The Harvard Crimson - Volume CXLIX, No. 61

The Harvard Crimson THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

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VOLUME CXLIX, NO. 61 |

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022

EDITORIAL PAGE 8

NEWS PAGE 9

SPORTS PAGE 10

The return of traditions reminds us of the magic to physical proximity

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee discusses reparations with students at HKS

Men’s volleyball playoff bid cut short

by New Jersey Institute of Technology

Required Covid Testing Ends May 10 Admits Explore Campus at Visitas

By ISABELLA B. CHO and CARA J. CHANG CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Harvard will phase out its Covid-19 testing requirements over the next three weeks, the school announced Monday, marking the end of one of its last remaining on-campus pandemic precautions.

Starting April 28, affiliates who do not live on campus will no longer be required to test regularly. Just shy of two weeks later, on May 10, the University will drop its weekly testing requirement for affiliates who live on campus.

The change, which will take effect for on-campus residents just days prior to the end of the spring semester, comes despite a spike in on-campus Covid-19 cases over the past two weeks.

“Universal testing in the absence of symptoms no longer plays the important role that it had in months past, when infection posed a much greater risk,” top Harvard administrators, including University President Lawrence S. Bacow, wrote in an email announcing the change

By RAHEM D. HAMID and NIA L. ORAKWUE

­

SEE TESTING PAGE 9

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Prospective freshmen clad in Harvard merch and red lanyards swarmed campus this weekend for the College’s first in-person Visitas since 2019.

Current students hosted admitted members of the Class of 2026 for the two-day program, which took place Sunday and Monday. Visitas was held virtually for the Class of 2024 and Class of 2025 due to the pandemic.

Harvard hosted an extracurricular fair, department open houses, library tours, and an international student reception.

Prefrosh mingled with current students at various club socials and were able to attend Monday’s classes.

Admitted students who attended this year’s Visitas called the weekend memorable and informative.

“It’s been really exciting, I’ve met a lot of interesting people, met a childhood hero ­

Starting May 10th, Covid-19 testing will become optional for all students living on campus. JULIAN J. GIORDANO— CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

— Obama’s economic adviser,” said Max Fan, an admitted student from Melbourne, Australia, referring to Harvard Kennedy School professor Jason Furman ’92.

“I had Cane’s Chicken Fingers for the first time,” said Sazi T. Bongwe, an admitted student from Johannesburg, South Africa, who has already committed to Harvard. “I’d say that’s my most memorable memory.”

Prefrosh said socializing with their soon-to-be classmates was a meaningful part of the weekend.

“Mostly what stuck out to me, though, is everybody’s been really awesome,” Cole M. Salvador said. “Everybody I met has been so much fun to talk to.”

“I met a Brazilian person who’s essentially interested in the same things I am — just in a Brazilian context, versus I have a South African context,” Bongwe said.

On Sunday night, prefrosh flocked to the Harvard Square

SEE VISITAS PAGE 7

Ahead of Vote, Students Rally to Save Shopping Week

By ARIEL H. KIM and MEIMEI XU CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

A small group of undergraduates rallied to preserve shopping week in Harvard’s Science Center Plaza Monday, urging faculty to vote against a proposal for previous-term course registration at the next faculty meeting on May 3.

While many College students praise the flexibility of shopping week, which provides the opportunity to try out classes before enrolling, some teaching staff and administrators say it complicates course preparation and hiring. In December, a Faculty of Arts and Sciences committee recommended that the College swap out shopping week for previous-term registration, in which students would register for courses one semester in advance.

During the rally Monday, organizers passed out flyers urg­

Students rallied to save shopping week ahead of a Faculty of Arts and Sciences vote on a proposal that would move Harvard to a previous-term registration system next month. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

ing students to encourage their professors to attend the monthly faculty meeting next Tuesday and vote against the plan for previous-term course registration.

William A. McConnell ’21’22, an organizer of the rally, said the vote at the next faculty meeting is “the last stand” in the movement to preserve shopping week.

“We’ve made a number of efforts and other people have made a number of efforts over the years to prevent the administration from moving forward with this that have not been met with that much success,” said McConnell, a former Crimson editor. “But this is a vote that we think we can win.”

Former Undergraduate Council President Michael Y. Cheng ’22, who helped organize the rally, said student advocacy efforts have managed to keep “the flame of shopping week alive” through the pandemic.

Earlier this semester, the student group working to preserve shopping week submitted a 40page counterproposal to the Committee on Course Registration’s plan for previous-term registration. The counterproposal called for the preservation of shopping week but with reforms, such as a non-binding “pre-indication” form submitted during the previous term to help teaching staff gauge potential class sizes.

LyLena D. Estabine ’24, one of the student organizers, said in an interview after Monday’s rally that the authors of the counterproposal consulted faculty and graduate students while drafting their report.

“If the faculty vote no, it will provide students with an opportunity — it will provide the whole college, really — with an opportunity to look for true collaboration and create a new

SEE SHOPPING PAGE 9

IOP Poll Shows Drop Arab American Leaders Speak at IOP Forum in Biden Approval

By MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

By MILES J. HERSZENHORN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

President Joe Biden’s approval rating among young Americans fell to 41 percent, according to a new Harvard Institute of Politics youth poll released Monday.

The findings from the IOP’s biannual youth poll of Americans between 18 to 29 years old show Biden’s approval rating is down five percentage points from the fall 2021 edition of the poll and 18 points down from spring 2021.

John Della Volpe, the IOP’s polling director, said in a press briefing Monday morning that Biden’s approval rating is slightly higher among people likely to vote in the 2022 midterm election. Della Volpe said 42 percent of registered voters and 47 percent of anticipated voters in the 2022 midterms approve of Biden’s performance.

Della Volpe noted, however, that Biden has lost more of his own voters compared to his predecessors Donald Trump and ­

INSIDE Harvard Today 2 THIS ISSUE

Barack Obama. Of Trump’s 2016 voters, 82 percent approved of his performance during the 2018 midterms. Meanwhile, 88 percent of Obama voters in 2008 and 80 percent of Obama voters in 2012 approved of him in 2010 and 2014, respectively.

“Only 69 percent of young Americans who voted for President Biden in 2020 approve of his job performance today,” said Della Volpe, who served as an advisor to Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.

“Those people who disapprove today, but who voted for him just a year and a half ago — they rate him much more harshly on the economy.”

Harvard Public Opinion Project Chair Alan F. Zhang ’24 said in an interview that Biden’s lower approval ratings within his own base were “concerning,” but added that the drop in approval comes from “voters that he can win back.”

“These are people who voted for him once already,” Zhang

SEE POLL PAGE 9

Arts 3

News 7

Noor Tagouri, a journalist and podcast producer, and James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, spoke about their experiences with storytelling and political activism as Arab Americans at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Monday evening.

The IOP’s student president, Janna E. Ramadan ’23, and Anan M. Hafez ’22, who are both Palestinian-American, moderated the event, which celebrated Arab American Heritage Month.

Tagouri said she chose to start a podcast series “because of the Muslim tradition of oral history and the Arab tradition of oral history.”

“We wanted to create an audio experience for people to be able to — while listening — feel like they’re listening to stories that their ancestors are telling them,” Tagouri added.

Zogby said he was inspired to become a political activist after causing an uproar for reporting Palestinian stories. ­

SEE FORUM PAGE 7

Editorial 8

Sports 10

James Zogby and Noor Tagouri spoke at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Monday. JULIAN J. GIORDANO—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

TODAY’S FORECAST

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THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

PAGE 2

HARVARD TODAY

For Lunch Chicken Fajitas Shrimp & Quesadilla Spinach, Artichoke & Flatbread

For Dinner Beef Fajita with Fettucine Butter Chicken Spicy Vegetable and Potato Curry

TODAY’S EVENTS Managing Test Anxiety with the ARC Virtual, 4-4:30 p.m.

IN THE REAL WORLD World’s Oldest Person, Kane Tanaka, Dies in Japan at Age of 119

If exams give you anxiety, you’re not alone. At this webinar, the ARC will discuss test preparation and strategies for navigating these feelings when it matters most to the future of your academic career.

The oldest person, Kane Tanaka, died on April 19, 2022 at the age of 119. Tanaka has held the title of oldest person alive since January 2019 according to Guinness World Records and was the second oldest person ever recorded. She was born in 1903 and had worked in her family’s store until the age of 103. In her lifetime, she survived cancer twice, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as two world wars.

Mindfulness Self-Care for Students of Color Virtual, 5-6:30 p.m.

This event will build and share meditative practices and self-care techniques that foster healing for students of color. Participants will have a chance to practice cognitive mindfulness-based stress reduction skills to reduce anxiety, depression, fear, worry, and panic.

Harvard Startup Fair Science Center Lobby, 3-3:30 p.m.

Are you drowning in an endless pile of readings for class? Instead of skimming through your readings, join the ARC to learn how to read more efficiently and effectively.

Elon Musk to Buy Twitter in $44 Billion Deal Many prospective Harvard students explored campus at Visitas, the College’s annual admitted students weekend, which ended on Monday. TRUONG L. NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

AROUND THE IVIES YALE: YCC Executive Board elected after record-low voter turnout —THE YALE DAILY

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is set to be in charge of one of the most influential social networks through a $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter. The deal is expected to close this year and will turn the company from a public one to a private one. Musk’s primary goal for Twitter is to boost its defense of free speech, which many worry could cause a rollback of the policies implemented to mitigate hate speech.

NEWS

CORNELL: Cornell Celebrates Earth Day —THECORNELL DAILY SUN BROWN: Native American Heritage Series, Natives at Brown host annual Spring

Thaw Powwow —THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Woman Survives Being Stranded in Forest for 6 Days by Eating Snow and Yogurt

Sheena Gullet has been rescued by local police after being stranded in her car in a remote area of California for six days. The 52-year-old woman credits her survival to a sixpack of yogurt and snow, which she rationed.

