Herald Volume LXIII Issue 6

The Yale Herald Volume LXIII, Number 6 New Haven, Conn.

Friday, Mar. 3, 2017

EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief: Oriana Tang Managing Editors: Emma Chanen, Anna Sudderth Executive Editors: Tom Cusano, Sophie Haigney, Sarah Holder, Lily Sawyer-Kaplan, David Rossler, Rachel Strodel, Charlotte Weiner Senior Editors: Libbie Katsev, Jake Stein Culture Editors: Luke Chang, Marc Shkurovich Features Editors: Hannah Offer, Eve Sneider Opinion Editors: Emily Ge, Robert Newhouse Reviews Editors: Mariah Kreutter, Nicole Mo Voices Editor: Bix Archer Insert Editor: Eli Lininger Audio Editor: Will Reid Copy Editors: Jazzie Kennedy, Meghana Mysore

From the editors

ONLINE STAFF Bullblog Editor-in-Chief: Marc Shkurovich Bullblog Associate Editors: Lora Kelley, Lea Rice Online Editor: Megan McQueen

Volume LXIII, Number 6 New Haven, Conn.

Friday, March 3, 2017

DESIGN STAFF Graphics Editor: Joseph Valdez Design Editor: Winter Willoughby-Spera Executive Graphics Editor: Haewon Ma

Hey friends, Man, it must suck to be Obama right now. Can you imagine? In less than two months, Donald Trump is well on his way to systematically dismantling everything our boy Barry spent eight long, hard, taxing years putting in place, and then some. I know, I know… you don’t need me to tell you this.

Still, I can’t help but say it. The historical moment we’re living in is nonsensical and distressing and whack.

Just over a week ago, President Trump and his administration rescinded rules allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice, a major setback for the trans community, and the country. In this week’s front, Mrinal Kumar, SM ’18, examines the newly launched Gender-Affirming Surgery Program at the Yale School of Medicine. The first of its kind in New England, this program is a major boon for the trans community, now more than ever.

This week, we’re tackling a number of big issues here at Yale. Gabe Rissman, ES ’17, and Russell Heller, TD ’19, ask Yale about its ties to ExxonMobil, which funds climate change denial and was formerly headed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Elsewhere, Sophia Natalia-Krohn, BR ’20, asks why we aren’t devoting more attention and resources to drug policy on campus. And check out a series of voices on the power and necessity of We Are Proud to Present in Reviews.

Yours with love, Eve Sneider Features Editor

2 – The Yale Herald

BUSINESS STAFF Publisher: Patrick Reed Advertising Team: Alex Gerszten, Garrett Gile, Tyler Morley, Bedel Saget, Jr., Harrison Tracy The Yale Herald is a not-for-profit, non-partisan, incorporated student publication registered with the Yale College Dean’s Office.

If you wish to subscribe to the Herald, please send a check payable to The Yale Herald to the address below. Receive the Herald for one semester for 40 dollars, or for the 2016 - 2017 academic year for 65 dollars.

Please address correspondence to: The Yale Herald P.O. Box 201653 Yale Station New Haven, CT 06520-1653 oriana.tang@yale.edu www.yaleherald.com The Yale Herald is published by Yale College students, and Yale University is not responsible for its contents. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of The Yale Herald, Inc. or Yale University. Copyright 2017 The Yale Herald.

Cover by Joseph Valdez YH Staff

THIS WEEK’S ISSUE 12- COVER

Incoming Smoke sessions With spring right around the corner, it’s time to find a grassy area and set up camp with a guitar and rolling papers.

Mrinal Kumar, SM ’18 talks to a selection of people involved with the Yale School of Medicine’s new Gender-Affirming Program and explores the history of transgender surgery.

6- VOICES Outgoing Jeff Sessions After evidence emerged that the attorney general lied under oath about meeting with Russian officials, Sessions’ days in Washington are numbered.

Carly Gove, BR ’19, writes of the Atlantic, of saltsoaked watchtowers, of holding hands.

Greg Suralik, TD ’17, recollects the sounds of his summer job.

8- OPINION

SCHEDULE Friday

Good Show Madness Hopper Cabaret 8:00 p.m.

Saturday

Yale Men’s Basketball vs. Columbia John J. Lee Amphitheater 7:00 p.m.

Saturday

DPops Finds Love Battell Chapel 8:00 p.m.

Monday

Yale Jazz Ensemble Spring Concert Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall 5:30 p.m.

Read a letter from Russell Heller, TD ’19, and Gabe Rissman, ES ’17, as they confront Yale’s investments in ExxonMobil.

Sophia Natalia Krohn, BR ’20, skewers Yale’s dangerously vague drug policy.

10- FEATURES How much wood does a wood shop chop? Find out with Meghana Mysore, DC ’20.

18- CULTURE Hawa Adula, BR ’19, goes behind the scenes with Films at Whitney.

Also: Will Reid, PC ’19, explores the Center for Teaching and Learning’s postmodern redesign, and the Yale Women in Leadership Conference teaches Carly Gove, BR ’19, to be disruptive.

20- REVIEWS Stefani Kuo, PC ’17, Robert Newhouse, HC ’19, and Victoria Wang, PC ’18, trace the brutal complexities of We Are Proud to Present.

Sahaj Sankaran, SM ’20, reflects on an absurd Oscars ceremony.

