Contrast Volume 8, Issue 1 by Vassar Contrast

CONTRAST

Vassarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Art & Style Magazine Vol. 8, Issue 1

A Letter from the Editor Not to sound nostalgic, but it feels like freshman year was a week ago. I was at the activities fair and I came across a table for Contrast. I was immediately struck by the novel opportunity it afforded me to experiment with photography and explore style and art, simultaneously. I remember signing up excitedly for all of the photo shoots that year. When the position for photo editor opened up my sophomore year, I was quick to apply. I wanted to be more involved with the details of putting together a magazine I had come to love and admire. I found the experience of being on the executive board quite rewarding; I could interact with a close-knit group of some of Vassar’s most stylish, ingenious, and artistic students as we molded our thoughts and ideas into something physical. As editor-in-chief my mission has been to try to bring this same joy and these same opportunities to as many Vassar students as possible. Contrast is a constant process of collaboration; each year we try to reach out to different groups on campus and celebrate their unique voices. This November, the Student Advisory Committee of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center helped us put together one of the Loeb’s most successful fashion shows to date, drawing on their inventory of paintings and sculptures as inspiration for styling decisions. In this volume, we also feature work that includes fictional writing from members of Vassar Student Review and Wordsmiths, photography from Phocus, sketchbook samples from assorted studio art students, interviews with musicians, stories from veterans who are a part of the Posse Program, and professor interviews. As such, we decided to structure the layout like a yearbook, which characteristically seeks to represent all lifestyles lived in one particular place. Walking around Vassar, I am mindful that this is one of the most unique and talented communities of which I will ever be a part. Everyone has a different way of thinking and creating. So, as you flip through the following pages, please join me in celebrating Contrast’s executive board’s extraordinary efforts and Vassar College’s diverse talents.

photo by Sean Chang

ACADEMICS

STUDENT LIFE

ORGANIZATIONS

CAMPUS LIFE

EXEC

table of contents 1

A Letter from the Editor

Table of Contents

Professors of Vassar

Disposable Project

Vassar Musicians

Student Sketchbook

Wordsmiths & Vassar Student Review

Vassar x Posse

S(cool) Daze

Embodied

Exec Board photo by Rachel Garbade

Academics

Professors of Vassar graphic by Lauren Garcia

by Catherine Burns

Kathy Wildberger is a professor of both Dance and Drama at Vassar College. Sharing her time between New York and Montana, she has been dancing since she was five years old and working as a “Movement Sequentialist” since 1982. Her experience as a choreographer, performer, costume/fashion designer, and teacher have all influenced her in her day-to-day life here at Vassar College as well as can be seen in her own pieces. In conversation with her, we took a look at how dance, movement, and theatre have changed over the last decades and what this means for the way that the performer and the audience experience and understand it.

CONTRAST: Just to get a feel for your past work, could you tell us a little bit about what you do at Vassar and the kind of dance/movement you teach? WILDBERGER: I teach a course called “Movement for Actors” and also teach “Dance Theatre.” I’ve directed two plays, and one was an original play I wrote, designed, and choreographed. I do what is in some circles called a “Movement Sequentialist” because it is not really dance steps but more about getting the actors from here to there

in a certain kind of way, and it is like some kind of sequence. The first time I used that term to describe myself was when I was at Center Stage in Baltimore where I worked with actors for a long time. I’ve always had a liking to working with actors as well as dancers and it really helped me a great deal. I’ve worked with opera singers as well at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and I really liked branching out and working on movement with people that didn’t really know how to move and finding ways for them to move that wasn’t dance necessarily. I use of lot of training that I’ve had on improvisation to find ways to find movement. C: Yes, your biography on the VRDT website also uses this term, “Movement Sequentialist”… how long have you been working with this particular kind of dance? W: It’s been a long time… since 1982, maybe? I’ve been working in dance since I was 18 years old and studying dance before that. I started dancing professionally at age 18 with the Toronto Dance Theatre and that is what I’ve been doing ever since. I had my own dance company and we toured interna-

tionally. It was a company that was based in Baltimore City called Path Dance Company, and I worked with Jeff Duncan who was the founder of Dance City workshops. C: Aside from just bodies, do you enjoy working with other theatrical elements or props in your choreography? W: You always dream about having another element to work in. It is so different when you are working with elements such as fog, dry ice, and effects like that, or if you can be a bit messy in a space. C: Did you always know that you wanted to dance professionally/work in dance or was it more circumstantial? W: I’ve always danced, even since I was a child. I was always one of those living room dancers at around age five. My dad and mom would give me the living room, and they would move the furniture out of the way and put classical music on for me. I would just dance and dance. I would wear a little bathing suit with a skirt on it which I thought was very fashionable and ballet-like. I started performing for the neighborhood, and kids

Kathy Wildburger

would come and watch me out of one of those picture windows. There was something about dance that was always just a part of me, and I was thinking about that a lot recently. I was so fortunate that my mother and father saw that I had a gift, and they didn’t keep me from doing it.

