Stay at home order lifted

Emerson College’s student newspaper since 1947 • berkeleybeacon.com

Thursday, April 15, 2021 • Volume 74, Issue 25

@berkeleybeacon // @beaconupdate

Stay-at-home order lifted despite potential virus variant spread Dana Gerber, Camilo Fonseca, Ann E. Matica, Alec Klusza Beacon Staff

Emerson will lift most of the restrictions implemented on April 7 to slow down the unprecedented spread of COVID-19 amongst the community since late March on Thursday morning, college officials announced Wednesday.

With just over two weeks left in the spring semester, most policies will revert to the regulations set in place at the start of the semester on 7 a.m. Thursday morning, a Wednesday afternoon email from Assistant Vice President for Campus Life and “COVID Lead” Erik Muurisepp said. This includes lifting the stay-at-home order, restoring limited seating in the Dining Center, reopening the Max, Backstage Cafe, and Fitness Center, permitting academically required project work like film shoots, reinstating meeting room reservations, and allowing in-season outdoor athletic practices and competitions to take place.

“The last week of health and safety restrictions has shown us that when we follow the guidance and increase our vigilance to ensure our community’s health and wellbeing, we can manage the spread of the COVID -19 virus,” Muurisepp said in the email.

Last week, all in-person non-academic activities were put on hold in an effort to curb the virus’s spread. As a result, students were not allowed to leave their dorms or off-campus residences to go to class, get mandatory COVID-19 testing, pick up food, go to work, seek medical care, or go outside for socially distanced exercise.

The Max Grill and Backstage Cafe were closed in order to limit the amount of exposure and divert employees to help with the grab-and-go services at the Dining Center, Muurisepp said. Student travel was also prohibited, as Pandemic, Pg. 2

Emerson, inclusivity in musical theater starts with us Amaris Rios

Beacon Correspondent If someone asks me to sing “Breath” from In The Heights one more time, I think I might actually escort myself back to Puerto Rico. When I auditioned for Emerson’s musical theatre program, I remember sitting in the Paramount dance studio—it was being used as a waiting room. If you ever want to see a sea of Rachel Berry ingenues, crowded into a room, all screlting at once, you should audition for a musical theatre program. I promise you all of your worst Glee nightmares will come true.

Sitting next to me was the only Black performer in the room. She was from the Bronx, N.Y. and I, a brown Latina from Miami, Florida. I felt incredibly isolated, it felt separate but equal, but much to our blessing in disguise, we stuck out like sore thumbs.

When I finally arrived in the audition room, I completed my dramatic monologue by Jose Rivera from Sonnets of an Old Century. My auditioner stared deep into the pit of my soul.

They smirked and said “you got the chops kid’’ and followed up with a “so what’s your story?” I couldn’t help but give them the sob story version. It was all true, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that a sob story is exactly what they wanted to hear.

Pursuing a theatre degree is all dreamy and glamorous— until a faculty member breaks the news that Summer Stock won’t be doing any Lin-Manuel Miranda productions this summer, so “don’t get your hopes up.” Or when musical theatre majors of color get all shaky and awkward when they talk about the EmStage casting process. Or when you missed the age requirement to audition for Marisol so your theater and performance friend says “don’t worry! MTS always does at least one performance that caters to the BIPOC community, you’ll love it” In a myriad of different micro-aggressive ways, there’s always someone who defines you as they see fit. Well, guess what? I refuse to suffer in silence and perpetuate a culture of ‘minority complacency.’ I’m here, I exist, and I matter because I am.

As a predominantly white institution, Emerson College has a lot of catching up to do in terms of amplifying the voices of the BIPOC community. Because of the economic disparities that exist in this country, higher institutions of learning are overwhelmingly white. Diversification within such institutions Theater, Pg. 4

OPINION

Sanitation workers cleaning campus buildings and bathrooms / Courtesy Nestor Carranza

To protect others, maintenance staff put themselves at risk Ann E. Matica Beacon Staff

When maintenance worker Ramiro Soto returns home after a long day of cleaning Emerson buildings, he disinfects his backpack, jumps in the shower, and places the clothes he wore that day in a plastic bag in the basement to be cleaned later. Only after this routine does he sit down with his wife and daughter to eat dinner.

The responsibilities of maintenance workers at Emerson have ballooned during the pandemic as the importance of cleanliness has risen. Their new list of tasks includes sanitizing all campus spaces and cleaning the rooms in the Paramount residence hall that students who tested positive for COVID-19 once occupied.

There are currently 15 Emerson maintenance staff members who clean residence halls, Paramount quarantine and isolation rooms, and the Dining Center during the day from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. The college also employs 32 third-party contract workers from Done Right Building Services and Compass Facility Services who work from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and sanitize all classrooms, studios, the

gymnasium, and 172 Tremont meeting spaces, according to Duncan Pollock, interim assistant vice president of facilities management and campus services.

Emerson conducted a series of training sessions over the summer to ensure the safety and new responsibilities of maintenance staff employed by the college as well as third-party workers, Pollock said.

“There’s a specific group of people that are trained for specific areas,” Pollock said. “We have specific staff that goes in and does the room cleaning or the office cleaning or wherever the space is. And they’ve been trained on both the [Clorox] 360 machine, as well as how to do deep cleaning, and the products that they use and the safety precautions, what they need to wear for [personal protective equipment] and so forth.”

Sanitation workers use Clorox 360 machines—which spray disinfecting liquid on surfaces and is effective against the SARSCoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19—in all on-campus spaces, Pollock said.

Emerson owned two Clorox 360 machines and purchased an additional five over the summer. The machines cost approximately $5,000 per unit, Manager of Custodial Services Nestor Carranza said.

“We saw what other colleges and universities were doing,” Carranza said. “So we contacted our vendors and those machines were sold out and it took us two months to get the other three.”

Staff members can sanitize all surfaces in a room in less than a minute with a Clorox 360 machine, but cannot reenter the room for 30 to 45 minutes after use due to the danger posed by chemicals used, according to Carranza.

Before the pandemic, Carranza would arrive on campus between 5:30 and 6 a.m. to start his shift. Now, he arrives on campus as early as 4:30 a.m.

“I walk the buildings with all the nighttime supervisors because our focus [is] the classrooms and also the dorms,” he said. “We have to make sure everything has been cleaned, sanitized, the whole nine yards because it is important—extremely important.”

Maintenance staff are required to wait 24 hours before sanitizing rooms that were formerly occupied by Emerson community members that tested positive for COVID-19, Pollock said.

“They lockdown the space for 24 hours, that’s supposedly how long the COVID can exist and live,” Pollock said. “What they do Sanitation, Pg. 2

Candlelit COVID vigil creates space for grieving students

INSIDE THIS EDITION Students supplement expenses with GoFundMe Pg. 2 Exchange students adapt to pandemic-era Boston Pg. 3 Editorial: How to get vaccinated in Mass. Pg. 4 Op-Ed: The struggle to address misogyny in India Pg. 5

The display also includes stickers with the names of those who died. Alec Klusza / Beacon Staff

Bailey Allen Beacon Staff In the lobby of 172 Tremont stands a small table adorned with electric candles and stickers with names of people and experiences lost over the past year—a space of reflection and remembrance for Emerson community members grieving during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Erected by the Center for Spiritual Life, the display commemorates the one year mark of the pandemic, which has caused the deaths of over 500,000 people in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention. CSL also hosted a Zoom gathering on March 26 where Emersonians could meet virtually to mourn all that has been lost this year, as a community.

Patty Tamayo, a senior political communications major, collaborated with CSL to develop the physical remembrance space that will stand until the end of the semester. She modeled it after a similar space she previously created—also in 172 Tremont—for Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a holiday celebrated in Mexico and parts of Latin America to honor dead loved ones and accept the inevitability of death, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Vigil, Pg. 3

Boston-based filmmaker crafts documentary on Capitol riots Pg. 7 Podcast, Fifa, and bed. A reflection on quarantine Pg. 8

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positive COVID-19 tests

.19% positivity rate

*Accumulated from 2020-2021 school year

News

The Berkeley Beacon

April 15, 2021

2

Some students turn to crowdfunding to pay for Emerson

GoFundMe funds supplemented students’ tuition and expenses when the financial aid office (above) falls short. / Beacon Archives

Luna Theus

Beacon Correspondent With a yearly price tag of $50,240 for tuition and fees, $69,712 for in-state students living on campus, and an average financial aid package of $17,000, some Emerson students are resorting to the online crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to pay for their education.

Due to the financial ramifications of the pandemic, which has caused record numbers of unemployment, administrators have encouraged students to apply for CARES Act funds and emergency grants, or visit the food pantry located inside the Office of Student Success.

