Volume 14 Issue 17
“To acquire wisdom, one must observe” www.brandeishoot.com
October 27, 2017
Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.
Crenshaw delivers Gittler Prize lecture By Sarah Terrazano and Hannah Schuster editors
photo by yarisa diaz/the hoot
gittler prize Kimberlé
Crenshaw, an influential scholar, received the 2016-17 Gittler prize and delivered a lecture on intersectionality, a term she coined.
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, the influential scholar who coined the term “intersectionality,” received the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler prize on Wednesday, Oct. 26. Crenshaw has spent several days in residency, speaking with classes and at campus events. On Wednesday, she delivered a lecture on the intersectionality of racism, sexism and other forms of systematic discrimination and marginalization. Crenshaw, a professor of law at both UCLA and Columbia law schools, delivered her lecture to a crowd larger than the treasure hall could hold; students sat in the aisles and stood outside the
backdoors in the rain to hear her lecture. The Gittler prize honors scholars who “have produced a body of published work that reflects scholarly excellence and a lasting contribution to racial, ethnic and/ or religious relations anywhere in the world,” explains the website for the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public life, which presents the award. Crenshaw explained at the beginning of her presentation how surprised she was to receive an award, saying “no one in their right mind goes into social justice research and advocacy with the idea they are going to receive personal rewards or recognition for it.” Crenshaw has earned numerous See CRENSHAW, page 4
Sodexo lowers prices OPS, Title IX office search for at the C-store senior position replacements By Elianna Spitzer editor
Sodexo reevaluated the prices of the 20 most popular C-store items, according to Andy Allen, Sodexo General Manager. This means that Ben and Jerry’s now costs $4.99 compared to $6.09.
Sodexo’s “point of sale system” suggests price changes based on invoice pricing when a vendor delivers an item. This is why some products are priced higher than their counterparts at local supermarkets. Sodexo employees have not evaluated or manually adjusted until now, due to the See PRICES, page 2
By Hannah Schuster and Elianna Spitzer editors
The position of Title IX Investigator and Compliance Officer is vacant following the recent departure of Rebecca Tillar. The search to fill Tillar’s post, the senior investigator position in that
office, has just begun, and the searches for two other permanent hires in sexual assault services are ongoing. Brandeis is also seeking to replace Sheila McMahon, who left her position as Director of Sexual Assault and Prevention Services in early July and Julia Rickey, the Survivor Advocate, who left in late summer.
The Title IX position was posted this week on an employment website and will be up for about one month, according to Sousa. They aim to have someone in the position by early next semester. Tillar’s main role at Brandeis involved investigating sexual misconduct claims under Title IX. Those investigations will continSee HIRING, page 5
Brandeis Pro-Choice receives $5,000 grant By Celia Young editor
Brandeis Pro-Choice received $5,000 from Planned Parenthood to install a Plan B vending machine in the Shapiro Campus Center (SCC). The vending machine will ideally have a year’s worth of free Plan B available at all times for the student body, according to Susannah Miller ’19, Brandeis Pro-Choice president. Brandeis Pro-Choice, a student run organization, is partnered with Planned Parenthood Generation Action which informed them of the grant. Planned Par-
enthood Generation Action is a college campus-based Planned Parenthood program that involves campus organizations, such as Brandeis Pro-Choice, with national campaigns. They work with over 300 campus groups across the country. Brandeis Pro-Choice plans to use the grant to install a wellness vending machine with condoms, menstrual products, ibuprofen and Plan B available 24/7. The desire for this machine comes from the unavailability of easily accessible Plan B on weekends for the student body, said Miller. They hope to place the vending ma-
Inside This Issue:
See GRANT page 3
News: Task force shares views on ‘Buyer Beware’ Arts: Crenshaw attends Ebony Axis Features: MLK fellowship teaches leadership Sports: Volleyball regains footing EDITORIAL: Crenshaw fills Rapaporte
fall flex X Ambassadors,
14.
Plan-B
Page 2 Emergency contraceptive Page 13 should be more accessible Page 8 OPS: PAGE 7 Page 12 Page 10
photo by yarisa diaz/the hoot
an alternative rock band, captivating the audience with a riveting performace. See ARTS page
JFK Panel Panel discusses disabilities advancements during JFK administration NEWS: PAGE 3
NEWS
2 The Brandeis Hoot
October 27, 2017
Free expression task force members had varied knowledge and input on ‘Buyer Beware’ decision By Ryan Spencer editor
The replacement of the play “Buyer Beware” with a spring course dealing with the challenging issues it evokes is consistent with the “spirit” of the non-policy Draft Principles of Free Expression and Free Speech commissioned by President Ron Liebowitz, according to a statement from the president. The play, written by Brandeis alum Michael Weller ’76, was condemned by multiple students who called for it to be cancelled for its use of the n-word and its portrayal of the Black Lives Matter movement after some students saw a draft of the play. Brandeis will award Weller the Creative Arts Award this spring, and last fall, he spent a residency doing research for the play in the Lenny Bruce archives and speaking with members of the community. Weller was “advised by a member of the Department of Theatre Arts not to engage further with students about this issue,” according to an email he sent to The Brandeis Hoot after multiple requests for comment. The cancellation of the production of “Buyer Beware,” first reported in an Oct. 20 Hoot article, was a mutual decision which followed “open and productive conversations with Michael [Weller],” according to a statement from the Theater Arts Department. “Decisions on how, where and when to present material are made by faculty on a daily basis at Brandeis and all universities,” said Julie Jette, director of media relations.
Last fall, President Liebowitz convened a Task Force on Free Expression to “reflect on and re-examine our university’s policies and practices related to academic freedom and free expression.” Members of the task force included administrators, faculty members and students. Interim Theater Department Chair, Susan Dibble, sat on that task force. The Draft Principles of Free Expression, which were signed by 16 of 18 members of the task force earlier this semester, are not policy but will be “discussed in open meetings this fall before they are shared with the Board of Trustees and adopted to guide university policy,” according to a posting on the Brandeis website for a meeting scheduled for Oct. 30. Liebowitz said, “the draft principles are principles and do not represent policy.” Task force members made the same point when speaking with The Hoot. The Draft Principles can be found on the Brandeis website with a Brandeis login. There have been two open meetings this semester to discuss the principles, but they were not well attended. The meeting on Oct. 30 is the final meeting scheduled for this semester. Dibble, the theater department chair, said Tuesday that she was not involved with last week’s final decision to cancel the premiere of “Buyer Beware” at Brandeis. She declined to say who was involved the decision. Professor Adrianne Krstansky (THA) released the most recent statement about the play on behalf of the theater department. Liebowitz stated that Theater Department faculty and Weller
made the ultimate decision to cancel the play. Dibble declined to comment on how the cancellation of “Buyer Beware” aligned with the Draft Principles of Free Expression and Free Speech she signed earlier this semester “I want some space from the [“Buyer Beware”] issue,” she said. She also told The Hoot that some things need to be discussed further. Members of the Free Expression Task Force who responded to requests for comment from The Hoot had varied knowledge of the issue and gave conflicting accounts of other task force members’ involvement in the issue. “Free expression, including in the arts, implies the free exchange of ideas,” according to the Draft Principles. “The university has a responsibility to encourage the airing of the widest range of political and scholarly opinions, and to prevent attempts to shut down conversations, no matter what their topic.” Dibble told The Hoot, “I believe in the principles” and as an artist specializing in dance and movement who speaks with her body, she felt educated by the time she spent working on the Free Expression Task Force. Professor Rajesh Sampath, also a Free Expression Task Force member who signed the Draft Principles, told The Hoot he was consulted for his “opinion on the play and how the community would receive it” in an August call from an individual in the Theater Arts Department. He said two other people in the Theater Arts Department asked for his opinion prior to the telephone call.
He would not name any of the individuals who consulted him and was not involved “the actual decision to go forward or cancel the play.” Speaking on “an individual capacity” as a faculty member who was not representative of the Task Force as a whole, Sampath said that we live in complex times and, in his opinion, we must recognize a “trade off ” between free speech and the harm that certain speech may cause to members of minority groups. He does not support performing the play. “We live in a time when the use of racial epithets, regardless of intent, may cause harm. If we foresee a certain word [causing harm], why would we go forward and use it, even in art? Early in a draft of “Buyer Beware” obtained by The Hoot, the play’s protagonist uses the n-word multiple times while quoting Lenny Bruce, a stand-up comedian and free speech absolutist from the 1950s and 1960s whose life is chronicled in an exhibit and in archives at the Brandeis University Library. “We as an institution have a responsibility not to do harm,” Sampath told The Hoot. “There were other members of the task force that were directly involved in the question of whether or not to put on this play,” Task Force member George Hall, an economics professor, told The Hoot. He listed Dibble, Sampath, Professor John Plotz (ENG) and Mark Brimhall-Vargas. Hall told The Hoot he had not read the play and was not aware that the production had been canceled. Task Force member Javier Ur-
cid, professor of Latin American Studies, told The Hoot, “[the task force’s] charter was not to adjudicate on specific cases or events,” and that neither he nor “any other member of the task force would have been involved on the decision to cancel the play.” Task force member Professor Thomas Pochapsky (CHEM) told The Hoot, “I was unaware of any of this (I am not even sure what “Buyer Beware” is).” Sylvia Fishman, another member, also knew nothing. The readings and content of the spring course, which will be a team-taught course in the School of Creative Arts, are at the discretion of the instructors of the course, according to an email from the Theater Department. Dibble said that the script for “Buyer Beware” may or may not be contained in the course and that instructors have “complete academic freedom” to determine the readings and art works included in the class. Jette told The Hoot, “The instructors do plan to engage directly with the script and the issues it raises” but “reading the full script in class is contingent upon Brandeis obtaining copyright permission from the company that will produce the play. We are hopeful that we will be able to obtain that permission.” “The play will surely be addressed in the course,” according task force member Aida Wong. “The department chairs in the Creative Arts Division and others met to discuss the matter, and got a good sense of why “Buyer Beware” (which was circulated when it was still in draft form) has become a difficult issue.”
Price adjustment will affect over 1,200 items in the C-store over several months PRICES, from page 1
sheer amount of hours and staff dedication that it would require, according to Allen. “To simplify, an automated system captures the invoice pricing from the vendor at the point of delivery, looks back at the last time it was purchased, reviews if the prices have changed up or down, then produces a weekly report that suggests price changes,” he said. “If approved, it automatically updates the register system and produces a new pricing sticker for its placement in the store. If you simply think about each of those steps happening in a manual fashion, it shows the scope.” Student Union members and Sodexo staff met to discuss the price adjustments earlier at the start of the school year. President Jacob Edelman and Vice President Hannah Brown aimed to see if some of the higher priced, popular items at the C-store could be adjusted. Edelman said that Sodexo staff members were “extremely receptive” to their questions. Over the summer, Sodexo con-
sidered switching the software used for purchasing, pricing and inventory to update functions in the C-store. Allen explained that any type of switch would require a lot of manual work to make a new system compatible with Sodexo’s
point of sale and card swipe system. Regardless, they understood the need to manually adjust prices. To make the manual adjustment process more manageable, Sodexo broke the items into cat-
egories. The 20 most purchased items at the store were manually updated about a week ago. “By reviewing in order of sales volume, we will impact the greatest amount of customers the quickest,” wrote Allen.
photos by elianna spitzer/the hoot
Sodexo staff members either lowered or maintained the price point. As of Wednesday night, Allen confirmed that Sodexo has not raised any prices. The most popular items in the C-store vary from Act Popcorn, now priced at $.89 to Lucky Charms cereal at $6.09. The price of some granola bars decreased. Nature Valley granola bars are now $.99 each and Cliff bars $2.09 each. “The process will not be immediate for everything, since the 1,000+ items in the store need to be reviewed and repriced manually, but it will be taking place, and we are grateful for the action Sodexo is taking to address this issue,” wrote Edelman in an email to The Hoot. There are over 1,200 products in the C-store, according to Allen. By next week, Allen estimates, 50 more prices will be adjusted. Sodexo is circulating a survey to get student feedback on dining services around campus. The survey is online and will remain open until Nov. 5. The chair of the Student Union Dining Committee could not be reached in time for comment as of press time.