C: Contrast deals a lot with style, I was interested to know what influences you in when you are deciding what costumes to use for your pieces. How do you balance aesthetic design and comfort? W: Sometimes budget; sometimes I am trying to be very frugal. I had my own company fifteen years, and I had to learn how to be frugal as far as costumes go for a company of ten. I actually started as a costume assistant when I was first in the company at Toronto Dance Theatre. While I was in the shop I really got to see how things were done and how it doesn’t have to be the most well tailored outfit or costume because people don’t see that on stage. It was really a different way of dealing with a costume too. Now we’ve gotten into costuming in a pedestrian way with normal clothing. Choreographers want their dancers to look like normal people. You would think that is easy but it is actually very difficult to do correctly because you don’t really know what it is all going to look like moving on stage. C: Have you always worked in dance or was there a time when you took a break from dance?

W: When I was in New York, I was designing hats while I was having my second career. I went again when I was 50 for the second decade when I lived there. I was teaching and performing but I had to find a way to make money because teaching was never reliable enough. In New York when you teach you get paid by the head. It is very tricky. So I thought about what I could do.,. and I enjoy making things. It is something I’m inclined to do, and so I started making hats and selling them in SoHo and a designer carried them—J. Morgan Puett carried them for a couple of years. Then I was asked to do costumes at a couple of companies, and I started doing that and that helped me out a great deal. C: Are you still designing? I’ve seen you wearing those amazing scarves that you’ve made in the past… W: Yes, Woolly dreads. I have a store that is carrying them across the river, and there is one store here called Simplicity selling them for me too. C: Where do the materials come from? W: I spin wool. My neighbor has sheep. We shear the sheep, and then I make the dreads. Then I clean the wool, spin it, and then I knit them. C: Have you seen dancewear go through any strange or interesting trends? W: The coming of lycra spandex and these new fabrics really affected dance a great deal.

photo by Rachel Garbade

There was a period in modern dance for around a decade of everyone wore unitards. It was always about a more asexual approach to the human body. That androgynous look became very popular. They are beautiful while seeing a piece that is about line or if you want your dancers want to look as close to naked as possible, but I’m personally glad we’ve moved away from it. Around the 1990s that all started washing way and people started going out with bare legs which had never happened before. The most recent thing seems to be bare legs and socks. We constantly go through these stages, so I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next five years we are back in unitards again. C: Would you say that dance influences how you dress in your day-to-day life? W: Yes, it does because I can’t stand not to be able to move. I have some nice, cute outfits that I have from SoHo that I got through trading with my own designed items from when I lived in New York City. I’ve had to give up on some of them over the years, but I’ve kept a few of them. I’ll put them on in the morning, and get ready to come to school. I’ll really like what I’m wearing, but then I think “oh, but I really can’t move in it and I can hardly get in the car just because of the way it is cut…” Most of the time, I want to be able to dance right there if I had to do it, you know? It is the same way when I am in Montana. I like to be able to move freely when I’m out there. I don’t like the feeling of being restricted.

Professor Jill Schneiderman is an Earth Science, Women’s Studies and Environmental Studies professor, well known for her work in linking social justice and science. She also happens to be my pre-major advisor. I sat down with Professor Schneiderman to talk about choosing environmentally friendly products, the costs of travel, and being a woman in the sciences. CONTRAST: What led you to become an Earth Science Professor?

was sexually harassed after my graduate years while I was a teaching assistant at a geology field camp by an old advisor, so that was dispiriting…And the fact that I had come out as a lesbian in 1980, and Stonewall had only been a little over a decade previous to when I was coming out, and so being a lesbian wasn’t old hat like it is now…I was keenly aware of injustice and oppression, and I didn’t feel like being a geologist was going to be the friendliest home for me, between discrimination and the absence of women. I really needed a community of feminists.

SCHNEIDERMAN: I grew up this area, in New York actually, and I went to camp in Kingston. I loved it, and one of the things I loved about it was they had an activity called nature…[F]or me, nature was an activity where we would go out in the soft hill river and look at it, we’d turn over rocks, we’d go to the edge of the lake at camp and look at fossils. I guess you’d call it science, but what eight-year-old is going to sign up for science?

C: Science has typically been understood as a man’s field and is largely dominated by men

C: You are a participating faculty member in the Women’s studies program. What made you decide to teach in a field that at first glance is not related to your field of expertise?

S: I think that there should be a more diverse scientific body and… scientists [should be required] to study the history of science. When you study the history of science, you see that science has been put to different uses depending on the identity of the people that do it. What people choose to research, and the answers that they get, are very much affected by the perspective that they are coming from and the agenda that they have….[S]cience is

S: Well first of all, in college [and graduate school] I never had a female geology professor…Very quickly I got the sense that women and science wasn’t exactly an oxymoron, but it wasn’t going to be an easy road. Plus, I

Jill Schneiderman

a culturally embedded activity, it is not just this objective thing. C: There are many students at Vassar who are interested in buying environmentally friendly products. What advice and/or places to shop would you tell these students? S: I would get food from the Poughkeepsie farm market. Of course, you can only get [that] from the early growing season in May to the gleaning period in November. Also, I belong to something called Winter’s Son, they take CSA food and then in the summer they freeze it and distribute it once a month in the college center. If you are living in the TA’s or TH’s, and making your own food, I would get a fall share. I think student initiatives for procuring food and distributing it is a good thing.