DARTMOUTH: Hopkins Center for the Arts to undergo $88 million expansion —THE DARTMOUTH

COVID UPDATES

LAST 7 DAYS CURRENTLY

CAMPUS

224 In Isolation

433 1.60% Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

LAST 7 DAYS

CAMBRIDGE

542 3.85% 77%

Total New Cases

Positivity Rate

Fully Vaccinated

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY Students React Lightly to News of Nixon Death

Harvard students said they had little or no reaction to the death of controversial former president Richard M. Nixon in a marked shift in campus sentiment from his presidency, when students focused on his role in pushing forward the Vietnam War. April 26, 1994

Cambridge Police Find Greek Coins With Suspect’s Aid

The Cambridge Police Department retrieved eight stolen Ancient Greek coins worth $90,000 with the assistance of a suspect arrested for the theft. The coins, originally minted in the third and fifth centuries B.C.E., had been stolen from an exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum three weeks prior.

April 26, 1973

THE UNIVERSITY DAILY, EST. 1873

The Harvard Crimson Raquel Coronell Uribe ’22-’23 Associate Managing Editors Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 President Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Associate Business Managers Managing Editor Taia M.Y. Cheng ’23-’24 Isabelle L. Guillaume ’24 Amy X. Zhou ’23 Business Manager Editorial Chairs Guillermo S. Hava ’23-24 Orlee G.S. Marini-Rapoport ’23-24

STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

Design Chairs Yuen Ting Chow ’23 Madison A. Shirazi ’23-’24

Magazine Chairs Maliya V. Ellis ’23-’24 Sophia S. Liang ’23

Multimedia Chairs Aiyana G. White ’23 Pei Chao Zhuo ’23

Blog Chairs Ellen S. Deng ’23-’24 Janani Sekar ’23-’24

Technology Chairs Ziyong Cui ’24 Justin Y. Ye ’24

Sports Chairs Alexandra N. Wilson ’23-’24 Griffin H. Wong ’24

Copyright 2022, The Harvard Crimson (USPS 236-560). No articles, editorials, cartoons or any part thereof appearing in The Crimson may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the President. The Associated Press holds the right to reprint any materials published in The Crimson. The Crimson is a non-profit, independent corporation, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967. Second-class postage paid in Boston, Massachusetts. Published Monday through Friday except holidays and during vacations, three times weekly during reading and exam periods by The Harvard Crimson Inc., 14 Plympton St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138 Weather icons made by Freepik, Yannick, Situ Herrera, OCHA, SimpleIcon, Catalin Fertu from flaticon.com is licensed by CC BY 3.0.

Night Editor Natalie L. Kahn ’23

Design Editors Camille G. Caldera ’22

Assistant Night Editors Mert Geyiktepe ’25 Brandon L. Kingdollar ’24

Photo Editor Cory K. Gorczycki ’23

Story Editors Brie K. Buchanan ’22-’23 Jasper G. Goodman ’23 Kelsey J. Griffin ’23 Taylor C. Peterman ’23-’24

Editorial Editor Gordon J. Ebanks ’24 Sports Editor Griffin H. Wong ’24

CORRECTIONS The Harvard Crimson is committed to accuracy in its reporting. Factual errors are corrected promptly on this page. Readers with information about errors are asked to e-mail the managing editor at managingeditor@thecrimson.com.

PAGE 3

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

ARTS CAMPUS

ARTIST PROFILE: MAX SCHERR ‘21 NAVIGATES THE INDUSTRY AS A YOUNG FILMMAKER

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CAMPUS

Returning to his roots at Harvard for inspiration has helped Scherr along his creative journey. Resilience is key, and Scherr isn’t deterred by the difficult path he faces.

‘BOMB SHELTER’ REVIEW: MARY LAURA PHILPOTT BALANCES LIFE, DEATH, HUMOR, AND TRAUMA IN NEW ESSAY NOVEL

4

BOOKS

By letting her humorous personality and honesty drive the narrative, Mary Laura Philpott honors her trauma, anxiety, grief, fears, and, most importantly, her hopes and inspires the reader to do the same.

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‘THE KARDASHIANS’ REVIEW: NEW SHOW, SAME ESCAPIST FUN

5

FROM COACHELLA: HARRY STYLES PERFORMANCE IS DAY ONE’S ‘CHERRY’ ON TOP

Does the show provide a wholly new viewing experience? No — but “The Kardashians” remains true to its reliable format in a way that does not feel tired.

TV

MUSIC

Dressed in a pink, all-leather cowboy get-up (complete with his initials emblazoned on the back of his pants), Harry Styles emerged from beneath the Coachella mainstage

‘THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT’ REVIEW: A LOVE LETTER TO NICOLAS CAGE SUPERFANS

5

FILM

From the film’s opening shot, in which a couple watches a Nick Cage movie and comments on its brilliance, it is abundantly clear that the movie is going to lean heavily on its unique casting choice.

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‘MOONFALL’ REVIEW: ROLAND EMMERICH’S LATEST DISASTER FILM SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SATIRE

6

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED: THE REVOLVE FESTIVAL CONTROVERSY

THEATER

CULTURE

The moon falling out of orbit and threatening to destroy planet earth isn’t the biggest disaster in Roland Emmerich’s latest release “Moonfall.”

Revolve Festival not only failed to meet attendees’ expectations, but jeopardized their physical safety in a disaster of mismanagement.

WA

Artist Profile: Max Scherr ’21 Navigates the Industry as a Young Filmmaker OLIVIA COOPER CONTRIBUTING WRITER The film industry is notoriously hard to break into, particularly without a connection to open the door.

Yet every few years a newcomer stuns the industry with their fresh ideas and unique perspective. Recent graduate Max Scherr ’21 hopes to be the next.

Scherr was at Harvard as an international student hailing from Moscow, Russia and he concentrated in Visual and Environmental Studies — now called Art, Film, and Visual Studies. He took a media job on campus through the CS50 production department at the advice of an advisor, and gained critical experience there. But as for his concentration, he didn’t get as much hands-on experience as he would’ve hoped.

“I concentrated in VES,” Scherr said. “But that was mostly a theoretical kind of knowledge and background.”

The lack of practical opportunities in the VES program led Scherr to go abroad to a program in London that focused on such work.

“I also worked with the Harvard College Film Festival, which was also a cool experience,” Scherr said.

As a Harvard graduate, he feels a certain kinship to fellow alumnus and director Damien Chazelle ’07.

After seeing Chazelle’s hit films “Whiplash” (2014) and “La La Land” (2016) in high school, Scherr was delighted to find that he and Chazelle shared a freshman dorm and concentration.

“I started taking VES classes and talking to professors who educated him,” Scherr said. “My professor was also the professor of one of my favorite filmmakers.”

Chazelle’s work was inspiring — a beacon of light as Scherr plotted the same path. But some of his more defining experiences came while wandering campus as a lonely first year. One of those early days, he first stumbled upon the Somerville Theater.

“When I just came here, I was an international student, so I felt… quite lost,” he said. “So I was spending a lot of time alone, and I just started thinking about what I can do, and I discovered this movie theater.”

Scherr admired the theater and started going thScherr admired the theater and started going there once or twice a week. It was something of a “safety place.” Spending nights at the theater, his love for film only deepened, and ultimately inspired his first professional short film, “Summerville,” about his beloved refuge. After gaining the approval of the theater in September of 2021, Scherr began to write the script.

“People just usually write about themselves and your experiences, but I didn’t just want to make a film about a freshman coming into the theater, it just felt too boring.”

The casting call describes the plot as following “a woman returning to her hometown while getting caught in a blizzard. Seeking a place to hide, she ends up in Somerville Theatre, where much of her childhood was passed. The theatre comes alive and helps her rediscover these memories.”

The five day shoot was an invaluable experience for Scherr, who cites the talent and commitment of the crew for making the scheduling work amidst a February snowstorm.

“It was great to see how much professionalism pays off on these kinds of projects,” said Scherr. “I wasn’t sure until the last minute that it would actually work and we’d be able to pull it off in the time

we had.”

Scherr’s main piece of advice to young students who hope to pursue film is simply to make more films.

“What I’m coming to realize now, after school, is it doesn’t really matter where you graduate from. It doesn’t really matter what classes you took,” he said.

“It matters what you did, what you made, what you wrote, what you directed, and just having that body of work that you did and that you can attach your name to is extremely important.”

Without your own oeuvre, it’s nearly impossible to get work financed.

“I have a bunch of ideas, to be honest, and what I’m realizing right now is that it doesn’t really matter if you have ideas,” said Scherr. “It matters who you know, it matters if you’ve already proven yourself with something and they’re ready to give you money for the next thing.” The ultimate dream is being able to make what he loves without worrying about finances.

“Summerville” will be entered in film festivals, one of the best ways for young filmmakers to get their name out there. Success at a festival can generate the buzz to finance the next film, or even extend a short to a feature film, as with Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.

Ultimately, Scherr wants to be the next big filmmaker and a serve as a “link between Russia and the West,” in hopes of fostering a more constructive relationship between the two in the future.

As for what’s next, Scherr will keep writing, directing, and working until one day someone takes a chance and invests in his talents. Returning to his roots near Harvard in Somerville for inspiration has helped Scherr along his creative journey. Resilience is key, and Scherr isn’t deterred by the difficult path he faces.

