Issue 21

Record The Horace Mann

FEBRUARY 14 2020 || VOLUME 117, ISSUE 21

HORACE MANN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1903

RECORD.HORACEMANN.ORG

OPINIONS

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THE RECORD OPINIONS FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Vivien Sweet I left the assembly two Tuesdays ago featuring accomplished filmmaker Lynne Novick ‘79 and Wesley Caines, the Bronx Defenders Chief of Staff, with a heightened understanding of what education behind bars looks like: the competitive nature of the application process, the dedication of the inmates to their studies, and the active classroom environment that, I thought, resembled that of a class at Horace Mann.

Naturally, I expected that my peers took

away the same sentiment. I expected that they were, like I was, gracious to Mr. Caines for his openness about his time as a student at the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility.

What I did not expect, however, was to hear Mr. Caines’s incredibly accomplished character demeaned by students around the school. Whispers of “How could they bring an ex-felon to the school?” reverberated throughout the hallways leading away from Gross Theater and was later echoed in some of my classroom discussions. I even heard one student say that felons do not deserve a college education; I heard another say that too many school resources were being wasted on inmates.

Mr. Caines is a graduate of both Bard College through the BPI and the New York Theological Seminary. He is a member of the New York City Bar Reentry Subcommittee, a former member of the American Bar Association, and a founding member of the National Justice Impacted Bar

Association. Prior to his job as Chief of Staff for the Bronx Defenders, Mr. Caines trained around 50 law students in the field of reentry policy work and worked with disadvantaged communities to escape systemic governmental punishment.

We do not know why Mr. Caines was in prison. But it appears to be that, regardless, many students at this school do not even know what the purpose of correctional facilities is. Prison, as one student put it during the assembly, is meant to be rehabilitative, not destructive. The work that Mr. Caines has been able to do as a result of BPI has undoubtedly been indispensable to hundreds of individuals, and his services will surely continue to touch many lives for years to come. The fight on behalf of the poor and oppressed is a never-ending one, but individuals like Mr. Caines are whittling away at the systems that have controlled the underprivileged for centuries.

But even if Mr. Caines was not the accomplished individual that he is, none of us have any right to treat him as a lesser

member of society. Mr. Caines is no longer a felon—hence the term “ex-felon”—and if he were any threat to the public, he would still be in prison. To perceive Mr. Caines as a criminal who should not be permitted on our campus is a foolish and ignorant way of thinking that ultimately demonstrates how disconnected many students at the school are concerning the prison system.

Mr. Caines deserves, like any other guest at this school, our undivided attention and hospitality—not insensible judgement for his past wrongdoings.

As a school, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Who are we to judge whether or not someone deserves an education, and who are we to spurn any speaker at our school? I trust that the administration was very intentional in selecting Mr. Caines to speak at our school. It is then the duty of the student body to uphold the core values of respect and empathy that Horace Mann stands for.

Two reflections on College Behind Bars assembly Editor-in-Chief Julia Robbins Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Managing Editor Mayanka Dhingra Issues Editor Jude Herwitz Features Nelson Gaillard Gabby Kepnes Kiara Royer News Amelia Feiner Madison Li Sam Keimweiss Simon Yang Opinions Victor Dimitrov Abigail Salzhauer Lions’ Den Darius McCullough Mark Fernandez Ranya Sareen Andrew Cassino A&E Nishtha Sharma Eliza Poster Eddie Jin

Marina Kazarian

Sitting in advisory, watching the first 15 minutes of Lynn Novick’s documentary “College Behind Bars,” I was shocked by the conversations the prisoners were having in their college classes. Their Design Editors discussions seemed just as in-depth as the Euwan Kim Reena Ye ones I have in my classes, if not more. One Chris Ha student brought up the importance of the English language and how texting has creArt Directors ated a dialect that diminishes the imporAnnabelle Chan Gabrielle Fischberg tance of words, while another researched Katya Arutyunyan the deaths of Michael Brown and Emmett Till. Moreover, the work these students Photography did for their classes included staying up all Griffin Smith Ahaan Palla night working on multiple drafts of their Jake Shapiro research papers and memorizing entire paragraphs of renowned literary works, Faculty Adviser which is similar to the kind of schoolwork David Berenson my peers and I complete. As a society, especially in the context of our prestigious Staff Writers school, we have a tendency to think that Izzy Abbott, Adrian we are far more apt than others, particularArnaboldi, Abby Beckler, Bradley Bennett, Sam ly prisoners who are completely excluded Chiang, Sogona Cisse, Jack from our society. As I observed the dedicaCrovitz, Adam Frommer, Andie Goldmacher, Julia tion and insightfulness of these prisoners, Goldberg, Andie Goldmacher, Alison Isko, Avi I realized that prisoners are capable and Kapadia, Marina Kazarian, eager to do the same coursework that I John Mauro, Yesh Nikam, Henry Owens, Oliver would expect to see at any other college, Steinman, Emily Shi, Samso why are they not given a fair chance to uel Singer, Natalie Sweet, Sasha Snyder, Vivien make use of their time?

Sweet, Joshua Underberg, With 53,400 people incarcerated in New Talia Winiarsky, Chloe Choi, Emma Colacino, York State, only a few hundred are a part of Yin Fei, Lucas Glickman, programs such as the Bard Prison Initiative Claire Goldberg, Liliana Greyf, Lauren Ho, Walker (BPI). One of the prisoners featured in the McCarthy, Maya Nornberg, documentary pointed out that there are Morgan Smith, Patrick Steinbaug, Katya Tolunsky, very few opportunities to be productive in Nathan Zelizer prison and that the penitentiary system is Staff Photographers Julia Isko, Daniel Lee, in fact put in place to punish people, rather Ava Merker, Kelly Troop, Halley Robbins, Sophie than to rehabilitate them. According to anGordon, Amanda Wein, other prisoner, people who are not a part Maxwell Shopkorn, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas of BPI could spend their time doing “roGlickman, Lauren Ho botic, meaningless work,” such as sweeping Staff Artists Wilder Harwood, Sarah floors and working in the mess hall. Since Sun, Rachel Zhu the enactment of Bill Clinton’s Crime Bill Middle Division Ben Wang Isabella Zhang

in 1994, prisoners are no longer eligible for not allowed access to Pell grants to sponsor their college journies. The bill was enacted to combat the rising crime rates by further punishing prisoners. Faced with all of these obstacles that further limit their freedom, some prisoners stop bathing and cleaning their rooms, contemplate committing suicide, and simply survive without experiencing what most people assume to be their basic human rights. This sense of barely living with very limited liberty brings into question the quality of life that prison offers its inmates. Several people argue against the death penalty because everyone deserves to live, but should an existence spent in isolation, silence, and disparity be called living?

According to CNN, in 2014, 3,927 prisoners died while in custody - seven percent of these deaths were suicides. The inmates are disconnected from their families, communities, hopes, and dreams. They lose everything that we might turn to in our times of need. This absence is perhaps the worst punishment enacted upon inmates once incarcerated, which is why we need to reform the system.

We must reanalyze the purpose of prisons. If they are meant to rehabilitate and not to punish, then why has our system disconnected people completely from the world around them? Inmates leave with no new skills and no new outlook on life.

One prisoner pointed out that, without doing anything productive during their

time in prison, prisoners will just keep going back to what they did before: crime.

A liberal arts education, critical thinking, research, and discussion allow students to understand their societies and re-engage with their communities. These resources provide people with the ability to experience different ways of living and establish a bond between the reader and anyone else who has looked at that piece of literature and felt the same feelings of hope, rage, disappointment, glory, jealousy as the protagonist. They are the foundation of a healthy society. Is that not exactly what we want from our correctional systems - to support the growth of integral members of society?

Furthermore, a large number of released inmates struggle to find work, housing, and a community connection due to their conviction. For inmates leaving high-security juvenile detentions centers, the rates of recidivism, the tendency of a criminal to reoffend, is an astounding 70 percent, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Education inside prisons can help reduce this number, reconnect prisoners to the world around them, and show that they have made something of themselves.

In our history classes, we have studied the arduous journey to implementing public education for all throughout the United States, especially when learning about the Massachusetts Senator Horace Mann. The struggle to give everyone access to higher

education is no different. In prison, people are still people, and they should be given ample chances to further their education, especially if they show that they really want it. Our college counselors say that “demonstrated interest” is something that colleges take into account when considering whether or not they should accept students. Judging by the 30-page double-sided draft a prisoner hand-wrote for one research paper, I would say that these prisoners have demonstrated their interest in getting a higher education. One prisoner, who kept asking one of his friends in BPI that was featured in the documentary if he had more books to give, attempted suicide as a result of all of the restrictions put on his life. During their interviews to get into BPI, people pleaded with the interviewers to let them in because they needed to do something with their lives.

The documentary shows how pertinent higher education is to the prison system.

Not only does it allow for more rehabilitation, rather than punishment, but it also creates a thriving culture within a place that can get very grim, restrictive, and lonely. There are multiple clips showing prisoners studying together, reciting literature in front of other prisoners, and fomenting group discussions within the classroom. Getting a college education clearly gives a few, lucky prisoners hope and a sense of purpose. This hope should be available to everyone, including prisoners.

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

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HORACE MANN NEWS FEBRUARY 14, 2020

2020-2021 school calendar recognizes religious holidays with days off Devin Allard-Neptune Contributing Writer Beginning in 2021, the school will recognize Lunar New Year on Feb. 12 and Eid al-Fitr on May 12, two globally-celebrated religious holidays, with days off.

According to Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly, the addition of these two days coincided with the school’s efforts to increase representation. “In light of our work in the areas of difference, equity and social justice, it was time to have a holiday calendar that was more inclusive of the holidays celebrated, both in the United States and within the Horace Mann School family,” Kelly wrote in an email.

This is the first time since Kelly’s arrival to the school that dramatic changes surrounding religious holidays have been made to the calendar, he said. According to Kelly, the school annually revisits the academic calendar, but the Lunar New Year and Eid al-Fitr additions are the first significant changes that have been made for the purpose of including and representing other cultures and traditions.

Though days off have not been added in recent memory, these two dates are not the first changes that the administration has made to the calendar. Since 2016, the final edition of every calendar has included a disclaimer illustrating the school’s policy for holidays not included in the calendar. A portion of the disclaimer reads, “The School respects the religious practices of its students and is committed to providing

reasonable accommodations for religious obligations. If an accommodation is believed necessary, students and/or parents should speak with the employee responsible for each class or program.” This policy allows the school to avoid discriminatory practices, Kelly wrote.

“The religious observance policy applies to any preexisting religious holidays, not just the new ones added to the 2020-2021 academic calendar,” Kelly wrote. “In fact, it is important for everyone to note that this policy also applies to those days of religious observance when school is not closed.”

Eid al-Fitr, according to Daanyal Agboatwalla (11), is the most important holiday in Islam. “Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the monthlong fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan. In the morning, we are supposed to go to the mosque, listen to a sermon, and make a special prayer. Once we finish, we go out and celebrate with friends and family over great food,” Agboatwalla said.

Mandy Liu (11) described the Lunar New Year celebration as a global event. “Relatives and friends from everywhere in the world come together and reunite with each other, then they eat a lot of food and watch Lunar New Year programs.”

In the past, not having school off on such religious holidays forced m a n y

students to make difficult decisions regarding their academic careers.

“Since the prayer at the mosque is mandatory for Eid, I have missed a few of my morning classes every year on that day but have usually made up the work somewhat quickly,” Agboatwalla said. “I always wanted to take the entire day off to celebrate but felt guilty and concerned about missing my schoolwork.”

Liu has friends who have had a similar experience with celebrating the Lunar New Year. “I have friends that have missed school on the Friday before Lunar New Year to go celebrate—they have had to choose between celebrating their culture or going to school, which is an impossible decision to make.”

Liu’s extended family lives in Beijing, so even with the day off, she would not be able to celebrate the Lunar New Year to the fullest, she said.

“I celebrated the new year with my parents and my neighbor who is also a student at Horace Mann,” Liu said.

