February 15, 2019

The Oberlin Review February 15, 2019

established 1874

Volume 147, Number 13

DeVos’s Title IX Proposal Could Impact Oberlin Anisa Curry Vietze News Editor

Editor’s Note: This article contains mention of sexual harassment and assault.

justice.”

Mariner noted that the Student Senate Health and Wellness Working Group was motivated to host this series to increase education and understanding.

“I think that knowledge about the ADA is really important for us disabled people to know about — to know when we can ask for our rights, and when we aren’t given our rights, and for a little bit of history,” she said. “This is a civil rights issue, and the ADA was earned with intense activism and intense social pressure.”

In addition to this series, there have been several efforts made across campus that strive to make disability rights a priority. Eric Wagenfeld, who just finished his first semester as director of Disability Resources, hopes to make the process of registering for accommodations simpler and more accessible for all students in the future and has developed a three-to-fiveyear strategic plan to accomplish his goals.

“We are going to streamline the process and make it far less confusing,” Wagenfeld said. “We will continue to work with faculty for a universal design for instruction, which is an important part for a campus accepting responsibility as a whole for accomodations. We really just want to make Oberlin that much better — making the process simpler, making the campus more accessible, and reducing the burden on students to get things done.”

Students recognize his efforts.

The public comment period on the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed changes to Title IX regulations has ended. Now, the department, led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, will respond to comments before ultimately deciding to implement changes.

These proposed changes will affect how colleges and universities respond to accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault on campus. Some fear they will lessen the accountability placed on colleges across the country and boost the rights of defendants, making victims of assault less likely to come forward. Supporters of the changes are hopeful that it will fix a failed system that presumes guilt and make the process more fair to accused students. Many faculty and students are wondering how these will affect Oberlin.

“They had over 100,000 comments, which is why most of us don’t feel like it’s going to [be put into law] quite as quickly, because that’s a lot of comments to respond to,” said Title IX and ADA coordinator and director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Rebecca Mosely. “Once they’ve made their response, that’s when they will let us know when it goes into effect. ... But nobody really knows what that’s going to look like at this point.”

Last November, the federal government released a 38-page document outlining the proposed changes. While not all will affect Oberlin specifically, some mandate compliance from colleges and universities. One proposed change that could affect Oberlin students is that of geographic jurisdiction.

“The current proposal as it stands would make it so that a school’s Title IX policy and their office doesn’t have any sort of jurisdiction once it’s outside of the college space, which is terrible because that currently makes it so that no one would be able to do anything from the office if someone got assaulted while they were abroad,” said College senior and Student Senator Kirsten Mojziszek, who is on the Title IX Policy Committee. “That just seems like something that feels so inherent to what you do as a Title IX office: Protect your students no matter what.”

This proposed change could also affect incidents involving students who live in off-campus housing or participate in certain remote Winter Term projects.

“It’s hard because if it’s a law or if this policy comes into effect, we have to follow it — even though we’re a private institution — because we get federal funding, which is why we have so many different grants for students who are Pelleligible or who get work study through the federal government,” Mojziszek said. “All of that would go away if we stopped following the rules, which is horrible. So there’s no, like, ‘Oh, we can just like defy it anyways,’ which sucks.”

Policy changes could also impact how Oberlin handles formal processes to address sexual misconduct. If a student decides to go through the formal process, instead of an alternative one, some of the new rules would already line

See Wagenfeld, page 2

See Proposed, page 2

College sophomore Caleb Knapp, College juniors Johan Cavert and Rachel Sanders, and College senior EmmaLia Mariner ask Eric Wagenfeld questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act following his talk.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

Talks Spark Discussion of Disability Rights Jenna Gyimesi News Editor Eric Wagenfeld, Oberlin’s director of Disability Resources, delivered a talk Monday afternoon called “Understanding the ADA,” which explained the implications and meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights law passed in 1990. The talk was the first in a series of lectures sponsored by the Student Senate Health and Wellness Working Group.

The series is just one component of a growing resurgence of discussion surrounding disability rights on campus. Several upcoming events are scheduled to increase education and facilitate conversation about disability justice and advocacy.

The ADA prohibits discrimination against disabled individuals. The legislation helps ensure that disabled people have equal access to benefits and employment opportunities. It also protects disabled individuals from discrimination in places of public accommodation like restaurants and hotels, as well as protecting individuals in state and local government services and in telecommunication.

Wagenfeld emphasized that people often misunderstand the ADA. In addition to confusion stemming from the size and complexity of the law, Wagenfeld believes that many students are confused about what rights are protected by the ADA in higher education specifically. The laws protecting K-12 students are very different from the ones put in place for colleges and universities, which

are only covered under Section 504, subpart E. “Subpart E basically says that if you are an otherwise qualified student, we cannot say you can’t come here or be here because your disability would be too expensive or something like that,” Wagenfeld said in his talk.

He also noted that students often come to Oberlin expecting to receive the same accommodations they received on the high school level.

“The biggest difference between high school and high ed is that [in higher education] you are entitled to equal access, and we can’t change the pedagogical nature of the class,” he said. “There are certain things that we cannot do; while in high school, students are used to everything they ask [being required of schools]. So we are going from ‘anything I ask will be taken care of’ to ‘some things I ask may not fit into the law,’ and there are times where ‘no’ will be the answer.”

The next lecture in the series will be “Service and Support Animals,” presented by Dr. Jane Miller, a practicing psychiatrist. It will cover legislation regarding emotional support animals and service animals, and will take place Feb. 23. It will be followed by “Studying Disability Before and After the ADA” with Associate Dean of the College Elizabeth Hamilton on March 6.

“The point of the series is for education and celebration of people with disabilities,” said College senior and Student Senator EmmaLia Mariner, who helped organize the lectures. “It’s for the sharing of knowledge of the ADA and disability

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

03 Community Pop-Up Museum Comes to Oberlin

06 Winter Term Reflections on Russia’s Political Climate

08 How to Show the Earth You Love Her

10 Student-Written OSTA Play Discusses Yiddish Culture

15 Volleyball Makes Valentine’s Day Extra Sweet

04 OTC: Krista Long, Owner of Ben Franklin’s and MindFair Books

07 Students Should Recognize Ohioans as Neighbors, Not Just Voters

11

16 From The Perspective of a Black Journalist

The Oberlin Review | February 15 2019

Best Picture Countdown

oberlinreview.org facebook.com/oberlinreview TWITTER @oberlinreview

INSTAGRAM @ocreview

1

Ne w s

Wagenfeld Discusses ADA Continued from page 1

“I think he’s on the right track, and I’ve seen things starting to improve,” said College sophomore and Student Senator Caleb Knapp. “With the resources that [Wagenfeld] had from the start, things are definitely improving … but it’s going to take time.”

Aside from the development of a strategic plan to increase accessibility, spaces on campus have been modified to increase access. A ramp and a lift were recently installed in the Multicultural Resource Center.

Mariner explained that these events stem directly from student activism on campus. “[The MRC ramp] reflects a trend of a lot of disability advocacy that reaches the level of administration and a lot of administration problem-solving concerning the budget issue.”

Mariner is confident that accessibility will continue to increase. “Seeing change in our four years at Oberlin is rare, and I am really proud of being a part of that change and also talking to people who are here for longer and making sure this is on their radar and on their priority list for the future.”

Some believe that these improvements are long overdue and are not enough to make Oberlin an accommodating place for students with disabilities.

“[Disability Resources’] rapid transitions and under-budgeting makes being a disabled student here very difficult,” College junior Rachel Sanders said. “There are no guaranteed accommodations.”

Others grant that some improvements have been made but emphasize the need for more students to become involved in advocacy.

“I’m disabled and I see other disabled people [at these events],” said College junior Charlie Rinehart-Jones. “But I do not see other people who don’t know [about Disability Resources there].”

Reinhart-Jones also noted that those affected by disability rights “is such a big umbrella of people, with all different kinds of differentlyabled people.”

A few campus organizations have formed in attempts to involve more students in disability justice. One such group is Obility, which aims to “create and foster an environment within which ongoing discussions surrounding disability, ableism, and advocacy for disability justice can thrive and develop,” according to Obility’s mission statement.

Disability rights has been a growing conversation on campus since protests broke out regarding staffing shortages in October 2017. Twenty-three percent of Oberlin students are registered with the office.

Proposed Changes to Affect Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Continued from page 1

up with Oberlin’s current framework.

Oberlin already mandates a live hearing; however, the new policy would change the way that hearing would progress.

“The changes that I think are not positive and that are concerning to me, and I’m hoping [they] will be edited out of whatever goes forward, is to have the parties be able to directly question the other party through the use of their advisor,” Mosely said.

This advisor is picked by the student and there are no regulations on who the student chooses.

“The advisors [who] were allowed to do this direct questioning could be lawyers or parents and ask very inappropriate, traumatizing questions,” said Raavi Asdar, a College first-year on the Title IX Policy Committee.

Some are concerned that, in cases where one student can afford an attorney but another can’t, there will be systematic inequities with regard to legal representation.

“I envision a space where — whether

it’s the responding party who’s getting questioned by an attorney, or a reporting party getting questioned by an attorney — that has a very different feel to it than what we have right now, which is more intended to be what colleges are about, which is an educational process,” Mosely said.

Fortunately, according to Mosely, some elements of the proposal could make an informal proceeding more desirable.

“It’s really not all bad,” Mosely said.

“If you choose an alternative dispute process, you have another path. Right now the informal process ... doesn’t allow for mediation. It doesn’t allow for a restorative justice model. ... Typically it’s not just those two people that are feeling the impact of the incident that occurred. ... What I love about some of the alternative dispute resolution models is that it’s not just about person A and person B. It’s about person A, person B, and C, D, E, F, and G, right? So it allows that whole community to come to the table and talk about the impact it has had on them and think about a way to heal as

The Oberlin R eview February 15, 2019 Volume 147, Number 13 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

Second-class postage paid at Oberlin, Ohio. Entered as second-class matter at the Oberlin, Ohio post office April 2, 1911.

POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1081. Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123

2

Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen Nathan Carpenter Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze

Jenna Gyimesi Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Mikaela Fishman Arts Editors Kate Fishman

Katherine MacPhail Sports Editors Jane Agler

Alexis Dill Photo Editor Mallika Pandey Senior Staff Writers Carson Dowhan Roman Broszkowski Leo Lasdun Julie Schreiber

a community.”

Oberlin’s standard of evidence could also be required to change under the proposed reform. Currently, Oberlin’s standard of evidence is called “preponderance of the evidence.” “[Preponderance of the evidence] is mostly known as 50.1 percent,” said Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct and Community Standards Thom Julian. “Basically, it’s more likely than not that the violation occurred, whereas [the] ‘clear and convincing’ [standard] is 75 percent.

‘Beyond a reasonable doubt’ is 99 percent, which is used in criminal court investigations.”

The change would likely compel Oberlin to increase their standard of evidence in formal proceedings, making it more difficult for a victim of sexual assault to make their case.

Other proposed changes likely won’t affect Oberlin, but will affect other colleges and universities. Across the country, many are concerned that the proposal makes it easier for a college to request exemption from the policies

Layout Editors

Parker Shatkin Jake Butcher Lila Michaels Lillian Jones Business Manager Jared Steinberg Ads Manager Jabree Hason Web Manager Sage Vouse Production Manager Giselle Glaspie Production Staff Olive Hwang Lior Krancer Courtney Loeb Devyn Malouf Madi Mettenburg Allison Schmitt Annie Schoonover

of Title IX for religious reasons. Some worry that this makes LGBTQ students who are victims of sexual assault more vulnerable to discrimination. This won’t impact Oberlin, which isn’t a religious institution.

Another proposal would change the national definition of sexual harassment to “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity.” This could mean that schools don’t have to act unless an incident is so severe that the victim is entirely denied their education because of it.

For now, however, the full effects of the proposed changes remain unclear for both Oberlin and colleges across the country.

“It’s a big question mark,” Asdar said.

“We’re just waiting right now, which is limited.”

Students with further questions can contact Rebecca Mosely at the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Corrections: The Feb. 8 editorial “Higher Education Shifts Spell Trouble for Small Liberal Arts Colleges,” incorrectly stated that Antioch College would likely close if it could not merge with another institution. In fact, Hampshire College, not Antioch, is seeking a merger. The editorial has been updated online.