October 27, 2017
NEWS 3
The Brandeis Hoot
Panel recounts JFK’s revolutionary policies concerning people with intellectual disabilities By Ariella Gentin staff
This past Monday, Oct. 23, the Heller School hosted a panel titled “JFK and Another Civil Rights Movement: People with Intellectual Disabilities” to discuss how John F. Kennedy’s administration changed public policy surrounding people with intellectual disabilities. Members of the panel also assessed what steps communities should take to further promote their inclusion. The first question was addressed to Deborah M. Spitalnik ’70. Spitalnik was the founding executive director of the Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities and was a member and chair of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. She spoke about life for people with intellectual disabilities before President Kennedy took office and the changes his administration brought about. Spitalnik emphasized Kennedy’s campaign to combat societal issues, find scientific solutions and enlist American communities in the support of people with intellectual disabilities. Spitalnik also mentioned Kennedy’s goal of addressing issues that could lead to increased instances of intellectual disability, like lack of prenatal care. Charlie Lakin, the former director of The National Institute
on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, spoke about practical legal and societal changes that the U.S. has made as a result of JFK’s presidency. Lakin addressed the horrible conditions that 270,000 people with intellectual disabilities faced when sent to institutions, a choice parents were forced to make because they had no other options. He also spoke about JFK’s belief
in “normalization” for people with intellectual disabilities, meaning his commitment to helping people with intellectual disabilities integrate into general society and live their lives the way everyone else does. Sue Swenson, the Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services under Obama, talked about the right of all children to education, and how
the U.S. historically has been a beacon of hope as one of the only nations in the world that guarantees that right. She conceded that the U.S. has many more steps to take to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities receive the same education other students do. Swenson ended her speech by mentioning that Brandeis was formed the same year that the state of Israel
photo by emily sorkin-smith/the hoot
was established, and that the reason the U.S. does not contribute to UNESCO anymore is because of its relationship with Israel. Swenson called on Brandeis to “not let our commitment to human rights fade, and to put education right at the center…” Amy Robinson, a panelist and public speaker with Down Syndrome, spoke about her aspirations to be a Hollywood actress, demonstrated through her participation in community theater. Robinson is a college graduate and now works at a bakery. Mcnamara praised Robinson afterwards, stating, “Amy is a wonderful example of how far we’ve come and the possibilities of a rich and full life.” Lastly, Derek Nord, the director of the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community (IIDC) at Indiana University, spoke about the future. He emphasized that society needs to recognize that people with disabilities are capable, worthy of government support and are contributors to our society. Nord noted that despite the progress we have made in recent years, “we need to recognize that there is a long ways to go.” This event was just one in a series of events honoring the 100th anniversary of JFK’s birthday, which will take place on May 29. Eileen Mcnamara, the chair of the Journalism Program at Brandeis, moderated the panel of five. She is the author of a biography about Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Ribbon cutting ceremony honors Gittler Prize winners By Celia Young editor
At a ribbon cutting ceremony on Oct. 25, several scholars were honored for their contributions to social justice by the dedication of a corner of Farber Library. The ceremony featured a speech from President Liebowitz. Looking out over the wetlands, the new interactive exhibit con-
tains video clips, biographies, and photos of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize winners. The winners of the award receive $25,000 and a medal. “The recipients of the Joseph B and Toby Gittler Prize have produced the body of published work that reflects scholarly excellence and a lasting contribution to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations anywhere in the world,” Liebowitz said. Several winners were honored
with this dedication, including Kwame Anthony Appiah; Julian Bond; Patricia Hill Collins ’69, PhD ’84; Theaster Gates; Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, Martha Minow, and more. In attendance was Dr. Kimberly Crenshaw, the 2017 Gittler Prize winner. The prize is in remembrance of Joseph B Gittler, a sociologist, author, and faculty member to several prestigious institutions. The prize also honors his mother, Toby Gittler.
photos by elianna spitzer/the hoot
4 NEWS
The Brandeis Hoot
Pro-Choice club looks to provide wellness products
GRANT, from page 1
chine next to the existing snack machines on the first floor of the SCC. Plan B, also known as the morning after pill, is an emergency contraceptive effective when taken within three days of unprotected sex. Plan B is currently available at the Health Center from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays for free. The cost of the visit is either billed to the student’s insurance, or if their plan will not cover it, Brandeis assumes the cost. A student can be administered Plan B without notifying an insurance provider if there are confidentiality concerns. One of Miller’s main concerns is that the Health Center is closed on the weekends which could compel students to purchase the pill off campus. As an over-thecounter drug, Plan B can cost between $40 and $60. “With the vending machine we want to make sure that students have the reproductive health resources they deserve. Access to Plan B should not be a barrier for students based on money, based on having a car [or] based on time of day,” Miller said. “In the future we just want to continue serving as a resource on campus for people to find out about ways to get involved in reproductive justice as well as just how to keep themselves safe and healthy.” Brandeis Pro-Choice applied for the grant along with other Generation Action chapters. After the initial introduction process, Miller wrote a five-page grant proposal to justify the funding. She noted that, though some opposition was expected, none appeared. Her only concern in installing the machine was possible abuse resulting from students taking too much of the free Plan B. Administrators raised a similar concern about overuse of free
products with regard to the free menstrual product initiative at Brandeis. Student organizers and the Student Union are running a free trial this month, placing products in a handful of women’s and gender neutral bathrooms and at SSIS. “Luckily we haven’t really faced any opposition from the staff members that we [have] spoken with so far. We were kind of preparing for an uphill battle and really everyone we’ve spoken to has been on board so far, which is a miracle of Brandeis.” The specific logistics of installing the vending machine, such as pricing and placement, are still undecided. Miller was confident, however, that the project would provide major benefits to the student body. “I think it helps draw awareness to it as well because we’re kind of able to do this big exciting announcement...A lot of people aren’t aware of the current access to Plan B on campus and when they hear that it’s not available on weekends they think that’s crazy... So I think that the grant is going
to help us tell more people about this so that we can get more people on board.” Brandeis Pro-choice, formerly known as Brandeis for NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) until 2016, has been an organization at Brandeis since 2015. Miller has been president of the organization since spring of 2016, having joined as a freshman and stayed for the past three years. When asked about her role in the organization, Miller was enthusiastic. “It’s honestly the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done,” Miller said. “It’s challenging—it pushes me a lot—I’m not a natural born leader but I kind of stepped up and took this role and I absolutely love it and it makes me feel like I’m making a difference in the world.” Brandeis Pro-Choice has worked on other large projects, such as traveling to the state house to lobby for the Access bill, which allows Massachusetts residents to get free birth control. The student organization meets Wednesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. in Schwartz 110.
October 27, 2017
IN THE SENATE: October 22, 2017 The Senate begins with club recognition votes for Swimming Club and Veg Club • Veg Club was given one more week to prepare presentation (to mitigate duality of purpose concerns) • Swimming Club, which will offer an outlet for swimming outside the varsity atmosphere, was recognized with an unanimous vote Executive Reports from Hannah Brown ’19: • The E-board is beginning to have its first meetings with administrators. • Reminder: the last of three Free Speech Forums is next Monday (10/30) at 5:30 p.m. • Faculty and staff are working on evaluating the General Education requirements Senate Committee Chair Report • Aaron Finkel ’20, Chair of Services and Outreach Committee, reported they will be adding additional Turkey Shuttles. They made a last minute compromise regarding the price, and ticket prices were lowered by $5. • Jonathan Chen ’20, Chair of Dining Services, reported that the Battle of the Chefs Competition was successful. He also reported that the Senate received 170 responses for the annual dining survey, which was lower than expected. Sodexo will also be conducting its annual survey, which will be available to the whole student body. • Samantha Barrett ’20, Chair of Health and Safety Commit tee, is working on the menstrual product initiative. She is also planning to work on improving accommodations for students with disabilities and improving the dialogue between students and the Brandeis Counseling Center. She also reported that students are not respecting the 30 feet away smoking policy on campus. • Benedikt Reynolds ’19, Chair of Sustainability Committee, reported that the “sustainability resolution” passed at the Faculty Meeting on Friday, Oct. 20. The resolution supports Brandeis maintaining the Paris Climate commitment and encourages the Board of Trustees to divest from fossil fuels. Brown reported that more flu shots will be available at the Health Center. Senator Reports: • Rachel McAllister ’21, Class of 2021 Senator, reported that students want multiple therapy dogs and more therapists in the counseling center. • Leigh Salomon ’19, Ridgewood senator, discussed complaints of rigid dining plans for students with kitchens. • Qingtian Mei ’21, Massell Quad Senator, is working on planting on a flower in an empty pot with Shaquan Mcdowell ’18, Chair of Campus Operations Working Group. - Juliana An
photo by emily sorkin-smith/the hoot
Dance company petitions for card access to Linsey Sports Center
By Samantha Lauring staff
Dancers from the Adagio Dance Company are petitioning for card swipe access to the Linsey Sports Center. The petition was created by Brooke Granovsky ’18, one of the co-presidents of Adagio. As of Thursday night, the petition has 118 signatures. Dancers from many different clubs use the four multi-purpose rooms in Linsey for dance rehearsals and do not have direct access to the building. Rather, dancers need to walk across the basketball courts to enter Linsey, which sometimes means walking through active basketball, volleyball and soccer games or tournaments. “It would be better for all involved if dancers could enter at Linsey, which is the entrance beside the fitness multipurpose rooms that at least 15 Brandeis dance clubs use,” states the petition. This “disrupts play and is dangerous for both the players and the dancers. Dancers also often have to walk behind soccer nets during active games, which is a
severe hazard,” the petition reads. “Dancers should have direct access to Linsey because it is a main rehearsal space where a student may be going multiple times a week,” said Susannah Miller ’19, a member of the Adagio Dance Company. “It’s unsafe to have to walk through active sport courts to access the studios and inconveniences the athletes too,” she continued. Adagio is suggesting a few members of each dance club should have card access to Linsey to limit the amount of people who can enter the building, said Granovsky. No students have card access to the building, except specific student employees at certain times of the day, according to Tom Rand, the Senior Associate Athletic Director of Athletics. Athletics and Public Safety are not comfortable granting the general campus community access to doors that are not staffed because they cannot guarantee students are not bringing in unauthorized people, said Rand. The athletics facilities are only intended for current Brandeis students, faculty, staff, alumni and family members who have purchased memberships.
“For safety, security and liability reasons all guests must enter the main entrance and sign a waiver of liability and assumption of risk,” said Rand. There have been incidents in the past of students sneaking in people who do not attend Brandeis, claimed Rand, who also noted that Gosman staff frequently find people in the gym who do not belong there, such as local high school students, Bentley and Boston College students and people from the community. If these people get injured in the Brandeis gyms, the university could be held liable. Rand also voiced concern over unauthorized people who have committed larceny, vandalism and harassment in the gyms. “If we start giving people access to doors that aren’t staffed, I feel like we are only asking for more issues.” There are 28 different student clubs that are using Linsey this week as well as exercise and physical education classes and varsity strength and conditioning sessions. Swimmers and the varsity swim team also use the building. “I’m sure everyone involved in all of those groups would like to enter the Linsey doors rather than
coming in the main entrance. Even if you only grant 1-2 people access from each group that is still A LOT of people,” stated Rand. There would also be no way to monitor all these people or a way to track which students join or quit clubs. “I don’t think Public Safety would want to constantly be granting and removing card access.” The only way to allow students to gain access to Linsey would be to have someone staff the entrance, which the Athletics Department does not have the budget for, noted Rand. If dance clubs wanted to fund a staff member to monitor the Linsey entrance, clubs could use their Allocations Board funding to staff someone at the entrance at specific times and days, said Rand. The cost of hiring an employee would by $11-12 per hour. Additionally, Public Safety would have to activate the current card reader, as it is not activated right now. Dancers are exploring routes they could take to fund this student staff member, according to Granovsky. Several students and alumni have expressed their support of the petition. Eunice Choe ’17,
co-president of Adagio for two years, claimed that, “our dance companies use the facilities every single day, and I think only one incidence of getting hit in the head or unintentionally interrupting a tournament should be enough to initiate a policy change.” “From volunteering to teach dance to children at schools, to attracting the best Boston-area dance groups to its performances, the Brandeis dance community brings exceptional value to the Brandeis campus, and it’s about time it gets the consideration it deserves,” stated Choe. “It would have helped us a lot to have card access to Linsey because it is such an important building to the dance community at Brandeis. It doesn’t make sense to not give dancers access,” said Saumya Datta ’19, one of the captains of Chak De!, the Bollywood fusion dance team. Granovsky and other dancers are still in contact with Rand and are planning to have a formal discussion with him in the upcoming weeks. Editor-in-Chief Hannah Schuster, Senior Copy Editor Sarah Terrazano and Features Editor Polina Potochevska are members of Adagio Dance Company.
October 27, 2017
NEWS 5
The Brandeis Hoot
Rapaporte Treasure Hall fills beyond capacity for Gittler winner Kimberlé Crenshaw CRENSHAW, from page 1
awards and fellowships around the world. She co-founded the African American Policy Forum, helped launch the Why We Can’t Wait campaign and co-authored two books on critical race theory, “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected” and “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women.” Crenshaw discussed critical race theory and the emergence of intersectionality, and how to relate these ideas to the risks of post-racialism in Trump’s presidency. “There’s no moment when we can wipe our hands collectively and say ‘it’s time to move on,’” Crenshaw noted. Crenshaw used several deft metaphors throughout her talk. She responded to recent criticisms on intersectionality, notably the idea that the concept of intersectionality causes the very problems it tries to unpack. “The common denominator in most of these criticisms seems to be precious little literacy about intersectionality,” she said. “It’s like a very bad game of telephone.” In a recent interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, she again found herself in the position of defending intersectionality. The object of the interview, she said, was not to ask her about issues like the exclusion of black women from political discourse, but to ask about controversy surrounding the term itself. The goal “was not to escort the subject of intersectionality into the town square. The point was to pull the vehicle that carried them over, to interrogate the idea that fit the description of controversial, potentially dangerous interloper in the gated community of legitimate academic discourse.”
Crenshaw discussed the difference in marginalization between black men and women, such as in the issue of police brutality. Towards the end of the talk, Crenshaw asked everyone to raise their hands. She listed names of black men who were killed by the police and asked the audience to lower their hands when they heard a name they didn’t recognize. She listed people like Eric Garner and Philando Castile, and nearly every hand in the room stayed up. She then listed names of black women who were killed by the police, and after the first name, nearly half the hands in the room went down; by the next two names, almost every hand in the room had lowered. Crenshaw and her organization were instrumental in the founding the Say Her Name movement, which aims to increase awareness of black women who have been killed by the police.
