The Wake - Issue 5 - Spring 2021

student magazine

New Ways of Knowing

p. 9

volume 20 — issue 5

Identity Politics Has Failed Us

p. 19

A Professor’s Pandemic

p. 12

Why Is Marriage?

p. 21

An Artist’s Response

p. 13

Blackout by Britney Spears

p. 25

©2020 The Wake Student Magazine.

Disclaimer: The purpose of The Wake is to provide a forum in

All Rights Reserved.

which students can voice their opinions. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not representative of the publication or university as

Established in 2002, The Wake is a fortnightly

a whole. To join the conversation email eic@wakemag.org.

independent magazine and registered

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 5 EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Cities Editor Voices Editor Online editor Copy editors Multimedia Editor Multimedia Producer

Tala Alfoqaha Marley Richmond Ian Knoll Sylvia Rani Na’Jai Wilson Autumn Sanders Peter Nomeland Sebastian Alfonzo Cynthia Maya

student organization produced by and for

The Wake Student Magazine

students at the University of Minnesota.

126 Coffman Memorial Union

The Wake was founded by Chrin Ruen and

300 Washington Avenue SE

James DeLong.

Minneapolis, MN 55455

PRODUCTION

THIS ISSUE

Executive Director Creative Director Finance Manager PR/Ad Manager Social Media Manager Art Director Web Manager Distribution Manager

Writers

Esther Chan Chae Hong Hannah Dove Udita Goel Grace Augustin Sydnney Islam Natalie Bluhm Shannon Brault

Peter Nomeland, Mitchell Levesque, Joshua Jordan, Holly Gilvary, Matthew Voight, Marley Richmond, Sydni Rose, Jemma Keleher, Katie Wermus, Shannon Brault, Panache Matemba-Mutasa, Immo Greco, Tosin Faseemo, James Schaak, Avery Wageman, Adam Leligdon, Evan Ferstl, Grace Enfield Art 1 Natalie Yang, 2 Sydnney Islam, 3 Isabel Atkinson,

Music and Review Interns: Avery Wageman, Macy Harder Editorial Interns: Mitchell Levesque, Holly Gilvary, Sydni Rose, Jemma Keleher, Srihita Raju, Ellie Roth, Avery Wageman, Macy Harder, Hannah Lundquist, Panache Matemba-Matusa, Erica Bouca Multimedia Interns: Linnea Baerenwald, Parker Smith

Designers: Anna Aquino, Gavin Schuster, Makenna Larson Production Interns: Skylar Neubar, Tymia Phathachack, Amy Haslerud, Art Interns: Isabel Atkinson, Megan Bormann, Madison Kuehn, Natalie Yang

4 Madison Kuehn, 5 Megan Connor, 6 Megan Bormann, 7 Baqir Noor Blackout, I Care A Lot, Collapsed in Sunbeams, Random Access Memories, Positions Deluxe art from original sources.

Cover and Feature art by Nnamdi Darlington, Panache Mutasa, and Malaya Merriwether, designed by Chae Hong

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wink! one page magazine

himbo bracket Jason Mendoza

Kronk

The Good Place

Emperor’s New Groove

Buzz Lightyear

Nacho Libre

Toy Story

Nacho Libre

Schmidt

Fabian

New Girl

Jane The Virgin

Michael Kelso

Bob Duncan

That 70s Show

Good Luck Charlie

Kristoff

Thor

Frozen

Thor: Ragnarok

Kevin

Jenko

Ghostbusters

21 Jump St

Andy Dwyer

Leon Kennedy

Parks & Rec

Resident Evil

Harringon 4Steve Stranger Things

Sea Hawk MARCH 29She-ra — APRIL 26 & the Princesses of Power

INSIDE 8

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Clubhouse Might be the Future of Social Media.

It’s Also Very Bizarre.

New Ways of Knowing

10

The Mapping Inequality Project: From Covert to Overt Racism

11

“Looking About” Our Own Backyard

12

A Professor’s Pandemic

13

An Artist’s Response

17

How to (Respectfully) Give Up on Your Dream

18

A Semi-Ode to Minnesota Winters

19

Identity Politics Has Failed Us

20

Stepping Away From The Firehose

21

Why Is Marriage?

22

Jon Batiste Q&A

25

Blackout by Britney Spears

26

I Care A Lot

UPCOMING EVENTS 4/10 & 24 @ 10am—1pm

4/28—5/2 @ 10am—5pm

Winter Farmers Market

Virtual Art in Bloom 2021

Find everday groceries, unique gifts and food for holiday meals!

Virtual return of Mia’s annual floral celebration of creativity and philanthropy.

Mill City Farmers Market

new.artsmia.org/artinbloom

4/6—4/19 @ 10am

4/11 @ 7pm—8pm

Cleveland Free Cinema Online Screening

Artist Conversations with Mari Navarro

Longtime friends Robert Banks & Bruce Checefsky have been making films using innovative animation techniques.

Join us as we talk with Mari Navarro the Artist/Designer and DJ Promoter behind Gothess.

The Walker Art Center website

Otherworldly Arts Collective

Collapsed in Sunbeams

by Arlo Parks 27

Porcupine by Echo & the Bunneymen Positions Deluxe

by Ariana Grande

THE WAKE

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Letter from the Art Director Dear reader, As always, thank you for picking up this issue of The Wake. As the year continues to bring us challenges, it’s important for us to seek simple pleasures often.

Whether it’s reading this issue of The Wake in a sunny spot in your apartment with some sweet morning coffee or flipping through a few pages between your Zoom classes, I hope this magazine can bring you even a few ounces of joy.

It’s a new year and hopefully a fresh start. While the turn of a calendar doesn’t dissolve our problems, vaccines and summer are peering around the corner and I hope things are looking up for us. We have learned so much about ourselves and our world through this experience– while much of that knowledge is quite grim, we have also seen so much resilience, strength, and community throughout the past year.

Within that, I feel that many of us have also learned the importance of finding and inserting joy within our lives often. With the amount of stress, loneliness, and hardship that we’ve endured, I think it’s shown us how necessary it is to seek things that make us happy, even if it’s just cuddling with your pet, going for a walk outside, calling a hometown friend, or reading your favorite magazine.

I hope the spring brings you growth and gives you reassurance that we can, and will, take on this year. And I hope The Wake can be here to aid in that journey.

Love, Sydnney Margova Islam Art Director

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MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

ART

THE WAKE

Art by Sydnney Islam Rock The Boat

CITIES

Clubhouse Might Be the Future of Social Media. It’s Also Very Bizarre.

Heres what Clubhouse, the exclusive audio-only social media app, is like.

BY PETER NOMELAND On my first day on Clubhouse, I attended a wedding. We’ll kind of. I wasn’t actually there, but I listened in for 40 seconds in a “room” set up on the audio-only social media platform. The event promoted itself as “Clubhouses first wedding,” and you could listen to the wedding ceremony as it was going. It was both kind of cool and very surreal.

Like something out of a Black Mirror episode.

Congrats to the happy couple though.

Clubhouse has gained considerable steam in the past couple of months. The app is invite-only (a big shoutout to my editor-in-chief) and has rooms for pretty much anything. Sports, entertainment, yoga, investing, photography, countless topics are being discussed at any time. There are “conferences” and special events with experts discussing many fields and also Elon Musk. It is a strange experience at first, but you get into the swing of things pretty quickly. I got into the NBA and sports discussion rooms and Roast Battle room, where you just roast other people and yourself in a chat room. I loved it.