“I really needed a community of feminists.” currently. Do you have any thoughts on how it should change?

by Sophie Friedfeld-Gebaide

C: Does your activism and awareness about the environment influence your purchases, and if so in what way? S: [In terms of how I eat] I have been a vegetarian for a long time, and aspire to be a full vegan. In terms of how I travel…I was supposed to go to present a paper in the History of Education society in Indianapolis and it seemed ridiculous to me to fly to Indianapolis and stay overnight or maybe two nights and then come home. I didn’t have the luxury of time to take a train, so I got in touch with the conference organizer and I asked if I could attend the conference and give my paper via Skype...and when they said, “We have not provided for that opportunity,” I opted to not go to the conference. We can’t fly around everywhere just because we feel like it. I like to get my foods locally…I feel guilty about eating bananas because we don’t grow bananas here. So I try to eat what’s grown in this area…[But] I think you can make yourself go crazy trying to live a life of awareness. If you were just oblivious to all of this, life would be sort of simpler. C: Would you want to be oblivious to all of this, though? S: No. Definitely not, because I want to be part of making things better – not grinding things into the end.

photo by Hanna Ginzburg

If there’s one thing that Michael Joyce doesn’t want to do as a professor, it’s give students advice. In the Creative Writing classes he teaches at Vassar, he doesn’t spend time talking about his own prolific and highly regarded work as a poet, novelist and experimental writer; he prefers to give students a voice. I know this from experience. In his Poetics course, Joyce emphasizes that we should not focus on correcting small details and word choices in our classmates’ poems, but rather discuss the greater ideas and structure of each piece. I should have known, then, as I sat nervously in his office, that asking for advice for young writers would not yield an easy answer. From another professor, some half expected truisms and hokey words of inspiration may have been forthcoming. But Michael Joyce isn’t your average professor. For many years Joyce’s claim to fame was his pioneering work in the field of electronic literature, particularly in writing what is many consider the first notable work of hypertext fiction—a form of literature using links that take the reader down multiple different paths, resulting in a nonlinear story progression in which the writer tells stories along with the reader. But once Joyce’s mark had been unforgettably imprinted on the history of hypertext, he headed in a new direction. Joyce will have published 11 books by this March, and he is now in the midst of two experimental electronic projects. One of them is what Joyce refers to as an “augmented reality project” that he’s working on with a Swedish researcher, Maria Engberg, and his long time colleague, Jay Bolter. The project provides a series of 360º panoramas of places that are significant in the life of Swedish artist Anders Zorn, functioning “ like tours you can get on your cellphones,” Joyce explains. “It’s a way of putting some sort of representation digitally in a real space. People use [augmented reality projects] for guidebooks, manuals in industry, and things with touristic or historical backgrounds. But we’re playing with that notion in the cities where Zorn was active.” These cities include Chicago, Boston, Venice and Paris. Joyce is writing the script for the voice narration in this project, and he describes the panoramas as “disruptive… psychological, a shift to something more impressionistic and visually hypertextual.” The other electronic project that Joyce has been working on—although it is waiting on funding currently— is a collaboration with the painter Alexandra Grant. It is an electronic game version of “missed connections” that he describes as “a consumer-friendly virtual reality system not unlike the treasure hunts people do with GPSs in the city.” The interactive game would involve the beholder following missed connections on the system. Joyce calls it “a convergence of people, actual places, virtual places, and the ability to leave virtual graffiti.” With all of these innovative proj-

Michael Joyce

ects, it’s easy to forget that Joyce primarily takes pride in his teaching. “That’s what keeps my imagination and intelligence alive,” he says. “Especially as both of my children are now approaching middle age, I depend on my students to know how the world works. Life here [at Vassar] puts you in the middle of what’s going on. It’s what makes it so exciting for students, and it’s why seniors get that melancholy…but we teachers get to continue it.” While he works on his poetry and other writing during summers and leaves, most of his days are spent encouraging the young writers that fill his classroom with this energy he so cherishes. And though he prefers not to think of his teaching as giving “advice,” Joyce certainly does inspire students—to take

by Faith Hill

photo by Jake Brody

creative risks, to write honestly and to think critically. “Art is about resisting…the story [everyone] tell[s] themselves about what the world is,” he states. “Vassar is wonderful because of how much we value resistance, in the world and in each other.” And on that note, he does answer my initial request for words of wisdom. “Advice isn’t my business,” he says with a half-smile. “It’s more inviting you to recognize what makes this place so good, and to carry that with you.”