Mar. 3, 2017 – 3

INSERTS Lesser-known Yale-inspired films This year’s Oscars were quite the coup for Yale. Moonlight, the Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (among others), is based on the draft of a play Tarell Alvin McCraney (DRA ’07) wrote while at Yale’s School of Drama, and another Oscar winner, Fences, premiered as a play at the Yale Repertory Theater.

However, it is not as widely known that many cult films throughout the years have been deeply inspired by Yale. Below is the exclusive, never-before published list of movies that owe a debt to Yale.

The Great Escape James Clavell (known for the excellent novel Shogun) always mentioned his gratitude to his friend Felix Smith ’45, who, dying tragically of an intense coffee overdose the night before a midterm, left him his memoirs concerning MATH 230. We do not truly know in what ways a great writer’s mind works, but shortly thereafter, the draft of the classic WWII prisonescape movie The Great Escape was finalized.

Air Bud We can neither confirm nor deny rumors that Handsome Dan, cleverly disguised by the addition of a sports jersey and a copy of Descartes’ Meditations, was a valuable member of the Yale Basketball team. We cannot further confirm nor deny whispers of his participation in crew (as the coxswain), swimming (backstroke), and football (the football). All we can say is that, shortly after Charles Martin Smith happened to attend a Yale v. Princeton game, the idea for Air Bud was born.

The Manchurian Candidate Very little is known about the YCC Election of ’51. Both Miles Davis ’52 and Bernie White ’52 always refused to explain their strange stapler wounds, the accidental budgeting of $34 billion towards Spring Fling, and the suspicious red stains on the floor of LC 101 (later revealed to be Kool-Aid from GHeav). When the dust settled, five people lay dead, six STEM majors had switched to studying Psychology, Handsome Dan had turned into an elk, and, in the midst of it all, George Axelrod had the germ of an idea for the draft of what would become the Cold War sci-fi political thriller The Manchurian Candidate.

Braveheart We do not know how accounts of the Siege of ’91, wherein the brave defenders of Pierson College sold their lives dearly for their freedom against the predations of the vile imperialists of Old Campus, made their way to Randall Wallace. All we know is that a few months later, the first draft of the cult epic Scottish independence drama Braveheart had been written.

The Hangover It is said that Jon Lucas, a Yale graduate, had to tone down several of the more outlandish scenes in his draft of The Hangover because nobody would believe it was based on real-life experiences at DKE.

- Sahaj Sankaran 4 – The Yale Herald

THE NUMBERS: Athletes and Yale: Yale students listed as “going” on Facebook to the men’s basketball game this Saturday, two fewer than are expected to attend “Monster Jam, a monster truck rally in Westport. percentage of Yale athletes majoring in 90: some combination of economics, political science, and the Zeta basement 2: national championships won by Yale’s fencing program 2: students who knew that Yale had a fencing program 4: maximum hours in a day that a varsity athlete may practice, a limit imposed by the NCAA; also, average number of lectures attended in a week by members of the hockey team.

28:

SOURCES: 28: a sad-looking Facebook event page 90: Yale Facebook and the steady stream of athletes heading to Zeta Late Night 2: wikipedia.com 11: fencing attendance statistics 4: NCAA.com, emails to the hockey coach from disgruntled professors - YH Staff

TOP 5 Underrated campus jobs 1. ENTRYWAY CONDOM RESTOCKER - LET’S BE HONEST: THIS IS THE CLOSEST YOU WILL EVER GET TO LOSING YOUR VIRGINITY. 2. SECTION ASSHOLE - YOU KNOW THE GUY WHO STANDS IN FRONT OF THE CLASS, LEADING DISCUSSIONS AND GRADING YOUR PROBLEM SETS? OH WAIT...

3. YDN OP-ED WRITER - INSULT AN ATHLETE, TRIGGER THE ENTIRE STUDENT BODY 2. THETA PHOTOGRAPHER - WHO KNEW GETTING 100 GIRLS TO STICK THEIR GERM-INFESTED FINGERS IN THEIR MOUTH WOULD BE SO EASY 1. WHOEVER SENDS THE TOAD’S E-MAILS.

- Kiddest Sinke

sarah.holder@yale.edu oriana.tang@yale.edu

oriana.tang@yale.edu

VOICES

to meena it was the hotness of the summer but too early for its sweaty messy leisure. we still had bookbags digging into our shoulders. it was tank tops and bra straps, mosquitoes, that great bone-breaker the Atlantic. it was you. lanky legs and arms freckled, foolish/girlish, running headlong into spilled milk. into rust-colored spot on bedsheet blowing in the wind, into pale as a corpse. may was too early for lifeguards, so we kept their salt-soaked wood watchtower for us and lorded our legs over the seagulls. walked the razor’s edge of the shoreline and pretended to be able to feel our feet. made ourselves a summer of blue water lilies. have you ever seen girls hold hands so hard their fingers break? summers stacked up over each other like knuckle bones, the edges are cracking. breaking. take a hammer to your chronology. for a while now i have known the memory of a foot one step too far—your foot— and i remember it every time i walk into a well-lit place. fluorescent lights like heaven. four walls like heaven. blue-lipped girl in the street is alive-and-well, just wearing a color called heaven. meena, when the ocean is below 5 celsius in summer i think of you, and picture your hand on the dial.

by Carly Gove

Graphic by Julia Hedges YH Staff 6 _ The Yale Herald

Lunch hour O

by Greg Suralik

rder up! Number four, no wheels, extra mayo!”