Many of the rooms you see at first appear to be in business and social media “audience building,” which may show the types of people getting these

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invites and have been there the longest. The search feature is lacking a bit, making it hard to find a specific room unless you know what is going on, but there is an ease to the accessibility that I think will help with its growing popularity if it ever stops being invite-only.

The biggest thing Clubhouse has going for it is probably its variety of communities and topics. A big thing I’ve thought most social media platforms have struggled with is that the interface kind of pushes everything to be the same. My favorite social media platform is easy, no questions asked, Twitter, because it acts as both my morning paper and the driving force behind molding my deranged sense of humor. Clubhouse is able to tap into that sort of variation and niches, while also being extremely accessible.

Clubhouse has been one of the fastest-growing apps in the past year, which is likely due to the isolation many of us have felt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The social aspect of the app also a sense of community that is missing in many online forums and social media platforms.

Audio-only social media appears to be the future,

or at least Silicon Valley thinks they are. On the first day I used the app, I saw that Twitter was introducing a similar platform called Spaces, where Verified accounts can host Clubhouse-like rooms, with the interface appearing to be almost identical to that of Clubhouse. This is hardly surprising and happens all the time in tech. It feels like every time a new trend or popular app rises up, every major social media platform copies or makes its own version. Look at how many versions of Snapchat stories there are. I wouldn’t be shocked if Facebook or Google ends up buying Clubhouse if the interest grows and the idea of talking in audio chat rooms becomes a common thing that we all do.

When I was in a room debating the recent NBA trade deadline (again, these rooms are very niche), someone who had been in the room for only a brief period of time started laughing and said “ayo this shit is weird”. That got a good laugh out of me as well, but it got me thinking. Yeah, this all does feel weird as a platform and doesn’t really sound like it should work. But after a week of interacting with the app and talking to dozens of strangers, I think it does work. And it just might be the future.

Or it’s going to be the next Google Plus.

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

CITIES

New Ways of Knowing Indigenous pedagogy is seeing a lift in its prevalence; Bryan Bellefeuille is helping lead that charge.

BY MITCHELL LEVESQUE Indigenous pedagogy is defined as incorporating “Indigenous worldviews into engagement with information.” This definition was given by Wendy Burton and Gwen Point, scholars dedicated to the subject. They continue by saying, “the rubric of Indigenous education [is]: look, listen, and learn,” for both educators and students, that is. Despite this embrace of culture and practice, some, attempting such a feat in their classrooms, fall short and simply find, trim, and replace. To understand this more fully, an example would help. In the teaching of arithmetics, for instance, we can have the scenario of Waynaboozhoo; Waynaboozhoo has three berries and would like to give two away. How many berries will Waynaboozhoo have left with if he chooses to give away the berries? The answer: this is not an accurate representation of Indigenous teachings and culture in mathematics.

According to Bryan Bellefeuille, Anishinaabe of Nipissing First Nation, and a teacher helping to bring Indigenous knowledge to school curriculums, traditional Indigenous Mathematics does not equal substitution of Indigenous culture into problem sets. As he puts it: “Simply having our knowledge as a placeholder in arithmetic lessons does not count as the traditional mathematics.”

In a recent talk given by Bellefeuille and hosted by the Robertson Program, an institution based in Ontario, Canada, dedicated to providing educators with resources to become more reflective and engaged instructors, teachers

THE WAKE

were given a chance to see how they could better incorporate Indigenous practices into their school curriculum. Equipped with a burly beard, warm demeanor, and an excellent Canadian “o,” Bellefeuille explained the many ways in which math and science can be understood through Indigenous practices. One such method is through teepee poles. Teepee poles, it should be stated, must all be the same height. How do you find trees of the same size without measuring each one or cutting down more trees than what’s needed? As it turns out, trees of the same height typically will have the same width in their trunk. This is a fact of trees and an elucidation of mathematical edicts concerning circumference and diameter. Here is an example of Indigenous practice serving as a model for mathematical law.

Bellefeuille, in recommending a more honest interpretation of Indigenous culture be adopted in the classroom, also sees to it that these lessons are engaging for students. In explaining issues of teepees, for example, Bellefeuille also gave a tour of trees native to parts of Canada. How he did so was through the popular Nintendo Switch video game Animal Crossing, a game whose coniferous flaw of all trees being the same height is luckily made up for by its calming synth soundtrack and verdant artificial vibrancy. However, perhaps the most important thing educators should be equipped with when teaching these subjects is commitment to authenticity. In deciding to incorporate these subjects to one’s classroom,

Bellefeuille recommends teachers create a lesson plan, one in which Traditional Knowledge holders are the resources for which teachers pull from.

Amongst all of this, there still remains an important question: where is the line between teaching through Indigenous cultures and cultural appropriation? Bellefeuille admits this is a difficult question to answer. Indeed, questions such as these have been getting more attention in recent years, due in large part to their importance, but also because of their inability to be precisely and discreetly answered. In facing these challenges, educators can often begin to tackle the problem with a simple commitment. According to Bellefeuille, we should always ask why we are doing something; why are we teaching this? Is it to simply showcase a practice of Indigenous cultures, or is it to provide ideas and understanding of cultures not typically appreciated in society? It’s at this point that genuine understanding can develop for many children with respect to these cultures.

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CITIES

The Mapping Inequality Project: From Covert to Overt Racism

Scan the QR code to read expanded version of this article

The Mapping Inequality Project seeks to make structural racism more visible by digitizing redlined housing maps created by the Federal Government in the early 20th century.

BY JOSHUA JORDAN Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

—Langston Hughes, “Let America be America Again” The area in NE Minneapolis that today houses Bethune Park—near N Humboldt Ave and Plymouth Ave N—was once described by government officials working for the HOLC (Home Owners’ Loan Corporation) as having a population of a “poorer class of Jew and colored people.” In part due to this “underclass” of residents, as well as the so-called poor physical conditions surrounding them, the neighborhood was labeled as red—being “very difficult to place the valuation; and it is a most undesirable location for residential purposes.”

Follow the Mississippi east to St Paul. When you get to the Capitol Heights and South of Maryland neighborhoods, you see that government officials described this area as “a rapidly declining district that has seen its best days.” Why? In part, because the property values are poor and because “Italians, colored people, Jews of the lower strata and other people of foreign descent of the lower classes reside here.”

This process is called redlining, governmentcreated maps in which neighborhoods were rated on a sliding scale—green being most desirable and red being least desirable. Depending on how the neighborhood was appraised (i.e., how outsiders perceived its residents), neighborhoods were then sectioned off by color (for lack of a better word) on literal maps.

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Green neighborhoods were homogenous and white.

Red neighborhoods were predominantly Black.

The Mapping Inequality Project: Exposing racial and class segregation in the New Deal On March 4, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) launched the Environmental Justice and Systemic Racism speaker series. Featured first was The Mapping Inequality Project, a “game changing project” co-created by professors Robert Nelson and LaDale Winling that has provided the public with digitized versions of important government-related housing documents from more than eighty years ago.

“This unique collaboration,” according to the advert, “created a foundational resource for unprecedented research, education, organizing, and policy advocacy on redlining and current environmental challenges.”

The housing documents in question are from when government employees working for the HOLC in the 1930s and 1940s were routinely rating the value of neighborhoods.

In essence, “HOLC staff members, using data and evaluations organized by local real estate professionals—lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers—in each city, assigned grades to residential neighborhoods. These grades reflected their ‘mortgage security’ that would then be visualized on color-coded maps.” Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of ‘A—colored green on the maps—were deemed minimal risks for banks and other mortgage lenders when determining who should receive loans and which

areas in the city were safe investments. Those receiving the lowest grade of ‘D,’ colored red, were considered ‘hazardous.’”

