The Miscellany News
Volume CXLVIII | Issue 8
November 12, 2015
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Video attacks VC student services Dialogue delves into interreligious conflict V Rhys Johnson News Editor
assar maintains a special spot on the ever-growing list of American colleges and universities with reputations for being hotbeds of liberal idealism, a description that many on campus wear proudly. Outside of campus, however, not everyone feels similarly.
On Tuesday, Nov. 3, right-wing nonprofit organization Project Veritas, headed by conservative journalist James O’Keefe, released a video to the internet attacking liberal arts college administrators for their stance on political correctness on college campuses. The video, posted originally on the fringe investigator group’s YouTube channel, featured footage tak-
en in September of Interim Title IX Coordinator and Assistant Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Kelly Grab, Faculty Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Colleen Cohen and other liberal arts college administrators speaking with a troubled student. The mysterious student claimed that she See GRAB on page 4
Sarah Sandler Columnist
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t is important for Vassar students to be aware of the events happening in the world around us. To promote this belief, Vassar hosted a conversation called Dialogue Across Difference: A Conversation on Israel/Palestine with Duke University’s Imam Abdullah Antepli and Professor Yehezkel Landau from Hartford Seminary. Issues surrounding Israel and Palestine are important to many Vassar students, and this discussion lent new perspectives to a complicated topic. The event was sponsored by the Office of Religious & Spiritual
Life (RSL), a Campus Life and Diversity Office at Vassar College, the RSL Forum for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Africana Studies, Jewish Studies, the Department of Religion and the Office of the President. “On questions of peace and justice there are often diverging opinions and often tensions and while Vassar can’t solve those particular issues, it’s possible to create spaces for understanding and awareness,” Associate Dean of the College, Edward Pittman explained. By hosting these two speakers, that is exactly what RSL hopes to do. See PANEL on page 7
ASU speaker critically reflects on Blackness Alan Hagins Reporter
courtesy of YouTube
On Nov. 3, conservative non-profit Project Veritas released a video attacking support administrators at Vassar and Oberlin for what Project Veritas leader James O’Keefe called “political correctness and cultural sensitivity run amok.”
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ast week, accomplished author and Vassar graduate, Nana Brew-Hammond ’98, delivered a lecture on the intricacies of Blackness. In a style of rhetoric which entwined the intimate and academic, Brew-Hammond explained the monolithic narrative of Blackness and attempted to uncover some of its hidden complexities. “I was born in America but raised
as a Ghanaian,” she began. The personal narrative Brew-Hammond provided framed her discussion of the Black narrative, and her own identity would remain close at hand throughout the lecture. “It was this narrative that made me want to walk far away from my parents when they spoke our language, Fanti, outside the privacy of our apartment; this narrative that mortified me of the smell of the See LECTURE on page 6
Fencing team’s first Silent poetry adopts visual rhyme contest a ‘Big One’ K Sieu Nguyen Reporter
Ashley Hoyle Reporter
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Inside this issue
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Lecture contextualizes FEATURES Deccan art
14 ARTS
Photographer features displaced persons in exhibit
courtesy of Vassar College
t seems a bit ironic that the Vassar College men’s and women’s fencing teams would begin, rather than end, their seasons at The Big One, but nonetheless, the tournament proved beneficial for the squads in several ways. The Big One was hosted this past Saturday at Smith College by the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference. Sophomore Annie Innes-Gold explained a bit about the tournament’s structure: “The Big One is an individual competition, unlike most of our meets which are team events. It’s a good opportunity to get a lot of fencing in and get a sense of who the competition is going to be for the rest of the season.” Many teams from the area who are part of the NEIFC Championship Tournament later in the season use this as an opportunity to get a first look at one another. The Brewers liked what they saw–placing five men in the top ten of their respective weapons. Junior Olivia Weiss said, “The Big One was the season opener. Although this event is not part of our NCAA meets, it gives the team a chance to fence most of the opponents that we will face throughout the season.” Still the format of The Big One is
unusual for VC Fencing. Innes-Gold explained, “To prep for The Big One, we practiced 15 touch bouts. Most collegiate meets are 5 touch bouts, however the format of The Big One uses direct elimination bouts, which go to 15, so we had to work on keeping energy up for the longer bouts.” Sophomore Eli Polston added, “In addition to being 15 point bouts[,] the tournament takes a lot longer than other meets so as a team we were focusing on conditioning and being able to stay in the zone even after you are exhausted from fencing for 4 hours straight. All in all it worked out very well as we were all able to keep our energy up all throughout the day.” The men’s epee squad was the strongest for the Brewers, who are packed with outstanding personnel. Sophomores Jonathan Alperstein and George Whiteside both went undefeated in pool competition with a 6-0, 5-0 record respectively. Last year’s competition saw Alperstein as the victor, and this year five Vassar fencers were in line to take a shot at the title. Alperstein, Whiteside and sophomore Daniel Swerzenski all advanced to the round of 32. Whiteside cruised through a bout against Brandies and fenced another Judge in the round of eights and then another Brandeis See FENCING on page 18
enny Lerner stole a wallet from an inadvertent man at a gas station, handing it to Peter Cook, who then gave out the money to the audience in the fully-packed Sanders Auditorium. Row by row, the audience threw the money around, creating a chain of hand waves from the stage to the technical booth. No money was actually present. No voices spoken. No inadvertent man indeed. Only movement and imagination dominated the room. It was an American Sign Language (ASL) poetry performance lamenting fossil fuel investment by Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner, spotlight artists of the Creative Arts Across Disciplines Initiative (CAAD) last week at Vassar. Chair of the ASL-English Interpretation Department at Columbia College Chicago Peter Cook is a renowned deaf artist who has performed ASL poetry for 30 years, along with his co-author and interpreter Kenny Lerner, Professor of History at the Rochester Institute of Technology. During their visit to Vassar College from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7, Cook and Lerner delivered the lecture “Painting in the Air: Creativity and American Sign Language” and held an acting workshop for students. Forming a poetry troupe called Flying Words Project, the duo also gave their See POETRY on page 17
Comprised of Peter Cook and Kenney Lerner, the poetry troupe Flying Words uses sign language in their performance. The group performed on campus.
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Intramurals find renewed SPORTS enthusiasm at VC