Courtesy of Max Scherr

26 April 2022 | Vol CXLIX, ISSUE 61 Arts Chairs Sofia Andrade ’23-’24 Jaden S. Thompson ’23

Editors-at-Large Clara V. Nguyen ’23-’24 Sara Komatsu ’23 Chibuike K. Uwakwe ’23

Editor Associates Hannah T. Chew ’23 Isabella B. Cho ’24 Daniel S. de Castro ’24 Nina M. Foster ’23 Anya L. Henry ’24 Ryan S. Kim ’23

Zachary J. Lech ’24 Charles W. McCormick ’24 Jamila R. O’Hara ’23 Harper R. Oreck ’23 Alisa S. Regassa ’24

Executive Designer Nayeli Cardozo ’25

Design Associates Ashley E. Bryant ’23 Claire Yuan ’25

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

PAGE 4

BOOKS

‘Bomb Shelter’ Review: Mary Laura Philpott Balances Life, Death, Humor, and Trauma in New Essay Novel DIVYA N. NAVANI CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

M

ary Laura Philpott is no stranger to introducing her readers to her relationship with adulthood via essays. In her first compilation, “I Miss You When I Blink,” Philpott explores her journey of breaking free from the traditional mundane path of adulthood and reinventing herself into the person she is today.

In “Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives,” Philpott takes the readers one step further and one step deeper into her world than her previous novel. She hones in on her worries surrounding motherhood, her fears about life and death, and the overall anxieties that spiral within her. And she does so by bouncing back-and-forth between the story of her son’s life-threatening seizure and various mundane events that seem almost painfully insignificant compared to the former. “Bomb Shelter” is a much darker and more profound novel than readers have seen from Philpott before. By letting her humorous personality and honesty drive the narrative, Philpott honors her trauma, anxiety, grief, fears, and, most importantly, her hopes, while inspiring readers to do the same.

Perhaps the most intriguing appeal to the novel is how blunt Philpott is. She combines a childlike quality of not having a “filter” with the serious content of adult life’s trials and tribulations, which makes for a jarring but humorous contrast. Perhaps the quote that best encompasses the spirit of the entire novel is revealed within the first few chapters: “When you are a child who believes your brain can keep planes from crashing, it’s imaginative and precocious. When you’re an adult who thinks your own churning mind is what keeps everything safe, it’s called anxious.” Philpott is brutally honest about these small moments that so many people can relate to but never say out loud.

At times, however, it could be a little jarring to go from an essay on how her son could not recognize himself after his seizure to an essay about how meditation apps don’t actually calm people down as much as they provide an escape from difficult emotions. The humorous latter essay seems almost like a trifling concern compared to the harrowing trauma of the former.

And the entire novel follows this contrast between the extreme

TV ‘The Kardashians’ Review: New Show, Same Escapist Fun BRADY M. CONNOLLY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Courtesy of Hulu

and the mundane. But Philpott, using this method, adds a kind of raw and real balance to the novel. She shows that life truly is a compilation of small moments that teach us some pretty big lessons. Philpott ultimately conveys that life requires a balance between the “Bomb” and the “Shelter.”

Furthermore, the pace of the novel is rather rapid and keeps the reader on their feet for the entirety of the journey. Each essay is short enough to be read in minutes and, just when the reader thinks they’re deeply invested in the content, Philpott switches gears into an entirely new subject matter and the cycle begins again. Philpott never lets the reader remain content nor comfortable in their reading experience. Each story, each essay, each page is like a ticking time bomb leaving the reader wondering not only when the story will switch to something entirely different but also wondering what happens next in the stories that the reader leaves behind.

The best part about this book is that it truly appeals to all ages. Kids will recognize the childlike nature of the novels and Philpott’s Scrooge-like humor, young adults will appreciate the book’s fast pace reminiscent of social media algorithms, and adults will appreciate Philpott’s honest humanity. She doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out; Philpott is real and raw, and her writing resembles that in every way.

“Bomb Shelter” is not for the faint of heart. It’s for the people who know heartbreak, anxiety, trauma, nostalgia, grief, and loss like the back of their hand. Philpott shows the world that she has been there and she has found hope and strength through her writing. And through laughing and crying with Philpott as the pages turn, so will the reader.

Staff Writer Divya N. Navani can be reached at divya.navani@thecrimson.com.

Courtesy of Atria Books

W

hat do Roblox, Travis Barker, Diet Coke from the fountain, and “Saturday Night Live” all have in common? They are the pressing topics at the heart of the premiere episode of “The Kardashians,” the new Hulu show that centers on America’s unofficial first family. While the Kardashians may have logged 20 seasons of their previous reality show on E!, this new streaming series poses the opportunity for an even more honest and raw look at the California clan. However, it is far more likely that the impetus for switching platforms was a bigger payday for the business-savvy family and not a concern for the show’s creative integrity.

Does the show live up to these promises and provide a wholly new viewing experience? No — but “The Kardashians” remains true to its reliable format in a way that does not feel tired. Instead, the show provides a much needed dose of slightly ridiculous, completely unrelatable, and genuinely fun escapist television.

The premiere opens with a dizzying drone-shot introducing the show’s key players (as if audiences need a refresher) before launching into one of the Kardashian’s classic, overthe-top family parties which celebrates nothing in particular.

Kourtney’s relationship with her new boyfriend Travis Barker is on full display at the party, with the couple engaging in heavy public displays of affection. The premiere’s heavy focus on this relationship (which fans know will eventually lead to an engagement) can feel uncomfortably gratuitous, but Kourtney’s giddiness makes it hard not to root for her.

Even casual devotees of the Kardashian universe may be wondering: What does Kourtney’s ex-boyfriend, Scott Disick, think about her new relationship? Luckily, the show quickly provides answers: One scene shows a conversation between Scott and Khloé where he claims to be happy for Kourtney

while also complaining about being left out of the family barbeque. While Scott does readily admit to the ways in which he wronged Kourtney during their relationship, his complaints indicate a frustrating lack of self-awareness. But sometimes these feelings of bewilderment are what make the show so compelling.

Khloé’s relationship with NBA player Tristan Thompson is also on full display in this episode, with frank discussions about their romantic separation resulting from Thompson’s prior infidelity. The couple’s conversations about rebuilding trust remind viewers of one of the show’s unsolvable flaws: All the events that we see on screen took place several months prior to the episode’s air date. Because of this delay, viewers are already aware that Thompson admitted to fathering a son with his personal trainer Maralee Nichols while being in a relationship with Khloé. This knowledge imbues the pair’s optimistic discussions of the future with quite a tragic tone.

Fortunately, the show sticks to its strengths at the end of the episode by letting viewers in on some classic low-stakes drama. Kim is fearing that there is possibly an unreleased portion of her old sex tape about to be released (on Roblox of all places) and she recruits the whole family to save the day. Seeing how the Kardashians deal with their somewhat farcical everyday drama is what allows this franchise to endure the test of time, and this moment is nothing short of meme-worthy mastery.

Will Kim be able to shut down this anonymous hacker before time runs out? Find out next week on “The Kardashians!”

And lastly: Is Kim really going to get away with dismissively referring to Debra Messing as “the girl from ‘Will and Grace’?”

Staff Writer Brady M. Connolly can be reached at brady.connolly@thecrimson.com.

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

PAGE 5

H

arry Styles emerged from beneath the Coachella mainstage on Friday night like a vision. Dressed in a pink, all-leather cowboy get-up (complete with his initials emblazoned on the back of his pants), he stood center stage, basking in the applause from the hundreds of thousands of people gathered to watch him.

When the crowd finally fell silent, it was only for that silence to be broken by the guitar intro to “As It Was,” the synth-pop-inspired first look at Styles’ upcoming album, “Harry’s House.” The devoted audience quickly morphed into a screaming frenzy of excitement. Indeed, no other crowd on Friday came close to matching the energy of Styles’ audience.

Following “As It Was,” Styles kept up the energy with “Adore You” and “Golden,” two of the most popular tracks from his 2019 sophomore effort, “Fine Line.” He improvised a bit on these tracks, switching octaves and harmonizing differently than on his studio album in typical Styles fashion. Notably, “Golden” featured an extended guitar intro which allowed Styles to wind up the crowd before singing the fan-favorite track.

The most astounding part of the performance had to be Styles’ complete control of the stage. His confidence and sheer suave could convince even the staunchest critic that Styles is indeed an excellent performer. Not only were his dance moves smooth, slick, and sexy, but his facial expressions alone conveyed that the stage was his. As he ran his hands through his hair during “Golden,” he donned a cheeky grin which seemed to say, “I know you love me.”

Thanks to a catwalk which extended more than thirty yards into the crowd, Styles was able to engage more directly with those who didn’t get a spot at the front. (Those who did get the coveted barricade spots had been camped at the Coachella mainstage for hours prior to Styles’ performance.)

He strutted down the stage, throwing his tiny pink cowboy hat

Courtesy of Pooneh Ghana / Goldenvoice 2022

APRIL 26, 2022

MUSIC into the crowd and splashing the audience with a jug of water and his signature “whale” move.

Although his stage presence was the highlight of the performance, his vocal range is not to be understated.

During a performance of his new song “Boyfriends,” an as-yet unreleased track from “Harry’s House,” Styles demonstrated the true extent of his talent. Accompanied by an acoustic guitar and two backing vocalists from his band, Styles allowed his voice to shine through, navigating falsettos and sustaining chords like the seasoned singer he is. Furthermore, the folk style of the song shows his versatility as an artist who refuses to be limited to simple definitions of rock or pop genres.

Following the surprise appearance of Shania Twain during weekend one, fans were left wondering all week long who would be brought out during the second half of the set.

Following “Treat People With Kindness” — during which Styles brought a Black Lives Matter flag onto the stage — a woman’s voice began to sing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

At the edge of the catwalk, the spotlight turned to reveal pop and hip hop icon Lizzo donning a fuzzy fur coat to match Styles’ own.