As mentioned, HOLC employees relied on a range of documents when assigning a value to neighborhoods. Key to this thought process was that “real estate appraisers used the apparent racial and cultural value of a community to determine its economic value.”

As pointed out by The Mapping Inequality Project, the HOLC and other government agencies helped to “codify and expand practices of racial and class segregation.” This then led to “rampant real estate speculation and environmental degradation.”

Now in 2021, about 200 cities’ worth of these maps—ranging from the Twin Cities to Savannah, Georgia—have been digitized, allowing us to see them in one big digital map. In doing so, The Mapping Inequality Project seeks to offer “a window into the New Deal era housing policies that helped set the course for contemporary America.”

It presents a “new view, and perhaps even a new language, for describing the relationship between wealth and poverty in America.”

The mapping Inequality Project elevates the visibility of our racist past that got us to where we are today. In addition to work that has already been done and is currently being done, (e.g., Race for Profit, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein, and The Whiteness of Wealth, by Dorothy A. Brown), this project is helping make transparent the throughline connecting our past to the present while many others work to rationalize it away.

CITIES

“Looking About” Our Own Backyards Minneapolis-based travel blogger and UMN alum Lindsey Ranzau talks redefining travel, how she got started, and finding the hidden gems that are right under our noses.

BY HOLLY GILVARY If you’re on the travel side of TikTok, or the Minnesota side--or both, like me--you may have come across videos from @lookaboutlindsey that feature beautiful parks, cool bars, or fun staycation ideas throughout Minnesota. Lindsey Ranzau, a Minneapolis-based travel blogger and University of Minnesota alum, has gained a large following on her social platforms and website, lookaboutlindsey. com, over the past few years, while sharing her experiences travelling internationally, nationally, and within the state of Minnesota. What started four years ago as a way to practice her passion of writing and document her travels is now an extremely popular website and social media presence with tens of thousands of followers.

Ranzau, who works full time, explained that she started her blog a few years ago when she started traveling more for her job. “I would travel for work and then would extend a lot of my trips for the weekend,” Ranzau said. “Then a lot of my friends would just be asking me for our itineraries of where we were and where we went.” This, she said, along with her passion for writing--Ranzau double majored in marketing and journalism at the U--inspired her to start writing about her travels online.

Ranzau said she steadily built a following on her website and Instagram throughout the years, but she mainly attributed her blog “blowing up” to TikTok. Ranzau started creating videos on the app in the spring of 2020, when COVID hit the US and

THE WAKE

halted our normal lives and travel plans. Because of the safety risks of taking more extravagant vacations, including going abroad, many people turned to more local getaway spots--including Minnesotans and other Midwesterners.

“All of a sudden it’s spring and summer, and people are trying to make plans, and they can’t travel, so they turn to Minnesota,” Ranzau said. “And I had, over the last few years before that, built up a pretty big library of itineraries and day trips and weekend trips and places to stay in Minnesota, so it kind of became a spot where people could go.”

However, while Ranzau has shifted to much more local travel since the pandemic began, she said that Minnesota travel has always been something she focused on. According to Ranzau, her goal is to “redefine” what we consider travel.

“People think ‘travel,’ and they think, ‘Oh, it’s a week-long vacation where I have to buy an expensive plane ticket to get there, do a ton of planning, and I’ll go once a year,’” Ranzau said.

But because of her frequent traveling for work, she said she realized that travel doesn’t always have to be this way.

“It can be quick weekend trips, it can be taking advantage of cheap flights, and knowing where to look for cheap flights, to just go somewhere for a little bit and come back,” she said. “To use your PTO instead of taking a whole week or two, like, just take a Monday off.”

Along with promoting the value of short day trips or weekend trips, Ranzau also emphasized the abundance of travel opportunities here in Minnesota and in the Midwest. A native of Glencoe, Minnesota, Ranzau said she spent a lot of time in little towns throughout the state visiting family and has found hidden gems everywhere.

“I grew up here in Minnesota and I would always hear people say things like, ‘Oh, Minnesota’s the best place to take a vacation from.’ And I always just hated that,” Ranzau said. “Minnesota’s amazing, there’s so many different landscapes, there’s so many different cultures here, there’s so much that you can experience.”

In terms of Ranzau’s favorite hidden gems in the Twin Cities, “I have a lot.” She cited the Foshay Tower’s observation deck as a big one, as well as a great place to take your parents if they’re in town. She also recommended the Minneapolis Water Taxi, which gives guests private, hour-long tours of the city along the Mississippi River.

Whether you want to continent-hop or explore the local scene, one big piece of advice that Ranzau gave to college students is to travel while we’re young (COVID allowing, of course).

“If you have the opportunity, go do it,” Ranzau said. “It’s going to be worth all the things that you can learn.”

CITIES

A Professor’s Pandemic How one UMN professor has navigated teaching during a pandemic.

BY MATTHEW VOIGT The last year has shaken higher education like no other in recent years. Nothing was left untouched, from the rapid switch to virtual learning to adapting policies and calendars to the virtual world.

In this last year, many things have been discovered and tested in higher education. Since the announcement that the University of Minnesota wasn’t going to return to in-person instruction last spring, the vast majority of UMN classes have been taught in some form of online learning.

Many UMN professors had to adapt courses to suit online in a brief timeframe in constant flux.

Unlike many UMN professors, Kathryn Pearson wasn’t teaching a course last March. Instead, Pearson, a professor in the political science department, was conducting course-related research and advising undergraduate and graduate students. Pearson said that the last time she was in her UMN office was March 16, 2020, at which time she grabbed what she thought she might “need for a couple of weeks.” Pearson hasn’t been back since.

Many professionals, like Pearson, haven’t stepped foot into physical offices for almost a year. Pearson acknowledged that many people couldn’t work from home, and the opportunity to work from home is a privilege.

“I want to be very clear that I recognize that I am privileged. A lot of people did not have that option, that safety,” Pearson said. “A lot of people did not have that option– the ability to safely work from home during a pandemic.”

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Pearson said that professors at UMN were all given the option to work from home; that will be the case until at least the beginning of August, according to UMN COVID-19 update newsletters sent to faculty and students. Additionally, the way that instructional method and structure of a course is determined is between the college, department, and professor, according to Pearson’s experience.

When planning for the fall semester, which for many students was completely virtual, Pearson decided to teach U.S. Campaigns and Elections (POL 3325) as an asynchronous course. Pearson said that she structured the class the way she did so as many students who wanted to take the class could, regardless of schedule constraints, so that the course would be more accessible to a “wide range of students.” Pearson said that through her completely asynchronous class, she learned to appreciate one-on-one discussions with students before and after class.

“I always knew that I value both in-class discussions with students and one-on-one discussions before and after class and during office hours, but teaching class asynchronously made it very clear how much I value these interactions and how beneficial they are to students,” said Pearson.

When preparing for the spring semester, Pearson decided to teach her class, Gender, Politics, and Policy in the U.S (POL 3733), synchronously, but notes her instructional methodology preference isn’t valid for all faculty.

but for me, I have a strong preference for synchronous rather than asynchronous because of the student interaction,” Pearson said.

Pearson said that her synchronous class left her “energized” and that she hoped that her students felt the same way. While she thought unsure at first at how it would go, Pearson has felt like the class has been “terrific” despite the circumstances.

She also said that attendance for office hours has improved from the baseline pre-pandemic.