Student Life

A collaboration with Phocus, photos by Lydia Ciaputa, Kristell Taylor, Lauren Garcia, Kira Greenberg, Jessie Lanza, Zoe Lemelson, Anna Emy, Lucas Kautz, Taylor Pratt and Liza Ayres 7

Disposable Project

VASSAR MUSICIANS

photo by Jacob Gorski

SEAN EADS --------by Arden Shwayder

Vocal jazz, electronic music, a cappella and musical theatre might seem like an odd combination, but for Sean Eads (’15) they’ve been the perfect mix for his many musical projects. A singer, pianist, writer and actor, Eads has displayed his talents on stages both real and digital. Writing music since age twelve, he now does acoustic singer-songwriter style pieces, has written several musicals, and constitutes half of the electronic duo BEND. His albums have a narrative format (which he attributes to his musical theatre experience), but he leaves room when performing BEND songs for improvisation, a tactic drawn from studying vocal jazz in high school. Eads has incorporated his brother’s artwork and the aesthetics of electronic music (such as fractals and psychedelic visuals) into past work, including an independent study project that created a visual projection reacting to physical notes played on his keyboard. A Media Studies major, Eads sees music and musical theatre as powerful methods of storytelling, and does not want to make just catchy tunes, but rather something with a powerful meaning and message. 13

page by Katie Eliot

photo by Macrae Marran

MATT MENDOZA --------by Arden Shwayder

Music has been an aspect of Matt Mendoza’s (’15) life since he asked his father, a pianist, for piano lessons on his sixth birthday. He first started writing “really corny pop songs in high school” but upon arriving at Vassar, he took jazz piano lessons and fell in love with the genre. Citing inspirations such as Michael League, Robert Glasper and Bill Evans, Mendoza now plays in several jazz combos and writes his own instrumental arrangements with many melodic ideas originating in improvisation with these groups. e e cummings has also influenced his work, as Mendoza thinks of writing music like constructing a poem. Textural aesthetics do come into play with his jazz, especially when he uses electric piano and guitar. Such things tend to stay in his music, though, for he does not label his personal style as anything other than: “I’m just the kind of guy who wears comfortable clothing.” 14

REVOLTING HAGS ----------by Jacqueline Krass

There’s nothing like a good name to grab an audience’s attention. Revolting Hags have that covered: inspired by, as guitarist Willow Carter, (’15), puts it, a “really terrible, radical Second Wave feminist” named Mary Daly, the all-female queer band loves the hag part, hates the transmisogyny and racism. Bassist Sara Cooley, (’15), summarizes the best part of Daly’s message in one sentence: “If you’re a revolting hag, embrace that you’re a revolting hag.” The band takes inspiration from a wide range of sources, including The Runaways and David Bowie, though taste varies from member to member. What they can unite on is the politics of the music. Says vocalist and guitarist Ellie Vamos, (’17), “Even if all our songs aren’t expressly political, a lot of them are about… love songs from a girl to another girl that are pretty much absent in most music scenes.” The songs tackle environmentalism, accounts of street harassment, and, as Carter puts it, “songs about women, that aren’t weird and creepy boy band whining about how some girl won’t sleep with them.” In a male-dominated music scene, the band’s very existence makes a statement: in reference to last year’s Battle of the Bands, vocalist Emily Goddard, (’15), states that “[i]t just emphasized how much of a need there is for female student musicians on this campus. I was like, thank God, we exist!” While the members of Revolting Hags come from a variety of musical backgrounds, in the end, says tambourine player Erin Boss, (’16), “I think it’s really cool that we’re a self-taught, self-organized band. It’s very homemade and original.”

photo by Macrae Marran

ALIX----------MASTERS by Dion Kauffman

photo by Macrae Marran

Alix Masters (’15) first memory of singing with her twin brother, Jacob Masters, is to the Carl Carlton classic “Everlasting Love” in the backseat of their family car. As for their first performance, the two of them sang together at a coffee shop in 7th grade. “We were so nervous and we were wearing all denim, literally all denim… we thought it was really cool and not ironic. We sang Hallelujah, which is enough to want to kill yourself. There were really cool seniors, and we were like Oh My God. And we quickly realized.” Years later, however, you could spot the denim duo booking local gigs in Madrid, where they performed covers of songs and gained a small following among students and the bar scene. This is no surprise if you’ve heard the two of them sing together, which must be the result of some secret union of twin vocal magic. I asked Alix what she would sing with Jacob if given only one more song to sing together, to which she responded with “I Would Die For You” by Prince. “And I would die for him.”

AUBREY HAYS ----------by Arden Shwayder

Hailing from Gulf Port, Mississippi, Aubrey Hays (’15) has a style that can only be described as eclectic. A singer-songwriter, Hays has been writing music since her 6th grade teacher asked her to compose their graduation song. She has a menagerie of instruments in her repertoire, including the piano, guitar, harp, ukulele, banjelele, flute, melodica, and mountain hammer dulcimer. She employs these when composing songs that range from jazz to folk to blue grass. She draws inspiration from events in her life, musical theatre, a cappella (she is in the Night Owls) and literature, including Jane Eyre, Vonnegut and Shakespeare. This eclecticism is reflected in her personal style, in which she has “cheap clothing combined with a lot of nice vintage stuff.” photo by Macrae Marran