However, students say this is not enough to shoulder their financial burdens as the college continues to raise tuition.

Jeanie Thompson, a first-year visual and media arts production major, created her GoFundMe on August 18, 2020, to help pay for the price of living at Emerson.

“Right now, I am a low-income student with very, very limited financial resources,” Thompson’s GoFundMe bio reads. “Although I have been awarded with a few gracious academic scholarships from Emerson that accommodate my education, room and board is costly and unfortunately not included in my aid. This is my primary financial burden as I transition to living on-campus for the fall term.”

With her mother struggling to find work, Thompson said she and her mother, who worked in higher education as an assistant professor at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Morgan State University, lived off of her mother’s savings throughout high school.

“Me and my mom moved around a lot because we had finally hit the end of her savings,” Thompson said in an interview with The Beacon. “My dad lives overseas, he’s from Barbados, and was overseas doing work. There wasn’t really much he could do in regards to taking

Sanitation workers’ job balloons amid COVID Cont. from Pg. 1 after that is go in and they start with the 360 machine. They suit up, they have a respirator and a white jumpsuit that’s made for this to protect them. They go in, they spray the unit, and then they get out of the unit and then they go back in and clean it manually.”

Soto, a maintenance worker who started working at Emerson in 1989, said he felt concerned for the safety of his family when he found out his new set of tasks would include disinfecting Paramount rooms.

“I got more scared to get sick and bring the sickness to my family,” he said. “With all the suits that we have and safety gloves, and the mask and goggles, we live with it. You think all the time ‘Maybe I’m sick today,’ but doing the test every week can calm your nerves, too.”

Maintenance staff are required by the college to get tested once a week from Tufts Medical Center. There have been no positive COVID-19 tests among the workers to date, according to Carranza.

Facilities management Crew Chief John Vanderpol’s responsibilities include trash removal, sanitizing the laundry rooms in Paramount, and spraying down laundry carts used to transport items to Paramount. Working in spaces where the virus is present has introduced a new level of precaution throughout his day, he said.

“You have to be very regimented,” Vanderpol said. “You have to make sure you never touch your face, never remove your mask, I wash my hands almost every half hour just to be safe.

Vanderpol said he has to physically distance himself from loved ones because of the risks of his job.

“It was difficult because both friends and family, as soon as I explained that I work in facilities at a college and that I have to go into the dorms and the quarantine residency, I immediately wanted to stay away,” he said. “They knew the danger. I was higher risk of being around, but I got used to that because it came with the territory of working closer with COVID.” The added responsibilities have introduced heightened stakes to the job, Vanderpol said.

“It’s stressful because we know that if we didn’t do a good job, if we didn’t contain things, then they might have to send everyone home or have a lock down in the dorms,” he said. “There were outbreaks here and there, so it made it more stressful [thinking] of what could happen if it got out of control.”

Despite the risks, Vanderpol said he is glad to be able to play a role in keeping the Emerson community safe.

“It makes us happy that we can do our work and be helpful,” he said. “It felt almost like a military operation to keep things running no matter what.”

Soto said his two daughters give him the motivation to do the best job he can when it comes to sanitizing the campus.

“I got two daughters and I expect that wherever they go the people who work there clean the rooms,” he said. “That’s what made me make sure that I do my work like I’m supposed to. The families who have their children here, they expect that the college is doing what they are supposed to do to keep them safe and that’s one of the reasons I put the extra effort to do it.” ann_matica@emerson.edu

out a loan, [and] my mom’s credit was absolutely shot because she was living off of her savings, so I couldn’t even do the Parent PLUS Loans, or get any private loans, [which are usually the only options] when you’re applying to college.”

Thompson said she contacted Emerson’s Office of Financial Aid after her acceptance, and was granted restricted scholarships, which are individual or endowment funds created by alumni and donors that support students in need, as well as an increase to her federal loans on top of the scholarships she had prior.

About 75 percent of Emerson students receive some sort of financial assistance to help pay for their education, according to the Office of Financial Aid’s website.

Thompson, who reached her GoFundMe goal of $1,500 in September shortly after she arrived on campus, said she writes personal notes to her donors to express gratitude and share what their

money will help her accomplish while at Emerson.

Thompson added she believes the Office of Financial Aid needs to advocate more for lower-income students.

“Just because [some] people can pay for this education doesn’t mean everyone else should be pushed aside because they can’t afford it,” Thompson said.

Director of Financial Aid Angela Grant was not available for The Beacon’s request for comment.

Thompson said the amount of debt foisted on families by colleges and other higher education institutions is thoughtless given the pandemic, with many students unaware of the resources available to them.

“Especially in the midst of this COVID situation, it’s kind of insensitive to impose so much debt on people who have parents who are not working or working single jobs,” Thompson said.

“Emerson needs to advertise whatever kind of financial resources they have.”

Emily and Bettsy Winkeller, both firstyear VMA majors, also used GoFundMe as a means of support for their education.

“Even before COVID-19... and everyone out of work, we had planned to create a GoFundMe to help with the girls’ expenses,” said the twins’ mother, Lydia Winkeller, who launched the campaign on their behalf. “Things are tough all around, but with five out of the six of us furloughed or unemployed, things are especially tough for us. I have gotten to the point where I no longer am too proud to ask for help, especially when it is for my children.”

Amassing over $7,000 in donations, the twins said the drive to start the fund was their disappointment in the financial aid package awarded to each of them from the college.

“We’re twins and we’re going to the same school for equal amounts of money,” Besty Winkeller said. “We’re paying double the amount, and that’s really hard to be financially capable of paying that.”

Along with their GoFundMe, the Winkellers reached out to the Office of Financial Aid to try and secure Stafford Loans, subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans, which, unbeknownst to them they had already been awarded at the start of the fall semester. The total amount of their aid amounting to $40,000 each.

“I’m pretty sure they already gave me the maximum amount, but me contacting them just confirmed I’m definitely getting the loan,” Betsy Winkeller said.

Thompson said GoFundMe is an avenue she would go down again, if needed, to cover future bills.

“When I made the GoFundMe I was

First-year Jeanie Thompson / Courtesy a little embarrassed, I don’t know why, I guess you don’t want to ask people who are also struggling to donate, which was something that burdened me during that process,” Thompson said. “I don’t think I should have to sacrifice my education because of my financial standing, especially as a person of color. I can’t let money, of all things, something that is completely arbitrary, make me give up what I really want to do in life, which is film.” luna_theus@emerson.edu

College lifts heightened restrictions as fewer cases pop up around campus Cont. from Pg. 1 were meetings in 172 Tremont.

That move came as a result of 36 positives reported between March 31 and April 7. Since the restrictions were set in place on April 7, Emerson has reported 21 positive tests—one of the highest totals over a seven-day span over any period of testing. Now, the restrictions are being loosened despite just one day of declining positive tests.

Emerson reported one positive test among community members Wednesday from 1,145 tests administered Tuesday. Since March 31, 57 positives have been reported, an outbreak the extent of which had not previously hit the downtown Boston campus. The positivity rate rose to 0.24 percent from 0.19 percent on March 11. Currently, 22 students are in on-campus isolation and 20 students are in on-campus quarantine, after 81 students were relegated to quarantine or isolation housing late last week.

The decision to lift most of the restrictions was made in conjunction with the Boston Public Health Commission, Muurisepp said.

“I’ve been following protocol when it comes to wearing the mask and socially distancing with friends, even if I did see them in the past, like in [a] room,” said junior political communication Cameron Kugel. “So the protocols never really affected me.”

Some heightened precautions will stay in place, including no small group work for in-person classes and

barring visiting other rooms or suites within residence halls, a policy that will be re-evaluated on April 21.

Some students, like sophomore journalism major Morgan Gaffney, said she felt frustrated by the remaining restrictions so close to the end of the semester.

“My initial reaction was just disappointed, because we have two weeks left, and basically we don’t get to hang out with our friends within the building, but athletics practices get to continue even though it’s so many people gathering in one space,” Gaffney said. “It’s really discouraging and sad because, before this, I was looking forward to a memorable last couple of weeks—and that’s kind of just all been taken away.”

Freshman journalism major Ana Curi said she doesn’t believe easing restrictions is responsible in the wake of the outbreak, but understands that students want some return of normalcy, and that mental health can take a toll during periods of isolation.

“They’re doing the best they can without completely restricting us and taking away everything because we are paying for so much too,” Curi said.

“It’s a weird balance between protecting the students and also like giving us what we paid for.”

On Tuesday, when five new positives were reported, Muurisepp said in a phone interview with The Beacon that the data was still worrisome.