“We celebrated after school, but having the whole day off would be better; it would be like the school represented our culture more by giving us that day.”

Meryeme Elalouani (12) will have graduated by Eid al-Fitr next year, but she acknowledges the importance of the actions the school is taking by recognizing the holiday and the school’s Muslim American community, she said.

Adding more dates in the calendar is not the only way to incorporate more cultures into the community of the school, Liu said. “This year I was surprised because on

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Friday, the day before Lunar New Year, the cafeteria was decorated with all of these Lunar New Year decorations.

That was such a tiny thing and it made me so happy knowing that the school was aware of [Lunar New Year] and was celebrating it.”

According to Kelly, the school has already made steps outside the calendar to increase representation in the school. “In the Upper Division, we’ve added a multicultural space, and we’re about to do something similar in the Middle Division. That said, there is always more to do in terms of celebrating the difference that defines us.”

The administration is not the only part of the school responsible for recognizing and sharing cultures, Elalouani said.

“The school is meant to be a secular location, so I definitely think it’s on the student body to take it into their own hands if they want to share any customs or cultures. The school is very cognizant when it comes to putting on culture events and stuff like that.”

“In the future, the school can definitely do more,” Liu said.

“Obviously not just for Lunar New Year, but also for other smaller holidays days that people don’t know of. The addition of these holidays is definitely a very big change, but doing these small things can actually make people really happy.”

Rachel Zhu/Staff Artist

New Yorker publishes Talia Winiarsky’s (11) reaction letter to article Bradley Bennet and Yin Fei Staff Writers “Alabama’s law-enforcement and judicial system failed Brittany Smith in every way,” Talia Winiarsky (11) wrote in letter to the editor of The New Yorker, not knowing that her message was actually going to be included in their February 10th issue.

The opportunity was presented after one night, when, in the midst of her routine of reading before bed, Winiarsky came across a New Yorker article titled “How Far Can Abused Women Go to Protect Themselves,” which analyzed the case of Brittany Smith, a woman who was convicted of murder of a man who raped her.

Winiarsky was so appalled by the content of the article that she emailed a response letter to the author, Elizabeth Flock. Winiarsky’s letter explained how Brittany Smith’s case clearly contradicted the notion of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which she learned was recently ratified by Virginia as the 38th state, allowing it to be potentially considered as an addition to the Constitution. The proposed amendement prohibits the government from denying equal rights under the law on account of sex.

Winiarsky had studied the amendment in

her AP United States History class, and reading Flock’s article caused her to notice the striking juxtaposition, making her feel as though she were reading about a “different United States altogether,” she wrote. “Even though we say that we passed the ERA and we say we make progress, it isn’t enough to say it.”

The article she responded to provides a detailed account of how Todd Smith, an old friend of Brittany Smith’s and a drug addict, raped her. Later that night, he began to choke her brother and threatened to kill the two of them. Brittany, afraid that her brother would die if she did not act quickly, picked up her brother’s gun and fired three rounds at the attacker after he did not listen to her pleas to let her brother go.

Despite the siblings’ efforts to save Todd, he later passed away, and Brittany was charged with his murder despite ample evidence of selfdefense.

Reading the article, Winiarsky was both stunned and frustrated by the ruling. “As a young woman in high-school, I am told that I have more rights than the women who came before me,” she wrote, “Smith’s story, however, and those of countless other women who have not had the opportunity to share theirs, make me think otherwise.” She was especially shocked and angered that law enforcers turned

a blind eye to an action so clearly revealed to be self-defense, and that no one believed Brittany when she tried to show the factual evidence, she said. “The sheriff and deputy called the rape a ‘harassment,’ and Brittany had thirty three injuries to her body, yet they still didn’t believe it was a rape,” Winiarsky said. “She was treated as the perpetrator,” Winiarsky wrote in her piece.

Although none of Winiarsky’s letters had ever been published before, Winiarsky often emails the editors of newspapers and magazines after she reads their articles. “I think it is a really good way to get your opinion out there,” she said, knowing that many others read The New Yorker as well. Thus when she sent the response to Flock on her reporting in the article on January 17th, she certainly did not expect to be notified 10 days later that her letter would be published in the magazine. Needless to say, Winiarsky was very excited when she received the email. She was mainly surprised because she didn’t know how responsive the publication would be, and she wasn’t even sure if anyone actually read her response, she said. “I was appreciative that someone actually took the time to read my letter and say that my opinion was expressed well enough to be included in the magazine.”

Winarsky also expressed her awe over being

mentioned in a magazine where several of her favorite writers, such as Jill Lapore, Vinson Cunningham, and Jia Toletino, exhibit their work. “I think that it’s really cool that I can see my name or even just see something that I wrote, next to famous writers whom I admire.”

Madison Li/News Editor

PUBLISHED Winiarsky poses with New Yorker.

Project X

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THE RECORD NEWS FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Abby Beckler Staff Writer

“Another day, another duel” was the mantra as the madness of Project X took hold of the school once again.

In Project X, an annual Upper Division-wide contest, each player is assigned a target to tag or “kill” with a spoon. Once the player does so, they get their target’s secret word and enter it into the game’s website. The player is then assigned a new target and the hunt begins again. The players left standing with the most kills by the end of the week win.

This year, the three winners of this year’s Project X were Stella Cha (11), Mayanka Dhingra (12), and Dallas Dent (12).

“Project X is one of the rare opportunities we HM students have to not only have some fun while classes are in session, not in classrooms, however, but also a chance to get to know other students a bit better,” Justin Gurvitch (10), one of the organizers of the game, said.

Another benefit of the game is that because the target assignments are random, there is a high chance that a tagger won’t know who their target is. In this way, Project X strengthens the community by allowing students to meet other students who they may not have interacted with otherwise.

“Project X is both a fun activity to raise spirits on campus, and I also think it’s community building because you never know who you’re going to get as your ‘target’, so it results in you meeting other people and getting to know the school,” Dean of Students Michael Dalo said. “It’s an opportunity to do something a little bit out of the

Japan Day!

Vishatrie Keetha Contributing Writer

Students taking Japanese gathered in the Recital Hall last Friday to immerse themselves in Japanese culture. After watching their peers’ various performances, attendees went upstairs to the Fisher Hall Rotunda, where they participated in further activities.

This year’s festivities marked the fifteenth Japan Day, but the events this year differed slightly from those of past years, Japanese teacher Nobuko Weiler said. Ari Salsberg (11), co-president of the Japan Day committee, said that in previous years, every class put on a play as their performance, while this year, each class did something unique.

Classes’ performances varied this year because it is Weiler’s first year teaching at the school. “I didn’t know anything about the plays and didn’t know if I had access to the scripts, practically speaking. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to put everything together,” she said.

Weiler let her students decide what to perform, she said. “I was inspired by what Japanese schoolchildren do in Japan. A lot of schools there do a festival every year, and they typically sing, dance, and do plays, sometimes. I wanted to emulate that,” she said. “As a teacher, I hoped that this would give my students a chance to learn more about Japanese festivals.”

Drumming was the most popular option, but a variety of activities were Courtesy of Barry Mason

FEEL THE BEAT Japanese students play the taiko drum.

norm, have fun, and meet other students.”

This year the game was organized by Community Council members Gurvitch, Isha Agarwal (12), Pratham Gandhi (12), and Leyli Granmyeth (11).

“We planned the game for the first time when I was a freshman,” Agarwal said. “Because the game was new that year, there were no unexpected surprises, but every subsequent year, however, we tried to include some fun twists to the game to keep things exciting.”

At the end of the first day, everybody who was still alive received a new target for the next morning, and on the last day, everyone’s kills were reset to zero. Whoever accumulated the most kills on the last day won the whole game.

“I had four kills before the reset, and I honestly don’t think I would have won without it because there were so many people that had far more kills than I did because I was absent on Monday, so I missed a whole day of killing people,” Cha said.

“There were people who had six or seven kills on the first day, and I think they definitely could have won if not for the reset.”

From amassing student armies to hiding in unexpected places, some students go to extremes to avoid getting tagged, Cha said.

“My first assassin happened to be one of my close friends in my Ethics class, and it was very difficult to get past her,” Cha said. “I had to avoid her all the time because she knew my schedule, so Dr. Leeds had to walk me all the way from Spence Cottage to Lutnick.”

“Jacob Shorsch (11)- he’s fast. I chased him twice, once on the way to Lutnick and the other time all the way around Lutnick, and he was convinced I wasn’t going to get him,” Dhingra said. “I

chosen, she said.

Sofia Sepulveda (9), a student in Japanese II, said her class focused on judo. “We had two practices where we learned the basics and safety moves,” she explained. “Some of us also wrote up background information, so the audience could have context as to what was happening and the history behind the practice.”

The idea for a judo demonstration came from a run-in with Robert Aviles, a member of the Public Safety department, Weiler said. She learned that he had a black belt in judo and his own studio. “I was just starting to look for a martial artist, so it was perfect.”

A taiko drum performance was put on by the Japanese III Honors, IV, IV Honors, V Honors, and AP classes.

The drummers had two practices with a professional instructor, Weiler said.

This performance was Sepulveda’s favorite part of Japan Day, she said. “It’s just really interesting to watch because if you look at their movements, it’s very time-specific.”

After the performances, students partook in activities in the Fisher Hall Rotunda, such as making origami and sampling mochi. According to Weiler, these festivities were open to everyone, though not many students participated. “We had a lot of food left over,” she said. “I hope that next time, more people will come.”

Megumi Iwai-Louie (9) introduced the post-performance festivities. Japan Day reminded her why she takes Japanese, she said. “Japan Day showed us Japanese culture and how Japanese culture applied to us,” she said. “And watching people speak so fluently in Japanese when they performed was inspirational.”

Iwai-Louie is half-Japanese and grew up in a Japanese-oriented household, she said. “It was nice seeing everyone being exposed to Japanese culture, a culture that is not as widespread as others. It was definitely an experience that was close to home.”

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Max Shopkorn/Staff Photographer

VICTORIOUS! (From left to right) Mayanka Dhingra, Stella Cha, and Dallas Dent celebrate their win. had to hide outside his SOI classroom, and when he came out, I ran around the corner to get him.

It was a pretty triumphant moment, I’d have to say.”

While most players don’t know their targets, Cha was friends with three of her targets.

“It was actually very funny because your friends are the people who least suspect you to have them. Just automatically, the default is that you have a stranger, so you’re always worried that ‘I don’t know this person who has me, they’re going to sneak up behind me’ but they never expect it to be their own friend,” Cha said. In order to kill her target, she would convince her victim that their assassin was still the one that she had killed without their knowledge, and that would throw them off their guard.

“I was in my history class, and I had just found

out that I had James Thomas (10), and I wasn’t sure if it was him because a lot of people call him JT, and I was walking out of my history classroom, and he’s walking by and I stick my spoon out on his shoulder and I go, ‘James’ and he turns and he looks at me and he’s just in awe,” Dhingra said. “It was a good moment; I felt kind of bad, I will admit, because he didn’t see it coming,” “There was this one particular target I had that was such a pain to catch: Sam Weidman (10), who was no doubt my most formidable opponent,” Dent said. “It felt like his entire class was rooting for him. When I went in for the tag, I swear his whole defensive line appeared out of nowhere.

Tagging him out felt like a victory on Super Bowl Sunday. It was so much fun!”

HDC honors Black History Month Julia Goldberg and Talia Winiarsky Staff Writers Students and parents of the three Hilltop schools gathered at Riverdale Country School last Friday evening for the second annual Black History Month Celebration, hosted by the Hilltop Diversity Coalition (HDC).

Accompanied by parents, 64 student attendees, 25 of whom attend the school, joined together to celebrate black visual art and promote careers in the arts for young black people.

Courtesy of Nicky Enright

TAUSSIA TALKS HDC representative Taussia Boadi speaks at the event.

To begin the night, guest speakers photographer Barron Claiborne and mixed-media artist Shani Peters spoke about their respective work. Notably, Claiborne captured the iconic photo of Biggie Smalls in a crown three days before he was killed, and Peters co-founded the Black School, an art school for young people of color (POC) and allies.