GILEANN TAN --------by Lydia Ciaputa

photo by Jacob Gorski

Born in Manila, Gileann Tan (‘17) now hails from Kuna, Idaho. Her father was a composer back in the Philippines, where he composed the only Broadway-style full-length Filipino musical. She started playing piano at the age of four, and as a result, developed perfect pitch. In middle school, she joined choir, and discovered her interest in musical theatre. Since then, she’s played the title role in Cinderella, a Dynamite in Hairspray, The Ayah in The Secret Garden, Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Star To Be from Annie. Gileann, along with her father, sister, and brother, even make up a family quartet, playing concerts when she’s home in Idaho. A soprano and a belter, she’s currently a music major here at Vassar, where she studies classical music with Drew Minter. Besides her solo work, she is in the Madrigal Singers, Vassar College Choir, a jazz combo, and has been involved with FWA full-length productions and cabarets. She loves choral singing, because “it’s not about you as an individual singer, and it’s not necessarily about the group either. It’s about the songs you are singing, and the process of improving the product.” In addition to singing, Gileann can play the piano, ukulele, and saxophone. [She highly recommends Amanda Palmer’s ukulele album if you’re interested, which possesses “a soft and sincere quality that can also be really moving.”] She cites a wide range of musical inspirations, from her father to Judy Garland, Amy Winehouse to Stephen Sondheim, Elly Ameling to Benjamin Britten, and Billie Holiday to Vassar’s own Christine Howlett. These inspirations undoubtedly contributes to her unique style, both in and out of choir.

ERIC YOON ----------by Bailey Wilson

photo by Jacob Gorski

GABE--------DUNSMITH by Dion Kauffman

Eric Yoon, (’18), is one of those lucky people who has already found a true passion in life. After taking a 6 year break from the piano during which he moved to the United States from Korea and tried other instruments, such as, the violin, cello, and drums he returned to it with renewed vigor a couple years ago, initially practicing 6-7 hours a day. There was something about the piano that was calling to him. “I feel like piano is the instrument through which I’m able to best express myself,” says Yoon. At Vassar he is taking piano lessons, planning a correlate in music, and working on establishing an org called The Pianists (the name is inspired by the 2002 movie The Pianist). This group will be a place for the numerous pianists on campusyou know, the people who are always playing the dorm pianos and say they aren’t even good even though they obviously are to collaborate and perform jazz, classical, and contemporary pieces together, in a setting not offered by the music department.

The mountain dulcimer may seem eclectic to someone who’s never seen one, but for Gabe Dunsmith ’15, it’s always been a part of growing up near the Appalachian Mountains, which has been home to the instrument ever since the mid-1800s. It’s a lap instrument that one can pluck or strum, or both, which is what Gabe does. He remembers first receiving his mountain dulcimer when visiting his aunt in Charlotte, NC, who was preparing to move and didn’t have room for it. “There is such an earthy tone to it that I really like, a deep resonance that you don’t get with other string instruments. It has its own rhythm, the sound guides the rhythm.” But above all, what makes the mountain dulcimer special to Gabe is the Appalachian lineage and history it has within a specific place, a place he loves. “When I play it, no matter where I am, I’m connected to the place.”

photo by Jacob Gorski 18

Student Sketchbook

Adam Spiegelman

Brett Merriam

Moorea Hall

Jeff From 21

Nick Adelman

Julia Kawai

Organizations

Featuring: Wordsmiths & Vassar Student Review Clearance Sale I.

II.

If silence were golden I would be Midasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; daughter hanging in gilded suspension lungs frozen over in 14 karat gold.

The other day I finally

by Jocelyn Hassel

I was told that opinions do not pay the bills folded in every crevice of our apartment we bought cabinets and cheap plastic containers to hold them all â&#x20AC;&#x201C; every miner hopes to strike it big when all they do is swim in coal.

learned the word for that groove above my lip philtrum. Right above the lip, right under the nose, brushing against lips and noses hands and wrists this groove always reminded me of a gutter after torrential rain it is a running down of words spat in my face until they seep through my teeth

III. my sweet millennial generation is somewhere in a Sears display case fogging up the glass with muffled words silence is just another loaded bargain a fair shake with brass knuckles painted over in a cheap yellow

crawling into my esophagus is every drop of words that are not my own.

IV. NEW LIMITED TIME OFFER: speech is now free and luckily I am a cheapskate

graphics by Lauren Garcia

The Divine Comedy

by Otuwe Anya

I find it wondrous how messages from you always make me smile. Like rays from the sun stretching its limbs thin like a harnessed arrow and is then released across the depths of the earth, soft and fluid like God’s laughter. You always seem to brighten up my day. The golden beams drip with mirth and warmth that sink into your bones like a sweet memory. From this golden arch of beauty You leap out like a lighting leopard with a golden aura that lightens the heart of many. You are a special kind of lovely. Your thoughts super charge my neurons to where my cortex clap like thunder. Yet, you make me cackle with the serenity and sputter of lightening storms. And you are refreshing as a rainstorm after a long, long day of sweltering heat. You feel like a rainstorm. The dark spots that amble across your golden body, indecisively, are sections of you that my eyes are not yet cultivated to know nor my mind brazen enough to understand. But with your hand and patience these spots will fade into the folds of your eyes that bulge like streams breaking past boulders. These steady streams will turn into wellsprings of knowledge for future sons and daughters to delight in, for the light in your eyes glistens like sea tides under the vigilance of the iridescent moon. Each troubled wave flirting with the forlorn seashore that has submerged itself under a comforter of sand. Thus, revealing the glimmer of your soul. You have been refined by tragedy yet have the compassion to rival Gandhi. You have the roar of a lion and the intensity to matchyou have the rest of these cats lookin’ like they’re crass kiddin’ kittens from the alleys in catdog. I know, I may have diverted tangentially (but it’s definitely worthwhile if it made you smile). But you are the chorus hymns that my bones sing. I imagine us as barks as we will shatter the banter of despondency with our echoes that stems from the joy emanating from our souls. And all the time we will grow. Until we are carved into counters and record the 1,322 fights fought yearly, yet hold testament to the kisses and I’m sorries that follow from chapped lips, cracked from kissing broken hearts- attempting to stitch scars with love. We will be the beloved chew things and work benches of teething babies. We will uplift homes as if it is all we have ever known. So count with me: 5 times I think of you daily, 4 the sleepless nights spent talking, 3 for God and his trinity, who crafted your heart 2 beat in tune with my own and serve as Cupid’s soundtrack. And 1 smile that uplifts daily whenever my chest gets weary. - O. Anya