My boss’s voice cuts sharply through the din of the lunch hour rush. I man my spot on the assembly line, pulling a food-safe plastic glove onto my left hand and releasing it with a satisfying snap. I hear the cascade of sandwich-assembly steps from the counter to my left; the smooth, crisp swipe of the knife through a piece of French bread, the wet slap of prepared cold cuts, the plop of extra mayo, immediately followed by the light rustle of shredded lettuce. Finally, the sandwich is set on the piece of sandwich paper in front of me. With three quick crunches, the sandwich is enveloped in paper and sealed with a sticker.

“You ready to catch it?” I ask the customer. After I hear an eager reply, the sandwich flies…and lands with a sharp crinkle.

Caught. A few seconds later, the front door opens and a warm summer breeze swooshes in, as if the entire sandwich shop is taking a quick breath before the next customer.

This was the cadence that drove each of my shifts at the Jimmy John’s on the south side of Sheboygan, Wisconsin the summer before I left for college. The switch of the faucet as my friend prepared the sink for dishes. The shrill, piercing beeping of the oven when the fresh bread was done baking.

The click of the cash register, the crackle of an open bag of kettle chips, the ringing of phones ready with delivery orders.

At the end of the day, the final sounds I would hear were the click of the mouse as I logged my hours and the final sandwich wrap of the day, my lunch. I miss that music sometimes.

Graphic by Julia Hedges YH Staff Mar. 3, 2017 – 7

OPINION

OPINION Rehabbing Yale’s drug policy

by Sophia Natalia Krohn

W

e sat around two half-eaten Ashley’s ice cream frisbees in Branford courtyard and watched someone attempt to pour a shot (of water) into a red solo cup. This was one of the many alcohol workshops my FroCo group did during Camp Yale. Strangely, however, despite discussing alcohol at length, no workshop mentioned what to do when students overdose on drugs other than alcohol, never mind what Yale’s disciplinary policy was on the matter. So I asked. “Don’t talk to me about drugs,” my FroCo told me.

I was stunned, so I questioned some of my friends to see if they had experienced similar exchanges. They had. One even reported a FroCo saying, “We aren’t supposed to talk about drugs here.” But we should.

Not only is it misguided to act as though drug use isn’t a fact of campus life, it is extremely dangerous. Awareness concerning drugs other than alcohol should not just be a component of the first few days of freshman year, but rather an element of campus programming throughout our time at Yale.

Dispelling the first fallacy of Yale’s position on drugs other than alcohol—that they aren’t a prevalent component of campus social life—is easy: they are. I’ve whiffed entryways that, if I didn’t know better, I would have mistaken for dispensaries. Indeed, some folks on our campus hold the housing form’s description of a suite being “a vibrant social hub” to higher standards. Joking aside, cannabis use, though the most obvious, is obviously not the only drug besides alcohol used on campus. According to a 2014 Yale Daily News survey of drug use at Yale, 42% of the 832 respondents reported having used cannabis; 7% stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin without a prescription; 6.2% MDMA; and another 5.7% reported having used cocaine. The notion that Yale students don’t use drugs other than alcohol is as self-evidently flawed as the contention that Yale students get enough sleep.

And so most of us are all too familiar with the typical Saturday night at Yale: you’ve had a little to drink and are stumbling into the yard of a frat. You’re in that state of blissful carelessness that makes your surroundings feel circumstantial. But your friend is past that point. Even though you know she hasn’t been drinking, she looks ill. You wonder if she might have taken something. Could she just be sick? The problem is that you don’t know because you were never taught. No form of education for drugs other than alcohol was included as part of your mandatory orientation. Moreover, even when you asked your FroCo about these situations, they refused to supply you with answers. And so you cannot tell if your friend is going into overdose or just needs to lie down.

Now let’s consider a situation in which Yale has taught you how to identify non-alcohol-related intoxication. Even if you knew that your friend was in such a state, you wouldn’t know Yale’s policy regarding drugs other than alcohol. Why? FroCos are still not permitted to have these kinds of discussions with freshmen. Even if they could, Yale’s official position is murky at best. At worst, Yale’s policies are actively putting students’ lives at risk. Indeed, the answer for this lack of information is as frustrating and counterintuitive as the problem itself. Under the current policy, you can face disciplinary charges even if you’re not the one overdosing. Neither the victim nor a bystander of an overdose on drugs other than alcohol is explicitly protected from Yale sanctions.

Of course, this leaves students who find themselves in these tough situations with a catch-22: decide whether to risk their own standing and call for help or play the odds with their friends’ safety. The thing is, this shouldn’t be a catch-22. The fact that one could face such a choice is reckless and dumbfounding. Clearly one should call for help.

No fear of disciplinary consequences should take priority over someone’s life. But Yale’s policy naively assumes that students will always make the right decision in the heat of the moment.

Why doesn’t Yale make it easier for students to do the right thing by educating them and eliminating their fear of punishment altogether?

All I can think of is that they’re concerned that identifying the obvious issues of drug use on campus may force them to acknowledge a reality they deem as unseemly. Students have a responsibility to call for help in emergency situations. Shouldn’t Yale have a responsibility to make it easier for them to do so?