The two speakers also briefly spoke about the struggles of working as POC artists. “Part of the reason we need to be here tonight, having a conversation about black people in the arts, is because it’s an exclusionary world that we don’t necessarily always get access to,” Peters said. And even outside of the arts, it is especially challenging to be one of

the few students of color studying in primarily white institutions (PWIs), she said.

“In our world today, the only types of people that are showcased are white people,” Co-President of HDC Taussia Boadi (12) said. On the rare occasions that successful POC are represented, they typically have careers in math, technology, or business. The only POC in the arts who are ever showcased are rappers, which is not enough, Boadi said.

“Being black, it’s very easy to let the perceptions of other people tear you down and make you feel unworthy,” Boadi said. “I hope the takeaway was that black people can actually excel in all fields.”

Following the panel and a brief question-and-answer session, the attendees gathered in the cafeteria, where they enjoyed traditional food from the African Diaspora, such as rice, pigeon peas (Moro), and sweet plantains as well as music from a live DJ. The room adjacent to the cafeteria featured student art, and the guests could easily walk in and out of the room during the event. The works on display included poems, paintings, photographs, and sculptures, all rooted in themes of race and identity. One painting depicted the lynching of a black man on a tree on Jim Crow Road, and on the table next to it lay Elon Collins’s (Riverdale ‘19) book of poems titled “(Afro)dite: A Black Girl’s Guide to PWIs.” Cole Davenport (11), a Fieldston student, attended the event because he thought it was necessary to show his support of his classmates’ art. “Art is something special that you share from yourself, and it’s like giving part of yourself to the world,” he said.

Attendees took the opportunity to form relationships and connect with students at their fellow Hilltop schools, Joshua Kombet (11), a student at Riverdale, said. “We’re all in similar spaces at these PWIs on the

hill, so we all have a shared experience,” he said. In fact, Kombet struck up many conversations throughout the night with students from other schools whom he had not met before.

The shared experiences and perspectives that the students had shifted the mood of the event, Micheye Trumpet Jones (12) said. “There was a mutual respect and understanding that was more than for any stranger.”

Towards the end of the event, students from all schools congregated in the center of a cafeteria, forming a dance circle and singing along to pop and hip-hop music.

Though the attendees enjoyed the art, music, and food, Haris Adolph (9), who attends Riverdale, would have liked a more diverse turnout.

“Maybe this is geared towards people of color, but I think it’s also important that people who aren’t people of color show up,” Adolph said. “It’s a way to show that people aren’t so different from each other, and it’s a way to strengthen a community.”

When only POC attend events like these, it defeats their purpose, which is to promote diversity, Riverdale art teacher Nicky Enright said. “The students would like to be inclusive about this, and have everyone come out and support the diversity of the community, and if all the white kids stay home, then how are you celebrating that diversity?”

Courtesy of Nicky Enright

LEADERSHIP POSE HDC representatives with speakers .

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HORACE MANN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Music Week &core ensemble captures history through music% Adrian Arnaboldi Staff Writer The Music Week assembly offered the school community a unique opportunity to examine historical events through a musical lens. On Tuesday, the Core Ensemble, a professional music quartet, performed Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance. The ensemble used chamber music theater to feature the marriage of theatrical narrative and classical music performance.

The Core Ensemble celebrates the music and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance era in New York City. Of Ebony Embers, which was performed at the assembly, examines the lives of three outstanding but very different African American poets—Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay—as seen through the eyes of the great painter and muralist Aaron Douglas.

Of Ebony Embers is set in 1934, which is near the end of the Harlem Renaissance, and cycles through the experiences of Hughes, Cullen, and McKay prior to a party at the house of Aaron Douglas. One actor portrayed multiple characters while interacting with the onstage musical trio composed of a cellist, pianist, and percussionist.

The acting was accompanied by music from some of the era’s most renowned African American musicians. The Core Ensemble performed music by African American composers ranging from famous jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus to

concert music composers Jeffrey Mumford and George Walker.

Since 1993, the Core Ensemble has toured the United States as well as England, Russia, the Ukraine, Australia, and the British Virgin Islands.

In 2000, Massachusetts Institute of Technology awarded the Ensemble the Eugene McDermott Award for Excellence in the Arts.

On Tuesday, the Core Ensemble presented a shorter version of their 120 minute performance.

“I thought it would be great to do something that combined both Music Week and Black History Month because we aren’t having another assembly in February to celebrate Black History Month,” said Director of Student Activities Caroline Bartels. The group’s focus on poetry also inspired the decision to invite the Core Ensemble.

The three-person ensemble showcased their talent by performing a Jelly Roll Morton piece designed to be played by seven people. Throughout the performance, members of the ensemble rattled off strings of tricky chords. “I thought it was really cool how the performer playing the vibraphone could hold multiple mallets in each hand at once,” Val Zeitlin (10) said.

Lucas Raskin (11) was impressed by the ability of the actor to take on different roles. “The actor was able to master distinct cadences and vocal sounds for each character he represented,” Raskin said.

“I thought the cellist, the vibraphonist, and the pianist were very talented musicians,” Oliver Steinman (11) said. Steinman also appreciated the blend between jazz and classical music, two areas of music he has studied for a long time, he

bach at it: music outreach kicks off music week Emily Sun Contributing Writer Intertwined melodies from Dora Woodruff (12)’s oboe, Margalit Patry-Martin (12)’s clarinet, Abigail Morse (11)’s alto saxophone, and Johanna Scher (10)’s flute danced through Olshan Lobby this Monday during I period. As the final act on the first day of Music Week, the HM Music Outreach Club (HMMOC) Ensemble performed their rendition of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2.

Woodruff, the co-President of the HMMOC alongside Patry-Martin, chose and arranged the piece they showcased. She decided on Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto because it sounded good with the ensemble’s instrumentation, which mostly consists of woodwinds, she said.

From December, the Ensemble met once a week to fine-tune their performance. Patry-Martin could not attend the rehearsals, so the first time she played the Concerto with the rest of the group was during the show, she said. “I was sight-reading it and I hadn’t heard the piece, but the other people helped me a lot.”

During rehearsals, the rest of the ensemble practiced until the distinct tones of their instruments flowed together and complemented one another, Morse said. Woodruff came up with an exercise where each member would start the piece at a different place and they would try to get back on track. This helped the group “get

to know each other’s parts well and get used to listening to each other and playing based off of that,” Woodruff said.

They also experimented with dynamics in the piece, Morse said. “We were thinking about how phrasing was musically and then talking to each other about it to make it more interesting and keep the audience engaged.”

The HMMOC began a few years ago to help Upper Division students fulfill their service-learning requirement. They bring live music to hospitals, including the VA Medical Center, a veteran’s clinic in Kingsbridge, and the Wartburg Center, a nursing facility in Westchester, Morse said.

After the switch to grade-wide service-learning days, the club became a place for people who want to “give back and have a fun experience playing [music] with other people,” Patry-Martin said. Scher’s favorite part of the program is how “the people that you play to get to know you, and it’s nice to see them again and to see new faces.”

Since the start of the school year, the HMMOC has had three concerts. There are usually ten performers who are either part of the Ensemble or play solo pieces. The club has two more performances coming up, as well as a Service Learning Day workshop, Woodruff said.

In the future, the HMMOC hopes to play at new venues, bring more people into the club, and diversify the genres of music that they play so that they can reach a larger audience, Morse said.

VIGNETTES Core Ensemble members bring Harlem Renaissance music to Gross Theatre. said.

While some members of the community praised the musical and theatrical aspects of the performance, others were drawn towards the history of poets and artists discussed. “It’s always great to have poetry incorporated into an assembly in any form,” English Teacher Harry Bauld said. “I enjoyed every minute of it, and I thought it was very educational because lots of people don’t know much about McKay and Cullen.”

Some students, such as Teyonce Allison (11), were more critical of the Core Ensemble’s Performance. “I couldn’t tell if there was an acknowl-

edgement or nod towards Black History Month and the Harlem Renaissance,” she said. Allison thought the assembly wasn’t insightful and did not properly integrate Music Week and Black History Month.

After inviting the Core Ensemble to this year’s Music Week Assembly, Bartels hopes to offer a different type of experience during music week next year. She is particularly interested in resurrecting assemblies of years past by having musicians lead students in singing, she said.

Teachers and Musicians Jazz Up Olshan Lobby Talia Winiarsky Staff Writer Though many students know English teachers Rebecca Bahr and Harry Bauld for their passion for literature and poetry, they saw the duo’s musical connection come to life in their performance on Thursday. During F period, Olshan Lobby swelled with the warm vibrato of Bahr’s voice and Bauld’s flowing notes on the piano as they played 11 jazz pieces and ballads together.

Their program featured a range of classic jazz pieces, including George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” along with six others, and the ballad “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

To perform as a duet, the pair made slight adjustments to the pieces, Bahr said. For example, often when performers play together, they “trade fours,” which means that one player plays four bars solo, and then another player will play four bars solo. The solos enable the players to change up the tempo when the songs are long and slow to engage the listener.

Additionally, part of playing great jazz in a group is listening and reacting to the other players, Sofia Del Gatto (12), a member of the school’s jazz band, said. “Especially Mr. Bauld, really, you can tell he was looking at Ms. Bahr [to] see where she was taking the song.” While Bahr said that the pair rehearsed the songs beforehand, it is essential to listen to each other as

they play in case they diverge.

The pair can adjust pieces and adapt quickly to changes because they are familiar with the other’s styles, as they’ve known each other as musicians since Bauld came to the school in 2008, Bahr said. “Sometimes he's been playing something [on the piano] as I've literally been leaving school and I'll just stop and we'll play ‘Summertime’ together just spontaneously.”

During the performance, Bahr’s constant smile as she sang and Bauld’s sways to the rhythm of the music as his fingers jumped across the piano showed the audience that they enjoy playing together. “We always have this common music of language and this pleasure and each other's skills as musicians,” Bahr said.

Music helps Del Gatto understand her teachers better, and has spoken with Bahr about jazz, she said. “It's not just like, you know, learning what they're teaching you but like having more like horizontal conversation about something outside of school.”

The performance gave Matthew Baumann (10) the opportunity to listen to live jazz for the first time, he said. He was glad that his art history class visited because he may not have attended the performance otherwise. Although he doesn’t usually listen to jazz, the performance helped him realize that he enjoys the style because of its relaxing qualities.

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THE RECORD ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Questioning the importance of the Oscars amid cultural change

Henry Owens and Arushi Talwar Staff Writer & Contributing Writer

Another benefit of the ceremony is the exposure it brings to some lesser-known films. “[The Oscars] allow a lot more people to watch these films, for example with Parasite, and it gives a lot of films more exposure,” O’Reilly said.

As streaming services like Netflix and Hulu’s prominence in the film industry grows, many people feel less inclined to go out of their way to go to the movie theatre, Shuchman said.

“Since there are so many ways you can consume that kind of content, it seems pointless to pay extra, when you can just watch it from your couch,” she said.

Some, like Kirshner feel like Netflix actually helped some movies gain popularity, such as Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. Though the film didn’t win an Oscar, Kirshner believed it still received attention it otherwise would not have because it was released on the streaming service.

To people like Dalia Pustilnik (10), going to the movies is more of a family outing she looks forward to, regardless of whether the films are easily accessible online.

Still, some moviegoers appreciate certain films more when they are on the big screen, like the Oscar-nominated movie 1917, Azmi said.

“If I want to see a movie in the theatre I will, because some movies are a lot better in the theatre than at home,” he said.

“Obviously streaming has changed the way we consume entertainment, but movie theatres still exist, right now at least,” Bender said. “I think in some ways, the Oscars is a form of celebration for movies and films and cinema as an art.”

/ an Ch t Ar re Di r cto

Regardless of how much support or dissent the Oscars receive, it is clear that they are on the cusp of evolution as the film industry faces unprecedented change.

lle be na An

The 92nd Academy Awards took place last Sunday, raising questions among students about the relevance of these awards in 2020.