Vassar has encouraged the world within its walls to expand. First, by allowing men to join women in 1969, then, by inviting veterans in 2013. Though, even before the college went co-ed, it accepted nearly 200 returning World War II veterans under the GI Bill. The inaugural group of veterans in 2013, and this year’s new group continue that legacy. These veterans were chosen to matriculate at Vassar through the incredibly selective Posse Foundation scholarship. The program seeks to pair Veterans with four year universities in small groups—the “posse.” That group stands as a support system for the new students for their four years on campus and beyond. The program ultimately seeks to create a diverse, national leadership network. The Veterans’ presence on campus provides a unique form of diversity that adds experiential depth to the student body. They are balancing young families, navigating an academic environment after a long time off, even returning to a high level of personal autonomy—while their paths to Vassar are varied, none are without challenge. Through these profiles, Contrast seeks to introduce and welcome these important additions to the student body with keen attention to their individuality and respect.

Vassar x Posse

Antoine Robinson Branch: National Guard, Active Duty Class: 2018 From: Long Island, NY

Q. How do you think being on the Vassar campus has changed your perspectives? A. I’m definitely more aware of cultural and class differences. Here at Vassar you see class separations and distinctions a lot easier, even though Vassar in general tries to get you to come together and meet different people, expose yourself to different cultures— but in reality, you keep your groups. Q. Was there a distinctive or defining moment in your service? A. There have been a lot of distinct moments, but collectively, being in the military has allowed me to see life differently—as far as how people should be treated and the value of human life. Q. There’s this stigma attached to the military for being a very rigid, uncreative place. Now that you’re a part of such an artistic, self-expressive campus, what are you doing to stay creative? A. I’m an art major, so I’m ay Ely a lot. The only things that really interest me are things that are creative. It’s mostly how I spend my time. Q. How did you balance that passion with being in the national guard? A. There is no balance of creative and non-creative in the military—they are totally separate lives. I’ve done afferent things, different projects here and there—when I’ve had to create a mural or a patch, it was always done with a separate mentality than I would have just in a creative space. Q. Then, do you think that your creative space reflects and helps your more logical space? A. Not at all. The non-creative space and creative space actually counter each a lot. I try to keep them separate, because it’s not really conducive. If I try to project any kind of creativity or maintain that, even after being away from it a while, it actually diminishes my sense of creativity. I would be in a creative space doing 25

something military inspired rather than vice versa.

Q. So many of the Veterans have vast experiences outside of “the bubble” which gives them a whole different perspective on what is important. Have you noticed the bubble? How do you see it? A. That’s what I call this place, the bubble. I live on Long Island, so I go back pretty frequently. It’s been beneficial to leave this place, but as soon as you come back it’s like you never left. It’s like time isn’t relevant here. It’s like the twilight zone. I feel like Vassar is trying to create a utopia—they’ve done a good job simulating that—a place where people can be comfortable in whatever skin they want to be in.It has its pros and cons—you have this environment that is centered around you developing as a human being, but at the same time, it’s very easy for people to get pretentious. It’s an environment where you’re supposed to be focusing on yourself and growth, development—so it’s easy to get caught up in your own world. Q. When it comes to personal style autonomy in the military, how have you and your peers kept it creative? A. I’ve only been in the military for about three years, so it hasn’t been a huge part of my style development. Even in the military, people find ways of bring their own style into it. Even if it’s the same uniform, people find ways—like choosing what they wear with what, it separates people. The people who wear multi tools, knives, connecting keys to their uniform—everyone finds what works. Like yeah, you have to wear desert boots, but there are hundreds of different kinds.

Pat DeYoung Branch: Army, 6 Years of Service Class: 2018 From: Philadelphia, PA Q. How has your military background shaped or structured your time here so far? A. Me being here probably wouldn’t have been possible without my military background. Before I was in the military, I wasn’t a good student. So, I’m trying to be a good student now. The military helped me put things in perspective, the things I want out of life and the things I want to accomplish before I’m out of time.