The pair have an established relationship — Styles has covered Lizzo’s songs before, and their friendship is well documented — which made the Coachella collaboration all the more special. Together, Lizzo and Styles sang “I Will Survive” and, to the joy of longterm Styles fans (or, selfdescribed “Harries”), One Direction’s smash-hit “What Makes You Beautiful.” In perhaps one of the most exciting moments of the show, Lizzo and Styles met in the center of the stage and harmonized the chorus of the latter, followed by a warm hug between the two. In tandem, Lizzo’s booming voice blended with Styles’ suave vocals and blew the audience away.

Other notable moments of the show include a rare and much-anticipated performance of Styles’ uber-popular unreleased track “Medicine,” a repeat performance of another not-yet-released song from “Harry’s House” titled “Late Night Talking” (it had its debut in weekend one of Coachella), and an extended performance of “Woman” from Styles’s 2017 selftitled album featuring a four-minute guitar solo.

For the encore, Styles performed one of his most famous ballads and the one that started it all, “Sign of the Times.”

As the crowd sang in unison, Styles’ sang his heart out. The passion in his voice was undeniable as he belted out the vocals, allowing his raspy vibrato to shine through. With fireworks ablaze and lights flashing, Styles closed his set just as the Ukrainian flag lit up the LED screens behind him.

In addition to flawless execution of his set, Styles’ electrifying stage presence led to a whirlwind of entertainment and emotion. He truly lived up to his status as the first headliner of the three-day festival.

With “Harry’s House” scheduled to release on May 20, Styles’ future is surely golden.

Staff Writer A.J. Veneziano can be reached at aj.veneziano@ thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @aj_veneziano.

From Coachella: Harry Styles Performance is Day One’s ‘Cherry’ On Top

A.J. VENEZIANO CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

FILM ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ Review: A Love Letter to Nicolas Cage Superfans Dir. Tom Gormican BRADY M. CONNOLLY CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

T

he premise is enticing: Nicolas Cage stars as Nicolas Cage in a film about the revered, meme-worthy star being down on his luck. To raise the stakes a bit higher, “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” sends Cage to Mallorca, Spain, where he attends the birthday party of a mysterious billionaire in exchange for one million dollars. What follows is an action-comedy romp that prioritizes conventionality at the expense of conducting a more complex exploration of the film’s meta dimensions.

From the film’s opening shot, in which a couple watches a Nick Cage movie and comments on its brilliance, it is abundantly clear that the movie is going to lean heavily on its unique casting choice. While the early mentions of Cage’s name and references to his many iconic films are a fun, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”-esque thrill, the novelty wears off quite fast. Besides the occasional appearance from a terrifyingly bad CGI version of a young Cage who commiserates with his future self about the perils of stardom, the film mostly feels like an international espionage story that just happens to star Cage as himself.

Luckily for viewers, “Massive Talent” has a rather compelling plot, even excluding its meta elements. Cage is recruited by the CIA in Mallorca to find the kidnapped daughter of a Catalonian politician, which sets the stage for various plot twists and flashy stunts that are straightforward but entertaining. In typical Cage style, the actor approaches the role with plenty of intensity and screaming, at some points exaggerating his own public persona in an amusing mockery

of himself. While fans should look to his recent performance in “Pig” for evidence of Cage’s nuanced acting mastery, this less impressive and campy turn is a sight to behold.

Pedro Pascal is brilliant as Javi, the elusive billionaire who is obsessed with the “National Treasure” star. His comedic timing combined with his wide-eyed fanboy attitude elevates the film and illuminates his tangible chemistry with Cage.

As the two men sob over “Paddington 2” and get involved in farcical hijinks, audiences won’t be able to keep from engaging in the hilarity.

While Pascal shines, the film affords the rest of its starry ensemble far less room to show off their skills. Specifically, comedians Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz — who star as Vivian and Martin, respectively — are criminally underused, and their absence certainly costs the movie lots of potential humor. Their few scenes as bickering CIA agents are some of film’s funniest; viewers are bound to leave the theater wanting more.

While the film’s tropical setting lends itself to envyinspiring drone shots, the film’s other technical elements are rather unremarkable. The action sequences, especially in the third act, are rather uninspiring and cause the film to drag slightly towards the end. However, Cage and Pascal’s occasional tongue-in-cheek comments on the state of movies today make it clear that the filmmakers are perfectly aware of and comfortable with satirizing this conventionality.

Ultimately, “Massive Talent” is worth the price of admission and a good bid for clever, original films that dare to venture

into the realm of self-referentiality. However, for a film which makes Nick Cage playing Nick Cage its main selling point, the execution leaves something to be desired. While a deeper dive into the mind of an aging, universally-beloved movie star struggling with his work may have cost the movie some of its big-budget appeal, it could have produced a more memorable final product. But hey, Nick Cage does as Nick Cage wants.

Staff Writer Brady M. Connolly can be reached at brady. connolly@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradyconnolly44.

Courtesy of Katalin Vermes : Lionsgate

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

PAGE 6

THEATER ‘Parable of the Sower’ Review: An Afrofuturist Opera for the Apocalypse SERENA JAMPEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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n 1993, Octavia Butler imagined the year 2024: There would be intense, apocalyptic climate change leading to the exploitation of workers, a massive refugee crisis, and major violent class disparities. A demagogue would rise to power touting “Christian values” and the slogan “make America great again.” Civil society would erode into chaos and violence in the streets of major U.S. cities. In 2022, Butler’s vision is eerily, terrifyingly prophetic. In light of this, “Parable of the Sower,” a reimagining of Butler’s masterpiece as a gospel-opera, written by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon and performed at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, sent a timely message of resistance and faith against a backdrop of a not-so-distant apocalypse.

One of the show’s main plotlines revolves around “Earthseed,” a religion invented by the main character Lauren Olamina (Marie Tatti) after she realized that the god of her father, Reverend Olamina (Jared Wayne Gladly), was not sufficient to carry her through the end of the world as she knows it. Aptly, the powerful proclamations of “Earthseed,” “All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change,” were performed in a dynamic gospel musical style in the stage adaptation.

The entire opera drew heavily on traditionally Black musical genres, including blues, jazz, and folk music, breathing life into a rich story populated by complex Black characters.

While Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s music and lyrics expertly reimagined Butler’s story, it is the actors’ passionate portrayals of the characters and superb musical talent that made the opera so immersive and emotional. Marie Tatti performed a forceful yet still youthful Lauren, and her soaring voice managed to convey prayer, anguish, passion, and confusion in equal turn. Josette Newsam, playing both Mrs. Sims and The Ancestor, filled the space with her stunning, clear vocals. And crucially for a show with little dialogue, Tatti and the rest of the cast effectively utilized body language and space to portray both Lauren’s unusual condition — she was afflicted with “hyperempathy,” a syndrome that causes victims to literally feel other peoples’ pain — and

the broader dynamics of a community on the verge of collapse.

The set design, too, deftly complemented the narrative. A thin, gossamer curtain hangs over the scene, evoking the wall surrounding Lauren’s insular community and its fragility. On the metaphorical level, the wall represented how little actually separates those on the inside (the haves) from those on the outside (the have-nots). Desperate outsiders ripped down the wall halfway through the show, appropriately signifying a major turning point: The erosion of artificial class barriers, ordered society, and Lauren’s security.

“When the world’s on fire, what you gon’ do?” asked one of the early musical numbers. The show, in keeping with the book’s purpose, was intensely political and conscious of the present moment. Toshi Reagon — co-creator, co-composer, co-librettist, and musical director — sat in center stage on an elevated platform for the duration of the performance, contributing vocals and guitar, as well as occasionally interjecting to pay special homage to Butler’s original text and to bring “Parable of the Sower” into the context of 2022. The presence of the creator onstage, flanked by “The Talents” — two figures of Reagon’s own creation fashioned in the image of African goddesses — was a powerful statement of ownership over Butler’s story and the critique it makes of American society. The show stared unflinchingly at Butler’s imagined future’s modern-day doppelganger and demanded: What are we going to do?

With a two hour run time with no intermission and a relentless oeuvre of stunning music, the show might have proven overwhelming to the uninitiated viewer. For those unfamiliar with Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” the plot and characters of this operatic adaptation might have seemed opaque and confusing. Only a handful of the characters onstage were explicitly named, and nearly everyone in the cast plays two characters. Additionally, some of the precocious inner thoughts of Lauren Olamina that complicate her personality were missing from the stage performance, and so was her unsettling relationship with Taylor Bankole (Toussaint Jeanlouis), which defines the second half of the novel. The op-

era, to put it simply, was not a mere adaptation but a complex artistic reimagining and should have been treated as such.

Audience members needed to read the novel beforehand to be able to fully appreciate the care and genius the creators imbued in this performance.

Octavia Butler’s novel is an impressive, prophetic work of art that has only become more prescient in the decades since its publication. The reimagining of her work as a gospel-inspired opera is nothing short of inspired. The show breathes fresh air into the genre of opera while examining the intersections of race, gender, class, capitalism, climate change, and religion in a way that feels lucid and urgently important.

Courtesy of Reed Hutchinson

CULTURE What the Hell Happened: The Revolve Festival Controversy

A

pril showers might bring May flowers in some parts of the world, but in sunny California, the fourth month of the year is marked by festival season.

Festivities in the Golden State are already in full swing — the opening of Coachella on April 15 saw the arrival of musicians and the descent of social media influencers en masse, with ring lights and selfie sticks in tow. However, a recent flurry of complaints on social media suggests that Revolve Festival, one of the most exclusive events hosted adjacent to Coachella, not only failed to meet attendees’ expectations, but jeopardized their physical safety in a disaster of mismanagement.

