The Tufts Daily - Friday, April 8, 2022

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VOLUME LXXXIII, ISSUE 42

BREAKING: Tufts will not ease mask requirement as planned

by Chloe Courtney Bohl Executive News Editor

Tufts will not ease its indoor mask mandate or end its required surveillance testing protocol by April 15 as previously planned, University Infection Health Control Director Michael Jordan informed the community in an April 7 email.

“We are doing this to keep everyone as healthy and safe as possible through the end of the final exam period (May 13) and to maximize the success of our in-person graduation events and Commencement in May to celebrate our 2022 and 2020 graduates,” Jordan wrote in the email.

The decision represents a reversal of the university’s March 16 announcement of a plan to drop its indoor mask mandate and shift from surveillance to symptomatic COVID-19 testing in the third week of April.

Instead, masking will continue to be required for all community members and visitors through the end of the final exam period. Students, faculty and staff will continue their required surveillance testing at current frequencies — twice per week for undergraduate students and once per week for faculty and staff — with the exception of most graduate students, who will now be required to test only once instead of twice per week, effective immediately. Graduate

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Friday, April 8, 2022

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

students who live on campus or are involved in athletic programs will maintain their prior testing cadence of twice per week.

Also effective immediately, faculty in large lecture halls and speakers at events are permitted to lecture without a mask, provided they stand at least 12 feet from the front row, according to the email.

Administration officials tempered their March announcement with caution, stating they would follow through on the easing of restrictions only if cases remained low after spring break. According to the Daily’s COVID-19 dashboard, case numbers on the Medford/ Somerville campus fell during spring break and have since risen back to a level comparable to that of the week before break.

Tufts students quickly took to Sidechat — an anonymous, Tufts-specific social media platform — and a Change.org petition titled “Tufts: Drop Mask Mandate NOW!” to protest the reversal. The petition garnered over 200 signatures and several exasperated comments in the hours following the university announcement.

“Tufts students are vaccinated, boosted, masked and tested twice a week. hospital rates are extremely low. End the insanity! Testing and masking is bad for mental health!” one commenter wrote.

Somerville tenants at risk of displacement by GLX

KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY

The construction site of the new Medford/Tufts station on the MBTA Green Line is pictured on April 7.

by Madeline Wilson Assistant News Editor

The MBTA Green Line Extension officially began service with the opening of its Union Square Branch on March 21, 2022.

The addition extends the Green Line’s service from Lechmere station to the new Union Square station in Somerville. The Medford branch of the GLX, which will terminate at the Medford/Tufts station currently under construction next to the Joyce Cummings Center, is slated to open in summer 2022.

The GLX project has been in the works since 1990 and will offer greater access to pub-

lic transportation for areas in Medford and Somerville where MBTA light rail service was previously unavailable. However, the real estate and commercial development that accompanies the extension may worsen the housing inaccessibility issues that the area currently faces.

Many community organizers and state and local representatives have been outspoken about the complexity of the issues that the GLX introduces. The new transit infrastructure has prompted a wave of speculation by property developers, causing rent prices and eviction rates to increase dramatically.

“Having mass transit as a public good is important for the city,” Nicole Eigbrett, director of community organizing at the Community Action Agency of Somerville told the Daily. “It just also happens to be a double-edged sword when that also means that in today’s housing market, public transit is also an amenity that greed-driven property developers and landlords can use as an excuse to jack up rent.”

The opening of the transit extension at Union Square is just one of the many changes coming to that area of Somerville, which Councilor-at-Large Willie see GENTRIFICATION, page 2

TCU Senate organizes ‘Prom Re-envisioned’ for Class of 2024

by Aditya Acharya News Editor

This Tufts Community Union Senate will host a prom for the Class of 2024 on Friday evening at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The event was created to recreate the experience of a high school prom for sophomores who missed theirs in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Arielle Galinsky, TCU Senate Services Committee chair and a Class of 2024 senator, described the TCU Senate’s motivations behind organizing the prom.

“As prom is a unique milestone, and given our dedication to the student body, TCU Senate felt it was important to host an event to make up for what was lost,” Galinsky wrote in an email to the Daily. “The theme of the prom is ‘Prom Re-envisioned’, which is re-envisioning an event that the

majority of the Class of 2024 did not get to experience in high school.”

The Tufts Community Union Senate made 1,000 event tickets available exclusively for members of the Class of 2024 on March 14, allowing sophomores two weeks of priority access before extending ticket sales to all undergraduates. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only Tufts students are allowed to attend the event.

“There will be incredible entertainment and music, lots of dancing, beautiful decor, photobooths, a virtual reality bar (in line with the theme), a roving mentalist, and some delicious food stations and drinks (taco bar, ice cream bar, & more!),” Galinsky wrote.

The Boston Marriott Copley Place, situated near the see PROM, page 3

NATALIE BROWNSELL / THE TUFTS DAILY

Presenters at the Class of 2024’s illumination ceremony are pictured from within the crowd on Sept. 8, 2021.