Having nearly finished my first year here, I’ve spent enough time at Yale to start to see through some of its ancient mystique. Though I love this university, the administration’s negligent treatment of issues related to students who use drugs has motivated me to add my voice to the fray: to publicly condemn a policy that is not only based on unfounded assumptions, but also unnecessarily jeopardizes students’ safety. Yale students do, in fact, use substances other than alcohol.

Thus, there is no good reason that they should be put in harm’s way by an ineffective policy that would just as easily see a student disciplined as it would see them helped.

Graphic by Joseph Valdez YH Staff 8 – The Yale Herald

An open letter to the Yale community on investments in ExxonMobil Gabe Rissman & Russell Heller

F

ollowing the Yale Corporation’s February meeting, the Yale Daily News reported that the University is examining its investments in ExxonMobil. Jonathan Macey, the chair of Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR), said that the committee “may be in contact with [ExxonMobil] at some point.” A meeting would likely focus on whether Exxon’s alleged funding of climate change denial is a social injury worthy of divestment. Yale’s guidelines for ethical investment prescribe divestment if dialogue with a company is unlikely to eliminate a socially injurious company practice “within a reasonable period of time.”

We applaud Yale for this investigation and would like to provide the ACIR and Yale Student Body background on Exxon’s response to climate denial accusations, based on our personal experience engaging with Exxon for two years. In 2015 and 2016, we co-filed a shareholder resolution with Exxon calling for better disclosure of the company’s lobbying policies and expenditures. We hope that Yale will come to the same conclusion that we did—Exxon has long obstructed the development of public understanding of climate change and government action on climate change, and that obstruction continues today.

The story begins in the late 1990s, when Exxon and other fossil fuel companies drafted the “Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan” with the goal of challenging the scientific certainty behind the Kyoto climate treaty. The companies wrote that “there may be no moment when we can declare victory for our efforts” until “there are no further initiatives to thwart the threat of climate change.” This plan identified the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that produces prototype legislation, as key to the implementation of the strategy.

ALEC has been very active in promoting scientific uncertainty regarding climate change. In 1998, ALEC developed the “Interstate Research Commission on Climatic Change Act”, which states that there is “a great deal of scientific uncertainty” regarding climate change and requires specific attention to be paid to alternative hypotheses during peer review.

In 2000, ALEC began pushing the “Environmental Literacy Improvement Act” to promote “countervailing scientific and economic views” on environmental issues, despite there being a scientific consensus on climate change. ALEC updated both bills in 2013 and continues to promote them today. Furthermore, ALEC provides a platform for climate misinformation at its annual conferences; speakers like Joe Bast, CEO of the Heartland Institute, and Marc Morano, famed founder of climate denial site ClimateDepot.com, rejected the scientific consensus on climate change in 2014.

Stephen Moore, a member of ALEC’s Private Enterprise Advisory Board, told 2015 conference attendees that “The biggest scam of the last 100 years is global warming.”

In 2007, Exxon committed to stop funding climate change denial and reiterated its commitment in 2015. Why, then, does Exxon continue to fund ALEC? When we asked former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson about the problematic nature of Exxon’s representation on the board of ALEC, he said, “[w]e have found our engagement with them [ALEC] to be very productive in a number of broad areas … particularly educational reform.” In subsequent conversations we had with the company, Exxon representatives repeated this explanation and further alluded to ALEC’s work on STEM lobbying. However, Exxon’s argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

ALEC’s only bill tagged both as “science” and “education” is the aforementioned “Environmental Literacy Improvement Act”.

We doubt The Yale Corporation would view ALEC’s work on STEM education as favorable, much less as adequate justification for Exxon’s continued financial support of the organization.

While Exxon does acknowledge the problematic nature of ALEC’s stance on climate change, the company notes that it is trying to improve ALEC’s policies from within. Exxon will likely point to its recent carbon tax presentation at ALEC’s annual meeting. Presumably Exxon has attempted to reform ALEC since disavowing climate denial in 2007. Clearly, these efforts have been unsuccessful. If the company had the power to radically alter ALEC’s approach towards any single issue, one would expect that the bills emphasizing uncertainty in the face of scientific consensus would have been discarded after Exxon’s 2007 announcement. One might also expect that climate-denying speakers would not have been invited to ALEC conferences and furthermore that ALEC would have, after four years, rescinded its 2013 resolution opposing “all federal and state efforts to establish a carbon tax.”

And it’s not just ALEC. Exxon has representation on the board of directors of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and on the executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Both strongly oppose climate policy—the nonprofit InfluenceMap, which scores climate policy engagement, gives both organizations an “F.” While Exxon publicly proclaims support for a carbon tax, its leadership role in these organizations speaks volumes.

We are heartened by the fact that Yale has expressed interest in engaging with Exxon. We hope that the ACIR will enter into any discussions with the company informed and prepared to address the most pressing issues with Exxon’s past and ongoing efforts to obstruct productive action on climate change.

Sincerely, Gabe Rissman and Russell Heller

Graphic by Joseph Valdez YH Staff Mar. 3, 2017 – 9

FEATURE FEATURES

Saturday night woodies * Meghana Mysore, DC ’20, descends into Berkeley College’s wood shop.