Revolve Festival is one of various branded events adjacent to but not officially affiliated with Coachella itself, presumably organized to capitalize on the high social media traffic generated by Coachella’s six-day run. The annual event is hosted by the online fashion brand Revolve, and extends invitations to both major celebrities and “micro influencers.”

This year, Revolve promised a blow-out event to mark its return after a three-year, pandemic-induced hiatus — complete with performances from the likes of Jack Harlow and Willow Smith, drinks provided by Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila, and a series of immersive social media installations produced in collaboration with partners Spotify and Venmo.

Unfortunately, what promised to be an influencer’s paradise — and reportedly cost some $2,000 to attend — shaped up to be a major disappointment to many attendees. While VIP

EVELYN J. CARR CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Courtesy of Corey Agopian

guests such as Timothée Chalamet and Kim Kardashian were given the star treatment, many social media personalities reported being stranded in the hot, desert sun for hours on end as they waited for shuttle buses to bring them to the venue. In a video posted to her TikTok page, video creator Averie Bishop (@averiebishop) said that the transportation to the festival grounds was poorly organized, resulting in hours-long wait times and a chaotic process of “pushing, shoving, [and] shouting” as guests tried to board the shuttles. After a two-hour long wait, Bishop, an invited guest, never managed to make it to the event itself. Other invitees suffered a worse fate, with TikTok creator Hannah Kosh (@hannahkosh) saying that she witnessed “three people pass out in line” in a statement to Elle.

A TikTok video posted by user Madison Crowley (@madisoncrowleyphoto), who identified herself as a plus-one to the event, criticized the preferential treatment granted to major celebrities and influencers compared to other invitees. While Crowley waited in the parking lot for three hours with no access to water, she claimed that VIP guests were allowed to board the buses first. “That is the problem I have with Revolve — the preferential treatment of people who are supposed to be better and cooler than us when we were all invited to the festival,” Crowley said. Crowley also alleged that many influencers resorted to jumping over barriers and cutting lines in order to gain transport to the festival.

In response to the social media backlash, which led many on the internet to dub 0 event “Fyre Festival 2.0,” Revolve “sincerely” apologized to attendees, and attributed the chaotic conditions to concerns about Covid-19 safety. “As the festival was reaching capacity late Saturday afternoon, shuttle access to the venue was limited in order to remain in compliance with safety requirements causing longer wait times for entry and resulting in some guests not being able to attend the festival,” the fashion company said in a statement to E! News.

Whatever the explanation, Revolve will certainly have to heed Bishop’s advice and take into consideration “everyone’s safety and security next year.” As recent events have shown, influencers can and will point their cameras to illuminate issues and incompetency, and even the biggest brands had better watch out.

PAGE 7

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

VISITAS FROM PAGE 1

Admitted Students Descend on Campus for Visitas Tasty Burger for a party held in their honor in the restaurant’s basement, a signature campus social space popularly known as “Tasty Basty.”

Students were also eager to get a taste of Harvard’s academic opportunities. Tracy Yuan, an admitted student, plans to concentrate in Applied Math and Biology but is looking forward to trying out other fields of study.

“I’m excited to explore the liberal arts education here as a STEM major because I’m also interested in diversifying my interests,” Yuan said.

Salvador also said he is excited to find his passion at Harvard.

“I’m really undecided,” he said. “So I think I want to take some Gen Eds and figure out my course schedule to really dive deep into what my academic interests are and figure that out for myself.”

On Sunday, organizers from ­

Visitas returned to Harvard for the first time since 2019. TRUONG L. NGUYEN—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

nine campus activist groups staged a protest in Harvard’s Science Center Plaza, before marching through Harvard Yard to the John Harvard Statue. The protesters then relocated to the Student Organizations Center at Hilles to disrupt the Visitas Activities Fair held for prospective students.

Some prefrosh were unable to attend Sunday’s “Visitas Thinks Big!” panel, one of the College’s flagship Visitas events in which notable faculty present their research to admitted students. After Sanders Theatre reached capacity, dozens of prefrosh were redirected to a livestream of the event displayed in the Science Center.

Still, students who attended lauded the event. Fan called the lecture “quite excellent.”

Many Visitas attendees said their experience over the weekend reflected well on the College.

Admitted student Isaac A.

Carreno said he is leaning toward committing to the school after Visitas gave him “a new light on Harvard.”

Bongwe said the campus atmosphere stood out to him.

“This place bustles, and there’s an energy to it,” he said.

Some prospective students who had not yet committed to attending Harvard said this weekend solidified their decision.

João P.R. Frazão, an admitted student from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, wanted to come to Visitas for “confirmation” that he liked Harvard.

“I wanted to commit for the right reasons, and I have the confirmation,” he said.

“I will be committing tomorrow,” said Sukhraj S. Dulay, an admitted student from Brampton, Ontario. “This was the deciding factor.” rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com nia.orakwue@thecrimson.com

FORUM FROM PAGE 1

Arab American Leaders Share Stories at IOP Forum “My wife and I spent a summer in ’71 living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan,” Zogby said. “I wrote articles on it and all hell broke loose because I had done what wasn’t supposed to be done — I humanized the Palestinian story.”.

Zogby said he founded the Palestine Human Rights Campaign because other organizations refused to advocate for the cases he brought to them.

“We have enormous compassion for Ukraine,” Zogby said. “What we did to Iraq was so much worse, and never understood and never felt in the same way because the human lives don’t count there.”

Tagouri said at the onset of her career, she was labeled an activist whenever she spoke at public events because of her identity.

“The only reason I was referred to as an activist was be-

cause I wore the hijab,” Tangouri said. “I knew that it was me being put into a box based on what my perceived identity was.”

In an interview, Ramadan said an incoming student whom she met embodied the significance to her of having the event.

“I can’t imagine what her experience was like to look at the IOP and the forum, and for the first people she ever sees on a stage to be a Muslim woman wearing a hijab — and the prefrosh also wore a hijab — and then a Lebanese Arab man on the TV screen,” Ramadan said.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen people with my identity — that are Muslim or Arab, that speak in this way — to be on a forum stage,” she added.

The starting point for Tangouri’s podcast came from a personal story. She said that an errant U.S. airstrike killed five

members of her family in Libya in 1986. Tangouri said Western media did not report on the deaths of her family members.

“When you look into the story of the the airstrike, the acknowledgement of their deaths is nowhere,” she said.

Barbara Rosewicz — a journalist — told Tangouri during the Q&A that she visited the aftermath of the airstrike while reporting.

“I stood in that house the morning after the bombing,” Rosewicz said, leaving Tangouri speechless.“What happened with the family?”

With Tangouri in tears, Zogby jumped in.

“I’ll tell you one thing that happened to the family,” he said. “A representative of that family is sitting here on stage telling her story.” miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

Harvard, 24/7.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

PAGE 8

EDITORIAL THE CRIMSON EDITORIAL BOARD

OP-ED

Yardfest, Visitas, and the Return of Traditions

T

here is a peculiar magic to physical proximity.

Yardfest, which ended its three-year physical hiatus earlier this month, reminded us of the value of being in-person. There, we coalesced into a single mass, our heads empty and free of fabricated stress, cheering dutifully to Swae Lee’s cries of “Harvard University!” The College had not — all at once— experienced this cathartic kind of fun in what felt like eons.

Our in-person traditions are steadily returning to campus, and for that we are grateful. Housing Day, despite not being in its full pre-Covid form, was a considerable success, as dorm-stormers giddily informed the Class of 2025 of their upperclassman housing fates.

The University has selected New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland ’74 as Commencement speakers, heralding the return of top-tier, in-person addresses for the graduating class. As of writing, Visitas has once again shepherded droves of eager, curious freshmen to the Yard this year, who can finally taste-test the coveted “transformative Harvard experience” without opening Zoom on their laptops.

Our campus has ached badly for these traditions; we have, too. We celebrate their return and the promise they embody — the promise of something better, both new and old, at long last delightfully normal.

The much-anticipated rebound of longtime customs leads us to ponder on broader patterns in our interactions and relationships during the pandemic.

Unable to be physically together in one space, we struggled to maintain even the

most effortless of friendships through phone calls, text messages, and video calls — mediums that demand constant hyper-awareness of what is said and what to say. Every exchange was mediated, carefully crafted in the pauses and uncertainties in between.

In these interactions, we lost what we had once unknowingly cherished: the simple joy of being in good company without having to meticulously plan our every next move, of existing with loved ones just for the sake of it. We hope the rebirth of Yardfest and other cherished events signals a rebirth of unguided interaction — of friendships built upon haphazard experiences, and not just calculated conversations.

Most crucially, we expect this process to lead us to a true “normal,” not a watered-down semi-normal. Covid-19 burned out a wide gap in Harvard’s institutional memory; only the Class of 2022 experienced a fully in-person freshman year. We fear accordingly that some smaller traditions will fall into this crevice, forgotten as no one thought to ensure their survival.

Harvard administrators should step in to guide us towards this complete renewal, whether or not our collective memory can pin it down. Covid must not be an excuse to trim costs or downgrade our college experience. A revival of summer House storage and full restoration of abandoned gathering places like the Lamont Café both constitute excellent starting points here. The Harvard community depends on our longest-standing members to reorient us in ways we — blinded by brevity — cannot entirely imagine.

In a similar vein, we call upon old-

er students to reopen lost channels between students of different ages at the College. When online, we were robbed of opportunities for the important cultural transference from upperclassmen to first-years.