During her talk, she described her surprise at one day seeing herself on Fox News. Bill O’Reilly had criticized Crenshaw’s view that while President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative mentors young black men, it ignores young black women. Crenshaw defended her standpoint of being “agitated for gender equity in the president’s racial justice initiative.” Noting the importance of recognizing the intersectional identity of being a black woman, she continued “this wouldn’t be the last time that O’Reilly or any others would denigrate black women in pursuit of defending Trumpism.” Many statistics about young black men used to highlight the My Brother’s Keeper program apply equally to black men and women, said Crenshaw. It was an “exclusive use of inclusive data,” she said.
Her talk also touched on how certain societal critiques focus on black men, but not black women. The school to prison pipeline is an example of this—black boys are three times more likely to be suspended than white boys, but black girls are six times more likely than white girls to be suspended. This relates to the circularity of exclusion, where black women and girls are not included, no one discusses the situation and no one is aware of these issues. She also described Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings as a “failure of intersectionality.” After Anita Hill came forward, Thomas’s support among the black community grew and some called Hill a traitor. She described the institutional silencing of black women as a further reason for the necessity of intersectionality. “It was a failure to acknowledge and elevate the intersectional vul-
photo by yarisa diaz/the hoot
nerability of black women within our community that roped us into being complicit in creating a supreme court that has gone on to undermine the civil rights infrastructure,” she said. The Gittler Prize includes $25,000 and a medal. Past recipients include Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School and Patricia Hill Collins, ’69, PhD ’84, a Brandeis alumna and prominent scholar of black feminist thought. The 2018 Gittler Prize winner has already been selected as Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emeritus at Spelman College and a leading scholar on racial identity and segregation. Intersectionality is a “framework” to help people see situations in a more complete way, said Crenshaw. The term emerged from a consideration of how intersectional discrimination was affecting black women in the legal system, with regard to hiring practices, for example. “Industries had jobs for black people and they had jobs for women, but the jobs for black people were not for women, and the jobs for women were not for black people,” said Crenshaw. “Black women couldn’t make a claim for race discrimination because not all black people were excluded, and they couldn’t make a claim for gender discrimination because not all women were excluded.” Black women were told it would be “preferential treatment” if they were allowed to make to compounded claims because no other group was allowed to do so. When Crenshaw concluded her talk, the audience immediately rose to their feet and applauded. Crenshaw has engaged both with large groups and directly with members of the community throughout her residency. Jocelyn Gould contributed re-
No ‘disruption in services’ at OPS, Title IX, says Sousa HIRING, from page 1
as normal in her absence, said Sheryl Sousa ’90, Vice President of Student Affairs. Paula Slowe is another case manager in the office and will reach out to students who file a report to begin an investigation into alleged misconduct. There are two types of investigations, Sousa said, the Special Examiners Process (SEP) and the informal investigation. Special Examiners are outside investigators, selected from a pool of pre-screened attorneys. There is a “co-examiner” who is a member of the Brandeis community and the case manager generally fills this role. With one fewer staff member, there are others who can take on this job. Several employees on campus have the requisite training to fill this role, including Sousa, employees from the Dean of Students Office and Kerry Guerard, the Director of Student Rights and Community Standards. The informal process also requires a trained staff member, a role the Lead Investigator typically fills. Other staff members can conduct informal investigations in the interim. The university is also hiring an interim investigator who could assist with either of these processes. “We should
probably have that settled within the next week or so,” Sousa said. A search committee is narrowing the list of candidates for the Director of Sexual Assault and Prevention Services, the head of the Office of Prevention Services. The committee, comprised of faculty, staff and students, is primarily pulled from the Task Force for Sexual Assault Response, Services and Prevention. Members conducted a round of video interviews within the last week, according to Sousa. The committee is expected to select finalists by early to mid November, according to Sousa. They will invite the finalists to campus for two public questions and answer sessions. Sousa said there will likely be a session for faculty and staff and a session for students. The Survivor Advocate and Education specialist position has also been vacant since the summer. The hiring process for the Survivor Advocate will be staggered with the Director because the Director oversees the Advocate position. “Our thinking all along has been it would be [the] best case scenario for the director-to-be, new director, to weigh in on that search process,” said Sousa. The position has been posted on the Brandeis employment site and the search committee will begin
narrowing down the candidates soon, according to Sousa. The university aims to have a new director and a new Survivor Advocate in place at the start of the spring semester. The university listed both positions over the summer, but review began this fall. “Positions like these we very much want student input so...it was better for the overall search for that one to wait until we had started back up with school so that we could have everyone actively engaged,” said Sousa. During the transition period, Sousa emphasized, “All services are still available...There isn’t a disruption in services.” The Office of Prevention Services and Rape Crisis Center (RCC) have been operating with student workers and part-time interim staff taking the lead since late summer. The RCC is open 12 to 5 p.m. on weekdays and staffed by peer advocates and two parttime interim survivor advocates, who Sousa called “incredibly well trained and experienced.” Trish Glover, who is also a trauma specialist at the Brandeis Counseling Center, is at the RCC Mondays and Thursdays. Purnima Sahgal, who also works as a trauma specialist at South Shore Mental Health, according to LinkedIn, is there on Tuesdays
and Fridays. Glover and Sahgal are also staffing the after-hours RCC hotline. They follow a rotation and someone is available at all times. Glover is also provided “clinical supervision” to the RCC peer advocates. If students need guidance or have a question about something that’s been disclosed to them, they can turn to Glover, Sousa explained. “[Glover] is...making sure that... the operation is being managed in an appropriate way,” said Sousa. Carrie Robertson is working part-time as Interim Program Manager of OPS. She has worked in the Title IX office and in graduate admissions. She is supervising the student staff and overseeing the bystander education program. She meets with the students for twice-weekly staff meetings. Paul Sindberg ’18, the Coordinator of Community Engagement, said Robertson has been a great resource for the student staff. Sousa said the student staff at the RCC and OPS are “incredibly dedicated to those roles...They have been doing a lot of the...dayto-day work,” she said. Student staff are doing work to maintain bystander training and engage with the community, Sindberg agreed. This gives them a “direct ability” to shape the office. “We are looking forward to have a director to rely on and sup-
port us.” He said there are some projects that have been “put on the back burner,” as the office transitions, including work on developing a new bystander training curriculum devoted to recognizing the signs of intimate partner violence and educational campaigns. Sindberg said his outlook is that he is “[excited] for the opportunities that reemerge when we hire a director.” Tillar left Brandeis for personal reasons, her partner having taken a job in another city, according to multiple people familiar with the decision. McMahon left the office she helped found in mid-July for a professorship at the Barry University School of Social Work, she said in a phone interview in early September. McMahon had been exploring faculty opportunities which would allow her to spend more time on research and writing. Julia Rickey, the survivor advocate, departed several weeks later, and McMahon said she did not know Rickey was going to leave. Rickey has a clinical background and was interested in doing more long-term counseling, according to Sousa, McMahon and several others familiar with her decision. The Survivor Advocate position mostly involved one-time counseling.
6 NEWS
The Brandeis Hoot
October 27, 2017
Prof. Lisman leaves impact on scientific community By Sara McCrea and Polina Potochevska staff and editor
On Friday, Oct. 20, Professor John Lisman of the Biology department passed away, surrounded by his family. He was 73 years old. Prof. Lisman spent many years of his life at Brandeis University. Provost Lisa Lynch fondly refers to him in her email as a “Brandeis lifer.” He first graduated from Brandeis in 1966 with a B.A. in Physics. He received his Ph.D. degree in physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), then had a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University under the Nobel Laureate George Wald, most known for his research with pigments in the retina. In 1974, Lisman became an assistant professor at Brandeis and was promoted to a full professor role in 1987. In 2006, Lisman became the Zalman Abraham Kekst Chair in Neuroscience and held it until his passing. He also held the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from 1989 to 1996, and was elected to the rank of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in 2013, reflecting his scientific accomplishments. As a professor, his expertise was in molecular mechanisms of memory storage, the role of brain oscillations and
the molecular and network basis of schizophrenia, according to the Brandeis faculty guide. Lisman wrote on his lab’s website, “My laboratory is interested in two questions: the mechanisms of memory and abnormalities that underlie schizophrenia. In both cases, we seek to determine how biochemical, neuronal and network processes can work as a system to perform physiological function.” Since the 1980’s, Lisman and his lab have been investigating the relationship between long-term memory and calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase (CaMKII), and a breakthrough study was published on Sept. 27 in the online edition of “Neuron,” a prestigious peer-reviewed neuroscience journal, as The Brandeis Hoot wrote in its Oct. 13 issue. Published shortly before his passing, the study provided evidence that CaMKII was the key to storing long-term memories in the brain. As Lynch wrote, the study “opens up new avenues of research on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ALS.” The Brandeis Science Department received many tributes to Lisman, including a letter from University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Michael Kahana, who wrote, “He had this incredibly-infectious scientific curiosity, and he was always abundantly generous with his time, both with me and my stu-
dents.” On the department’s announcement of Lisman’s passing, many students, colleagues and alumni left comments remembering as an “intellectual hero” and a “scientific father.” In the Oct.13 Hoot article, Casey Lamar ’18, who worked with Prof. Lisman in his lab, stated that the professor was a model of perseverance for continuing to work in the lab despite a study from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2009 that threatened to prove his theory wrong. In the Science at Brandeis blog posted on October 21 following Lisman’s death, past students and colleagues shared their condolences through Twitter. User @ Kepecslab called Lisman a “bold & original thinker,” while user @ DrTepring remembered him as being “patient, brilliant, encouraging & funny.” Lynch wrote in her email that Lisman was “highly accomplished in the classroom” and was able to “connect research with teaching and to connect the classroom with the larger world.” Lisman was involved with scientific research at Brandeis and was the chair of the Neuroscience Program for a number of years, but he was also a strong supporter of the arts as he served on the faculty advisory committee for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, according to Lynch’s email. Lisman’s memorial service took place at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Berlin Chapel and was
prof. john lisman
photo from brandeis.edu
live streamed in Gerstenzang 121 as well as the Shapiro Science Center first floor library. A reception at the Brandeis Faculty Club took place at 3:30 p.m. and was open to the community. Lisman’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, people consider donating to the newly created John Lisman Memorial Scholarship. As stated on the online link to donate to the scholarship, “The Lisman family is establish-
ing and endowing a scholarship fund in his name to support Brandeis undergraduates aspiring to a career in neuroscience.” Currently, the scholarship has raised $4,401 of its target $50,000. As a “Brandeis lifer,” Lisman’s legacy as a professor will continue to influence aspiring scientists and his groundbreaking research on memory will impact the scientific world for years to come.
Faculty vote to support univ. divestment By Sabrina Chow staff
Faculty voted at their monthly meeting on a resolution supporting Brandeis’ Commitment to the Paris Climate Accords and encouraging the Board of Trustees to act on fossil fuel divestment. Committee members of Faculty Against Climate Threat (FACT) finalized their resolution on climate change for the university, and on Friday, Oct. 20, a majority of faculty voted to approve it. The ultimate decision on divestment rests with the Board of Trustees. Fossil fuel divestment is the process of removing stocks and bonds from both companies that distribute fossil fuels and support the use of fossil fuels. The resolution as a whole praises University President Liebowitz for signing onto the Paris Agreement and commending Provost Lisa Lynch for strengthening the campus sustainability campaign. When President Donald Trump decided to remove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement this past June, Liebowitz joined other university presidents, governors and local officials in voicing their continued commitment to the accord. The Agreement is a global commitment to hold the warming of Earth to under two degrees Celsius and move the world toward an era of sustainable energy. The faculty resolution supports Brandeis in its pledge to “take forceful action,” to uphold the global effort. The final line of the resolution states that “recognizing the leadership role Brandeis University can play in modeling civic action and also the responsibility of the Trustees to protect and grow endowment funds,” the university should act on fos-
photo from hoot archives
sil fuel divestment at “the fastest pace that is consistent with our contractual commitments.” This resolution has been years in the making. In early spring of 2013, more than 79 percent of Brandeis students voiced their support of fossil fuel divestment, according to a document from Professor Sabine von Mering (ENVS/GRALL/WMGS). This led then-president Fred Lawrence to establish a committee to explore the possibility of fossil fuel divestments and its implications for Brandeis. Two years later in February 2015, 150 faculty members along with student activists hand-delivered a fossil fuel divestment petition, urging the Board of Trustees and administration to take action on the growing issue. The administrators did not respond, and faculty founded FACT. Since this period, student divestment activists groups like Brandeis Climate Justice (BCJ) and Students for Environmental Action (SEA) sought to involve student participation in rallies and protests
to vocalize the student body’s support of fossil fuel divestment. Prof. von Mering also noted programs like the Divest Fund for would-be donors that support fossil fuel divestment. The Fund works in conjunction with over 30 colleges that have agreed to participate in divestment, including many schools in the greater Boston area. This non-profit organization holds up to $500,000 in donations for each school in fossil free mutual funds as well as cash reserve funds. When a university commits to divest, the money is given back to the university. At the end of 2017, schools who have not chosen to divest will lose the opportunity to retain these funds, and the organization will distribute them equally among schools who have committed to divest. This deadline stems from the International Energy Agency’s World Outlook Report citing that no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built starting in 2018. Prof. von Mering is active in climate change activism. She is
a founding member of FACT, the faculty representative on the student-run Sustainability Committee and is also involved with the Mandel Humanities Center Working Group on Climate Change. Raised in Germany, a country at the forefront of sustainability in Europe, von Mering hopes that the United States can reach the same level of sustainability as Germany. “When you know the facts about global warming you have a choice: You can either silently ignore it or ring the alarm bells. As a German I have been taught that silently ignoring a big problem is deeply wrong,” she told The Brandeis Hoot. Divestment is not the only way to combat climate change and fossil fuels, von Mering agrees. In a 2015 interview with The Hoot, the sustainability manager said that “the fastest way to send fossil fuel companies a message is to use less energy and show that we do not support the unbridled usage of their product.” Mary Fischer, manager of sustainabil-
ity programs at Brandeis, has taken up initiatives to lower energy use on campus during her approximately two years here. Von Mering noted politicians often rely on subsidies from fossil fuel companies to fund their campaigns, which places these companies in power within the government. “[W]hy don’t people use public transportation and renewable energy? Why are electric cars not cheaper than gas-powered cars? Because the fossil fuel industry has been preventing politicians from doing what needs to be done,” she argued. Von Mering cites “a major scandal in New England right now where utility companies are pushing for more new fossil fuel infrastructure based on data they themselves manipulated,” and also noted fossil fuels receive “twice as much in subsidies as renewables.” Student activist groups on campus, such as those in BCJ, have been involved in divestment action. Cacildia Cain, an Environmental Studies major and active member in BCJ, believes that, “Brandeis having money invested in the fossil fuel industry is not upholding its reputation of social justice and supporting the companies that are contributing to climate change...any Brandeis student who prides themselves on social justice should also not feel comfortable [about] this.” BCJ will be holding rallies, call-ins, petitions and tabling to encourage the Board of Trustees to discuss divestment at their meeting rather than putting off the discussion. Off-campus, von Mering also “work[s] with 350Mass Action in my spare time, and we spearheaded a pledge for candidates to reject money from fossil fuels.”