T

he Berkeley wood shop seems like another world, hidden away. Blocks and slabs of wood, half-made stools and tables, and an assortment of power tools frame the small, enclosed room in the basement of Berkeley College. Mark Messier, professional cabinetmaker and leader of the Berkeley wood shop, calmly motions to one of the students in the shop to slow down before he chops another slab of wood. This student, he explains, is making a standing desk for his dorm room. Nearby, a student at the School of Forestry is making a stool, and an undergraduate is constructing a bookshelf.

The Berkeley wood shop first opened in 1992 in a tiny 12 by 40 foot room. When Berkeley went through renovations in 1998, the Head of College at the time, Harry S. Stout, reached out to Messier, who had designed furniture for him before, to help open the larger remodeled shop. Messier, who lives an hour away from campus, agreed, although he was initially a bit nervous at the prospect of having to generate a woodworking curriculum. It quickly became clear, however, that the shop would not be a place of stressful, rigorous instruction. The wood shop turned into more than an extracurricular location; it became a second home of sorts, where Messier and his students could make things with their hands.

Messier traces his love of woodworking to his childhood and the influence of his father. An insurance executive, his father always had a passion for woodworking; Messier recalls watching his dad

10 – The Yale Herald

construct their house at the age of five. Observing his father at work catalyzed Messier’s interest in the art. “I was always down in my dad’s wood shop, so I made a bunch of things when I was a kid,” Messier said. “I’d make go-carts and tree forts; I’d make anything.”

Messier has brought his childhood woodworking experiences to the Berkeley wood shop. He hopes his students can learn from him in the way he learned from his father. Messier does not explicitly teach his students how to woodwork, but lets them learn for themselves, giving them direction when needed. “I might tell them not to use a certain tool, but otherwise I let them make whatever they want,” he said. Messier emphasized that he allows his students to make mistakes and create what they want. In general, the only warning he gives students is that a project may take semesters—or even years—to complete. Messier himself is a self-taught cabinet maker, so he doesn’t believe in traditional classroom-style teaching.

So far, this approach has been very successful in facilitating students’ creativity. In the past, people have made cutting boards, shelves, coffee tables, signs for the Yale Pistol Club, and even stilts. “It’s all project-based, so it depends on the students, and what they want to make,” Messier said.

Woodworking is a highly intricate and time-consuming process, and takes more effort than most people would think, according to Messier. To him, woodworking comes naturally, almost as effortless as walking or eating, but for most it’s less intuitive.

“It takes a different way of thinking,” he said; it requires something different from academic or professional intelligence. While Messier said he wouldn’t be surprised to see a new face on any given Saturday, there is a steady group of students who come to the wood shop every week. He thinks woodworking demands prolonged effort. “You have to really have the desire to do it.”

Messier speaks about his students fondly; he knows their projects well and understands each student not only in the context of the wood shop, but also in their personal and academic lives. He points to one of the students in the wood shop—John Lee, BK ’18—saying that he has been coming into the wood shop since his freshman year, and has developed from a shy freshman to a more confident woodworker and person in that time. Messier also noted that Lee is majoring in biomedical engineering, and has a very mathematical mind, which makes him a precise and careful woodworker.

Lee, who has spent a considerable amount of time in the Berkeley wood shop and knows its ins and outs, says that woodworking has been a creative outlet for him. “I like using my hands and problemsolving,” he said. He is currently making a bench, for which he received a CPA grant from Berkeley.

“Mark teaches us to have an appreciation for wood, for its aesthetic qualities but also for how it speaks to the life of a tree,” Lee said. “You can really see this with natural edge work, where you work on a piece of furniture and order it in terms of right angles and flat surfaces. Natural edge work reminds

you of where the world comes from.” When Lee comes into the wood shop, he feels he is able to step away from the fast-paced world and consider its origins. Lee has so enjoyed the process of woodworking and working with Messier that he has stayed in his house—which is about an hour away from campus—for the past few summers to further his skills.

For Messier and Lee alike, woodworking has been a necessary creative release, and the Berkeley wood shop has tied his childhood passion for woodworking to his more developed woodworking career. “Coming here has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said.

“It’s an outlet; you can come in and get into it right away, and you start wood turning.”

OTHER RESIDENTIAL COLLEGES HAVE comparable arts facilities, like the JE Printing Press. At one point, 11 out of the 12 residential colleges had printing presses. Now, there are only three that remain—Davenport-Pierson, Branford, and JE. Rose said the reduction in printing presses is most likely a response to “the flatness of the digital age.” Messier relates a similar qualm, saying that he wishes that people still took wood shop classes, as woodworking is a valuable and worthwhile skill.

Although there are now fewer printing presses at Yale, there is still considerable interest in the activity. Rose explains that printing is an acquired taste, and different presses interest different people for varying reasons.

Antique presses, he said, might be interesting to engineering students from an engineering standpoint, but students interested in writing and design might also gravitate toward them.

Davenport-Pierson regularly holds workshops in the evenings, and two student printers recently orchestrated spring workshops in JE for Valentine’s Day to make small boxes for chocolate, cards, and small books of poems.