“The numbers are still concerning to me,” he said. “They haven’t dropped as much as I would like to have seen.”

Muurisepp also pointed to “a very transmissible variant” as the potential driver of on-campus spread, but said

the college is working with Tufts Medical Center on genetic sequencing to confirm this theory. He added that the recent outbreak resulted in “a few more symptomatic people than we have [had] in the past as well.”

“I really just hope that it taught people a lesson and that they’re going to be more responsible seeing that one little action that they make can affect so many other people and ruin it for so many other people, so I’m optimistic that people have learned their lesson after—in the matter of days—there were 80 people in quarantine,” Gaffney said. “But I think there definitely probably still is a possibility that this could happen again, because we weren’t expecting it. And we thought everyone was being safe.”

In Wednesday’s email, Muurisepp warned that complacency regarding following protocol could reignite more stringent policies.

“Throughout this past week, while many of our community have done their part by adhering to the restrictions put in place, we have also received some reports of individuals and groups who violated the safety restrictions,” Muurisepp wrote. “Unfortunately, behaviors like this can quickly result in additional clustering and potential outbreaks of what appears to be a very transmissible variant of the COVID-19 virus. If this were to happen again, we would need to enter another period of restrictions.” contact@berkeleybeacon.com

The Berkeley Beacon

April 15, 2021

3

Students from Spain explore life in Boston, in person classes Camilo Fonseca Beacon Staff

Emerson currently hosts only a fraction of its normal exchange student population this semester, yet the seven undergraduates from University Ramon Llull in Barcelona are not only adapting to a new learning environment, but also the realities of the pandemic.

The students arrived this semester as part of a partnership with Ramon Llull’s Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations, through which two Emerson students were sent to Barcelona. They are the first foreign exchange students to be hosted by Emerson since campus shut down in March 2020. Normally, the college also hosts students from Hong Kong Baptist University and Lingnan University in China, according to Corey Blackmar, associate direc-

Courtesy Emma Blanch tor of internationalization initiatives.

Blackmar said he has worked

closely with these students to ensure as smooth a transition as possible—especially during “a semester like this.”

“There are a lot of things [for exchange students] to consider,” Blackmar said. “Obviously, there are international arrival requirements depending on the country you’re coming in from. We have to stay in contact pretty closely with all of our inbound students about those types of regulations, and exactly how they should be following them.”

Emma Blanch, a senior marketing communications major, applied for Blanquerna’s exchange program with several friends last year, all the while witnessing the cancellation of many other study abroad programs.

“I was not expecting to get this far,” Blanch said. “I was actually expecting Emerson to tell me, ‘You’re not going to be able to make it.’ I don’t think I realized I was actually coming until I got here.”

Stepping foot on campus, Blanch said she and her companions encountered a world far from what they would have expected a year ago—but also far removed from the realities of her education in Spain.

“I can go to college in person,” Blanch said. “I wasn’t able to do that in Barcelona.”

In a normal semester, international students would have had several opportunities to touch base with Blackmar in person—typically as part of the college’s regular orientation process. With this year’s curtailed virtual orientation, Blackmar said he tried to meet students individually to help them adjust to their new campus environment.

“What I’d like to do is try and create times where we can actually have some face-to-face stuff—obviously following all the guidelines we have in place,” Blackmar said. “[Because of social distancing constraints] that might end up being a one-on-one type of thing. But we definitely want to hear from them about their experience, and give them resources as we go along.”

University Ramon Llull has operated on a fully remote system since Oct. 13, after briefly experimenting with a hybrid model similar to Emerson’s plan.

“Even now with hybrid classes, I pay more attention [than I would have online]—it’s inevitable,” Blanch said. “When you’re in-person, you have the teacher in front of you. You don’t have the impulse [of ] ‘Okay, you can turn your cam-

Courtesy Nuria Quintana era off.’ I’m super glad that I can go to class—I feel like I’m learning so much more.”

Blanch shares an off-campus apartment in Beacon Hill with Nuria Quintana, another Blanquerna exchange student and also a senior marketing communications major. Quintana said the two had explored far more of Boston and the surrounding area than she initially hoped.

“I expected it [to] be worse,” she said. “Or at least for it to take longer [to explore the city]. But Boston is a small city—everything is really close, so I can go walking

everywhere. COVID hasn’t been a problem for me to visit the city.”

In Barcelona, and in much of Europe, residents face regional travel restrictions that prohibit travel outside of the city and its immediate surroundings. These restrictions are among elements of Spain’s pandemic response—along with restaurants closing at 5 p.m. and a citywide 10 p.m. curfew— vastly different from the comparatively hands-off response in the United States. “[Case numbers are] worse here than in Spain, but the measures and restrictions there are so much more strict than here,” Blanch said.

“When I came here, I expected more freedom—and to be honest, it’s been like that. There are some restrictions, but I don’t think that I’ve noticed COVID that much.”

Despite the stark contrast between Barcelona’s lockdown and Boston’s reopening, Quintana said she almost felt safer being in the United States—in large part due to Emerson’s rigorous twice-weekly testing program.

“Even though we have less restrictions [in Boston], I feel that here, they take care of themselves a little bit more,” she said. “They’re [reopening] step by step. They aren’t rushing, they aren’t going too slow. With the vaccine, they’re doing a good job—in Spain, they’re vaccinating really slow.”

Spain lags behind several other European Union member states, as well as the United Kingdom, in its vaccination rate—it has administered approximately 11 million doses, or 23.6 doses per 100 people. Comparatively, the U.K. stands at 40 million doses, or 60 per 100 people.

Quintana said she, along with fellow Blanquerna student Pol Costa, will receive vaccinations in Massachusetts.

Though Costa agreed that Spain was in “a far worse situation,” he said he still feels that, to some extent, he missed the opportunity to

Courtesy Pol Costa fully experience Boston.

“We haven’t been able to go to see a Celtics or a Red Sox game,” he said. “That’s something we wanted to do—hopefully we will by the end of the month. We wanted to go party here, to a club or whatever, and we’ve not been able to do that. But most of the things we wanted to do, we’ve been able to.”

For Blanch, the biggest challenge in coming to Boston was managing to meet and socialize with other Emerson students, with many of the traditional avenues blocked by the pandemic.

“All the stuff [Emerson] would do with the international students, that’s something that I’m really sad that I didn’t get to do, because you really get to meet new people and do new stuff,” she said. “I’m sad that COVID took this away from us—but I can’t complain, because I got to come here. I’m just enjoying everything that I can even through the circumstances.” camilo_fonseca@emerson.edu

Remembrance table offers space to mourn people and experiences lost Cont. from Pg. 1 “For Día de los Muertos, we did an altar,” Tamayo said. “That’s actually where we took inspiration to make this one—we followed a similar format since that one went pretty well.”

The table in 172 Tremont is divided into three important layers, Tamayo said. While the first commemorates tangible losses, such as relatives who have passed away, the second focuses on intangible, non-physical losses—like giving hugs or seeing people smile. The third layer, Tamayo said, is meant to center on reflection; community members can take a piece of paper and write a question, lesson, or intention that they would like to keep with them and think about.

“We wanted you to be able to take something with you,” Tamayo said.

Each level is lined with upside down styrofoam and plastic cups with electric candles on top. Passersby are encouraged to leave trinkets and notes, as well as the names of who or what they have lost this year.

Community members can also submit names to be included on the table through a Google form.

Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Julie Avis Rogers, who also worked to organize the display, said intangible losses are often given less importance or emphasis than physical ones.

“An ambiguous loss might be a class you had been so looking forward to doing in person and all of a sudden it became fully virtual, or a

play, or sporting events,” she said. “It is an equally prominent part of the table that is meant to mark the losses that are really easy to ignore… we as a society don’t really know how to do that, when it’s really easy to downplay those … I hope the table communicates that those are really real.”

Tamayo said the layer for intangible losses is important to value the mourning that isn’t typically given space in society.

“We added a layer for losses [for which] we can’t quite say, ‘Oh, this is exactly what was taken from me,’ but that people still grieve,” Tamayo said. “Something very difficult about this year has been that many times people don’t have the words to say what exactly they are grieving, what exactly it is that they lost.”

Visitors to the space also have the option of lighting an electric candle to memorialize someone they’ve lost.

“I do hope that when students are noticing that they’re really missing someone, or that grief is becoming much more prominent to them, the table becomes a space to pause from whatever is going on in their life and to light a candle that represents that this person is still among us, in a new way,” Rogers said.

