by hoot
fall 2016
Ama Kwarteng, Anisa Tavangar, Antonio Serros, Ari Malik, Augusta Chapman, Charlotte Spritz
What is Holler? Since 2009, Columbia University undergrads have been compiling photos and articles to produce Hoot Magazine each semester. As the publication passed from one set of editors to another, its personality has changed and more recently, this spread has meant more attention for the magazine and more interest in it amongst the student body. Holler is our response to both of these phenomena. Holler is where we want to channel that increased enthusiasm and present the personal interest and more trend-based projects that Hoot sometimes features. Hoot will continue growing, featuring the best undergraduate artists and creatives on campus and acting as a space for these individuals to collaborate with each other and with brands that believe in the creative capacity of our campus. Holler is more casual in how we shoot, will focus more on personal style and stories, and feature emerging brands. These two publications will work in conjunction with each other to do what we’ve always done, just in a more focused and deliberate way. Thank you for supporting Hoot, whether it’s from day one or yesterday, and here’s to Hoot and Holler!
an T. Smith, Madeline Madia, Malika Jones, Paris Parker-Loan, Phoebe Jones, Sloane A. Gustafson, Stacey Yu, Sukanya Pusey, Wilson Greaton z, Esra Ugur, Inga Norell, Jacquelyn Klein, Jasmine Weber, John Anukem, Kaeli Streeter, Keen
lightgiver golden pho t ographer Jasmine Weber sty list Kaeli S tree t er mode l Malika Jones make u p Anisa Ta vangar assist ant s S t acey Yu, Sukanya Pusey
Malika wears jewelr y by Edas Jewels and glitt er by BadLib Cosme tics.
in skin
pho t ographer s Sloane Gust afson, Anisa Ta vangar sty lists Sloane Gust afson, Char lo tt e Spr itz mode l Esra Ugur make u p Anisa Ta vangar
Esra wears bodysuits by MUZA .
legging
by keenan t. smith
myself, in skin tight Black nylon, stretching for a corrupt smooth. I pull them high up to my waist, skyward. Tearing them apart in the morning, mourning for my mother and never myself. Feel that? do it again, a new feel. Like an old glove, Girl, you’re undone at the seams like my dewy smile. Singing, dancing, and the pink sun hitting my spine while on the eastside highway. I feel colored, a holy crayola, the spirit of self design. Ancient Feminine, Assata, Diana, Angela, Matrons of an Aged War, I evoke your strength in these fabrics. Bound to what I should be, I’d rather you be, in this moment than me.
And when the white church bells screech, and the blue flames of their lips, and their blood stained imagination try to claim them, me, worry not; these are diamond laced, impervious, and born of the weight of two cities and the ivory shit my sins. On the border, disoriented and dead eyed, Girl, find me tight find me tight find me tight find me tight, or don’t.
the HRC dilemma by ama kwarteng
On Tuesday, June 7, 2016, Hillary Clinton made history by becoming the first woman candidate to be nominated for President of the United States by one of the two major political parties. My Facebook news feed was covered in posts commenting on the event. My friends wrote of glass ceilings being shattered and the tears they shed when they saw Clinton walking on stage to accept her nomination. Whether or not one likes Clinton or agrees with all of her policies, I think we can all agree that her nomination is an important historical moment. It cannot be undervalued that Hillary Clinton, a woman, has a large chance at being the first to hold the highest, most important political position in the world.Fanfare and all, I felt nothing. No overwhelming emotions, no tears. Nothing. Clinton’s nomination took me back to Barack Obama’s first nomination eight years prior. I remember every single detail from that night. I remember sitting directly in front of the television with my family. My brother was next to me, his face just as close to the television as mine was. My little sister was jumping up and down on the couch. At the age of five, she did not necessarily fully understand what was happening, but she was still animated, taking in the energy she was feeling around her. Near her were my parents, both of them on their feet. My mom was on the phone with her sister from Wisconsin. She was pacing around the room, a huge smile on her face, as they were discussing the moment that we were all witnessing. To this day, the issue of The Columbus Dispatch that was released the morning after Obama accepted the nomination is still in the right bedside drawer in my parent’s room in Ohio. I am not saying that President Barack Obama is perfect—simply that I have always felt more tied with my black identity than I have with my identity as a woman in the United States. I think this is because I have never really felt fully included in the mainstream feminist dialogue. This is not something that is uncommon among black women; in my experience, black women tend to identify more with their race than their gender. The feeling of disconnect that many black women feel from the feminist movement is nothing new and has existed in this country for as long as the movement itself. A main motivator for the women’s suffragist movement was the idea that if black men, painted as rapists and unintelligent, were able to vote, white women should be able to as well. The feminist movement has often defined ‘woman’ to mean ‘white and middle class’.
When we talk about the wage gap, the oft-cited statistic is that full-time working women in America make $0.79 to every $1 that a fulltime working man makes. This fact ignores women of color, for whom the wage gap is much larger. When white feminists talk about “having it all�, they fail to mention that having it all would not be possible without the undervalued domestic labor that women of color provide for them. It is hard for me to view Hillary Clinton’s success as anything other than personal achievement. Her vision of feminism seems to view progress and success through a lens that does not include women of color. No one woman can represent 51% of population, but there are ways that Clinton can improve her relations with women of color. She has to gain our trust by directly and consistently acknowledging our needs and issues. Despite countless public appearances on the campaign trail, Clinton has yet to mention several issues that disproportionately affect women of color. Even those few attempts she has made at interacting with issues of intersectionality are sub par. She has yet to acknowledge the rising number of trans women of color killed in the United States. She has not mentioned that Latina women have a higher unemployment rate than the national average. She only discusses police brutality in terms of men of color, ignoring the numerous women affected by police violence. She has silenced black women, perhaps most infamously by having two Black Lives Matter protesters escorted out of a campaign fundraiser in February 2016. She has defended deporting children who have fled to the United States from their home countries in Central America. Her record overseas in countries such as Iraq and Syria have lead to threatening outcomes for women of color abroad. Even with all of this on my mind, I will still be voting for Hillary Clinton on November 8th. She is one of the most qualified candidates to ever run for the position, and her Republican contender is absolutely unfit for the job. Abstaining from voting, especially in a swing state like Ohio, is not a privilege that I have as a black woman but I will not be voting enthusiastically. Regardless of a Clinton presidency, women of color will continue to push through obstacles, as we have done since this nation was founded. We will continue to be resilient, strong, and loud. We will continue to challenge the status quo by surviving and succeeding at the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. We will continue to live.
taking root pho t ographer W i lson Great on sty lis t Ant onio Ser ros mode l s John Anukem, Ar i Malik assist ant s Sloane Gust afson, Anisa Ta vangar
John and Ar i wear select clo t hing by Isidoro Francisco.
photographed by krista anna lewis styled by krista anna lewis, zoĂŤ flood tardino, & emilia schaffer del valle