The Wake Issue 11 Spring 2018

fortnightly student magazine

volume 17 — issue 11

Emma Imady’s “Thicker than Water”

p. 7

Q&A: J. Wren Supak

p. 16

Chefs Take an Artist to Work Day

p. 8

Academic Imbalance

p. 18

Trump’s America: Views from Europe

p. 11

America’s Trash Crisis

p. 21

Art by Jade Mulcahy

VOLUME 17, ISSUE 11 EDITORIAL: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Cities Editor Voices Editor Music Editor Online editor Copy editors Multimedia Editor Multimedia Producer

Emma Klingler Jake Steinberg Megan Hoff Tala Alfoqaha Liv Martin Alex Wittenberg Chris Shea Kikki Boersma Gracie Stockton Julie Malyshev

Editorial Interns: Claire Redell, Emily Ness, Farrah Mina, Hannah Haakenson, Luci Bischoff, Maya Ulrich, Sylvia Rani

BMM EBZ

PRODUCTION: Executive Director Production Manager Creative Director Finance Manager PR/Ad Manager Social Media Manager Art Director Designers

Web Manager Distribution Manager

Holly Wilson Olivia Novotny Kate Doyle Rakshit Kalra Sophie Stephens Grace Steward Katie Heywood Andrew Tomten Kellen Renstrom Megan Smith Nikki Pederson Cassie Varrige

Production Interns: Darby Ottoson (PR), Jamie Rohlfing, Macie Rasmussen, Art Interns: Emily Hill, Jade Mulcahy, Jaye Ahn, Lauren Smith, Mariah Crabb, Natalie Klemond, Peyton Garcia, Sophie Stephens, Stevie Lacher

THIS ISSUE:

Š2017 The Wake Student Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

Established in 2002, The Wake is a fortnightly independent magazine and registered student organization produced by and for students at the University of Minnesota.

The Wake was founded by Chrin Ruen & James DeLong.

Disclaimer: The purpose of The Wake is to provide a forum in which students can voice their opinions. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not representative of the publication or university as a whole.

To join the conversation email eklingler@wakemag.org .

The Wake Student Magazine 126 Coffman Memorial Union 300 Washington Avenue SE Minneapolis, MN 55455

Writers Anna Gall, Ben Halom, Chris Shea, Claire Becker, Claire Redell, Emily Ness, Emma Klingler, Farrah Mina, Hannah Haakenson, Holly Wilson, Karl Witkowiak, Liv Martin, Macie Rasmussen, Maya Ulrich, Megan Hoff, Olivia Heusinkveld, Sophie Castaneda, Sowmya Narayan, Sylvia Rani Art 1 Megan Smith, 2 Stevie Lacher, 3 Claudia DubĂŠ, 4 Morgan Wittmers-Graves, 5 Hannah Olund, 6 Katie Heywood, 7 Tessa Portuese, 8 Peyton Garcia, 9 Jaye Ahn, 10 Will Hanson, 11 Claudia DubĂŠ, 12 Stevie Lacher, 13, 14 Will Hanson, 15 Peyton Garcia, 16 Jade Mulcahy Cover by Ruby Guthrie

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wink! one page magazine

Spring Jam Round-Up: Well, that was another one, folks!

The Spring Jam Hangover Cure: as proved by science.

1) Wake up. Possibly throw up.

2) Order a large pizza or hoagie from Pizza Luce (FREE DELIVERY and vegan friendly).

Consume the amount you need there is no too little or too much here.

3) Get on the Pedialyte train or have a hair of the dog with a bloody mary.

4) Call your mom. Tell her you love her.

5) Order Pizza Luce again.

6) Sleep.

BY EMMA KLINGLER & HOLLY WILSON

Hottest fashions from this year’s spring jam were…

-The gallon-size plastic bag. One of the few non-prohibited bags allowed into Spring Jam, this versatile pouch carried all the essentials for masses of Spring Jamgoers. One could tell the veterans from the freshmen by whether or not they had solved the problem of the handle-less bag: shoving their fists through the thin film and wearing it around their wrist like a garbage clutch.

-The “Flangle.” These hilariously oversized bangle flasks definitely didn’t draw any attention from security whatsoever.

Wearers of this subtle adornment enjoyed the casual maneuver of appearing to suck on their arm as they coughed down Pineapple Bacardi in style.

Poll: What was your Spring Jam 2018 high

-Underwire bras. Essentially created to hold a flask -And no bras. Because bras are uncomfortable, am I right ladies?

When the ferris wheel detached from its base and crowd surfed.

-Student Apartment-branded snapback.

These cheaply-made hats were all the rage this year, and every year, thanks to the ruthless promoters of overpriced student apartments preying on poor, drunk students by shoving these flashy lids onto their heads as they stumble toward Lot 37.

Lil Yachty donating his sweatshirt to Planned Parenthood--LIVE ON STAGE!!

The sacrificial slaughter of the Battle of the Bands finalists who did not get to open TOT BOSS

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Check out our artists online!

Claudia Dubé claudiadubedesign.com

Katie Heywood katieheywood.com

Stevie Lacher stevielacher.com

Morgan Wittmers-Graves morganwittmers-graves. myportfolio.com

Peyton Garcia peytongarciadesign.com

Will Hanson willnhanson.myportfolio.com

INSIDE 6

Letter from the Editor

7

Emma Imady’s “Thicker than Water” On Display at MIA

8

Chefs Take an Artist to Work Day

9

Swan Lake at Northrop

10

Creative Writing by Sophie Castaneda

11 Trump’s America: Views from Europe 14

Art by Emily Jablonski

16

Q&A: J. Wren Supak

18

Academic Imbalance

19

From one “Benighted Oppressor” to All Others

20

Major Mistakes

21

America’s Trash Crisis

22

Six Reviews

UPCOMING EVENTS 4/26

5/4

No Age

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

7th St. Entry

First Avenue

4/27-29

5/4

w/ Makeness

w/ Behavior, Aquarium

St. Paul Art Crawl

A

Locations vary, check saintpaulartcrawl.org for more details

Chamber Music Gala Recital Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

4/28 On Our Own Terms

B

Voices at the intersection of transgender experience and Mixed Blood Theatre Mixed Blood Theater

4/28 Northside Seed

Wide varieties of produce, herb, and flower seeds at sliding scale prices. Free meal, activities, music, cooking/planting demos!

Cleveland Park Elementary A

4/29 Drag Queen Story Time

C

hosted by Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life, excerpts of books read by drag performers, snacks and games provided, all ages!

Moon Palace Books

B

Jaye Ahn jayeahn.portfoliobox.net Tessa Portuese tportuese.com

C

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Letter from the Editor Dear Readers, As we trudge to class, April snowflakes bearing down on us and Minnesota showing us just how brutal “spring” can be, it’s hard to see the light through all of the gray slush. Yet, I implore you: do not lose faith.