M.J. Halberstadt, an affiliated faculty member in the visual and media arts department who also collaborated in organizing the vigil, said the different layers of the memorial were discussed virtually with Emerson

The vigil rests in Emerson’s 172 Tremont building. Alec Klusza / Beacon Staff community members watching via Zoom on March 26. The organizers then invited the attendees to share the names of those they have lost.

“There were 13 or so people in the Zoom and they shared names directly into the chat,” he said. “I grabbed a stack of stickers and started writing down the names people were contributing. During one of the brief musical interludes, I just slapped those names on some candles.”

Although people were watching online, Halberstadt said he hoped seeing the names placed on candles would help attendees feel more connected to the physical memorial.

“I hope that was a moment where

the virtual engagement translated into engagement in the physical space,” he said. “For me, there’s something really important and powerful about taking up physical space—that’s one of the reasons why I felt like this had to be a physical reminder or a physical tribute.”

Tamayo said the organizers made a point during the virtual ceremony to commemorate those also lost to non-COVID-related causes over the past year. The names of the victims of the mass shootings in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado this year were also read aloud.

“It was about people that we’ve lost, not limited to COVID deaths,

but that have happened during the year, and [have been] heightened by the fact we were in the pandemic,” she said. “There’s been a lot of racially driven violence. We also commemorated victims of those.”

Rogers, who also serves as the college’s chaplain, said there are many ways to reach out to the Center for Spiritual Life if one is struggling with grief.

“If you’re interested in talking through a particular faith tradition, there’s a whole staff of folks who are very well trained in grief and how [to] navigate it,” Rogers said. bailey_allen@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

April 15, 2021

4

Opinion

Here’s how you can get vaccinated for COVID-19 Editorial Since the pandemic began, millions across the globe have waited anxiously for their turn to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. It took months of trials and setbacks, but President Joseph R. Biden now expects all Americans over the age of 16 will be eligible to receive the vaccine by April 19, two weeks earlier than his original deadline of May 1.

On top of that, nearly 200 million Americans have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, making up 37 percent of the total population of the U.S., according to The New York Times. New England states are doing even better than the national average—with 49 percent of New Hampshire residents receiving at least one dose, according to The Times and 42 percent of residents from Massachusetts, according to The Boston Globe.

The good news? You’re probably eligible to receive the vaccine currently, and if you aren’t eligible yet, you will be

by April 19. The Beacon Editorial Board has compiled all the information you need about who is currently eligible for the COVID vaccine in Massachusetts, and how you can access the shot.

Massachusetts is currently in Phase Two of vaccine distribution, according to the state’s vaccination website. This means anyone who lives, works, or studies in the state could be eligible if they meet certain vaccination criteria. Under the current Phase Two, those who are eligible must meet one or more of the following criteria: - People 55 years old or older - People living or working in low income and affordable senior housing - K-12 educators, K-12 school staff, and child care workers - Other essential workers, like food

Illustration Lucia Thorne

service and sanitation workers.People living with one or more specific medical conditions, which includes: cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung diseases like asthma or COPD, dementia, diabetes, down syndrome, heart conditions, HIV infection, immunocompromised or weakened immune system, liver disease, overweight or obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease or thalassemia, current or former smoking, solid organ or blood stem cell transplant, stroke or cerebrovascular disease, and substance use disorders.

- Others who were eligible under Phase One but have not yet received a vaccine. .

Right now there’s a good chance you fall under at least one of the cate-

We are here. We exist.

Cont. from Pg. 1 becomes a ‘mission’ as opposed to a given, and the imbalance of power is what makes attending a PWI a ‘privilege’ rather than a right.

Our college administration finds themselves fighting an uphill battle when it comes to encouraging Brown, Black, Asian, and Indigenous American performers to pursue a career in the arts. Using the same tired, passive excuse of “they [people of color] just don’t wanna come here” is simply untrue. The truth is that if our institution fails to invest its endowments into BIPOC excellence, how must they expect lower-income students to trust the financial reward of an arts education?

It is an irresponsible and blind ask.

While finding an easy solution to diversification on the stage can seem rather bleak and tiresome, change wasn’t meant to be easy. Shifting the culture on campus begins with us, the students.

As one of the most accredited theatre institutions in the country, we cannot ignore that our price for ‘excellence’ has historically come at the expense of excluding the narrative of marginalized voices: our BIPOC community. For the sake of progress, we must admit our faults in order to respond effectively to the social climate within our Emerson community.

I am a firm believer that the students have a responsibility to create the living, breathing culture that exists on campus. Think about it, when prospective students visit Emerson, they’re not visiting Lee Pelton, they’re visiting us.

To propel myself into action, I must understand the confines of the box in order to think outside of it. The truth of the matter is that I’m choosing to thrive within a system that was not made for me to succeed in.

At the beginning of the year, I was absolutely floored by the whiteness within the Emerson community. I asked myself all of these questions: Had I read the brochure incorrectly? Did I not come from a talented community of Black and Brown excellence? And why does no one know who La Rosalía is?

When my grandparents came to visit me in the fall, I discussed my confusion with the lack of diversity on campus. After hearing my grievances, my grandparents actually laughed in my face! My grandmother, a bold preaching woman, gawked at me and laughed “you thought we actually did something.” The did was civil rights and the something was progress. Coming from a socially conscious and political family, I was always made aware of my need to pursue a college education.

I always understood the racial gaps in college success, but I really thought Emerson had grown beyond that. My grandmother reproached with, “We might be approaching 2021, but in many ways, we’re still living in 1961.”

When I’ve asked my white acting instructors or members of the performing arts board, where are the people of color? And their response is “they [BIPOC] simply don’t want to come to Emerson,” it is a microinvalidation—it is a momentary act to invalidate lower income BIPOC communities. It is a capitalistic tactic to make a person of color feel as though their work ethic is the issue for their own lack of representation.

Before attending Emerson, my high school mentor Ms. Pla-Guzaman, did her best to mentally prepare me to be alone. She knew it would get to me, and she was right. My first semester at Emerson was wretched. I was very close to transferring into a different

area to get more vaccine site options if no appointments are showing up. You can fill out the mandated survey about your eligibility and insurance information in advance, so that when midnight rolls around, you can snag an appointment as soon as it becomes available.

A number of private clinics, like those at Tufts Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s campus, let you book appointments via their websites or third party software. A full list of clinics can be found on the state’s website.

If you’re still struggling to get an appointment, there are organizations designated to help people find vaccine appointments. Massachusetts COVID Vaccination Help is made up of volunteers who seek out appointments at clinics when there are open slots. Their mission is to help secure appointments for marginalized groups that are “disproportionately disadvantaged by the current [healthcare] system.” You can sign up by simply filling out their online form, and a volunteer will reach out to you when they’ve scheduled your appointment.

To keep updated on newly-available appointments, you can also follow social media accounts that provide vaccination updates, like @vaccinetime and @macovidvaccines on Twitter.

In the meantime, as we all hunt for a vaccine appointment, it’s important to remember that even if you are vaccinated, you must still engage in COVID safety protocols. Just last week, our campus had an unprecedented surge in positive COVID-19 tests that resulted in a week-long stay-at-home order. Let’s finish our semester safely, keeping the health of our community in mind.

gories above for eligibility. If not, you will be eligible for the vaccine by early next week. Now, millions who’ve recently become eligible for the vaccine wonder: where can I get the COVID vaccine?

This part is a bit more tricky. There are many avenues that lead to receiving a vaccine, but thousands log online everyday to book new appointments, so it may take some trial and error to get an appointment booked. Below, The Beacon Editorial Board has compiled a few ways to book a vaccine appointment in Massachusetts.

If you’re already eligible, you can pre-register for an appointment at a pharmacy or private clinic through the state’s vaccination finder at vaxfinder.mass.gov.

All you have to do is enter your zip code and what sites you prefer, and it will refer you to which centers have the most availability. You can also pre-register for an appointment at a mass vaccination site like Hynes Convention Center through the state’s website if you are not yet eligible. You can pre-register for an appointment prior to vaccine eligibility at https://vaccinesignup.mass.gov/#/.

Eligible recipients can also book a vaccine appointment through chain pharmacies directly, like CVS and Walgreens, by signing up on their websites.

New appointments are frequently added at midnight and 4 A.M., so you’ll have better luck checking the site late at night or early in the morning. Try entering a few different zip codes in the Boston

musical theatre BFA program because I felt alone and isolated. It was a very juxtaposing feeling to be seen, but not understood.

I would have liked to believe that apart from stereotypical Latina tropes, that people see me as Amaris, but that’s not the case, and that’s okay. My skin, my features, my identity, my ancestry, and the talent that we hold as an artistic community of color, threatens the status quo. Our oppressors quake at our existence because we simply are.