FEATURES / page 4

ARTS / page 5

SPORTS / back

Students showcase research at Tufts Spanish Conference

Sammy Rae and The Friends elevate at the Royale

Trinity is the bogey-man at Detrick Invitational

NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

BACK

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, April 8, 2022

THE TUFTS DAILY Alexander Janoff Editor in Chief

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TCU Senate reboots Menstrual Product Project

by Evelyn Altschuler Staff Writer

The Services Committee of the Tufts Community Union Senate is restarting its Menstrual Product Project, an initiative that places free menstrual products in restrooms around Tufts’ campus. The project began in 2019 but was paused during the pandemic. Arielle Galinsky, Services Committee chair and a Class of 2024 senator, described the goals of the project.

“The overarching objective of this endeavor is to achieve menstrual equity for all students on the Tufts campus, as well as limiting any obstacles (financial or otherwise) that students might have in accessing tampons or pads,” Galinsky wrote in an email to the Daily.

Since its inception in 2019, the Menstrual Product Project has had numerous accomplishments.

“One of the most prominent successes was gaining support of [the] administration, as this is often an uphill battle when it comes to Senate projects,” Galinsky wrote. “Last year, also, success was achieved when the Senate Services Committee was able to partner with Tufts Health Services to run this project.”

Tufts Health Services helped the project navigate its largest barrier — receiving funds to purchase the products for free provision.

“One of the biggest places that helped was Tufts Health Services,” Avani Kabra, a senior and former TCU senator who helped start the project, said. “[They] took some money out of their budget and helped us to create this project.”

NATALIE BROWNSELL / THE TUFTS DAILY

An old menstrual product dispenser is pictured in a Tisch Library bathroom on Feb. 21.

The project also receives funds from the Office of Campus Life.

Along with the partnerships that aid the funding side of the project, Tufts students play a critical role in the maintenance of this project.

“Three student workers were hired to stock bathrooms across campus with free menstrual products,” Galinsky wrote. “It was exciting to hear student feedback and to see the initial stages of the project in implementation!”

Kabra mentioned that help from student workers was instrumental in cementing the goals of the project.

“We have this program running where we get an inflow of these products and then they are being distributed by the student workers on either a weekly or a biweekly basis,” Kabra said.

The Student Services Committee continues to work

on implementations for the Menstrual Product Project.

“Currently, we are in the process of solidifying a three-way partnership with the Women’s Center … , Senate Services Committee, and the Health Center to purchase an additional supply of tampons/pads to restock empty bins in public bathrooms across campus,” Galinsky wrote. “Our hope is to stock all bathrooms in the Campus Center, Tisch Library, Olin, and the Fitness Center.”

The Services Committee is also exploring the possibility of distributing packages of menstrual products to the campus community.

“We are attempting to devise a more sustainable solution for students who need consistent access to these resources, perhaps by putting together and distributing bundles of menstrual

products on an at-need basis,” Galinsky wrote.

The Services Committee aims to roll out the next stages of the project in April. The project coming to full fruition, however, remains unknown due to difficulties in receiving financial assistance.

“The eventual goal of the project is to put free menstrual products in all dorm bathrooms as well, and I do not foresee this happening until earliest next year,” Galinsky wrote.

Galinsky wrote that students can support the goals of the Menstrual Product Project by advocating for increased funding from the university administration.

“I think communicating to [the] Tufts administration and to Health Services why accessibility to free menstrual products is so important will certainly help our efforts to obtain more funding,” Galinsky wrote.

Local reps say transit line will exacerbate gentrification, housing affordability crisis GENTRIFICATION

continued from page 1 Burnley Jr. says will look “dramatically different” in the next few years.

“The benefit of that for the city is that it will receive a lot more commercial property tax, which will allow us to shift our balance from relying so much on residential taxes, … which should give us more money to fund a lot of the initiatives we care about, including affordable housing,” Burnley Jr. told the Daily.

But the costs of gentrification may outweigh the benefits.

The rising property values and rent increases coincide with the end of Somerville’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium, leaving many tenants in a precarious position.

The Community Action Agency of Somerville held a bilingual press conference called “Don’t Let the Green Line Become the Gentrification Line!” on March 21, just before the official opening of the GLX at Union Square, where tenants and organizers shared their personal experiences with gentrification.

One community member spoke

about how a property developer is renovating her building into luxury apartments, with plans to increase the rent to three times the current cost.

City Councilor Ben EwenCampen spoke about how Massachusetts’ lack of rent control has contributed to rising housing costs due to the GLX. “Because Massachusetts outlaws rent control and Massachusetts outlaws a lot of powerful tenant protections, it has meant that … as it’s become more and more certain that the Green Line [Extension] is going to open, there has been a really, really dramatic increase in rents and home prices that has pushed out long-term tenants,” EwenCampen told the Daily.