The Morse Fabric Arts Studio is also popular with students in both Morse and Stiles. Each semester, Alexa Martindale, Operations Manag-

er, explained, the studio is filled with students who want to weave. “We stack them in there like sardines,” she said. “Weaving is a very complicated art form. Barbara Hurley [master weaver] really gets the students’ creativity going with her teaching.” Hurley worked with looms before coming to the Fabric Arts Studio, and she initiated the teaching segment in the studio, where she works with students for four hours a week on their weaving skills. Students’ projects aren’t limited to the four hours they spend with Hurley, Martindale explained. They often send pictures of their progress on a particular project to her throughout the week.

All of these arts facilities, tucked away in the residential colleges, reflect the desire for a creative outlet on campus. The arts facilities are places where students of different interests can come together and create. Perhaps these facilities—hidden from the everyday shuffle of Yale life, and somewhat archaic—stop the clock for a while, forcing students to pause and listen to the chopping of wood or the needle weaving through thread, a singular rhythm behind it all.

Graphics by Claire Sheen YH Staff Mar 3, 2017 – 11

COVER

OPERATION: On Yale’s new gender reassignment surgery program.

CONFIRMATION

by Mrinal Kumar

Graphic by Joseph Valdez YH Staff

12 – The Yale Herald

T

he video opens with a smiling brunette woman in a gray cardigan and blue jeans standing in front of a truck with her arms loosely crossed. “My name is Randi Maton,” she says. “I drive a truck for a living.”

Maton was one of the first patients successfully transitioned at Yale Medicine Urology’s newly launched Gender-Affirming Surgery Program, the first of its kind in New England. In this video, produced by the Yale School of Medicine, Randi describes her journey. “When I was about 16, 17 years old, I realized something was missing in my life,” Maton says, as the video presents a series of photos from her adolescence. Randi was born with male genitalia but “felt like [she] was more female than male…. [I] decided that this [being female] was what I want to be. And what I’m going to be in life, to match my inside with my outside.” Last year, Maton was finally able to realize this vision of herself, 25 years in the making.

Maton is a resident of Fairfield County and a tractortrailer driver. She is sometimes asked whether she’s using the correct bathroom, but says she has never experienced any sort of discrimination from strangers or colleagues.

She’s legally changed her driver’s license from male to female, and enjoys hunting, fishing, and spending time with her four-year old dog, Bert, whom she rescued. Recently, she made a trip to New York, and while unloading the truck, a man approached her and said he’d never seen a woman truck driver.

“That made me feel really happy and proud that somebody recognized me for who I am,” says Maton near the end of the video. “Life is just great.”

DR. STANTON HONIG OPENED YALE’S GENDERAffirming Program last spring. He’s treated eight patients so far, but with 60 more on the waitlist (most from the Tri-State Area), he and his partner, Dr. Deepak Narayan, are struggling to keep up with demand. All of these patients have been male-to-female surgeries; the program does not yet cover female-to-male transitions.

Honig has been practicing urology, the study of the male and female urinary tract and the male reproductive system, for 24 years. Although he’s been performing male-to-female surgeries on-and-off for about a decade, he feels that now is the perfect time to launch the program in Connecticut. Six years ago, the state added “gender identity and expression” to an antidiscrimination law concerning employment, public accommodations, housing, credit, and public schools. Just three years ago, Connecticut became the fifth state to require

health insurance providers to cover treatments related to sexual reassignment surgery. This eases much of the economic burden on potential patients—male-to-female surgery can cost between $15,000 and $50,000, depending on how involved the process is. The Yale Health Plan has covered sex-reassignment surgeries for faculty and staff since 2011 and unionized workers and students since 2013, joining Harvard, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania.

To determine whether patients are eligible for surgery, Dr. Honig refers to the guidelines provided by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH).

Criteria for “bottom surgery”—another term for sex reassignment surgery, specifically referring to the genitalia as opposed to alterations of the face—are extensive. Patients must begin to make a social transition by dressing as the gender they identify as for at least a year. They must meet with endocrinologists to develop a plan for hormone therapy—estradiol pills, for example, help develop breast tissue, feminize the body, and reduce body hair growth—and must undergo this therapy for a year.

Patients must also have a letter from a mental health professional familiar with transgender care acknowledging the patient’s understanding that the procedure is irreversible. Once the patient meets these criteria, they are admitted to the program.

There are other, optional steps, including vocal surgery, laser hair removal, and sperm-freezing using cryopreservation techniques in the event that the patient is planning for children.

Honig offers patients a range of bottom surgeries, including removing only the testicles. A complete sex reassignment takes about six hours and requires a hospital stay of two to five days. The surgery consists of a remarkable anatomical reorientation that leverages the existing male genitalia rather than adding anything new: the penis becomes a functional clitoris that allows for clitoral orgasms, the urethra is shortened so that the patient can urinate sitting down, the skin of the penis becomes the inside of the vagina, and the skin of the scrotum becomes the labia. Because each part of the operation is useful to Honig’s urology practice—for example, he removes patients’ testicles for cancer treatment—putting all the components together into one surgery is straightforward for him.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy for most surgeons.

“The average urologist doesn’t do a lot of this stuff,” Honig said. “But I do. It’s not a common operation. There aren’t enough people who are dedicated

Mar. 3, 2017 – 13

enough to do this and there aren’t training programs to do it.” Yale’s is one of the few programs that trains residents in transgender surgery.