In “Ashby Business Scholars Network Across the Nation,” the deadline to apply for the program was stated to be April 2. The correct deadline is April 8.

To submit a correction, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org.

Chinese Student Association Celebrates Lunar New Year

Security Notebook Friday, Feb. 8, 2019 8:40 a.m. Campus Safety officers received a report that a staff member was stuck in an elevator at Wilder Hall.

When officers arrived, the individual had escaped the elevator. The elevator was put temporarily out of service and an electrician was called.

6:04 p.m. Officers were requested to help remove an unwelcome, non-Oberlin College individual from a dance class at Hales Gymnasium. The individual was located and left the area without incident.

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019

Oberlin students celebrated the Lunar New Year at the 2019 Chinese Student Association Lunar New Year Banquet Saturday, Feb. 9. The CSA hosts this event annually, showcasing authentic food and beautiful musical performances. The dress code was semi-formal, and the Root Room was packed with students excited to embrace the cultural display. The Chinese New Year is also referred to as the Spring Festival and celebrates the end of the coldest days of winter. College junior Justin Lixie, co-chair of CSA, found the experience of organizing the banquet extremely gratifying. “Organizing an event for almost 200 people was more than just tiring,” he said. “In the end, I felt gratified by how much joy the event brought to students who are far from home.”

Text by Ananya Gupta, Managing Editor Photo Courtesy of the Chinese Student Association

Community Pop-Up Museum Comes to Oberlin Leo Lasdun Senior Staff Writer The Oberlin Heritage Center will host a “pop-up museum” at the First Church in Oberlin, United Church of Christ on March 10 with the theme of “Older Than I Am.” The exhibit transforms community members into curators by sourcing items from their own personal histories. Anyone interested is encouraged to display their artifacts.

Mary Anne Cunningham, assistant to the director of the Oberlin Heritage Center, explained that the pop-up museum will complement the OHC’s mission of connecting community members with history.

“We’re always looking for new ways to connect people with history,” Cunningham said. “We thought this would be a really fun way to engage people with one another and allow them to share their own histories with each other in the community.”

Though still almost a month away, the pop-up museum has already drawn significant attention from the community. At the time of publication, the Facebook event listed 58 people as interested, many of whom are students.

“I think it gives students a unique opportunity to bring something that might have cultural importance to them

[…] and to engage with other people who bring items in,” College sophomore Tom Decker said.

Many Oberlin students likely haven’t brought anything to campus that directly fits the theme “Older Than I Am.” Even so, they are still encouraged to visit the pop-up museum and learn more about the history of the town, as well as hear stories from Oberlin community members.

“I think it’s definitely going to bring specific kids who are interested in learning more about Oberlin,” Decker said.

The event will be co-hosted with the Oberlin African American Genealogy & History Group, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote historical research and genealogy in Oberlin’s African-American community.

“These are often objects that belonged to someone’s ancestors, so that is something that links directly to our mission,” OAAGHG President Annessa Oliver-Wyman said.

The collaboration was beneficial for everyone involved.

“Both groups are very interested in Oberlin history, so it just seemed like a natural fit,” Cunningham said. “We really want to get a lot of people involved, so it’s great to partner with others to try to expand the audience a little bit.”

In terms of what artifacts will be on

display at the museum, Cunningham is expecting substantial variety. There won’t be many restrictions on what people can bring, aside from the museum’s theme.

“The only requirement is that [the individual] can carry it in and out on their own,” she said.

According to Cunningham, OHC Executive Director Liz Schultz will be bringing in a vintage typewriter that patrons will have the opportunity to try out. Most items on display, however, will be for viewing only.

The pop-up museum has encouraged some to explore and engage with their family histories in ways they otherwise may not have. One woman plans to display her grandparents’ wedding photo and was inspired to find out more about the image. “[The event] has prompted her to do a little research and figure out exactly which church it was in,” Cunningham said. “It will prompt her to do a little family genealogy.”

The museum will be held in the Fellowship Hall at the First Church in Oberlin, U.C.C. on March 10. Doors open at 1:30 p.m., and the exhibit will be open from 2–4 p.m. Those interested in bringing an artifact to display should register in advance on the Oberlin Heritage Center’s website or by calling Bethany Hobbs at (440) 774-1700.

Community Member Pleads Not Guilty to Assault Jenna Gyimesi News Editor Oberlin resident Leo Evans III, 31, pleaded not guilty on Feb. 8 to charges of abduction, disrupting public services, and assault. Evans has previously been employed by both The Feve and The Local Coffee & Tea. The events in question allegedly occurred Nov. 13, 2018 and involved Evans and an Oberlin student with whom he had been in a relationship. On Nov. 18, an Oberlin The Oberlin Review | February 15, 2019

community member heard Evans and the student arguing about the events of Nov. 13 outside of Kim’s Grocery and Carryout and informed police. Officers located the student and accompanied them to Evans’ place of residence to retrieve their personal belongings later that night.

The student pressed formal charges against Evans. An arrest warrant was issued for Evans Nov. 22 and Evans voluntarily turned himself into the police

four days later. Evans posted bond Dec. 5 and was released on the condition that he wear a GPS monitoring device. He was indicted Jan. 25 for assault, disrupting public services, and abduction. Evans was arraigned and pleaded not guilty earlier this week. The pretrial hearing is set for Feb. 20.

Campus Safety Officers had previously responded to an incident involving the student and Evans in a College residential building on Oct. 30.

2:36 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student at a Village Housing Unit who was ill from alcohol consumption.

The student was able to answer all questions and said they wanted to stay in their room for the night.

3:31 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Village Housing Unit. The cause of the alarm was found to be smoke from burnt food. The area was cleared, and the alarm was reset.

8:53 a.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student at Barrows Hall.

An ambulance was requested and the student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

2:26 p.m. A resident of a Village Housing Unit reported several items missing from their apartment. An Xbox One, two controllers, and a video game were missing. Members of the Oberlin Police Department also responded.

7:28 p.m Officers responded to the Woodland Street parking lot to assist a student who had fallen on ice and injured their ankle. An ambulance was requested and the student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Monday, Feb. 11, 2019 12:49 a.m. Officers transported an ill student from a Village Housing Unit to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019 10:37 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the third floor of Barrows Hall. The cause of the alarm was smoke from cooking. A work order was filed both to clean the stove and install a ventilation fan. The area was cleared and the alarm reset.

10:54 a.m. Officers responded to assist with a safety inspection in a room on the third floor of Kahn Hall. A bagged smoke detector, a jar containing a substance consistent with marijuana, two bongs, and a metal grinder were in plain view.

The bag was removed and the other items were turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

4:43 p.m. Officers responded to assist with a safety inspection in a room on the third floor of Langston Hall. In plain view were two bagged smoke detectors, two homemade bongs, a plastic bag containing a substance consistent with marijuana, and a bag filled with unidentifiable pills.

The bags were removed, the bongs were disposed of, and the remaining items were turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019

4:40 a.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student at Burton Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

3

Ne w s OFF THE CUFF

OTC: Krista Long, Owner of Ben Franklin’s

Krista Long, an Oberlin native, is the owner and operator of Ben Franklin and MindFair Books. She is a highly active member of the Oberlin community. In addition to owning two small businesses, Long has children who went to Oberlin public schools. She has also participated in Cleveland 101, an orientation program that introduced incoming first-years to the area and taught them how best to navigate the Oberlin and greater Northeast Ohio community during first-year orientation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nathan Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief Giselle Glaspie, Production Manager Justin Godfrey I’m curious about your experience as a business owner in a small town and the community that you’ve found here.

I’ve worked in different capacities in downtown Oberlin; in high school, I worked in the co-op bookstore, and then I went away to college, came back, and worked there. It was quite a while ago, but the connections I made there were really good, and that store kind of gave me an idea of what a community store can be like.

You know, ’cause there were activities, we had this poster room upstairs, we had a train room upstairs — it was a co-op, so it was community-oriented. ... So then when I bought Ben Franklin’s, I tried to go in that same direction.

A bookstore is always a gathering place for the community. Four or five years ago we really ramped up our events related to books and created that seating area in the middle of the store to try to give a comfortable space for readings or gatherings. ... I like the way different members of the community — and even from the wider area outside of Oberlin — come to Ben Franklin for the books, for the framing, and just for basic needs.

And people’s paths cross — well, they cross mine, for sure.

And I like seeing all that, you know, rubbing shoulders with a big variety of people. That’s been good for me.

Can you talk about how you’ve attempted to bridge the gap between Oberlin College and the city of Oberlin?

That is what this store is about and always has been throughout its history. Since 1935, it’s been a place that brings both of those communities together, and personally bringing me into contact with both communities. Even in 2001, before I owned Ben Franklin’s, I had two little kids and hired College students as babysitters. It was one of the best things I did for my kids. Bringing that vitality and youthfulness of the student population was really important to me and my kids.

Also, I had both College and high school students working for me, so that brought those two communities together, and the bookstore definitely brings those kids together. ...

I know there are tensions between those communities, but I always feel like I’m in a middle place. I am advocating for the community to the College, and advocating for the College to the community, and I like that position because I feel

Ben Franklin’s, an iconic and beloved shop in downtown Oberlin.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

like I am aware of the pluses of both sides, the minuses too, but I try to focus on the pluses.

How do you feel that students can be more engaged in bridging College and town communities?

I just encourage students to get off campus, even if it’s just coming downtown, going to Slow Train, The Feve, any of the restaurants, and Ben Franklin. ... Just try to talk to people — if someone is sitting next to you at Slow Train, just reaching out is important.

Specifically with regard to MindFair, how do books end up here and what decisions do you make around what kind of books you have?

Yeah, so, I don’t make a lot of those decisions today.

Dick Riley is our book buyer, and he definitely chooses the new releases that come.

And, of course, he and I both have been selling books for a long time in this community, so [we] have a real sense of what people are interested in. ... The book selection really reflects the community that we’re in. We also work with a couple who does a lot of buying from remainders and overstock. We can’t really put a lot of dollars into it, but they have some other businesses, so they bring books to us on a consignment basis. And again, because they’ve been doing that for a long time, like maybe even 10 years, they have a real good sense of what sells. The longer you’ve been in book-buying, the more you can kind of find those little things that fit the niches. And just by paying attention to what does sell, you figure out what will sell.

I’m curious how you’ve seen the town and College evolve and change over your time here.

Yeah, it definitely has. I guess ... it’s definitely part of a bigger picture. I mean, when I was growing up and even

Krista Long

when I was working downtown as a high school student, as I said, we still had two drugstores, a men’s clothing store, a women and children’s clothing store, more barber shops, a shoe store, two hardware stores. ... [The town] was already starting to change, which was brought on by the malls. So the malls pulled a lot of that business away, and stores like clothing stores just really couldn’t make it here anymore. And that process has continued slowly as far as the downtown business community is concerned. Now, people have to go out of town or shop online in order to get a lot of things that they need, because it’s just not worth it to us — those few retailers that are down here.

On the other hand, [Oberlin has] become much more of an entertainment destination. So a lot of people come into town to eat in all of the great restaurants that we have here, or to come to the movie theater, to come to plays, talks, concerts, all of that stuff. I mean, they’ve always done that, but it’s more true today than it was. So we’re kind of a destination.

And even in terms of history, we have people doing the history tours in the summer; the Underground Railroad museum is about to launch. So there’s that history that draws people here, as well as a tourism thing. So that’s kind of a major shift.

The demographics at the College have changed. ...

Younger faculty are looking for more of an urban lifestyle, urban setting. So that’s changed the number of College families that are living

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

in town, I think. I mean, still plenty do, but it’s less than before. And it’s reflected in our school demographics. When I graduated, our graduating class was, like, 135. I know that’s tiny, but it’s tinier today. My daughter’s graduating class in 2014 was about 85, so that’s pretty significant, and it is an indication of the number of families living here. ...

There’s lots at the high end and we have a fair amount of Section 8-type housing, but there’s not a lot in the middle.

And we’re working on that right now, with the creation of a land trust, which is an exciting thing.

Do you feel like it’s important for students to learn about the history of this community and understand it beyond the information you get on an Admissions brochure?

Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to ... I was out there shoveling the walk this morning and I was thinking this thought: It’s kind of like, how would you act if you were going to a foreign country? Not that we’re foreigners here, you know, but you’re in a new place. There’s new culture, new food, new people, new history. I mean, if you were traveling you would seek it out and want to find out about it. I know you’re not here traveling, but I just think a curious mind is critical to success in the world. You have to be interested in where you are, what you are, and something different than yourself and different than your prior experience. You have to be open to it, and that’s why I think it’s really critical.

Oberlin Community News Bulletin Oberlin Rabbi Teaches Students How to “Live Spiritually” Have questions about incorporating religion into your life? Join Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Elkan and Oberlin Meditator Jacques Rutzky as they discuss what it means to live your life spiritually in a modern world.

This casual discussion will take place Feb. 19 from 4:30– 5:30 p.m. in Wilder Hall, room 211. Though aimed at students, “Uncovering Spirituality” will be open to the public as well. All are welcome, regardless of religious background.

4

OCMS Hosts Electronic Music Classes Oberlin Community Music School will hold electronic music composition classes on Sundays from 1–2:15 p.m. at Oberlin Community Music School. Classes will run for nine weeks beginning Feb. 17. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn how to compose electronic music; build microphones, portable recorders, and keyboards; and use audio-editing software. The course will culminate in a performance by each student, and is recommended for individuals ages 10–18.

Great Lakes Theater Brings Treasure Island to Oberlin Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater company is coming to the Oberlin Public Library on Feb. 24 with a performance of Treasure Island. Tag along with young Jim Hawkins on his voyage across the ocean as he searches for Captain Flint’s lost treasure. Watch a daring cast as they incorporate puppets, slapstick humor, music, and more to bring a classic pirate story to life. This production is based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and was adapted by Eric Schmiedl. The show will take place from 2–3 p.m. and is recommended for anyone age six or older.

February 15, 2019

OPINIONS

Letter to the Editors

established 1874

Empty Mugs Holiday Brass and Organ Spectacular Proves Highly Successful This Year To the Editors: What a joyous, beautiful event was the Empty Mugs Holiday Brass and Organ Spectacular, held at the First Church in Oberlin last Friday, Feb. 8!

Thank you to the hundreds of people who attended, and thank you to all of the many, many people, organizations, and businesses who donated time, talent, and resources — it couldn’t have happened without you! Although I cannot possibly name everyone to whom I owe gratitude, I extend a special thanks to Artistic Director Evelyn Proffit, Volunteer Coordinator Michele Andrews, the Oberlin Pottery Co-op (led by

Emma Dreyfuss and Jack Flotte), the Oberlin Brass Ensemble, the Oberlin Choristers, the First Church in Oberlin, The Feve, and Chris and Noelle Breuer. The evening was such a beautiful extravaganza of music, mugs, good cheer, and festive fundraising for Oberlin Community Services. I am deeply touched by the community’s show of support and generosity. Through the auction, pottery sales, and donations, close to $1,300 was raised — a new record! That will help a lot of people get through the cold winter months.

Margie L. Flood Executive Director, OCS

Scuba Diving Can Help People Deal with Physical, Mental Challenges Ananya Gupta Managing Editor I must be the only 20-year-old who, when presented with the opportunity to travel to Goa, the party state of India, decided to spend it all several meters under water.

Under the tutelage of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, I underwent rigorous training and testing over the span of a week to become a certified Open Water Diver. I am now qualified to dive up to a depth of 18 meters (60 feet) when accompanied by a dive buddy or dive professional anywhere in the world.

While scuba diving had already been on my bucket list — courtesy of elitist Bollywood films and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — I also seem to be a part of the generation of “conscious travelers.”

Traveling with purpose seems to have become the trend of 2019, and millenials are apparently less interested in uninhibited trysts with hedonism and more interested in being eco-conscious, service-oriented, or focusing on self-care while on vacation.

Going into scuba training, one of my main goals was to appreciate marine life

in its natural habitat. As an Environmental Studies major, I no longer feel comfortable visiting zoos or wildlife and marine parks, where species are confined for our perusal and often mistreated. In the ocean, we were in their territory and under strict instructions to respect their space, with no barriers to prevent the sealife from retaliating in case we misbehaved or irked them in any way.

It was therefore surprising when my vacation with a purpose took a sharp turn from appreciating the environment to grappling with physical and mental hurdles. A turn which suddenly felt like an enormous, insurmountable obstruction to learning this adventure sport.

After taking theory lessons and setting up equipment, the course’s difficulty increased significantly — first during the five pool sessions known as confined water dives, and later during the four open water dives in the ocean. Though I am a fairly athletic person, my weight training is usually limited to lightweights. It was thus extremely challenging for my body to adjust to the 20-25kg diving equipment.

My greatest hurdle, however, turned out to be mental. Having grown up with See Confronting, page 6

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers.

All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style. Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor.

The Oberlin Review | February 15, 2019

Volume 147, Number 13

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen

Nathan Carpenter

Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

Opinions Editor Jackie Brant

Students Should Support Neighbors Through Programs Like OCS America today is defined by skyrocketing economic inequality, broken social welfare systems, and politicians who seem apathetic about both.

The political and social institutions that are supposed to ensure the health and safety of all citizens simply do not work, and the discrepancies in who benefits from them are only growing more extreme.

These realities were painfully obvious during the recent federal government shutdown, which stretched from Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018 to Friday, Jan. 25 of this year — the longest in U.S. history.

Almost immediately, stories of federal workers struggling to make ends meet while deprived of their normal paychecks began to flood national media.

The shutdown had a huge impact, even beyond those directly affected.

Those impacts were felt right here in Oberlin. Last week, the Review published “Effects of Shutdown Ripple Through Oberlin,” which looked at how Oberlin residents were affected by the shutdown and how the community rallied to support them.

Oberlin Community Services, a local direct assistance and outreach organization, was particularly impacted. Demand for their services — which include rent and mortgage assistance, helping residents afford medication, and food assistance — rose far above typical levels. In response, Oberlin City Council made an unprecedented allocation of $4,000 taxpayer dollars to help OCS get through the shutdown.

While all this was happening, politicians in Washington seemed completely divorced from the dire realities of the shutdown. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump made particularly inflammatory comments that drew well-deserved ire, but other Republicans — and, frankly, some Democrats — did not seem to understand the urgency of going more than a month without pay.

While those comments were made specifically about the shutdown, they are representative of incredibly harmful political dynamics. Specifically, those at the very top of the U.S.’s political and economic structures have done an excellent job concentrating wealth and power and hoarding it from everybody else.

For better or worse, this leaves organizations like OCS to pick up the slack. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, it is stunning that a battle over a racist border wall caused a government shutdown lasting more than a month. It is even more disheartening that the responsibility for addressing its impacts fell directly on the shoulders of already overworked, under-resourced organizations — but here we are.

There are many lessons to take away from the shutdown, but perhaps the most immediately relevant is how vital the work of organizations like OCS is.

Without OCS, many Oberlin residents would have struggled even more during the shutdown — that alone is a testament to the organization’s importance.

It’s also a testament to why members of the College community, particularly students, should support OCS and other programs in Oberlin that help meet the various needs of residents. While right-wing narratives about Oberlin students living in a bubble are often misplaced and sometimes malicious, it is true that the average student here comes from greater means and privilege than the average American and certainly the average resident of Northeast Ohio — Lorain County has higher poverty rates than the country as a whole, and Oberlin specifically has a poverty rate that fluctuates between 20–25 percent.

Take time to volunteer, donate, or even just get to know the folks who work at OCS. They do incredible work to support this community, often in ways that we students are entirely oblivious to. The College should not exist in a largely wealthy silo: It is important that we leverage our institutional resources to address the needs of the broader community.

There was once a time in Oberlin’s history when the triumphs and challenges of the town and College were linked more closely than they are now. In many ways, we no longer rise and fall as one, and that disconnect threatens an otherwise powerful solidarity.

In a time when obstacles on the national level seem overwhelming, it’s vital to dig in right here in Oberlin and rediscover that solidarity. Supporting the work of OCS — particularly in these uncertain political times — is one important step, of many, in that direction.

Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Opinions Editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

5

Opi n ions

Confronting Fears Encourages Growth Continued from page 5

anxiety, the combination of not being able to speak or breathe normally was extremely panic-inducing. The weight, coupled with the need to breathe solely through the mouth, pushed my anxiety to an all-time high, and I really struggled during pool sessions as well as my first day of open water diving. While the marine life I saw was truly awe-inspiring — multi-colored corals, schools of fish, and even a rare seahorse — I spent my first two dives completely preoccupied with orienting myself and managing my panic.

These experiences were even more overwhelming because the course included a long list of skills we had to master. Such skills included retrieving a lost regulator, emptying a mask full of water while submerged, swimming nine meters on a single breath of air, navigating with a compass underwater, and removing and putting on equipment underwater, among many others. I was already panic-stricken when everything was going right; to then simulate scenarios when things go wrong was one of the most terrifying ex-

periences of my life. It did not help that the scenario about lung overexpansion injury — portrayed through a bursting balloon — played repetitively in my brain the whole time.

Overcoming the physical challenges of diving was relatively simple. Keeping my mind from dwelling on the worst case scenario was not.

The more I obsessed about my fears, the more immobile I became, which is an incredibly dangerous state to be in underwater as you consume air. Diving taught me to “stop, think, and act” in the face of adversity, and to master my fear. Gaining control over my panic and anxiety was by far my greatest takeaway from this endeavor, and I’m so grateful to have had an opportunity to do so.

I would encourage folks to pursue deep sea diving, or your equivalent of deep sea diving — an adventure that scares you but is rewarding for your personal growth and well-being. You might be surprised at what you can accomplish because, as I learned, it’s not about eradicating your fear. It’s about learning to manage fear and not allowing it to get in the way of achieving your goals.

Winter Term Reflections on Russia’s Contemporary Political Climate Abigail Keller Contributing Writer Over Winter Term, I went to St. Petersburg to learn about contemporary Russia. Are all Russians as complacent about politics as the media makes them out to be? Are they all misled by state-controlled media? Are they all supporters of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin?

Unfortunately, Western media is so obsessed with Putin that the views of other Russian people get barely any attention. While in St. Petersburg, I heard opinions and stories from many Russians who provided valuable insight into these questions. I must also note that everybody I interviewed was well-educated and spoke excellent English.

One of the many complicated reasons that Russians are passive towards their government is fear. I spoke with a young businessman named Ruslan who runs his own real estate company. He told me that things aren’t going well, and that Russia is not friendly to small and medium-sized businesses.

Despite his dissatisfaction, he chooses to stay put and say nothing out of fear — he has two children and no place to run.

Another businessman, Dmitry, also chooses to stay silent and avoid protests. He works at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, teaching students who will become future civil servants. He believes that there is nothing to discuss about politics in Russia. “What can you discuss?” he said. “Another law, another funny story from the parliament — there is no

6

breaking news in politics. So when I am talking about politics, it is more about jokes.”

On the other hand, Alexei Navalny, an important political force, is trying to enact change in Russia. He became famous in the Russian political sphere by leading anti-corruption demonstrations. His YouTube videos have a large audience. He is the country’s only career politician who opposes Putin.

Navalny was barred from running in last year’s presidential election and didn’t manage to become the mayor of Moscow back in 2013. Dmitry expresses little faith in Navalny for two reasons.

“The first is that he is not still in jail, and as a person who lives in Russia, I find it a bit suspicious, because it is not difficult to put him in jail and forget about his YouTube channel,” Dmitry said. “I read some newspapers that said that our government, our president, cannot put Navalny in jail because people will go on the streets and it will be crazy. … People have much more important issues in their life than to go out in the streets and worry about Navalny.”

On a separate occasion, I met up with two young mathematicians, Yana Teplitskaya and Ekaterina “Katya” Kosarevskaya, both human rights activists and members of the Public Monitoring Commission. On the basis of federal law, their working group investigates complaints regarding torture and other illegal violence committed by officers of the Federal Security Service by speaking with prisoners and documenting their descriptions of torture.

In our meeting, they mostly dis-

cussed the young men accused in “The Network” case, a series of arrests beginning in Oct. 2017 when 11 anarchists and anti-fascists were detained in Penza and St. Petersburg. According to the FSB, all the detainees were members of the unimaginatively titled organization “Network” and were planning to use bombs to destabilize the political climate in the country during the presidential elections and the FIFA World Cup. Several accused men have claimed that they were tortured into incriminating themselves.