Although Pearson said she had learned a lot, she said that she wishes she could do more for students.

“I know students are having a very hard time this year and I am trying to be very accommodating; I wish I could do more to support my students during this pandemic,” Pearson said. “Students are struggling, students have mental health challenges exacerbated by COVID, students are stressed out, students are isolated, this is really hard for students, and I wish that there was more that professors and the University could do to help students during this time.”

While Pearson has had the privilege of teaching remotely, Pearson misses in-person instruction and hopes to return to it in Fall 2021. She also said that she’d be “savvier” with her use of technology and sees it being a helpful tool for future instruction.

“I– and this is not going to be true for all faculty–

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

FEATURE

WRITTEN BY

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JEMMA KELEHER

+

SYDNI ROSE

NNAMDI DARLINGTON

DIO.MPLS

PA N A S H E M U TA S A

PANACHEPHOTO.CO

M A L AYA M E R R I W E T H E R

M A L AYA . M E R R I W E T H E R

DESIGNED BY THE WAKE

MARLEY RICHMOND

DIO_MPLS

CHAE HONG

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FEATURE

The past year has brought untold struggles, many of which have brought systemic inequities to the surface. In such difficult times, art offers the opportunity to reflect and mourn loss but also the chance to spark action and change. “The Wake” connected with three artists at the University of Minnesota who have used their art to capture identity, reflect on political and social issues, and engage in activism.

Q: I want to ask you to talk about your recent EP, or music in general, and the role it’s played in your life.

A: This album [“Black Romantic EP”] is sort of really looking at myself and how the things, and the people around me, and the place that made me who I am, how it made me who I am.

This project really just made me a lot more aware about certainly what was going on around me in that sense, but also went up a notch as soon as the summer hit and George Floyd was murdered.

That’s what made the project urgent.

Because—forget the fact that I’m a Black artist and this is a Black story—I feel not only I need to tell that, people need to hear it because this is my

experience. Yes, it is not a singular life experience.

We’re not a monolith, we are not one thing that people prescribed. There’s a whole lot of depth.

There’s a whole rainbow and array of shapes and colors and variations to each and every single Black life, but there’s no way you could prescribe one sort of belief or one sort of perspective onto a Black body.

Q: I’m really glad you brought that up. I saw some of the clothing that you designed over the summer.

I wanted to ask you about that and the inspiration behind it and your overall thoughts.

A: Everything that happened in late May was the spark, the last straw if you will, that I really needed in order to really get myself out into the community

Q: How did your editorial photoshoot come about, and was there anything specific that you wanted to capture?

A: For that one, I had had a 70s inspo on my mood board for a while. One of my followers on Instagram actually said, “Hey do you want to shoot sometime?” And I was like, “Sure.” I noticed her style kind of had a 70s vibe. I was like “hey she’d be like a really cool person to embody this concept.” And so we decided to set up a shoot.

Then one day I found this spot with a brick wall in Minneapolis, and the car just happened to be

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like I’ve been wanting to do. It’s just tragic that it happened to be that sort of event that triggered that rise out of the world.

The best way I could contribute was to lend my talents in the most pure way that I can. I literally settled back in my Dinky apartment off of University and it was a cycle of wake-up, paint, paint, paint these shirts and maybe go to a protest in the afternoon or evening. To see the smiles of Brown people’s faces, like I was just going out there and handing these [shirts] out just like Goodwill. I was in high spirits ‘cause I wasn’t working, I literally didn’t have anything to do but just create and activate the community and that was beautiful.

there. We didn’t even plan that. I find that a lot of the time, the best shoots are unplanned. So there’ll be something in the background or there will be lighting that’s a certain way that was completely unplanned, and that’s so cool.

Q: Is there anywhere specific where you seek out inspiration?

A: Sometimes my inspiration is location-based.

So I’ll just be driving around, you know, whether I’m on my way somewhere or just driving for a specific shoot. I’ll find a spot with colors that I like and lighting and shadows that are really cool. And

FEATURE

FEATURE

The past year has brought untold struggles, many of which have brought systemic inequities to the surface. In such difficult times, art offers the opportunity to reflect and mourn loss but also the chance to spark action and change. “The Wake” connected with three artists at the University of Minnesota who have used their art to capture identity, reflect on political and social issues, and engage in activism. then sometimes I have theme-based inspo, so I’ll be listening to a song and it’s from the 80s and I just get like an 80s concept in my head, or, you know, just sensory things around me. I find that that’s typically where I draw my inspiration from, just like environmental things.

Q: Do you find intersections between your art and social or political issues at all?

Q: I want to ask you to talk about your recent EP, or music in general, and the role it’s played in your life.

A: This album [“Black Romantic EP”] is sort of really looking at myself and how the things, and the people around me, and the place that made me who I am, how it made me who I am.

Q: What kind of art do you create, and what This project really just made me a lot more aware inspires you to create it? Are there any common about certainly what was going on around me in themes across your pieces? that sense, but also went up a notch as soon as the summer hit and George Floyd was murdered.

A: I like to create art that sends a message That’s what made the project urgent. regarding ongoing social justice issues. I am often inspired to create this type of art because as a Because—forget the fact that I’m a Black artist Black woman and an activist, I find myself battling and this is a Black story—I feel not only I need to a lot of strong emotions related to these issues. tell that, people need to hear it because this is my Art is a way for me to express these emotions without words; it is the feelings that I experience concerning these topics that I really hope to convey through my art.

Q: What is the message you want to share with the world through your art? What’s your purpose?

A: The message I hope to convey through my art is a sort of “call to action.” I hope that when the buyers of my art put my pieces on their walls, they are constantly reminded of the issues that exist within our society and the battles that must continually be fought to achieve justice. It is very easy to become a complacent participant in the ongoing war for social justice when tragedies are no longer “trending.” I hope that my art serves as a reminder that the war is not won, and that we

experience. Yes, it is not a singular life experience.

We’re not a monolith, we are not one thing that people prescribed. There’s a whole lot of depth.

There’s a whole rainbow and array of shapes and colors and variations to each and every single Black life, but there’s no way you could prescribe one sort of belief or one sort of perspective onto a Black body. must fight for human rights every single day until they are granted to all.

Q: I’m really glad you brought that up. I saw some of the clothing that you designed over the summer.

Q: Who is the audience for your art?

I wanted to ask you about that and the inspiration behind it and your overall thoughts.

A: While my audience is social justice oriented and my art undeniably strikes a chord with those A: Everything that happened in late May was the who experience similar oppression, it is not limited spark, the last straw if you will, that I really needed to marginalized communities. I want my art and in order to really get myself out into the community my message to reach any ally who is hoping to achieve the same dreams and changes in the world that members of marginalized communities envision for themselves.

Q: What is it like for you to create pieces Q: How did your editorial photoshoot come about, surrounding black collective trauma as a black and was there anything specific that you wanted person yourself? to capture?

A: At times, it is extremely difficult to create A: For that one, I had hadcollective a 70s inspo on my pieces surrounding Black trauma as mood for Itaiswhile.

One of mytofollowers a Blackboard woman. heartbreaking share the on Instagram said, “Hey you want stories of Blackactually men, women, anddo children whoto shootrobbed sometime?”

And I was I noticed were of their lives andlike, who“Sure.” no longer her style kind oftohad a 70s vibe.

I was like “hey hold the power share their stories themselves. she’d be a really cool personthe to embody While thelike process is challenging, outcome this is concept.” And so we decided to set up a shoot. empowering.