Over the years, the Oscars have been criticized for nearly everything, from the host to the nominees’ lack of diversity, and this year was no exception.

Former hosts Steve Martin and Chris Rock kicked off the night with a comedic monologue, ironically pointing out the “progress” the Academy has made by going from no black actors nominated in 1929 to one in 2020.

Only one actor of color was nominated for any of the four acting categories, Cynthia Erivo, who portrayed Harriet Tubman in the film Harriet. This was a disappointment for many, especially considering the backlash against the award show in previous years for almost exclusively celebrating white nominees.

“There’s racial and sexist bias within the film industry, from very few black people being cast in films to the perpetuation of people of color (POC) and female stereotypes,” Alecia Daley-Tulloch (11) said. “POC and women were excluded from the film industry since it began and its disregard of actors from those communities is still prevalent.”

Activist April Reign created the #OscarsSoWhite movement in 2015, at which point the Academy was comprised of about 92 percent white and 75 percent male members. Since then, white membership has declined slightly to 84 percent white and 68 percent male.

Some students feel as though the racial disparities evident in the Academy Awards amplify the disadvantages people of color face in general.

“That’s just how society is,” Taussia Boadi (12) said. “White people are recognized for the work Black people do at the same level.

There’s implicit biases that exist within all of us, but in certain situations, like the Oscars, it’s more pronounced.”

Further, not a single female director was nominated for the third year in a row. One major “snub” was Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig, who also was not nominated. This was surprising considering how well the movie did, Ariela Shuchman (9) said.

“Little Women was an incredible film,” Bender said. “To me, the thing that was most well done was the directing, so that was an obvious snub. Greta Gerwig was able to capture the essence in every aspect of the film, accomplishing her goal of honoring the spirit of the girls.”

Despite the longstanding issues of diversity, the Academy did break precedent by giving the Best Picture and Best International Feature Film awards to the same movie: Parasite. This was the first time in Oscar history that a foreign film won Best Picture, and it was a significant step in bolstering Asian representation in film, Brian Wu (12) said.

“Bong Joon Ho blew the lid off of South Korea’s class divide with his movie by showing the rest of the word just how extreme it is,”

Jonathan Mong (11) said.

“It was very relevant to society, new and innovative,” Jaden Kirshner (11) said. “The Academy opened their mind, forgetting about foreign language and a non-American cast and director.”

Eliza Bender (12) enjoyed watching Parasite and was happy that it won, but the fact that it got Best Picture and Best International Film demonstrates a flaw with those categories themselves, she said. “The Best International Film category is there to highlight films that wouldn’t otherwise be highlighted. But, I think the Oscars should move towards a direction where we’re acknowledging films regardless,” Bender said.

Though the Academy Awards are highly respected in the film industry, the legitimacy of the Academy’s decisions is often called into question. Mong believes that too few of the most nominated films are actually popular, and awards only go to a very specific type of dramatic film.

“A lot of people that are not getting nominated take on more modern and innovative roles, and they aren’t getting recognized for that,” Kirshner said. Their traditional view impedes the nominations year after year, something the Academy should aim to expand, he said.

“The Oscars are completely disconnected with modern society,” Mong said. “It seems more like old white men trying to cling onto the last vestiges of their influence before our generation comes and takes it all away.”

Another major concern with the Academy Awards is that the winners are chosen not simply based on merit. “I think there are a lot of outside influencing factors, such as money and people in positions of power,” Dylan O’Reilly (10) said. “It doesn’t invalidate the entire awards show, but it does undermine the legitimacy of the awards to an extent.”

Lucas Glickman (10) does not believe the Oscars are particularly important because of how much money plays into who wins. “It cost millions of dollars in advertising just to get nominated,” he said. “Yes, most of the time they’re good movies that get chosen, but it just comes down to who has the bigger budget to spend.”

Jordan Ferdman (11) noted the Academy’s negative history with sexual abuse allegations. “The infrequent nomination and awarding of women and people of color is one thing, and you pair that with the fact that the voting committee seems to have very little problem with handing out awards to abusers. It’s a combination that’s quite terrifying,” she said.

Still, the Oscars are a way to earn acknowledgment for the hard work all the actors put into their industry. “Acting is really hard, and some characters are extremely difficult to play. The Oscars are a great way of recognizing all the work that goes into it,” Mazyar Azmi (10) said.

Although she uses the ceremony as an opportunity to live tweet criticisms, Ferdman does believe there are still some merits to the Oscars. “I tend to enjoy the speeches, and I think that there is some sense of community with people who like people who are rooting for the same films.”

Parasite unmasks South Korean class divide for global audience

Gabby Fischberg/ Art Director

Izzy Abbott Staff Writer Drama, comedy, horror, and social commentary are intertwined in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite. Like parasites, the impoverished Kim family slowly infiltrates the home of the wealthy Parks through scamming, forgery, and lies.

The Kim’s deception begins when Ki-woo is offered a chance to fill in as an English tutor for the young Park Da-hye. Taking advantage of Da-hye’s naïve mother, Yeon-kyo, Ki-woo introduces his sister, Kim-jung, as “Jessica,” an “art therapist” for Yeon-kyo’s hyperactive son, Da-hong. Soon, through calculated determination and feigned confidence, Ki-woo and Kim-jung’s parents are enlist-

ed as a driver and housekeeper for the Parks, who are completely oblivious that their new staff are all related. The Kims soon realize, however, that there is more to the house and the Parks than meets the eye. To divulge further into the plot would rob the viewer of the truly wild emotional ride that is Parasite.

Joon-ho contrasts the harsh realities of life below the poverty line with the gratuitous wealth of the Parks. According to the Japan Times, Joon-ho’s portrayal of class disparity hits close to home for South Korea’s lower class. For families like the Kims, social mobility is difficult given the shrinking job market, increasing real estate prices, and insufficient wages, the paper also stated.

The Park’s subtle jabs at their new staff ’s rancid “smell” and igno-

rance of their own wealth and power further illustrates the dynamic between the two worlds. The Parks are dependent on their lower-class staff, as Mr. Park says, his architectural mansion would be in complete disarray without the help of their housekeeper, yet they quietly judge them for their lack of economic and social standing.

With the film’s production design, Joon-ho illuminates the disparity between the lifestyles of the two families, one gifted with extreme wealth and privilege, the other struggling to survive. Whereas most filmmakers opt for pre-designed sets, Joon-ho and his production designer, Lee Ha Jun, built these sets from the ground up: choosing every doorknob, floor tile, and kitchen appliance.

From the menacing black doorway to the basement in the Park’s kitchen, to the demoralizing street-view from the Kims’ dilapidated apartment, each set only amplified the themes of class-consciousness and mystery omnipresent in the movie.

Parasite’s Best Picture win at the Academy Awards was monumental, not just because of its technical and cinematographic appeal, but also because it was the first non-English language film to accept the honor. The film, which also won awards for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film, received recognition before the Oscars at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and Golden Globe awards.

Joon-ho’s humor and depiction of family in the face of adversity and opportunity is relatable despite the story taking place on the other side of the world. The issues of class which the Kim family confront are also prevalent throughout the United States. The Kim’s desperation to make ends meet is made clear by their constant hustle: stealing the neighbor’s WiFi, cajoling an employer for a better wage, and taking public transport or walking no matter the distance are part of a daily struggle to live in a place that favors the interests of the wealthy. These obstacles likely resonate with many Americans who similarly struggle to support themselves and their families.

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HORACE MANN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Little Women: Gerwig breathes life into a classic story Vivien Sweet and Adam Frommer Staff Writers

“I have lots of troubles; so I write jolly tales,” wrote Louisa May Alcott, author of the original 1868 novel “Little Women.” In the opening seconds of director Greta Gerwig’s adaptation, Alcott’s quote appears on the screen, which is ironic considering the film’s storyline: the plot is centered around misogynic standards, sisterly betrayal, and even death.

“Little Women” follows Jo, an avid writer, and her sisters as they grow up together in Concord, Massachusetts. As expected for a 19th century novel about women, marriage is a particularly strong plot-point. Class tension, which sets the Marches apart from their neighbors, the Laurences, constantly reminds the sisters of the importance of marrying rich to provide for their aging parents. But Jo is a precocious writer, and throughout the film, she makes it clear that she doesn’t need a husband to be happy. Through Jo’s defiance to suitors and her family’s wishes, “Little Women” comes to embrace female independence and contentment with being single, a relatively forward-thinking and modern motif.

Despite these hardships, the March sisters— the literal “little women” Alcott wrote about— stuck by each others’ sides through tumultuous marriages, financial struggles, missed job opportunities, and sickness. In an age where passionate flings and hook-ups are arguably the most prominent display of love and affection and the centerpiece of many romantic movies, the power of sisterhood is often neglected by filmmakers as a true source of lifelong companionship. However, the compelling dynamic between Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March proves that familial ties are truly meant to last forever. Their miniature theater company, for example, which (at first) consists

only of the four sisters, endures the tests of poverty, time, and marriage, reminding the viewers that no matter what obstacles they face, the show must go on.

The idea to turn Alcott’s famous novel into a film is not remotely new; past adaptations starring film legends such as Judy Garland, Katherine Hepburn, and Winona Rider have been critically acclaimed, each one outdoing the last. What sets the 2019 version of “Little Women” apart is Gerwig’s ability to bring modern authenticity to a love story set over a century ago. There’s something about an old-fashioned love story, in all of its slow-paced and grand gesture-filled glory, that a 21st-century romance simply can’t replace.

Conversely, an outdated depiction of courtship is bound to prove lackluster in the “female empowerment” department, with the male partner often taking the lead in most of the decisions made between the two. However, Gerwig’s portrayal of Laurie and Jo’s

relationship—from the first moonlit dance to the marriage proposal rejection—shows the audience that it is indeed possible to swoon for someone while maintaining a degree of emotional autonomy.

If only the film’s feminist-themed choices carried through consistently in the movie. Even though the characters seem progressive, Gerwig clearly directs the film to be a period piece; the plot ensues in a nineteenth-century home with nineteenth-century familial roles and expectations. Therefore, whatever feminism exists is often overshadowed by Alcott’s writing—one without contemporary feminism in mind. In the last few minutes of the movie, Jo contradicts much of her built-up sense of independence and gives in to a proposal she was fighting against the whole time.

In a movie about sisterhood, the film’s ending could not be more regressive.

When a movie is remade—or when any piece of

art is redone—it should have something different to say. It should stand out from its predecessors, lest the film lose its value in the modern-day.

Granted, Gerwig’s decision to stick nearly exactly to the plot is a commendable one; Alcott’s renowned story deserves to stand the test of time.

But in an age where culture is accepting feminism more and more, it felt as though Gerwig threw in the towel at the last minute: she handed out the romantic ending that viewers want rather than the right ending in order to bring the story up to today’s speed.

To see Gerwig’s “Little Women” is to grow jealous. A heartedly picturesque, wholesomely refreshing film plants a seed of envy of a seemingly simple life in the countryside into the audience.

Yes, it looks like March family’s world is a fairytale—or straight out of a Martha Stewart catalog with scene after scene featuring the sisters’ homesewn frilly dresses and decadent three-course suppers. The costumes by Jacqueline Durran, an Oscar winner for her work, are particularly remarkable. Even when the sisters are at home, dress becomes a form of self-expression; the women often wear overstated and intricate gowns that only supplement the film’s grandeur. Additionally, the film’s score is elegantly hopeful, and its classical overtones fit perfectly into the traditional world of the story.

Despite its proclivity for the extravagant, Gerwig sways the audience into seeing the characters’ teenage years as an authentic representation of the choices that one has to make when growing up. For “Little Women,” at least Gerwig’s rendition, reminds us all of the joys in love and sisterhood beyond 21st-century gadgets and political turmoil.

Annabelle Chan/ Art Director

How strippers outhustled Wall Street’s most powerful men Talia Winiarsky Staff Writer The first time we see Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers feels like looking at a strip club through a magenta kaleidoscope. The shaky camera moves through the sensory pandemonium of flying bills, whipping pink strobe lights, and pumping music to focus in on her character, “The one, the only, Raamoonna,” as the announcer calls her.