October 27, 2017
OPINIONS
The Brandeis Hoot 7
Brandeis needs designated smoking areas
By Kevin Healey staff
Every day, when walking across campus, I invariably walk through at least one cloud of cigarette smoke. Despite official rules requiring students to move more than 30 feet away from buildings before lighting up, because of the convenience of lighting up right outside the door, people regularly smoke right outside of most buildings on campus. During times of rain, snow, or cold, this problem becomes even worse. The current regulatory system for nicotine use on campus has failed, and we need to try something new. It’s no longer contested that smoking has serious health impacts: it decreases life expectancy, increases risk of cancer and heart disease, to name a few. Given that, Brandeis ought take steps to deter people from smoking wherever possible, even if students do free-
ly choose to smoke. Brandeis already has classes to help students succeed in other aspects of their life, so we ought also encourage healthy living strategies. More importantly, second hand smoke also has real health impacts and can also lead to all the health problems listed above. Unlike smokers, non-smokers do not consent to these harms, and it’s nearly impossible to avoid at least some second hand inhalation on campus. To an extent, this problem is driven by not taking smoking seriously on campus. We focus heavily on drug safety as a school, but tend not to focus on cigarettes as closely as substances like alcohol or marijuana. For instance, our Alcohol and Other Drug Program fails to address smoking in any meaningful way on its website, despite the addictive nature of the activity. This isn’t to say nicotine is “worse” than other drugs or deserves special attention, but it is underrecognized in many discussions of safe campus life.
Moreover, the university seems to tacitly allow smoking by failing to properly enforce rules. In fact, the installation of ash trays outside Goldfarb Library and Mandel, both closer to their buildings than 30 feet, makes it seem as if the rule is merely perfunctory. Realistically, though, even with a firm commitment from the administration, current rules about smoking will never be enforced in the future. For students, there’s intense social pressure not to complain to fellow students about their behavior, and even telling someone to move is unlikely to be successful. Moreover, the lack of clearly defined boundaries means students don’t exactly know where people should and should not smoke anyway. Most ashtrays on campus are located closer than 30 feet to a building, and their location signals to students that those are proper places to smoke. These factors mean students cannot meaningfully self-regulate. Top down enforcement of the 30-foot rule is also unlikely to
work. I have no idea if campus police or other adults instruct people to move when they’re standing too close to a building; as a non-smoker, I’ve never had to deal with this situation. Even if they do, however, the threat of “being caught” is simply too small to change behavior. Rules matter because we use them to deter action; personally, I have no interest in getting people in trouble for smoking and would just prefer they smoked somewhere else. The lax Brandeis rules don’t deter anyone because there’s no reason to follow them. Designated smoking areas would make it easier to enforce rules by setting clearer social norms around smoking. When there is a place you “should” smoke, it is easier for students to tell each other to move, and adults on campus are more likely to take notice of these rules. We can better isolate students who smoke from non-smokers and cut down on the effects secondhand smoke. We can even distribute
anti-smoking literature at these locations to educate students on the impacts of smoking and resources available at Brandeis to help people quit. It’s easy to pretend smoking is a dying habit, and with time this problem will just go away, but this tragically unlikely to be true. The problems with smoking at Brandeis is nothing new: A relatively similar opinion piece appeared in The Hoot in 2011. The fact that six years later nothing has changed shows just how systemic of a problem this is for our university. Realistically, for most of us all that happens is an annoying smell of smoke every now and then on campus. However, for the student who does develop a lung cancer or has an asthma attack because of a practice Brandeis could work to limit, the impacts are massive. Brandeis should expand and improve smoking rules by assigning designated smoking areas in order to protect the health of Brandeis students, including those who don’t smoke.
How our system of government makes us more partisan By Matt Kowalyk columnist
For politicians, voting with their party is a decent career choice, though it can cause a lot of political problems. Voting on every bill according to a politician’s party line helps secure their political career, easily signal their values to constituents and market themselves to interest groups and activists. With so many bills passing through committees, so many hearings and Congress moving along quickly with respect to the news and slowly with respect to legislation, there is convenience in working with the party line. I learned from my experience this past summer as a legislative intern with Congressman Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania) that
there is much more nuance to the decisions politicians make than just party loyalty. However, the issues that make the loudest noise in the media are the ones that command party loyalty above all. There is still a significant amount of bipartisanship that occurs in committees and smaller legislation; however, the big issues matter, and it is a problem that we let devotion to party and lack of common understanding render our political system incapable of solving problems. This partisan incapacity is fueled by the centralization within the federal government. America is not a small European country where people vote for parties rather than representatives themselves. Our country is vast and covers a diverse population. Splitting these diverse backgrounds into two opposing parties who
govern the exact votes of every legislator makes political transfers of power much more unstable and vitriolic. Some analysts of the early United States emphasize how the U.S. was one of the first nations to achieve peaceful transitions between political powers. Part of the peacefulness of these transitions was due to the smaller population of the U.S. at the time. Today, our huge and diverse nation is too big for a two-party federal government. Focusing on the federal government glosses over local politics and solutions that are less partisan, and may be a contributing factor to the downfall of the American community and dialogue. Increased centralization and partisanship has created a lack of public faith in political institutions. Our perpetual gridlock
causes the public to be pessimistic about what our government can do. Popular government distrust exists in the far-right skinheads to the far-left socialists and communists. Similar distrust, though less severe, exists within more moderate ideologies as well. With a breakdown of trust in governmental institutions, we have allowed narratives of political revolution to take hold. The narratives of revolution invigorate extremists on both sides, increase partisanship and opportunism within our government. What if people were to drop harsh partisanship, and allow their representatives on the federal level to compromise? Or better yet, embrace federalism and make big issues not up to the federal government at all? A bipartisan compromise or devolution to
state and local governments could lead to real action. Maybe our government would become less partisan if we reduce the federal government to the roles of regulating commerce between the states, foreign economic policy and declaring war. Essentially, the problem fueling our intense partisanship is that we focus on the federal government to legislate on too many controversial issues rather than leaving it to the states. Many of the intense political vitriol visible in today’s politics would never have come to pass if so many federal programs were managed within the states. The transition of federal power with parties would be much more peaceful and amicable if the states handled big moral issues. Centralized power leads to centralized interests and the higher propensity for big problems.
Improve access to sexual health and wellness products By Brandeis Pro Choice The current access to Plan B One Step emergency contraception on the Brandeis campus is inadequate. Brandeis provides Plan B at a discounted price to students. As of now, students can only access Plan B at the Health Center from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Brandeis Pro-Choice, a student-led club that advocates for reproductive justice, is proposing the implementation of a vending machine on campus that would sell Plan B as well as other wellness products such as condoms, menstrual products, painkillers and pregnancy tests. This machine would be accessible to students 24/7 to make sure they can get essential sexual health resources whenever they need them. Plan B can be taken up to three days after unprotected sex, but is more effective the sooner one takes it. When a student has to wait for the Health Center to open in order to get emergency contraception, it decreases the effectiveness and increases the chance that the
student will become pregnant. The only other option for students to get Plan B is to go to Walgreens, which is about a mile away. At Walgreens, along with other similar drug stores, the medication costs about $50, a burden and cost that is not feasible for some students. We think the ideal location for this vending machine is the first floor of the Shapiro Campus Center (SCC) next to the existing snack machines. This will balance privacy and security since no one would know what specific product a student was going over to buy but is also in a safe, well-monitored space on campus. The cost to students must be as low as possible, especially since the university purchases Plan B from a vendor for only $15 per box, according to Diana Denning, the Administrative Director and a Nurse Practitioner. This machine would have numerous advantages for students as well as the university. It provides students with more privacy compared to the current process of making an appointment at the Health Center, which gets billed through the student’s insurance.
It is also more cost effective and allows for 24/7 access so they can maximize the effectiveness of the Plan B. Additionally, the Health Center administers the pills, they do not give them out, so only females can get Plan B from there as of now, which can place a physical and emotional burden on these students. With the advent of a vending machine on campus, all genders would have the ability to access and procure Plan B, allowing partners to share financial responsibility for Plan B. The vending machine also saves the Health Center money because it will not have to cover appointments for students unwilling or unable to have their insurance cover the emergency contraceptive, thereby freeing its budget for other important services, according to Denning who we met with to discuss the university’s Plan B system. Plan B is free at the Health Center, and the cost of the appointment is either billed to the student’s insurance, or—if their plan will not cover it, or the student has confidentiality concerns— Brandeis will cover the cost.
photo by emily sorkin smith/the hoot
Additionally, the vending machine would be an important resource to have for survivors of sexual assault. The burden for survivors to access Plan B should be as low as possible when they have already experienced an emotionally traumatic assault. The machine would allow survivors to access Plan B on their own time and in a private space. Finally, a vending machine selling Plan B would be an important step in reaffirming Brandeis’ commitment to student health and wellness. It would establish Brandeis as a leader in sexual health and set an important prec-
edent for other schools across the country. If you or a club you are involved with would like to support this initiative, Brandeis Pro-Choice will be tabling throughout the month. Endorsements are greatly appreciated and can be emailed to Susannah Miller ’19 at susannahmiller@brandeis.edu. We will also be sending out a survey in which students can anonymously relate personal experiences with Plan B and give anonymous testimony if they so wish. Brandeis Pro-Choice meets every Wednesday from 7 to 8 p.m. in Schwartz 110.
FEATURES
8 The Brandeis Hoot
By Sara McCrea staff
Midterms can get in the way of poetry slams. But even on an “off night” for Brandeis’s new slam poetry team “Poetic Justice,” a small group of students gathered at Cholmondeley’s Coffee House to share some of their work at the Spooky Open Mic and SLAM event. When Dean of Students Jamele Adams offered the freshman class of 2020 his email and an invitation for a personal lunch at the “This is Our House” orientation ceremony, Jack Rubenstein ’20 took him up on his offer. It was at this lunch that Adams told Rubenstein that Brandeis used to have a slam poetry team and Rubenstein thought of starting it up again. The two met once every other week for the majority of the last academic year to discuss the logistics of the new team. By the
October 27, 2017
Club Spotlight: Poetic Justice end of last year, the team of five students began attending competitions, including the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, for which they ranked 47th out of 72 competing colleges. Outside of the Brandeis community, those in the slam poetry scene know Dean Jamele as Harlym 125, his stage name. As the coach of Poetic Justice, Adams supervises the group on their pieces and events. The Dean’s office provides funding to rent out spaces for the Open Mic events until the team is chartered, meaning they can request funding from the allocations board. “[Adams] is an amazing poet. We’re really lucky to have him, and he gives us all of these amazing oppurtunities, like performing at This is Our House,” Olivia Perozo ’20 said. This year, Poetic Justice is hosting weekly Open Mic events where students share poems, sto-
photos from facebook.com
ries and songs. Throughout the semester, there will be semi-final and final competitions to decide who will be on the competitive team, for which there are 5 spots. “We have a space every week for free expression,” Rubenstein said. “The first night we did at The Stein, and we thought, ‘no one is going to come,’ but then there wasn’t anywhere to sit.” Perozo and Rubenstein see slam poetry as not only a form of artistic expression, but as activism. “The community is very much based in activism and based in people of color, LGBT people, mentally ill people, people of different religions, minorities or people who feel disenfranchised with dominant culture talking about their experiences,” Perozo added. “Being able to talk and share their stories and their experiences with trauma and pain and happiness and love [is] activism.” Slam poetry has had a long history on college campuses, but the original start of slam is contested. Though it began as a type of poetry reading, the genre has evolved to take on a new and recognized form. “Slam right now is known as a space for people who are minorities in any way,” Perozo said. “It’s a place to talk about what’s going on with you, and it’s for people who feel alienated. It’s really known as an angry space. It used to be that way too, but there didn’t used to
poetry night Poetic
photo courtesy jack rubinstein
Justice opens up for bestselling poet Neil Hilborn.
be as big a difference between page poems and spoken poems.” Perozo and Rubenstein said that a large part of being involved in slam is the importance of response, especially in poems that discuss topics that some may feel uncomfortable bringing up with friends. “When you write down your feelings and present them in beautiful language, the responses can be so much more affirming and validating,” Perozo said. “Slam can also be activism in that it provides a community, and communities can create huge amounts of change.” “If someone remotely has a similar experience and a similar feeling, they’ll be able to say ‘I get that,’” Rubenstein added. Poetic Justice is hoping to
host more workshops next semester for students to learn about how to write slam and to have a group to write with. Meanwhile, the date for the semi-final competition will be announced within the next couple of weeks. Perozo and Rubenstein encouraged readers to attend the weekly slams, even if they have no writing to share. “Even if you don’t want to slam, coming out for an open mic night is really validating,” Perozo said. “In a lot of ways is can educate people in a way that is more approachable. Hearing someone’s story directly from their mouth is a very personal. It’s about making the statement that the personal is political,” Perozo said. “This person is in front of you and they’re telling you their exact story.”
