this campus wants to have a real and productive conversation about issues of sexual assault in the future, it cannot continue to ignore the accusations against Clinton and continue to invite him to speak on campus.

When allegations against Kevin Spacey were first reported, the university quietly took down a picture of him that hung in Healy Hall. Severing the relationship with Clinton cannot be done in the same way. Georgetown’s administration must publicly condemn the actions of Clinton and, by doing so, affirm its support for victims of sexual assault. This decision to separate Georgetown University from Clinton cannot be quiet or cowardly.

Earlier this month, GU Politics held a “Clinton 25” symposium on campus to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the election of former President Clinton, and he gave the keynote address to a tightly packed Gaston Hall. On Blue and Gray tours of campus, prospective students are shown Clinton’s freshman dorm. It is without doubt that Georgetown benefits from its association with Clinton, but it has benefited for far

too long. It is important, now more than ever as the nation faces an opportunity to change how it addresses sexual assault and harassment, that Georgetown too makes the choice to hold perpetrators of sexual assault and harassment responsible for their actions.

While we ask that the administration reckon with accusations against Clinton and its relationship with him, we ask that the student body does the same. As we strive to have greater conversations about sexaul assault on campus, Georgetown students must keep in mind what figures they uphold and what they stand for. Waving cardboard cutouts of Clinton’s face at basketball games and camping out overnight to see Clinton speak in Gaston Hall fails to confront or condemn his wrongdoings.

Reckoning with the allegations against Clinton should be part of the larger conversation that students and campus organizations are having about sexual assault on campus. Solving the issue of sexual assault on college campuses will never happen from the top down. The problem can only be solved through student understanding and action. Students, along with the administration, must face these tough conversations and difficult decisions about what we want this campus to be and what people we want to represent it if we are ever going to see real change.

If we as a student body want this campus to be a safe space for all survivors, a campus that believes victims of assault, and a campus that refuses to tolerate sexual assault, sexual harassment, or violence of any kind, then we cannot continue to hold Clinton on a pedestal, and we ask that the university similarly cease to do so.

J20 Defendants Face a Miscarriage of Justice Criminal hearings began earlier this month for the more than 230 protesters facing felony charges for destruction of property and conspiracy to riot, based on events that transpired on Jan. 20—the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. For many of these socalled “J20” protesters, the charges could total 70 years or more of prison sentences. The district attorney’s office has charged all of the protesters, even though there is little evidence of criminal wrongdoing for the majority.

On the day of Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of activists took to the streets in protest of the incoming administration, including members of anti-fascist protest groups and the Black Bloc. Throughout the day, police and protesters clashed, and there were cases of property destruction by demonstrators, including smashing windows and ATMs and setting a limousine on fire. The police carried out mass arrests of demonstrators and bystanders alike, including journalists, medics, and legal observers. Police detained over 230 people in 36 hours throughout the weekend. The entire group was charged with felony conspiracy to riot. Three months later, on April 27, 212 people—some of whom had not been

charged previously—were charged on additional counts, threatened with decades behind bars.

This editorial board believes that by charging all of the demonstrators with blanket charges, prosecutors are acting unjustly and setting a dangerous precedent for the future of political protest. The district attorney should prosecute those against whom there is a strong case, and guilty individuals should face punishment for destructive crimes. But as they stand, the charges arbitrarily group over 200 individuals on the pretense of inciting a riot, when in reality, most of them were arrested simply for proximity to the crimes. These charges are a gross violation of justice and the rule of law.

Beyond the logic that it does not take over 200 people to cause the damage that was done, many of the people who face charges had no apparent link to rioting crimes besides proximity. While the DA’s office is well within its rights to prosecute those against whom there is a clear case, it is obvious that the majority of these cases are baseless. Taking them to court is a waste of public resources and puts an unfair financial and time burden on the defendants. Still, the DA is choosing to go ahead with these cases, thereby planning a clear miscarriage of justice.

These blanket charges are an obvious scare tactic meant to dissuade further activism and protests. By setting the precedent that bystanders can face legal repercussions for simply being in the presence of criminal activity while protesting, prosecutors are endangering all future forms of activism. Around the country, laws are being introduced at an alarming rate that attack the rights of protesters, and the prosecution of J20 demonstrators is clearly in line with this dangerous trend. Prosecuting these demonstrators will set a precedent against protesters around the country which will almost certainly be used time and again against Americans demonstrating their First Amendment rights.

These blanket charges are nothing more than—and nothing short of—an attack on the rights to free speech and protest, rights that are crucial to a successful democracy. They are a clear scare tactic to prevent other activists and organizers from making their voices heard. Even more, they threaten over 200 Americans with excessive jail time, mostly for nothing more than wearing black and being near criminals. This possibility is an indictment on the DA’s office and the American system of justice.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

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My friends and I have this inside joke that I’m an undercover secret agent for the CIA. At the beginning of freshman year, they couldn’t find my dorm room because the name on my door was different from the name I go by. When they finally found it, I opened the door to find theatrically hurt faces feigning dejection at having been supposedly deceived. They asked me what my real identity was and whether “Kaei” was an alias. Thus the joke began.

Yet, there is a truth to their fake offense that I have been avoiding for the past several years. I have been intentionally mispronouncing my name for the sake of ease since the beginning of high school.

I was born “Jiaying Li” in Japan to Chinese parents. By the time I was born, my parents had lived in Japan for over seven years, and my brother, Jiakang, was almost three years old.

Both “Jiaying” and “Jiakang,” which are Chinese names, were difficult to pronounce in the Japanese language. Therefore, my parents decided to call us by the Japanese pronunciations of the characters, or kanji, that make up our names. Thus “Kaei” was born, and for my brother, “Kakou.”

When we moved to the U.S., my brother—who was old enough to understand cultural differences—decided to go by “John.” I, at the tender age of two, resolutely refused any name but “Kaei” and consequently set myself up for a lifetime of tedious introductions.

I learned long ago how to navigate the difficulties of meeting new people when my name is “Kaei.” For example, spending the first two minutes of an introduction trying to get the other person to pronounce “Kaei” correctly can sometimes make them think I am neurotic and lead them to avoid talking to me in the future for fear of saying the wrong thing and offending me.

Throughout the years, I’ve been called every variation of “Jiaying” and “Kaei” that could possibly exist. Microsoft Word constantly “corrects” my name to “Kari.” And I dreaded having substitute teachers because they would either say “Jang,” “last name Li,” or, most often, “oh boy, the next one’s tough,” at which point I simply raised my hand and called out “here.”

When I insist on the correct pronunciation of my name, the variations that follow range from the absurd “kayak” to the outrageous “Kanye.”

Consequently, I started introducing myself as “Kai” (rhyming with “die”) rather than “Kaei” (which is pronounced with two syllables—“Kah-ay”) and noticed that the awkward introductions instantly went away. This experiment began as a way to get through the first day of school when I was meeting six new teachers who, after the end of the year, I would probably never speak to again. It continued through high school and into college because it was simply easier for everyone involved.

Now, I spell my name out as “K-a-i” to the Chick-fil-A cashier because I know they will be able to read it when they

call out my order. I introduce myself as “Kai” during job interviews and wonder if this experiment is something I can ever undo. I imagine the genuine hurt on my friends’ faces if I ever do decide to end the experiment.