Hypercompetitiveness, for one, was mitigated among pre-pandemic incoming classes through a mix of tough love and advice from upperclassmen — ‘no one cares about your high school resume,’ they might have said (even if not in so many words), and first-years listened. Moreover, in bringing distinct age groups together, these in-person networks actively combat hierarchy. We eagerly await their return.

Our revitalized traditions open an opportunity for further cross-College connections. Covid-19 shut off casual friendships that existed simply by virtue of occupying the same space — friends we wave to when crossing Mass. Ave or smile from across lecture halls. Large, community-wide rituals and gatherings promise a valuable opportunity to reconnect with peers that we otherwise might rarely see and never get to know.

To the Class of 2026, our first in-person Visitas class in years, we encourage you to take note of these traditions wherever you notice them. Cherish them.

Practice them. Soon, they will be yours to pass on.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board.

It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

COLUMN

Dream a New Dream for Tomorrow Ben T. Elwy LIVING A DISABLED LIFE

O

ne of my favorite feelings in the world, speaking as someone who’s undergone more than 50 surgeries, is the warm, fuzzy-blanket sensation of lying on a frigid operating table as general anesthesia sets in, stinging through my IV, as the world tingles into static and murmuring voices withdraw. I like it because it’s finally a chance to surrender, to let go. There’s no other choice, anyway. Resisting the imminent sleep won’t work. It’s outside my power, so there’s no reason to try. It’s okay to not try. The inevitability of it all is comforting.

I wish life were the same — but it’s not.

So I rarely give up — because I can’t.

I’m an advocate. Specifically, I’m a disability advocate, but sectioning off the term that way is misleading, implying that someone can meaningfully advocate for one group without advocating for others. Such a mindset, however, is how the disability justice movement has ended up in its current state of invisibility and erasure, despite disabled people forming the world’s largest minority.

Where has the discussion about disabled people been within police brutality and mass incarceration, when between a third and a half of victims of police violence are disabled, more than half of disabled African Americans are arrested by the time they turn 28, and incarcerated people are twice as likely to be disabled compared to the general American population? Where has the discussion about disabled people been within sexual violence and abuse, when intellectually disabled people experience assault at a rate more than seven times higher than abled people do? Where has the discussion about disabled people been within economic disparity, when disabled people in the US live in poverty at twice the rate of abled people, when disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty?

This isn’t an “either-or” question, a prioritization of one cause over another.

It’s the opposite: a matter of supporting everyone we claim to stand for. Yet many of the most dedicated activists consider intersectionality as it relates to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, and religion, among others, while overlooking the disabled people in each category. We live in the shadows, halfway in and halfway out of the world.

I see the scope of this situation, and I want to surrender, to let whatever will happen happen, to fall asleep. And so I re-

turn to the question with which I started this column and the theme that has guided my writing throughout this semester: Do I really exist in this world that I’m not supposed to exist in, this world where I’m invisible?

But unlike anesthesia-induced sleep, this outcome isn’t set in stone. So as I end this column, let’s look outward to our community. Let’s talk about some of what Harvard needs to do going forward if it really wants to “educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society,” to take steps toward building a place where everyone can grow and succeed.

Harvard needs to improve its accessibility, whether physical, academic, or social. Many members of the Harvard community have already explored the problems and solutions, as have I throughout my column, but I’ll add this: Accessibility cannot be a second priority. To be sure, ensuring accessibility, especially when it comes to renovating physical spaces, isn’t simple or instantaneous. But Harvard isn’t exactly lacking for money, and accessibility standards aren’t a new concept — the Americans with Disabilities

I see the scope of this situation, and I want to surrender, to let whatever will happen happen, to fall asleep.

Act was signed into law 32 years ago.

We cannot continue to wait, year after year, to be able to attend office hours and visit friends in their own rooms, just because our participation in this community isn’t considered urgent. This need for acknowledgment of our presence extends not only to Harvard’s administration but also to students and student organizations: Please think about accessibility when planning your events.

It’s easy to do and means more than you know.

Harvard needs to offer disability studies courses and in the long term establish a disability studies department.

No such classes were taught at the College this year, so if you want to study disability, you’re going to have to settle for studying it as a scientific problem or, if you’re lucky, as a medical ethics debate.

It’s more than just personally demoralizing. Harvard, after all, is a place for exploration and discovery that’s sending people off into the world completely unaware of the histories, lives, and identities of 15 percent of the global popula-

tion, unaware even that disability studies is an existing discipline.

I urge every applicable academic department to actively consider what disability studies offerings they can create, or at least what angles they can explore within existing courses under a disability studies lens. The possibilities are productive and numerous, if we only acknowledge them.

For ourselves, for everyone who’ll come after us, disabled people are advocating for change. Because we can’t let go. What I’ve written this semester has only scratched the surface of our experiences.

So, (self )-advocacy: a part-time job for disabled people, on top of our fulltime classes, employment, and health needs. It’s a job we have to perform in order to live, a job I’ve embraced over the course of this column. I can’t call myself good at it yet — but by speaking my own individual story, I think my writing has grown louder than my quiet voice.

Contrary to what my unfortunate finals-season habits may suggest, we can’t avoid sleep forever, anesthesia or not.

Eventually, we all fall asleep, and we wake up; and one day we’ll fall asleep without waking up. But in that sleep, we visit places unvisited, reach futures unreached.

We dream.

If my writing has made you imagine anything you’ve never imagined before — made you question yourself and your world, made you uneasy, made you uncomfortable — don’t push that away.

Think about it, talk about it, bring it with you on your own path; live it, remember it. Those are dreams.

Because living a disabled life means — well, I don’t know, what does living a life mean? But for me, at least, it means that I love this world where I’m not supposed to exist, where I was born a stranger. I love Harvard too, where I’m invisible, where I don’t belong. I love this world because of everything in it, “Percy Jackson” books and vanilla ice cream; and I love Harvard because I can take archaeology classes, because I can zoom down the Science Center’s front ramp, because this is where my friends are.

The uncountable pains and struggles that remain, I won’t give in to. But once I do fall asleep, I’ll dream a new dream for tomorrow, a dream of a world and a Harvard where we can be treated like people.

And I’ll wake up and write.

—Ben T. Elwy ’23 lives in Quincy House.

His column “Living a Disabled Life” appears on alternate Tuesdays.

Follow The Crimson Editorial Board on Twitter @crimsonopinion

Reflections of a Multiracial AsianAmerican Woman

By ISABELLE L. I HALSEY

I

often bring up with my parents, half-seriously and half-jokingly, that my twin sister and I were never supposed to exist.

Up until the late 20th century, anti-miscegenation laws prohibited interracial marriage in many parts of the United States. The most sweeping changes came with the Supreme Court’s monumental Loving v. Virginia decision in 1967, which found such laws unconstitutional and reversed these practices in 16 states.

I always find it surprising that the Loving v.

Virginia decision was made during my parents’ lifetimes — my mother was in preschool, and my father was in college. And even now, more than a half a century later, as I am finishing my second semester of college, interracial marriage remains a curiosity — an anomaly in a still deeply unequal and segregated country.

I am that anomaly. The founders of this country, I am sure, would have never imagined that an Anglo-Saxon man — a descendant of settlers who landed in Massachusetts in 1640 — would marry, much less have children with, a second-generation Taiwanese-American woman. Generations of trauma live within the history of white interracial relationships; often, white supremacy and minority oppression, not love, defined such relationships.

With the social unrest provoked by the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and the discord sparked by Harvard’s widely-publicized affirmative action case, I have once again begun to question where I, a multiracial American, fit within the larger narrative of racial injustice and inequity in this country. In fact, I have never felt that I fit in anywhere. While my Asian features attract unwanted “nihao’s” on the street, older members of the Taiwanese community have used my white features to dismiss me as a “watered-down” version of Asian-ness. When well-meaning strangers or family members ask if I feel more white or Taiwanese, I struggle for a way to tell them that I am stuck in between. I often feel that I am pulled in two directions, existing in the middle only to be torn apart.

While navigating this in-between space, I have found it most comfortable to settle into my identity as an Asian woman. My Asian mother has made me privy to the American minority experience, and I find it challenging to claim belonging in a white world which I — perhaps unfairly, given my close relationships with my white family — characterize as completely unaware of my mother’s struggles and those of other people of color.

At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement and even the pandemic have shown me how much my proximity to whiteness has shaped my upbringing. While Black families were subjected to redlining and other racist policies that prevented their flourishing in white America in the 1930s, my WASP grandfather was able to purchase property and amass wealth during his career as a high school educator. While Asian Americans had to grapple with the Model Minority Myth starting in the late 1960s, my father’s whiteness sheltered him from microaggressions and damaging stereotypes. While healthcare inequalities and social determinants such as food deserts have historically caused underprivileged communities to be more susceptible to chronic health conditions, my white family members and I have always had access to good food and healthcare. My white family faced challenges, yes, but race was never part of the equation. And their privilege lives on in me.

But as much as I struggle with the dichotomy between my Asianness and my whiteness, I see myself as a new entity, something beyond blood quantum and fractions of different races. I also see myself as a tentative move toward progress.

The racial divide that defines this country lives inside of me at a microscopic level. Within me coexists — sometimes peacefully and sometimes not — centuries of white privilege and two generations of immigrant and minority struggles. I am a living, breathing contradiction of the blatantly racist and segregationist beliefs of some of this country’s most influential leaders, past and present.

Being multiracial has only begun to show me my role in the movement toward equality I do not pretend that multiracial Americans are the simple solution to centuries of racial oppression and white supremacy. Nor do I think that the United States will ever be part of a post-racial world; even as the multiracial population increases, this country will continue to be haunted by colorism, the ever-present desire for proximity to whiteness and the privileges that it affords.

But I do think that my multiracial identity will help me understand my role in the fight for social justice and define my political beliefs.