MLK Fellowship teaches leadership and importance of community service By Polina Potochevska editor
Brandeis has many different types of fellowships to assist students both financially and academically, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Program (MLK). Elizabeth Rotolo is the Assistant Director for Academic Fellowships at Brandeis, and she oversees the MLK Fellowship program. The MLK Fellowship was originally known as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship and was created in 1968 “as a result of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the subsequent occupation of Ford Hall and the 10 demands of January 1969,” according to Rotolo. During the occupation of Ford Hall in 1969, a group of students went to the founding president of Brandeis, Abram Sachar, and “demanded five MLK scholarships,” which President Sachar increased to 10, according to the fellowship’s website. These scholarships were included in the list of 10 demands brought forth by “spokesmen Ricardo Millet ’68 and Roy DeBerry ’70 among other black students and members of the Afro-American community on campus,” the website includes. Since then, the MLK Scholarship has been continued and in the fall of 2016, it was renamed the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Program “in an effort to acknowledge the many contributions of these students across campus and beyond, [the name] is meant to recognize the holistic experience of the program, which reaches well beyond tuition assistance” according to Rotolo.
The MLK Fellowship is awarded to incoming first-year students, and students are considered based on their academic performance, extracurricular participation and also “outstanding community involvement and demonstrated financial need,” according to the website. Rotolo told The Brandeis Hoot there are currently 48 MLK Fellows on campus, and “recipients of the Fellowship are expected to continue the tradition of giving back and leadership in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through community service opportunities.” One of the current MLK Fellows is Hawa Ibrahim ’20, an English major who hopes to minor in African and Afro-American Studies (AAAS). Along with the MLK Fellowship, she is involved with the Waltham Group program Afternoon Enrichment, which pairs Brandeis students with middle school students to work on home-
work and other programs with the kids, and she works at Chum’s. Ibrahim is on the Fellowship Advisory Board, similar to a club’s E-board, along with four other Fellows. As a member of the board, she works with the other members of the board to “create events for the Fellows” and hopes to create a greater sense of “MLK pride and scholarship spirit.” Some bonding events the Fellows plan to hold this semester include a movie night, a trip to an “Escape The Room” venue and a Fellowship Thanksgiving dinner together before the break. Ibrahim says the board is working hard to publicize the events to the Fellows to create a sense of excitement that will bond the students together. Fellows take part in a Thanksgiving dinner, their annual fall retreat and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Interfaith Service Day, or “MLK Day,” in the spring. The retreat, Ibrahim explains, is a way
2017 - 2018 mlk fellows and elizabeth rotolo
for first-year students to bond as a group and also get to know the upperclassmen in the fellowship. “It’s fun, the upperclassmen will give advice to the first-years, we talk about social justice and what it means to means to be a leader and how to help the community,” Ibrahim explained. Ibrahim also mentioned that MLK Day is an annual event in the spring when MLK Fellows get together to participate in a day-long community service project. “It’s a mandatory event where we bond as a fellowship ship, do community service and learn a lot about social justice and how to be a leader.” Last year, the community service project involved partnering with Outreach Inc. to “package over 12,000 meals for local food banks,” according to the MLK Fellowship website. Ibrahim’s favorite memory from her first year in the fellowship was during this community service proj-
photo courtesy hawa ibrahim
ect, because she explained that “we were all in line putting food items into the box, there was music playing and we were all just singing along and doing our part. We all had an amazing time.” The Fellows also will occasionally go on social outings into Boston to further bond as a group. Most recently, Fellows went to see a performance of “Phantom Of The Opera” at the Boston Opera House. Ibrahim’s favorite part about being a Fellow, among the many things, is having a closer connection with the academic advisor for the Fellowship, Elizabeth Rotolo. “I get intimidated to talk to my faculty advisor about my major, and it’s hard to get that oneon-one attention… but I have that opportunity with [Rotolo] and she knows me very well,” she explained. She also enjoys “being a part of something,” especially in a larger school. “I’m glad to have that sense of community with them.” Ibrahim stated that being on the board has given her more confidence with being in a leadership position. Through the position, she has learned how to plan events and help others create ideas for future events. “It’s given me a lot of leadership skills and a lot of skills that I’ll need in the real world,” she noted. Ibrahim said that she looks forward to her time in the Fellowship, especially “having a stronger connection with my other Fellows, and being a leader to the underclassmen.” As the group strengthens their MLK pride, learn leadership skills and further engage with the community, Ibrahim hopes to pass along these messages to future Fellows.
October 27, 2017
WEEK IN PHOTOS
photo by emily sorkin smith/the hoot
photo from the department of fine arts
Department of Fine Arts UDR Alli Steinberg ’19 and Fine Arts major Emma Hanselman ’18 participate in a raffle draw at the Meet the Majors event. meet the majors
It’s not fall, nor is it Week in Photos, wihtout some turkeys.
crenshaw
Prize.
Scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony before receiving the Gittler
photo courtesy emma hanselman
Unseasonably warm weather and late changing leaves made campus feel more like August than October. fall arrives late
Student Union reminds students that Spring 2018 Full Semester Marathon begins next Wednesday, Nov. 1. calling all club leaders!
photo by allison plotnik/the hoot
photo courtesy joana jankulla
turkey
The Brandeis Hoot 9
EDITORIALS
10 The Brandeis Hoot
“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.” Editors-in-Chief Hannah Schuster Emily Sorkin Smith Senior Managing Editor Allison Plotnik Senior Editor-at-Large Charlotte Aaron Senior Copy Editor Sarah Terrazano News Editor Elianna Spitzer Deputy News Editor Celia Young Arts Editor Katie Decker-Jacoby Opinions Editor Katarina Weessies Features Editor Polina Potochevska Senior Sports Editor Sarah Jousset Sports Editor Zach Cihlar Photo Editor Yarisa Diaz Layout Editor Candace Ng Editor-at-Large Ryan Spencer
Volume 14 • Issue 17 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma
STAFF
David Aizenberg, Juliana An, Emily Botto,Jordan Brodie, José Castellanos, Anindita Chanda, Sabrina Chow, Kevin Costa, Shea Decker-Jacoby, Daniel Freedman, Natalie Fritzson, Ariella Gentin, Rebecca Goldfarb, Noah Harper, Kevin Healey, Daniel Johnston, Daniel Kang, Jonah Koslofsky, Matthew Kowalyk, Samantha Lauring, Sara McCrea, Jerry Peng
MISSION As the weekly community student newspaper of Brandeis University, The Brandeis Hoot aims to provide our readers with a reliable, accurate and unbiased source of news and information. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events. Recognizing that better journalism leads to better policy, The Brandeis Hoot is dedicated to the principles of investigative reporting and news analysis. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.
SUBMISSION POLICIES The Brandeis Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the community. Preference is given to current or former community members and The Hoot reserves the right to edit or reject submissions. The deadline for submitting letters is Wednesday at noon. Please submit letters to letters@thebrandeishoot.com along with your contact information. Letters should not exceed 500 words. The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.
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October 27, 2017
Enthusiasm for Crenshaw surpasses space in Rapaporte Treasure Hall
T
his past week marked Kimberlé Crenshaw’s residency on campus to receive the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize. She attended various events throughout the week, all of which promoted the theme of intersectionality, a concept she coined and has produced pioneering work on. She attended the “Ebony Axis” launch event on Oct. 23 to celebrate the third installment of “Ebony Axis,” a zine for black women created by LaShawn Simmons ’18. She spoke to many classes, including Black Feminist Thought and Women in American Politics. Other classes, such as The Teaching of English Language Learners: Pre-K to 12, attended the talk together instead of their usual class. Student enthusiasm for Cren-
shaw’s lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 25, overwhelmed the space Brandeis designated for it, the Rapaporte Treasure Hall. The hall has a capacity of 120 people, and there were far too many students for the space. People sat in the aisles, stood outside in the rain and crammed into any open space to hear Crenshaw deliver her lecture. Though it can be hard to anticipate event attendance, Brandeis should plan to hold events with big-name speakers like Crenshaw in a much larger room. There are several spaces on campus with much larger capacities. The SCC theater holds 249 people, the Levin Ballroom 450 and the Sherman Function Hall 350. These spaces aren’t as photogenic as the Rapaporte Treasure Hall, but
the opportunity to hear someone like Crenshaw speak in person far outweighs the slight difference in photo quality. It is certainly not worth creating a fire hazard just to set up a perfect photo op. The size of the crowd at Rapaporte on Wednesday is a testament to Crenshaw’s influence and admiration at Brandeis. Crenshaw’s residency created a unique opportunity for Brandeis students to interact directly with scholarship they may have read in their classes. Her talk gave a clarifying look at critical race theory and the application of intersectionality to Trump’s presidency, and we are grateful for her contributions to our campus discourse that have left a lasting impact on many students.
SPORTS
October 27, 2017
The Brandeis Hoot 11
Men and women’s tennis finish fall season
By Sarah Jousset editor
This past weekend the Brandeis men’s tennis team finished their fall season with the Bates Wallach Invitational in Lewiston, Maine. In doubles action, duo David Aizenberg ’20 and Anupreeth Coramutla ’21 started the tournament seeded second behind a pair from Bowdoin. The Judges pair started the invitational with a close win of 9-7 in the first round against a duo from Tufts. The tournament continued for the Judges with wins against two Bates pairs in the second round and semifinals by scores of 8-1 and 8-4. Aizenberg and Coramutla met a pair from Amherst in the championship round of the invitational. The two edged their opponents out of the Championship to win the whole invitational with a score of 8-6. The Judges were successful in singles play as well. Aizenberg reached the finals in the singles B draw. He started singles play with a win over his Trinity College op-
ponent in the first round, 6-0, 6-1, finishing the round with a three won matches in a super-tiebreaker. Once he had a first round spot secured, Aizenberg beat his opponent from Colby, 3-6, 6-2, 10-5. In the quarterfinals, Aizenberg met half of the Amherst duo he also faced in the doubles championship. Aizenberg pulled out a win of 6-7, 6-4, 10-2. In the semifinals, he continued to make the competition interesting beating his Bowdoin opponent in the first set, 6-3, dropping the second set 3-6, and taking the third set 10-6 to secure a spot in the finals. Aizenberg wasn’t able to secure the win losing the competition to his Tufts opponent, 6-4, 6-4. In the singles A draw, Jackson Kogan ’19 reached the semifinals representing Brandeis. In the first round of singles play, Kogan beat his Trinity opponent, 6-2, 2-6, 104. The second round of play saw Kogan and a player from Bowdoin go 2-6, 6-4, 10-8, with Kogan coming out on top. Kogan lost in the semifinals to the eventual winner from Amherst, 6-4, 6-0. The women’s tennis team also
photo from brandeisjudges.com
aizenberg ’20 and coramutla ’21
finished their fall season this past weekend with the Middlebury College Hidden Duals Invitational. In doubles action, Brandeis faced off against Williams, Middlebury and Case Western Reserve University. However, Brandeis’ pairs couldn’t manage
to win a match against their opponents from any of the three schools. Brandeis fared only marginally better in singles action against the three schools, with Sabrina Ross Neergaard ’20 taking home the only win for Brandeis of the night. Ross Neergaard de-
feated her Case Western Reserve opponent by a score of 1-6, 6-2, 10-3. Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams will gear back up for their spring season in February with their annual trip to California.
Women’s soccer ties 2-2 with Elms College By David Aizenberg staff
photo from brandeisjudges.com
senior captain samantha schwartz ’18
The Brandeis women’s soccer team played Elms College on Sunday, Oct. 22, a game that resulted in a 2-2 tie after two overtime periods. After falling behind 0-2 in the first half of the game, a valiant effort from captain Samantha Schwartz ’18 pushed the game into a tie. Schwartz’s two goals in a six-minute span kept the Judges in the game. With the tie, the Judges move to 11-2-3 on the season. Elms scored the first of their two goals in the 26th minute, fol-
lowed by their second goal just eleven minutes later. Despite the Judges’ out-shooting Elms 37-12, the score remained 2-0 in favor of Elms until the 79th minute. Schwartz cut the deficit to one goal on a miscue on the Elms defense and lofted the goal over the opposing goalie’s head. Her second goal of the game came off a free kick opportunity just outside the box. Schwartz placed the ball in the top of the net to tie the game. The Judges had several scoring opportunities in the overtime periods. Schwartz’s co-captain Hannah Maatallah ’19 almost won the game for the Judges in the 106th minute, but a save by the Elms
goalie denied the shot on goal and kept the game at two goals apiece. A corner kick in the 108th minute nearly won the game for the Judges, but it was called off due to an offsides call. Brandeis hosts defending national champion Washington University on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m., a team they beat in the regular season last year, but failed to triumph over in their historic Final Four run. The Judges have only three games left on their schedule, all home games played against University Athletic Association conference opponents. Their regular season finalizes on Saturday, Nov. 4 against New York University.