The end of the semester (and maybe even warm weather) is just around the bend. With classes wrapping up and finals looming ever closer, stress levels are peaking. In this time of hustle and bustle, don’t forget to take a step back and breathe. Sometimes we get so caught up in moving fast, keeping up the pace, that we forget to let ourselves enjoy some oxygen.

So, if you find yourself wondering how the heck you’re going to write three papers and take two exams and get to work on time without taking any Ls, you’re not alone. As a full-time student with three jobs, I get it. Slowing down can mean failing a test or defaulting on rent. However, slowing down at the right time can refresh your mind, and taking a little break can help you collect your willpower.

While not procrastinating is a good idea, so is taking that step back from all the madness. If you’re starting to feel the cold, cruel waters of responsibility drowning you, get out of the tub. Paint your nails. Call your mom. Bake some brownies. Read the rest of this issue. Then hop back in the shower of schoolwork and do what you gotta do.

Though it seems barely possible, May will be here before we know it. I wish all of you the best of luck with the things penciled into your planners or mapped out on Google Calendar. Again, keep the faith and those diaphragms moving.

I know you can do it.

Megan Hoff Cities Editor

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APR 23—MAY 6

CITIES

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Emma Imady’s “Thicker than Water” On Display at MIA Artist shares stories of refugees in her exhibit

BY SOWMYA NARAYAN “Thicker than Water” is an exhibit by Syrian artist Essma Imady on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. It explores the emotions of Syrian families who escaped from the civil war. Imady currently lives in Minnesota, but for her project she traveled to Canada and Turkey, visiting and collecting items and stories from those whose lives were uprooted by conflict. The result is a moving depiction of the struggles faced by families and a gentle reminder not to distance ourselves from those who come into a new country seeking refuge from terror.

Upon entering the exhibit, a large room is empty except for a projection on the wall showing a grid of 16 silent videos of children from refugee families.

On the opposite wall are sets of headphones where visitors can listen to Imady interviewing them. She asks a variety of questions including what they remember of their home, what they miss, and how they are adjusting. The children talk about everything from missing their cat to struggling to explain their predicament to new schoolmates, to what they want to be when they grow up. Some don’t fully understand why they had to leave their home while others can recall bomb blasts and protests. The piece is titled “Synechism”—defined as “the human need to connect via communication”—and aims to share the complex individual experiences of crisis.

Amidst chaotic times, we don’t really think to ask for children’s perspectives. Hearing this personal narrative emphasizes the damaging effects of war on one’s childhood.

tells a loved one about how worried they are about their sick cat—a strikingly mundane concern in contrast to all the violence going on right outside their door.

The adjacent room is filled with various smaller, more intimate displays. An intricately-carved screen titled “Loss” emits a haunting prayer-like song. A baby bottle full of sea water sits on a speaker playing a recording of a child repeating prayers. A display of a baby mobile called “Fragile” lists the materials used as “glass, mobile, dreams, gravity.” Other pieces include an illegible “History Book” covered in sea salt, a few prayer mats embellished with matches and firecrackers, and a blanket with an image of a decimated building printed onto it.

Isolated by a wall from all the other displays is a photo album containing water-damaged family photos. All the photos are blurred or distorted, leaving family members faceless and memories hazy. The album contains text clippings from the Koran which narrate a story of Moses being placed in a basket by his mother and sent up the Nile in hopes that he will reach safety. It is a fitting metaphor for the many families displaced by the chaos, desperate for asylum.

Other displays centered around children include the child harness made of a rock and straps, a teddy bear stuffed with “a mother’s weight” in lead pellets, a backpack sitting on a pile of sea salt that weighs as much as a child, and five disembodied tongues sticking out of the wall holding one piece of alphabet pasta each.

A book in a glass case belonging to a display titled “The Holy Book of Emails” is described as containing 1,000 emails from people living in Damascus. It’s open on a page where someone

Politicization of the refugee crisis has caused many people to strip the humanity away from immigrants and refugees. This exhibit showcases the struggles of people just like us whose lives are forced into turmoil, and causes the viewer to reflect on how they would react if they were in the same position. “Thicker than Water” makes for a worthwhile trip to the MIA and will be at the museum until June 24.

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CITIES

Chefs Take an Artist to Work Day The latest exhibit at the Textile Center celebrates women in culinary and creative fields for a collaboration unlike any other

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BY CLAIRE REDELL If you’re a fan of food and fine art, it would be in your best interest to head over to the Textile Center before May 19 to experience their newest gallery that celebrates local women in culinary and creative careers—just make sure to eat before checking it out.

“Artists in the Kitchen” was inspired by exactly what it sounds like—as stated on the Textile Center’s website, “Beginning Dec. 27, 2017, 50 all-women artist/chef-restaurateur teams met to join forces… whereby chefs are inspiring the artists to produce new artworks, culminating in the exhibition.”

Artists were challenged with using varied textiles to craft a piece that encompasses the diverse backgrounds and values of those they were paired with.

At first glance, the exhibition seemed consistent with what one would expect from a fabric-based gallery, with quilts, weavings, and collages decorating the white walls. However, the pieces displayed were not just creative takes on menu items or the storefronts of different restaurants.

Rather, each artist took a unique approach to what they were tasked by using unthinkable resources to represent the takeaways from their partnership. From fancy chocolates to pillowshaped prosciutto, it’s clear that all of the artists had vastly different yet equally beautiful results from the assignment.

Chef Susan Muskat of Moose and Sadie’s zeroed in on the moments in history that crafted her culinary journey. With artist Marcia Haffmans, she explained the “voracious appetite for spices” that the Dutch East India Company had in 1600. As a result, Haffmans arranged cinnamon sticks in a formation that extended from floor to ceiling to

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represent Chef Muskat’s favoritism of spices today.

I found myself stifling my gasp when I turned the corner to what was undoubtedly an ode to Glam Doll Donuts. Artist Jennifer Davis was “over the moon” when she learned of her pairing, eager to craft a piece that highlighted the uber-girly aesthetic of their Minneapolis shops. Davis chose to invent her own donut “flavors” arranged in a grid using paints that mimicked the vibrant atmosphere of the iconic brand.

A basket of multi-colored Hershey Kiss-shaped chocolates made from copper wire were inspired

by Chef Mary Leonard of Chocolat Céleste.

Leonard, who reported having a history in textile design, said that her background has inspired much of the printing on her designer chocolates.

One of the more straightforward pieces came from Anne Kramer and Jametta Raspberry, who adhered cooking utensils to a board and modpodged words intended to “depict a dismantling of traditional archetypes, call out biased practices, and stand to be recognized.” Phrases such as “PATRIARCHY SOUFFLE” and “DEMETER SALAD” brought a stark contrast to the charcoal background.

Artist Kristin Hoelscher-Schacker wanted to bring audiences back to the roots of agriculture—literally.