Yana and Katya were the first people to find out that Viktor Filinkov — one of the suspects — was tortured by the FSB. They posted his complaints on social media, sparking immense outrage among a small circle of Russian activists and independent journalists. Despite the fact that Viktor was tortured by government actors, Yana and Katya consider themselves to be human rights — and not political — activists. But in Russia, politics and human rights are interchangeable; pensions and torture are human rights issues, and those rights are violated by the government.

I met with another activist, Jenya Kolakova, who introduced me to an initiative called “Last Address.” The project has a broad public initiative aimed at preserving the memory of victims of political repression during the years of Soviet power, primarily during Stalinist times. Thousands of personal memorial signs of the same design are installed on house facades, which belonged to the last known victims of that era.

I had a close encounter with the Russian police the day I met with Jen-

ya. To make the story short, the police arrived 30 minutes before one of these memorial installations. They waited in front of the Shostakovich statue in the courtyard of the building. The police told Jenya that they would arrest everyone participating in the ceremony for committing vandalism.

I could not understand why anyone would oppose the installation of a memorial plaque for a victim of Stalin’s political repression. However, I recalled seeing a huge pile of flowers on Stalin’s grave during my visit to Moscow’s Red Square.

For almost 20 minutes, Jenya calmly answered all the police’s questions and showed the necessary paperwork.

I later asked her why anyone in the government could be against “Last Address.”

“They don’t like any activity which does not run under their control,” Jenya said. “We do everything without their will, control, support, or protection — we don’t need them.

Since Yana and Katya had earlier told me that they are not political activists, I asked Jenya if she considered herself an activist.

“Of course I consider myself as an activist, and the ‘Last Address’ is not the only part of my [activism],” she said. “In today’s circumstances, this work is very much political, because we do the things that should be done by the government — we do it against the government’s will, and very often against the obstacles that they create for us. Of course, it shouldn’t be political work, but it is.”

I also spoke with Varya MihailoSee Complicated, page 7

People Should Treat Every Day Like It’s Valentine’s Day Maddi Kimball Contributing Writer

The photo “9 Stages in the Decomposition of the Leader” (2015) by Russian activist Rodina was carried in protest by Varya Mihailova, who Keller interviewed over Winter Term.

Photo courtesy of Hyperallergic Magazine

Complicated Attitudes in Current Russian Politics Continued from page 6

va, a prominent social activist who supports the rights of sex workers, LGBT people, and survivors of domestic abuse.

Perhaps Varya’s most famous action was displaying a painting named “9 Stages of Leader’s Decay,” for which she was fined the equivalent of $2,500.

When I asked Varya why not many Russians are politically active, her response was firm. She fervently believes that passivity is not a part of the Russian mentality, but instead that a lack of resources and a deep-rooted skepticism make Russian people unable to fight back.

She also commented that, because of Russia’s political history, many Russians just want to be disconnected from politics. When it came to Navalny, Varya expressed that she did not care that he was a nationalist, but appreciated his work to expose corrupt politicians.

Last but not least, I finished my inquiry into people’s political beliefs in contemporary Russia in Navalny’s own St. Petersburg campaign headquarters. The location is certainly public; the building is located near the Griboedov Canal in the heart of the city, and there is no way to miss the large sign with Navalny’s name on it. Inside the headquarters, I met Ilya Gantvarg, a young law student. He is a Navalchata, or a “little Navalny,” a term that refers to followers of Navakny.

The Navalchata create videos to show people that the political situation in Russia is dire, which they also publish on social networks. People understand that there is corruption, and they do want The Oberlin Review | February 15, 2019

to change the country. Unfortunately, as Ilya pointed out, “Many people are scared to go to rallies because they know that the police can catch them. ... But younger people do not care about this.”

Because of general distrust towards the government, the Navalchata focus not just on protesting but also on participating in municipal elections.

Denis Mihailov, the 22-yearold coordinator of Navalny’s St. Petersburg headquarters, is planning on running in the upcoming municipal elections, and other Navalchata are as well.

Over the course of my trip, I came to understand and admire everyone I met. Russian propaganda is not working as well as Western media thinks it is. It is misleading, in my opinion, to call Russians passive for not being civically active.

Who can you call passive?

You can call me, a free-thinking feminist, “passive” for not participating in the Women’s March, for not contacting my state representative to fight unfair laws, and so on. I, however, can do all of these things without worrying about losing my job, being kicked out of college, or getting arrested. In comparison to the Russians I met, I am passive.

Further reading and acknowledgments: I’d like to express my special thanks to Leokadia Frenkel, Elena Stolova, and my Winter Term advisor Maia Solovieva for their help and guidance. To learn more about the Network Case, the Last Address initiative, and current issues in Russia, please refer to the online version of this article for links.

This year, I swore I wouldn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day. Not because I am anti-Valentine’s Day, or because Cupid skipped over me this year, but because I find myself wondering what the point of Valentine’s Day truly is. Prioritizing someone for a hot second, and then falling back into a monotonous cycle of pushing them aside until an anniversary comes around? Take it from me, a girl who was so fed up with this cycle in her own relationship that she chose Valentine’s Day of all days to end a relationship — which was rather convenient, as chocolate was half-off the next day.

I don’t know about you, but Valentine’s Day seemed so much more palatable as a small child, when it meant that you made cute individual Valentine’s Day cards for everyone in your class and taped a small piece of candy to it.

Those cute little Valentine’s grams disappeared as you got older, and the holi-

day became about a deep romantic love that you could only understand by watching movies like The Notebook — or any Nicholas Sparks movie, for that matter. Many of us have dreamt about being swept off our feet by true love — and if you haven’t, good for you, because you’ve saved yourself the disappointment of realizing your crush wasn’t standing below your window blasting “In Your Eyes.”

I dreamt about those grand romantic gestures as a kid, until my high school boyfriend asked me to senior prom with a dozen red roses and a bunch of lit candles spelling out “PROM?” under a starry night. All I felt was nausea, a repulsion toward the romantic cliché.

So, it’s not for me. I will not be the Julia Stiles to your Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, nor the Julia Roberts to your Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. That’s not to say that you and your significant other can’t live out those romantic clichés on Valentine’s Day, but rather, consider living them out on any ordinary day of the year.

This year I’m throwing in

the towel on Valentine’s Day, not because I’m the grinch of romantic clichés or because it reminds me of a terribly timed break up, but because I’d rather treat every day as if it were Valentine’s Day for the ones I love and care for.

I’m not saying you should boycott Valentine’s Day this year or for the rest of your life — just don’t do that. Don’t cancel your fancy dinner plans and blow out all of the lit candles on your shelves.

Instead, consider making grand gestures more often than maybe twice a year.

After all, there are very few things in this world that promote love — whether that be loving yourself or loving others — so take Valentine’s Day as a model for how you should prioritize yourself, your family, friends, partners, and even strangers, for that matter.

If you chose to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, I hope that it was filled with the love that you deserve, but I also hope that you realize that every day is a chance to remind someone of how much you love and appreciate them.

Students Should Recognize Ohioans as Neighbors, Not Just Voters Elmo Tumbokon Contributing Writer Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers and organizer of the Delano Grape Strikes, reminded a crying audience the day after the 2016 election, “This will not be the first time your country will break your heart.” Hearing that from the crowd, my heart pulled. And my heart sighed. And my heart grieved. But we picked ourselves up.

That election energized my generation.

It made us eager to campaign harder next time, and it made those of us who didn’t campaign regret it. In the 2018 midterm elections, voter turnout of people ages 1829 increased by 10 percent since the 2014 midterms. This has much to do with the rise in young campaign volunteers knocking on doors and ringing telephone lines, many of whom you can see on campus and can expect to see more of as 2020 rolls around. If the 2016 election is a bad break up, then civic engagement is how we’re getting through it.

My concern, however, is that we have allowed the urgency of this work to distract us from remembering what civic engagement is supposed to mean. Amidst the canvassing and the phone banking, when College campaign volunteers talk to Ohio voters instead of talking with them, we have to ask: What use is civic engagement if we forget to connect with people?

There is a problem when campaign volunteers from this rural Ohio liberal arts college — the most ardent of whom come from coastal-elite, liberal safe havens — invest triple-digit hours trying to swing districts blue while failing to show even the smallest amount of neighborly love to the people who make up these districts.

There is a problem when College students spend column inches and Facebook posts

preaching the importance of voting, but won’t acknowledge native Ohioans with a friendly “Good morning.” There is a problem when — and I have seen this far too often — volunteers walk through an entire neighborhood asking for people to promise their vote, but never stop to ask if they feel their voice is being heard.

I understand Ohio is a coveted arena in the national electoral imagination, and college transplants want to play their part in swinging this purple state blue. But this fixation prevents us from seeing the people of Ohio as neighbors we coexist with outside of an electoral context.

This attitude reduces Ohio to a political playground to be talked about in abstraction. I have heard many students excited at the prospect of Senator Sherrod Brown’s presidential bid for no reason other than wanting to see an Ohioan make this nation blue. Other students talk only about the dream of unseating current OH-4 Representative Jim Jordan — founder of the far-right Freedom Caucus — regardless of which Democrat is running.

Perhaps Ohio is more than 18 electoral votes and a couple of seats. Maybe Ohio is more than a place we will later remember for the times when we lived a block from cornfields. This is a place full of people who live rich and full lives, whose senator has more important work than vying for a seat in the executive. Ohioans are a people who deserve to be remembered outside of elections.

As the 2020 race comes into the limelight, I am calling for heightened neighborly love for Ohio. Put people and community over political fantasy. Root out our metropolitanism and throw away our detest for anything rural. Smile at passersby for no reason other than that’s just what Midwesterners do.

7

HOW TO SHOW THE EARTH

YOU LOVE HER Lovers come and go, but the earth will stick around for another five billion years (we hope). This Valentine’s Day, forget your crush on that jazz boi — he’s probably too busy working on his music to be there for you anyway — and give your love to someone who will always love you back: Mother Nature.

Layout, text, and drawings by Mikaela Fishman, This Week Editor

CONSERVE

RECYCLE!

It’s important to recycle in order to save duce waste, b energy and re ut it’s counte rproductive to erly. If some recycle impro thing non-rec pyclable or co placed in a re vered in food cycling bin, th is e entire conte could be thro nts of the bin wn into the g arbage. Here lines about w are some guid hat you can eand cannot re according to cycle in Obe the city of O rlin, berlin and Re Team websit s o urce Conserva es: tion Do not recyc le Always recy Tissues and cle (once cle paper towels aned of any food Coffee cups a waste) nd lids Glossy and n Cloth ormal paper Plastic (#1– Hardcover bo #7, numbers oks printed on th Plastic bags e plastic itself ) Cardboard (fl Food waste attened) Tin and alum Styrofoam inum cans Glass Shredded pa per Milk cartons Straws and similar it ems Waxed card board

TURN OFF LIGHTS WHEN YOU LEAVE A ROOM! ME WITH THE EARTH TI TY LI UA Q E M SO D EN SP famously wrote, “In e forestry engineer Baba Dioum

As Senegales love.” Try laying down we at wh ly on e erv ns co ll wi we the end unt the sounds you Co . es tre the at up g kin loo d on the ground an the clouds move. Pick a tch wa s, lor co of m tru ec sp the hear, notice ention to it. What color is the att y pa d an nd ou gr of tch pa small cold? Take a deep the d ve rvi su ts ec ins or s nt pla dirt? Have any und you. In order to take aro on ing go is at wh e tic no d breath an fall in love with it. st mu we t firs , rth ea the of re ca

Get involved wit

PICK UP LITTER!

Food rescue Food rescuing i food that would to food pantries of Oberlin are p Services to distr need. To get in

GARDEN!

the e Connect directly to ne of t volunteering at o round munity gardens a ard be Garden and orch AJLC ness, run by the cilities Contact AJLC Fa ach C Community Outre for in Benjamin Hobbs ed. how to get involv ity S Oberlin Commun varie OCS organizes a it ww ing initiatives. Vis /gar munityservices.org . more information ree Science Center G rB It’s mainly used fo to v and is not open u’re quently, but if yo wa working there or se contact Greenhou shm Laushman at jlau

PULL INVASIVES Invasive species are non-native plants th at harm local ecosystems. General ly introduced by hu mans, these plants aren’t eaten by native animals, w hich allows them to spread unch ecked. Shown here are the common invasives g arlic mustard, autum n olives, and common reed.