Newcomer dancer Destiny’s (Constance Wu) eyes lay transfixed on Lopez’s magnetic pole-dancing performance. As Ramona maneuvers her body with acrobatic agility, landing upside- down on a bed money, Destiny’s lips curl upward in awe, as though she’s witnessed something holy. “Doesn’t money make you horny?” Ramona says to Destiny with a sly smile as she strides off the stage cradling heaps of cash.

Hustlers, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, provides an untold, humanized perspective to the numbers and facts of the 2008 recession. The movie, based upon Jessica Pressler’s article in New York magazine, tells the story of dancers who work at Moves, a Manhattan strip club, through Destiny and her relationship with Ramona, an expert dancer. The article, titled “The Hustlers at Scores,” has a brief summary above the text: “A modern Robin Hood story: the strippers who stole from (mostly) rich, (usually) disgusting men and gave to, well, themselves.”

The movie opens with Destiny, whose real name is Dorothy, on her first night working at Moves, a popular strip club among Wall Street men with poor ethics, large egos, and no shortage of cash.

Ramona adopts Destiny as a mentee (because when Jennifer Lopez offers you to wrap yourself in her coat on a rooftop on a cold winter night, you can’t say no), teaching her how to dance and more importantly, how to maximize her earnings. As Ramona advises, “You want ‘em drunk enough to get their credit card, but sober enough to get the check.”

After the 2008 financial crisis, however, the men are no longer willing to sloppily fling their money at anything in fishnet stockings, and Moves’s business drastically declines. To maintain her income, Ramona invents a scheme, which she dubs “fishing,” where she and other dancers lure men at bars to Moves without revealing their identities or that they are dancers - and she invites Destiny to participate. Then, Ramona heightens the scheme when she plots to spike the men’s drinks with MDMA and ketamine to get the men to drunkenly hand over their credit cards, social-security numbers, and other personal information. In 2013, when Ramona and Destiny hire other women to work for them who are not as careful in plotting as they are, they get caught by the police.

The movie narrates an unlikely story of gender and class; a gang of working-class women drugs men to exploit their hefty bank accounts. I suspect that if the gender or wealth narratives were

reversed, the movie would have faced harsh criticism, because stories of wealthy men (and men in general) drugging women often have terrible endings. “I know it sounds bad to say that we were drugging people. But you gotta understand, in our world, this was normal,” Destiny tells Pressler.

Hustlers in no way attempts to absolve these women. They’re greedy and corrupt and all too willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of others for material wealth. And they’re punished for their actions.

However, they swindle just as well as the men do, maybe even better. They may not be virtuous, but they certainly are tough.

There are no important men in the movie; the men only exist for the women to take advantage of them. Although Destiny and Ramona have fleeting relationships with men, the movie chooses not to explore them, but rather focus on the connections between the women. “You guys really are my sisters” dancer Annabelle (Lili

Annabelle Chan/ Art Director

Reinhart) muses as she and her friends and their families enjoy dinner at Ramona’s Manhattan penthouse.

For me, the most captivating part of the movie was Ramona’s relationship with Destiny. More like a mother-daughter bond than a friendship, the movie captures a love story between the two

women with Lopez’s character at the helm. Lopez plays a complex, maternal role model while simultaneously immersing Destiny to the dark criminal world, all while making it seem genuine.

Although Ramona is almost naked at many points in the movie, that isn’t why she’s appealing. Female nudity in film is often synonymous with objectification, but Hustlers is about capitalism’s shortcomings and the bonds between women rather than the erotic lure of strippers.

Ramona’s ambition, intelligence, and grit lead us to root for her, even as she’s slipping drops of drugs into unsuspecting men’s drinks. She gives an emotional performance of a fierce, pioneering character who at times can be the adversary when she flakes on Destiny or gets her girls caught into trouble with the law, but ultimately emerges as the hero of the film.

However, Lopez didn’t receive a nomination for the 2020 Oscars for her entertaining performance. With a role second only to Wu, she could have received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

The New York Times critic Kyle Buchanan noted that Hustlers has two main unappealing elements for Academy Award members: its raunchy plot, which happens to be propagated by all women. Hustlers was omitted from every category of the Oscars.

Although the Oscar voters didn’t favor it, fans flocked to see the movie. On its first weekend at the box office, it surprised critics as it made a hefty $33.2 million, exceeding prerelease tracking estimates by more than $8 million, Vulture reported. Eventually, it amassed over $100 million at the box office, according to Variety.

Hustlers is a movie with a lot beneath its shimmering surface; there are few movies about the financial crisis, other than the Big Short. Furthermore, this movie tells the story from a marginalized perspective, uniting the ostensibly greatly separated Wall Street men and dancers, thus undermining the societally-determined rules of capitalism.

Whereas the two groups may see each other as vastly different from the other, the movie shows us that they are very much the same. They both take any measure necessary to increase their wealth, whether it be through shady stock trades or “fishing.” The plot highlights that acquiring wealth does not correlate to happiness, but rather, to economic recessions for the men and arrests in Juicy sweatshirts for the women.

There seems to be a common, misguided idea shared among the dancers and the men that there is some point at which their sleazy methods of obtaining money will all be worth it, like climbing up to the top of a hill and finally enjoying the view. But, as Lorde sings in “Royals” in the montage of the women getting arrested, it’s merely a fantasy; in their capitalist world, the hill never ends, forever climbing.

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Natalie Sweet Relationship Guru

THE RECORD FEATURES FEBRUARY 14, 2020

the right night out in nyc

H

ave you been wondering what to do this Valentine’s Day with your special friend? Curious about the best places to go on a date in NYC? Check out these definitively dope places for you and your Valentine (or Galentines!) this Friday.

The Vale Rink

I

magine skating at Bryant Park, except it’s not incredibly crowded, and you aren’t surrounded by blaring sirens because you’re on a roof!

That’s Vale Rink for you – located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this outdoor ice skating rink is perched on top of the 23rd floor of The William Vale. There’s a perfect view of Manhattan, and a tent full of hot chocolate and other snacks. Additionally, this rink is not made out of ice–rather, its surface is composed of polymer panels that are both impact absorbent and environmentally friendly. Located near the L train, you can tell your friends that you and your date went to Brooklyn, officially making the two of you the

hippest couple in the school for the small price of leaving a gentrified neighborhood just to go to another gentrified neighborhood! Though shops in Williamsburg as a whole are extremely expensive, the Vale Rink is not – $20 for tickets and skate rental! However, I personally would not recommend this as a first date, considering the natural issues that come with ice skating. Is it appropriate to hold your date’s hand while skating?

Is it standoff-ish not to? If your date starts skating too fast, what do you do? What if you have no hand eye coordination and fall? Perhaps too many questions to be asked on a first date, this is more of a couple activity.

All art by Gabby Fischberg/Art Director, Annabelle Chan/Art Director, and Kiara Royer/Features Editor, Reena Ye/Design Editor

Hex & Co

T

here’s always a competitive element to love – whether it’s who’s the better driver or who’s the better cook, a winner always comes out on top.

Put your rivalry to the test at Hex & Co, the Upper West Side’s premier board game cafe! Indulge your inner nerd with every game from Monopoly to Dungeons and Dragons to What Do You Meme.

There are unlimited game options to keep the date lively and spark that competitive fire in both of you – really the best way to spot any red flags your date might be inadvertently waving (watch out for those who steal from the bank). Additionally, Riverside Park is just one avenue away, so if you and your date need to take a walk to cool off

any sparked aggression, there’s a nice view of the Hudson river for your enjoyment. While I support and encourage all battling on the game board, I am not responsible for any resulting breakups or flipped boards that result. On Friday afternoons and evenings, this place can get extremely crowded, so I would recommend calling in advance to reserve a table. In comparison to ice skating, this works really well as a first date, as you can both bond over the childhood nostalgia of board games in your grandma’s dusty closet and the excellence of Hex & Co’s chai lattes. Take it from me, I have never been ghosted after taking a first date here.

My personal first date favorite is the Game of Life.

The MoMA

F

eaturing the works of Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, Kara Walker, Pablo Picasso, and many others, MoMA’s long-awaited new remodeling is worth all the hype. From dazzling ceiling pieces to video presentations, MoMA is a perfect place for you and your date to stroll around on a rainy day.

With five floors filled with art from all modern areas, it is easy to get lost, but you’re always bound to discover a piece of art in mediums you didn’t even know were possible. While the fear of conversation running dry lingers in most dates, I can

certainly promise that each exhibit will make you regret you didn’t take Contemporary Art History.

Yeah, you go to Horace Mann, but there’s absolutely no better way to show your date that you’re an intellectual than going to a museum for two hours to stare at shapes on a wall! But wait – there’s more! Tickets are free every Friday from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. Additionally, the cafe’s food is excellent: the burrata alone is worth a second trip. All in all, I love MoMA, and if you do too, I’m accepting all date invitations through FirstClass only.

I

The Cloisters

s your boo a big fan of Game of Thrones? Do they really like tapestries, unicorns, and the outdoors?

If so, the Cloisters is the perfect place for the two of you to live out your Middle Ages fantasy! What is a cloister, you might be wondering? According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, a cloister is “a monastic establishment,” and while I’m skeptical as to how many HM students are actually planning on pursuing lifelong abstinence through the church, this sure is a great way for you and your date to experience that environment. Freshmen, impress your Atlantic World History teacher by reliving the peri-

od of lords (#feudalism), and seniors, nothing says second semester slumping like taking the 1 train on a Friday to visit rocks… inside of rocks! Though I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw some of my classmates take Valentine’s Day couple trips to Paris, this is an amazing way to transport yourself to a hidden gem of New York City that resembles medieval Europe.

The gothic-era stained glass windows and beautifully patterned fabrics might make you question whether living in the city as a hedge fund manager is actually worth it, in comparison to living on a mountain with your partner and a flock of sheep.

HORACE MANN FEATURES FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Sex: Expectations versus reality Julia Robbins Editor-in-Chief “I think all sexual things are kinda weird,” Janice* said. “And porn also makes it seem like it’s going to immediately feel so good. When it happens, you’re like, it doesn’t feel that good. It feels okay, it’s kind of fun; the whole experience is fun because you’re fooling around with someone. But it’s weird, it’s uncomfortable, it’s scary.”

Janice is not alone in her mismatch between expecations about sex and the realities. A number of factors from pornography to heteronormative attitudes influence student assumptions about this often taboo subject.

Janice had sex for the first time last January, as a junior, with her boyfriend of two months. She wanted to have sex in order to “check the experience off her list” and know what other people were talking about when they were discussing sex, she said.

In an anonymous Record poll sent out to Upper Division (UD) students, 61.2% of 209 respondents reported that they have not had sex, and 38.8% reported that they had. The data correlates closely to that of the 2017 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which found that 39.5% of all high school students had had sex. The national survey showed an increase in sexual activity with age, from 20.4% for freshmen to 57.3% for seniors.

Additionally, according to the Record poll, 31% of respondants reported having sex for the first time with somebody who they were dating or in a long term relationship with.

According to a review of “Sexual Hookup Culture” in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (NIH), “over the past 60 years, the prioritization of traditional forms of courting and pursuing romantic relationships has shifted to more casual ‘hookups.’”

Janice, along with many other students quoted in this article, break from the aforementioned trend and the majority of poll respondents, in that she had sex for the first time with a longer-term partner.

After seven months of dating her boyfriend, Victoria* had sex with him before the start of freshman year. At the time, Victoria hadn’t known anyone else who had already had sex in her grade, but there were older girls at her sleep away camp that normalized the idea for her, she said.

Having sex is more normalized with growing older, Harold* said. Harold first had sex as a junior and only knew one other person that he could talk to who had had sex before. However, as a senior, it was seen as more normal to have sex, he said.

Maureen* said that part of the reason it is seen as more normal for seniors to have sex than students in other grades is that almost all seniors are above the age of consent, which is 17 in New York state.

After dating his girlfriend for about half a year, Frank* first had sex with her as a senior. “We laughed a lot,” he said, “People mess up so many times. People think about it as a serious thing. I really don’t think it is.”