However, there are a number of local and state-wide initiatives in the works to keep rents at a manageable level and to protect tenants. In 2019, Somerville overhauled its zoning code to allow for the development of high-rise buildings near the GLX, a move which Ewen-Campen described as a “huge step forward” for affordable housing. Burnley Jr. also noted the importance of

continuing to build and designate affordable housing.

“I think we need to be working with the Somerville Community Land Trust to make sure that they have the resources they need to build housing that is quasi-public, essentially, that’s not based in a private interest of wanting to make as much money as you possibly can,” Burnley Jr. said.

“That can be used as essentially displacement housing for folks that are being pushed out but want to stay in the community.”

Burnley Jr. also emphasized the value of community and legislative work that educates tenants on their rights and responsibilities.

“One of the most difficult issues here is that a lot of tenants don’t know their rights,” he said. “They don’t know when a landlord is allowed to do certain things, and they don’t feel comfortable, necessarily, speaking out if they think something is wrong.”

Burnley Jr. said that he is working on a bill which requires that tenants receive information about their rights upon signing a lease. Eigbrett’s work at the Community Action

Agency of Somerville focuses on a similar goal, with an emphasis on organizing.

“My program … does our housing justice work in Somerville by educating and empowering renters about their rights and working with residents to collectively organize for change,” Eigbrett said. “We are working with several properties and apartment buildings in Somerville and the residents within them to organize together as a tenant union and then to… negotiate for lower rent and affordable leases.”

Eigbrett also remarked on the role that Tufts students can take in working toward more equitable housing opportunities in Somerville.

“I really want to encourage Tufts students or any college students near Somerville to recognize that they actually are part of the fabric of the community, whether or not they realize it,” she said. “I’d like to remind Tufts students that we are all neighbors, and if we share these values, there are opportunities to collectively come together and make a difference.”

News

Friday, April 8, 2022 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Taco bar, roving mentalist to feature in Class of 2024 prom PROM

continued from page 1 Prudential Center and Back Bay Station, was chosen as the venue in part because of its location and availability. “[The venue] is beautiful, located in downtown Boston, a short drive away from Tufts, and they were accommodating to our budget and needs,” Galinsky wrote.

TCU President Amma Agyei described the week-to-week event planning process.

“A committee consisting of mostly freshman and sophomore senators was formed.

They met weekly to work on different parts of the prom such as the venue, food, decorations, marketing [and more],” Agyei wrote in an email to the Daily.

Elizabeth Hom, TCU treasurer and a Class of 2022 senator, explained how the event budget, which was approved by the TCU Senate in a meeting on January 30, would be allocated.

“The overall prom budget that was proposed, voted on, and ultimately approved by [the] TCU Senate was $137,000,” Hom wrote in an email to the Daily. “This amount will go completely towards production costs for the Prom, including the venue, food, videography/ photography, promotional materials, entertainment, decorations, Boston EMS, and souvenirs for the attendees.”

Hom explained that the $137,000 event budget is funded by the $396 Student Activity Fee each undergraduate stu-

dent pays. After a review of venues’ price quotes and discussions with administrators, the TCU Senate decided to allocate a portion of the unbudgeted Student Activity Fee toward the prom.

“This fee exists for the sole purpose of facilitating programming that will benefit the greater Tufts community,” Hom wrote. “Last year, following the FY22 financial planning and partly due to the higher enrollment of students than past years, a certain amount of the student activities fee was left unbudgeted … Given the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and the desire of Senate to offer a Promlike experience for the Class of 2024, it was proposed that this

otherwise unused money be put towards the Prom.”

TCU Senate was committed to making the event accessible for all members of the Class of 2024. Measures taken to achieve this goal include charging students only $10 per ticket and providing optional bus transportation to the venue.

Additionally, the TCU Senate is facilitating an attire drive.

“To ensure that attire is not a barrier to attending prom, [the] TCU Senate is hosting an attire drive this week with collection boxes in the [Mayer Campus Center], LGBTQ+ Center, Women’s Center, FIRST Center, and Africana Center,” Galinsky wrote.

Sammy Owen, a sophomore, expressed anticipation for the

prom and urged fellow members of the Class of 2024 to get excited about the unique event.

“I know that it’s happening, but I don’t know too much about the event,” Owen said.

“I think [prom is] definitely a good idea … but there definitely needs to be more hype around it.”

Elijah Sarvey, another sophomore, reflected on the significance of attending prom two years after the pandemic interrupted many current sophomores’ senior years of high school. “[I’m excited] to have a little bit of closure,” Sarvey said.

“I was pretty bummed that we didn’t have prom in high school, and it just feels good to celebrate.”

4 Friday, April 8, 2022

Julia Appel In Pursuit of Eggcellence

Trial #3: The kettle

M

y mother was not happy about my last column’s raw egg-eating revelation. Immediately after I sent her the link, I received a text reading “Girl!” (my mom texts like she just stepped off the set of “Clueless”), “This is not how I raised you!