As stated by Hoelscher-Schacker herself, “The foundation of both farming and cooking is soil health… Farmers put their hands in soil to construct a product; chefs use their hands to deconstruct and transform these products.” To capitalize on the importance of soil health, she illustrated a

gardener clutching black soil with their hands tangled in stringy roots.

It seemed as though many spectators at the exhibit were particularly drawn to a quilt by Lindsay Rhyner that was decorated with dishes from Homegrown Foods—all of which were crafted with fabrics, plastic materials, and beads that brought the menu to life. For one item, Rhyner used what looked like fishing lures, sequins, and velvet to depict seafood and vegetables carefully arranged on a black dish.

Artist Maggie Thompson, who worked closely alongside Amy Brown and Heidi Andermack of Chowgirls Killer Catering, took the most literal, simple, and fun approach to the project. After reading their cookbook and touring their facilities, Thompson settled on a prosciutto-wrapped arugula body pillow to put on display. In the piece description, Thompson stated it was her intention for one to be able to “insert yourself into the piece and become what you eat.”

If you’re looking to get a glimpse of the exhibition, “Artists in the Kitchen” will remain on display at the Textile Center until Saturday, May 19. Additionally, four of the artist-chef/restaurateur teams will be hosting a panel discussion on Thursday, April 26; tickets are $15 per person. Even if you aren’t an art or culinary connoisseur, perhaps you can walk away from the exhibit with a few restaurants to try out before you graduate.

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APR 23—MAY 6

CITIES

Swan Lake “Books Save Lives” at Northrop Houston Ballet and Other Facts performance is “En Pointe”

BY MAYA ULRICH About Fiction A panel of prolific young adult fiction authors comes to Northrop

BY MEGAN HOFF Even though it was a cold Wednesday night, Northrop’s auditorium was warm, filled with laughter and talk about books. On April 4, the English Department hosted the 35th Esther Freier Endowed Lecture in Literature, featuring M. T. Anderson, Kate DiCamillo, David Barclay Moore, and Nicola Yoon. The authors took turns answering questions moderated by the Creative Writing Director, Julie Schumacher, and from the audience.

The first question of the evening, “Why did you become a writer?” prompted long responses from each panelist.

DiCamillo said that one of her professors told her she had talent, which she took to mean that she would be “the next Flannery O’Connor.” Yoon described herself as a “late-bloomer” and that “math led [her] astray,” as she graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. Moore stated that he had been coming up with ideas for stories ever since he was a kid. Anderson chuckled as he said he wrote because he is “an incompetent person,” and that writing gives him “a second chance.”

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Among the basic inquiries about writing tips, the authors also expanded upon some important topics: why we shouldn’t shield children from trauma and why diversity is necessary in literature. From Moore’s “The Stars Beneath Our Feet” confronting gun violence to the dismal life of Rob in DiCamillo’s “The Tiger Rising,” dark experiences should not be censored from children’s reading. “Kids are experiencing these things whether or not we talk about them,” Yoon said. She also went on to explain the dire need for representation, because “everyone should be able to see themselves as the hero.” Anderson added that there’s no reason stories should always have to cater to the majority.

Another idea all of the authors agreed upon was that books save lives. In the words of DiCamillo, the reason why reading is so important is “to see that you’re not alone.”

The rich velvet curtains opened, and the audience’s clamoring quickly tapered down until there was nothing but the symphonic orchestra humming quietly in the pit. The stage was set: a foggy night, further obscured by a black screen and dense wooded scenery. Odette, a beautiful young maiden entered, and we watched her meet her fate, already suggested by the ominous environment. The evil knight, Rothbart, placed a curse on her: swan by day and maiden by night. As he and his dark forces left the stage, so too did the gloomy scenery. At last, the crisp choreography carried out by the Prince and his male associates greeted the audience.

The dancers showed off their elegant grace, and the ethereal romance between the Prince and Odette took flight.

The jewel colors and warm lighting of the castle in the second act deeply juxtaposed the cool blue and brown tones of the forest. This change of scenery was incredibly engaging, along with the vigor of the dances that ensued.

Every note from the orchestra aligned with the dancers’ fluid movements. Although much of this act followed solo dancers who tried to court the Prince, a terrible incident played out as Odile—Odette’s dark twin—seduced him.

He fell for her, thinking she was the woman he met in the woods.

In the third and final act, the imagery of Swan Lake fully emerged as the swan maidens had their time to shine.

The ballerinas formed long, beautiful lines that allowed the audience to visualize the setting, in which the Prince and Odette would meet their untimely end. Ultimately, their sacrifice broke the curse of the swans and cast a spell over the audience, leaving us breathless and wanting more of the dancers’ enchanting performance.

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CREATIVE WRITING

BY SOPHIE CASTANEDA

You want me to laugh at your jokes After you have just laughed at my pain You force me towards your idea of Perfection As you assume I will do things wrong

But I love it that way Because I’m not counting every minute Just living every moment

You explain how I must be on time After telling me I’ll only ever be late

No, I’m not keeping time I’m focused on a feeling

You asked me to smile After smacking a frown across my face

Hooked on Rhythm On Rhyme

You hurt me

I’m flying I’m gliding Way above the atmosphere There’s no time Up There

I’m in pain But the thing is Regardless Of the thick muck of Hate I must move through I will still keep loving Me I will still keep loving You

Only good lovin’ and lack of what you’re about Sorry if you can’t reach me Like you said My head’s in the clouds Sorry if it’s too much for you to handle That’s cause you’re counting it all And if you’re noticing that you are Caught in the past

Cause I’ll heal I like who I am

How you’re going real slow And I’m going real fast

I’m not perfect But I get some things right And I count every one of those Blessings

If you’re noticing that I’m Way Ahead And you’re Way behind

If I am being honest I don’t have much of a sense of time at all

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You’re right

Well that’s because you’re just too focused on time

APR 23—MAY 6

FEATURE

TRUMP’S AMERICA Views from Europe

Meditations on the Ups and Downs of Studying Abroad During the Trump Presidency

BY STUDY ABROAD SNOB, CLAIRE BECKER 11

FEATURE

Studying abroad in the midst of Donald Trump’s presidency feels like sitting in a lifeboat floating away from a sinking ship: it’s incredibly relieving and painfully exasperating at the same time.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m relieved to be removed from the ship. But, the fact that I can still see the rest of the passengers (that’s you guys) thrashing around in a frenzied effort to save both the ship and themselves has impaired my relief quite a bit.

Before I go any further with this metaphor I would like to extend a disclaimer: now that I have studied abroad I am positively worldly and own a variety of aged Spanish leather boots and have dined lavishly with the Queen of England. That being said, I am allowed to draw very gruesome and only slightly accurate metaphors, and no one can question me. I’m abroad for lord’s sake.

study abroad intellectual, am totally immersed in my host culture and wholly amputated from my homeland—the rude and constant CNN push notifications sent to my phone never fail to suture me right back onto America and its troubles. Even if I turn the notifications off, memes about the government shutdown or Trump’s love affair with Vladimir Putin wind up on my Twitter or Instagram feed, delivering me harsh reminders of what I left behind in America. To completely forget about the U.S., one would need to go completely off the grid.