I soon realized that transferring out of Emerson would be my worst mistake, because I hold the power to thrive and make change right where I am. I’m making an active choice to battle with my trauma in order to help the next.

Understanding that information, I am shaping my Emerson experience to suit me because I refuse to settle; I refuse to inherit silence, I refuse to bow my head down in the face of the oppressor because my ancestors sacrificed their voices for long enough.

There is no clear path to finding your truth, but once I had the courage to accept my truth, I realized it had been there all along.

Sioux Sanna Ramirez, a theatre professor at Emerson, woke me up and said “Amaris, you cannot live your life in the audience and on the stage at the same time.” Facing the truth is about finding the audacity to accept pain, face

the ugly, and challenge the flaws, and make them into something worth sharing and expressing. My truth is to wake myself up so that I can wake others up around me.

My complacency is simply not an option. So, I am choosing to bear the burden of creating change and inspiring hope, because if not I, then who else?

A community functions best when everyone in it works towards a common goal and exercises their right to speak up. How can we be advocates of social change within the theatre, if we ourselves are engaging in performative activism? Emerson community, I’m calling upon you all to show up for me, show up for us.

I appreciate your thoughtful conversations, I appreciate your questions, I appreciate your panelists of guest BIPOC who have come to speak, but I am tired of hearing you ask the same question: “What can we [white people] do to make the theatre more inclusive?”

My simple answer to all of that is—put your ideas into action or call for anarchy. The resolution is not really all that difficult—cast BIPOC artists just as you would any other group and celebrate our stories, period.

When we talk about issues affecting our communities of color on campus, the people who care most are other people of color. Fundamentally, this is not a BIPOC issue; this is a white

person’s issue to resolve, but since that seems to be a hard pill to swallow, BIPOC continues to pick up the slack.

I’m not expecting our predominantly white artistic directors of EmStage or even our student theatre organizations, to understand what it feels like to be marginalized, but I demand to be heard.

I reserve the right to equal training and to be included in as many EmStage productions possible because that is exactly what I came here for. My friends; Google is a free resource, and I am running on E. I am not your encyclopedia nor your search engine, that in itself is accusatory and helpless on your part.

There is nothing at Emerson that any other institution isn’t struggling with.

Let’s hold each other accountable and start re-creating culture. I’m coming at this from a perspective of tiresome redundancy. Ultimately, the role of the theatre is to serve as a vessel to amplify the voices of the people. When it fails to do that, it engages in racist theatre.

I am choosing to stay here because I’m audacious enough to believe that the world can change, so at the very least, allow me to start with my immediate Emerson theatre community.

I demand that performativity finds a loud death in a shallow well of ignorance.

© 2020 The Berkeley Beacon. All rights reserved.

Editor-in-Chief Katie Redefer

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The Berkeley Beacon

April 15, 2021

5

Why the murder in Delhi is indicative of patriarchy in India Mariyam Quaisar Beacon Staff

TW: This op-ed contains graphic mentions of misogyny, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and murder.

On April 10, a 26-year-old woman was stabbed to death by her husband in Delhi, India. The woman, Neelu Mehta, was repeatedly stabbed 25 times in a public and crowded marketplace in Delhi’s Vijay Vihar area, as passersby recorded. A video of the incident shows bystanders casually strolling by as Neelu lays in a pool of her blood.

The patriarchy in India continues to be dangerously complacent, unacceptable, and revolting.

Harish Mehta, her husband, was unhappy that Neelu was working at Safdarjung Hospital. He had asked her to quit and be a housewife instead, and Neelu refused to follow his orders. Harish also reportedly believed her to be having an extramarital affair because she left him to stay at her in-laws’ home, due to their daily fights over her career.

Harish murdered her “to end his pain,” according to the Delhi police.

In essence, a woman was murdered for having a job and because of her husband’s suspicion. Nobody helped her, but they did take videos, and this is not a solitary case.

India was ranked the most dangerous country for women in 2018, according to a survey conducted by the Thomas Reuters Foundation.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India, in 2019, there were over 400,000 crimes against women, and the number of such cases rises every year. There were 32,033 rape cases reported just in 2019, averaging to about 88 sexual assaults a day, plus

the countless cases that go unreported. To top it off, the conviction rate for sexual assault is below 30 percent, according to the NCRB report.

Three more incidents in India were reported in March 2021 alone.

A man from Uttar Pradesh believed his wife to be disloyal and asked her if she would be willing to prove her loyalty. He then tied her limbs together and sewed her genitals with aluminum thread. He fled the scene and left his wife in the horrific state he caused.

began blaming his wife for their financial troubles, leading him to physically abuse her. He trapped her in a corner and beat her with a chair, hitting his son multiple times as well when the boy tried to stop his father. The husband has been charged with several offenses, but has not been arrested.

The unwavering patriarchy in India is deeply rooted in the history of the country, and it starts with the Indian family dynamic. The husband and father is the head of a household, making sons the desired

The Secretariat Building in New Dehli / Courtesy Creative Commons

A woman in Maharashtra, who was suffering from a brain tumor, was stabbed by her husband because he was “fed up of her illness and medical treatment,” according to officer Vasant Chavan of Pathari police station. Her husband fled the scene and, thankfully, some neighbors noticed his bloodstained clothing and called the police.

In Bengaluru, a 39-year-old woman was assaulted by her husband when she reminded him to pay their elder son’s school fees.

He reportedly lost his temper and

offspring, while daughters can be seen as a burden. A woman’s role in society is to be a wife, a mother, and a housekeeper. While India is modernized in some aspects, with more women having careers and less being married off at young ages, the patriarchal system has yet to be abolished—and has become increasingly more violent. This is clear from the heinous crimes that are committed on a daily basis against women.

They are treated any which way because even if times are changing, mindsets are not.

Unfortunately, India’s entertain-

Crossword Puzzle Ann Matica Elizabeth Simon Beacon Staff

ment industry does a huge disservice to the platform of gender equality within India. I grew up watching Bollywood films, watching women doing “item numbers” and being objectified by men. Songs like “Jalebi Bhai” and “Chikni Chameli,” among several others, are solely meant to capture the male gaze and portray women as their playthings. I grew up singing and dancing along to songs where women say they will be a slave to the man (specifically referring to a song titled “Fevicol Se”), obviously not understanding

what it meant. Fortunately, now I do understand. These dance numbers are a major part of modern Indian culture, which men grow up watching, believing they are alphas based on how they are represented in films and music.

Another huge part of the belittling and abuse comes from women themselves internalizing misogyny. It is like when someone chooses to not wear a certain outfit in public, no matter how much they like it on themselves, because of the subconscious fear of social criticism, they won’t. Similarly, Indian women have internalized this

patriarchal system so much that they often don’t notice it happening.

Girls are taught when they’re young to be innocent and pure. They are taught how to be a wife, told to learn how to cook. Many grow up hearing from adults in their lives, “you cannot wear that in public, it’s improper.” They are reminded to help serve guests while the boys get to play games. Older women make snooty comments towards young women to taunt their “unconventional” lifestyles. Hell, I have been told hundreds of times myself what to wear, how to act, what to do when I am in India, and even when I’m in Connecticut.

Fortunately, I have been encouraged by my family to pursue my dreams. Too many women in India are told to take their ambitions down a notch. They’re told to not dream too big, because such dreams aren’t for women. As girls become women, the crumbs of patriarchy are shoved in their mouths to the point where they can’t speak, but just nod their heads along.

Through conversations with my relatives, some of whom reside in India and some who do not, I can hear the internalized patriarchy seeping through, and it baffles me. Talking on the phone with my grandmother, who has spent most of her life with a misogynistic man, is hopeless as she herself does not want to free herself from the toxic marriage she is in. “Rani, he’s my husband, I can’t leave him,” she says. My grandmother believes this is how she is meant to live: with an angry, unloving man whom she doesn’t speak to but cooks for.

This may be a generalization, but my mom says it best when she says, “Fuck Indian men. They’re all patriarchal assholes.” mariyam_quaisar@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

April 15, 2021

6

Living Arts A woman interviewed in the documentary. / Courtesy Ralph Celestin

Filmmaker Ralph Celestin on Capitol Hill in wake of the riots on Jan 6. / Courtesy Ralph Celestin

Boston local releases ‘Capital Riots’ documentary trailer Madison E. Goldberg Beacon Staff

Independent filmmaker Ralph Celestin said he will always be haunted by the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when just six days into the new year, a group of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building. Footage of the incident flooded news stations across the world.

Now, the Boston-based filmmaker is aiming to educate young audiences on this dark day in American history in his latest film, “Capitol Riots.”