What were you thinking!” I countered with some salient points about my current aliveness and frequent consumption of raw cookie dough and received a trio of spiral-eye emojis in response. So, in an effort to please the payer of my tuition, this week I will set aside the poaching and make an attempt with my old standby, the electric kettle.

The electric kettle. Definitely the best dorm purchase I made by far. The one who makes my ramen possible. Tea. Hot chocolate. Korean instant coffee (pro tip: use two). Electric kettle, my beloved.

Anyway…

Attempt #3 Setting the scene: I’ve just returned from spring break. The shuttle arrived just as I emerged from the Davis T stop — one of life’s many blessings. As a reward for having won fate’s favor, I decided to make some ramen for lunch. And I have “Riverdale” (2017–) to catch up on. I used to claim that I watched “Riverdale” ironically, but sometimes as I listen to the recap podcast, I wonder what the upper limit on irony is.

Oh well. For now, the kettle awaits.

Methodology: I fill it about halfway with water from the bathroom sink (only the best cloudy Miller Hall water for my baby) and drop the egg in as carefully as I am able. ‘As carefully as I am able’ is not very careful, but I do my best. The dull ‘thunk’ as it hits the bottom is not promising. Bring water to boil as usual, let it sit for about three minutes, carefully balance it on my way to the bathroom with an empty container in hand. I, then, fill the container with cold water, pour the hot water into the sink and dump the egg unceremoniously into the cool water. The next step is to take out my phone, scan my key, touch the mezuzah, put my phone away and open the fairly heavy door. This is a balancing act. It’s possible that some water from the egg container ended up on the floor. Who can say exactly what occurred?

First impressions: Ouch, hot, etc. We’re familiar with this routine by now.

Second impressions: There’s a little chunk of cooked egg that seems to have escaped during the dull ‘thunk’ but cooked outside the shell and is still attached.

Fascinating.

Third impressions: Good egg. Slightly runny yolk, solid white. Maybe just slightly more cooked than I would’ve liked, but you can’t win them all.

Like I said, the kettle is consistent.

The only thing I take issue with is all the mask-putting-on and mask-taking-off and remembering to take my phone with me and opening doors while holding open containers of water. As the last kid in my kindergarten class to learn to jump with both feet, coordination has never exactly been my strong suit.

Conclusion: The kettle is, as always, a solid performer. 8/10.

Julia Appel is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Julia can be reached at julia.appel634628@tufts.edu.

Features

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Second annual Tufts Spanish Language Conference to take place April 9

by Isabelle Kaminsky Contributing Writer

The second annual Tufts Spanish Conference has arrived!

The Spanish Conference is an opportunity for students in Spanish courses in levels 22 and above to share their research in an immersive Spanish environment. It will be held on Saturday, April 9 in the Olin Center, rooms 002 and 007. The topic of this year’s conference ranges from literature and art to the representation of poverty within plays, and even to bilingualism. Although the Spanish Language Conference is only in its sophomore year at Tufts, the idea has been brewing since 2019.

This year, the conference has been organized by seniors Hannah San Sebastian, Jacob Freudberg, Samantha Wilner and junior Eden Maddy. Additionally, Part-Time Lecturer in the Department of Romance Studies Patricia Smith and Senior Lecturer in Spanish Kathleen Pollakowski are the faculty advisors.

Smith recounted how the idea to host a Spanish language conference at Tufts came about.

“It all really started … three years ago when, in my Spanish Civil War class, the students had done fantastic presentations.

And during the semester, I got an email from Worcester State University, which was sent to colleges all over Massachusetts, inviting people to participate in their conference,” Smith said. “Three of the students in my Spanish Civil War class were interested…

Hannah San Sebastian, Alex Martin and Emilia Charno.”

The group took the train to Worcester to attend the conference.

“The three of us went to Worcester for the day, and we presented our research.

Mine was on how Spain remembers the Franco regime, as opposed to how Germany remembers Hitler,” Hannah San Sebastian, a senior double majoring in French and Spanish, said.

The excitement from presenting their research in Spanish at the Worcester conference prompted San Sebastian, Martin and Charno to begin planning for an immersive Spanish conference at Tufts. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hindered their plans.

“The [conference] in Worcester was in 2019. And then 2020 … that was [COVID19], and we were planning and talking so there was no conference then. … And then 2021 was our first, hopefully annual, Spanish language conference,” Smith said.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the 2021 conference was held virtually; however, the conference will be held in a hybrid format this year with most presentations being in person. There will be two presentations running at once per panel, so attendees will have a choice of which presentation to attend. “[We] just keep wondering, you know, how is this going to be maneuvered? Will we have technical problems? And we are going to have an employee from Tufts IT department with us all day long … and that makes us feel 100% better,” Smith said.

In addition to student presenters, there will be two keynote speakers.

“The first keynote speaker will be Ian Althouse, a Tufts alum with a Ph.D in Spanish (concentration in contemporary Latin American literature) from Yale University.