E RESOURCES

th the Resource Conservation Team!

is when organizations take edible d otherwise go to waste and bring it s and shelters. The RCT and the city partnering with Oberlin Community ribute food to community members in nvolved, contact recycle@oberlin.edu.

earth through the many comOberlin. ehind HarkC Manager and Coordinator nformation on

Services garden ety of gardenww.oberlincomr rden-programs fo

enhouse Biology classes visitors very free interested in , ant to learn more Manager Judy ma@oberlin.edu.

D A E T S N I BIKE !

G N I V I R D OF

The Free Store The Free Store is just what it sounds like — a store where everything is free! There are bins in the lobby of every dorm where students can drop off clothes and items that they no longer want, which members of the RCT pick up and bring to the Free Store. Students and community members can then take anything they want without paying a cent. The store is located in room 024 in the Asia House basement and is open Monday–Thursday, 7–9 p.m. and Saturday, 1–3 p.m.

COMPOST!

You can compo st food waste in the green trash son Dining Hall bins behind Ste . There are also vencompost bins be and Keep Cotta hind Harkness H ge. Be sure no ouse t to fill the com lines. post bins above the fill If you want to go beyond pers onal composting Compost Captain , you can becom –– one of 15– ea 20 people selec Conservation Te ted by the Reso am to organize urce composting in re Village Houses. sidence halls an To get involved d , contact recycle @oberlin.edu.

BRING YOUR OWN COFFEE CUP! GY YOUR DORM USES ER EN H UC M W HO F O E BE AWAR Orbs in the lobby of your bably seen the glowing Energy

You’ve pro dents along with professor stu in erl Ob by ed lop ve De . rm do n Petersen, these Joh gy olo Bi d an ies ud St al nt of Environme of the amount of ion tat en res rep l ua vis a e vid pro orbs dorm. According to the energy and water used by your ng colors display how wi glo he “T , ite bs we nd Fu GE Green ED at that moment relative to ing um ns co is ing ild bu a ch mu the same time of day.” what it normally consumes at

A r t s & C u ltu r e

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE established 1874

Volume 147, Number 13

Student-Written OSTA Play Discusses Yiddish Culture

The cast of A Nacht A Sheyne, in rehearsal for their show. The production runs Thursday, Feb. 14 to Saturday, Feb. 16 in Wilder Main Space.

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

Roman Broszkowski Senior Staff Writer Dressed in their 1920s best, Oberlin Student Theater Association actors took the stage last night for the opening performance of College senior Claire Abramovitz’s original period piece play A Nacht A Sheyne. The Yiddish-inspired dramatic comedy explores the generational tension between traditionally minded parents and their assimilationist children as both groups attempt to navigate early 20th-century America.

A Nacht A Sheyne revolves around a night in the Resnik family home and is filled with all the uncomfortable dynamics of an awkward Thanksgiving dinner.

The Resniks — father Elya, played by College senior Teague Harvey; mother Golda, played by College sophomore Noa

Segal; and daughter Sarah, played by College sophomore Gina Fontanesi — are a Jewish family who have recently immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe. But while Elya and Golda remain tied to their traditions, Sarah has embraced all that America has to offer.

This underlying discrepancy comes to a head when Sarah falls in love with Leo Allen, an assimilated Jewish man played

by College first-year Cyrus Thelin, only to find out that her parents have arranged for her to marry the more traditional Lazer Horovitz, played by College sophomore Liam Ashbrook. Both suitors come to dinner, and much yelling ensues.

For Abramowitz, this week’s production represents the culmination of years of work and revision.

“I started writing the play my sophomore year, Winter Term 2017, but I had

the idea for the play my spring semester [first] year,” she said.

Abramovitz was inspired to write about the topic after studying Yiddish culture at Oberlin.

“When I was in a course on modern Yiddish culture, I was reading a lot of Yiddish theater,” she said. “A lot of the themes really struck a chord with me, and I thought I could do this and I should do this.”

The influence of Yiddish theater on the play is apparent, and Abramovitz points out that the play even derives its name from a previous Yiddish work.

“The title is called A Nacht A Sheyne, which means ‘a beautiful night’ in Yiddish,” she said. “I was flipping through [a book of Yiddish songs] one night, looking for a title … and I found a song that was called ‘Oy a Nacht a Shayna,’ which

means ‘Oh, a beautiful night’ … I was reading the lyrics and I was like, ‘These speak to me.’ I think they speak to the play. And also it’s a little ironic, because the night’s a disaster.”

At its core, A Nacht A Sheyne is a story about the opportunities and costs of cultural assimilation. In addition to analyzing a crucial time in American Yiddish culture, A Nacht A Sheyne aims to contribute to the ongoing revival of Yiddish culture.

Although the play focuses on the specific cultural questions that Ashkenazi Jews faced in early 20th-century New York, College junior and director Abigail Bowman thinks the underlying themes are universally relatable.

“There’s one moment in the second act where the mother character has a bit of a moment, and it’s a moment that I’ve seen my grandmother have directly towards me so many times that when I was reading it, I was just like, ‘Oh my god, so relatable,’” Bowman said. “It’s such a Jewish play … [but] I think any student will be able to relate to it.”

Abramovitz agrees.

“I think the universal theme of your parents telling you one thing and your being like, ‘Oh my God, please let me do another’ is [very relatable],” she said.

“I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t relate to that.”

Segal also feels that the play’s characters are relatable and timeless.

“I find that my character reminds me a lot of my own grandmother, and it’s been interesting thinking about my own family dynamics in relation to this play,” they said. “Although my family is obviously not a Jewish family in 1913 New York … I find that I relate a lot to my character in that she really wants the best for her daughter, but she isn’t really able to see that what’s best for her daughter is what [her daughter] wants or what she wanted initially.”

A Nacht A Sheyne opened Thursday, Feb. 14 and will run Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. All shows are in Wilder Main and free to the public.

Open Mic Culture Provides Performance, Community Carson Dowhan Senior Staff Writer The lights go dim and the night begins with the sound of the emcee announcing the first act — welcome to the open mic.

Here, you’ll see the creative headspaces of students come to life on the stage through slam poetry, diary readings, a capella covers, instrumental pieces, and original songs. Deep down, everyone is nervous to share their work — yet they still summon the courage to do exactly that.

The open mic is a positive atmosphere in which people can exercise their right brains, and where artists of all backgrounds can perform in a safe, low-pressure environment. Oberlin is lucky enough to have one held at the Cat in the Cream every month or so, with other themed nights springing up around campus sponsored by student groups like the Oberlin Folk Music Club and OSlam.

Because Oberlin College can be an intimidating place to share artistic work, a low-stakes performance space is invaluable to students who want to share but are afraid to do so. Thoughts like “Why

10

should I perform the piece I wrote on the violin when a classically trained Violin major can do it better?” and “Why should I recite my poem when a Creative Writing major has written a dozen better ones?” can inhibit students from expressing themselves. The open mic provides platforms for people to approach creative performance with different levels of intensity.

It’s also easy for Oberlin students to have trouble conveying their thoughts because of the school’s high standards for both art and activism — but these anxieties can create a culture of unhealthy perfectionism, which is a detriment to creative work. It is here, at the open mic, where it’s OK to make mistakes.

“I feel that it’s a good outlet for anyone who is a musician on campus,” noted Georgia Heers, a Conservatory sophomore and Cat in the Cream employee.

“There are a lot of musicians who are outside the Con that are incredibly talented and don’t have that same outlet to be on stage and have their music heard as Con [students] do.”

For those not enrolled in the Conser-

vatory, finding space to perform or record can be incredibly difficult, making the open mic a valuable resource for College students.

The open mic is also a great opportunity for students to find community.

“I’ve been coming to the open mics since my first semester here,” commented College sophomore Margo Roberts. “I haven’t performed myself, but I feel like I’ve been an active audience member. I think it was a wonderful way to come into the Oberlin community and see how talented everybody was — you can see the variety in the student body and the collective support for it.”

Open mic night also serves as a space on campus that isn’t dominated by straight white men.

“For the POC community, open mic is where we go to bare our souls to the world, whether it be through poetry, dance, or song,” College sophomore Bri Hayes wrote in an email to the Review.

“They’re the center for community-building by allowing yourself to open up in front of friends and people you consider family — you’re allowing people to learn

something new about you.”

College junior Sarah Gargano commented on the overwhelming male presence in performance spaces, which has always been an obstacle to her efforts to break into the music industry.

“I feel like a lot of music spaces are heavily male-dominated,” she explained over email. “It’s hard to get a word in without some dude showing off some new guitar thing he learned that you could also play just as well — the open mic gives women a space to be listened to without the usual interruption.”

Whether the Cat in the Cream is filled to its maximum capacity or quietly brimming with artists seated along the back, the open mic is a pillar of the Oberlin community that stands for the celebration of identities as a safe performance space.

The diversity of acts, accompanied by a multitude of backgrounds, sheds light on student experiences and creative ideas, taking the notion of competition out of performance. It’s a place to bring back the human aspect of music that reminds us all that sometimes, we can forget the lyrics to our own songs.

Best Picture Countdown Weekly Movie Reviews on the 8 Oscar Nominees

Green Book Kabir Karamchandani Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen shine in Green Book, a by-the-numbers film about a Black pianist and his white valet on a tour through the Deep South.

Oscar-bait through and through, what the movie lacks in innovation it makes up for in execution. Director Peter Farrelly deftly handles the film’s sensitive subject matter, making the movie feel cliché at points, but never heavy-handed or forced.

Green Book is character-driven from the start, opening with a scene that has no relevance to the plot but sets up Mortensen’s Tony Lip as the stereotypical Italian-American New Yorker of the 1960s. When this rough-talking, hot dog-guzzling club bouncer is hired to drive and protect Black pianist Dr. Don Shirley on his tour through the Deep South, the story unfolds exactly how you expect it to.

Each clichéd beat recounts popular media tropes of interracial friendship, with both characters learning and growing from their time with one another. Between Shirley helping Lip write letters home and Lip introducing Shirley to the joys of fried chicken, the film is remarkably predictable, preventing itself from ever truly excelling.

While the movie is unimpressive with regard to its portrayal of race, its nuanced look at the struggle of feeling alienated from one’s community makes up for this shortage.

“So if I’m not Black enough, and if I’m not white enough, and if I’m not man enough, then tell me, Tony, what am I?” says a tearful Mahershala Ali, capturing the very heart of the film in a single line.

Ali does a fantastic job playing a man

COMIC

The Oberlin Review | February 15, 2019

out of place among his peers, never quite accepted by either group. In a performance that evokes emotion even in a predictable plot, he drives home the struggle of one’s skin color informing perceptions of their every action. Yet even here, the film fails to reach its potential, as it focuses on Dr. Shirley’s encounters with racism but doesn’t fully commit to exploring his struggles with identity.

Green Book would have been heralded as a masterpiece had it come out 15 years ago, but is unfortunately unwilling to explore any new ground. Society has progressed a great deal in the last decade and a half, and while the film is far from backwards in any of its messaging, it does seem somewhat tame in today’s socio-political climate.

Particularly at Oberlin, well-known for its progressive culture, the movie’s statements seem obvious, bordering on platitudes. If an Oberlin student were to watch this movie, it would not be a learning experience as much as an entertaining one, as it is in many ways a feel-good movie.

The same reasons Green Book falls short of becoming a true drama make it an excellent watch for the casual viewer; it has just enough relevance to feel impactful without becoming stressful or calling anyone out, as it perhaps should.

All in all, I would recommend giving Green Book a watch. Yes, it is formulaic, but the performances by Mortensen and Ali alone make it worth watching.

With regard to the Oscars, while I don’t expect it to win Best Picture, I wouldn’t completely count it out, as it is exactly the sort of film the Academy loves. Instead, I would expect it to shine in the Acting categories, as both leads have garnered nominations and critical acclaim for their roles.

Clair Wang Staff Cartoonist

The Favourite Liz Stewart The two posh period dramas of the year, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite and Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots, both focus on female royalty from a feminist perspective but do so in opposite ways. The former refreshingly reframes historical material while deconstructing the genre’s high-brow elitism — most period-pieces are suffused with snobbish dialogue. The latter, unfortunately, falls relatively flat.