In any case, being abroad in 2018 is a uniquely contradictory experience—I (and many other students I’ve spoken with at my study abroad foundation in Toledo, Spain) feel both completely removed from and entirely suffocated by America’s maelstrom of political issues. We are lucky enough to have evacuated the sinking ship—if temporarily. But, certain factors (social media, forexample) keep our eyes fixed on the condemned vessel and its ill-fated passengers as we float away from the chaos.

Luckily (or incredibly unluckily) for me, I actually did spend about a month of my study abroad trip off the grid. You see, although I assure you I am very sophisticated and urbane as a result of my time spent in Europe, I am nonetheless far too stubborn to purchase a screen protector for my iPhone. Thus, after using said phone to break my fall when I tripped in a rocky area (inadvisable), I absconded from the grid indefinitely.

The internet, needless to say, makes it almost impossible to fully divorce oneself from Trump’s America. As much as I’d love to pretend that I, a

However, even unplugged from the matrix, I simply could not avoid the shipwreck of American politics. It isn’t just the internet that prevents total separation from America—Europeans bring up our situation rather habitually. Upon telling people we’re from the United States, my study abroad colleagues and I are routinely pelted with the question: “So what do you think of Trump?”

My colleague Angel was asked this question in the

“When we aren’t being blatantly confronted about Trump, we are assaulted by his image.”

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Parisian underground, Sheridan was asked in a restaurant in Porto, Hannah in a nightclub in Madrid, and Trevor in a hostel in Switzerland. The question is unavoidable. We, being refined and clever study abroad students, of course, answer in fluent French and quote Chomsky several times, making intricate and wellthought-out arguments in defense of our beautiful homeland: the land of the free.

Kidding, of course...

I myself normally respond with a nervous laugh and an “I’m sorry, I didn’t vote for him.” Hannah responds with an exaggerated pout and a thumbs down. Trevor is tired of responding.

When we aren’t being blatantly confronted about Trump, we are assaulted by his image. At a Carnaval parade in Nice, France in mid-February, two colleagues and I were accosted by a giant parade float depicting the The Donald as a monstrous combination of Godzilla and Dracula— his hulking gorilla body and vampire teeth rolling towards us at a menacing 5 miles an hour. As the float approached, it was met by raucous cheers and cries along the lines of “screw Trump!”(I’m inferring from context here—don’t speak a word of French). Europeans, it seems, can’t help but comment on the shipwreck across the pond.

Even in my home away from home in Toledo (is nothing sacred?), I am confronted with American political issues. They come up when I’m with my Spanish language interchange partner, Cristina, with whom I meet up once a week to practice my Spanish and she her English (I recently taught her the wonderful English vocabulary word “mansplaining”—she loves it). Cristina describes Donald Trump with almost exasperated

APR 23—MAY 6

FEATURE

“As you all make valiant efforts to prevent our ship from sinking I am fated to sit and watch.”

confusion, remarking that she thinks of him more as a “cartoon character” or TV personality than a politician. And she’s not alone—while eavesdropping on a conversation between a Dutch man and an Indian man in a coffee shop in Amsterdam I managed to pick out the phrases “you’re fired,”“The Apprentice,” and “angry orange man.”

Cristina, a Madrid native but current Toledo resident, is also a bit confused when it comes to American gun control laws. Spain, you see, has far more restrictive firearm regulations than us patriots.

Guns are considered to be more of a privilege than a right here in Spain, and Cristina was utterly shook by the fact that Americans couldn’t manage to reach an agreement regarding the augmentation of gun control laws, especially in the wake of the Parkland shooting. In a similar vein, my colleague Angela (a U of M student like myself) was once asked the chilling question: “You’re from America, don’t you have a gun?”

So, you see, it really is nigh impossible to turn away from the sinking ship, even if you are clumsy and too stubborn to own a screen protector.

However, though we enlightened study abroaders can indeed see the ship all too well, we remain just far enough away from it that we can’t quite see everything going on over there.

For example, one industrious study abroad scholar, Sheridan Macy, was away from her mother campus, Nebraska-Lincoln, during an uproar caused by an unapologetic and exceptionally outspoken neo-Nazi on campus who posted several white supremacist and anti-gay videos online. Sheridan was exasperated by this issue as well by her own powerlessness in the matter. She found it remarkably difficult to get news about what was going on.

“A lot of the information I would get here [in Spain]

Art by Ruby Guthrie

THE WAKE

was delayed by days or incomplete, so I honestly still am not entirely sure what happened,” she said.

Sheridan also found it very challenging to engage in activism surrounding the issue.

“I would’ve liked to be able to attend the rallies on campus and try to show support to the people he was attacking,” she said.

Here, then, lies another frustration of being abroad right now. We get to hear snippets of what’s going on at home—many of which prove no less than upsetting—but we can’t do anything about them.

Study abroad students are not allowed to engage in political protest while abroad. We get regular emails reminding us. The U.S. Embassy advised me last week to “avoid the areas of the demonstrations” in Barcelona. The week before, we were advised to “use caution” in Madrid, where protests against U.S., Russian, and Turkish policy in Afrin, Syria were underway. Of course, we are advised not to engage in the protests for our own safety, but even so it’s hard not to feel a bit stifled.

As you all make valiant efforts to prevent our ship from sinking, I am fated to sit and watch.

not see “Make America Great Again” hats on the heads of my peers, but now I’m being nitpicky.

In any case, distance from America definitely has its ups and downs. Seeing as I’m such a liberated and self-sufficient study abroad student, you might not guess that I actually have several connections to the United States. My family and many of my friends still reside on the sinking ship and, however independent I may be, I can’t just turn the other cheek and ignore issues that affect people who I care about. As convenient as it would be to pretend America doesn’t exist right now, I just can’t.

Our culture is almost scarily pervasive in Europe, and American politics permeate the soil on both sides of the Atlantic whether I like it or not.

In sum, the last thing I want is to leave you all thinking that we study abroad kids are over here drinking tinto de verano on posh yachts while America sinks, because that’s just not how it is. I mean, I won’t lie, we are drinking the tinto— but we haven’t turned our backs on America. We see the news stories, we get the updates, and we recognize the struggle. We may be gone, but we certainly have not forgotten.

People tend to think studying abroad would be a relief.

Europe: the magical and faraway oasis where one can forget about their troubles back home. And, in a way, it is. Europe is removed from the US by a literal ocean of space, and it’s certainly relieving to have that distance. It’s also pretty nice to walk outside and

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ART

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Art by Emily Jablonski

APR 23—MAY 6

ART

THE WAKE

15

Q&A

J. Wren Supak J. Wren Supak is a local painter, photographer and collaborative artist.

Originally from New York, Supak has firmly planted herself within the Minneapolis art scene and on the UMN campus as an interdisciplinary graduate student, merging her interests in art and human rights. She is a broad thinker and creative soul with a knack for making art that tells a story.