Frank voiced a common theme of students when discussing sexual activity, which is that their preconceived notions of what sex would be like were often not what they experienced when actually having sex.

The reasons for why people have sex can also influence their experiences and how positive those experiences are.

Three days into camp the summer before freshman year, Brooklyn* had sex with a camper a year older than her who she didn’t know well. “I definitely have regrets about it because I certainly would prefer to say that my first time was with someone I loved, or at least liked,” she said.

While Brooklyn regrets not first having sex with someone she cared about, she thinks that if she thought about it a lot before hand, she probably would have become too nervous and not had sex.

Brooklyn is not unique in regretting how she first had sex. In a survey published in the British Medical Journal, 39.7% of women and 26.5% of men reported that they did not feel that they first had sex at the “right time.”

A reason that came up multiple times among students interviewed for this piece for why they first had sex was that they wanted to check the

experience off their list.

“I just wanted to get it over with,” said Delilah*, who first had sex during the summer before her junior year. While she didn’t feel any external pressures to have sex, Delilah wanted to have sex before going to college and had no emotional attachment to the person she had sex with.

Like Delilah, Trina* first had sex because she wanted to get it over with, and similarly was not romantically attached to the person who she had sex with. Trina’s first time having sex with a guy was in her junior year of high school, and this year, as a senior, had sex for the first time with a girl.

In 2016, data from the Center for Disease Control reported that 51% of gay/bisexual high schoolers had sexual intercourse compared with 41% of straight students. This data was presented alongside statistics showing that 35% of gay/ bisexual students were “currently sexually active” compared with that of 30% of straight students.

While the statistics show a difference in the amount of sex that students of different sexual orientations are more likely to engage in, anecdoteal information also provides insight into differences between gay and straight sex.

“With the guy I felt like I had to play a more specific role,” Trina said. “With the girl I felt I could be more myself. Everything else that comes with heterosexuality, like power dynamics can still be there with people of the same sex, but you also have a lot more space to be free in the rela-

“With the guy I felt like I had to play a more specific role. With the girl I felt I could be more myself.” tionship.”

Trina attributed the expectations of heterosexual sex to the prevalance of these standards in pornography and media. She also described herself as not being romantically attracted to boy she had sex with, as opposed to the girl who she did like romantically.

There is a “misconception,” Brooklyn said, that ‘losing one’s virginity’ can only happen from heterosexual intercourse. “It’s fundamentally exclusionary. It’s like saying marriage is between a man and woman.”

Brooklyn added that people don’t have trouble defining gay male intercourse as sex, but do have an issue with defining lesbian intercourse as sex.

The notion that Brooklyn brought up is reflected in an article on Slate.com entitled “Is Lesbian Sex “Real Sex,” which discusses the notion that many people are unwilling to see sex as not involving male genitalia.

Coupled with different expectations of how gay versus straight sex is carried out, are expectations of how and when women should have sex compared to men.

“Girls are kind of scared to admit that they do stuff,” Victoria said. Due to this taboo surrounding sexual activity for girls, Victoria never felt any pressure to have sex, she said.

Conversely, some guys want to boast about

If you have had sex, was the first time with somebody who you were dating/in a long term relationship with?

their sexual experiences which can lead to lying, Victoria said. She said someone once lied about having sex with her, and it was frustrating when people believed him even after she refuted his claims.

Brooklyn proposed an explanation as to why people are less likely to believe men over women when it comes to statements regarding sex. Many girls still inherently understand having sex as giving something up which is “not the case for guys,” Brooklyn said. Therefore, people are more willing to believe a girl would lie about not having sex, she said.

In addition to the psychological issues that arise from sexual experiences, people can also face certain immediate physical discomforts from sex.

People don’t mention how much sex can hurt, especially the first time, for girls, Janice said. “It was hugely painful, especially the first time, it was really really painful.”

Janice’s experience with pain was not uncommon. According to a report published by the NIH in 2015, “about 30% of women and 5% of men reported pain occurring during their most recent sexual event.”

Of the 90 students who answered the question, “was your first time having sex a positive experience,” only 31.1% rated their experience a 5 out of 5, while 40% of respondents rated their ‘first time’ a 3 out of 5 or lower.

“The pain is more than just physical, there’s a lot of insecurity that goes into it. It’s scary to show someone your whole body,” Janice said.

Part of the insecurity that comes along with sharing such an intimate experience with another person can be tied to the often unrealistic standards that pornography sets for people’s appearences and how they should behave sexually.

In both the Record poll and interviews, many students commented that online pornography had shaped some of their attitudes and misconceptions about sex.

“Pornography does not frequently portray explicit consent, mutual pleasure, or the conversations that happen before and after having sex,” Health Educator Amy Mojica said. “It sets unrealistic expectations and should not be used as information on how to have a healthy sexual relationship.”

Additionally, several students, either in person or through the online survey, voiced opinions about how pornography creates unrealistic notions about what bodies are supposed to look like.

One student comment boiled it down to: “Not everyone is as perfect as the actors.” Another student wrote that the body standards that porn sets, “mostly towards females” are different than what most people are like.

Actors in pornography all have flawless bodies, Frank said. They don’t portray the reality of people having birthmarks, freckles, or anything besides what people consider to be an ideal body, he said.

Several students also noted how pornography can create false perceptions of what sex should feel like, or how people should have sex. These unrealistic standards reach the vast majority of students who view pornography.

In the poll, 30% of respondents said they had never watched pornography, while 34% responded that they watch more than once a week. One student wrote that they watch “a few times a day...

Porn can be really addictive.”

One student summed up in the survey that “porn is not an imitation of real life and it can actually be really damaging to real world expectations/understandings.” Another student added that they are “mature enough to recognize that it’s entertainment and not reality.”

Several of these write-in comments noted that pornography sets higher expectations for how easy or pleasurable sex compared to reality. However one student noted that “sex in real life is so much more vulnerable and beautiful and imperfect.”

Several students also noted how they believe that pornography is gendered, both in the audience that it targets and in the stereotypes that it creates for how men and women should act during sex. “[Pornography is] made for the male gaze and it’s not an accurate representation of anything,” Brooklyn said. She elaborated that pornography is made for men because “that’s what’s most

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economically profitable.” Women are taught that masturbation is a bad thing whereas men are expected to masturbate, which means that men are a demographic more easily profited from, she said.

Brooklyn also added that while she doesn’t watch pornography, a friend of hers said that no one watches porn for the male actors because they have “a blank face.” Women are held to a higher standard in porn that is often actualized through their moaning, she said.

This standard was observed in a comment from a respondent to the survey.

“A lot of times in porn, the pornstars will have dramatic orgasms that are not realistic,” the respondent wrote. “When I had sex with my partner for the first time, I finished in a few seconds and she told me I was weak. I thought that watching porn would help my performance in bed but it completely did not.”

On the other hand, one student wrote that “[porn] has taught me how to behave with my partner in order to arouse them more.”

That respondent was not alone in believing that actual sex would seem as pleasurable and easy as the sex portrayed in pornography.

“We have all these standards for ourselves of how sex should feel, how it should make us feel, how easy it should be to derive pleasure, but it’s not easy,” Janice said.

“I thought that watching porn would help my performance in bed but it completely did not.”

Janice’s sentiments were reflected in a different response in the survey: “Sex in porn often is much smoother and planned than sex in real life, and it puts some expectation on people to just naturally know what to do when having sex, which in reality requires a lot of communication and trying things out.”

The idea of pornography not teaching how to engage in respectful sex was seen in several comments about how pornography portrays an often severe version of sex.

The way people have sex in pornography is very aggressive, Frank said. “It feels violent, and that’s just not what it’s like at all.” Frank’s message was echoed by several students in the survey, one of whom noted that “porn is pretty violent.”

Though another wrote that “sex in real life is way less exaggerated but still pretty dope.”

This portrayal of rough sex can lead men to only derive pleasure from more aggressive sex, Janice said.

Another student voiced similar concerns in the survey: “I think [pornography] often creates unrealistic expectations and degrades women - certain aggressive behaviors displayed in pornography translate into people’s real-life behavior.”

Have you had sex before? (However you personally define sex)

*Names of all students were changed due to the sensitivity of the subject.

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How dating has changed in the past decades

Emily Shi and Liliana Greyf Staff Writers

When Nik Khakee ‘83 was Junior Class President 28 years ago, he sold over 1000 carnations to students who wanted to make a romantic gesture to the people they were dating. Now, to the current generation of high schoolers, for whom romance can look more like a post on Instagram, this image may seem like a scene from a romantic comedy. This can be credited to the drastic shift in dating culture since the last generation.

Khakee ran Carnation Day in 1982.

That year, the school set a record number of carnations sold, he said. “We had so many that we didn’t just run out, we had to go to every flower shop in Riverdale and Yonkers looking for every last carnation.”

Khakee said that this anecdote is a metaphor for the dating culture of the time. “There were notes, and letters, and people would write romantic things to each other,” he said. “There was definitely traditional dating.”

At the same time, Khakee acknowledged that this was not the case for everyone — “There were definitely people who were going out and dating for shorter periods of time,” he said. “That certainly existed, but that wasn’t the culture. Moving from one person to the next was not common and was observable, it would definitely cause a sort of reputation.”

The dating culture of the current generation is vastly different than that of our parents, Maya Nornberg (10) said.

Most students feel that high school romanticism is on a rapid decline.

Nornberg described dating culture at the school as close to nonexistent. “It’s important that we realize that teen love is just that, teen love. Yes, some people have high school sweethearts...you’re not expected to marry whoever you date,” Dalia Pustilnik (10) said.

Even 10 years ago, dating in high school was not as common as it was for our parents, Sasha Leibholz ‘12 said.

An article in The New York Times titled “Should We All Take the Slow Road to Love” investigating the dating culture of millennials credits this decline of “teenage love” to factors including the rise of hookup culture, anxiety, screen time, social media, and helicopter parents.

Dating at the school is now deemed impractical due to an overcommitment to academics, Pustilnik said. “It can be difficult when you don’t have a lot of time, because everyone here is really busy,” she said.

As one gets older, this becomes even more of a problem, Olive*, who requested anonymity to avoid repercussions from her parents, said. “Especially in something like junior year, it’s a lot more difficult to manage having a social life and having SATs.” Leibholz shared a similar sentiment, knowing how much strain a busy schedule can put on a couple. “As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that convenience in a relationship is up there as one of the most important things that you need,” she said.

However, Max Migdon (11) said that despite the workload of the school, students can find time for relationships during free periods or on weekends with less work.

Often, people with similar amounts of work find it easier to be together. “That might actually be one of the benefits of dating someone in the school who is used to a really similar environment, because they won’t feel like they are letting the other person down,” Pustilnik said.

“There is a mutual understanding as to why someone that you are dating can’t spend as much time with you. It’s just about adapting to each other’s schedules and finding the little moments when

THE RECORD FEATURES FEBRUARY 14, 2020

you can,” she said.

Although there was a fairly large workload while he was at the school, Khakee believes that people made time for one another. “Even people who approached academics with the most intensity had time to date. They would just date while doing homework.” Khakee finds that even when students didn’t have time to go out after school, some would get together on the weekends.

A busy schedule while being in a relationship, while a difficult challenge, can be made more convenient using the constant support of social media.

The rise of social media is undoubtedly the biggest change between the last two generations, Nornberg said.

Social media creates an access to communication that was never present before, Pustilnik said. “You can contact each other virtually and there are ways to spend time with each other that aren’t in person.”

As a result of the modernity of social media, many aspects of dating culture have transformed to accommodate it. “The romantic ideals of that time were more personal- writing notes, talking in person – that’s all a little different from things we can do in this generation because of [the improved] technology,” Nornberg said.

Despite the increased prevalence of communication through social media, Migdon said that no fundamental

change in his relationship resulted from new methods of communication.

Now, many of these technologies’ qualities are beneficial for those in relationships, Nornberg said. She believes that these apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and iMessage can help form successful relationships that wouldn’t have otherwise existed, she said.