There was a time when Mary Queen of Scots might have cruised to major nominations because of its traditional, theater-inspired style, leaving Lanthimos’ absurdist film stranded on the outskirts of awards season. The Favourite is ultimately enticing “anti-Oscar bait” that may yet garner a win in at least one of the ten categories where it is nominated. Perhaps such an ambitious and atypical film also deserves mainstream recognition for its nuanced depiction of women and queer relationships.

Lanthimos does not blatantly plaster the perfect, strong female character trope onto his film. Rather, he weaves together a fascinating narrative between three women: Queen Anne (Olivia Colman); Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz); and maid-turned-aristocrat Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) by slowly unmasking their unyielding hunger for power.

They are unabashedly driven by their egos, desires, and feminine wiles — all the while remaining powerful and true to their real-life counterparts. Lanthimos has contrived a full-out lesbian battle that forces the audience to question their personal and political sympathies.

Though self-indulgent at times with its overuse of a fish-eye lens, the cinematography accurately captures the cramped, suffocating atmosphere of the palace that Queen Anne can never escape. Lanthimos’ directing choices lend us an eye into Anne’s despair and decline. The Queen was expected to produce heirs and has had 17 pregnancies, but none of her children survive. She’s understandably ill-tempered, at first coming across as the film’s antagonist.

Later in the film, it becomes clear that all three of these palace dwellers are ruthless in more ways than one.

The Favourite is ultimately an absurdist comedy that subverts expectations. By its last shot, you may find the film difficult to analyze, as it forces one to think deeply about the oddities it presents. You probably won’t reach a single, comprehensible conclusion after viewing The Favourite, but the raw experience makes contemplating Lanthimos’ intentions as a director worthwhile. Oberlin students will most likely appreciate its brash, snarky humor and ridiculous interpretation of British royal history.

Roma Liz Stewart Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma has the potential to become the first ever foreign-language film to win Best Picture. Its simple yet touching story, skilled camera work, and sound design set it apart from its competitors, boasting the kind of pedigree the Academy craves. It thoughtfully caters to an intellectual audience while remaining digestible enough for anybody to enjoy.

And perhaps these are the qualities, along with its release on Netflix in addition to the big screen, that have allowed Roma to break the curse that sometimes inhibits foreign language films from receiving Best Picture nominations, as they tend to be unfairly overlooked or pigeonholed into a single category. With a whopping ten nominations, Roma is an industry game-changer that certainly deserves a watch for many reasons.

Emotion and relatability drive the very loose plot forward, leaving even the most heartless hooked. Filmed on a 65mm lens in black-and-white, Roma is partly autobiographical, dedicated to the housekeeper who helped raise Cuarón during the 1970s in his childhood neighborhood, Colonia Roma.

Cuarón’s homeland, one wracked by societal unrest, informs the lives of the characters who exist within its borders.

Through busy wide shots, he treats the city like a living entity, one bursting with

personality and beauty, while still depicting its unavoidable dark side.

He deftly transposes social issues of race and class onto interactions between the housekeeper Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) and Sofia (Marina de Tavira), the white matriarch of the well-off Mexico City family for whom Cleo works. He subtly shows the impact of the women’s respective levels of privilege on their livelihood.

Through Cleo’s eyes, we see her holding the family together with quiet compassion, while at the same time remaining an outsider, sweeping in and out of private conversations about Sofia’s hidden anguish. The family never fully includes and embraces Cleo because of her Indigenous background and lower class standing.

That being so, Cuarón’s accurate depiction of female characters and their inherent complexities strengthens the story. Its in-depth portrayal could simply be a cynical narrative for both Cleo and Sofia, but Roma never indulges in melodrama, making the experience of watching the film all the more realistic and moving.

This truth allows Roma to fracture the language barrier entirely. This film is relevant to viewers of any background, encouraging them to empathize and reflect on their humanity and their position in society. Ultimately, Roma is an enjoyable tear-jerker that could forever alter the history of Hollywood if it does win Best Picture.

11

A r t s & C u lt u r e ON THE RECORD

Vel Scott, Chef and Health Advocate Vel Scott is a food and health advocate based in Cleveland. Her organization, Vel Scott’s Healthy You, facilitates workshops and other trainings in the greater Cleveland area, helping people to understand more about their food, where it comes from, and how to live a healthy lifestyle. She also runs Vel’s Purple Oasis, an urban farm in Cleveland that allows locals to become directly involved in food production through volunteering. This past Tuesday, Scott visited Oberlin as a guest chef, cooking in the Lord-Saunders Dining Hall. Her menu, along with much of what she cooks, was inspired by traditional foods from Mississippi, where she was born.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nathan Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief Janet Fiskio, Associate Professor

Vel Scott

Nathan Carpenter: I was hoping you could talk about what you do and how you came to do it.

My name is Vel Scott, and I’m with Vel Scott’s Healthy You, a health and wellness program that helps families and individuals gain the knowledge to live a healthier lifestyle through workshops, meetings, talking, cooking, laughing — just living, everyday living.

NC: What kind of programs do you do to help support that work?

We do mindfulness workshops. We do prep — we prep food, but we also do workshops on prepping the mind, getting people to think a different way, getting people to expand their knowledge on what they really think healthy food is and healthy living is, and to know that everybody can live a healthier lifestyle just by wanting to go that route.

Once you decide that you are going to make a change, then it’s easy to find cheap, inexpensive food that comes from Mother Earth.

NC: You mentioned helping people think about what it means to eat healthy and live healthy. I’m wondering if you find that there are some common misconceptions around what those things mean.

I think there are some misconceptions. People think in order to be healthy that you have to be wealthy, that you have to have a lot of money, that you have to live in a certain neighborhood, and that you have to come from a certain background. In my opinion, that’s totally not true. The first thing is that you have to understand that you get one body, one temple, and you should try and fuel that temple with the best and the most original food that you can get. ... Food that is mainly plant-based, that comes from the earth, that’s not processed, that’s more in its natural form than anything else.

NC: Is your organization involved in the production of food as well as these different programs that you do?

Yes, we have a 501(c)(3), ... and under that umbrella is the Vel Scott’s Healthy You pro-

12

Photo by Brad Masi, OC ’93

gram and also the Purple Oasis Garden, which is in the heart of University Circle [in Cleveland].

There we have a couple of acres of land we’ve cultivated, we’ve planted, and we harvest. We have fruit trees, we grow greens — everything is edible in that garden.

So that’s right in the heart of the neighborhood where people can walk and become involved in the planting, growing, and production of their food. In other words, they know where it comes from.

NC: What do you think that adds to someone’s experience of food?

I think it adds the fact that they are a part of it; they’re connected to it. And again, they know where it comes from — that it hasn’t been genetically modified, it has not been sprayed — because they’re out there every day. They start from the planting of seeds or from starter plants. ... They water, they weed, and they become connected to it.

Janet Fiskio: Could you talk a little bit about how you chose tonight’s menu and how it reflects your philosophy of healthy food?

I know that I’m known for a lot of plant-based eating, but ...

I’m not trying to push everyone into being plant-based — I don’t like to categorize. ... I say eat good, whole, fresh food and whatever name you want to plant on that, that’s up to you. I’m a Vel-etarian, and a Vel-etarian means that I know my body. I eat the freshest food that I can find, and if by chance I decide that I want to delve into fish or poultry, it has to be organic. It has to be the best brand, the best cut that I can get.

But in the meantime, I rely mainly on my garden for my meals — that’s the greens, tomatoes, potatoes, my fruits, my fresh herbs, and things that I can grow in the garden.

So how does that evolve into today’s menu? Well, today’s menu, we have a cabbage dish.

Cabbage is universal. If cabbage is prepared with a plant-based butter, then it certainly comes under the category of being vegetarian and vegan. So you have your cabbage, your fresh herbs, your onions, your peppers, and it’s sautéed lightly, or it can be steamed — it’s so versatile.

And then there’s the oxtail.

The oxtail is sort of traditional. I grew up in Mississippi. I grew up in the South. At that time when I was growing up, I remember [oxtail] was like the lesser of the food groups that you would eat, but now they’ve gone mainstream.

People have found out about the oxtail, and now they’re braised and they’re served with potatoes and onions and celery and all of the wonderful organic vegetables and herbs that we have. So it’s taken it to a whole ’nother level.

Then there’s the — can’t ever forget this — our southern fried chicken. Growing up, my mother did a lot with baked chickens, because we raised our own chickens, so that was the chicken dish. ... With peach cobbler, you can’t forget the peach cobbler. Growing up in the South, we had peach trees, plum trees, apple trees — we had a whole orchard, and we have it here in Vel’s Purple Oasis.

So it was a Southern thing to have a peach cobbler with dinner, because you could do so much with the peaches. You could can them, so that way you could have them year-round. So the peach cobbler with the nutmeg, you put a little lemon juice in it maybe, you make a sugary syrup.

Of course this is something that you’re not going to eat every day, all day, on a regular basis, but it’s a special occasion, in that you’re going to have your peach cobbler — sometimes on Sunday, maybe once a month.

And then we have cornbread.

It’s unthinkable to have greens without cornbread ... and we have sweet potato pie. We all grew sweet potatoes in the South, in Mississippi. In fact, we grow them in the garden here in Cleveland. So everybody had a special recipe for sweet potato pie. ... So for dinner here tonight, I selected the sweet potato pie and the delicious peach cobbler.

NC: What lessons or advice do you have in terms of food production and promoting food access?

I think one way is more people going back to basics, where if you don’t have a large area, you have small backyards where you can grow your own food. If you don’t want to do that — a lot of people just don’t want to go through the trouble of having to dig in the dirt and water and weed — there’s so many around the country, and Cleveland I think is second among the cities that are known for farmers markets and for growing their own food. You can always go to your local farmers market and buy food — you don’t

have to really grow it unless you want to. And then we have a lot of supermarkets in Cleveland. Now we have the Whole Foods, but we also have Trader Joe’s, we have the Aldis, we have the Save-a-Lot. We have the East Side Market, which is opening on 105th and St. Clair in Cleveland — in the heart of the neighborhoods.

So the food there will come from vendors in the community and maybe 20 or 30 miles around Cleveland. Now you have a reason to be able to walk again in your neighborhood and buy fresh, affordable food. Cabbage, greens, green beans, beans — all the things that lead to a healthier lifestyle will be at your doorstep now.

JF: You were talking about health, wellness, and mindfulness, and I’ve heard you talk about how eating right is the best medicine and how being healthy and healing is about eating well. I’m wondering if you could talk about that a little bit.

Well, I still believe that food is your medicine. I go back to when my husband had hypertension and congestive heart failure. Just changing the way he ate, changing his habit, changing him from eating more processed food. [Instead], every dinner we had a green salad with a light dressing on it. And then we had greens that were cooked in vegetable stock and wonderful seasonings.

We had cabbage, we had potatoes. We had rice, and we had beans, pinto beans, black beans — plant-based food.

So that was all, to me, the medicine that we needed. You know, you can get as much protein from your greens and your beans — and in some instances more — than you can from meat. Not saying that you shouldn’t eat meat, but when we changed our diet to mainly plant-based, we were able to help him reverse his congestive heart failure. So I know that it works as medicine. It is our medicine.

NC: Are there opportunities for interested Oberlin students to support your work?

Absolutely. At the Oasis ... we are always in need of students to come and help us weed, water, plant. We also could always use help [from] grant writers, students who know how to write grants or know how to seek out grants to give us more resources so that we can, in turn, during the summer have micro gardening workshops for the students and people in the community. We can teach them how to start their own business, how to set up produce stands, how to sell, how to buy, how to grow, and how to price. It gives them the extra income, and it also makes them a part of the community, and it helps them to grow in so many ways. Some of the students that live in our community near the garden, I’d like to see them travel more. Sometimes you come out of your own backyard and you go to see how other people in other parts of the country live ... just to see that there are more places than the small area that you live in on your street or in your neighborhood.

Vel Scott in the Lord-Saunders kitchen.

Photo by Brad Masi, OC ’93

’Sco Seniors Reminisce, Appreciate Campus Community Space

The senior ’Sco staff, from left to right: Dan Nerenhausen, Julie Schreiber, Olivia Ercilla Antrobus, Maya Blumenberg-Taylor, Emma Broun, and Meg Parker.

