Dehd and BNNY Take Wilder

Sydney Rosensaft Senior Staff Writer

In contrast to last year’s Orientation week, which welcomed first years into an isolating three-day quarantine period and boasted lackluster online bonding activities, the College welcomed students to campus this year with a live, in-person concert hosted by the Cat in the Cream. First years and returning students alike flocked to Wilder Bowl to watch two Chicago-based bands, Dehd and Bnny, perform last Saturday night.

According to College third-year and Cat in the Cream Booker Lola Chalmers-Dibbell, the event was originally supposed to be held inside the Cat but was moved to Wilder Bowl in order to decrease risk of COVID-19 transmission and comply with the new ObieSafe regulations. Even with the additional regulations, the concert brought excitement that the upcoming semester could provide students with a more typical college experience.

“It was definitely sad that we weren’t able to have the show in the Cat, but I think it was really nice to be able to have something like that in person,” said Chalmers-Dibbell. “There were a lot of people there and it was especially great to be able to have it during orientation, to show first-years the music scene and show them a good time.”

Chalmers-Dibbell feels proud that students could come together and enjoy some good music, especially because booking artists has not been easy over the last year and a half.

“It’s really hard to bring artists right now because we have to tell the artists that they have to wear masks onstage, which sometimes artists and the agents are not very responsive to … so I’m so happy we were able to bring Dehd and Bnny.”

This was the first show that Chalmers-Dibbell secured for the Cat, and she wanted to bring artists from Chicago, her hometown.

“When I first found Dehd [it was] many months ago [and] they were much smaller than they are now, so I wanted to help grow their exposure.” Chalmers-Dibbell said.

Hot off the release of their third studio album, Flower of Devotion,

and a performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Dehd’s popularity has risen significantly in recent weeks. The Chicago DIY bands did not disappoint.

“All the first- and second-years just seemed really excited to meet new people,” Chalmers-Dibbell said. “The audience was so excited, people were crowd surfing, and there was a spontaneous dance circle. At one point there was a mosh pit and people were jumping around and everything was so high energy, and then the next moment people were slow dancing to Bnny’s music. That was so cool.”

While the concert was designed with first-years in mind, they weren’t the only ones getting their first exposure to Oberlin’s music scene; in many ways, it was a do-over orientation for second-years. Last year, when COVID-19 restrictions at Oberlin were at their peak, many concerts and events were canceled or moved online. College second-year Aimee Watts was disappointed in the lack of musical events last year, though she understands why many were canceled and appreciates Oberlin’s efforts to keep students safe.

“I got to experience the Oberlin community coming together to enjoy music, something I had been looking forward to since deciding to come to Oberlin,” Watts said. “Knowing that we had a world-renowned conservatory, I was always drawn to the idea that we would have many music events to go to.”

Watts is not alone in her expectations of Oberlin student life; many people come to Oberlin eagerly awaiting performances and concerts on campus. One such student, College second-year Michael Eddy Harvey, also expressed his disappointment at last year’s lack of concerts.

“I came to Oberlin really looking forward to musical events and coming together as a campus that way, and when everything got restricted it made campus feel low-spirited,” Eddy Harvey said.

He felt that last year was particularly tough to get through without Oberlin’s musical charm and concerts as a break from schoolwork. Watts was excited when she first saw flyers around campus for the event, even though it was still masked. Watts explained that the crowd wearing masks at the event made her feel a lot safer. Eddy Harvey barely noticed them.

“Sure, it was frustrating to feel back at square one when it comes to COVID-19 guidelines, but the energy of the concert itself wasn’t affected,” he said.

Along with many other students, Chalmers-Dibbell was happy with how the event played out. Everybody in attendance wore masks, and even with restrictions, the event achieved its energizing purpose and kicked off a year of stellar Cat in the Cream concerts.

Dehd and Bnny perform for a crowded Wilder Bowl in the Cat in the Cream’s first concert of the fall semester. Photo Courtesy of Lola Chalmers-Dibbell

Squid Game: The Most Popular Show of the Fall

Continued from page 10

acters do things that are truly wrong to survive.

While I’ve gushed about the show for the last few hundred words, there were elements that I didn’t enjoy as much. Though I felt enraptured the majority of the time, there were times where the show began to drag, spending too much time with certain characters or scenes. I’ll try not to give away any spoilers, but I found the cop subplot particularly monotonous, mostly because I felt it distracted from the characters we’d been following from the beginning.

All in all, though, these minor qualms pale in comparison to the show’s successes. No show is perfect, but this one is especially relevant to today. Many people around the world are in the same situations the show’s characters are in and might make the same decisions if the opportunity presented itself. So, if you are thinking about watching Squid Game, I would recommend it — just make sure to block off about eight hours in your day to do so.

Kush Bulmer News Editor

In the Netflix comedy series The Chair, creators Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman tackle college cancel culture, intergenerational changes within academia, political complacency, and the value of studying literature in the midst of global catastrophe.