The title of his talk is “Pseudónimos y pseuodociencia: Cómo el arte puede alucidar el propósito de los catálogos en las novelas de Roberto Bolaño.” And the second keynote will be given by Prof. José Antonio Mazzotti (from our department, Romance Studies), “La importancia de la investigación en el aprendizaje del español (y en la vida),” Pollakowski wrote in a follow-up email to the Daily.

After the individual presentations, there will be Q&A panels in groups based on the research topics.

“Students are also divided into panels of similar topics, so for example, I’m presenting on literature from the Middle Ages, and so I’m with a bunch of students with similar topics, [and] at the end of our panel, a professor will be doing a Q&A,” San Sebastian said.

Students cited the main reason for their interest in the conference to be the opportunity to present research, as it often seems like only STEM students get that chance.

“I kind of wanted an opportunity to share my research because there’s not very many opportunities to do that within the Spanish major,” Eden Maddy, a junior dou-

ble majoring in International Relations and Spanish, said.

Most presenters are sharing continuations of research that they began in their respective Spanish courses.

“For the most part, it’s research students have done in class, [but] it could be individual research,” San Sebastian said.

Pollakowski noted that most of this research comes from the fall semester.

“Because of when we give [the conference] — in the spring — … a lot of the research comes from the fall,” Pollakowski said.

The organizers of the conference have been planning the event since October 2021.

“We meet for an hour every other week … And in between then we always have tasks … When people were sending in applications, I was processing those, and I was responding to people … [who] asked me questions,” San Sebastian said. “Some of the other students have been in charge of creating the posters to advertise, creating Facebook events to advertise, and then we’ve also been in touch with one of the keynote speakers.”

Maddy discussed how planning the conference was a collaborative process.

“We meet regularly and discuss logistics and what we’re going to do, and it’s been awesome getting to collaborate with the professors and talk to them outside of the classroom environment,” Maddy said.

All students who are interested in participating go through the same process to present.

“The students have been asked to send in their proposals and the title of their presentation, and they have PowerPoints that go with them. They’ve been sending them in to an email, which Alex and Hannah and Emilia created … a year and a half ago called tuftsspanishconference@gmail. com,” Smith said.

The conference welcomes anyone who is eager to listen to the hard work of its presenters.

“I think it’s just very cool how… even within one department — the Spanish department — there’s just such a diverse range of interests and research,” San Sebastian said. “[It’s] so cool [that] we get to showcase that.”

COURTESY HANNAH SAN SEBASTIAN

Founders of the Tufts Spanish Language Conference are pictured at the 2019 Worcester World Languages Undergraduate Conference.

tuftsdaily.com

WEEKENDER

5 Friday, April 8, 2022

Sammy Rae & The Friends fill the Royale with gratitude

by Henry Chandonnet Assistant Arts Editor

Sammy Rae & The Friends have brought their radical joy to Boston once again. The band triumphantly returned for a double feature at the Royale on March 26 and 27 with its 2022 tour, filling the venue with cheerful bliss and uptempo funk. The shows were filled with both optimism and a deep sense of catharsis, having been the band’s final performances before a onemonth tour hiatus.

On March 16, the Daily interviewed the band’s frontwoman Samantha Bowers, or Sammy Rae — her stage name.

So who are Sammy Rae & The Friends?

They’re a Brooklyn-based collective of musicians who come together to put on a show and to create good times.

Fundamental to the band is not only Sammy Rae, lead singer and often public face, but also the slew of performers that come together to create that iconic jazz pop sound. These are her ‘Friends,’ a term Bowers came up with as an ironic statement about the music industry.

“I was seeing a lot of these tour posters for folks who were playing with their bands, and it was [the front person] in really big font, and then on the bottom [the poster] would say ‘and friends,’ in lowercase,” Bowers said. “But like who are these ‘friends’ that you brought tonight?

And maybe you’d hear the bassist’s name once or something. So I kind of decided to play on that a little bit, flip it and make Sammy Rae & The Friends.”

In that spirit, it’s important to recognize all of The Friends individually, as they all contribute individual talents and quirks to the broader sound experience. Debbie Tjong is on keyboards and background vocals. Tjong got her strongest breakout moment during the concert from a fullblown keytar feature. On the dueling alto and tenor saxophones is Kellon Reese and Max Zooi respectively, each wailing away with showstopping solos. Then there’s Sebastian “C-bass” Chiriboga on drums, who brought an infectious sense of energy and fun to the show. Rounding out The Friends is Will Leet on guitar and James Quinlan on bass, who each rocked out on raging solo lines at the concert.

When all these forces come together, the result is funk ecstasy. Blaring saxophones and roaring basslines form an auditory party, one that can’t help but inspire you to get up and dance. Bowers overscores this with outstanding vocals,

Sacha Waters Public Cinemy No. 1

Narrative corruption within ‘The Dropout’

I

will admit I love Hulu’s “The Dropout” (2022), a highly-anticipated miniseries on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. It’s beautifully written, beautifully shot and beautifully acted. Even teachers at my high school, Holmes’ alma mater, have commented on how well the miniseries captured Holmes’ eccentric character. But the show occasionally falls into the pothole of becoming what it means to analyze: America’s obsession with narrative smoke and mirrors.