Being overseas, especially, gave me that view onthings. Being here is a step in that process. I have the ambition to do the things I want to do now. Q. Has there been a favorite place you’ve travelled? A. I love traveling—that’s one of the reasons I joined the service, to get out of the Philadelphia area and go new places. So far, I’ve been to Asia, Europe, all over America with the Army. I’m trying to see all of the places in the United States that I didn’t get to see before I left. Now I want to see East Asia, China—hoping to go there for Study Abroad. Q. How would you like the Vassar community to see the Veterans? A. I would just like people to see me and everyone else as individuals. We all have different experiences, different backgrounds. There’s really not that much in common between us other than being non-traditional students and veterans. We’re all doing different things and pursuing different things. Q. Do you think that the posse has helped the transition? A. It definitely made the transition easier. People have found friendships within that context that have carried through and are still growing—I couldn’t imagine being here alone and navigating. It’s just nice—especially during orientation week—to go out and have a drink with people and recenter yourself.

Teresa Stout Branch: Navy, 3.5 years Class: 2018 From: Virginia Beach, VA Q. Can you tell us about your path to Vassar? A. I graduated high school early and played a ton of Water polo when I was younger. I went to school in northern California, and I joined the Navy from there. After my service, I did some campaigning and then I went to work at the White House, initially as an intern and then as a policy assistant. After that, I started doing social justice work which led me to the EU elections in Sweden. When I got back, I was still working on campaigns, and I decided it was time finish what I started in terms of school. I’d heard about the Posse Foundation, and applied for the scholarship. In regard to the Posse, it’s a great group of people who have all done really amazing people and are all vey humble about it. We are all very different people, but I would trust them all with my life—every single one of them. Q. How is the Vassar community different from the others that

you’ve been a part of? A. The biggest difference for me, especially when having conversations about domestic or international policy—the way that I look at things is completely different. A lot of people here have only read about those things in a book or a paper or an article, but for a lot of us we’ve lived it. I love to have those conversations though, there’s always more that everyone can learn. Being around people that are a little bit younger than me has reminded me that I could use a little bit more time to not work and be more focused on things that are enjoyable though, so that’s good. Q. Are you involved with any of the orgs on campus? A. I play Rugby—it’s a sport like no other. It’s a great group of girls; they’re tough, smart, resilient, humble—one of the greatest groups of women that anyone could surround themselves with. Eventually, I want to work with the Class Issues Alliance; there are definitely issues that need to be addressed that I want to be a part of. Q. The Vassar bubble has it’s fans and opponents. Do you plan to get involved off campus? A. When you look at the landscaping here, Vassar is so insular. I’m interested in finding out how my peers want to, if at all, engage with the community. We live here, we are in the community— and we are part of that community. I definitely know that I want to get involved, it’s important for me to engage with the community I inhabit. Q. Throughout your travels, is there anything that you’ve kept with you? A. There’s this drawing that my little sister made for me, it’s funny; my hair is made of noodles. She drew it when she was three or four, and I hadn’t seen her for a couple of years at that point. It’s in my house on my refrigerator—it reminds me for home. I also take a copy of Persepolis, the graphic novel, everywhere I go. It’s been a source of comfort since the first time I’ve read it. Q. How do you want the community to see the veterans on campus? A. As individuals—just getting to know people in the group you see that we are very different and have different goals and experiences. To say that we’re veterans first diminishes us as individuals. I am particularly proud of my service, I’m glad that I did it, I would never change that. We’re people, we have the same fears of grades that everyone else does. We’re approachable, we’re students—we’re your peers. I think there’s a large misconception that the military completely changes you as a human being. It doesn’t, but there’s a certain sense of importance for goal setting and achieving those goals, so maybe that’s it.

photo by Samuel Stuart

page by Emily Hallewell

Campus Life

S(cool) Daze

by Shira Mizel

With finals approaching, let us reminisce about the old days when we traded in boring old penmanship for Super S’s and a foot of actual fruit for a long strip of delicious sugar. Also, don’t forget in these trying end-of-the-semester times, even big kids need help sometimes.

Billy sits on the bench outside Principal Strauss’s office. Big C sits next to him. He’s got a mean mug. Billy: Hello-Big C: Think you’re tough? Sitting on this bench with your Heely’s and your Tony Hawk sweatshirt. What are you in for? Billy: Forgot my calculator again. It’s the fifth time and Mrs. Steinway is real strict about it. Big C: So it’s her fault? Trouble just found you? I was you once. Thought I was invincible. I bet you pretend lollipop sticks are cigarettes. Bet you put down ‘wiener’ and ‘butthole’ in every mad lib game you play. Bet you recruit people for the Pen 15 club. Billy: What? Maybe a couple times. Big C: Oh, a couple times. You’ve got it all under control. It’s a slippery slope, my man, and a couple times 27

becomes every recess in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, you’re chalking peepees by the four square court and wearing an Indian headdress to mock the no-hats-in-class rule. Billy: Listen, I just forget my math supplies sometimes. Big C: And how’s that working out for you? Got you here didn’t it? If you don’t wake up, rock bottom’s gonna hit you like a ton of bricks. Billy: Wait, I know you! You’re Big C. Big C: Yes I am. Billy: Two years ago, you started the food fight. You threw the water balloons on field day. You played the Thong Song through the P.A. system! Big C: Ain’t proud of it. But we’ve got to know where we’ve been so we don’t go back there. I’m gonna level with you. Gusher? (Billy accepts the fruit gusher) Listen here, kid, you

graphic by Lauren Garcia

got to find your higher power. Billy: Oh, I’m not religious. Big C: It doesn’t have to be like that. My higher power didn’t come to me in church. Didn’t come to me on a mountaintop. I was sitting in the waiting room of my dentist’s office when I found my higher power- the sound of angels. I was doing a puzzle in Highlights for Children when C’est la Vie by Irish pop group Bewitched came on the office radio. And snap, that was it. Billy: I don’t think I know that song—