I hope that I can use my Asian identity to continue to create safe spaces for all people of color, my whiteness to stand up for minority groups, and my mixed identity to breach racial divides, whether they be within my white family or my Asian one.

Being multiracial has only begun to show me my role in the movement toward equality, and I want to make sure that my self-reflection continues well after #StopAsianHate stops trending on social media.

I may never feel comfortable in an entirely Asian space or a completely white one, but for now, I am proud to say that I am fully mixed.

—Isabelle L. I. Halsey ’25, a Crimson Editorial comper, lives in ,Canaday Hall.

PAGE 9

THE HARVARD CRIMSON |

APRIL 26, 2022

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Biden Approval Rating Talks Reparations at HKS Drops Among Young People POLL FROM PAGE 1

By RYAN H. DOAN-NGUYEN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) discussed the future of reparations and the importance of learning from the legacy of Black women in leadership at a Monday talk hosted by Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership.

HKS Professor Cornell W. Brooks moderated the conversation entitled “Reparations in 1898, 2022, and Beyond.”

Brooks discussed the case for reparations with Jackson Lee throughout the hour-long talk.

Students in Brooks’ class, “Creating Justice in Real Time: Vision, Strategies, and Campaigns,” made up part of the audience. The class works with public officials and nonprofit organizations to advocate for policy changes set to occur within one calendar year of the class’s end.

Brooks, who previously served as president of the NAACP, opened the conversation by thanking his students for exploring the ways in which justice can be sought for Callie House, whom he described as “a woman who might be called the mother of the reparations movement.”

In the late 1890s, House founded the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pen­

sion Association. The association went on to become the leading grassroots organization pushing for federal legislation and litigation on ex-slave pensions, rallying upwards of 300,000 members, according to one of Brooks’ students, Lindsey Batteast.

Batteast added that House’s

This is done with a gentle embracing and cleansing and restoring.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

success caught the attention of the U.S. government, prompting various federal agencies to devise tactics to undermine the movement. House was eventually accused of mail fraud and sent to trial, where she was convicted by an all-white male jury and sentenced to jail for a year.

“Correct me if I’m wrong here, but she was not a graduate of the Kennedy School — she took in other people’s laundry, she was the mother of five children,” Batteast said. “She nonetheless stood up against the force of the United States government.”

Jackson Lee called for the support of H.R. 40, an act in-

SHOPPING FROM PAGE 1

troduced in 1989 that would establish a 15-person commission and recommend reparations for African Americans.

“We need the energy of the nation,” Jackson Lee said, referring to her ongoing push for reparations. “This is not done in anger, this is not done with a pointed finger — this is done with a gentle embracing and cleansing and restoring.”

Brooks likened reparations to “preventative medicine,” presenting reparations as not only a way to reconcile the past, but also a concrete tool for future action and change.

“By revisiting the past, we prevent the possibility of replicating the past,” Brooks said.

Throughout the talk, students shared personal stories and referenced examples of reparations in other countries, including the effort made by Germany to compensate Holocaust survivors and the fight of WWII Japanese American incarcerees to secure reparations from the United States.

In an interview after the event, Brooks added that the “strategic challenge” is mobilizing advocates of reparations to push for action.

“We need to make sure that in effect, this social justice course trends, if you will, trends not just in terms of social media but public consciousness,” Brooks said.

How much, if at all, do you feel people of your racial background are under attack in America?

ERIC YAN — FLOURISH CHART

said. “It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to get them to vote for him again.”

Significant portions of marginalized groups reported feeling “under attack a lot,” according to the poll’s findings. Nearly three-fifths of young Black Americans said they feel “under attack a lot” in the United States as did 45 percent of BGLTQ youth.

A majority of BGLTQ youth said they don’t feel very comfortable revealing their “true selves” at home with their family members, with only 34 percent saying they feel comfortable. At the same time, 60 per­

cent of BGLTQ youth reported being very comfortable “expressing their identity” to friends.

The mental health of young Americans has not improved despite the easing of Covid-19 safety regulations, according to the poll.

A majority of respondents described having feelings of depression, and over two-thirds said there is a mental health crisis in the U.S. Zhang said the poll’s findings are evidence of the mental health crisis, explaining that the findings show “tens of millions of young Americans” are

suffering from mental health issues.

Zhang said the causes of young Americans’ mental health issues were particularly “striking.”

“We probed some potential contributing factors to mental health this semester,” he said. “And we found that politics and news media were by far the most destructive to mental health for this generation.”

“Mental health should absolutely be a priority — it is perhaps the crisis of our generation,” Zhang added. miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com

TESTING FROM PAGE 1

Students Rally to Required Covid-19 Testing to End on May 10 Save Shopping Week on Monday.

The administrators acknowledged the increased rate of positive tests in recent weeks, driven by cases among the graduate student population but wrote that “there has not been a corresponding rise in the hospitalization rate.”

“High vaccination and booster rates, along with other advances such as the availability of effective treatments, have contributed to the declining toll of COVID in our community,” they wrote.

After the testing mandate ends, affiliates will continue to have access to tests.

“Although regular testing will no longer be mandatory, we encourage testing when circumstances warrant, using Harvard’s Color testing program or rapid antigen tests that are now widely available,” the administrators wrote.

The move away from asymptomatic testing follows recent steps by the University to ease its remaining Covid-19 restrictions. On March 14, the school’s ­

system,” she said.

Estabine is one of several candidates running for a position in the newly-formed student government, the Harvard Undergraduate Association, who have made the preservation of shopping week central to their campaigns.

Monday’s rally took place on the second day of Visitas, an annual program bringing newly admitted students to visit campus.

Xander D. Patton, a prospective freshman, said shopping week is a “big draw” for him in deciding whether to attend Harvard next year.

Prefrosh Tahraji Milsap said that although course registration will not make or break her enrollment decision, shopping week is one of Harvard’s “little touches of magic” that makes the school “special.”

Physics professor Howard M. Georgi ’68 briefly spoke at the rally, advocating for stu­

dents to talk to their professors in support of shopping week.

Following the rally, Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana said he appreciates hearing students’ “thoughtful concerns.”

“We all want the same thing, which is, ‘How do we create an environment for intellectual transformation?’” he said. “We share the same goals, but we also respect each other’s differences and points of view.”

Estabine said shopping week is an integral part of Harvard’s culture of exploration.

“It’s about reminding the College that we are the lifeblood, and that as students who came here seeking out the best education that the country and the world has to offer, that we should and that we can take an active role in determining the details of what that education looks like,” she said. ariel.kim@thecrimson.com meimei.xu@thecrimson.com

mask mandate was lifted in most indoor spaces.

Earlier this month, the University also updated its travel guidance to remove a requirement that unvaccinated affiliates must submit travel petitions for University-related travel.

We encourage testing when circumstances warrant.

President Lawrence S. Bacow and Other Administrators

Some public health experts say that stopping asymptomatic testing is safe if schools have high vaccination rates. Around 98 percent of Harvard students and 97 percent of school employees are vaccinated.

Across the river, Boston College and Northeastern University have both ended testing mandates for vaccinated affiliates. Boston University lifted its asymptomatic testing re-

quirement for faculty and staff on March 7 but will continue requiring on-campus students to test until the end of the spring semester.

Still, Harvard administrators encouraged anyone who is still concerned about Covid exposure to wear high-quality masks.

“This offers excellent protection even in the presence of unmasked persons,” they wrote.

“We highly encourage the voluntary use of masks in crowded settings, including airplanes and public transit.”

Following Harvard’s March 29 announcement that it would relax its mask mandate, six organizations and over 170 affiliates signed a petition urging top administrators to reinstate the requirement, writing that loosening restrictions “puts the onus of protection on those who are most vulnerable.”

In an interview Friday, University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 said it is not “appropriate for us to depend entirely on highrisk people to protect them-

selves,” even as Harvard winds down major Covid requirements.

“We can make the people who continue to wear masks feel comfortable, or at the very least not feel uncomfortable wearing masks in various settings,” Garber said. “We can be very accepting and accommodating of requests that they might make, for example, to be distanced at some meetings or some kinds of interactions.”

In the Monday announcement, Bacow, Garber, University Vice President Katherine N. Lapp, and Health Services Director Giang T. Nguyen wrote that the University will continue tracking trends in Covid-19 positivity rates.

“We will continue to monitor hospitalization rates and other indicators of disease activity on campus, to ensure that our policies and protocols are effective without being unnecessarily burdensome,” they wrote. cara.chang@thecrimson.com isabella.cho@thecrimson.com

From Weeks to Weld.

The Crimson thecrimson.com

SPORTS

MEN’S LACROSSE WEEKLY RECAP

ABOUT SCORES THE TEAM

2021-2022 Overall Record 8-3 Assists 69 ______________________________________ UPCOMING GAMES ______________________________________ ______________________________________ MEN’S BASKETBALL VS. BU W, 18-17 ___________________________________________________________ WOMEN’S SWIMMING IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHP 2ND ___________________________________________________________ Conference Record 3-2 Goals Allowed 123 ______________________________________ WOMEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT CREW VS. YALE ______________________________________ L ___________________________________________________________ GOLF VS. PRINCETONMen’s Lacrosse vs. Yale W ___________________________________________________________ Saturday 2:00pm, at Yale Home Record 6-0 Faceoff Percentage 0.409 ______________________________________ ______________________________________ FOOTBALL VS. UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________ MEN’S WRESTLING VS. PENN STATE L, 42, 36 ___________________________________________________________ Goals 146 Caused Turnovers 110 Women’s Lacrosse vs. Boston University ______________________________________ ______________________________________ FENCING NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIP 15TH ___________________________________________________________ Shot Percentage 0.324 Ground Balls 365 Tuesday 5:00pm, at Harvard ______________________________________ ______________________________________

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Crimson’s Playoff Bid Cut Short by NJ Highlanders

By NOAH A. JUN CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard men’s volleyball team fell to New Jersey Institute of Technology on Thursday at University Park, P.A., in the semifinals of the 2022 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament.