Read on to learn about her latest solo exhibition, her recent trip to Colombia, and her thoughts on the power of art.

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Art courtesy of J. Wren Supak

BY LIV MARTIN

: Your exhibition, “Afterimage,” features some of your abstract paintings. What was the inspiration for this body of work?

WS: Basically, as an artist I work in a style of abstraction generally and then in this project, “Afterimage,” I had a specific theme in mind. My style of abstraction is simply that I believe in it as a creative language I use in order to get to the heart of things I feel other people get at with language better than I ever will. I just feel like that’s not my avenue.

And I also believe that abstraction is able to go underneath the way things look or sound.

When I say abstraction, I include color. I believe in that so completely that it’s who I am as an artist. Right now, I’ve been studying American abstract expressionists, who were mainly Jewish diaspora, like my family, who ended up in New York City before, during, and after World War II. So, I’m painting in that style out of nostalgia and camaraderie.

I’m basically trying to call on a people and a time and a place and trying to embody it. “Afterimage” specifically is an attempt to make portraits of people or places or times

that, you know... I could write a novel about my relationship with my mother, or about my boyfriend or my girlfriend, but can I capture it in one image? And, what would it look like?

“Afterimage” comes from the idea where, you know when you look at something really bright and it stays on your eyes? So, after like twenty years of knowing you, or five intense years, or even some short time, you leave this impression on me and I carry it with me forever. Just like I do with my great-greatgrandparents who fled Russia. So, I’ll think about a person and my experience with them and do color studies and drawings and call to them. Each painting is a product of that. : Maybe this is personal or something you’d rather not disclose, but who were the people in your life that you decided to create an “Afterimage” for?

WS: I debated about whether to put those names in the titles or not, and I still don’t really know the answer. I numbered them from one to sixteen. I’ve made sixteen afterimages in the last year. One of them is an afterimage

Q&A dedicated to Patricia. Patricia was an art student of mine and I taught her abstract painting. But, she was also like twenty to thirty years older than I was and had been painting for much longer than I’d been alive. She took my class three times in a row. And, things would come out, like that she had work in a gallery or she was a doctor for twenty years, or she would work in a clinic to help treat people who couldn’t pay. Then, she caught Hepatitis. She was still enrolled in my class.

She was on my student list and I was getting ready before class, and I was reading the paper. Her obituary was in it. So, there’s stories like that. Not each person that I’ve painted is dead. But, the recent deaths of my loved ones produced this work. This idea of painting abstract portraiture had been gestating for years. I’ve been working towards it, in some version or another. In 2016, in this six-week period, I had some serious losses and then I just didn’t want to paint anything else. It’s kind of a way of keeping these people alive for me. : Take me through the process you use to create paintings like those from “Afterimage.”

How do you decide which colors to use? Is it planned or does the creativity happen more organically?

WS: I do color studies. I look for colors that are symbolic–that fit into color theory but relate to that person. Then I start painting on small paper and work out some compositional idea. Then I try to create something that has movement and interest and texture and depth.

And then I start painting and none of that works out at all. Like, you would never know I did any of that. I mean, I’m exaggerating a little, but you have the urge to plan it and then stick to your plan and follow through to show a degree of professionalism. But, what I have learned by doing this project is that I do need to put in the work when I’m doing studies, but then I need to be disciplined enough to know that when the palette changes to just let it change, and not control the things that I can’t control. My palette started as blue—everything was blue—and it ended in all these weird yellows and oranges. : What is your favorite place that being an artist has allowed you to travel to?

WS: Colombia. We spent eight or nine days in Bogota. We just got back Sunday night.

And, what we did there was that the Grand Challenges Program gave a grant to Voice to Vision, which was created by David Feinberg about twenty years ago, and Luis RamosGarcia, who is an associate professor in the Spanish and Portuguese department. Several undergraduate students working on Spanish language came as translators. So, we did a workshop with these women who are called “The Mothers of Soacha.” Soacha is a town in Colombia. “Mothers of Soacha” is a slang term

for another thing called “false positives.” “False positives” is a practice from like 2005-2008 or something like that, where military contractors of the Colombian government would go out and recruit young men away from their families and march them out into the middle of somewhere far away, kill them, and put them in guerrilla uniforms. Then they would photograph them and collect a bonus… $70 for each kill. The president at that time, Uribe... he didn’t believe in making peace with the guerrilla fighters. These military contractors were paid to go out and kill guerrillas. So, these mothers never knew that happened to their children. And then Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch—those international, nongovernmental, human rights organizations— they did reports about this and documented it. So, the practice stopped. Now, soldiers who either were in charge of it or paid money or did the killing are being brought to justice. And, the mothers are finding out what happened.

How do you live with something like that?

So, what do they do?

They tell the story. And they act in plays. We saw about eight plays where professional theater actresses and actors and survivors like these mothers would perform the story, to say what happened. It was theatrical but also literal. So, we did this workshop and worked with five mothers.

We sat at a table… a translator there and an artist here, and in Voice to Vision, we call the survivor the storyteller, and they sat there. We gave them prompts with symbols and colors. They made drawings of their own. They told us any story they wanted. We brought those drawings back here with their permission so that we can take them and put them into big pieces of art to help document that story, so that people can be educated about what happened there. So, that’s collaborative art. : Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you’d like to talk about?

WS: I had a really cool conversation in Colombia with this artist who was also making a documentary. She filmed us installing the show.

And, she put the camera on me and she was like, “Do you believe art can change the world?” or “How does art change the world?” And, I just laughed. The second I started laughing, I was like, “Oh my god, she’s totally serious, and my laughter is cynical.” I realized in that second that I was cynical, and then I changed—just by her asking me that questions. And I said, “I don’t think art changes the world, I think art changes

people, and people change the world.” That’s why I believe in art so much.

You can see more of Wren’s work at her exhibit, “Afterimage,” at the Hopkins Center for the Arts until April 22, 2018.

Read the full interview online at wakemag.org

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Academic Imbalance A recent bill in the Minnesota Legislature threatens to create the ideological indoctrination it seeks to combat

BY BEN HALOM A bill currently working its way through the Minnesota Legislature threatens to chill academic debate and stifle student learning throughout the state. The academic balance bill, sponsored

by Rochester State Senator Carla Nelson, would require schools to adopt an academic balance policy which would target “political, ideological, religious, or anti-religious indoctrination.” Policies would perform this task by prohibiting teachers from requiring students to articulate particular viewpoints and encouraging educators to exercise caution “when expressing personal views in the classroom.” On the face of it, these policies seem to be common sense. After all, no one wants students to be indoctrinated, or forced into holding political opinions they disagree with. However, this legislation is itself a form of ideological indoctrination, one far more threatening than anything currently taught in schools for the very reason that it poses itself as objective, as not ideological.