Then one day I found this spot with a brick wall in Minneapolis, and the car just happened to be

A: Minneapolis is a really diverse city. Because I’m based in Minneapolis, if you look at my Instagram page, you’ll notice people have all kinds of different ethnicities, races, gender identities, and ages. I’ve always tried to make it a goal to not have a specific type of model, but to really make everyone, regardless of their identity, feel included in my body of work and to feel that they can be represented in my work.

like I’ve been wanting to do. It’s just tragic that it happened to be that sort of event that triggered that rise out of the world.

The best way I could contribute was to lend my talents in the most pure way that I can. I literally settled back in my Dinky apartment off of University and it was a cycle of wake-up, paint, paint, paint these shirts and maybe go to a protest in the afternoon or evening. To see the smiles of Brown people’s faces, like I was just going out there and handing these [shirts] out just like Goodwill. I was in high spirits ‘cause I wasn’t working, I literally didn’t have anything to do but just create and activate the community and that was beautiful.

there. We didn’t even plan that. I find that a lot of the time, the best shoots are unplanned. So there’ll be something in the background or there will be lighting that’s a certain way that was completely unplanned, and that’s so cool.

Q: Is there anywhere specific where you seek out inspiration?

A: Sometimes my inspiration is location-based.

So I’ll just be driving around, you know, whether I’m on my way somewhere or just driving for a specific shoot. I’ll find a spot with colors that I like and lighting and shadows that are really cool. And

To hear more from each of our interviewees, check out the extended version of each Q&A online at wakemag.org.

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ART

Art by Linnea Baerenwald

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

VOICES

How to (Respectfully) Give Up on Your Dream What I wish I knew six years ago

BY KATE WERMUS We’re taught to never give up on our dreams. But what if our dreams aren’t relevant to us any more?

What if, when we get more information, we decide that a dream is no longer worth pursuing? Let me save you from the heartbreak and financial mistakes I made when discovering and accepting the path I had for myself was nothing like I thought it would be.

I was certain that I wanted to study marine biology and eventually attend veterinary school. It was the dream I’d had since childhood and the only career I’d ever considered doing. The lifestyle and ideas I had for myself in this career dictated every important decision I made. I convinced myself that the frustration and tears from the major would be worth it in the end. But I was ignoring the beginnings of a gut feeling that perhaps this path wasn’t right for me.

When it came to the classes, I failed miserably.

I enjoyed the lab work and the hands-on experience, but the lectures were impossibly hard to follow. I retook the classes twice, and each time my passion for biology dwindled. I was put on academic probation and ultimately transferred out of North Dakota State University after my freshman year. The only classes I didn’t hate or fail were writing classes. I should have taken the hint, but fear and stubbornness kept me fixed to this idea I had for my life. It took a significant toll on my mental health and emotional well-being.

I was deeply unhappy with the direction I was heading in—unmotivated, constantly stressed, and

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distraught over the realization that I was failing at my dream.

I was living in denial of what I knew to be true: I needed to let go of the career I had dreamt of my whole life. In truth, I liked the idea of the job more than the job itself. The ironic part? I was terrified by the ocean and I hated boats. When I first entered the water, I froze. All I could think of was the infinite oceanic abyss that lay below me. I should have realized right then and there that if I wasn’t excited or happy about it, I needed to move on. But instead, I leaned further into the discomfort and moved to Florida. I spend the next two years at Eastern Florida State College trying to force myself into the mold of the marine biologist that I had always dreamed of becoming.

Ultimately, destiny took over. My tipping point was when I had sinus surgery and was no longer allowed to deep-sea dive, a critical part of marine biology research. Around the same time, a friend told me you needed a Divemaster and doctorate degree to be considered for a basic job with a starting salary of 40 grand. Did I really want to waste eight years on something I hated because of an idea I had attached my identity to? I had been telling everyone I wanted to become a marine biologist, and they were fascinated. Their encouragement to pursue the job was downright addicting. But I knew deep down that I didn’t actually want to do it.

scared. Writing was the only thing I excelled at academically. Yet for some reason, I wasn’t allowing myself to follow that path. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but I realized I needed to choose what I knew was right for me instead of what others believed was best. After two years in Florida of chasing a dream I knew I no longer wanted, I moved back to Minnesota and applied to the Hubbard School of Journalism at the University of Minnesota. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Let me save you six years of your life and extra student loan debt. Sometimes our dreams come from falling in love with a false idea of what a career looks like, not the reality of that career.

When you realize it isn’t what you thought it would be and you’re not happy, change it. It’s okay when a dream is not yours anymore, and your imagination didn’t live up to the reality. At the end of the day, all you have is you. Are you truly happy with what you’re doing, or are you doing it for someone else?

I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I was

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VOICES

A Semi-Ode to Minnesota Winters Are Minnesota winters the textbook definition of not knowing what you have until it’s gone?

BY SHANNON BRAULT Oh, winter, oh, winter, you create divine masterpieces across the morning landscape.

Your polar vortex makes me question why I live in Minnesota, but the crunch of your snow beneath my feet brings me right back to loving you. You bring me the joy of skiing and the pain of a 4 pm sunset. You bring me happiness in your beauty, a vitamin D deficiency during your stay, and when you leave, I miss you dearly.

Anyone living in Minnesota knows all too well that the winters bring snow, extreme cold, a fake spring, and more snow. As someone who has lived in the Midwest for their entire life, it is hard to imagine living anywhere that doesn’t bring the familiar white powder every December (or sooner).

When we give ourselves time, we are able to reflect—on ourselves, our lives, our friends, our choices, the world, how we’re feeling, and what we want to be. In a distracted society like this one, we often don’t give ourselves time to check in with ourselves about how we are doing. Winter provides us with this time and opportunity to keep learning and growing. We can work on the most important relationships in our lives—our relationships with ourselves.

Some Minnesotans love winter, while others can’t stand it. But, like everything else in life, there is a silver lining.

It is a time to ask yourself how you’re doing, without the pressures of the always-on world.

What is bringing me joy? What is bringing me pain? Am I happy? What can I do to improve where I am at? When we shed light on the memories we have made and the struggles we have been through, we can see growth in ourselves. We can see how we have changed. We can see how far we have come.

Winter can be cold, dark, and isolating. We tend to spend more time inside our homes in a state of hibernation, attempting to stay warm and healthy. This brings more time to think and sit with ourselves, as we run from a culture that tells us we need to be busy all the time.

The process of reflecting can start out painful, as you allow yourself to feel things you have avoided with the busyness of life. The important thing to remember is that growth and learning are rarely comfortable, but it is the difficult times that remind us to treasure the beautiful moments.

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While winter can be dark and dreary, it brings a beauty that is undeniable. Winter reminds us that there is life despite the darkness and that there will be light ahead, filling the deepest voids in our hearts. It allows us to connect with ourselves and the people we care about.

I love winter with my entire heart. I love the crunch of the snow, cleaning off my car in the morning, and having time to sit with my thoughts with no distractions. Winter brings shorter days and less sunlight, but we are forced to be still, to slow down, and contemplate areas of our lives.

Feeling things reminds us that we are human. We have flaws and struggles, failures and triumphs, things we love, and things we have lost. Winter is a reminder that spring will come, and that we can be better if we allow ourselves to listen.

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

VOICES

Identity Politics Has Failed Us A critical examination of the grip political tribalism has on our culture

BY PANASHE MATEMBA-MUTASA If there’s one thing politicians are good at, it’s leveraging identity politics. I mean, think about it—they have already convinced us that the gamut of political opinion can be confined to a two-part “left and right” compass—that social, economic, and human rights issues can be color-coded with either a “red” or “blue” stamp of approval.