The show opens with an impromptu and horribly misguided “Sieg Heil” from an English professor at a declining elite college, Pembroke University. A video of this goes viral, outraging the student body and leaving the newly-inaugurated chair of the English department, Professor Ji-Yoon Kim — played by Sandra Oh — to pick up the pieces.

Sandra Oh plays an outstanding character uninhibited by any offensive stereotypes of Asian-American womanhood. Unfortunately, her lofty goals of providing her students with critical thinking skills and empathy are undermined by her need to cater to the demands of the predominantly white institution where she worked hard to gain acceptance. To her students, she comes across as a sellout more aligned with white gatekeepers than the hardworking community of color she is a member of.

The opening scenes depict Kim proudly strolling into the office of the chair. Yet, upon taking her seat, the chair breaks beneath her. Tension builds throughout the show as Kim realizes that the position is not at all what she dreamed of. Despite this reality check, Kim, ever the professional, takes the trials in stride. She doesn’t direct any ill feelings toward her privileged white colleagues, some of whom will not even meet her eyes; she is unwilling to be dismissed as an overly emotional woman. With years of experience dealing with the casual misogyny of the department, she directs the untenured Professor Yasmin McKay on how to correctly interact at a party at the dean’s house. Drink a glass of wine, not two — just enough to schmooze with the rich benefactors.

Kim’s interests as a scholar and teacher are in direct conflict with her personal life, especially considering she is held to a higher standard than her white colleagues. These very same colleagues, however, are the ones she is tasked with supporting. In one emblematic scene, Kim struggles to help Professor Bill Dobson tie his shoes, thereby missing a Title IX meeting with Chaucer scholar and second-wave feminist Professor Joan Hambling, played by Holland Taylor. Kim is forced to maintain Dobson’s high standing while Hambling’s tireless and gendered departmental service is rewarded with inaction, even from her friend and female colleague. Though the scene describes the values that Kim must adhere to in her new position, Kim’s adherence goes beyond simply becoming Pembroke’s institutional figurehead. She cares deeply about Dobson, whose intellectuality and journey at Pembroke matches her own. Further complicating her allegiances, Kim’s adopted daughter Juju — played by Everly Carganilla — seems to be smitten with Dobson. During his suspension, he stands in as a father figure for Juju, who is starved for affection and attention from her workaholic mother. “But why are you a doctor?” Juju asks her mother at one point. “You never help anybody.”

Sandra Oh wonderfully conveys the dueling emotions that Kim experiences. She is lonely, still dealing with the absence of her former fiancé. The empty space in her queen-sized bed is filled with unkempt books and papers — her work has taken the place of her endeavours outside of the classroom. In fact, she deals with her personal problems by putting her head down and studying. Yet, this is not possible in her new position. Though her true passion is teaching, as chair she is constantly pulled away from her own classroom. There are few scenes of Kim teaching throughout the show, but those we do get exhibit that her experience and calm are manifest — even in response to students’ hostility.

In one of the teaching scenes, Kim is shown in front of a blackboard displaying Audre Lorde’s oft-quoted line, “The master’s tools cannot dismantle the master’s house.” The students are outraged with the way that Kim has dealt with the scandal and align her with the white institution’s toxic behaviors. Though the students’ concerns are valid and wellfounded, student activism in the show often comes across as misplaced and ineffectual. Though they succeed in their trial against Dobson, the students antagonize Kim while being unaware or unwilling to see the numerous challenges she faces.

“Well, the university, being a bastion of white supremacy; that’s the master’s house. Therefore, whatever you learn or teach, those are the master’s tools,” a student states.

Another student follows with, “Some women in the academy pretend to be allies, but they’re not really doing the work. They stick a couple of Black women on their panels or on their syllabi, pat themselves on the back, and call it a day. It’s not enough to just insert a few people of color.”

Instead of focusing on academics, Pembroke’s administration wants Kim to deal with public relations and financial concerns over all else. Her teaching is thrown out the window and her personal concerns are disregarded. Furthermore, in the midst of dealing with these issues, Kim leaves behind her female colleagues — who often display the most cutting-edge, scholarly work — as they bear the brunt of the racism and misogyny of the primarily white and elderly department. When Kim is made aware of these facts, she crumples. Throughout the show Kim portrays moments of unharnessed emotion, which are somewhat absent from her professional work. Oh expresses these moments intimately, as if Kim were your own high-achieving and overstressed friend who desperately needs a break.

Through its comedic evocation of an English department in shambles, The Chair provides a nuanced depiction of the various complexities faced by women of color in positions of power. Sandra Oh’s brilliant evocation of one such intelligent and compassionate woman, Professor Ji-Yoon Kim, reveals the conflicting goals of improving the intellectual rigor of undergraduate academia and maintaining her personal and political commitments, all while attempting to steer a deteriorating white institution that doesn’t fully accept her personhood and position.

The Chair, released on Netflix in August, explores the complexities faced by women of color in positions of power within academic institutions.

Courtesy of Netflix

COMIC

Danny Valero Staff Cartoonist