The bill claims to be eliminating ideological bias from the classroom so that students can concentrate on the real learning. Senator Nelson claims that the bill will allow students to “make up their own minds when presented with the facts instead of progressive talking points.” Examined at face value, the goal of presenting students with “facts” instead of “talking points” seems laudable. Unfortunately, in many if not all academic disciplines, there is an open debate as to what the “facts” are. Perhaps some aspects of math or science education can be treated as settled questions, as facts. But in the sorts of classes which American Experiment senior fellow Katherine Kersten, a major force behind the new bill, has pointed to as problematic, these facts are lacking.

In classes like English and History, appeals to “fact” ignore the entire point of the discipline. Any “facts” in these classes are themselves ideological truth claims, the very things Nelson’s bill purports to avoid.

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Thus the real agenda of the academic balance bill emerges. By categorizing certain types of historical or literary investigation as “progressive talking points,” and advocating instead for “facts,” the bill seeks to install its own form of indoctrination as the standard school curriculum.

All claims to knowledge and truth in the humanities are inherently ideological because they rely on the construction of narratives which explain the world.

As such, any presentation of history and English must require that students and teachers adopt a viewpoint, in order to understand the narratives that structure our society. The bill’s proposal to return to a mythical era where students learned simply “the facts” is not an attempt to free schooling of ideology. Instead, it seeks to place a limit on which ideologies can be presented; it removes some ideologies while further reifying others by presenting them as the absolute truth.

When politicians like Senator Nelson and rightwing ideologues like Katherine Kersten refer to facts or neutrality or “balance,” what they are actually proposing is that school teachers support the right-wing narrative, the narrative of the hegemonic forces in society. History classes would be required to purge references to America’s history of colonialism, slavery, and exploitation for fear that it could present a biased, “progressive”

narrative of history. They would be required to leave room for a narrative which glorifies America as an exceptional nation. Similarly, if English teachers are forced to leave aside the lenses of post colonialism and feminism, which Katherine Kersten has denounced as “progressive indoctrination,” they will not teach literature in a manner free of ideology. Instead, they will be teaching literature through the lens of the dominant ideology in society, as a succession of great works written by dead white men, works which reflect “the human condition,” a condition which seemingly does not include student’s own experience of race, gender, and class.

If this bill passes, it will mean that instead of providing students with the tools to think critically and interrogate their social reality, teachers will be required to prop up the dominant ideas which students already receive from the world around them. Instead of providing a variety of ideological lenses through which to analyze literature and history, teachers will be required to teach students a set of “facts” determined by those in power.

Instead of actually allowing students to make up their own minds by requiring them to consider a variety of perspectives which challenge widely accepted ways of thinking, teachers will engage in real indoctrination.

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From One “Benighted Oppressor” to All Others Former Cop Turned Freedom Advocate, Raeford Davis Poised in the sky—like the American flag used to be—are hundreds of protest signs. Some read “Black Lives Matter.” Others read “Hands Up; Don’t Shoot.” One slogan, in particular reads “F*ck The Police.” The civil and not so civil practices of police officers have been up for debate for quite some time now. One of the more unconventional voices in this debate is Raeford Davis, a former police officer turned freedom advocate.

In a blog post entitled “F*ck the Police?” Davis explains his regret for the practices of the War on Drugs and his opinions on how history will view the actions of police officers.

Born in the 1970s when music blossomed through record players and protests surrounding the Vietnam War soared, Davis’ desire to serve and protect inspired him to become a police officer in his hometown of North Charleston: “I was a cop because I loved my community and wanted to preserve freedom and protect others from harm.”

One of the most complex and dynamic issues that Davis faced as a police officer was the War on Drugs. This, he believes, was a failure on behalf of the criminal justice system. So much of a failure, in fact, that he has come to oppose the system as a whole.

“By ‘getting tough’ on drugs, cops create the very crime and violence they are fighting against, destroy liberty, make any real drug harms even worse, and have put themselves and their community in a disastrous negative feedback loop,” Davis said.

“I conducted hundreds of ticky tack ‘pre-textual’ stops,” Davis said. “We would use these minor legalese ‘crimes’ to justify forcing you out of your car, patting you down. No part of a citizen’s body, even your manhood, is spared this viscerally violating subservience ritual. Turning your pockets inside out, rummaging through every crack and crevice of your car trying to conjure up a crime.”

What troubled Davis even more was what happened to those who tried to stand up for themselves: “Offer an objection and you’ll end up with an angry armed blue gang of untouchable cops planting you face-first on the ground, arms wrenched behind your back, handcuffs ratcheting your hands into painful paralysis. While you are eating the pavement, you’ll hear one of the cops scream ‘F*ck you. Now you are going to jail for resisting!’”

Davis thanks God that he didn’t kill anyone.

“As we have repeatedly seen, if free citizens decide to publicly petition the government for redress of grievances, expect those same cops to adorn themselves in stormtrooper armor, train sniper rifles on you, kettle you, gas you, beat you, sic dogs on you, infiltrate your group and instigate violence to discredit you,” Davis said.

Davis’ career ended in 2007 when he was injured in the line of duty. Since then, he has spent a great deal of time reflecting on his work as an “enforcer

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BY EMILY NESS of laws.” He has been interviewed by a number of publications, spoken on radio shows and in podcasts, been on talk shows and written pieces on his blog, called “Blue Enmity.”

“I do this not because I now hate cops,” Davis said. “I do this because I care for my fellow cops.

I don’t want them to harm others or themselves unnecessarily.”

Davis affirms that he understands the backlash against police, but explains that like his former cop self, most cops believe they are honorable defenders.

“Even the cops who know their history can’t bring themselves to accept the fact they are not knights in shining armor, but rather benighted oppressors.

Cursing them will shut their brain down, prevent them from conducting any self-contemplation.”

Davis concludes his post with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that reads: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own Government, I cannot be silent.”

“Dr. King said this 50 years ago,” Davis said. “And our government and its law enforcers maliciously branded him a seditious, immoral, criminal, agitator. When that didn’t stop him, they murdered him. ‘Fuck the Police?’ Yep. You’ve earned it and still do to this day.”

Looking back, Davis acknowledges that under the guise of enforcing laws, the police have always been used as tools of oppression, subjugation and control.

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Major Mistakes Thinking of changing your major? A reassuring testimony for the confused and misguided.

BY FARRAH MINA You can learn a lot by sifting through somebody’s Facebook page. Michael Mossaad, a 2014 graduate of the U, is no exception to this—at least not completely. Scrolling down Mossaad’s timeline, you will find several shared posts from the Minnesota Orchestra Facebook page. You will even come across an article titled “What Your Favorite Composer Says About You.” So, when I tell you that Mossaad was a music major, it may not come as a surprise to you—but could you have guessed that Mossaad started out as a biology major?