Even in the last decade, the influx of new ‘dating apps’ have created a new set of standards for relationships. According to an article titled “How Tinder Changed Dating for a Generation” in The Atlantic, dating apps such as Grindr and Scruff were first created in 2009-

2010 for the LGBTQ+ community, which later led to the creation of Tinder in 2012, which opened up dating apps to people of all sexualities.

With the rise of online dating, a study by the Pew Research Center finds that young couples who meet online also tend to be more diverse in education levels, political parties, and races or ethnicities.

Khakee observed that dating outside of one’s ethnicity or race, which rarely occurred during his time at the school in the 1980s, is now much more normalized, he said. Khakeee was one of the first Southasian identifying students at the school, which was just barely beginning to diversify at the time of his graduation. “Dating outside of one’s ethnicity wasn’t accepted or practiced. It just did not really happen.”

Now, Khakee noticed that dating can break the boundaries of ethnicity, race, and religion. “That’s really new, but that’s also a huge improvement.”

“You meet someone on Tinder, or Bumble, or whatever you’re using, and

then you stalk them on Facebook, and then on Instagram and you find out what they’re like based on that,” Leibholz said. “Back when I was your age, we never really had that, so social media didn’t matter as much. You met people face to face and that was your only impression of them.”

Olive said that despite the popularity of dating apps targeted towards millennials, high schoolers tend to use less direct forms of social media such as Snapchat. “With Tinder, you know you’re getting yourself into a relationship or hookup,” she said. “[With snapchat,] you have to at least start talking to the person and getting to know them, and you’re not sure if you’re going to end up hooking up or going out with each other.”

The continual and addictive usage of social media in the context of relationships has had negative impacts on the culture they create, Nornberg said. Because people can post pictures of them-

selves with their partner, it can create a lot of unrealistic standards that interfere with other relationships, she said.

“Social media definitely gives people a platform to sort of flaunt their relationships,” said Payton* (11), who requested anonymity to avoid her parents finding out about her relationship. Although she doesn’t believe that this is objectively negative, “[it] can also generate a lot of unrealistic perceptions of being in a “perfect” relationship or whatever being a “perfect” couple means.”

Personally, Leibholz feels that romanticism can not truly be expressed online.

“When I see posts or have those displays of affection being made, they feel very disingenuine,” Leibholz said. In fact, social media has created such a seemingly perfect world of dating that people’s personal mindsets have changed in the last generation, she said.

Because social media did not exist in the past, you were only exposed to the small group of people you encountered, Leibholz said. “Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but no one seeked perfection. If it worked, it worked. But now, we have so many options,” she said. Because of the choices that dating apps and other forms of social media provide, people have stopped accommodating negative traits in other people.

The choices created by media, Leibholz said, h a s had both positive and detrimental effects on dating culture.

“On the one hand, people do not have to suffer through as much emotional turmoil. On the other hand, they are less likely to put up with small annoyances.” This often leads to less successful long term relationships, she said.

The uptick in social media use is a large factor of the new and widespread ‘hookup culture.’ The American Psychological Association described this term as “becoming more ingrained in popular culture, reflecting both evolved sexual predilections and changing social and sexual scripts. These encounters often transpire without any promise of — or desire for — a more traditional romantic relationship.”

In the past generation, these nonexclusive, or less serious relationships were extremely uncommon, Nornberg said.

“My parents are actually not used to it.” Nornberg credits this rise in unrestricted ‘hookups’ to the ideals presented in social media.

Social media teaches students to reach for fleeting moments, therefore influencing people’s expectations of sexual encounters. “A lot of the time with Snapchat and social media, people look for a very momentary or temporary connection, something that is not necessarily long term.” Nornberg said. “That’s much more accessible with snaps and texting than it is with actually having to connect with someone one on one.”

“I think [hookup culture] has to do with a fast-paced culture that doesn’t want a lot of commitments – this is probably reflected in other things like Reader’s Digest which is like fast food reading – and just wants to experience highs really quickly,” Payton said. At times, this culture can lead to tension

between people who are looking for a relationship with others who are searching for a temporary hookup, she said.

During Leibholz’s time at the school, hookup culture was already prevalent, she said. Leibholz believes that, although it may not seem this way, a more quieted hookup culture has always been present within communities, she said. The illusion that hooking up casually has only started recently is the product of a societal shaming that is now disappearing, she said.

“There is now less shame in the pleasure of hooking up with people solely for enjoyment,” Leibholz said. “With our parents, it was swept under the rug a bit more. There probably was a hookup culture, because humans are humans, but it just wasn’t talked about as much.”

Specifically, Leibholz believes the pressure to date more seriously was placed most heavily on women. “One of the biggest changes is that women in our generation are seen as being in charge of their own sexual destiny,” she said.

“They weren’t, in the past.”

Although she believes that casual relationships were always present, Leibholz said that there has been an uptick in casual relationships in recent years.

She, similar to Nornberg, credits this to social media. “Now, because of social media, you have much more access. It’s much easier to find people,” she said.

Payton said that increased usage of social media has also hampered dating by making parents more cautious about their child’s safety on social media. The term “helicopter parent,” first used in 1990, reflects a greater culture of parents monitoring every part of their child’s life.. “It just becomes really stressful to maneuver around things. While I get parents who dislike dating, I think there comes a certain point where helicopter-ing only exacerbates the very problem they’re trying to prevent and strains relationships with their kids.”

Knowing her parents would be against dating has encouraged Payton to hide her relationship from her family and social media altogether, which is why she considers her relationship more private than typical ones at the school she said.

At the same time, due to the new outlets of communication offered online, Payton finds it easier for her to find channels of communication with her boyfriend without her parents knowing, she said.

Though technology may have changed some aspects of relationships, helicopter parenting has always existed in different forms, Migdon said. “There are tons of movies about kids in past generations having to sneak out of the house away from their parents without the parents knowledge...it’s just the same.”

Olive said she believes helicopter parenting has always been more prevalent among forerign parents than American ones, which she credits to an environment of first-generation immigrants encouraging schoolwork as a priority.

“American parents want their kids to feel like they have the ability to explore relationships, while foreign parents don’t want to be a priority in any sense.”

She attributes this pattern to the hardworking nature of her own parents, Olive said. “I think foreign parents felt that they had struggles in their life to get them where they are, and if their children don’t feel that pain and struggle they won’t succeed and be better than they were.”

Despite all of these obstacles, Payton still appreciates aspects of romance in modern dating culture, she said. “High school dating is unique because it’s something that you can’t get again, and it’s nice to be able to have a romantic relationship with someone during stressful times.”

HORACE MANN FEATURES FEBRUARY 14, 2020

An Open Love Letter in Three Parts

by Anonymous Violets

I had my first crush in second grade. I didn’t know it, then, but how was I supposed to know that girls could like-like girls? She’s one of my best friends now and doesn’t know. It’s kind of funny how life works like that.

I remember trying to figure out how to impress her. I helped her make flashcards before a spelling test and when I won a lollipop in class (who knows why) I gave it to her. She kissed me on the cheek and when I got home that night I cried a little. I still don’t know why. The next day I gave her a purple flower and she put it behind her ear and I fell in love on the spot. Years later I would translate a famous poem by Sappho and romanticize the garlands of violets and have an epiphany. Moments like that make me believe in fate.

She’s still one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen and I’m over it, obviously, now, but it’s good to know that 7-year-old me had excellent taste. It’s also good to know that even then, I was falling for girls that I never would have a chance with.

The first time a girl kissed me was during truth-or-dare in seventh grade. She shrieked and giggled with the rest of the room, after, but then as I was leaving she walked me out and kissed me again. We haven’t spoken of it since.

The first time I kissed a girl (the distinction is important) it was the summer after freshman year and I knew immediately that I wanted to marry her. We were together for the rest of the month, and she said that she was in love with me. On the last day of camp she presented me with a bouquet of violets. The day after camp ended she posted on Instagram for her boyfriend’s birthday.

I don’t know if I’ve had a girlfriend. The closest I ever got was with someone my friends repeatedly warned me against. A few months in she changed her mind and decided that she didn’t like that I was in the closet (at the beginning it was “totally understandable” and “kinda sexy”) and next thing I knew I was crying in a bathroom in Tillinghast because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to go home that night. I did know that my mother would never look at me in the same way again. PSA: outing someone is one of the worst things you can do in a relationship.

A few weeks ago my mother wore a sweater with ​love is love​across the chest. She made eye contact with me and smiled – a bit too wide, with a tinge of determined desperation – pointing at the embroidered words.

It made me so happy that I forgot to complain about the corporatization of pride. It was the first time she had acknowledged it since that one terrible night almost exactly a year before.

That night, there was a pride flag carefully folded on my bed. There was a violet post-it note on top. ♡ mom I don’t know what changed her mind, and I probably never will. That’s okay, I guess.

The Portmanteau

“I have an amazing gaydar,” she says to me. We’re eating avocado toast at a cafe downtown that has since gone bankrupt. She’s been my best friend for 10 years. I suddenly realize that I’m about to find out whether we’ll still be friends. “I mean, I went to summer camp, we had to shower together sometimes. You have to make sure you don’t shower with a lezzo!”

“It can’t be that good,” I say. “I mean, did you know that I’m gay?”

She laughs. “Yeah, as if.”

I wonder if it ever occurred to her that that conversation ended our friendship. I wonder if she knows about me. I wonder if she’ll read this and remember that lunch, and how I went quiet after.

Is that overdramatic? Maybe. But the concept of gaydar as used by non-LGBTQ+ people is inherently problematic and frankly scary. It means discovering a secret otherness. It’s about differentiating. When I talk about my gaydar (which is terrible, by the way) it’s about finding people that I have something in common with. But when straight, cis people do, it’s implicitly saying that queer people are fundamentally other – and something to look out for.

It’s a few weeks later and I’m having brunch with a girl that I want to be friends with. I’m telling a story about my weekend, and then – I slip up. I forget for a moment, and the wrong pronoun comes out. The right one, that is – but not the one I was trying to say.

“Wait!” She says. “Are we talking about a girl?”

I consider for a moment. Weigh my options. “Well, yeah.”

I almost flinch, but it’s a better response than expected. “Oh, that’s so funny. I never would’ve known. You don’t look like it.”

There’s a long pause.

“I don’t care, obviously. But wait – it was a girl sending texts like that? That’s even worse!”

Thank god. I start giggling. “See! Isn’t that ridiculous! Who says something like that?!”

1800flowers.com

I was hoping to have a Valentine this year.

I knew it wasn’t realistic – my crush is too sacrosanct to even consider it. Besides, you have to be careful. Some people get offended when you assume. And as previously mentioned, my gaydar is terrible.

She’s beautiful and smart and funny and out of my league and that’s okay. That’s unsurprising, at this point. It’s practically a queer cultural norm – to be hopeless for a girl that probably will never look at you that way.

I’ve stopped talking to the girls that I was talking to – no sense in having that inevitable drama on an otherwise normal Friday. I know my worth, now, and I don’t need the validation from girls that don’t take me seriously. This Valentine’s Day, I’ll be doing colorful facemasks with some friends and watching a Disney movie. And that’s okay.

But as I was writing this, I got a text.

“If you’re sending anyone flowers make sure to do it before Wednesday! All girls like roses. Love you, Mom”

You asked, ip h s n io t la e R : d e r e w s n Seniors A Advice from Some Gurus How do you balance acad

emics in a relationship?

11

ther d to imagine adding ano , and a social life, it’s har lars icu urr a rac d ext fin rk, you wo en wh “Between balancing school nitely time-consuming, but r life. Relationships are defi ption is that you nce sco mi e On it. rth huge commitment to you wo than at effort you put in is more er could actually be a gre healthy balance, the extra arate, but studying togeth sep life cal isfa son sat per r the l you You fee should keep academics and ngthen your relationship. r significant other and stre seem like studying y ma It ne! sto one ds, way to spend time with you productive. Two bir ling fee o als ile but it’s actually a n, wh er atio eth stin tion of being tog se named Procra hor a ing rid rk like is to ed attract more likely to do your wo with someone that you’re other accountable. You’re h eac d hol and d use foc really good way to stay ut is telling you to. space. Maybe your when some you care abo r are comfortable having tne par r you and you t tha ke sure possible distraction. In It’s also important to ma without their phone or any ne alo be helpful to ds nee and ng or being clingy is not partner is really swamped tracting them from worki Dis ch ce. mu spa ir as the nd t spe pec to res ing yourself from try that case, you should ff. It can be hard to keep demically. aca n-o d tur e cee suc hug a to is s ual and ty ivid to either par essary for both ind possible, but space is nec time with your partner as Happy studying!”