Unfortunately, too many of us have fallen victim to this political model, pigeonholing ourselves into ideologies based on race, gender, religion, and class. As opposed to casting policy-centered, well-informed votes, we place a premium on candidates’ labels of “Democrat” or “Republican.”

And while these labels indicate core values shared by their respective parties, it is important that we see them for what they are: mere labels. A label won’t solve climate change or cancel student loan debt. It is the person holding the label that will.

The term has sparked endless debate in the Twittersphere, but what exactly does it mean?

Simply put, identity politics describes the tendency for individuals possessing certain social identities to align themselves with politics that serve those identities. Often, those engaging in identity politics have tunnel vision with regards to their beliefs. It is a form of political tribalism that rigidly assigns values and ideas to specific groups. This way of thinking is eroding the fabric of our society.

By associating key social movements with particular parties, we alienate those not affiliated with said parties. Take the Black Lives Matter movement, for example. The politicization of Black Lives Matter suggests that the humanity of black lives is up for debate. It has given nonliberals a space to feel comfortable with—and even perpetuate—anti-blackness. Similarly, the neo-conservative politicization of the church has

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distanced Democratic Christians, as Republicans now seemingly have the monopoly on evangelism.

Are there Republicans who are capable of loving black people or Democrats who are unapologetic Christians? Absolutely. The issue is that we have allowed politics to define every aspect of our beliefs. Subjects that should be personal (such as a person’s religion) now hold immense political weight. And as opposed to being addressed as the human rights emergency that it is, violence committed against black lives is reduced to a “leftist” Twitter think piece. And the issues don’t stop here.

Another way in which identity politics poses a threat is in our government. For decades, the trend has been for youth and people of color to lean Democratic, while older Americans and white Christians tend to vote Republican. Political candidates therefore do not feel the need to earn our votes through policies and proposals. They’ve picked up on our voting patterns. They know that as long as they victimize our identities, they will secure our votes.

This is why identity politics has failed us. By being complacent in the politicization of social issues, we’ve communicated that advocating for the lives of human beings is optional. In our elections, we’ve become so comfortable with politicians’ words that striving for action seems futile.

The solution is to depoliticize our identities. It starts with an introspective evaluation. If you identify as a Democrat or Republican, ponder your allegiance to your political party of choice.

Do you believe your values perfectly fit the prescribed mold of your party? Have you ever felt indebted to a politician because of how they appeal to your identity?

By rejecting the socially constructed political confines of our identities, we become more socially competent. When we collectively decide that words and symbols just won’t cut it, we become immune to political pandering tactics.

It is then, and only then, that we are able to demand more from our elected officials and call for real change.

In this way, identity politics has absolved politicians of accountability. They tap into the values and desires of our demographics with pseudo-profound buzzwords designed to give the illusion of “change.” And because we’re already subscribed to a political ideology, we align ourselves with whichever candidate’s words entice us more. The problem? It stops there. These politicians know that they do not need to create change in order to be elected. They simply have to talk about it.

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VOICES

Stepping Away From The Firehose My experience stepping away from Twitter

BY IMMO GRECO *This is written under a pen name.

We’ve all had mornings when we’ve thought about the night before and wondered where the time went. We have a concrete memory in our head from sometime during the night, but gaps between then and our current miserable location in our bed. It’s a terrible feeling. You know time has passed, but not what happened in those huge cavities of your memory. Sure, you may have had a good time, but you don’t remember any of it.

I had a morning like that in December. I wasn’t hungover or anything. I just realized that I was 21 and had used Twitter for a couple of hours a day almost every day since I was 14. Time had passed— at least three presidential elections—but I could barely remember a tweet from memory. It was as if I had gone to the store for a really long time but had not come back with anything.

So I deleted Twitter. I changed my password to an un-memorizable string of random characters and numbers and I haven’t logged on since.

It’s a decision I’m happy I made. Stepping away from the infinite firehose of global news feels good.

Really good. It feels like I’ve gotten pieces of my life back. I find myself having more of those days that I’ve had at summer camp or on camping trips: immersed in what’s in front of me. It’s nice to

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be relatively uninformed, unaware of the failures of the Texas vaccination strategy or the lack of representation in the latest remake of the Marvel movie. All of those issues matter, but I just can’t think about them every single moment of my life. I have a life I’d like to live, and the best way for me to live it is to have some choice and control over what I give my attention to.

But it also made me think about other portions of my life, where I hand over my attention, hand over fist, for some dopamine crumbs, as if I am a kid in elementary school, trading away all of my lunch for the quick rush of someone else’s candy bar. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and LinkedIn—all of the apps except Twitter—still devour my attention. Sometimes I fear that the other apps simply picked up whatever attention was left over after Twitter, like picking up smoking to quit a caffeine addiction.

I really wish it could be another way. I genuinely enjoy using social media. I have a great relationship with Reddit, where I pop over to read career advice threads and discussions about a favorite podcast. I get what I need and I go. But that isn’t the case with Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. I really can’t fight them. No matter how much I prep, set boundaries, or try to make myself

aware of my usage, my attention and time goes in a hole, as if by a natural law like gravity, and never returns.

Again, it should be another way. I find great value in Instagram’s ability to let me stay in touch with old friends and peep over the shoulder of interesting strangers. But I want to be human, with thoughts generated from my own head or conversations with real people, not algorithms or an infinite timeline. I want a life that is organic and in balance. I can’t live with the weight of the world sitting a millimeter above my head, pulsing information as if by IV, straight into my brain.

So, the best option seems to be to log off. Twitter and Instagram know where I live, what I want to buy, and when I want to do so. I can’t beat a telescope into my mind that can see the movements of my soul and the most hidden desires I have. My brain, already grey pudding, can’t compete with that. With Twitter, I had to close the door and leave the house. I’ll have to slowly do the same with Instagram and Facebook. One by one I’ll close them and leave the neighborhood.

After all, there’s other places to live.

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

VOICES

Why Is Marriage?

Looking for a happily ever after

BY TOSIN FASEEMO One day, I logged into Facebook to see what my friends were up to. I scrolled and scrolled, feeling bored but mildly entertained. Pictures of puppies and angry responses to the pandemic filled my screen. One post, however, stopped me in my tracks. It was a photo of a friend from high school at her wedding. “Just married!” the post read. A photo of a smiling couple, surrounded by flowers and family members, stared me in the face. I blinked and rubbed my bloodshot eyes, but the image remained, and it hit me: This was really happening. Shocked and confused, I immediately texted my best friend. After a few minutes of deliberation, we agreed that it was unexpected— but lovely—to see someone from our high school falling in love.

Later that week, I found out that another couple at a former workplace was also getting married. At this point, I began to worry. ”Should I be getting married?” I thought to myself. I began to feel like the only single person on the planet.

Fortunately, this isn’t the case. There are plenty of fish in the sea waiting for me to catch them when I’m ready to settle down. In fact, there’s a record number of single young people these days.

According to the Pew Research Center, millennials are less likely than previous generations to be married. And many of those who are partnered have opted to cohabitate instead of getting married.

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In discussing the topic of marriage, it’s important to consider the origins of the practice. According to the BBC, for the Anglo-Saxons, marriage was a way to “establish diplomatic and trade ties.”

Looking back, it seems that our ideas of marriage are based in security and practicality. The effects of this still linger: marriage is a legal decision that ties your finances to another individual—an interpersonal business deal designed to ensure safety.