Celestin flew with a small production crew to D.C. to cover the Trump rally planned on Capitol Hill amid Trump’s false claims of widespread

voter fraud in the presidential election—which quickly became a riot.

The shocking day reminded Celestin of learning about the 9/11 attacks when he was a child, he said, and the feeling of a mass tragedy being desensitized. With years of investigative reporting and documentary experience now under his belt, he landed on the scene with a determination to preserve the true history of the deadly insurrection.

“There was a strong sense of sugarcoating,” Celestin said. “I felt like they [news stations] didn’t really want to focus on the violence or show all of the footage. With ‘Capitol Riots,’ I think I was successful in capturing the emotions of people on the ground.”

The film is set to be released under Celestin’s production company, Rise Celestial Studios, based here in Boston. Growing up as a Haitian-American in Arlington, Celestin said he frequently looked to Boston for his artistic inspiration. He began working at NBC10 Boston as a video producer in 2019, where he produced a documentary called “The Climate Project: Your Role, Your Impact.” Celestin also said he enjoys exploring other genres of film outside of documentaries, inspired by his own youth.

“It’s [Boston] where I learned how to be a man. It’s where I fell in love for the first time, where my heart was broken for the first time.” said Celestin.

“When it comes to my art and what

I create now, it’s all a reflection of the person I am now—and I came from the road less travelled. I grew up in the projects in Arlington in a single parent household, and even that experience plays a role in my focus on creating inspirational coming of age dramas.”

Celestin has offered professional guidance in the film industry to Emerson students for decades, even casting some students in his films. Taylor Rampe ‘11, who graduated with a degree in marketing from Emerson, assisted Celestin with location scouting and played a small role in his acclaimed film “Boston to Philly.”

“He was always super friendly and willing to help guide me in his portion of the industry. He was always happy to take [Emerson] students on both sides of the camera,” Rampe said. “He has a very unique voice and approach to the industry. I had a great time working with him.”

“Boston to Philly” garnered numerous accolades in the independent film festival circuit, including Best Actress at the Las Vegas Black Film Festival and Best Film at the Motion Picture Association of Haiti, even getting nods from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The film follows a young Black man from Boston as he begins college in Philadelphia, in wake of a tragic accident that takes the lives of

his immediate family.

“Boston to Philly” was the start of a string of different jobs within the entertainment industry for Rampe, from animal training to personal assisting.

“The Emerson Mafia is a really strong facet to have behind you,” said Rampe.

Celestin is also currently working on a documentary about the systemic inequities in healthcare exposed during the pandemic, which he hopes to release later this year. Through his work, he said he hopes to not only educate the youth on sociopolitical issues, but also inspire them to take action, or create their own work.

“Light your own fire, and you will never be extinguished. Independent filmmakers have absolutely no barriers because it’s their own work,” said Celestin. “You can have a 9-5, but when you’re not afraid to be independent and create the art that you want to, that speaks to the person that you are; that’s something extremely powerful.”

Viewers can watch the trailer for “Capitol Riots” on YouTube, and the official release date for “Capitol Riots” will be announced on the Rise Celestial Studios website. You can follow the film’s progress on Twitter @RiotsMovie, or on Instagram @Capitolriotsmovie. madison_goldberg2@emerson.edu

‘Visible and Visibility’ workshop brings poets together Campbell Parish Beacon Staff

Kelsey Day Marlett, a senior creative writing major, went from publishing her first book at 11 years old to co-teaching a poetry workshop, Visible and Visibility, with one of her literary heroes, Toni Bee. Marlett became a published author before she became a teenager, when her children’s adventure book Pintus came out in 2011. Her first poetry collection, The Last Four Years, was published after she turned 18. Now, as a senior in college, her next book Rootlines is coming out on April 21.

“To me, poetry is about connection and trying to wrap human language around something that [is] ultimately unspeakable,” Marlett said. “Whatever this thing is that we’re all experiencing in life, whatever this sort of pulse is, poetry is about guiding the finger to the pulse.”

Writers Without Margins, a non-

Courtesy Kelsey Day Marlett

profit that provides books to the “unheard and under-resourced communities in Greater Boston,” provided a platform for the poetry workshop Visible and Visibility. According to Marlett, the organization is dedicated to the fusion of art and advocacy. The nonprofit partnered with the Boston Public Library to host the workshops under the library’s theme for services in 2021, called Repairing America.

“This year, the library is focusing its institutional priorities on finding ways to help Americans become more resilient and able to face the challenges of today,” a statement on the BPL’s website said.

Bee and Marlett were introduced

by Cheryl Buchanan, a former affiliated faculty member within the writing, literature, and publishing department, and current executive director of Writers Without Margins.

Marlett became involved in Writers Without Margins when she was in a first-year honors seminar and Buchanan visited her class to discuss the organization’s mission and get students involved.

Bee and Marlett did not know each other before the workshop, as both were introduced by Buchanan.

“When I was first recruited to do this class, I was so nervous, because I knew who Toni Bee was, I read some of her work and, being a powerful organizer with Black Lives Matter,” Marlett said. “I felt like I would be working with one of my literary heroes.”

Marlett shared that when she was first offered this class, she was hesitant about accepting the opportunity because of the nature of the class and the discussion of de-centering whiteness.

“Since, you know, Toni Bee is Black,

I’m white, Toni is straight, I’m a lesbian,” Marlett said.

After some self-reflection and reading, Marlett decided that she was going to do the workshop.

“Some of the conversation that we had was that white people need to show up to listen, but we also need to show up to build and help build. So as a queer, neurodivergent poet from the South, I was able to bring my own set of experiences to the table with Toni,” Marlett said.

“The idea [behind the workshop] is we wanted to de-center whiteness and heterosexuality, which is part of the reason that the nonprofit selected Toni Bee and I to work together.”

Being the workshop’s co-host alongside Marlett, Bee has an admirable poetry resume— including being elected Poet Populist of Cambridge in 2011, the first woman to do so. She led a Black Lives Matter march in Cambridge in 2015 and in 2016, when Bee was selected as the Cambridge Inaugural Poetry Ambassador. Bee’s writing appears in The New England Poetry Club, The Boston National Poetry Month Festival, and she wrote a self-published poetry book titled 22 Again. Additionally, Bee currently sits on the advisory board of The New England Poetry Club. “[Poetry] it’s raw, raw emotion, or edited emotion,” Bee said. “That’s the truth of the author, the truth, the wisdom and the intelligence of the author.”

Throughout the four total Visible and Visibility workshops that occurred in April, both Marlett and Bee shared their thoughts about different work from artists that meant something to them. For each workshop, Bee and Marlett would switch off bringing a piece of work to the table that they

Toni Bee performing at a poetry workshop/ Courtesy Toni Bee wanted to highlight. After reading the work, they host a discussion about the piece and the thoughts or emotions that it brought up.

Bee had lots of advice to give to aspiring poets and writers.

“Write at least every other day, because you have 24 hours for some idea to germinate within you, and for you to write something. So if you write every other day, there’s no excuse,” Bee said.

“You have to force your pen to paper for your voice to microphone.”

Marlett described Bee as one of the most exceptional writers and teachers that she has ever worked with. Bee taught Marlett how to have a presence in the classroom, even when the whole workshop was hosted over Zoom, Marlett said.

“I was fangirling off my ass, pretty

much,” Marlett said.

Bee shared how she was a part of a workshop with Revolutionary Spaces about Phyllis Wheatley, the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry. “[After taking the Phyllis Wheatley workshop] It just occurred to me how visibly invisible Black people and POC and LGBTQ+ people are, but the rest of the world treats them as invisible,” Bee said. “I had that concept [for this workshop] from that time and I brought it to Kelsey, because we’re all visibly invisible through Zoom. In this pandemic, it’s kind of what we’re all going through.”

Reflecting on the workshop, Bee said she loved working with a 21-year-old and the different perspective she brings.

According to Bee, society says that Bee and Marlett are supposed to be enemies because of their age and skin color, but yet they came together, and according to both, they learned from each other.

“I just love the idea of, when does a older Black, nappy-headed woman get to teach poetry with a younger blonde woman getting her education, who’s white?” Bee said. “I think the fact that we came together and it worked, and that we did damn good. I’m impressed by that.

Because that’s proof that whatever message has been going out there in the world about diversity and unity, it’s starting to reverberate across the generations.”

Although the Visible and Visibility workshop is over, Bee is involved in another upcoming workshop called Cambridge Poetry Mashup. During the poetry mashup, viewers will be able to watch local poets recite their work over Zoom.