Elizabeth Holmes is interesting not just on the surface level but because of why

riffing and belting ad infinitum. This, combined with electric stage presence, creates a celebratory concert experience that oozes with cheer and play.

When asked about this emanating sense of joy, Bowers remarked, “We’re just a bunch of people having fun with some of our favorite people on stage. I find that when you get that sort of performance, it lessens that sort of wall there, that fourth wall is kind of transparent and gives the audience permission to have fun.”

This reflects a broader goal of Sammy Rae & The Friends: They value their audience and want them to have a good time.

“We try to move through all this with this sense of humility and gratitude,” Bowers said. “And we understand that all this was an exchange of energy and love, and we can’t have the dream that we have … unless people are supporting us.”

This is undeniable within the show itself, with Bowers and her bandmates spending an extensive amount of time communicating with the audience, recognizing and validating their experiences.

The audience supports the band, but the band also supports the audience.

Another reason for this communal sense of release is the band’s undeniable queerness. Bowers herself is a queer-identifying woman who uses she/they pronouns interchangeably, and much of her songwriting is unabashedly based in queer experience. Even within the show, Bowers paused between songs for her “moment of queer affirmation” in which she personally acknowledged and praised her queer fans, and similarly applauded the allies in the room.

The result was a show filled with the audible effervescence of queer culture.

“While our main goal is to make our music accessible to everybody, my hope is that it particularly elevates folks in the queer community,” Bowers said. “What’s special about us is we have an opportunity to some degree to choose our own family, and community is extremely important to us. So driving home that point of community so much in the live space, I think that queer folk feel attracted to that and comfortable in that.”

Still, even while reveling in the rapture of the present moment, Sammy Rae & The Friends are moving to bigger and better things. With their shows at the Royale being the last of this leg of the tour, and the second-to-last of the tour at large, the question of the future is ever-present. That future, of course, looks oh-so exciting. exactly people fell for her shtick. She tricked some of the world’s top minds: venture capitalists, CEOs and political legends alike, and not just with her phony tech achievements and uncanny valley-esque Steve Jobs impersonation. She used identity and narrative.

She invented the girlboss archetype: the pretty, blonde, wunderkind feminist breaking down the glass ceiling. And she knew what she was doing.

My verdict is still out on whether the show knows the same. The first three episodes of “The Dropout” show Elizabeth Holmes as a geeky, socially awkward underdog — a high school and college student struggling to find her way. It’s been criticized for humanizing her, for making you root for her. But does it?

On one hand, Elizabeth Holmes is human. She has a backstory — and a life — and Amanda Seyfried and the writers’ room skillfully portray her evolution from awkward teenager to con artist. It’s ridiculous that the show should exist just to make Holmes look bad — that’s bad writing, and

HENRY CHANDONNET / THE TUFTS DAILY

Sammy Rae & The Friends are pictured performing at the Royale.

“We’ve got a lot of festival shows coming up this summer, which we’re very excited about, and we plan on recording some new material in the spring,” Bowers said.

This could expand into new realms for the band, with Bowers excitedly expecting new projects. “[We’d like to produce] music videos, if time will allow. It’s something that I want to continue to make a bigger part of the project.”

Still, with every step forward, Sammy Rae & The Friends want you to know that you’re valued. The listener, and eventually the audience member, is central to the movements of the band.

This creates not only the space of love

and compassion that was seen at the Royale but also leads to a burgeoning community of followers who feel validated and heard.

Bowers remarked on the recognition the group receives from its supporters.

“With every major decision we make on how to move forward with the band, it’s always ‘How do we make sure they realize that we want to say thank you really loud,’” Bowers said. “We always keep saying ‘thank you’ at the forefront of our decision making.”

This gratitude is tangible, felt by every listener and viewer. With this positive outlook Sammy Rae has found not only her titular Friends but also a community of friends across the globe.

it’s wrong. She defrauded millions, but she’s not a caricature.

On the other hand, Elizabeth Holmes is smart. She knew how to manipulate people, she knew her mission and she knew how to leverage her image to get it. “The Dropout” depicts the girlboss aura that orbited her, the feminist mystification the media built up around her, but I’m not convinced it sufficiently shows Holmes’ own role in that.

The show often frames Holmes cornered on talk shows, being pressed by faceless interviewers about the glass ceiling, rather than showing her active role in the ‘yassified’ media campaign.

“The Dropout” deals with a difficult story, even a mythos, and overall it does it well. But at times I think it falls victim to its own thesis. The show took the Elizabeth Holmes story, and packaged it up into a neat narrative that takes her fractured, awkward adolescence, her traumatic past and her years-older boyfriend and collates it with her drive — even desperation — for suc-

cess. Just like Elizabeth Holmes leveraged America’s obsession with success stories to fool the world, “The Dropout” sensationalizes and humanizes her tale for its own blinged-out portrayal.