Changing majors can be daunting. The process echoes of a ceaseless chorus of “are you sure?” and faint whispers of “but what if…”

When we declare our majors, it almost feels as though we are signing a binding contract. Even changes that are less drastic, like switching from biochemistry to biology, require some threshold of boldness. So, how did Mossaad manage to come to this reevaluation? “Our [Mossaad’s family] three career choices are doctor, engineer, and lawyer. I liked the sciences in high school, so I figured I’d just do that. During my freshman year of college, I was also taking band and flute lessons.

I had very supportive teachers who asked me if I ever considered studying music which had never crossed my mind. I am also very passionate about church music and researching, understanding, and preserving it, so this gave me the opportunity to do more work in that area,” Mossaad explained.

CLA’s tagline “shattering expectations” could not be more appropriate. It is far too easy to choose a major based on expectations, whether familial, societal, or otherwise. Pursuing passion against the grain of expectation is challenging—but help does come. Mossaad’s nudge took the form of an encouraging teacher. If you are looking for yours, take reassurance from Mossaad’s testimony. Let this be your nudge.

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Truth vs. Balance How the popular media continues to fail us when reporting on climate change.

BY SYLVIA RANI Most major news outlets pride themselves on having balanced, impartial reporting of important issues. But what if the search for “balance” leads to an obscurity of the truth?

Such is the case with much of the reporting on climate change. When presenting information about the changes occurring on our planet as the result of human activity, many attempts at “unbiased journalism” give the same amount of weight to climate change deniers as to the scientific consensus view. When 99.9% of empirical scientific evidence suggests that climate change is real, it is a clear distortion of truth to be pitted against a small minority of naysayers. And yet it happens constantly. A survey of 636 articles published by four major US newspapers between 1988 and 2002 revealed that the majority of articles covering the topic spend as much time covering the small minority of doubters as was offered to the climatologist consensus.

Where does the danger lie in this type of reporting?

Put simply, it gives people the false idea that the issue of climate change is scientifically contentious.

The truth is that the vast majority of scientists agree that it is real and caused by humans, and it is merely a fringe minority that disagrees with this. Scientific evidence should be pitted against equally reviewed scientific evidence rather than pseudoscience and evidence-free opinions.

Websites like FAIR.org work against media biases to provide the public with an accurate representation of the facts on pressing issues and hold news outlets accountable for the ways they skew information. As media consumers, it’s essential that we read with critical eyes so we can work towards becoming a more informed society. Only then can we shift the conversation from “Is climate change real?” to “What can we do about it?”

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APR 9—APR 22

VOICES

America’s Trash Crisis The invisible yet pressing issue of our waste

BY MACIE RASMUSSEN 10

So many of the things that we use every day are disposable: plastic grocery bags, aluminum foil, the take-out container from your favorite Chinese place. The waste that we all produce is easy to forget about, and in America, we have an even greater issue than most countries. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the United States’ 319 million people produced 258 million tons of waste in 2014. To put this in perspective, China’s population, which is about four times the size of the United States’, produced 190 million tons in 2013.

Broken down by individual, an American typically produces about 4.4 pounds of trash every day, while the global average is 2.6 pounds. And all of the things that we dispose of have to go somewhere, so landfills in the United States are continuously growing with every pound that we produce.

Despite these alarming statistics, landfills aren’t commonly a hot topic in this country. The invisibility of this issue comes from how our trash disposal systems are structured. The majority of our cities either include trash removal in property taxes or make it a flat fee for whatever amount of trash that people want to dispose of. Because Americans don’t face a significant monetary penalty for producing as much waste as they please, there is no incentive to limit the amount of waste that they produce.

While the situation may sound bleak, we can take solace in the fact that students are pushing for change at the local level. The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG) is a statewide collective of students from universities around Minnesota. The group has three task forces, with one being environmental justice.

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A sophomore at the University of Minnesota, Schuyler McKinley, got involved with MPIRG this semester and joined the environmental justice campaign because it’s an issue that she cares deeply about.

On April 18, McKinley volunteered at the Second Annual Trash Audit, an event hosted by MPIRG’s environmental justice team. Taking place on Williamson Hall Plaza from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., the audit was open to the public. The organization received waste from the trash bins of Coffman Memorial Union, laid it out on tarps, and manually filtered through it. The purpose of this process is to sort what is actually trash from what can be recycled.

According to McKinley, recycling guidelines differ by city, so one goal is to clarify Minneapolis’s recycling policy to students. And it’s evident that students on our campus don’t have a complete understanding of what is recyclable. At last year’s trash audit, two thirds of the waste should have been recycled in the first place.

“Only about a third of the trash went to the trash can … so if you take the time and put effort into it, then you can see a big impact,” she said.

This is not only McKinley’s opinion. The Environmental Protection Agency claims that

recycling and composting limited 87.2 million tons of waste from entering landfills in the United States in 2013. In carbon dioxide emission, that’s equal to eliminating 39 million cars from the road for a year.

Ultimately, the Second Annual Trash Audit was meant to encourage the campus community to live a more sustainable lifestyle. “I think this will be a great learning experience. The environment is a really important issue because we only have one, and I think we should take care of it,” said McKinley.

While national waste systems are burdened by the habits of Americans, grassroots organizations like MPIRG are taking education and action into their own hands. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that we can’t just recycle away our nation’s trash problems. We can and should increase our recycling practices, but it won’t fix the amount of waste that we create. It’s time that we, as Americans, look at how we consume.

So, bring your own reusable bag to the grocery store, don’t take a plastic straw when getting your iced coffee, and recycle what you can. Most importantly, support your fellow students who are doing the work to make our campus a more sustainable place.

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Love, Simon

BY HANNAH HAAKENSON Teen coming-of-age movie, “Love, Simon” was released just over a month ago in theaters, and it has proven to be a hit. This film does a great job of depicting what it is like for a young gay character to struggle through high school as he tries to discover himself. The main character, Simon, stumbles upon a post from an anonymous classmate, Blue, who reveals that he is gay. From there, a continuous email conversation ensues, in which both boys reveal long-repressed feelings and rely on each other to face adversity found in their school.

After seeing multiple trailers, I, like many of you, thought this movie was going to be a cheese fest.

But like a true Wisconsinite, I decided it was worth the risk.

I think this film did an amazing job of quickly capturing the attention of the audience and creating moments of laughter and hope. Its acknowledgment of how difficult it can be to completely reveal who you are to the world resonates especially with the younger generation and instantly became a classic modern-day love story.

In addition to the heartfelt storyline, the soundtrack of this movie accurately represents the rollercoaster of emotions that dip and dive while following Simon’s life. From feelings of hopelessness to euphoria, songs such as “Rollercoaster,” “Sink In,” and “Never Fall in Love” pull the audience even further into the movie, making everyone emotionally invested in Simon’s story.

If you’re looking for a cute movie to either woo your date or show your emotional side, “Love, Simon” is the perfect pick.