Clinical program manager Diana Glassman also stressed how resource-intensive the process is. To comply with WPATH guidelines, she has assembled a group of surgeons, endocrinologists, nurses, social workers, and mental health professionals that support the patients Honig, clinician in urology throughout their experie n c e .

Though Glassman has never worked with transgender populations in the past, she understands the importance of providing a holistic treatment package for patients, and so has increased staffing and implemented diversity training for employees.

“We want to make sure our staff knows how to interact with patients,” she said. “We want to create a warm and comforting environment.”

Honig echoed the sentiment. “We’ve trained people so that [from] the first person who answers the phone, to the person who talks to [the patient] about booking an appointment, to the social worker, to the nurse, understands the concept of gender identity and understands the importance of using particular pronouns. We spent a lot of time and energy to do that.”

While the surgery the school provides isn’t unique, the extra attention to the experience of patients and the complementary mental and social support available are what make the program’s institution noteworthy.

“They treated you with respect, and you’re not just a patient, you’re a human being,” Maton says in the video. “You get that warm feeling that they accept you for who you are.”

“WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF

STOPPING WHAT WE’RE DOING. WE SUPPORT THE TRANSGENDER POPULATION.” Dr. Stanton

THE FIRST HIGH-PROFILE RECIPIENT OF MALE-TOfemale reassignment surgery was Lili Elbe. Born in 1882 as Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener, Elbe was a successful artist who specialized in landscape paintings. Elbe began wearing women’s clothes for the first time when she began filling in as a model for her wife, who illustrated fashion magazines.

Elbe felt comfortable in the clothing and began presenting

14 – The Yale Herald

as a woman, often pretending she was her own sister in order to prevent discrimination.

In 1930, Elbe received gender-transforming surgery— an experimental procedure at the time—in Germany. She underwent four operations in two years under two different doctors: removal of the testicles, implantation of an ovary, removal of the penis and scrotum, and transplantation of the uterus. She was able to get her name and sex legally changed, even as her case became a European media sensation. Since she and her wife were no longer “man and wife,” their marriage was dissolved.

Three months after her fourth operation, Elbe’s immune system rejected the uterus and she developed an infection.

She died in September 1931.

Despite Elbe’s considerable popularity in Europe, it was Christine Jorgensen who became the first major advocate for transgender rights in the United States. Born in the Bronx as a self-described “introverted little boy who ran away from fist fights,” Jorgensen served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After returning to New York, Jorgenson became concerned about her stunted male physical development and began taking estrogen as she researched sexual reassignment surgery. Jorgensen traveled to Denmark to undergo hormonal therapy and receive an orchiectomy (the removal of the testicles) and a penectomy (the removal of the penis). In a letter to her friends in 1951, Jorgensen asked: “Remember the shy, miserable person who left America? Well that person is no more and, as you can see, I’m in marvelous spirits.”

On her return to the U.S., Jorgensen received a vaginoplasty to complete her reassignment. The reaction was immense. The New York Daily News ran a front-page story in December 1952 under the headline, “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Bombshell,” incorrectly stating that Jorgensen had become the recipient of the first “sex change.” Vice President Spiro T. Agnew called another politician “the Christine Jorgensen of the Republican Party.” Radio host Barry Gray asked her if jokes like “Christine Jorgensen went abroad, and came back a broad” bothered her. She was unable to get married because her birth certificate listed her as male, and her fiancée Howard J. Knox lost his job in Washington DC when his engagement to Jorgensen became public knowledge.

Jorgensen handled the attention with admirable courage and a generous sense of humor. She worked as an actor and a nightclub entertainer while also dominating the public sphere as a transgender spokesperson. Her efforts forced people to reconsider their definitions of biological sex, question their knowledge of gender norms, and consider the evolving concept of sexuality. Doctors began to distinguish between terms like transsexuality, transvestism, and homosexuality. In 1989, the year of her death, Jor-

gensen said she had given the sexual revolution “a good swift kick in the pants.”

In April 2015, Olympic gold medal winner Caitlyn Jenner came out as a transgender woman. She had not had gender reassignment surgery, but had undergone a cosmetic makeover and had begun dressing to match her gender identity. Cue a bevy of national awards, Twitter followers, and journalistic plaudits. She became the face of an issue that most Americans struggle to understand—as of 2015, only 35 percent of voters in the U.S. thought they knew at least one transgender person—even as she faced backlash for a sexualized Vanity Fair cover and her mischaracterization of the plight of the average transgender person.

In 2015, Jenner launched a reality show called I Am Cait that focuses on her “new normal.” In multiple episodes, Jenner has discussed whether or not to undergo gender reassignment surgery. While a reality television show like this one can’t be considered representative of all transgender experiences, Caitlyn’s dilemma reveals concerns that have arisen as the availability of gender reassignment surgery has increased.

No longer simply a question of whether it is possible to undergo the process, transgender discourse today must engage in a more nuanced conversation about what the surgery might mean for individual people.

WHEN I ASKED DIANA GLASSMAN IF THE YALE PROGRAM had received any significant pushback, her answer was swift.

“No.” “And did you anticipate any?”

“No. Maybe I’m naïve, but I really didn’t think about it.”

Dr. Honig was a bit more circumspect.

“There’s been no pushback yet. But I feel like we’ll see some with the change in administration. So far in Connecticut, we haven’t had any problems.”