America’s love of narrative goes beyond Holmes; it permeates our politics, our celebrity culture, our media and even our tech startups. It’s a kind of accepted corruption — this willingness to listen to the long-suffering, embellished anecdotes of public figures for the purpose of being entertained or inspired. But television is art, and I’m always willing to give art a pass. Though I think “The Dropout” could use more self-awareness, I don’t condemn its surrender to the power of narrative. Stories are the best way I know of digesting truth, and this is a damn good one.

Sacha Waters is a sophomore studying political science and film and media studies. Sacha can be reached at sacha.waters@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Arts & Pop Culture | Friday, April 8, 2022

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Sam: “OMG can we make thumbnails out of thumb people?!”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

DATING ADVICE FROM A HISTORY MAJOR

Difficulty Level: Holding in my excitement for the roving mentalist.

By Matt Hixson

Thursday’s Solutions

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

CROSSWORD

tuftsdaily.com

Natalie Brownsell Blue, Brown & Green

Monkey see, monkey do

B

oston and its surrounding cities are beautiful places.

One thing decidedly not beautiful is the litter that mars the woods and streets throughout Greater Boston.

Unfortunately, I have, at times, seen a similar scene on campus.

Though Tufts facilities might clean up litter occasionally, the responsibility for keeping our campus beautiful is a community-wide one. Littering is a serious problem in the U.S.; in

Opinion a national litter study done by Keep America Beautiful in 2020, it was determined that there were “nearly 50 billion pieces of litter along U.S. roadways and waterways” throughout the country. That equates to 152 items of litter for every person in the United States per year.

One of the most direct environmental consequences to litter remaining in the environment is the danger it poses to wildlife. Wildlife often mistake litter for food or become entangled in it, causing the deaths of over one million animals nationwide each year.

Moreover, when litter remains in the environment and begins to break down, it has the potential to pollute soil and water, posing health risks for both

people and animals. Though trash will still decay in landfills, many of the harmful side effects are contained and the trash is kept out of direct contact with wildlife.

Another consequence of littering is the cost. Litter cleanup efforts cost the U.S. more than $11.5 billion each year, and educational institutions alone spend over $241 million of this each year. When litter is allowed to pile up, it can be costly to clean up and can create a large time investment. Individual effort to not only help clean up litter but also to prevent it from entering the environment in the first place can be vitally important environmental steps and can help take a financial strain off of your community.

Litter is undoubtedly a social issue, first and foremost. Studies determined that of observed individuals, “81% of the littering that occurred happened with notable intent.”

Additionally, they found that “individuals who were observed littering were much less likely to report a personal obligation to not litter.” Littering is harmful to the environment, but it also is unpleasant to look at and is expensive to clean up. Oftentimes littering occurs because other litter is visible, and a ‘monkey see, monkey do’ effect is created. What we do — good or bad — has consequences. If one person litters in a place, someone else likely will also litter there. Similarly, if others observe that you are

7 Friday, April 8, 2022 picking up some litter, they likely also will.

Though reducing overall waste production is best, it isn’t always possible. Making an effort to keep waste out of the environment can greatly reduce health risks to both humans and wildlife. Part of being in a community is having responsibility for other people and for the place itself. This week as you enjoy the spring weather, I encourage you to pick up even one piece of trash that you see.

Your display of stewardship may inspire others to do the same.

Natalie Brownsell is a sophomore studying applied environmental studies.

Natalie can be reached at natalie.brownsell@tufts.edu.

SPORTS

8 Friday, April 8, 2022

Aiden Herrod The Intangibles

My NBA momentum winners losers

M

omentum in basketball is everything. Teams that are playing their best basketball in the crunch months of March and April are often more likely to succeed than higher-seeded counterparts who did all their winning in November and December. This creates final standings that can mislead the casual or even seasoned fan when bracket-filling time comes. Ultimately, my favorite picks for the NBA Finals are the teams that win the most games after lineups have been tweaked, film has been analyzed and chemistry has been built.

Will the real East favorites please stand up?

Holy smokes, this team is something else.

Boston has been a force ever since it paired Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in its backcourt, but the stars’ tenure has been defined by falling just short of a championship. Not this year though. I’m picking Boston to make the NBA Finals over Eastern Conference giants Miami, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Why? Because this team has had single-digit losses since January and is playing some of the scariest defense I’ve ever watched. They’ve clobbered legitimate contenders by 20, sometimes 30 points at a time along the way, too. The rest of the East is putting together slapdash rotations with newly acquired pieces while Boston has been fine-tuning a roster that has maintained its finals-ready core for years now.

Still watching 2017–18 highlights Golden State is in trouble. Its 3-seed standing was built off early-season success, and its momentum has slowed with little time left to gain it back. While Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson have played most of their careers sharing the court, it’s been two years since the three got meaningful reps together. I don’t care how telepathic their chemistry may be, every teammate needs adjustment time. Throw in the slew of new additions, including the high-volume Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, and this team reeks of disappointment in the form of a first- or second-round exit.