Swimming and diving teams compete in New York By Shea Decker-Jacoby staff
The Brandeis swimming and diving teams took to Upstate New York to compete against Hartwick College and Vassar College. The men came out in full force with nine wins to finish the meet with a 156-132 victory, but despite the women coming up with six wins of their own, they fell to the Hawks 175.5-112.5. On the men’s team, Richard Selznick ’21 finished first in the 1000-meter freestyle to continue his winning record in the event with a time of 10:22.14; twenty-one seconds faster than the second place swimmer. In the 500-meter Selznick finished the meet blowing his competition out of the water, finishing with a time of 5:00.81 and beating his closest opponent by almost six seconds. Sam Zucker ’18 took top ranking in the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 170.70 and in the three meter with a score of 184.85. Daniel Wohl ’21 gave a nail-bitter of a performance in the closest race of the meet during the
200-meter freestyle finishing with a time of 1:48.74. He beat out his the Hawks by just one-hundredth of a second. Wohl placed second in the 100-meter backstroke and the 100 IM. Tamir Zitelny ’20 took
tamir zitelny ’20
the 100-meter butterfly in 54.15 seconds, beating the runner-up by a full two seconds. Chase Chen ’21 competed in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 49.77. Emily McGovern ’21 swept the
breaststroke competition, winning the 50-meter with a time of 33.21 seconds and the 100-meter with a time of 1:12.56. Amy Sheinheit ’18 won the 50-meter backstroke by .64 seconds. Au-
photo from brandeisjudges.com
drey Kim ’21 earned a time of 1:04.70 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke; beating the next swimmer by three seconds. The Judges took victories in the final two events of the day, the 200-meter freestyle relays. For the women, Sophia Chevez ’21, Sheinheit, Abby Damsky ’18 and Annie Huang ’21 won with times eight-hundredths of a second faster than the Hawks with at 1:46.04. The men brought the intensity by beating the Hawks in an even closer race with a time of 1:30.05, winning by 0.02 seconds. Chen, Marcelo Ohno-Machado ’18, Taku Harada ’18 and Zitelny all participated in the relay race. This meet concluded the races in October for the Judges, but they will come back to the pool for an away meet at WPI to race against WPI, Babson and Smith on Nov. 3 and then finish the month off with a meet at Bentley. They will finish the semester with the Gompei Invitational at WPI and the last home match of the year against Colby. The Judges will start next semester off with a meet against Boston College at Brandeis on the Jan. 13.
12 SPORTS
The Brandeis Hoot
October 27, 2017
Rookie Borgert helps volleyball to 13-11 record
By Zach Cihlar editor
Women’s volleyball played a two-day tournament in Amherst over the weekend, going 2-1 with notable showings from players on both days. Coming off an 0-4 weekend at the second University Athletic Association (UAA) Conference Round Robin, the Judges sought to regain their winning record in the Hall of Fame Invitational tournament. On Friday, Oct. 21, the team played against Worcester State, a game which became increasingly tight as the game reached the later sets. Brandeis handily took care of Worcester State in the first two sets, winning each 25-19 and 25-12, respectively. However, Worcester State applied pressure in the third set, taking the Judges to 23-25, and forcing the game into a fourth set. The Judges won the match in the fourth set in spectacular fashion, securing the win 26-24 in the set in one hour and 35 minutes. The intensity of the match proved to be a confidence booster for many of the players on the Brandeis team. Five Judges set career-highs in a variety of categories. Outside Hitter and The Hoot sports writer Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19 reached double digits in two
photo from brandeisjudges.com
right hitter marissa borgert ’21
categories, putting up 18 kills in the game and an astounding 29 digs. Setter Marlee Nork ’19 put on a similarly high caliber performance, helping out the team with a career-high 36 assists and 17 digs. Both Marissa Borgert ’21 and Zara Platt ’19 offered 15 kills and 14 kills, respectively, up at net during the game. Finally, libero Yvette Cho ’19 soared past
her previous season-high record of 24 digs by reaching 37 over the course of the four sets. On the following day, the Judges split games 1-1, triumphing over Trinity College 3-0 and falling to Hamilton College 0-3. Again, Borgert had an incredible day, leading the team with 10 kills against Hamilton and eight kills against Trinity. Cho once
again proved a valuable asset for the team, amassing a team-leading 10 digs against Hamilton and 24 digs against Trinity. After the three games, the Judges boosted their record to 12-11, again securing a winning record in a season that has proved successful for women’s volleyball. The team’s 12 wins are the highest collection of wins in one season
since 2012. After the Hall of Fame tournament, the Judges had a quick turnaround and played another away game on Tuesday, Oct. 24 against Rivier University. In a four-setter, the Judges defeated Rivier, advancing their record to 13-11 and securing at least a .500 record going into the UAA tournament in early November. Borgert played another strong game, contributing to the Judges win in all five major categories. The rookie put up eight kills, 19 assists in the setter position, five digs, three service asses and three block-assists. Teammate Nork also helped out in the setter position, putting up 18 assists. The final score of the game tallied at 25-15, 25-14, 22-25, 25-16. Brandeis women’s volleyball has just two games left until the UAA tournament. Both are away at Salem State University on Saturday, Oct. 28. The matchups have Brandeis facing off against home team Salem State and Bridgewater State University. The Judges faced neither team in the 2016 season. A week after the Salem State games, the team will fly down to Atlanta, Georgia, to seek redemption for a 0-7 record against UAA teams in the Round Robins. Emory University will host the tournament, beginning on Friday, Nov. 3.
Dodgers and Astros face off in World Series By Kevin Costa staff
Before the first two games at Dodger Stadium, the storylines surrounding the match-up between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers led many to anticipate an exciting Fall Classic. The series, now tied 1-1, is living up to expectations. The Dodgers were the best regular season team with a record of 104-58. The Astros were not far behind with a record of 101-61. This was the first World Series since 1970 that presented teams with 100 or more wins. However, each respective franchise’s journeys to this point could not have been more different. This season, the Dodgers have found success through great pitching led by Clayton Kershaw, arguably the best pitcher in the game. Albeit, they have used a 265 million payroll, the highest in the league. The Dodgers are looking for their seventh championship. Their last World Series appearance was in 1988, during which
dodgers v. astros in 2017 world series
Kirk Gibson famously pumped his fists as he rounded the bases on a walk-off home run in Game one. The Dodgers would eventually defeat the Oakland Athletics in five games. This season, the Astros have relied on a strong lineup. According to the LA Times, the Astros’ offense led the league this season in batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage. The team also struck out fewer than any other ball club in the league. Unlike the Dodgers, the Astros, following the success of the past two championship teams (the 2015 Royals and last year’s Cubs) have built their team mainly through the draft. Houston, in its 55-year history, has yet to win a single game in the World Series. The franchise’s only appearance in the game was in 2005 when they were swept by the Chicago White Sox. This storyline continued after the Astros lost the series opener 3-1. The Astros might have had enough momentum coming into Game 1 after fresh wins against the Yankees. The lights-out lineup for
photo from latimes.com
Houston produced 12 runs in two elimination games in the ALCS. Clayton Kershaw made sure to keep the Houston momentum in check. Astros shortstop Jose Altuve said to ESPN “Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the pitcher—that was the case today.” Through seven innings, Los Angeles’ ace struck out 11 batters, the fifth time striking out 10 or more batters in his postseason career. Despite Kershaw’s dominance, the game was much closer than the score indicates. Though Kershaw gave up only three hits, one of them was a home run. The Dodgers were holding onto a one-point lead off Chris Taylor’s solo home run on the first pitch of the game. Then, in the fourth inning, third baseman Alex Bregman tied the game 1-1 after hitting a single shot off of Kershaw’s misplaced 93-mph fastball. It was Kershaw’s seventh home run given up this postseason. He was able to recover by striking out Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Yuli Guriel to close out the inning. The Dodgers took control of the game after Justin Turner hit a two-
run homer in the sixth inning and held that lead until the end. The Dodgers’ bullpen, which has allowed five hits in 21 1/3 innings this postseason, according to ESPN, closed out the game with Brandon Morrow in the eighth inning and Kenley Jansen in the ninth. Astros’ manager A.J. Hinch told ESPN the difference in the games, explaining “tonight [was] about Kershaw…They had two big swings, we had one. They had a walk before one of their big swings, it’s 3-1.” He expressed his confidence in his team moving forward, saying, “We’re heading into Game 2 of the World Series. So there’s no more rookies, there’s no more youth. It’s just competing.” On Wednesday, Hinch’s team did not shy away from a thrilling, come-from-behind performance. The Astros pulled off a 7-6 victory in 11 innings despite trailing late in the game. Houston struck first in the second inning when Alex Bregman hit an RBI single. By the fifth inning, the game seemed to be slipping from the
Dodgers ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw (left) and Astros General Manager AJ Hinch (right).
photo from doublet973.com
Astros when Justin Verlander, on his first hit allowed, gave up a solo home run. In the ensuing inning, Verlander walked Chris Taylor and gave up another home run, this time by Corey Seager. However, it was the Dodgers’ bullpen that was unable to seal the win. Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts pulled starting pitcher Rich Hill after the fourth inning and 70 pitches putting a strain on the relief pitchers. According to the LA Times, the bullpen had completed a playoff-best 28 consecutive scoreless relief innings, but in the late innings gave up the lead and ultimately the game. In the eighth, with Morrow relief pitching, Carlos Correa hit an RBI single and brought the Astros within one run. In the ninth, with Jansen pitching, Marwin Gonzalez hit a homer to even the score. The Dodgers were on the verge of taking a 2-0 series lead. Jansen had not allowed an earned run the entire postseason and gave up the solo shot on a 0 and 2 pitch. This sent the game into extra innings and ensured the further collapse of the Dodgers’ bullpen. Pitcher Josh Fields yielded back to back homers the tenth. The Dodgers responded with a pair of runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Yasiel Puig hit a solo shot and Enrique Hernandez drove in a run with a single. Yet in the eleventh inning, manager Dave Roberts was forced to use his very last relief pitcher. Brandon McCartney, who had not pitched in the postseason and who had made only three appearances since July 20, gave up a single by Cameron Maybin and a homer by George Springer. The Dodgers attempted to rally once more. Charlie Culberson hit a solo homer to make it 7-6, but Astros’ closer Chris Devenski struck out Puig for the final out and sealed the win. The drama continues as the series moves to Minute Maid Park in Houston for Game 3.
ARTS
October 27, 2017
The Brandeis Hoot 13
‘Ebony Axis’ touches upon race and intersectionality with Kimberlé Crenshaw
By Sarah Terrazano editor
This past week marked the launch of the third installment of “Ebony Axis,” a poetry zine for black women founded by LaShawn Simmons ’18. The launch event was held on Oct. 23 in the Intercultural Center (ICC) to a packed audience, which included special guest Kimberlé Crenshaw, a leading critical race theorist who coined the term “intersectionality” and is on campus to receive the Gittler Prize. “Ebony Axis” features poetry, prose and visual art that reflect the experiences and challenges of being a black woman. The event featured spoken word and musical performances based on the pieces in the zine. Published with the support of a grant from the minor in Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation (CAST), “Ebony Axis” contains work by current Brandeis students and alumnae alike. In her Editor’s Note, Simmons wrote that she started the zine “in hopes of carving a space for Black women on campus to be seen, and not discarded among the single axis framework that keeps our narratives obscure.” Simmons completely transformed the ICC space for the event. Attendees who walked in were greeted by ambient low lighting and a table spread with copies of the zine. A makeshift stage was constructed at the front of the room using red cloth, flowers lining its border and a backdrop of several strings of twinkle lights. A soundtrack playing a
mix of smooth and upbeat music wafted throughout the room. The event also included dinner, a hearty spread of chicken, fried plantains, rice and beans. So many people came to the launch that all the seats were quickly taken and students began sitting on any available floor space. A steady flow of people continued to arrive, mingle and enjoy the food, so the performances did not start until well into the hour. During this time, Crenshaw danced along to the music with several students. Simmons introduced herself as a “cultural worker or cultural practitioner” whose goal is to inspire conversations about social change through art. She explained the meaning of the title “Ebony Axis” refers to the color of black women’s skin, and how they often find themselves at the axis—or intersection—of blackness and womanhood. With this segue into intersectionality, Simmons presented Crenshaw with a painting by Chinyere Brown ’17 as a token of thanks. Inspired by the event, Crenshaw briefly spoke about how she and Simmons should work together, and how necessary it is for spaces and events like the “Ebony Axis” launch to happen again in more places in the next four years. Simmons said she thought the event was a success. “It was important for me to create spaces where Black women can feel free to express and love themselves openly and unapologetically. It was an honor to have Kimberlé Crenshaw present at the event. It felt so affirming to be seen and recognized by a woman who not
only works to make our narratives visible but restore value to them as well.” Geraldine Bogard ’20 began the spoken word portion with a reading of her poem in the zine called “I Thought I Loved My Hair,” which is about her journey becoming comfortable with her “soft, short, black and beautiful” natural hair instead of wearing extensions. Her honest words earned many snaps from the audience. Alumna Nyah Macklin ’16 returned for the launch with a powerful vocal performance, reminding the audience of her [something that explains she was known for her powerufl vocal performance during her time at Brandeis] Macklin sang two songs by Nina Simone, “Blackbird” and “Four Women,” both with stunning and soulful vocals. Viola Dean ’18 performed her piece in the zine, a poem called “She and I,” with the powerful opening line, “They tell me that my womb gave birth to the entire world.” Dean spoke with ease to the packed room, captivating the audience in a tone both conversational and powerful. Alumna Ashley Mae ’17 read two poems, one of which was from her recently self-published book, “Origins: Lamentations of the Blackbird.” Salena Deane ’19 read her poem “The Things I Hear,” about how she hears certain statements like, “You didn’t even sound black on the phone,” and “I don’t see color with you.” The poem ends with the question, “I am who I am. How bout you?” Other performances included poetry readings by Nia Duncan
photo by yarisa diaz/the hoot
’20 and Herlyne Das ’18, a prose reading by Victoria Richardson ’20 and a vocal performance by Julivic Márquez ’17, who sang a song in Spanish and incorporated an interactive element by having the audience sing the chorus. The night ended with Keturah Walker’s ’18 unforgettable reading of her poem “Honorable Mention,” which incorporated music cues with her powerful reading. Deane, one of the night’s performers, highly enjoyed the event, noting, “Like LaShawn had imagined, the event was monumental
in bringing black women on campus together in a space where we could be ourselves. ‘Ebony Axis’ has not only given me a platform to speak my truth and my story, but to receive love and validation for my work and my blackness in return; something we, as black women, so need and require.” Powerful performances aside, what shone through most throughout the event was Simmons’ astounding creative vision, which transformed the ICC into a beautiful space, both physically and as a community.