I know that there will be hurt because I’ve seen it before. In third grade, on the Monday before the school year ended, I told my student teacher that he’d been saying my name wrong all year. He looked both guilty and betrayed, and for the rest of that week, he stuttered every time he tried to say my name. I can’t imagine doing that to people who I hope will be in my life for much longer than a week.

But here I am, coming clean in a publication that half my friends work on and the other half will read. I don’t know how they will react, nor how I want them to react. I do know that I was compelled to write this piece because of my upcoming graduation. At my high school graduation, we were asked to write out the pronunciation of our names on index cards. I took a risk and wrote out “Kah-ay,” but as I walked across the stage, the class president, who I had known since first grade, mangled my name. In a couple months, I will be confronted with the same dilemma. I have yet to decide whether to walk into adulthood with a cringe or with a lie.

Kaei Li is a Senior in the SFS and creator of the She Runs the World podcast.

Abhichana Naiyapatana

VOICES

(Don’t) Say My Name

Carrying on: Voice Staffers speak

DECEMBER 1, 2017

VOICES

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“Waving Betsy Ross’s Flag Higher” Abhichana Naiyapatana

When I was 16, I boarded a one-way flight to Lima, Peru with an ill-fitting blazer draped over my arm and a folded-up American flag in my suitcase. My final destination was Arequipa, a city that sits at the foot of a dormant volcano, a city I came to call home over the next year.

That year, I gained not only a Peruvian family but also an international one, made up of 60 other exchange students from various countries. I learned some choice French curse words and nearly swallowed my tongue pronouncing Danish phrases. I learned about New Year’s in Taiwan, the taboo around the word “race” in Germany, and the progressive teaching styles of schools in Finland. As I put a face to each country, the world seemed to shrink. But in the midst of this little Earth in the south of Peru, I learned the most about my own country and identity.

I knew that people would question my American identity in Peru. Even in my own country, I’ve experienced both implicit and explicit attacks on my Americanness. Still, hours of pre-exchange orientation had drilled into my head that personal interaction brings countries together. It was my job to represent the America I know and love—including my Korean roots.

Two weeks before my departure date, I bought a large American flag, still on sale from the Fourth of July. It was a tradition for exchange students to carry their country’s flag on their travels, and it made for great photo-ops. I still remember how it felt the first time I posed for a picture, flying the American flag high above my head. Up until that moment, I had never been able to claim my American identity because I was too busy fighting for it. I grew up hiding Korean food under the lunch table, changing the song on my iPod when

someone walked by, and laughing off offensive jokes, lest my classmates think I wasn’t truly one of them. Until that moment, America had never felt like it was mine.

So when one morning, three months into my year in Peru, a European exchange student pointed to my running shorts and said, “Oh, all of the American girls have those shorts, I really want a pair,” I did a double take. After a lifetime of being “the Asian girl,” being lumped in with “the American girls” was a new sensation, one of pride and belonging.

The prevailing mentality I encountered was that you had to be one or the other, that somehow, my Korean heritage made me less American.

But why was it so jarring to be called an American girl? That is exactly what I am.

Even though I had come to this realization, the fight to establish my American image was far from over. My seven-yearold host sister asked me if I was a tourist in the United States.

I was constantly confused with the exchange student from Taiwan. My teachers at school asked me if I missed China. Catcalls of “chinita” and “konnichiwa” plagued me on the beautiful streets of Arequipa.

What I didn’t expect was to have to fight just as hard for my Korean heritage. Fellow exchange students said to me, “I thought you were Asian when I first met you.” Friends were quick to scold people who asked me about Korea: “She’s not Korean, she’s American.” The prevailing mentality I encountered was that you had to be one or the other, that somehow, my Korean heritage made me less American.

The term “Korean-American,” or any other term that combines two nationalities, is ungrammatical in many other cultures.

It is a distinctly American thing to be able to claim more than one country’s heritage. The way I see it, the “Korean” in “Korean-American” is an adjective that describes “American.” In the same way that a car can be red, blue, or any other color without changing the fact that it is a car, Americans can be Korean, German, Nigerian, or any other heritage without changing the fact that they are American.

I see this sentiment gaining ground, most notably in the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” which I fell in love with shortly after my return flight landed in the U.S. I delighted in this immigrant founding father’s story, in the cast that reflected today’s America, my America. My time in Peru taught me that the world needs reminding: I am American, regardless of my physical appearance, my second language, or the number of years my family has been in this country. I’ll keep waving my American flag, literally and metaphorically. America has been, and always will be, mine.

Joy Kim is a Freshman in the College.

She loves traveling, creating too many playlists, and seeing Asian-American voices amplified.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

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VOICES

“Just Keep Swimming” I watch a lot of movies and television. In fact, I pride myself on my binge-watching ability. My favorite thing to do is curl up in bed, snacks handy and the TV (or laptop, because it’s 2017 and who isn’t watching everything on their laptop now?) playing whatever show I’m into at the moment.

I believe it’s largely a product of my upbringing. There was never a limit on how much TV I could watch as a kid. I spent hours with my great-grandmother watching game shows like Wheel of Fortune, Whammy, and my personal favorite, American Idol. We would spend the entire two-hour ride to my Uncle Jim’s house in New Jersey discussing our opinions on movies. I would eagerly listen as he described waiting in line for two hours to see The Exorcist, or how mesmerizing it was to watch Star Wars in theaters when it first came out. I marathoned every single Harry Potter movie with my aunt, my cousin, and my mother—all at different times. I was surrounded by TV and movies.

And it’s what kept me going, because through all of this bonding over Star Wars or Wheel of Fortune, I spent a lot of time worrying about my family. In 2009, the family matriarch, my great-grandmother, passed away from cancer. Just a few short years later, my mother, my two older brothers, and I all moved into my aunt’s apartment smack in the middle of one of the most violent neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Things were definitely not easy for us.

Throughout middle school and high school, I watched my aunt get up early each morning for a job she hated just so we could eat, and still sometimes struggle to put food on the table. I watched my mother, one of the strongest women I know, break down because she couldn’t find a stable job. I watched her support three kids despite that. I watched the police take my brother away, and I watched him come back home. I watched my other brother lie in the hospital on his deathbed, and then I watched him get better. And through all of this, I watched a lot of television.

I have a hard time allowing myself to feel pain. In the moments when it seemed like my family wouldn’t make it, I had no idea how to process that feeling or how to talk about it, and I grew incredibly anxious. So I would watch something. What I didn’t realize, though, was that through all the TV and movies I watched, I allowed myself the space to feel.

Ask any of my friends, and they will tell you that I get intensely attached to the characters I watch. It was no different growing up. A character’s pain or joy became my pain or my joy. I cried my eyes out and empathized with their on-screen struggles because of my own experiences. And when the movie or episode ended and everything was okay, I wiped my tears, laughed with the characters on the screen, and somehow knew my family would be okay, too. Once I realized how much characters in fictional stories could help me deal with my own feelings toward situations which seemed impossible to confront, I began to appreciate movies and television as much more than just a pastime.