Quick hitters: My favorite play-in picks Cleveland has the NBA’s likely Rookie of the Year in Evan Mobley and two freshly minted all-stars in Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland who will wreak havoc on any team trying to escape the first round unscathed. Minnesota and New Orleans are my play-in winners over both Los Angeles and San Antonio, both playing their best basketball in the months of March and April. Minnesota is finally starting to see results from its young big three, and New Orleans’ acquisition of CJ McCollum has added much-needed leadership to a young squad ready to win.

Quick hitters: Early outs Toronto is holding on to the fifth seed with starters who have been playing absurd minutes for as long as I can remember, and they’ll likely be too gassed to pull away in a lengthy series against proper superstars. Chicago doesn’t know how to win against upper-level competition, and the team has suffered from a big three that is rarely all healthy. Denver has my pick for MVP in Nikola Jokic, but he would need to carry his squad at a level not seen since LeBron James’ early Cleveland Cavaliers days.

Aiden Herrod is a senior studying film and media studies. Aiden can be reached at aiden.herrod@tufts.edu.

tuftsdaily.com

Golf comes one shot short of first at Detrick Invitational, secure second place

by Ananda Kao Sports Editor

After two days and 36 holes of play, Tufts golf tied a strong Trinity team at 621 strokes apiece at the Trinity College annual Bill Detrick Invitational tournament this past weekend. Due to this team tie, it came down to a fifth-player tiebreaker in which the Trinity Bantams won 79–80, placing the Jumbos second on the weekend. This was the first tournament of the spring golf season and following a strong fall showing from the Jumbos, they have their sights on being a top contender for the NESCAC Championships this year.

“The fall is a time we get to play a few tournaments and stuff, but we’re really just gearing up for NESCACs and finding the right lineup that we want to play in the spring consistently,” senior co-captain Adam Schwimmer said. “Overall, I think that the transition from fall to spring is a little bit hard just because of the weather situation, but we just focus on eliminating mental mistakes on the course, minimizing high numbers and then just working on the short game in the fall and then into the spring.”

On Saturday, the four best scores for Tufts totaled 315 strokes, and on Sunday, each of these top players shot in the 70s, shooting 306 as a team for a tournament total of 621. At the end of Saturday, Trinity led out of the 10 teams, with Tufts trailing behind by two strokes. Junior Ben Blase led the Jumbos on Saturday, shooting a 3-over par shooting a 75. Schwimmer, sophomore Jack Meehan, and senior co-captain Travis Clauson rounded out the Jumbos top four, shooting 79, 80 and 81, respectively.

“Our program has come a long way in the last few years, so going into these events, we’re looking to contend,” Schwimmer said. “Our goal was to win, and we came up one shot short. We made good strides … some guys got some good reps in, and we didn’t play our best, but we definitely improved mentally, because we played in really tough weather conditions. … It was in the low 40s, we battled some rain and wind … so, it was a good gear up for the spring just in terms of the mental test.”

Meehan led the Jumbos on Sunday with a 73, the lowest score in the tournament.

Meehan finished the weekend 80–73–153, good for fourth individually overall out of 58 total players in the tournament. Blase tied for second individually after shooting a 77 on Sunday and totaling 152 on the weekend. The lower scores on the second day of play reflect the adjustments the Jumbos

COURTESY GEORGE PENDERGAST

A member of the Tufts golf team is pictured at the Bowdoin Invitational last season. were able to make after seeing the course for the first time on Saturday.

“With this kind of tournament, we didn’t play a practice round, so when you get there, you’re essentially playing the golf course for the first time,” Schwimmer said. “When you play the second day, you pick up on things you could have done differently the first day, and you make those adjustments the second day, whether it’s hitting certain clubs off the tee, leaving the ball in a certain spot on a green or just missing in the right place.

It’s just important to think back on what you did in the first round and use that as a road map of what to do differently in the second round.”

Schwimmer shot a 77 to place 10th with a 156 score, and Clauson rounded out the Jumbos’ top four scorers with a 79 on Sunday and 160 on the weekend, ultimately tying for 17th overall. As the fifth scorer for

the Jumbos, junior Kemp Bassett became the tiebreaker and shot an 80, totalling 164 on the weekend. Malcolm Herbert also competed for the Jumbos, placing 36th overall with a 83–86–169. This season, Tufts has a new simulator and putting green in the gym on campus, making skill practice more easily accessible for the team.

In terms of things to improve on moving forward and what the team is looking forward to this season, Schwimmer said, “with the whole team, making a few more putts, putting in the time in our new facility and trusting our game. We’re a good team, and we just have to have the confidence that we can win … because we’re definitely one of the top teams in the NESCAC.” The Jumbos will compete at the Tim Brown Invitational hosted by Skidmore at Ballston Spa Country Club in Ballston Spa, N.Y. this weekend.