Photo by Katie Ryan-O’Flaherty

Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor The Dionysus Disco — or as it is best known, the ’Sco — is one of the most notorious and beloved spaces on Oberlin’s campus. Dionysus was the Greek god of the grape harvest, fertility, theater, wine, ritual chaos, and religious ecstasy. I don’t know about harvesting grapes or fertility, but anyone who has turned out for a Wednesday night Splitchers has participated in a kind of ritual chaos and can attest to the religious ecstasy of this hallowed ground.

It follows, then, that the energy behind the counter surpasses even that of the patrons who come flowing through the doors. If you know a student who works at the ’Sco, then you know that the staff love their jobs.

Many of the staff members got their jobs when they were first-years or sophomores because they wanted to

be more involved on campus. For some ’Sco senior staffers, it’s been a crucial part of their entire Oberlin experience and is more than a customer service job — it has taught them how to create an inclusive community.

College senior Dan Nerenhausen, who started as an attendant but is now a project manager, is well aware of the multiple purposes of the venue.

“The interesting part about being an on-campus bar is you have to balance being a space for underage people and for people who can drink,” he said. “[Around] 75 percent of the people on campus at any given time can’t legally drink, and you can’t get away with fakes there because it’s all student IDs.” So, the staff gets creative. Events at the ’Sco range from musically moshable to thought-provoking, from unabashedly quirky to deeply cultured, from weirdly specific to purely fun.

Just take a look at the calendar on

A Good Year for Musical Alumni: 11 Obies Awarded in 61st Grammys Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor

While Obies have won Grammys in the past, alumni of the College and Conservatory had a particularly strong showing at the prestigious musical awards ceremony last Sunday. Eleven Oberlin alumni took home honors for their accomplishments, with nominations across six categories in the classical, folk, and jazz genres.

Among the most well-known was Chris Eldridge, OC ’04, who played in Finney Chapel with the Punch Brothers just last year and won with the band in the Best Folk Album category for All Ashore. The Punch Brothers, a widely-beloved band, are also known for their connection to the Oberlin community through performances and residencies.

Other lauded albums came in more classical categories. Among these was the year’s Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, Songs of Orpheus (Monteverdi, Caccini, D’india & Landi), conducted by Jeannette Sorrell, OC ’90, and featuring Apollo’s Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra — a group that includes Oberlin alumni Rene Schiffer, OC ’96, Karina Schmitz, OC ’02, Johanna Novom, OC ’07, and Rebecca Landell Reed, OC ’11.

Additionally, two alumni 10 years apart (conductor Michael Christie, OC ’96, and

The Oberlin Review | February 15, 2019

baritone singer Edward Parks, OC ’06) won Best Opera Recording for The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Another prestigious album win was for The Window in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Album, which featured pianist Sullivan Fortner, OC ’08.

Other categories recognized the year’s most stunning performances. Oberlin violinist Yuncong Zhang, OC ’07, was awarded Best Orchestral Performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11. The Crossing chamber choir, which includes Mandy Wolman, OC ’07, won in the category of Best Choral Performance, Classical for their Zealot Canticles.

Achievements like these remind College students just how driven their Conservatory friends are and show beleaguered Con students the light at the end of a sometimes brutal tunnel.

These recognitions also demonstrate the tremendous range of awards offered by the Recording Academy, which span a total of 84 categories. Many of us are used to watching a commercial spectacle that doesn’t always seem to let the best musician win, but this past weekend is a testament to the fact that the Grammys award a variety of commendable works across all genres, not just the most popular. Who knows? It could be our classmates, or us, up there one day.

its website — there’s something going on nearly every night of the week, illustrated with an intriguing picture. It follows that there’s something for everyone — the beloved Queer Beers, Professor Beers, TGIF, and, yes, Splitchers.

There are also several weekly musical acts from campus groups and groups booked by the Student Union Programming Committee. There are also unique events like ABBA Trivia and Bob Ross Paint Night. They ensure the return of semesterly fan favorites like Senior Night and the Coverband Showcase. The ’Sco screens the Grammys, the Oscars, the Superbowl, and major political events like the State of the Union. This month they’re hosting a Melanin Monday series for Black History Month. They’re the location for Oberlin’s bi-weekly talk show Good Talk.

“I think it’s the most unique campus job in terms of what you’re doing and how much control you have over the space,” Nerenhausen said.

As a manager, he and others attend weekly meetings to plan events, decide what products to order, and organize advertising. They also deal with student bookings for the space (request a booking via sco@oberlin.edu). Then, on the night of the events, “You’re bartending, you’re setting up every night — and it varies based on the event. So you could be stocking beer or setting up for an ABUSUA ball or something really interesting like that. But then throughout the night you’re just managing operations. For Splitchers, there are like 450 people in there, so it’s a real college bar atmosphere. But then you also have nights where it’s classical music or a concert.”

It’s also a true customer service job, not unlike working in Campus Dining Services.

“Strangely, I think it is the hardest

parts of the job that make it a great place to work,” wrote College senior and ’Sco manager Olivia Ercilla Antrobus in an email to the Review. “Of course I like music and concerts, but one does not have to work at the ’Sco to enjoy those events. When the lights come on at the end of a Splitchers, and you find yourself cleaning up beer spills from 1–2 a.m. in Wilder basement, you develop a weird bond with the rest of the staff. … Having the same people help you out night after night also helps cement that bond.”

Nerenhausen and Ercilla Antrobus both enjoy the people-watching that comes with working at a place like the ’Sco. While Nerenhausen affectionately describes much of the activity out on the dance floor as “cringy,” he also loves the people he meets just because of being the guy behind the counter. He likens it to bartending at a local bar in a small town with a bunch of regulars.

“Commencement is … always a blast to work,” Ercilla Antrobus wrote. “I wish I had the dance repertoire of some of the alumni.”

When asked if he would miss his job, Nerenhausen replied without hesitation.

“For sure,” he said. “I mean, I could picture myself bartending outside of school. But as a bartender at a real bar, you don’t have control over the space.

You’re just doing what management decides. So I think that aspect is super unique. And there is an onus on the ’Sco to be ‘the space’ on campus, because there are such limited social opportunities sometimes at Oberlin. People really do look to the ’Sco, as much as they trash it sometimes, to have those events that are popular or that are the key events of the semester … I’m going to miss it so much.”

Ercilla Antrobus said it in one word: “Absolutely!”

CROSSWORD

Answers

13

Sp ort s

Collin Taylor, T3 Performance Athletic Trainer and YeoFit Instructor IN THE LOCKER ROOM

When former strength and conditioning coach Grant Butler accepted a position with Notre Dame College last spring, College junior and football player Justin Godfrey had an idea.

He had trained at T3 Performance in Avon, Ohio, for years and wondered if the facility could bring some of its staff members to Oberlin. Collin Taylor, one of the T3 Performance trainers, has helped transform the strength and conditioning program at Oberlin through his work with student-athletes and lifting course with fellow trainer Maddy Mullins, Get Jacked. After playing college football for the Indiana University Hoosiers, Taylor spent seven years in the Arena Football League. Taylor has since carried his passion for athletics over into personal training.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Julie Schreiber, Senior Staff Writer You were connected to Oberlin through a program called T3 Performance. Tell me a little bit about that organization.

T3 is a strength and conditioning facility located in Avon, Ohio. Our main wheelhouse is 12-to-18-year-olds that we do strength and speed classes with, and we also have an awesome youth program with kids as [young] as four who are interested in learning about strength and conditioning. We have a 70,000-square-foot facility with full 70-by-50-yard turf, as well as batting and pitching cages, adult gyms like the YMCA or LA Sports Club, and a sizable athlete training facility.

So with all of these resources, we probably work with about 300–400 athletes a week. The coaches and members of T3 have been a part of the Avon community and strength community for 10 years now. It was started by a guy named Mike D’Andrea, who was a big-time football player out of Avon Lake, and actually started the gym after he got hurt playing at [The] Ohio State [University]. After his career ended short, he wanted athletes to be able to join a gym where they could specifically focus on strengthening and recovering from injuries so they could continue in their sports.

Now it’s grown into the largest gym in Ohio, which is super cool. I had an opportunity to start working there two years ago and have loved it every single day since.

What type of outreach is T3 doing with colleges and universities in the area?

At T3, we put together a program where we’re able to take our training and coaches and insert them into other facilities, and we’ve experienced a lot of success doing that. A few years ago we started this program at [The

University of] Mount Union, and now we’ve been with them for three years.

We ran all their strength and conditioning programs, and some other colleges quickly caught word of that.

Unfortunately, not every college has the opportunity to have a full-time strength staff, so we wanted to fill that void and help both the athletes and the general population of students and faculty with our strength programs.

So after Mount Union, we expanded to Oberlin, Baldwin Wallace [University], and Case Western [Reserve University]. We’ve now got a couple coaches stationed at each college, but as far as Oberlin, the main coaches are myself and Maddy Mullins.

Based on what you knew about former coach Grant Butler’s program, what have you changed about the strength and conditioning program at Oberlin?

I never met him, and I’ve only heard things about his program. Without knowing an individual, I would never say something poor about them, and I know that no coach gets into strength training to have a negative effect on their athletes. I think he was in a tough position because he was the only trainer for a bunch of athletes. I commend him for taking that on. It must’ve been really tough.

At T3, we have an awesome support staff, but with that being said, there’s definitely something for everybody, and you can’t make everybody happy. What some athletes enjoy, others hate; what some people enjoy, others hate. As a coach, you know you’re not going to be able to reach everybody and maximize everybody’s potential with your program, but we want to do as much as we can for the general public to help them be as strong and athletic as possible.

T3 athletic trainer Collin Taylor works out with College junior and football quarterback Zach Taylor.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

What is your vision for the strength program at Oberlin?

I truly believe that movement is medicine. We’re living in a time where everybody’s trying to find quick fixes for injuries, for getting stronger, and for living healthier and longer lives. I want people to come to Oberlin and strength train as a part of either an athletic team or just in general, and instead of learning those “quick fixes,” being able to leave with enough knowledge to be healthy and strong moving forward, especially once they leave school and don’t have somebody building programs for them.

My big-picture vision is to help as many students and staff members as possible and teach them how to get strong and live healthier lifestyles. If the strength training helps us perform on the field, and we acknowledge translatable skills for specific sports, that’s excellent too.

But overall I just really want everyone to live healthier, stronger, and longer lives.

What’s a specific lesson that you try to impart in your program here?

I think people need to work really really hard and deal with being uncomfortable at certain times. When you get people together doing something they don’t enjoy, you get camaraderie, you get team building, and you get people doing things they didn’t think they could do before. We want people to move properly [and] with quality, but we know every once in a while, we’re going to get

to a point where people need to grind together and leave that comfort zone, because we know in the field and in life that’s what’s always gonna happen. You gotta find that balance.

What have been some of your proudest moments as an Oberlin strength and conditioning coach so far?

A really good thing about the strength and conditioning field is that not only do people have a good emotional response to training pretty often, but they have good physical responses. When we’re able to see physical changes in the athletes themselves, that’s really exciting.

That means you’re doing something really hard but right and making your body change. The body is an incredible thing and is able to adapt under stress, and so there are times where people come up to me and say, “I see this differently than I did before,” or “I feel this differently than I did before,” and that’s just awesome to hear from athletes.

One of my favorite things to see is when myself or another coach are preoccupied but the athletes in the gym are so bought into what we’ve taught them and what we do that they’re willing to do it on their own. It really pumps me up when I show up to a training [session] when we don’t have a team lift, but there’s an athlete in there lifting on their own, and they’re doing what we put on the program, because they believe in us so much that they’re willing to go that extra mile. That’s the best stuff.

Black Voices are Essential in the World of Journalism Continued from page 16 opportunity for myself by creating my own website, Golden Standard Sports.

On Golden Standard Sports, I wrote about popular sports stories that were relevant to current events.

I did some work on it for a Winter Term project, I covered events such as the 2017 NBA Finals, Super Bowl LII, and I even wrote about boxing at one point. My support system showed a ton of love and got the website a ton of views. After Golden Standard Sports gained some more popularity, The Oberlin Review contacted me, and I started writing for them in January 2018. I began writing for The Grape last August (don’t worry — my articles for The Grape aren’t that

14

weird).