Over the years, I’ve become much better at processing my emotions and dealing with my anxieties. It’s easier for me to

Emily jaster

open up and talk about my feelings now, and I think a lot of that has to do with TV and movies. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, I may not always need to watch a whole series to process that emotion, but I do refer back to the things I’ve learned from the characters I love. When the pressure of being a first generation college student is just too much and I want to give up, I can always think of Dory from Finding Nemo and tell myself to “just keep swimming.” Or if I’m having a day where I’m not feeling too good about myself, I can refer back to season six, episode 25 of The Office where the iconic character Michael Scott says, “I am Beyoncé always.”

But sometimes, there are still things that are too much for me to handle. Things that I can’t process or feel comfortable talking about instantly. Just this very semester, events occurred

back at home when I couldn’t be with my family. It put a strain on me, and much like when I was younger, I wasn’t quite sure how to come to terms with what I was feeling, at least not right away.

So, naturally, I watched Harry Potter.

Dajour Evans is a Sophomore in the College. She is a Halftime Leisure assistant editor interested in minoring in film and media studies.

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DECEMBER 1, 2017

Students Reflect on the National Political Climate

By Caitlyn Cobb

Delaney Corcoran

One Year Later:

Last year, in the weeks leading up to the election, the Voice interviewed students and asked for their perspectives on the national political climate. In those interviews, students discussed how they planned to vote. A range of candidates came up: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, of course, but also third party candidates Gary Johnson and Evan McMullin. After the election, which defied projections and prompted protests marked with cries of “Not my president,” the Voice reached out a second time to hear those same students’ insights and personal views on the new administration and state of politics in the U.S. As 2017 draws to a close, we asked students once again for their perspectives on the current political climate. The Voice contacted all of the previous interviewees, including 2017 graduates, as well as some new voices. Excerpts from all of those who responded are included here.

The Voice received the following responses via email. They have been edited for space and clarity.

Zoë Abrahm (COL ’19) “As a Democrat, I’ve seen a lot of policies I support get rolled back … I think most of these decisions are immoral and irresponsible, but my party lost, and that was what was going to happen. I am upset, but I don’t think these things are unique to a Trump administration.

“What is unique is that this past year, I have had the existence and identity of me and so many others disrespected by the highest office in our country. When Trump did not comment after the rash of bomb threats towards Jewish community centers and synagogues following his inauguration and when he described Nazis as good people, I felt so shaken. His rhetoric has given anti-semitism and sexual assault a pass and has been openly islamophobic, homophobic, and racist. Regardless of political party, the president and his team are supposed to work for everyone, but this administration has made it clear repeatedly that they do not want unity.

“I am truly scared that this administration does not care about me as a Jew or as a woman, and doesn’t care about Americans who aren’t Christian, straight, and white.”

Abrahm identifies as a Democrat and is a member of H*yas for Choice.

Jose Altamirano (COL ’17) “People of all ideological backgrounds seem to be growing aware that the current political status quo is not working. The economic hegemonic doctrine of the last 30 years has resulted in small bubbles of affluence and vast pockets of underemployment and economic distress. ... Something needs to change—and a large part of what that change will look like will depend on whether or not the youngest generation, which Georgetown students make up, can identify the right political solutions and the right message to people—all people—who feel left behind by the current system.

“I see a lot of op-eds and media hands wringing about this, but I’m honestly not concerned about the ‘radical student activists’ who ‘threaten free speech’ on college campuses.

Outspoken students voicing political concerns or demands is a feature, not a bug, of our liberal democracy. I’m way more concerned about white supremacists being given a platform to try to out undocumented students (Milo) or try to kill protesters (Charlottesville).

I’m also concerned about esteemed publications like the New York Times running sympathetic profile pieces of neo-Nazis.”

Altamirano identifies as a Democrat. He graduated from the College in May, and was involved in the Institute of Politics and Public Service when at Georgetownn.

Jessica Andino (COL ’18) “All of my fears of a Trump presidency are worse than I thought. My most pressing political issue during the election was comprehensive immigration reform but now it seems like each week there is a new development that puts laws I took for granted in danger.

“These issues affect all of us in the Georgetown community: the rescinding of DACA/ Temporary Protected Status, uncertainty of ACA provisions regarding birth control, withdrawing from the “Dear Colleague” letter on sexual assault, and proposed tax reform that would reduce the affordability of higher education. Trump has not demonstrated leadership that the country needs; his actions have given fortification to white supremacists to come out and be proud of their racists ideas, most notably this past August in Charlottesville. Now that people are seeing the negative consequences of Trump as president, many people are realizing that they need to stand up against these ideas.

“The recent Democratic sweep in the Virginia elections give me hope that a blue wave is coming in 2018 and 2020. The winners of the election were Democrats, women, people of color, and the transgender community.”

Andino identifies as a Democrat and is the current GUSA vice president. She served as the co-chair of the Institute of Politics and Public Service last year and is an Organizing Fellow at Voto Latino.

Maximilian Fiege (SFS ’18) “Unsurprisingly, the national political climate has continued to polarize since last November. Given that many students now find their very identities and livelihoods under attack by the federal government, this polarization is warranted. What has disappointed me is the willingness of conservatives to stand with the Trump administration for the sake of the Republican party. While on-campus groups have done a decent job of across-the-aisle communication, both at the student and guest speaker levels, I do find that conservative groups on campus have not been vocal enough in denouncing the current administration.

“President Trump has proven his critics right since his very inauguration day. Unfortunately, his critics have no sway over the blind loyalty and need for power that has overcome Capitol Hill. His inability to understand the complexities of international issues, his unwillingness to remedy conflicts of interest, and his arrogance have all worked to push America to the precipitous edge of decline.

“I hope that Robert Mueller’s investigation comes to fruition in 2018 and holds the administration accountable for its self-serving use of the presidency.”

Fiege identifies as a progressive and said in a previous interview that he would vote for Hillary Clinton.

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

Gabriel Gorre (SFS ’18) “The national political climate seems far more accepting of racist rhetoric than in years past, and (though this seems cliche to say) the divide between Trump supporters and others continues to grow—justified given the policies proposed by the man the former are supporting. Many on campus seem more fearful, which is understandable given the threat the current administration poses to many at Georgetown, such as undocumented students.

“I have nothing positive to say about the performance of the president in his first year. Trump has embarrassed the United States, created considerable harm for millions of Americans, undermined the rule of law, and inflamed divisions within our society.

“Hopefully, Trump leaves/is removed from office, and the Democrats flip the House in next year’s elections.”

Gorre identifies as a Democrat. He is a senior in the SFS. Mason Hill (SFS ’17) “Most of my issues with Trump to date have more to do with him being a symptom of problems than the underlying cause.

“Oh, sure he’s a klutz who has hurt a lot of people that have suffered a lot historically though his various prejudices. That said, I’m not as afraid of Trump anymore as of what comes after Trump—the cataclysm that I thought would come has not come yet. Maybe, as President Trump said, ‘it’s the calm before the storm.’

“Like others I voted for Hillary last year, but I’ve grown to accept Trump—maybe that’s easier for me than others for a host of reasons. But look on the left and the right—in their hatred of Trump and the bitterness he brings out in his foes, be it the “Never Trump” Republicans or the #Resistance, they are proving that they are just as willing to throw out norms of civil discourse, charitable construction of the president’s intentions, etc.