To find out more information on this Mashup, visit PoetryMashup.org. campbell_parish@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

April 15, 2021

7

Emerson professor aids Boğaziçi University students fighting for educational freedom Karissa Schaefer & Mariyam Quaisar Beacon Staff

A group titled “Free Literature” (Serbest Yazın in Turkish), made up of students from Boğaziçi University in Turkey, have been protesting for educational freedom for over 70 days. To expand their movement, the students are asking professors worldwide to teach an open course, with Emerson’s own professor Rosario Swanson included.

Melih Bulu was recently appointed the new rector, the academic head of Boğaziçi without a formal vote, according to Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit group that “investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world.” Bulu was reportedly appointed due to his connections to the President of Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The nature of the appointment spurred an onslaught of peaceful protests, which led to the violent arrests of hundreds of student demonstrators, HRW reported. The press was kept from broadcasting the protests on campus, silencing the students’ voices from reaching the media, according to the Boğaziçi students.

Student Ceren Yilmaz of Boğaziçi University, spoke about her initial reactions to the new rector in an interview with The Beacon.

“One day we woke up, and we were appointed a new rector, who was a complete stranger,” Yilmaz said. “We were shocked and we were just like, it must be a joke, or something like that. We couldn’t believe it.”

As the new rector, Melih Bulu is the academic head of the university, which is equivalent to a university’s president in the U.S. Inspired by the open lecture platform from other schools, student Merve Altintas of Boğaziçi described how the movement came to fruition. The students considered the possibility of hosting an open lecture, where professors or experts in a certain field teach an hour-long virtual course on a topic of their choice. In the case of Boğaziçi students, they asked for literature and resistance-focused lectures.

“The desire to contact open lecturers with the principle of independent academia, brought us together,” Altintas said. “We aim to make our voices heard in academia and all around the world.

Therefore, we express the whole process and our demands at the beginning of open lecture.”

As part of their peaceful protests, the students aimed to expand their resistance by searching for topics related to their movement, and thus contacted professors from around the globe who were familiar with their goal.

“First we send an email and we talk about our situation, our issue. Then, we decide on a date and time, and then we invite them for open lectures,” said Fatma Elcan, another Boğaziçi student.

The Boğaziçi students contacted writing, literature and publishing professor Rosario Swanson after finding her three published pieces about resistance and literature on the Massachusetts Humanities’ website.

“Those three pieces were sort of my way to say, well, these people have

Armed officers outside of Boğaziçi University / Courtesy Fatma Elcan

Student protesters from “Free Literature” / Courtesy Ozan Acide

found a way to circumvent silencing and start resisting by representing themselves in literature,” Swanson said.

Using her prior knowledge of resistance to oppression in Latin America, Swanson will give a one hour lecture to the Turkish students on April 23 via Zoom.

“I am going to be speaking on a similar issue, my talk is called ‘In the Spirit of Resistance,’” Swanson said. “It is going to be about women or people who have resisted, primarily in Latin America.”

Cities all around the world like Paris, Berlin and Chicago, have also partaken in the Free Literature protests. According to the Boğaziçi students, there are numerous Boğaziçi alumni worldwide who are standing with the students by sharing their stories, since the media coverage of the protests is limited. There are protests globally with supporters of the movement taking to the streets.

“The University of Oxford, Yale and Harvard announced that they’re in solidarity with Boğaziçi University. So this situation basically started solidarity among universities,” Yilmaz said.

Students of minority groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community and unorthodox Muslim women, were targeted by the Turkish government recently, which added more pressure to the anti-government protests. This came after an art piece was exhibited on campus, combining Islamic symbols with elements that criticize homophobia and misogyny. President Erdoğan has also issued several pieces of legislation labeled as homophobic and misogynistic by protesters, according to reporting by ABC

News.

Ebrar Nawel, another Boğaziçi student, described the online aftermath of the controversy.

“After the public saw the art pieces on social media, they actually perceived it as an insult to Islam and began to curse LGBTQ+ invidiuals and Boğaziçi University students in general on social media,” Nawel said in an interview with the Beacon.

Tweets were shared by Bulu and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Süleyman Soylu, bringing hate speech towards the LGBTQ+ Boğaziçi student community.

Twitter took action, labeling the minister’s tweet as “hateful conduct,” according to Reuters. The LGBTQ+ community is frequently scrutinized by the Turkish government, with their individual freedoms under attack, students said.

“No matter if we are Muslim or non-Muslim, we are trying to build up academic freedom and autonomy all together,” Nawel said. “Our religion and sexual orientation or anything we have doesn’t matter. We all just want to take our freedom back. We want to provide democratic and multicultural atmosphere in the university again.”

Nawel further explained how traumatic these attacks have been for the students. The government titled these students as “terrorists,” trying to deny them as students of Boğaziçi University, she said.

However, according to Nawel, the government was unable to fully succeed at this labeling, as public research proves seven out of 10 people think the students are righteous. Their impact shows the government can’t control ev-

erything, including public opinion, and made the students’ protests successful, Nawel said.

Yilmaz also mentioned Free Literature’s basic demands and how open lectures, like Professor Swanson’s, contribute to their goal of ending corruption at Boğaziçi University.

“We want [the] resignation of [the] appointed rector and we want returned elections in our university back. Turkish media didn’t mention our protests, our resistance to police violence, so we would like to proclaim our protests all around the world because no one heard our voice in Turkey,” Yilmaz said.

“This is our main point to holding these open lectures.”

Nawel added how important the open lectures are for generating widespread communication about their protests.

“These open lectures give us a great chance to contact and communicate with people from all around the world.

We argue how academics can be better, can be more free, and we discuss it actually. This is a huge process,” Nawel said. “[We] share our feelings and thoughts on what is academic freedom, what is autonomy and how we can get these principles back in our university.”

Free Literature strives for academic collaboration through the virtual, open lecture platforms. With this, they want to gather ideas and hope to gain their academic, individual rights back, the students said.

Free Literature’s main goal is to regain the ability to choose the rectors for their university freely, students from the group said. The students emphasize that professors, students, artists and many more are invited to the open lectures. While they have placed importance on resistance literature, they also offer a chance for different areas of discipline or organizations to promote the movement and hold a conversation with the students.

The students at Boğaziçi University say they face oppression, due to the forced political ideologies from the Turkish government. They plan on changing that.

“In the university, we can’t breathe anymore because we feel that oppression any moment and it’s a very big obstacle to think freely and produce science, or art, or literature or literary pieces freely, and we think that these ideas are free opinion, free thinking,” Nawel said.

Fellow students can help the Turkish students gain back their freedom by spreading their stories and advocating for them through social media and other platforms. contact@berkeleybeacon.com

Bright Lights screening ‘Her Socialist Smile’ highlights Helen Keller’s activism Lucia Thorne Beacon Staff

In Emerson’s latest Bright Lights film screening on April 7 and 8, “Her Socialist Smile” delves into Helen Keller’s affinity for the implementation of socialism, ending the exploitation of the working class, and her work as a sociopolitical public speaker.

Directed by Emerson professor John Gianvito and narrated by Carolyn Forché, the film uses striking shots of nature paired with historical footage to bring Keller’s words to life. It highlights how ahead of her time she was in her advocacy, and how society has failed to evolve sufficiently since her words were first spoken.

Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama in 1880, Keller was a healthy child until she turned about a year and a half old, when she became sick (believed to be Rubella), causing her to lose her sight and hearing.

At age seven, Keller began learning to read and write at Perkins School for the Blind with teacher and lifelong friend Anne Sullivan. She began teaching Keller how to communicate, mainly through writing out words on her palm.

This form of communication eventually led Keller to learn to read, write, and later, speak.

Keller became a public advocate for people with disabilities, emphasizing how ableism has continuously forced people with disabilities into the working class. Eventually, Keller began speaking on her belief that socialism is necessary to solve societal ills against the working class—the aspect of Keller’s life that the film focuses on. Socialism is defined by Britannica as the “social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources.”

Keller’s first public speech, “The Heart and the Hand,” given on Feb. 6, 1913, signified a new era for her. Her passion for the institution of socialist ideals became known to the public, and her lecturing career began.

“Charity covers a multitude of sins. It does something worse than that,” Keller said during her speech. “It covers the facts so that they cannot be seen. It covers the fact that the property of the few is made by the labor of the many.… My blindness does not shut me out from a knowledge of what is happening about me.”

Keller used her platform to encourage

other people with visual impairments to study socialist literature, “not for theory, as it is scornfully called, but for facts about the labor conditions in America,” she wrote in a 1911 editorial for Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind.

In 1913, Keller released her book Out of the Dark, a collection of letters encompassing her life and her beliefs in the importance of socialism, leading to criticisms regarding her credibility.