Brandeis alumna Alicia Ostriker shares her poetry with community By Noah Harper staff
I haven’t given poetry much consideration since grade school. I gave in to the stereotypes, thinking the medium was too flowery, insubstantial and abstract for me to ever understand. But poet Alicia Ostriker ’59, who read at Brandeis on Thursday, Oct. 19 in the Bethlehem Chapel, showed me just how valuable, relevant and necessary poetry can be. It seemed evident things haven’t changed much since Ostriker’s time here. “I had no social life at Brandeis,” she told us—though she qualified her statement by stressing how “intellectually stimulating” her time here was. Spoken like a true Brandeisian. For me, someone who wasn’t inclined to like poetry, Ostriker’s work seemed tailor-made: The poems she read touched on themes about urban life, the immigrant experience, the American project and spirituality. All of these are ideas I’m generally interested in, and Ostriker effectively used the medium to explore these topics in a succinct and beautiful way. Ostriker described herself as a “third-generation atheist socialist Jew.” Her poetry explores the overlapping, perhaps contradic-
tory aspects of this multi-faceted identity. “I’m a city girl,” she said, explaining that she’d started on these particular poems after moving back to New York from the Princeton suburbs. I found this particular undertaking—portraying the city through poetry—fascinating. In my experience, poetry has traditionally been reserved for the natural world, and seeing it deployed to describe an urban setting was exciting. She began reading with the poem “August Morning, Upper Broadway,” relating the personal to the urban. “As the body of the beloved is a window,” so “The man on the corner with his fruit stand is a window,” Ostriker read. This poem asked us to think of cities as interconnected zones of possibility—people joined together. “Let us call this scene a window looking out / not at a paradise but as a paradise / might be.” I was captivated by how Ostriker found the beautiful and the personal in the urban. This isn’t to say she depicted cities as being wholly bright and cheery. The third piece the poet read, “How Fortunate the Boy,” centered around Cooper Stock, a boy tragically hit and killed by a taxi in Ostriker’s neighborhood on the Upper West Side. “But the father is unfortunate / whose screams my neighbor says / cur-
dled her blood,” Ostriker wrote, “And the taxi driver is unfortunate / a man who will go on living / making his living / driving.” Though lauding the possibilities of the city, Ostriker also complicated the notion of the city as utopian fantasy. Cities are, after all, merely physical representations of our deeply-flawed society. In the title poem, “The Light,” Ostriker examined what exactly it was that captivated her about this place: “What is the birthplace of the light that stabs me with joy.” One possible answer might be the refuge cities such as New York have historically offered. “The city belongs and and has always belonged to its shoals of exiles,” she read. The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Europe, Ostriker used her poetry to empathize with the cultural pushback and repression of multiculturalism that current immigrants might experience today, writing, later on in the same poem, “Porque no comprendes, you don’t own this city anymore,” which translates in whole to “Because you don’t understand, you don’t own this city anymore.” Some of the poems Ostriker read went macro. Her poetry was impressively able to play with scale, adeptly zooming in and out to find the universal in the particular. In the two Ghazals (an
photo from poetryfoundation.org
Arabic poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets) she read for us, “Ghazal: America” and “Ghazl: America the Beautiful,” the poet examines larger issues in our nation: “The banner and the beautiful live on opposite sides of the street in America.” Another line seemed darkly prescient: “This land is two lands, one triumphant bully, the other hopeful.” Ostriker told us that she’d written that years before the most recent election. “I was talking about the whole country,” she said. Ostriker counted Walt Whitman as one of her primary influences, and I especially appreciated how she found the distinctly American in city environments instead of natural ones, incorpo-
rating a perhaps similar lyrical style, finding beauty in the urbane. I appreciated the often deep-seated delight to her poetry, describing the city as a place for people to join together and celebrate. In “Cinco de Mayo,” she said, “we are musical ants, we are dancing ants.” I found Ostriker’s poetry refreshing. Her work reflected on contemporary American life in a powerful and efficient way. It was not all doom and gloom either, finding hope and joy in the multicultural fabric that dense cities allow. I would thoroughly recommend her work to anyone seeking respite from these noxious, busy times.
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The Brandeis Hoot
By Rebecca Goldfarb
October 27, 2017
Audience falls for X Ambassadors and Great Good Fine Ok
staff
A crowd of students and community members filled the Shapiro Gym on the evening of Friday, Oct. 21, eager to see what the night would bring to them. The headlining act, alternative rock band X Ambassadors brought a high-energy performance that engaged the crowd from start to finish with hit singles, lesser knowns from their first album and brand new songs from their upcoming second record. The supporting act, Great Good Fine Ok, a New York-based synthpop duo, opened up the night with its uptempo, buoyant music. Frontman Jon Sandler’s high pitched voice and falsetto was strong, as it dominated the performance for most of the songs. Synth player Luke Moellman energized the room with his stellar solo on the keyboard. Delivering the group’s passion for music on the stage, the overall performance combined both the electronic and rock genres. This fusion of genres within the band’s performance engaged the crowd, leaving them prepared to hear more music. A bit after 9 p.m., the anticipated act of the night walked
onto the stage. X Ambassadors instantly grasped the audience’s interest in its powerful rendition of “Jungle,” a hit single the crowd knew well. Sam Harris’ authoritative vocal delivery as well as Noah Feldshuh’s energetic guitar solos let the audience know they were in for great show. The band maintained its vigor with its second song, “Loveless.” Even though “Loveless” is a non-album single, it solicited even more energy from the crowd. The same is true for the band’s performance of “Hang On.” Sam Harris allowed the crowd to sing with him as he motioned the crowd with the lyrics, “Put your oldfound faith as though you got to hang on.” X Ambassadors continued the with their brand new song, “Ahead Of Myself,” which serves as the lead single to their upcoming album. Through this particular song, Harris showed off his wide vocal range, reaching notes that were higher than anyone could have imagined. The band also performed a new song from its upcoming album that has not been released to the public, which added a personal touch to the relationship between the artist and the audience members, as we watched a performance that you simply could not get anywhere
else. Fall Flex tickets were $15, which is more expensive than previous fall concerts, but a bargain compared to the price of tickets for an X Ambassadors concert anywhere else. Typically, fall concerts are held in Levin, and though using the Shapiro Gym allowed for more students to attend, the show still felt far more intimate that what you’d get at a regular concert. “Brandeis University, this next song is for you. You are gorgeous!” Sam Harris exclaimed to the crowd as the band broke out into “Gorgeous,” dedicating it to everyone in the room. While Sam introduced the rest of the band, each member broke out into impressive solos on each of their instruments. Sam’s brother, Casey, began a long, beautiful keyboard solo. Playing on different keyboards, Casey Harris’ improv solo was an extremely impressive piano break. Sam demonstrated his versatility as well, playing his guitar throughout the show, but he also performed an outstanding saxophone solo for the whole crowd. It served as a way to include classical and jazz music in the show, along with pop and rock. X Ambassadors concluded its set by singing the band’s two big-
gest hits, “Unsteady” and “Renegades.” Sam hardly sang the opening line to “Unsteady”—he just let the audience fill in the lyrics. When an artist allows the audience to sing the song for them, it enhances the whole experience for the fans. It reflects how the artist is trying to personally interact with the audience, as they both sing the lyrics. Before beginning to play “Renegades,” Sam Harris acknowledged that this song is dedicated to everyone regardless of who you are, your race, your religion or your sexuality. The band and audience celebrated this message by belting the song at the the top of their lungs. Sam Harris even went out into the barricades and into the front row of the audience near the bridge of the song. Just when everyone thought the performance was over, the band came back onstage and completed an encore performance of another unreleased song from its upcoming second studio album. The performance incredible, and it added a personal touch to the show as a whole. When X Ambassadors walked off the stage, I left feeling energized and wanting more. The members of this band are extremely passionate about the music they play and were really
engaged with their performance overall. If you were not able to attend Fall Flex last Saturday, I highly recommend that you go to one of Great Good Fine Ok’s or X Ambassadors’ concerts in the future, whether the groups come to Boston or your hometown. X Ambassadors is an alternative rock band from Ithaca, NY. The members of the band consist of Sam Harris on vocals, Casey Harris on keyboards, Adam Levin on drums and Noah Feldshuh on lead guitar. Forming in 2009, the group did not get its big break until 2012, when Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds heard their song, “Unconsolable,” on the local alternative radio station in Norfolk, VA, where he was sick in the hospital. Reynolds asked his record label, Interscope, to sign X Ambassadors immediately. The band’s debut album, “VHS,” came out in June 2015, and spawned the hit singles, “Renegades,” “Unsteady” and “Jungle.” A year later, the band featured on a collaboration track, “Sucker For Pain” with Imagine Dragons, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Logic and Ty Dolla Sign for the film soundtrack of “Suicide Squad,” which also became a immense hit throughout the United States, Europe and Australia.
photos by yarisa diaz/the hoot
October 27, 2017
By Jonah Koslofsky staff
Netflix has a lot of original shows, so many that it’s getting hard to keep track. Sure, everybody has heard of the hits “Stranger Things,” “Master of None” and their gritty Marvel dramas, but a lot of shows end up falling through the cracks. Take the Jason Bateman passion project “Ozark,” or Netflix’s latest prestige drama, “Mindhunter.” There was no real hype behind this project when it arrived last Friday, and it’s a shame for them because “Mindhunter” had the potential to replicate the success of Netflix’s original hit, “House of Cards.” But then again, “Mindhunter” doesn’t quite actualize on it’s promise, so perhaps that lack of marketing was a purposeful move from Netflix. Whatever “Mindhunter” could have been, what it’s not is a legitimately compelling drama. What drew my attention to “Mindhunter” is that the show has the backing of David Fincher, who kickstarted Netflix’s first real success in the original content
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Netflix’s ‘Mindhunter:’ less than the sum of its parts department: “House of Cards.” Fincher, director of “Fight Club,” “The Social Network” and “Gone Girl,” is arguably the best working director in Hollywood, and has a very specific eye (sometimes forcing actors to shoot dozens of takes to get just the right shot). He has a cold, astute style that he brings to all of his work, and “Mindhunter” is no different. Fincher helmed the first two and last two episodes, which immediately posed a few questions for this review: How are the Fincher episodes? And do the directors of the later episodes measure up to the bar he sets? I only made it through the first four episodes (of ten), but the honest answer seems to be that the other directors aren’t outdone by Fincher, because this is far from his best work. Set in 1977, “Mindhunter” follows young, idealistic FBI agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and his investigations into criminal psychology that will eventually lead to the classification of the “serial killer.” Apparently until the late seventies, the FBI and law enforcement were incredibly dismissive of investigations into the
motives of deranged criminals, with our protagonist and his partner (Holt McCallany) essentially inventing a brand new aspect of policing. It’s a period piece: There are a lot of great seventies cars on display and, at least in the first episode, a lot of bad dialogue about how America has gone to hell. The execution here is somewhat interesting: Holden and Holt (wow, are those names hilariously old fashioned) are assigned to provide local police departments around the country with FBI expertise. This expertise, as we come to see, is outdated, hence the need for Holden’s criminal psychology investigation. They interview serial killers imprisoned near the counties where they’re teaching. Meanwhile, Holden and Holt are constantly consulting and helping these police departments with especially grotesque murders, putting their new psychological insight to use. This is some of the best stuff on “Mindhunter”— watching Holden and Holt ascribing motive to a killer with only the knowledge of a crime scene is fun because they’re indulging in a science the two haven’t quite
invented yet. It’s conjecture, but only because the pair hasn’t been able to do enough research to iron out the protocol to know who to look for. What also works are the interviews with the killers. These scenes feel earned: There’s always an FBI agent getting in the way who thinks the criminals have nothing of value to share, and thus these interviews are pointless pandering to lunatics. The second episode in particular, which features a talkative murder by the name of Ed Kemper, brings some life into the show. However, it’s life that “Mindhunter” can’t really sustain. Each episode I’ve seen (aside from episode four) just sort of ends, killing any narrative momentum. That’s part of the reason why I stopped watching before the end of the season. And “Mindhunter” really doesn’t stand up well in comparison to any of its peers. As an examination of an America gone by, it’s nowhere near as insightful as “Mad Men,” and as an exploration of the Carter era nowhere near as fun or aesthetically engaging as the second season of “Fargo.” If
anything, the show “Mindhunter” most closely resembles NBC’s short lived “Hannibal,” another alternate take on the “catch-akiller” drama. But where “Hannibal” was a show about the trauma catching killers would create pretending to be a procedural, “Mindhunter” lacks a compelling theme that to keep you watching. And it’s definitely not as good as Fincher’s first foray into television, the aforementioned “House of Cards.” Most of all, “Mindhunter” ends up reminding me a lot of “Zodiac,” Fincher’s most personal film. But it’s also one of his longest movies, and like “Mindhunter,” it’s meandering exploration of the past that follows a fresh faced young man who desperately wants to catch a killer. If you really enjoyed “Zodiac,” or have a genuine interest in the history of the investigation of criminal psychology, “Mindhunter” might be for you. But for the rest of us, we’ll just wait for season two of “Stranger Things,” which will be streaming by the time this review is published. Because that’s the Netflix promise: There’s always something else to watch.