“Trump might have destroyed a whole host of norms, but the #Resistance has probably made it impossible to turn the clock back—even if Trump leaves office in the traditional way for failing Presidents (loses reelection).

“I want to see citizens (not referencing nationality here—just the more general sense of the word)—particularly those that go to Georgetown—realize that 99.9 percent of what is wrong with politics has nothing to do with Donald J. Trump the person. Oh sure, he’s erratic but the reason our politics are so dysfunctional is because people both have irrational expectations of it and don’t realize that freedom requires sacrifice—in many cases that will mean sacrifice on their behalf for absolutely nothing in return.”

Hill is a registered Republican. He graduated in May and was a member of the International Relations Club while at Georgetown.

9

Jawad Pullin (COL ’18) “The most urgent issue the country faces is one that Georgetown students will be extremely adversely affected by, and it’s the next bubble that could burst and throw the economy back into recession: the student loan crisis.

“I don’t think political discourse on campus has changed very much. We have always had a very good pulse on national politics because we’re Georgetown. I think we’re all just trying to better understand where our politics is heading, and we are lucky to have such intimate access to political insiders who can interpret what’s going on for us.

“I think the path back to power for liberals is to stop making excuses for our own political base and start wholeheartedly embracing the metropolitan values that churn two-thirds of this nation’s economy and are responsible for nearly all the cultural output this country has to offer.

“We’re not going to improve our political situation by outdoing Trump on Trumpism. We might as well embrace who everyone knows we already are, and make the case for why our vision for America is better than a hateful, divisive one.”

Pullin identifies as a Democrat. He has been a member of GUSA and the College Democrats.

Melvin Thomas (COL ’18) “In 2016, both sides saw the other as intolerable. Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters ‘deplorables,’ while the Republican National Convention was filled with chants of ‘Lock her up!’ That fall, Trump became the first American presidential candidate, as far as I know, to threaten to jail his opponent.

“I think President Trump came into the position with a serious lack of experience, and the past 10 months have demonstrated that. His inability to mobilize Congress to act on his agenda, his scandal-ridden administration, and his frequent vacations all indicate he was never ready to become president.

“I hope those politicians who have been involved in sexual harassment or other misconduct will no longer be a part of the upcoming Congress. I want the Democratic Party to start to listen to the voices it ignored in 2016 and choose to pursue a ‘big tent’ policy. And I hope the Republican candidates do not adopt Trump’s campaign style and strategy of demonizing rhetoric and fueling nationalist sentiments.”

Thomas identifies as a Republican. He is GU Right to Life’s vice president, and is involved in Knights of Columbus and the Tocqueville Forum Student Fellows.

David Patou (COL ’18) “I think the most urgent issue now is our foreign policy. If we go to war with North Korea, for instance, the economy isn’t super relevant.

“If Trump wants to be a successful president (and I’m not sure if perhaps that ship has sailed), he needs to be less divisive. Criticizing the dad of the UCLA basketball player, worrying about which football players kneel during the national anthem, etc.—that stuff just divides Americans for absolutely no gain. I worry that he spends too much time getting involved in playground-like disputes with individual citizens rather than focusing on the welfare of the country.”

Patou identifies as a Democrat. He is a senior in the College majoring in philosophy.

Whitney Wantong (COL ’19) “What will hopefully happen in 2018 is more and more people challenging themselves to check out life outside their bubbles. Here, we talk so much about the Georgetown bubble, but that isn’t the only way we insulate ourselves to like-minded people and opinion. Another example is our social media accounts. Because the feeds we follow are self-selected, we end up not seeing a lot of content that doesn’t reinforce our worldview. This election showed us that politically, we are increasingly polarized. An important way to bridge those gaps is being exposed more and sharing what we learn.

I think it’s also important for Georgetown students to remember that higher education is a privilege not everyone can afford. Criticizing others for being uneducated is classist, and only serves to exacerbate the situation. Many folks will never have the opportunities to attend the lectures we have, so we should start thinking critically about how to reconcile that better, when it comes to how we inform others.”

Wantong identifies as a Democrat. She is a junior in the College.

Kate Phillips (COL ’19) “During the 2016 election and now, the most concerning issues for me were environmental issues. This issue often becomes one of the side issues in a political election, and I found the same to be true in 2016. I have found Trump’s treatment of environmental issues since his presidency to be completely irresponsible. From his review of national monuments to the Paris Climate Agreement and the Keystone XL, I find his policies shortsighted and based on cheap political wins. In a political system that focuses on the immediate, it is often easy for the American public to forget and ignore environmental concerns when often the results of these policy decisions will outlive the current Congress or president.

“When most people’s understanding of policy issues, and I think this has gotten more marked under the Trump presidency, is just that repealing Obamacare is bad or that the TPP is screwing over America, we cannot expect for political dialogue to be reasoned or levelheaded. Both parties obviously engage in the issues in this manner pretty frequently, but I think under Trump any incentive for the public to understand how complex policy issues can be has completely vanished when our president does not appear to put any emphasis on that.”

Phillips identifies as a Democrat. She is a junior in the College.

Samuel Zarroff (COL ’19) “Nationally, I think the election of President Trump has reignited divisions among the American people with regards to race as well as the rural/urban divide. On campus, it immediately begged the question to every student: how ok are you with Trump being president?

Will you go to the White House on election night? Will you you attend the Women’s March the next day?

“With Georgetown being a school of predominantly liberal students, with the ‘Georgetown Right’ being mainly fiscally conservative, socially liberal students, I think a lot of more conservative students had to make a choice of how to present themselves when they are inevitably asked by friends/peers: you are Republican, right? Who did you vote for? Do you support Trump even if you didn’t vote for him?

“I think after the election, the unspoken dividing line on campus emerged between students who were infuriated with Trump’s election and viewed his presidency as unacceptable and an anomaly from the beginning, and those student who either support Trump, view him as an acceptable, if not ideal, leader for our country, or are less politically inclined and don’t feel strongly about his presidency.”

Zaroff identifies as a Democrat and has interned with a Democratic district supervisor in his hometown of San Francisco. On campus, he plays on the men’s club volleyball team.

10

green machine:

the fastest

DECEMBER 1, 2017

men’s cross-country runner by Nick Gavio

IN THE BIG EAST

When Jonathan Green traded in his gray Georgetown uniform for a red United States Track and Field jersey, he was an ocean away from the Hilltop. Green raced for the United States in the Great Edinburgh Cross Country Run against athletes as esteemed as four-time Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah. As the starting gun fired and the runners took off, Green sprinted shoulder-to-shoulder with Farah and other athletes who would go on to race in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“As I was toeing the line, I was like, ‘Damn, [Farah] is about to go this summer and win two gold medals against the best runners in the world,’” said Green, who finished 23rd out of 30 participants in Edinburgh.

Green’s projection came true. Farah won two gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters track races at the 2016 Olympic Games. Meanwhile, Green, a current graduate student-athlete, took NCAA cross-country by a storm, winning the 2017 Big East individual championship and placing 10th in the NCAA championship race. Neither of their successes were surprises.