“States one newspaper editorial, ‘Helen Keller, struggling to point the way for the deaf, dumb, and blind, is inspiring.

Helen Keller preaching socialism, Helen Keller passing on the merits of the Copper strike, Helen Keller sneering at the Constitution of the United States, Helen Keller under these aspects is pitiful,’” narrator Carolyn Forché reads in the documentary. “‘She is beyond her depth.

She speaks with the handicap of limitation, which no amount of determination and science can overcome. Her knowledge is and must be almost purely theoretical, and unfortunately, this world and its problems are both very practical.’”

Despite these criticisms, she continued her crusade for change, speaking out against racism, U.S. involvement in World War I, and the capitalistic exploitation of the working class.

Helen Keller (left) and Anne Sullivan (right) / Courtesy John Gianvito “I do not believe that any sex, class, or race can safely trust its protection in any hands but its own,” Keller said.

In the past year, Keller’s words have rung true more than ever. Throughout 2020 and into 2021, the inequities that have been deeply rooted in our society for countless generations have only been highlighted further, from the loss of millions of jobs and the inequitable healthcare system, to systemic racism, more specifically shown in law enforce-

ment with the murder of George Floyd and many other unarmed Black people.

If we have learned anything over the past year, and from this documentary, it should be that change is clearly necessary and we must be the ones to bring that change.

“Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction, be heroes in an army of construction,” Keller once said. lucia_thorne@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

Sports

In-season sports receive green light to continue season

8

Incident Journal Monday, April 5 A fire alarm at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers went off on the twelfth floor of the building. Upon arrival, ECPD observed students and faculty on the sidewalk of Columbus Ave. adjacent to the building. The Boston Fire Department discovered it was a false smoke alarm and all community members reentered the building without incident.

Chfristopher Williams Beacon Staff

In-season sports teams will be allowed to return to their respective fields this week to participate in practices and games as the weeklong halt of most campus activities is set to be lifted Thursday morning, Emerson announced in a Wednesday afternoon email.

“Having consulted the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) regarding our current COVID situation on campus, effective at 7:00am on Thursday, April 15, we will adjust the current restrictions which went into effect last week,” Assistant Vice President of Campus Life and “COVID Lead” Erik Muurisepp said.

Athletics were canceled for two straight weekends amid an unprecedented surge in positive COVID-19 tests at Emerson, which began on March 31 and was traced back to the women’s basketball team, according to a member of an Emerson athletics team. Emerson has reported 53 positives since March 31.

Administrators implemented a spate of new restrictions on campus life—including the cancellation of last weekend’s sports games.

All out of season sports were canceled on April 5 following a recommendation from the Boston Public Health Commission due to a spike in positive COVID-19 test results on campus and in the city, Athletic Director Patricia Nicol said in an interview with The Beacon.

The teams impacted by the college’s decision to resume in-season sports are baseball, men’s and women’s lacrosse,

April 15, 2021

Tuesday, April 6

and softball, each of which hasn’t competed in over two weeks. The baseball, softball, and women’s lacrosse teams haven’t played a game since April 3, whereas the men’s lacrosse team has yet to play against an opponent this season.

Each canceled game this season was done so “due to COVID-19 protocols,” according to statements made by the Athletic Department posted on social media and its website, but it is unclear which protocols are being referenced.

Baseball and softball will compete in doubleheaders against Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Saturday. Baseball will play away in Worcester, Massachu-

Fenway Park is open at limited capacity. Tyler Foy / Beacon Staff setts, while softball hosts WPI at Rotch Field.

Men’s and women’s lacrosse will each play against Babson College on Saturday. Men’s lacrosse will travel to Wellesley, Massachusetts to play its first game of the season, and women’s lacrosse will host the Cougars at Rotch Field in its last scheduled game of the season.

Muurisepp said in the email announcement that spring sports teams will have to abide by “strict protocols.”

The statement did not explain which “strict protocols’’ are being enforced.

Prior to the shutdown of athletics activities last week, spring sports athletes were following safety protocols that the college enforced when it announced the sports season in March, including wearing masks while practicing, getting three COVID tests per week, and not participating in overnight travel.

The statement also said that the Fitness Center, which has been closed for the past week due to on-campus restrictions, will reopen to the community at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning. christopher_williams@emerson.edu

ECPD responded to a report of a suspicious person in the lobby of the Little Building Residence Hall. When ECPD arrived, the person had departed the area.

ECPD discovered moments later that the same unidentified non-Emerson community member falsely activated the Boston Fire Department’s Fire Pull Station after leaving the lobby. The station was located on the sidewalk in front of 211 Tremont Street. The Boston Fire Department responded and reset the pull station. No buildings were evacuated and no one was injured.

Thursday, April 8 ECPD responded to a reported bypass in security at the Little Building non-residence desk.

The Emerson College student who was reported to bypass the location was confirmed by ECPD to have not properly tapped before accessing the basement level of the building.

Student-athlete’s final days in quarantine: 0/10 would not do it again

Ríos was given permission to do laundry. Jose Ríos / Beacon Staff

José Ríos

Beacon Staff People tend to complain about how fast the weekend goes by, but believe me, my weekend has gone by slower than expected.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the last time I spent this much time in my bed during the weekend, was following my wisdom teeth removal in 2019, although that was a more painful experience.

After waking up around noon, I got up to continue with some stretches and a quick resistance band workout. I know that sounds like a line some fitness or lifestyle influencers preach, but realistically it took like 15 minutes and lacked any form of intensity.

After getting a text from my friend

to hop on my PlayStation to play FIFA with him, I obliged. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a soccer video game, and we played three games together. The scores were something to be proud, as we swept our opponents 10-2, 7-2, and 6-2. I felt accomplished enough after averaging four goals per game, and I returned to doing nothing of importance for the remainder of the afternoon.

After watching more movies, to the point that I found myself questioning how I had not lost my mind already, I hopped on Zoom to record another episode of “The Golden Boot Podcast.”

I don’t want to spoil the episode, but it included a nice debate regarding who our best Under-23 players are in the world—obviously I made both lists.

The rest of the night included activi-

ties such as watching the full Avicii tribute concert on YouTube in all of its glory, playing “The Lorax” soundtrack on repeat, and practicing the dance moves to Vegedream’s “Ramenez la coupe à la maison.”

I woke up early on Sunday for some reason, and I was able to leave my room to go do laundry. Yes, I understand it’s not the most exciting thing, but any kind of adventure is welcomed after being in the same room for more than a week.

On Sunday night, I was also able to connect with a friend from back home.

Unsurprisingly, we also played FIFA, in which I proceeded to beat him in three out of four games. I capped off the night by watching the greatest sports movie ever, “Goal!: The Dream Begins,” as well as “Spy Kids.”

Monday, again, was a very late start.

Sure, later in the day there were meetings to attend, French homework to do, and this entry to write, but the day was slow as I prepared to pack my things and get ready to leave as soon as I was given the green light to leave Tuesday morning.

It has been a while since I was outside. It is one of those things where you don’t really grasp how long it has been since you arrived. It all feels so repetitive, so devoid of excitement, and a bit like life in a sense, it’s just monotone same things over and over.

Additionally there is the concern of food. I will say this has been the best meal service that I have ever had when I’ve done quarantine in Emerson. The

first days of both this and last semester have been a let down to put it lightly.

The food itself was not horrible in my case, it was DH food and that’s all I can ask for. Still food for me is something tough to deal with, I have dealt with eating anxiety for much of my life and as an athlete I always try to control myself and stay healthy which is hard when I can not cook my own meals and was even harder when I was in very little control of my meals. Still I will applaud the effort put into getting me my meals as close to perfect as possible.

The conditions can’t be described as subpar, as Paramount is a residential building, afterall. Still, it obviously would be more comforting and less of a strain on my mental health if I could do this in my own suite and room, especially when all of my suitemates are completing quarantine too.

I also find that Emerson’s focus on what they say is ‘protecting anonymity,’ comes a lot from how the school and its culture has reacted to the virus. As someone who lived in the hotspot of the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, I understand the fear and worries behind another pandemic. But I think we just need to stay calm and understand that if you are to get COVID, we are lucky there is a system in place to support you at this school.

Regardless, there are some positives.

I don’t have to get tested again this semester, and I have antibodies for the next 90 days. The cons are everything else that has happened in the past 10 days and the fact that I will now have

Courtesy Jakob Menendez to wait to get vaccinated, and if I end up traveling back home to Mexico my vaccination date could have to wait quite some time. So if I were to rate this experience, I would rate 0/10 not do it again. jose_rios@emerson.edu