Big C pushes play on a boom box before Billy can finish and he dances with a serious face for like 15 seconds.

that tree house and I thank those women every single day. Billy: Yeah, I don’t know. Guess I’ll keep a lookout for my higher power. Big C: Don’t think for one second you can do this by yourself. It took me a long time to realize that even big kids need help sometimes.

An office lady enters. Lady: Billy, Principal Strauss will see you now. Big C: Take another, here’s three stuck together.

Billy takes the glob of gushers and turns to leave.

Billy: That’s your higher power?

Big C: Take care, ya hear?

Big C: Open your ears! “Don’t be shy, straighten up your tie. Get down from your tree house sittin’ in the sky.” I needed Bewitched to get me down from

Lady: (To Big C) For god sakes Charles, go back to class!

Lights. 28

EMBODIED

Walking around campus, it is easy to be inspired by Vassarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s forms and monikers, from the clean lines of Ferry to the playful name of the Retreat. Thus, we made deliberate styling decisions that sought to embody select parts of campus. 29

MAIN GATE STATUE

Inspired by the harsh lines, bold shapes, and black color of this sculpture just inside the Main Gate, we selected outfits that had an all black aesthetic and favored more rigid structures. photo by Jacob Gorski

FERRY

Ferry is composed of large geometric patches of single colors, of the Bauhaus aesthetic, designed by Marcel Breuer. We chose outfits that favored this modern minimalism and ones that consisted of large, uninterrupted expanses of single colors.

photo by Jacob Gorski

photo by Macrae Marran

FASHION SHOW

photo by Macrae Marran

FASHION SHOW

photo by Jacob Gorski

JADE PARLOR

Inspired by the color jade, we searched a for student with jade-colored hair. Then, we piled on jade eye shadow, a jade hair tie, and a jade necklace.

photo by Jacob Gorski

FASHION SHOW For our annual fashion show, we decided to focus in on the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artworks. Taking inspiration from the subject, forms, or colors of select paintings and sculptures, the styling decisions sought to embody the Loeb. photo by Jacob Gorski

CORNARO WINDOW

Vassarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic stained glass window in the library consists of every color under sun, broken apart into tiny pieces. Inspired by both the fracturing of form and brilliance of color, we selected outfits that reflected the windowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appearance.

35 photo by Jacob Gorski

RETREAT

A retreat is a getaway, an escape, a vacation. Thus, we had our models put on beachy outfits resplendent in neon pinks as well as bright yellows and blues to remind you of those warm summer days. photo by Jacob Gorski

JETSONSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; LOUNGE Both the name and look of the Jetsonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Lounge in Noyes, designed by Eero Saarinen, had us thinking about the future. We represented the future in a galactic way, picking metallic pieces, adding alien-like make-up, with an overall slick, clean appearance

photo by Macrae Marran

Exec Board

Rachel Garbade - Editor-in-Chief

Olga Voyazides - Style Editor

Taylor Pratt- Style Editor

Lauren Garcia - Layout Editor

Lydia Ciaputa - Style Editor

Kristell Taylor - Treasurer

Jacob Heydorn Gorski - Photography Editor

Dion Kauffman - Editorial Editor

Iyana Shelby - Blog Editor

Contributors:

Macrae Marran - Photography Editor

Jacqueline Krass - Editorial Editor

Olivia Michalak - Publicity Editor

Style Team: Aubrey Hays, Catherine Burns, Emily Hallewell, Emma Bird, John Wallner, Madison

Clague, Paulina Vigoreaux Tress, Mollie Schear. Nicole Schonitzer, Sophie Friedfeld- Gebaide, Stephanie Muir, Christie HonorĂŠ, Kelly Schuster, Sophia Wallach, Zach Leatherman, Sean Chang, Madison Clague, Jackson Teague, Laena Haagensen, Brittany Hill, Bailey Wilson, Yasmeen Silva, Simon Hardt, Fran Kuperberg, Sabrina Kleman, Olivia Michalak, Emma King, Brittani Skyers- White, Li Xu, Eric Yoon Photo Team: Mollie Schear, Rachel Garbade, Lydia Ciaputa, Jake Brody, Hanna Ginzburg Editorial Team: Faith Hill, Catherine Burns, Bailey Wilson, Arden Shwayder, Sophie Friedfeld-Gebaide, Ellie Winter Layout Team: Katherine Eliot, Emily Hallewell

Contrast Magazine, Fall 2014 contrastvassar.blogspot.com Instagram: vassarcontrast