Challenging the best runners in the world was a natural progression for Green, who began running competitively in the eighth grade. As he developed athletically, he became one of the top cross country and distance track recruits in the country. In high school, Green was a two-time Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships qualifier, a two-time All-State cross-country champion, and a two-time All-State Indoor twomile champion.

“Out of high school, he was arguably the greatest, or one of the greatest, cross-country runners ever from the state of Massachusetts,” said Brandon Bonsey, Georgetown men’s cross-country head coach and men’s track and field assistant coach.

When Green was considering potential schools to continue his athletic and academic careers, Georgetown was consistently near the top of his list. John Murray, one of his rivals from Massachusetts, ran for Georgetown cross-country and track and field during Green’s recruitment. His presence helped influence Green’s decision to commit to the Hilltop.

“We ‘competed,’ if you will, in high school, although he was always way far ahead of me,” Green said. “I looked up to him. He came to Georgetown, and I knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

While expectations were high for Green entering college, he endured a slow start to his Georgetown athletic career. After sustaining a thigh ligament injury in January of his senior year of high school, he redshirted his entire first year to recover. Green also struggled to adjust to the training regimen of the college game.

“He used to be kind of crazy,” said Scott Carpenter, a fellow graduate student cross-country and track athlete. “He’d run as hard as he could on days that you really weren’t supposed to.

I think he’s really matured and realized that he’s actually talented and doesn’t have to run 120 miles per week to do well in races.”

“He has learned how to harness his work ethic a little bit,” Bonsey said. “He works a lot smarter than he used to.”

Green’s hard work began to pay off as he neared full health during his freshman year, and his talent became more evident.

“He was doing a workout with an older guy on the team, Andrew Springer, a multiple-time All-American here, and Jon was staying right with him,” Bonsey said. “I looked at Coach [Pat] Henner, our head coach at the time, and said, ‘Wow, Jon is even better than I thought he was.’”

When Green and the rest of his recruiting class arrived on the Hilltop, the men’s cross-country and track and field teams were forced to adjust their team cultures to account for the invigoration of new talent. The men’s cross-country team hadn’t won the Big East since 2008, but the additions of Green, Carpenter, and Amos Bartelsmeyer in the 2013 recruiting class promised to bring success back to campus. All three had won high school championships in their respective states, contributing a new level of talent to the Georgetown team.

“They came in and had instant success because they’re all really talented,” Bonsey said. “It shook up the team culture a little bit. They were beating the older guys and that took a little bit of time for people to get used to.” As the younger class matured, the men’s cross-country team as a whole has continued to improve, in large part due to Green’s presence on the roster.

“He is a leader by example for this program, and is really someone that the younger guys look up to,” said Julie Culley, Georgetown’s director of track and field and cross country.

The team finally broke out in 2015, winning the Big East cross-country championship. Green led all Hoyas with a second-place individual finish.

The team then took the Big East title again in 2016, a season when Green was inactive because of injury. With Green back in healthy form, the Hoyas won the conference championship for the third straight time this season.

Green won the individual Big East title with a time of 24:27 in the 8K race, pacing the Hoyas to the first men’s cross-country three-peat in the Big East since Providence accomplished the same from 1990-92.

“I actually didn’t even realize it was a three-peat,” Green said. “I pay attention to that stuff, but you also have to forget about it. I remember thinking about it in early September but then putting it in the back of my mind.”

Entering the championship race, the Georgetown team faced stiff competition from talented Villanova and Butler squads, but ultimately came out on top after top10 finishes from Green, sophomore Reilly Bloomer, and sophomore Nick Wareham.

“Going back to back to back is a really difficult thing to do, because it means that the pieces need to come together on the right day,” Culley said.

Following this season’s Big East championship win, the men’s cross-country team ran at NCAA Mid-Atlantic regionals, a qualifying competition for the country-wide NCAA finals.

Green finished in first place and qualified for the NCAA finals as an individual, but Georgetown failed to qualify as a team.

Green and Bonsey had both experienced the NCAA Championship atmosphere before and knew what to expect from the competition. After battling early pain, 20 mile per hour sustained winds, and some of the best collegiate runners in the country, Green finished the race 10th overall in the nation.

“Jon executed his race plan to perfection,” Bonsey said. “It was the most patient and tough race he’s ever run.”

“I told Bonsey right after, it was one of the most painful races of my life,” Green said. “It hurt super early, but that actually encouraged our race plan even more. It went in waves, but it started hurting at 1K and it’s a 10K race.”

The last time Green raced in the NCAA championship in 2015, he was accompanied by the rest of his team, and finished fifth overall as a sophomore. This year, he had to endure the painful race alone.

“The only thing different [about 2017] was not having a team there for the first time,” Green said. “I didn’t think that was going to be as hard as it actually was.”

Throughout his time at Georgetown, the cross-country and track teams have been central to Green’s experience as a student-athlete. According to Green and Carpenter, the presence of the entire squad helps moderate stress levels before important races, as the team’s loose atmosphere keeps everyone level-headed.

“The camaraderie we have together takes the pressure off a little bit and makes it a lot more fun for sure,” Carpenter said.

Another important aspect of the cross-country team’s culture is its collective training. Green explained one frequent workout, a 10-mile “tempo” run on the Canal Road running path toward Maryland. The run consists of a short warm-up run, followed by five miles up the path and five miles back at a hard pace.

“Doing a tempo alone is absolutely miserable. You’re just alone out there, and it’s not fun at all. And you realize how nice having a team there around you is,” Green said.

While the team serves as practical training partners for workouts and runs, it is also a tight-knit group of friends who like to compete with each other.

“If you came to our practice, you’d probably be surprised at the number of arguments there are or guys kind of talking trash to each other,” Bonsey said. “But at the same time, they love each other and want each other to do well.”

The team atmosphere represents a support system and a source of motivation for Green heading into track season, when he competes in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters distance races. Despite his talent, Green has never scored points at NCAA

11

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

All photos Courtesy Georgetown Sports Information championships for track, a fact that his coaches and teammates won’t let him forget.

“They make sure I know that I haven’t scored, and that I need to score,” Green said. “It’s again that team atmosphere.”

According to Bonsey, his plan in preparing Green for 201718 focused on translating his achievements in cross-country to similar levels of success in the winter and spring. Green accomplished his goal for the cross-country season: finishing in the top 10 at NCAA finals (although, he would have preferred to top Carpenter’s 10th place result from last season). Entering the school year, however, Green’s main target was always improving his time on the track.

After finishing 16th at the NCAA Indoor Track Championships last season and ranking ninth in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division I John McDonnel Program of the Year Award standings in 2016, Georgetown is primed for another successful season on the track. Green hopes to break his slump and contribute points to this year’s effort.

“We’ve had very successful track teams at NCAAs the past couple of years,” Green said. “Bonsey and I have talked about this, and that is where I want to focus this year, running fast track times and running very well at NCAAs.” As Green ponders his future after Georgetown, he has several paths to weigh before making his decision. He is currently enrolled in the Sports Industry Management graduate program at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies, and while Green would love to

continue his running career, he is also applying to jobs in federal law enforcement. He and his coaches have also petitioned the NCAA for a medical redshirt that would allow him another semester of collegiate competition for the 2018 cross country season if he chooses to return to Georgetown. He is covering all of his bases for potential backup plans, but make no mistake—Green’s ideal outcome is continuing his running career.