Li -Chris Ha and Madison

How do you m aintain a succes sful and healthy re lationship?

“It’s hard to no t hide behind th e facade of perf to allow anothe ection... r individual to peer into both good and the ba the d of your life is a necessary type vulnerability in of preserving a su ccessful relationship. A healthy relations hip is built upon mutual tr ust that comes with openly communicatin g and understa nding your partner. Findin g a balance betw een blind trust and a psyc ho who can’t tr ust anybody is important an d can improve over time and through co How can you be sure a mmitment. Yo u and your partner aren’t th t? e same - yes th relationship will work ou is is an incredibly obviou s point, but keep ing an open mind to how yo it.” ur partner may “You can’t. Just have to try differ in your perception/ view s on certain topi cs will only solidify the foun dation of comm -Nick Potash unication.

Ultimately, rem ember to stay tr ue to who you are and the key principles/value s you uphold.

Change can be good, but a com pletely altered version of your self is not who your partner fe in love with. BO ll W!!”

-Diya Mookim and Jeffrey Che n

ople of Why do guys only like pe specific races?

What is the biggest age gap that’s acceptable?

“The question of an age gap in a relationship is difficult in high school. I wou ld say that the acceptable age gap increase s based on how long the two people have known each other. For example, if a senior/ freshman relationship starts a month afte r they meet, I’d have some questions. But, if those people knew each other for a year or two I wouldn’t be concerned.”

that racial preferences are “Because people believe going to have different a valid thing. Everyone is okay to exclude people it’s t taste, but this idea tha . It’s incredibly shallow because of their race is sad alizing this “preferand close minded. And voc ough it’s contributalth y, ence” has become trend people. There’s no reason ing to a host of insecure uplift another. Date to bring down one race to p the outdated “preferwhoever you want, but kee ences” to yourself.”

-Ella Anthony

-Donny Howard

tention?

How can I get a guy’s at ecially of the high “Just be forward. Guys, esp te morons. You need school variety, are absolu We don’t know when to tell us what you want. aren’t.” you’re flirting or when you -Nick Potash

12

THE RECORD MIDDLE DIVISION FEBRUARY 14, 2020

MD Math team adds another win: 12 trophies Alison Isko Staff Writer The Middle Division math team continued their 10+ year streak of winning first place overall at the Bronx Chapter Mathcounts competition, said Coach Ben Wang (12).

The competition was held at Manhattan College, taking home 12 out of 13 possible trophies, 6th grade math teacher and club advisor Susan Ma said.

The school also took home the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place individual awards, Kymm said. “The competition was an overwhelming victory for Horace Mann.”

Because of their results, the team will move onto the next round: the New York State Competition on Saturday, March 7 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The contest had three parts. The Sprint and Target rounds were first, in which all 10 HM representatives competed individually. Afterwards, four students per school participated in the Team round.

The club started preparing for Mathcounts in September by meeting for two hours a week, Kira Lewis (7) said.

Zachary Montbach (8) said that the team sometimes struggled with their self-confidence and getting work done in practice.

Because the club only had a short amount of time to practice each week, it was sometimes difficult to get through all the topics that the coaches wanted to cover, Coach Simon Yang (12) said.

Because the practice tests during the meetings took up a large portion of time, there wasn’t always time to review all the questions from the tests. “But we were able to accommodate that by determining which questions or concepts to mainly go over for the day,” he said.

The students also reviewed simple and fast ways to get an answer, which was Montbach’s favorite part of practices, he said.

Yang, who was on the Math team in 8th grade, taught the club “nifty math tricks that could help them not only for the competition, but for their math classes in general as well,” he said.

Ma and the coaches expected students to regularly attend meetings, and attendance played a small part in determining which students would make the team. However, mock tests were the most important part of those meetings, as a student’s score was the main factor in whether they would be selected as one of the students attending the Mathcounts competition, Lewis said.

There are 40 students in the math club, but only ten students attended the competition, Ma said.

Alicia Li (6) was the only sixth grader chosen to attend the competition although she only competed in the Sprint and Target rounds. “I was a ‘package deal,’ as Ms. Ma said, being both skilled and having a positive attitude to competing,” Li said.

Li enjoyed the entire competition, but her “favorite memory is guessing how many pieces of candy were in the jar,” she said.

It was an optional activity that wasn’t included in the final score, but all the teams participated, and the school that got closest to the actual number of pieces of candy would take the jar.

“We, being mathematicians and all, measured the diameter and whatnot of the jar, then subtracted a lot of empty space.”

Although the team didn’t win that contest, the 12 trophies were a good substitute, she said.

Jisang Kymm (8) was one of the four students who represented the school in the Team round. “Competing in the Team round was my favorite part of the competition because it was really fun to be able to work on tougher questions with my teammates,” he said. “I enjoyed being able to contribute to the team by solving the questions.”

“My favorite memory of the competition was the atmosphere of the competition space and the break after we finished the competition,” Montbach said.

Throughout the team’s journey, Ma loved seeing their passion, collaboration, and the fun they were having, she said. “There were no bad memories.”

“I don’t have a favorite memory of the team overall,” Li said. “I loved the whole experience from start to finish.”

Courtesy of Susan Ma

WIN = SMILES The team poses after the win.

Scenes from MD Athletics Day

All art by Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Jake Shapiro/Photo Editor

Griffin Smith/Photo Editor

All photos courtesy of Barry Mason

Griffin Smith/Photo Editor

HORACE MANN PHOTO FEBRUARY 14TH, 2020

Music Week in Photos Celebrating Music Week 2020

A Photo Essay by Griffin Smith, Jake Shapiro, and Ahaan Palla

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14

GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL

THE RECORD LIONS’ DEN FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Maurice Campbell and Joshua Underberg Staff Writers

As the regular season is coming to an end, the Girls Varsity Basketball team currently sits undefeated and ranked first in the Ivy League Preparatory School League with a record of 10-0.

The team’s undefeated record is due to the efforts of a tenacious squad, including two wins against Dalton, a team the Lions have had difficulty playing against in the past, Ella Anthony (12) said.

Their overall season record is 21-1, which includes a tough five point loss to a high school in Alabama over winter break in Orlando, Florida, Rosy Arora (11) said.

Upperclassmen have been integral to the team’s success. Captains Halley Robbins (12), Julia Robbins (12), and Anthony continue to provide amazing leadership and experience for the younger players, Sammy Blackman (10) said.

The three seniors have started all four years that they have been on the team, Girls Varsity Basketball Head Coach Ray Barile said.

Among the leaders is Anthony, who recorded her milestone

JULIA ROBBINS

1,000th point last season and is the third highest scorer in both boys and girls basketball school history.

Arora said that the team’s strength stretches way beyond just the highly skilled seniors, and it’s more of a collaborative team effort. Over the course of the season, the team was able to form a stronger relationship off the court, which translated to better cohesion while playing, she said.

Bella Colacino (10) said that the team has improved tremendously and continues to improve over the course of the season.

“Our coaches always rewatch our games to see what needs to be worked on and what the team has been doing well,” she said.

One of the team’s most defining moments was the tournament in Orlando over winter break, Arora said. “Florida really helped prepare us for the tougher and more difficult games we will face in the postseason,” she said.

Anthony said that some of the biggest highlights of the season include the team’s wins against Columbia Preparatory School and Dalton because “they are two really good teams in which we managed to win by over twenty points in each game.” Dalton is currently ranked second in the Ivy League with a record of 9-2, with both losses against the Lions.

In the midst of a 13 game win streak, members of the team will hold their heads high as they step onto the court for Friday’s much anticipated Buzzell game at Manhattan College, Anthony said.

“Our team has been really unselfish, and if we stick to that, we should not have any problems winning this game,” Barile said.

The Lions look to improve their undefeated record in the league and “put Riverdale away early” after previously beating them by a score of 57-31 in the Coaches Vs. Cancer game at Fieldston, Anthony said.

Despite the Lion’s previous victory, Coach Barile stressed to the team that “on any given day teams can come ready to play,” adding that “in the Coaches Vs. Cancer game, Riverdale came ready to play and had a great first half.”

In preparation for Friday’s game, Barile has had discussions with the team regarding how they should best deal with having to adapt to playing in such an intense environment, Arora said.

“In such an exciting environment with so many people watching, it is important that the players control their emotions and stay focused,” Barile said.

ELLA ANTHONY HALLEY ROBBINS

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BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL

HORACE MANN LIONS’ DEN FEBRUARY 14, 2020

DARIUS MCCULLOUGH

Yesh Nikam and Max Chasin Staff Writers With the regular season coming to a close, the Boy’s Varsity Basketball team has their eyes set on the playoffs and the 69th annual Buzzell game this Friday.

The team currently sits at nine wins and four losses after two hard-fought wins this week: a 63-51 win against Dalton on Monday and a twenty point victory over Poly Prep Country Day School on Wednesday, the number one team in the Ivy league.

Elijah Shaham (11) said that Monday’s win was critical after they suffered a twenty-one point defeat to Collegiate on Friday.

“We did not play our best [against Collegiate], so we were eager to get back on track and play better basketball. It felt like a revenge game,” he said.

The Lions had not beaten Dalton in over four years, so for seniors like Robert Mantz (12), the win meant a lot, Mantz said.

Jaden Kirshner (11) described the win over Poly Prep as the team’s best moment of the year. “Beating Poly was exactly what we needed. It was a great team win and couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said.

ROBERT MANTZ

Wednesday’s victory was the team’s sixth win in their last seven games, and Shaham said that they are peaking during an extremely important time, he said. “We are in the middle of a really tight playoff race, so all these wins are super important,” he said.

Avi Kapadia (11) said that the team really improved their play after their two point loss to Poly last month. “It was a heartbreaking loss, but it showed us that we could compete with the very best in the league,” Kapadia said. “Since then, our confidence has really grown, and we believe we can beat anyone.”

While the team lost two key players last year, Kelvin Smith and Kyle Gaillard, Ben Chasin (11) said they have overcome that challenge and improved. “The way that our team rebounds, defends, and shoots on offense has made up for those losses,” he said.

“I believe that every single player has improved from last year. [Robert] Mantz has really stepped into a leadership role as captain and Chris [Robinson (11)] has been great for us off the bench on defense,” Shaham said.

Robert said that the play of his younger brother, Edward Mantz (11), has been crucial to the team’s success this year. “He’s

JACK BLACKMAN

the rock of our team and controls our whole tempo. When he’s at his best - dishing, defending, and getting to the hoop - we are unstoppable,” he said.

Robert also praised Chasin for his steady play throughout the year. “He’s improved every year he has been on the team, but this year he’s broken out. He’s a great rebounder, shooter, and defender,” he said.

A win on Buzzell would clinch a playoff berth for the Lions, Kirshner said.

Buzzell will be the teams second game against Riverdale this year, and the Lions are looking to avenge their twenty-nine point loss to them earlier in the year. “We played terribly that game, but we’ve been playing much better recently. We’re looking to maintain the intensity we’ve had during these last couple games,” Robinson said. “I think we are all pumped and really focused,” Kapadia said. “It’s obviously one of the biggest games of our season, so it’s really easy to get caught up in all the excitement, but we just want to go out there and get a victory,” “We are staying ready and hopefully just go out there and enjoy the moment,” Robert Mantz said.

All art by Annabelle Chan and Gabby Fischberg/Art Directors All photos courtesy of Barry Mason

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THE RECORD QUIZ FEBRUARY 14TH, 2020

By Kiara Royer