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SAINt JHN “Collection One”

BY SYLVIA RANI It’s about time. Brooklyn-based rapper SAINt JHN released his debut album, aptly titled “Collection One,” on March 26.

The album encompasses everything SAINt JHN: from his past hits such as “Roses” and “Reflex,” to new bangers like “I Heard You Got Too Lit Last Night,” which has been climbing the Soundcloud charts ever since its release. This album is unabashedly a mix of high and low culture wrapped into a dark, moody package.

With lyrics like “Saint Laurent and quarter water,” SAINt JHN explores the ways his newfound riches coexist (and sometimes contradict) with his Brooklyn upbringing. More importantly, he embraces the “low” culture, placing it on a pedestal of nostalgia, with song titles like “GOD BLESS THE RATCHETS.” With the new additions to his discography, SAINt JHN mourns the life he had before fame. “This life too fast, take me back, take me back,” he sings on “I Heard You Got Too Lit Last Night.” A powerful lyricist, SAINt JHN’s verses read like a poetic memoir of unhealthy vices and bad decisions. He is equally as introspective as he is cocky, which is what gives the album its depth. Stylistically, SAINt JHN is a chameleon, shifting from pop-ish sounding tracks like “Selfish” to trap beats like “Brilliant B*tch.”

“Collection One” is a brilliant debut, showcasing SAINt JHN’s abilities as a solo rapper that we’ll definitely be keeping our eye on.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2

BY KARL WITKOWIAK If you are reading this review expecting a joyful show with a happy ending, then you might want to read a different review of a different show. In the second season of the Netflix original “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” you will see many terrifying spectacles through the eyes of the Baudelaire children, including hungry lions, insane cults, and multiple counts of arson.

Season 2 covers the events of the fifth through the ninth books. The first four episodes continue the series’ tried-and-true formula, where the Baudelaires are placed in the care of a new guardian and the villainous Count Olaf disguises himself in order to steal their fortune. Then, things change up in a big way during “The Vile Village” chapter, when Olaf gains the upper hand in a malicious scheme against the children. Plenty of new characters also present themselves, including the Quagmire triplets, who become allies, and Olaf’s new accomplice, Esme Squalor.

Unfortunately, some of the underlying problems of the first season remain. Season 2 doesn’t resolve many of the mysteries from the last season but instigates more mysteries that will hopefully be resolved in the next season. The first few episodes of the season are not paced well and often drag on with little going on (although the later episodes fix this issue).

This series only continues to go down the rabbit hole of misery and woe as it progresses. There are some big improvements in the acting and story in the second season after the ambitious, but messy, first season. It is a delightful improvement for such a gloomy and sorrowful story.

APR 23—MAY 6

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Talking Heads “Fear of Music” (1979)

BY CHRIS SHEA Talking Heads’ first two albums, “Talking Heads 77” and “More Songs About Buildings and Food,” were post-punk marvels filled with upbeat funky melodies and grooves. In those records, frontman David Byrne’s offbeat observations were normally neutralized by his use of humor. In the band’s third album, “Fear of Music,” Byrne continues to be odd, but is less reliant on humor to cover it up.

The album starts off with the Africaninspired rhythmic experimentation “I Zimbra,” complete with an adaptation of a poem by Hugo Ball. This style and sound continued to influence the band’s next album, “Remain in Light.” Most other songs on the album borrow more from funk idioms, but those rhythms are mixed into a minor-key gloom, which is especially evident on the track, “Gloom.”

Songs on “Fear of Music” are also less fastpaced than previous works. Instead, many songs such as “Air,” “Heaven,” and “Electric Guitar” brood slowly rather than erupt with funk. That said, “Cities” may be the most frantic-sounding song ever recorded by Talking Heads. The same can be said of the first big single off the album, “Life During Wartime,” which is probably the one of the few upbeat songs about World War III to exist, the other being “It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” from R.E.M.’s 1987 album “Document (R.E.M. No. 5)” With its nonsensical lyrics, African-influenced rhythms, and overall grooves, “Fear of Music” is just an absolute fun record to listen and dance to, and perfectly paves the way for the upcoming decade of New Wave.

Isle of Dogs

BY SYLVIA RANI “Wherever he is, we’ll find your dog.” Such are the words of Rex, one of the many vigilante dogs living on a desert island in Wes Anderson’s latest stopmotion film.

The movie centers a 12-year-old boy named Atari who is on a quest to find his dog. Atari’s dog, named Spots, was banished to Trash Island by a feline-loving autocrat, along with all the other dogs which previously resided in Japan. The movie is presented as a fable which takes place in Anderson’s vision of the future, complete with an abandoned nuclear power plant and shiny vats of toxic waste.

There is a constant feeling of melancholy which runs through the film: an underlying sadness which speaks to the atrocities humans are capable of.

It’s a bleak future, evidenced through the skinny frames and matted fur of the film’s heroes.

Anderson makes the interesting decision to forego subtitles for the Japanese characters, perhaps with the intention to avoid competition with his visuals.

It’s a strange choice, as it leaves watchers without a way to interpret the Japanese characters’ words, their speech reduced to decoration. The Englishdubbed dogs take center stage in the film as the self-appointed search team for Spots. Through their interactions with Atari, the audience is shown a heartwarming side of man’s best friend.

Visually, this film is a work of art. Anderson’s meticulous eye for detail is key here—each frame is purposeful and stunning. There is perfect harmony between the canine-driven plot and an exquisite animation style.

Kate Nash

“Yesterday Was Forever”

BY ANNA GALL & OLIVIA HEUSINKVELD English artist Kate Nash released her fourth studio album, “Yesterday Was Forever,” at the end of March. If you remember Nash’s music, it was probably from the late 2000s when the cheeky lyrics and tinkly piano on her debut album, “Foundations,” flung her into the emerging “twee revolution.” Despite continuing to make music, and even taking on some acting projects, Nash fell out of the public consciousness in the following years.

But her fans never left, and “Yesterday is Forever” was made for them and by them; the album was crowdfunded through Kickstarter.

Nash wanted the album to sound like a “teenage diary,” even taking the name “Yesterday is Forever” from something she found written in one of her own old diaries. She accomplishes this with verified bubble gum pop bops about the usual suspects: dating, drinking, and... mental health?

That’s right, before you hear about eating Chinese food and spooning to Buffy on “Take Away,” you hear Nash begging her brain to “decide and stop the pain” on the opener “Life in Pink.” The chorus of “Karaoke Kiss” is perhaps the best merger of these themes, as Nash asks a stranger to “kiss me in the karaoke bar / I need something I feel so dark.”

Turning mental health battles into prom-dance anthems validates the melodrama of teenage life.

This mashup of innocence and maturity extends from the themes of the album to the sound itself.

From the screeching chorus of “California Poppies” to the spoken word on “Musical Theatre,” “Yesterday Was Forever” is a performative listen that still manages to feel intimate.

“Isle of Dogs” is sure to leave fans howling for more.

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