“The NCAA doesn’t allow us to talk to agents, so we are very much in the dark until after Outdoors,” Green said. “I would love to keep running. I think if I run well this [track] season, I might have options there.”

“I think Jon has just scratched the surface of how good he can be,” Bonsey said. “I really think he can get a lot better and be one of the top distance runners in the U.S.” When Green reflects on his experience competing with an Olympic champion at the 2016 Great Edinburgh race, he knows those races are where he belongs.

“It was a cool experience, but it was also kind of eye-opening where you have to realize, yes I was in the race with [Farah], but I also had a [United States] teammate who competed for the win against him and beat him,” Green said. “So, it was one of those things where you realize these guys aren’t untouchable.”

The future looks bright for Green if he chooses to continue to run. He may toe the line with Farah again, and if he does, Green will know that he has the ability and talent to compete at the highest level.

DECEMBER 1, 2017

12

music 1 DAMN.

Kendrick Lamar

Gustav Honl-Stuenkel: Kendrick Lamar’s fourth studio album marks another distinct shift in tone for the rapper, bringing to light his continued struggles with self-doubt, fame, and his troubled upbringing. The album is laced with contradiction, seemingly reflecting Lamar’s own state of mind as it bounces between moods, tones, and messages as quickly as he can conceive them. Bigname collaborations fit comfortably alongside Lamar’s commanding star status and at times are unexpected complements to his songs. Throughout DAMN., Lamar maintains the dense and engaging lyricism of his previous albums while bringing a modern and radio-ready sound that handily secures his project as the best of the year.

2 Ctrl SZA

Claire Goldberg: Soulful, sorrowful, deeply intimate, and intensely powerful, SZA’s Ctrl is an R&B masterpiece. The opening song, “Supermodel,” is only backed by subdued guitar strumming and cymbal rolls, a simplicity that carries through the entire album and allows for SZA’s voice to shine as it should. Despite, or even because of, this ease and simplicity, Ctrl is one of the strongest albums of the year, featuring brutally honest lyrics that exemplify feminine frustrations with relationships and personal image. Though her vocals stay soft and melodic, there is an obvious power in her message. It is this complexity and control that makes SZA’s first album an immediate classic.

3 Saturation II

BROCKHAMPTON

Eman Rahman: BROCKHAMPTON is a powerhouse cast of mixed race, queer, and straight rappers and producers whose music boasts a spirit of inclusion. That spirit pulses beneath the surface of Saturation II, which snarls, shouts, and serenades for those with little voice in modern America. There’s a sense of rebellion achieved by letting the 15-member group thrive on tracks that crackle with energy and ideas. Across songs spanning huge Outkast-like choruses (“TOKYO”), fierce West Coast siren synths (“GUMMY”), and gauzy guitar campfire sing-alongs (“SUNNY”), their collective chemistry fizzes— indicating that the crew is really coming into their own. On Saturation II, BROCKHAMPTON dares to imagine blazing trails in a better hip-hop world.

4 4:44

Gustav Honl-Stuenkel: After taking the country—and every college party—by storm with the hit single “Bad and Boujee,” Migos dropped Culture and redefined the triple threat as Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff encapsulate the best that trap rap has to offer. Culture is relentlessly energetic and fun, painting shamelessly opulent vignettes of the group’s trips through strip clubs, designer stores, and their drug business. The album’s 13 tracks are a romp through the ideal life of a self-made rapper, and Migos spare no artistic flourish or perfectly-executed bar to describe it. As the rappers deftly trade verses and continually surprise and excite with their ingenuity and wordplay, it becomes clear why the triumvirate stole the show this year.

Max Fredell: 4:44 is a reflection: Jay-Z speaks as an artist, father, husband, and black man. Tracks like “Kill Jay-Z” and “4:44” find Jay-Z apologizing for his past transgressions; his honesty is tangible on the album. No I.D.’s subtle production on “4:44” is haunting, but never outdoes Jay-Z’s delivery. In “Marcy Me,” Jay-Z quotes Hamlet, “Lord, we know who we are, but not who we may be,” while he reflects on life in Brooklyn before his fame. His reflections are solemn, but there’s optimism in the realizations he finds. Jay-Z is concerned with his legacy, and 4:44 is timeless.

5 Something to Tell You

Vince Staples

Hug of Thunder 8

Broken Social Scene

Mike Bergin: Eighteen years and five albums later, Broken Social Scene is not done reinventing itself. Their latest studio album, Hug of Thunder, is a diverse array of sounds paying tribute to their past while introducing something new.

The band’s lineup has changed greatly over the years, featuring up to 20 people at times. This collaboration of creative minds can best be heard on Hug of Thunder. Tracks like “Towers and Mansions” and “Victim Lover” evoke the bliss of late 90s alternative with the band’s own tranquil spin. The album reads like a chronology of alternative music, going period by period while Broken Social Scene makes it all uniquely their own.

MASSEDUCTION 9 St. Vincent

Mary Mei: Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent, continues to push her musical boundaries with MASSEDUCTION. The album is a profound and bold collection of stylistically diverse tracks that are meant to be played on full blast.

Tracks like “Los Angeles” and “Mass Seduction” are unapologetically brash while others like “Happy Birthday, Johnny” are much more lyrical and sentimental. It’s a little disappointing that Clark’s voice is not at the forefront of more songs; the aggressive bass beat in some of the pop-anthems overshadows the sensitivity and delicacy of her voice. Still, MASSEDUCTION is ultimately a comprehensive representation of Clark’s range of talent and ability.

Devon O’Dwyer: Pop-rock sister trio HAIM released their punchy and electric sophomore record Something To Tell You and cemented their status as masters of 1970s inspired rock. While the album focuses on familiar themes of heartbreak, loss, and longing, the group does so in a way that’s complex and multifaceted, bringing in seamless instrumental twists and turns, intricate guitar riffs, and belting, powerful vocals. The sisters are experts of rhythm, always perfectly in control of where their songs are going, resulting in a record that is effortlessly satisfying and full of youthful energy.

Big Fish Theory 7

Nick Gavio: Vince Staples’s most recent album, Big Fish Theory, solidified his status as an elite modern rapper. In a change from Staples’s last full length album, Big Fish Theory features up-tempo, dance club-like beats to complement his fastpaced vocals. The album explores both the highs of celebrity culture and the darker themes that come along with it, as Staples raps about depression in “Party People” and intersperses audio from a 2006 Amy Winehouse interview in “Alyssa Interlude.” Ultimately, Staples’s project continues to build on his rising stardom in the rap world.

Jay-Z

HAIM

Culture 6

Migos

I See You 10 The xx

Emily Jaster: I See You is sparse and mellow but strikingly upbeat and dynamic relative to The xx’s reserved and famously shy beginnings. Each synthetic tone is carefully placed to bring out the best of the duo’s admittedly short-range vocals, marking the skill of producer Jamie xx. The album’s energy peaks with a couple’s dialogue on lead single “On Hold”—which samples another stellar duo, Hall and Oates—then transitions to cooler pieces reminiscent of The xx’s older works. Parallel to the band’s blossoming and heightening sound, the lyrics focus on finding courage, in spite of anxiety, offering support to audiences as the band members strive to reassure themselves.