One of my proudest moments as a journalist was when I received a writing position with SB Nation as a contributing writer for its Carolina Panthers website. I got the position by emailing the head editor and asking about opportunities to join the staff. I sent him my résumé, cover letter, and some articles I wrote at Oberlin. He loved my work and offered me a position on staff.

I am a huge Panthers fan — if you see someone on this campus wearing a Cam Newton or Christian McCaffrey jersey, it’s probably me. Imagine my excitement when I found out I would be able to write for my favorite football team on a national platform.

I’m pretty happy with where I am in

my career at this point, but I still have a long way to go. I’m excited for the journey ahead.

As I said, the last few years have made me realize that there are not many black journalists out there.

Because of this, many black voices aren’t being heard in most types of media. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to engage with journalism. I finally saw the value of my own perspective and the potential to convey stories through that perspective. I’m continuing to better my craft every single day, because I want to be an inspiration to future black journalists someday.

More black voices need to be heard in the media, period. Happy Black History Month!

College junior, football player, and sportswriter Jason Hewitt believes he can offer a unique perspective as a journalist of color. Last spring he had the opportunity to interview Jimmy King, a member of the University of Michigan’s Fab Five.

Photo courtesy of Jason Hewitt

Frisbee and Football: An Unlikely Love Story Jane Agler Sports Editor Unlike what its name might suggest, the Oberlin Flying Horsecows Ultimate Frisbee team should be taken seriously.

According to USA Ultimate, its A team had a 25–12 record last year, sweeping the Ohio Valley Division III Regionals without a single loss and ending the season with a respectable 2–4 appearance at the Division III College Championships — colloquially known as Frisbee “nationals” — in Rockford, IL. Making it to the championships was noteworthy itself, but now the Flying Horsecows are hungrier than ever and hope to do it again. This time, they hope to finish with a higher position in the final standings.

“One of the reasons why we might not have done as well at nationals [last year] is … due to [the lack of ] fitness and speed and general physicality,” said double-degree junior Colin Cahill, one of the captains of the Flying Horsecows.

While practices, scrimmages, and team socials are typically all that’s required for club sports, the Flying Horsecows have taken their dedication to another level by enrolling in the ATHL 199 Advanced Conditioning course that meets at a grueling 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This type of dedication is unsurprising: The team is currently ranked as the fifth best Division III Ultimate Frisbee team in the nation, according to Ultiworld, a premier online publication devoted to Ultimate Frisbee news and rankings, and USA Ultimate has named the Flying Hor-

secows as the best DIII Ultimate team in the entire state of Ohio.

“Our goal [this season] is to prove that [those] rankings are true,” Cahill said.

According to the Oberlin course catalog, ATHL 199 is designed to encourage participants to “learn how to increase their physical conditioning through the use of anaerobic exercises that cover all sub-contexts of conditioning including sprint work, speed training, agility exercises, plyometrics, and body weight exercises.” However, it’s widely assumed that the class is primarily designed to condition varsity football players in their offseason. This theory is partly supported in that the class is instructed by Head Football Coach Jay Anderson.

“For the past two years, there [have] been [a few non-football players] in this class, but they’ve always been the most motivated people,” Cahill explained.

This year, the Frisbee players outnumber the football players by a wide margin, unlike the ratio in previous years.

According to Cahill, the ATHL 199 course has the reputation of being exhausting beyond belief and a test of the furthest extent of humankind’s physical capabilities. This might not be too far from the reality.

“Yeah, it’s kicking our butts,” he said.

There is a common perception that varsity athletes and non-varsity athletes rarely overlap within the Oberlin community, least of all within Philips gym in the context of working out together. In light of this, the ATHL 199 class roster is somewhat of a social and cultural enigma.

“The class is [technically] open to all students,” said College junior, varsity football player, and ATHL 199 student Von Wooding. “I think it’s a good thing that they come to work out with us.”

Moreover, the Flying Horescows have taken advantage of the freedom in club sports — compared to DIII varsity rules and regulations — and is open to all gender identities. While varsity sports make gender-inclusivity difficult to navigate due to the concrete delineation between men’s and women’s sports, the Oberlin Athletics Department itself has been working to make athletic opportunities and spaces more accessible with a larger variety of classes and environments introduced in with its new YeoFit program, which launched last fall.

“I can understand why anyone who is not a cis[gender] man might not want to get involved with a class that is full of [many] large cisgender men who are going to be very good at the things that are in the class,” Cahill explained. “Sometimes going into a new situation, it can be an oppressive environment, but you can also look at it [another] way and say, ‘I have so much to learn.’ It can be a challenge.”

One shared interest between both the Ultimate Frisbee and football players in this class, though, is the desire to become better at their respective crafts.

As acknowledged by both football and Flying Horsecows team members, the two groups have a good deal of commonality between them.

“[The class] is positive and productive,” Wooding said. “You get to interact with people you might not [otherwise] come across very often.”

Volleyball Makes Valentine’s Day Extra Sweet

The Oberlin women’s volleyball team held a fundraiser Thursday, making individualized $25 candy bags for Valentine’s Day and allowing Oberlin students to surprise their loved ones with a hand-delivered holiday treat. The idea was inspired by the Oberlin women’s softball team, which has been making and delivering Halloween gift bags as a fundraiser for the past three years. The volleyball team’s gift bag featured an assortment of sweets, including Skittles and chocolate. Throughout the day, members of the team ran across campus, knocking on dorm room doors to bestow the Valentines on their excited recipients.

Text by Jane Agler, Sports Editor Photo by Maura Gibbs

The Oberlin Review | February 15, 2019

15

February 15, 2019

SPORTS established 1874

Volume 147, Number 13

From the Perspective of a Black Journalist Jason Hewitt Staff Writer

The men’s basketball team looks to conclude its regular season on a high note tomorrow at Wabash College, after compiling the team’s best record in over a decade. The leadership and perseverance of the upperclassmen have been indispensable to the team’s success.

Photo Courtesy of OC Athletics

New Year, New Record for Men’s Basketball Alexis Dill Sports Editor With 2.3 seconds left on the clock and the basketball in his hands, College junior and point guard Josh Friedkin didn’t miss a beat, swishing an off-balance jumper to secure a triple-overtime victory over the Allegheny College Gators last Wednesday. Three days later, Friedkin posted his first career double-double — 15 points and 10 assists — against the Hiram College Terriers, helping the Yeomen set a new program record for the most North Coast Athletic Conference wins in a season.

Friedkin has been a key piece of the puzzle since his first year, when he appeared in all 25 games and was second on the team in assists with 75. He ran plays alongside Jack Poyle, OC ’17, who started in 75 of the 99 games he played as a Yeoman and scored 1,187 points, 16th-best in school history. Even so, that year’s team narrative was completely different.

In the 2016–17 season, the Yeomen won just three games, compiling an overall record of 3–22 and a conference record of 2–16. The following year, Friedkin scored a team-high 346 points and racked up 77 assists and 29 steals, but the team still posted a mediocre record of 12–14 and won only half of their conference matchups. Now, for the first time in over a decade, the Yeomen have a winning percentage over .500 both overall and in conference play.

A culmination of circumstances have guided the program’s turnaround — the most obvious being Head Coach Isaiah Cavaco’s exceptional job of recruiting talented student-athletes who are both coachable and hardworking.

College senior and co-captain Eli Silverman-Lloyd has been pivotal to the team throughout his career. He compiled a career-high 323 points as a junior and has already scored 299 points this year to go along with a career-high 52 assists. On Jan. 30, he became the 25th player in school history to score 1,000

16

career points, though he did so in a 70– 80 loss to the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops.

As the only senior on the team — excepting honorary senior Patrick Smith, a 3-2 engineering major — Silverman-Lloyd has provided exemplary leadership.

“He has been excellent for us all year long,” Friedkin said. “If you want to talk about a steady presence on and off the court, a guy who you know is going to give you everything he has night in and night out, then Eli is your guy.”

Silverman-Lloyd’s co-captain, College junior Christian Fioretti, leads the league with 4.5 assists per game — while Friedkin is third in the league with 3.9 assists per game — and College junior Andre Campbell is well on his way to joining the 1,000 career points club, as he currently sits at 818 and has hit key shots all season.

However, even more than pure talent, Friedkin credits the program’s upslope to the simple fact that the team’s juniors and seniors are sick and tired of losing.

“The current junior class, myself included, was not happy with just getting to be a part of a collegiate basketball program,” he said. “We wanted to win games, and we wanted to be known around the league as a team that was not an easy win, as Oberlin has been in previous years. I think having to endure that three-win season our [first] year made us that much more determined to change the storyline of Oberlin basketball.”

Another one of Cavaco’s key moves that paid off was hiring Assistant Coaches Nate Axelrod and Jalen Goodwin over the summer. One year prior to Axelrod’s arrival at Oberlin, he was the 2018 D3Hoops.com Player of the Year at Ohio Wesleyan University and won the Jostens Award, which recognizes the nation’s most outstanding DIII basketball player, taking into consideration performance on the court, academics, and community service. As a four-year starter and three-time All-American, he

played on teams that won three NCAC titles, made two NCAA Tournament appearances, and appeared in the 2015–16 Sweet Sixteen. “[Axelrod] had to deal with every opponent game-planning for him specifically for over 100 games, but nobody could really stop him from controlling the game,” Cavaco said. “You have to be a great leader, teammate, and student to pull that off.”

Axelrod handles scouting, player development, and recruiting for the Yeomen, and has already made a big impact on many of the players — especially Friedkin, who plays the same position that Axelrod did.

“I’d say he’s helped me the most with some mental aspects of the game, specifically making plays in the pick-and-roll,” he said. “It’s not a surprise that a large percentage of my points and assists come out of these plays.”

Goodwin has also helped reinforce a winning culture, having made it to four NCAA Tournaments as a member of The College of Wooster basketball team.

“Jalen was a great team guy at Wooster, as he played with a lot of stars but always managed to be one of the most important pieces on a winning team … by making open shots when teams focused on the top guys, playing outside his natural position, and being a leader in the locker room,” Cavaco said.

Although the Yeomen dropped an important game to Goodwin’s alma mater — the No. 14 team in the nation — Wednesday night, the team is looking ahead to its last regular season matchup with No. 24 Wabash College on Saturday.

“We feel that we are peaking as a team right now, which is perfect for the end of the season,” Silverman-Lloyd said.

“We have shown that we can beat the mid-conference teams, so our next challenge is defeating the top teams.”

The fifth-seeded Yeomen will make the trek back to Wabash when they play in the NCAC Tournament Quarterfinals Tuesday.

Perspective is one of the most important aspects of journalism. I believe that every single voice matters, because every voice has a story behind it. I want to take this time to thank every single black journalist who has paved the way for me to be in the position I am in today. Without trailblazers in journalism such as Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass, who used their perspectives to tell their stories despite the oppression they faced, my voice would be diminished.

With that being said, being a black journalist can be tough at times, especially when there aren’t many black people in the field. There’s a certain type of bias that black journalists have to face. One of the most irritating obstacles that black people have to face is the foolish idea that they can’t articulate themselves in a professional setting. Gotta love that stereotype, huh? This is just one of many barriers that black journalists have had to face for decades. If their articulation wasn’t scrutinized, then they would be discriminated against for a number of other trivial reasons, such as the way they dress.

That’s why I have such great admiration for critically-acclaimed black journalists like Oberlin alumnus Chris Broussard, OC ‘90, Jemele Hill, Stephen A. Smith, and the late legend Stuart Scott. Their perspectives were already unique in the world of sports journalism because of their blackness.

Their incorporation of black culture into sports media has been one of my favorite things to see on big sports platforms like Fox Sports and ESPN. Their voices were expressed through the stories they told, which I always found inspiring. My voice in particular took awhile to be amplified by an actual news platform, and my story in the field of journalism has been one wild rollercoaster. When I first committed to Oberlin for football, I wanted to major in psychology and become a physical therapist.

Shortly after my first year began, I realized that my true calling was to write stories for the public to hear through my own unique perspective.

I wanted to use a platform to share my own perspective on sports events, but I didn’t have any work experience in the news. The only true advantages I had at that point in my career were my Oberlin education and my experience as a college football player. The perspective I’ve gained as a black college football player is pretty unique — especially in journalism. So I used it to my advantage and decided to primarily write about football. I knew I had to find a platform, so I made an See Perspective, page 14