photos from imdb.com
Hold Thy Peace reinvents Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ By Ben Beriss special to the hoot
With its captivating production of “Hamlet,” Brandeis’ Shakespeare troupe Hold Thy Peace has reinvented a classic show to create a meaningful and eerie performance. The show takes a novel approach to “Hamlet,” shaking up the moral alignment of the characters by casting Hamlet Sr. as a domestic abuser and his murderer Claudius as the (at least partially) righteous protector of the victimized Gertrude. As such, the play becomes a horror story reminiscent of “The Thing,” with Old Hamlet’s ghost slowly exacting his revenge while the rest of the characters descend deeper into confusion and madness. The actors, led by director Abi Pont ’19 who created the show, use this perspective shift to create new versions of the classic characters. Their performances rest on an impressive understanding of Shakespearean dialogue which allows them to deliver the notoriously dated lines with as much clarity and emotion as they would
in modern conversation. The understanding also allows them to draw on the “standard” interpretations of their roles and shift them just enough that they reflect the change in antagonist. The standout performance in this play comes from Riely Allen ’18, who creates a Claudius acting out of true empathy and genuinely tortured by the violence which seems inevitable to him. Bryan McNamara ’19 as Hamlet similarly projects a soul tortured by confusion over his father’s death but with a brutality which betrays the influence of his father. Their performances, along with that of Eli Esrig ’19 as Laertes, Hamlet’s rival, are characterized by a defiant, if confused, strength which causes them to lash out as the play goes on. They are contrasted with the performances off Elizabeth Gentile ’20 and Casey Bachman ’21 as Gertrude and Ophelia, respectively, who convey the damage of abuse with performances which start out powerful and defiant but collapse into weeping and madness as the trauma becomes overwhelming. Kerstin Shimkin ’21 as Polonius, the mother (traditionally father) of Ophelia and Laertes,
paints a touching portrait of a concerned parent while simultaneously helping to keep the first section of the show relatively light with the ceaseless prattling synonymous with her character. Emma Cyr ’19 as Horatio creates a similarly touching portrait of friendly devotion, serving as Hamlet’s faithful friend and backup. They both present genderbent versions of their characters without comment or winks to the audience, prompting an interesting conversation about how we regard these relationships differently depending on gender. These leads are backed by an equally impressive ensemble which switch from role to role instantaneously. Oliver Leeb ’21 exemplifies this, at times undercutting the tension with deadpan comedy, and other times delivering a chilling dramatic monologue. Zack Garrity ’20 and Eliana Weiss ’21 also stand out as the concerned yet conniving Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, respectively. Weiss is also notable for her grimly comedic performance as the sarcastic gravedigger who prompts Hamlet to rethink death. Throughout the show, Ryan Sands ’19 as the Ghost creates
a silent and ominous presence which shifts the mood away from predictable tragedy and towards a captivating horror. The show is presented in the white box Merrick Theater with minimal tech. A simple bench and curtains comprise the set, lighting mainly shifts only to follow shifting actors and sound design is almost entirely made up of subtle sound effects. This approach, however, perfectly matches the performance-driven nature of the show. The actors are more than capable of filling the room themselves and the technical aspects merely add simple touches that emphasize or accent important moments. The unique white box space is also used to seat the audience in a traverse, or two sections facing each other, with the actors playing between them and to their sides. During many scenes, this enhanced the immersion—such as when mourners surround the audience during a funeral—but at other points made it difficult for certain seats to see the full events of the show. This nontraditional seating arrangement likely contributed to the clunky blocking the show
suffers from in several scenes, in which awkward positioning of the actors severely undercuts the emotion. Similarly, the show has problems with pacing during nonverbal scenes and actors occasionally fall out of character or resort to cartoonish overacting while not talking. And there were rare but noticeable audio and enunciation blips which would temporarily break the connection to the show. Despite these small problems, the show is an impressive testament to the power of Shakespeare’s words. Pont has managed to shift their meaning in a way which subtly changes the mood of the show but illuminating the core emotions behind it. By doing this show she has created an attractive performance which can be appreciated as a metaphorical illustration of the lasting and severe damage abuse can cause or simply a highly dramatic monster story to match the Halloween season. “Hamlet” is playing through Oct. 29 in the Merrick Theater in Spingold, with performances at 7 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
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October 27, 2017
Undergraduate Theater Collective breathes life into its performance of ‘Blithe Spirit’ By Emily Sorkin Smith and Hannah Schuster editors
Navigating the relationship between ex- and current lovers can be tricky. Jealousy, insecurity and doubt create tense dynamics, and nobody wants to be caught in the middle. Turn your ex into a ghost, though, and you’ve got a comically awkward situation. This situation is exactly where the cast of “Blithe Spirit” took the audience in the Undergraduate Theater Collective’s (UTC) most recent production. The cast’s capable acting made the nightmare into a hilarious, if at times dark, saga. “Blithe Spirit” is set in 1930’s England and centers around novelist Charles Condomine. The main character, played by Abram Foster ’19, invites psychic medium Madame Arcati to a dinner party, looking for some inspiration for his new book. Arcati is the archetypal psychic with wild hair, a crystal ball and a window into the supernatural world. Blake Rosen’s ’21 performance as the zany Madame Arcati was perhaps the most enjoyable of the show, with the perfect amount of overthe-top wackiness. The dinner party brings together Charles and his wife Ruth (Jess Cocomazzi ’21) and Dr. and Mrs. Bradman (Nate Rtishchev ’21 and Alex Harrington ’21, respectively) to attempt to contact the world beyond with Arcati’s help. The very buttoned-up Bradman would have none of Arcati and the seance. With the guests reluctantly holding hands around the dinner table, Arcati summons her “control,” a little girl named Daphne who guides her through the world of the dead. The trance is a little
too powerful, though, and Arcati ends up on the floor, much to Dr. Bradman’s displeasure. He and his wife promptly take off, leaving Charles in a terrible mood, which his wife, Ruth, has to deal with. Though the party is a bust, Arcati is successful in summoning one spirit: Elvira, Charles’ beautiful ex-wife. Ruth, who had already expressed her jealousy and discomfort with Elvira’s physical beauty and lasting hold on Charles’ heart, grows more concerned for her husband as he talks to the ghost of a woman only he can see. Leah Nashel ’20 embodies the character of Elvira perfectly, with a confident poise in the way she carries herself, her mannerisms and her speech. Marek Haar’s ’20 directorial talent takes shape in these scenes as the actor’s play up the physical comedy. In one scene, when Ruth has finally acknowledged the ghost Elvira’s (Leah Nashel ’20) presence, she spends several minutes yelling at a chair she believes her rival to be sitting in. Everybody but Ruth is clued in to the fact that Elvira has actually been dancing around the room the whole time, making Ruth look like a fool. And because only Charles can hear Elviria speak, he must translate for Ruth, though he often rephrases her words just a touch nicer. The audience is again clued in on the personal joke with Charles. The lighting design helps convey the eerie tone during scenes like Arcati’s seances. The stage grows darker and the shadows reflected against blue light on the back wall of the stage form intricate patterns. The dialogue was quick and witty, punctuated by some more sincere moments, like Ruth’s genuine worry for her husband’s sanity. Though the acting in these
photo by emily sorkin smith/the hoot
scenes was mature and strong, it was during the comedic moments that the cast shone brightest. Edith (Tova Weinberger ’18), the Condomine family’s maid, spends much of the play hurrying around the set, knocking things over and wreaking havoc wherever she goes. The pencil mustaches worn by Charles and Dr. Bradman keep the audience firmly planted in early 20th century England, though the accents sometimes drop off or
become muddled. The exception is Harrington’s Mrs. Bradman, as Harrington is actually British (her cast biography points that out). While Harrington’s accent is natural and smooth, it doesn’t quite match the accents put on by the other cast members, which are stiffer and sound more like the stuffy Received Pronounciation used by the British ruling class of the time. The show’s run time is long, at around two and a half hours, but
as the play nears its climax, the action builds and all the actors are shouting and taking command of the entire stage as the plot builds to the twist ending. In an impressive use of special effects, the play ends with a pair of ghosts destroying the set. Books fly off shelves, tables and couches tumble over and the tune which has been a guiding element in the play, “Always,” by Irving Berlin begins to spin on the record player.
TBA welcomes three alumni members back to center stage
By Katie Decker-Jacoby editor
Brandeis improv and sketch comedy group To Be Announced (TBA) hosted a lively alumni show in Chum’s on Saturday, Oct. 21. Monica Chen ’19, Abby LeRoy ’20, Evan Moloney ’20, Seneca Scott ’20, Conor Amrien ’19, Julia Green ’18, Zoë Rose ’20, Caroline Kriesen ’20 and Lena Burdick ’21 performed alongside former TBA members Dan Hirshfield ’16 and Robbie Rosen ’18 as well as Matt Hoisch ’19 who transferred schools. In one skit, the group split the stage into three sections, each section representing a different emotion. The left side of the stage stood for fear, the middle for horny and the right for sad. The audience chose a waiting room for the setting. LeRoy and Chen switched sections whenever they pleased. The two alternated between being emotional friends and being lovers. At one point, Chen was sad about getting chlamydia and then LeRoy entered the horny division of the stage and asked if Chen wanted to get more chlamydia. “Just a dose,” Chen replied.
At another point, as romantic partners, LeRoy told Chen that when she looks at her the entire waiting room disappears. Chen quickly moved to the fear side of the stage and exclaimed, “Where did everyone go?” eliciting much laughter from the audience. Members of the group played a game called “Translator” in which Hoisch and Hirshfield acted out their emotions but were only allowed to speak in gibberish. Meanwhile, Rosen and Rose each translated for one of the two. Hoisch and Hirshfield played each other’s prom dates in the skit. Hoisch motioned giving a gift to Hirshfield, perhaps a corsage, but then Rosen translated this to, “Got any mayonnaise?” “I brought it just for you,” Rose replied as Hirshfield gifted Hoisch the mayonnaise, to which Rosen exclaimed, “Look how many calories this has!” Rose responded, “That’s sexist,” to which Rosen replied, “I am sexist.” Rose said, “Well I hate myself,” to which Rosen replied, “I remember when I hated myself.” “Right now?” asked Rose. “No, not right now,” Rosen responded as he dimmed the stage lights to a bright red. “Mood lighting,” explained Rose. “You feel it too?” Rosen asked.
Hirshfield, who was only supposed to speak gibberish, yelled, “Fuck it!” and shared a kiss with Hoisch. This game captivated the audience because Hoisch and Hirshfield would act out one thing without speaking, and then Rosen and Rose translated these actions into something completely different and random, like mayonnaise. TBA also played its classic game called “Sex with Me.” The comedy group asked the crowd for a random object. An audience member blurted out, “a vase,” and TBA went with it. Each member tapped the chair in the middle of the stage and finished the sentence, “Sex with me is like a vase.” Amrien said “Sex with me is like a vase, you think it’s going to be safe on top of a countertop, but really, not so much.” The next audience suggestion was the word “toaster.” “Sex with me is like a toaster, it’s dangerous to use it in the bath,” said Hirshfield. “Sex with me is like a toaster, it only lasts three minutes,” said Chen. “Sex with me is like a toaster, I didn’t realize how much of a necessity it was, until I came to college and I couldn’t get it,” said Amrien. The comedy group played the same game, but with a new
photo by katie decker-jacoby/the hoot
phrase: “I once dated a lawyer.” “I once dated a lawyer, we banged… the gavel,” said Burdick. “I once dated a lawyer, I approved all his motions,” said Hirshfield. “I once dated a lawyer, there were no objections,” said Moloney. They next added in the word “congress” to the crowd’s delight. “Sex with me is like Congress, it’s full of white men,” said Rose. “Sex with me is like Congress, because there’s an old man telling me what to do with my body,” said Hirsh-
field, which earned claps from the crowd. Both the alumni and current members of TBA performed with smiles and jokes galore, as the three alumni comedians came back into the spotlight. TBA will compete in the College Improv Tournament, hosted by Chicago Improv Productions, where over 100 American and Canadian teams go head-to-head in 14 regional tournaments across the country.