ALL ALBUM IMAGES COPYRIGHT THEIR RESPECTIVE RIGHTS HOLDERS

13

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

movies The Big Sick 6

Gustav Honl-Stuenkel: Kumail Nanjiani rocketed himself to silver-screen fame by writing and starring in this touching romantic dramedy, based on the real story of him and his wife. With Nanjiani’s clever deadpan and convincing emotional performances from the whole cast, the movie makes the serious topics it covers—life-threatening illness, rigid familial expectations, and unrequited love—accessible, believable, and moving. The trope of a struggling improv actor is an easy fallback for Hollywood, but The Big Sick’s unflinchingly human and honest interpretation and nearly-tragic twist add depth and refresh the genre.

1 Dunkirk

Graham Piro: Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic feels like the biggest experimental film ever made. It has minimal dialogue, no character arcs, and three different timeframes. In the hands of a director as accomplished as Nolan, though, the film triumphs. Dunkirk never lets the audience breathe over the course of its relatively brief runtime. Nolan weaves together three different storylines: one in the air, one on the beach, and one on the sea, each demonstrating the struggle for survival during the miracle at Dunkirk. Nolan’s sense of the epic has never been on better display. From brilliantly crafted aerial dogfights between Tom Hardy and faceless enemies to Harry Styles and Fionn Whitehead’s fight to escape drowning, Dunkirk is an unrelentingly intense experience, amplified by Hans Zimmer’s unconventional and electrifying score.

The Florida Project 7

Eman Rahman: The Florida Project recognizes the wonder and brutality of daily life without ever stretching either to the point of becoming overly sentimental or cruel. In this slice of the life of a homeless family living in a budget motel just outside of Disney World, the flawed characters are evocative, simultaneously igniting pity and reverence as they navigate unfathomable hardships, and the grainy 35mm cinematography beautifully captures the working class splendor of the Sunshine State in all its faded glory. But what ultimately makes The Florida Project so intoxicating is its ability to deliver the joys of childhood, exploiting the sense of discovery that comes along with a lack of experience and how the mundane can suddenly become magical.

2 Get Out

Dajour Evans: Get Out explores the story of a black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who visits his white girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) family for the weekend, and uncovers a terrifying truth about the black people in the neighborhood. Writer-director Jordan Peele’s brilliant script shines as Get Out seamlessly blends satire with horror to illustrate the harrowing experiencing of being black in America.

Kaluuya gives a remarkable portrayal as a fish out of water that is only matched by the haunting antics of the family members, who manage to be equally amusing and frightening. With complicated themes, chilling performances, and a bold, unflinching take on race relations in America, Get Out is one of the best and most relevant films to come out this year.

It 8

Ryan Mazalatis: 2017 saw the revitalization of the horror genre, and there could have been no better movie to lead the surge than It, an incredible rendition of the Stephen King novel of the same name. Director Andy Muschietti recreates King’s vision with beautifully macabre and meticulous effort put into every set design and costume. The film deeply embeds itself in our popular culture, inspiring memes and SNL skits alike. While the acting and special effects lend a hand in It’s popularity, the film most notably delivers universal messages of friendship and overcoming trauma and grief. The film’s message and heart distinguishes It within its genre and among other films this year.

3 Logan

Tyler Pearre: Logan is a prime example of what the comic book genre can accomplish when it’s willing to push its own boundaries. Set in 2029, the Wolverine is one of the few remaining mutants in existence, but he is no longer immortal, and only a shadow of his former self. On the surface, the storyline may seem basic—an aging superhero must make one final push to protect the people he loves. But the film is elevated by the Wolverine’s humanity as scenes of intense violence no longer feel like a formality. Logan’s fleeting strength becomes more apparent with every punch, kick, and claw. It’s clear that he is now fighting for something bigger than himself: the future of all mutants. While viewers can sense his impending death throughout the movie, the Wolverine’s swan song still elicits its fair share of tears. It may not be flawless, but Logan asserts itself as one of the most satisfying ends to a character arc in recent memory.

Lady Bird 9

Caitlin Mannering: Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut is a semi-autobiographical look at her senior year in 2002-03 at a Sacramento all-girls Catholic high school.

The film follows Saoirse Ronan as she seamlessly slips back into adolescence in Lady Bird’s titular role, an impulsive teenager obsessed with asserting her own individuality, even if she might not even know what that means. In Lady Bird, Gerwig shows us things we have all seen before: breakups, prom, graduation. But she infuses the conventions with freshness and humor, giving us a tender, messy glimpse into life and all its complications.

4 Call Me By Your Name

Mary Mei: Call Me By Your Name is an enchanting and sun-soaked cinematic triumph. Director Luca Guadagnino’s masterpiece generated Oscar buzz even before hitting theaters—and rightly so. Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet play two young men who fall into an ethereal summer romance in the Italian countryside.

The film is exquisitely shot and deeply relatable, as it studies the uninhibited chemistry between two individuals. Hammer and Chalamet have an undeniable bond that, when coupled with the visual genius of Guadagnino and the musical brilliance of Sufjan Stevens, makes Call Me By Your Name an unforgettable experience.

Mudbound 10

5 Wonder Woman

Caitlin Mannering: Mudbound blends the poetic and the realistic in a multi-character, multi-year drama. Director Dee Rees never loses control as the film shifts between the changing perspectives and times, filling the screen with visuals as moving as the powerful emotions she brings forth from her cast. Mudbound transports viewers to the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s to observe the strained relationship between two families: the white McAllans and the black Jacksons.

The film is multi-faceted, exploring family, racism, PTSD, and alcoholism.

Most of all, Mudbound confronts the truth of how pursuing the American Dream was often dependent on the color of a person’s skin—a past that is inextricably woven into our present.

Graham Piro: Wonder Woman takes the familiar structure of the superhero origin story and introduces a funny, heartfelt, and inspired spin. Gal Gadot is one of 2017’s breakout stars as she shines in the role of Diana Prince. The chemistry between Gadot and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor provides the emotional backbone as Diana navigates World War I-torn Europe.

The No Man’s Land sequence is one of the best set-pieces of the year, and highlights a film that brilliantly blends elements of romantic comedy, action, fantasy, and superhero tropes. Heart and sincerity define what was one of the best films of an otherwise disappointing summer.

Images: IMDB

DECEMBER 1, 2017

LEISURE

14

Two Shades of War:

Nenad Zaric at the Artist’s Proof Gallery

By Mike Bergin

Artist's Proof Art Gallery & Consultancy

in the darkness. Petr Krivonogov’s painting of Russian soldiers standing with their arms up on the bullet-ridden Reichstag steps has been a Russian sign of hope for peace, or even for restoration. “Guernica” is a memorial to the chaos and confusion of atrocity and violence, while “Paths of Glory” is a dismissal of glory searching for a lost generation. Those who live through times like these all have a unique experience to convey. Serbian artist Nenad Zaric is no exception. Selected works from his White and Black series, now on display at the Zaric only has two works on display, one black and one white, both examples of abstract expressionism. Both rest along a back wall of the gallery, standing side by side, roughly six feet tall and eight wide. The two are a clear dichotomy; the former shows barren storm lands, mottled with brown and slathered with drips and splotches of color. The latter is a blanket of white but almost weighted down in appearance. The white drifts look heavy, burying something as pockets of black and gray peak through.