Along with the institution of marriage comes the tradition of weddings. Weddings can be a huge source of stress for couples who decide to tie the knot. An article from Business Insider states that almost a third of US couples go into debt to fund their weddings. This shows how weddings can be a detriment to one’s relationship. Weddings are often a cause of arguments amongst couples, especially when family gets involved. Just think back to the cult classic film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Family members can get hung up on the minute details of weddings, leading to nuptial distress for couples.

Weddings aside, marriage is a huge commitment for which many people wait a long time. For some, the solution is to opt out of marriage entirely.

People who choose to stay single for life often do so for religious reasons. Take the example of Catholic nuns, who stay celibate after making a vow of marriage to God. One could argue that this

is a unique type of marriage, in which one enters into a relationship with a deity. Still, this life path is viewed as an extreme to most people.

But the question remains: Should I be thinking about getting married? The research says maybe not. According to the CDC, about half of all marriages end in divorce in the United States. Marriage is a lot of work, and to be successful, it requires two mature adults with good communication skills. Even then, a couple can still find themselves fighting over things like finances or childcare. This is even more true when it comes to poor couples. A bad financial situation can take any couple from deeply in love to deeply in debt.

Marriage is a huge commitment, even for the most dedicated couples. It can be stressful, frustrating, and for many, it simply doesn’t work out. At the same time, people are realizing that they can live full lives—partnered or unpartnered— without entering the institution of marriage. What was once a compulsory stage of adulthood is becoming a life path that people get to decide upon. Instead of “When should I get married?” the critical question becomes, “Do I even want to?”

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Q&A

4

1

Jon Batiste

BY TOSIN FASEEMO Jon Batiste is the Golden Globe award-winning composer of Disney’s Soul, a new movie about music and self-discovery. He is also an activist and a musician. His newest album, “WE ARE,” comes out on March 19.

: How does your role as an activist intertwine with your profession as a musician?

Jon: I look at my role as an activist and musician under the umbrella of being a human. I think that being a human being creates opportunity for you to tap into your divine nature or your lower nature. We constantly balance between the two. I try to be the best version of myself and it creates opportunity for activism and creating music.

: When did you start playing music? How did you first get started/what inspired you?

A: That’s a journey. I’m still on the journey, to be honest. I grew up in New Orleans. My father’s a musician; I have uncles that are musicians; my cousins are musicians. It’s a very musical city; it’s a hub of black culture and world culture colliding in ways that are influential and inspiring. Then I moved to New York. I was 17; I studied at Julliard.

That exposed me to a whole range of stuff,

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MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

Q&A

musically. I was never someone who thought. “I’m gonna be a musician.” I just pursued things that inspired me and led me down a path. The first step was my dad being there and playing the bass in the house.

: Outside of being born into a musical family, how do you see your childhood and growing up in Louisiana shape who you are and what you have done with your music?

A: I think, growing up in the south, there’s a pace to life that is very slow; it allows time for you to be reflective. Growing up in Louisiana in particular, there’s so much that’s culturally different from many other places in the world. There’s specific types of food, traditions. Even the architecture, there are the Spanish areas, the French areas, You’ve got the African influence all over. All of these different ways that you’re subconsciously being taught to appreciate culture, tradition, and community. It’s a slice of life that is very special.

: What was the most important thing to you while creating music for Soul to make it stand out a bit more, since the movie is a bit different from what Disney has put out?

: In “Soul”, the main character, Joe, struggles with the idea that playing music is his purpose in life. Do you feel like you were born to play music?

A: I was born to use the talents that I have to make music, but not born to play music as the only thing.

I think everything is a means to shine a light on the divine nature of humanity and to love each other and to point people to the creator of all things.

: What inspired the title “WE ARE?” A: We are. That’s it. A lot of times, we wait and we look around for the answer, and we are. We look around for somebody to save us; we look around for somebody to understand who we are. I look around at the times that we’re in, and that’s the question and that’s the answer: we are. That’s why I put it there, it’s something for you. You’ve got to interpret that one.

: Your forthcoming album ‘We Are,’ is to be released March 19th. What can we expect from the album?

A: It’s so expansive, in terms of sound; it’s genreless. I can’t even put it in a category of music.

It’s a novel. And if you close your eyes, it’s a movie.

My story is in the middle of it. There are songs where I’m rapping, there are songs where I’m doing a dance. “Cry” is a folk song. I was just being honest. Just listen to it in one sitting, and if you’re open to it, I really do believe you’ll leave feeling very full.

A: I wanted to find chord structures and melodies that felt grounded on Earth in the New York world of jazz that I experienced as a teenager getting into the jazz scene. I wanted to have that mixed with a celestial, ethereal, sort of sound. I wanted the chords to come first, because it inspires melodies to come from that. I knew that if I found the emotional worlds of the music through the chords and the melodies, then the rest of it would come. It was a process over two years and I loved it; it was so collaborative.

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ART ART

by Chae Hong 24ArtArt

by Chae Hong Dive In Dive In

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

REVIEWS

Blackout Britney Spears JAMES SCHAAK Recently Britney Spears’ career has been revisited in the wake of a must-watch The New York Times documentary about her conservatorship and the sexist bullying she endured in the media spotlight. Yet, in addition to the media apologizing, it’s important to also commend Spears for work. Especially regarding her most cohesive album: the aptly-titled, “Blackout”. Recorded during what’s arguably the most widely-publicized bender in American history, the album was once considered a flop. Spears’ ex-boyfriend, a Michael Jackson knockoff named Justin Timberlake, described her as a “wannabe Madonna” at the time. However, with each passing year, “The Pop Bible,” as fans call it, has proven to stand the test of time better than anyone would’ve guessed. So what sets “Blackout” apart?

Within the first second of the first song, “Gimme More,” Spears offers a three word content warning: “It’s Britney, bitch.” The most infamous woman in America is about to indulge in a 43 minute hot mess of hedonistic, club-ready pop music about partying and having sex, amidst the paparazzi. Spears is so adept at playing the part of exhibitionist in “Blackout” that the listener should almost feel like a pervert just for hitting play. Veering wildly from her once carefully curated public image, it’s easy to tell that “Blackout” was released in 2007, the pinnacle year of her notorious meltdown. However, those who worked with her at the time were surprised with her work ethic during the chaos. “Radar,” one of the album’s four singles, was recorded the day after her divorce from Kevin Federline. Through “Blackout” is deeply nihilistic and darkly selfaware style, it’s apparent that Spears’ best work arrived during her most unstable months.

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the supermarket line, tempting you to imagine For Example, take “Piece of Me,” the second an overabundance you’ll never come close to, song on the tracklist. Spears begins by matbefore snapping back and remembering how ter-of-factly stating, “I’m Miss American Dream that’s all completely unhealthy. Music about this since I was seventeen / Don’t matter if I step on sensation should sound delicious yet cheap, like the scene / Or sneak away to the Philippines / the candy bars displayed alongside those glossy They still gon’ put pictures of my derriere in the tabloids. magazine,” before the titular hook arrives, “You want a piece of me?” It’s less a question and more a blunt commination directed at Us Weekly. “Blackout’s” effect on subsequent entertainment is obvious. The early ‘10s inundation of new, Keep invading Britney’s space, eventually she’ll chart-topping solo female pop stars (Ke$ha, grab an umbrella and start fighting back.

Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, etc.) mimicked the sexy, feminine, hardcore “Blackout” persona. More Unlike earlier Britney albums that are dragged experimental artists, like Charli XCX and SOPHIE, by slow ballad-fillers, “Blackout” moves fast and noted “Blackout’s” malfunctioning-fembot vocal hard from cover-to-cover. Legendary aughts’ distortions as they laid the groundwork for hydance music producers, such as Danja, Robyn, perpop. Social media accounts have garnered and The Neptunes, supply their most bizarre thousands of followers by leaning into 2007 aesworks of EDM-influenced avant-disco. “Get Nathetics. The plastic feel of a reactionary, post-9/11, ked (I Got a Plan)” delivers on the outrageously pre-recession Bush America, when the internet naughty premise of its title. On “Freakshow,” encouraged voyeurism, free of stars controlling Spears showcases formally unseen versatiltheir narratives through social media. Britney ity by rapping over a vibrating bassline. The Spears epitomized this era and “Blackout” doccloser, “Why Should I Be Sad” could be the most umented this phenomenon from within; it’s the depressing (and underrated!) song in Pharrell’s single defining musical statement of this niche discography. yet influential flash in American pop culture. So no, she’s not just some Madonna wannabe, One would be forgiven for finding the gaudy, she’s Britney, bitch. often-repetitive dance beats brain-numbing at times and some songs do seem unnecessary.

Yet those are also the same attributes that have made this album into such a cult classic. “Blackout” deals extensively in celebrity culture, which is a gaudy, repetitive, numbing, and mostly unnecessary product of a consumerist, fame-obsessed media landscape. The gross excess helps immerse the listener into the fast-paced imagery of planes, parties, and poor decisions.

Blackout is the fantasy that catches your eye in

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REVIEWS

Collapsed in Sunbeams Arlo Parks

I Care A Lot Came for the crime-thriller, stayed for Rosamund Pike

BY AVERY WAGEMAN Rosamund Pike stars in the crime-thriller “I Care a Lot” as Marla Grayson, a shady court-appointed guardian for elderly wards. She operates a well-orchestrated scheme with her partner Fran, played by Eiza González, to take advantage of their client’s assets. However, their latest gambit complicates their operation when they discover she is not simply a wealthy heir-less woman with no family, but the mother of mobster Roman Lunyov, played by Peter Dinklage.

“I Care a Lot” could be described as “Ocean’s Eleven” meets “Goodfellas” but with the occasional— and awkward—girl-boss-feminist moments. The film lacks substance, and at times the plot seems to lose focus. It’s an interesting concept, but there seem to be no real stakes for neither mobster nor shady guardian. However, there are a few twists to keep you interested.

The film stumbles through the plot with not much to move it along, but the actors’ performances make the movie worth the watch. “I Care a Lot” is a fun watch, especially to see such great actors as Dinklage and Pike go head-to-head. Neither character is a hero you particularly want to root for, but Marla is so clever and persistent, it’s hard not to. Her performance has hints of her character from “Gone Girl,” as she plays the cunning, ruthless, clever, determined Marla. This movie has a lot of potential, but Pike carries the film. She even won a Golden Globe for her role.

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BY MACY HARDER With her debut album, “Collapsed In Sunbeams,” 20-year-old Arlo Parks makes one thing clear: she is quite the lyrical powerhouse. Parks’ background in poetry shines on all 12 tracks, as each provides a glimpse into the hidden corners of her mind. The album opens with the title track, a short spoken word piece backed by dreamy instrumentals. It gives listeners a glimpse of what’s to come: vivid imagery, raw emotion, and an incredibly intimate listening experience.

The album flows in a unique way, featuring 12 standalone stories. Her lyrics invoke rich visuals, stimulating all of the listener’s senses and inviting them into each scene. “The air was fragrant and thick with our silence,” Parks recounts on “Too Good,” the album’s third track.

In these narratives, Parks contemplates various complexities of youth, such as mental health, heartbreak, and sexuality. She offers support to a friend on “Hope,” with a hook reminding them that they’re not alone. A version of this story continues on “Black Dog,” a heavier conversation about mental health. “I’d lick the grief right off your lips,” she pleads.

Later, we see Parks’ experiences with being bisexual come to the forefront. “Could not hold my hand in public, felt their eyes judgin’ our love,” she says on “Green Eyes.” My favorite track, “Eugene,” feels like an intimate reading from Parks’ diary, as she writes with frustration about the blurred lines between platonic and romantic love. She opens up about her feelings for a close childhood friend that quickly turned to jealousy; “Seein’ you with him burns, I feel it deep in my throat,” she reveals.

Parks’ brilliant lyricism is coupled with instrumental elements of both R&B and bedroom pop that compliment her voice perfectly. Overall, “Collapsed In Sunbeams” is an honest, cathartic expression of the feelings we struggle to put into words, and an impressive debut from Arlo Parks.

MARCH 29 — APRIL 26

REVIEWS

Random Access Memories Daft Punk

BY ADAM LELIGDON The release of Daft Punk’s 1997 album “Homework” helped define the French style of House Music as a genre built on turning samples of dance club deep cuts of the ‘70s and ‘80s into electronic music hits.

Twenty-one years after their debut, “Random Access Memories” still had the group demonstrating their passion for the music that initially inspired them - but this time in the form of disco and soft rock album that sounds like it could have been used as sample fodder for a younger Daft Punk.

Featuring songs with reasonably corny titles like “Give Life Back to Music,” Daft Punk is incredibly transparent with what they hope to accomplish on “Random Access Memories.” The duo uses far more live instrumentation than ever before as they take you through a mix of playful dance anthems, like” Lose Yourself to Dance” and often cinematic slow jams, the best of which being “Instant Crush.” Regardless of the song, “Random Access Memories” is always glamorous as Daft Punk’s sequin-covered jackets wore to promote their album.

Throughout the album, the warm, vintage sound builds through many complex layers of electronic and live instruments. This is highlighted by the contrast between clean live drums and distorted synths working together to create an incredibly dynamic sound, used to no more significant fact than on “Fragments of Time. “ As well as vocal contributions from Pharell Williams and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Daft Punk keeps their iconic sound with several vocoder “robot” vocals performances including on the mesmerizing ballad “Game of Love” and, of course, “Get Lucky.”

Undoubtedly a love letter to what came before it, “Random Access Memories” uses the group’s electronic music mastery to continue to build upon inspiration and make an album that serves as a fitting end for Daft Punk.

THE WAKE

Positions Deluxe Ariana Grande

BY GRACE ENFIELD Ariana Grande’s sixth studio album did not disappoint, and now there’s even more to it. Grande’s recent release of “Positions (Deluxe)” features four new tracks and one remix of “34+35,” a hit from the original album.

The album includes a healthy mix of both explicit and clean songs, ranging from bedroom pop to bops to belt out poorly in the car. Grande’s tracks have a pop-y, 80s and 90s feel to them that show off her impressive harmonies and vocal range while still resonating with young audiences. However, Grande is not the innocent “Victorious” actress anymore.

In comparison to her earlier music, this album could be considered “raunchy” to some. Its explicit content outlines exactly what she wants sexually from her partner(s), down to the specific position (pun intended). This is just the type of music that young listeners need to hear right now.

Those who are of age and decide to have sex need to know that all genders are allowed and encouraged to let their partners know what they need sexually. Grande has actively advocated for young women to sit at the table and stand up for what they believe in. If she believes in the power that sex positivity holds, then her fans will as well.

By collaborating with other strong, sexually empowered women, Grande can drive this message home further.

“34+35 Remix” (feat. Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion) proves that women deserve the same sexual freedom that men do. These three artists did their listeners a fantastic service and will continue to push the idea that if men can speak freely about such topics, so can everyone else.

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