The match was the Crimson’s first trip to the playoffs since it won the tournament in 2018.

Harvard (12-13, 10-6 EIVA) entered the match as the No. 2 seed, having swept George Mason (13-14, 7-9) in a double-header the previous weekend. The team’s offensive and defensive performances crystallized in official recognition from the EIVA: both senior captain Jason Shen and sophomore middle blocker Ethan Smith were named EIVA Players of the Week. The Crimson received a bye in the quarterfinals and awaited the winner of the match between George Mason and NJIT. NJIT won that matchup, setting up a dramatic tiebreaker to the 1-1 split it had with Harvard across their two regular season games.

The hosts defended their courts, with Harvard prevailing 3-1 in Cambridge in February but falling to the Highlanders 3-0 during April’s showdown in Newark.

Senior outside hitter Eric Li saw the home-court advantage as a crucial factor to his team’s win against NJIT earlier in the season and something the team could not tap into on the neutral site in University Park.

“The familiarity with our home court and the environment there definitely gave us an advantage and allowed us to keep our momentum going,” Li said. “It was a little different from the match we played on Thursday… It felt more difficult to maintain that momentum throughout, which is something we would have liked to do better.”

Similar to February’s match, the Crimson got out to a fast ­

start on Thursday, taking the opening set 25-17. Kills from senior outside hitter Campbell Schoenfeld and Li, who had 15 and 14 on the night, respectively, allowed the second seed to go on runs early in the set.

“In the first set we came out really hot,” Shen said. “We played really well, put NJIT back on their heels, and I was proud of that. That shows that our team was ready and was in the mindset, but we left the door a little open. In volleyball when you have a team on their heels like that, you just have to finish it. We kept the door open, let them back in, and they were a strong team and we weren’t able to fight back towards the end.

We were still competitive and fought hard but couldn’t swing it our way.”

Thursday marked the end of Shen’s tenure as captain for Harvard, and in addition to his leadership he also provided 12 digs to defend his team from Highlander spikes.

Despite continuing its dominance with a strong 4-1 start to the second set, the Crimson soon fell to an eight-point NJIT run. Harvard managed to close the gap and level the score at 2020 before being outscored 5-1 in the final six points of the set.

The Highlanders managed to pull away toward the middle of the third, making its way to a 2113 lead before closing it out 2518 and coming within a one-set gap of a championship matchup with Princeton.

Li saw the service game as the reason for NJIT’s success.

“What really turned the tide was NJIT found their groove from the service line,” Li said.

“They made it tough on our serve-receive to get good passes to our setter and to be in system.

We had a good blocking match, and offensively we were good, too. I think the big difference was the swing at the service line. We were serving better in that first set, but as the match went on they began to serve better and put a lot more pressure on us.”

O SAY, CAN YOU SENIOR! Seniors Eric Li, Campbell Schoenfeld, and Jason Shen guard the backcourt against an incoming serve in a match against Charleston. The trio provided kills, digs, and leadership consistently throughout the team’s successful season. ZADOC I. N. GEE —CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

“The time we beat New Jersey earlier in the season, we absolutely shut down their hitters defensively through blocks and digs,” Shen said. “That’s what we did that first set. New Jersey’s a good team, they went back and adjusted, they started picking up kills, and we couldn’t respond in time. They adjusted really well, and we didn’t as much.”

The Crimson attempted a fourth set comeback to stop the bleeding. Schoenfeld provided kills at crucial moments, starting Harvard runs and stymieing NJIT runs. Smith, sopho-

more middle blocker Ethan McCrary, and first-year outside hitter Logan Shepherd also contributed to the team’s competitiveness. Although the Crimson managed to stay in the match and within a few points of the Highlanders, it could only save two match points before falling 25-22.

“The last set we pushed through,” Shen recalled. “We were down early and could’ve written that off, but we kept on fighting. No matter what the situation is, the competitive fire is there.”

Although the season is over,

there were many bright spots in the team’s performance. The semifinal finish was Harvard’s best in the past four years. The team’s youth also proved to be integral to the Crimson’s success; Li noted first-year setter James Bardin, who had 45 assists, four digs, and four blocks on Thursday, as a great addition to the team. Bardin has been a staple of the lineup throughout the whole year. Li also commended the contributions of Shepherd, who was inserted into the starting lineup later in the season.

“I’m proud of what the pro-

gram has done this year after having basically a full year off and having to come together with a lineup consisting of some new players and some older guys and making it work,” Li said. “It gives me a lot of optimism for the direction of the program and the culture we’ve set.”

Harvard looks to build upon this season’s success next January with a talented class of new recruits as well as returners who now have a year of experience under their belts. noah.jun@thecrimson.com

WOMEN’S RUGBY

Harvard Defeats Dartmouth, Defends Ivy League Title

By MIMI S. KOENIG CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard women’s rugby 7s won the 2022 Ivy League Tournament this past weekend, going 3-1 on the day and defeating Dartmouth for the championship at Mignone Field.

It was the Crimson’s fourth-ever Ivy 7s championship and its second tournament win of the season. Senior center Sofie Fella led the way for the Crimson, scoring eight tries throughout the tournament to continue her torrid start to the season.

“Individually, my goal was

just to put everything out there on the pitch,” wrote Fella when reached via email. “I also knew going into it that it’d be my last home tournament on Mignone so I really wanted to play for my teammates, coaches and play hard with gratitude.”

The Crimson previously won the 2019 Ivy 7s championship and came into the tournament having won 10 of its last 11 7s matches since 2019, including six in a row at Mignone.

Harvard continued its momentum all day Saturday despite the pressure of defending its title.

“It’s funny, because it’s such a totally different team than in

2019,” said head coach Mel Denham of handling the lofty expectations “I don’t even think we ever once even had a conversation about the fact that we were defending our 2019 7s Ivy League title. I think that was something that we really focused on was just taking the pressure off and going out there so we could play our game and keep the focus on what we want to do for the day.”

The Crimson started off pool play strong, with a 38-5 win against a Princeton team just recently elevated to varsity level for the 2022-23 season and then a come-from-behind vic-

tory over Brown. Against the Tigers, the Crimson got off to a quick start with a try only 20 seconds in by first-year scrum half Reese Morgan, which was quickly followed up by two tries from Fella to put the team up 195. Contributions by first-year flyhalf/fullback PK Vincze, senior wing/scrumhalf Sabrina Kim, senior scrum half Cassidy Bargell and first-year fullback Chloe Headland rounded out the dominant performance.

Against Brown, the Crimson found itself in a much closer match. An early score by the Bears was answered by a try from first-year wing/fullback

FOR SHE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELLA Senior center Sofie Fella makes a cut across Mignone Field against a Dartmouth flanker. Fella scored two tries in Saturday’s 24-17 victory over the Big Green. With the win, Harvard defended its Ivy 7s Championship title. OWEN A. BERGER—CRIMSON PHOTOGRAPHER

Kiana Akina. A subsequent try by Morgan and conversion by Vincze sent the Crimson into the half up 14-12. After the break, Bargell extended the lead, only for Brown to take a 26-21 lead on the back of a pair of tries and conversions.

After tying the game up, Harvard sought a game-winning try on its final drive. With the clock ticking down, junior center/flyhalf Alex Pipkin found Morgan for a game-winning try to eke out a 31-26 victory.

“We strategically planned to match our speed against Princeton and match a little bit more power against Brown,” Denham explained. “But always, at the end of the day, just kind of keep to our game and play our game despite, you know, whoever we’re playing.”

Despite suffering its first defeat of the season in the third match in pool play against Dartmouth, 22-19, the Crimson immediately corrected its faults in the championship rematch.

“It’s hard to win against a team twice in a row in 7s, especially when the team is good competition like Dartmouth,” Fella wrote. “We played hard and well against them, so the narrow loss didn’t really affect us too badly. It fueled us for the next game. In 7s, the team that wants it more is going to win so our focus was just stay hungry and gritty. With this mentality, we had a really firey start and it was a great first half for us.”

The Crimson did indeed come out strong. A quick try by Fella, and one from sophomore flanker Nafanua Malietoa Fitisemanu following a yellow to the Big Green gave the Crimson an early 12-0 lead. While still

playing with the woman advantage, Bargell added another try following a breakaway from a ruck, taking the Crimson into the half up 17-7. Dartmouth was able to cut the advantage to 1712 with under three minutes to go, but with the Big Green threatening, Harvard was able to strip Dartmouth near the try line and Fella added a final try– untouched–to secure the championship for the Crimson.

Denham expressed her pride, not only for those who were on the match roster, but also the rest of the team’s contributions off the field.

“I think the feeling at the end of this weekend is just really proud of everyone,” she said.

“7s is a real team sport. Only 12 people are making these match rosters. So you really have to kind of know your role and be there and be your best for the team. You know, they’re long days and so, really proud of everyone’s effort and also just all of the off field roles with some of our players that weren’t in the playing group this weekend.”

“I’m so proud of our team,” Fella echoed. “ We have been building all 7s season and have so many talented young players. I’m so excited to see them play and dominate in the next few years as well. We’ve been building in confidence as a team and individually as well, which is great for nationals in a few weeks.”

Fella hopes that Harvard’s increased confidence can result in a national title, as it looks toward the USA Rugby Collegiate 7s Championships in Atlanta, Ga. on May 14-15. miriam.koenig@thecrimson.com