Both canvases are ruddy and tactile. The paint is layered thick and Zaric includes fragments of sand and earth to provide depth to his piece, superseding the canvas and disturbing the comfort of the traditionally two-dimensional space. The black canvas, titled “Black Series II,” his work, shows the senseless nature of war. Colors overlap and swirl, yet are given a sense of motion, constantly rolling over one another. As a person of Croatian descent, raised hearing actually are. Croatians, Bosnians, and Serbs all speak a nearly identical language, but ignore the clear similarities to declare each language unique. Although I can only speculate about Zaric’s of former Yugoslavia are, especially in the maelstrom of war.

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The only clear images in the work are three ragged fence posts with long shadows. According communication broke down between various groups of people. Each stroke of the brush on “Black Series II” is distinct. Streaks of diluted paint visibly drip down the canvas like tear tracks that fall into the thick-textured paint of the war scene below. There are scratches on the canvas as well as incoherent dashes of blank canvas, reminders of gravity and the physical force such short and sharp marks require. They are also indicative of Zaric’s restraint. He is unwilling to let these small marks of anger consume his entire work.

Noting the direction of the shadows, however, one can see that the storm is on a gradient.

One side of the canvas is in utter darkness but slowly transitions to lighter grays and the assumed sun on the murky horizon.

Following this gradient from left to right, the eyes fall on “White Series II,” an inundation of bright white alluded to in its sibling work. The canvases are not identical, neither in setting nor in exact size, but both show a muddled sky, now in white, with a distinct horizon line and a scene on the ground remain. There is clear motion in Zaric’s strokes as the white suppresses the darkness beneath it. Zaric’s experiences. There is calm in the pale white, but not necessarily peace. The coarse rivers of white can evoke healing but also represent a burial mound for the losses sustained in this action seeking its end.

In the end, however, there is nothing. White is as close to blank Zaric can make the canvas.

Being only 31, Zaric addresses violence and chaos witnessed at a young age. He nevertheless takes on the responsibility of representing the overarching sentiments of many diverse peoples, and he successfully addresses their sorrows, confusion, and hope. works cover a vast scope of the human consciousness in wartime, creating both a memorial to the past and a message of hope for the future.

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15

THE GEORGETOWN VOICE

By Gustav Honl-Stuenkel

One of the most famous artists of the past century,

tion of the work allows the viewer’s imagination to run wild,

his simultaneously formless and evocative pieces. Pollock’s works are expressions of pure creativity, conveying his overwhelming urge to produce that simply required the immediate application of marks on canvas. The almost manic fury of Pollock’s works is apparent, and his compositions seem to jump from their canvases to splay themselves across the room with unmitigated energy. The 363 works from his 44 years chronicle an artist brimming with genius. On Nov. 19, the National Gallery of Art added Pollock’s “Mural” to its walls alongside six pieces by Pollock from its own collection, and devoted a small exhibition to the piece’s development and context.

“Mural” is impossible to miss as one enters the room, lock’s patron, Peggy Guggenheim, gave him free reign with the piece, requesting only that it be a certain size. Gallery descriptions explain that Pollock had to remove one of the walls of his apartment in order to accommodate the piece, ish it. Though it hints at Pollock’s Action Painting technique, in which he laid the canvas on the ground and walked in and around it, “Mural” was painted upright in his studio.

The painting itself is deeply complex, depicting a varied scene that is at turns jubilant and natural, foreboding and iners—arms raised and legs splayed in dynamic and explosive motion. The dancers appear to be in a forest packed with organic and exuberant chaos. Steely, industrial blue blazes through the piece, tying the massive canvas together but also drawing it away from a purely natural scene. As one spends more time with the work, however, the celebratory mood -

distorted face to an erect lizard to a somber bird.

“Mural” was a pivotal piece in the development of modern art, tying together both styles that preceded it and hinting at what was soon to come. Patches of canvas are visible behind light washes, punctuated by bold swatches of color bringing to mind Wassily Kandinsky’s “Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)” from 1913. Similar technique was brought to its full potential in 1952, nine years after “Mural,” with Helen Frankenthaler’s massive “Mountains and Sea,” in which she “stained” her canvas with heavily diluted oil paints and interrupted these large patches of color with thick charcoal lines.

In addition to being midway between Kandinsky and Frankenthaler’s approach to the color wash technique, “Mural” foreshadows the development of Pollock’s own renowned method—Action Painting. Throughout the canvas, splatters of varied color interrupt Pollock’s dynamic strokes and bring an instinctual feeling to the work that would dominate his later pieces.

To its left hangs a smaller, but equally important work, Pollock’s “Lavender Mist.” The curator’s decision to place “Lavender Mist” alongside “Mural” highlights their similar styles and draws attention to Pollock’s growth with Action Painting. Truly one of the artist’s masterpieces, Pollock painted “Lavender Mist” in 1950, seven years after “Mural.” It elicits a varied cocktail of emotions as one delves into its textured and chaotic layering. The piece itself seems to be alive, humming and rippling with subversive energy, and while it contains only muted colors (and no lavender), it is irresistibly vibrant, boring into its audience’s retinas with shameless intentionality. A textbook example of Pollock’s Action Painting style, it treads in the gray area between technique, intuition, luck, and metaphysical inspiration. To create it, Pollock laid

LEISURE

The National Gallery of Art Contextualizes Jackson Pollock’s Masterpiece “Mural” brushes and mixing sticks to drizzle and splatter the canvas.

He stepped on and across the work, allowing broken glass, paint. In places, “Lavender Mist” is rich and layered, and in others, lightly-washed, allowing almost-bare canvas to peek through, a testament to Pollock’s free-form and unregulated style. The work feels like the encapsulation of Pollock’s era, a lynchpin for the artistic community. “Nothing is the same now,” it thunders. It is ominous, inexplicably heavy, and enchanting—and it knows so.

In “Number 7” (1951), hanging to the right of “Mural,” Pollock abandons the texture of “Lavender Mist” and focuses on cultivating the work’s improvisational nature. Using a turkey baster, he dripped black paint onto the canvas, letting is bare and abstract, but more clearly representational than together in passionate embrace.

“Ritual” (1953) is a return to brushwork for Pollock, and, again, is ripe with energy. Its abstract forms leap ecstatically across the canvas, which is trisected by two thin black lines.

The colorway is remarkably similar to that of “Mural,” tying the two pieces together in both technique and tone. Several untitled engravings and drawings from 1944-45 also hang in the room and point to Pollock’s overwhelming creativity; no matter the medium, he churns out art brimming with orgastic verve.

Both “Mural” and “Lavender Mist” are masterpieces in their own right, but within the context of the National Gallery’s exhibit they show Pollock’s context and development.

The exhibition, running until Oct. 28, 2018, provides a brief changed popular interpretations of art and its purpose.

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