The Trump administration indeed causes significant trouble for the 1.4 million Americans—0.6 percent of the population— that identify as transgender. A week ago, the government withdrew protections instituted by President Obama that allowed transgender students in public schools to use the bathrooms and facilities that correspond with their gender identity. The decision will likely play a role in the case of Gavin Grimm, a 17-year old transgender student who is appealing bathroom discrimination to the Supreme Court under Title IX. Trump’s actions are particularly disappointing after a campaign in which he vowed to protect the rights of those in the LGBTQ community. They add further burden to an already struggling demographic. According to a 2010 survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, transgender adults are four times more likely to have a household income of less than $10,000 annually when compared to the general population. Even more worryingly, 41 percent of trans-

gender adults have reported a suicide attempt, compared to 1.6 percent of the general population.

From a medical perspective, Dr. Honig estimates that there are only four or five large centers in the United States that do sex reassignment surgery—and even those can only handle 50 to 100 cases a year. He acknowledges that the transgender population has historically felt ignored by the medical community, and fears for the future of LGBTQ rights in states like North Carolina. But Honig has confidence in what’s happening in New Haven.

“The medical community at Yale feels strongly about what we’re doing here. We have no intention of stopping what we’re doing. We support the transgender population.”

Honig and Glassman spend less time preoccupied with the politics and social movements surrounding transgenderism, and instead focus their efforts on tailoring their treatments to each individual patient.

“Each patient is different,” Honig said. “Some think of this as the first step in the transition. Others think of this as their last step. They’re incredibly grateful for what we’re trying to do. So far, so good.”

“THEY TREATED YOU WITH RESPECT, AND YOU’RE NOT JUST A PATIENT, YOU’RE A HUMAN BEING.” Randi Maton, patient at the Yale Gender-Affirming Program

Mar. 3, 2017 – 15

CULTURE

CULTURE

Whitney Humanities Center: where 35mm plays

by Hawa Adula

T

his past Friday, Feb. 24, I ventured into the auditorium at the Whitney Humanities Center (WHC) to watch a horror film by A.D Calvo, a New Haven playwright and director. The screening was hosted by The Films at Whitney, a program run through the WHC. Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl is a horror film categorically and substantively different from any other scary movie I have previously seen.

The difference was clear from the moment the film started rolling, primarily in the cinematography and the seemingly effortless acting by cast members. The program screens an assortment of underrated genre types. A.D Calvo’s horror-thriller is a prime example of such variety.

When the film was over, the two main actors in the film were asked to come to the front of the auditorium. Audience members were able to access the point of view of the actors and the director. The Films at Whitney program supplements many of its films with talkbacks––question and answer segments between audience members and the actors and director. The talks illuminated the functions of certain characters, and covered cinematography strategy as well as the neighborhood where the film was shot.

The Films at Whitney enjoys not only the work of a local artist but also the company of New Haveners at the screenings. While the program is run through Yale, it is meant for the broader New Haven community. All films are screened in the auditorium of the WHC, which was renovated in 2002 and is now complete with comfortable plush chairs, booming speakers, and a large projection screen that almost spans the width of the stage. The space is designed so that community members and Yalies alike can come together and get cozy watching the film. With the lights off, the auditorium does feel very much like a movie theater. Screenings are open to the public, and the audience is usually an eclectic mix of undergraduates, locals, and fans of particular stars or filmmakers.

In 2009, Ronald Gregg, Professor of American Studies and Film Programming Director at Whitney, started the Films at Whitney as an extension of the previous programs offered through the WHC, such as the Cinema at Whitney program, which ran from 2005 to 2009. The program, an undergraduate and graduate film society, screened movies every Friday night—a Hollywood blockbuster one week, an inde-

pendent experimental film the next. The basic design on him later), checks the film to make sure it is workof The Films at Whitney is very much an extension of ing properly. Next come the logistics of booking the Cinema at Whitney’s practice to increase exposure to auditorium, and lastly the directors must decide on lesser known film while also screening popular and the best format to introduce the film. Needless to recently released films. say, hosting a screening requires much more planThe mission of the Films at Whitney, according to ning and precision than one might imagine. the program’s website, is “to help foster a dynamic film culture.” They do so not only by hosting fac- WORKING IN THE BACK OF THE AUDITORIUM ulty and student-organized screening events, but also where the projection booth blasts the film onto the by supporting other film related events such as film screen is Anthony “Tony” Sudol, the head projectionconferences,festivals, and special screenings with ist. Tony has been with the Whitney Humanities Cenworkshops attended by visiting filmmakers. Marsha ter part-time since 1997, and in 2010 was offered a Shpolberg, a Film Programming Associate currently full-time position. He tasks himself seriously with the standing in for Professor Gregg, helps to schedule “preservation and quality treatment of other people’s screenings. She noted, “Gregg pioneered a beautiful art.” A thorough inspection of the film to be screened vision of Films at the Whitney as an inclusive pro- includes checking the audio and image. Each reel— gram that would bring both local and professional typically a film consists of three reels—is inspected filmmakers to Yale, and that would appeal to a wide on the rewind bench, and Tony expertly checks and variety of interest groups.” adjusts the focus and sound to his desired level.

What is striking about this program is that it really The Whitney Humanities Center’s projectionist does do its best to incorporate a wide range of voices booth houses two film projectors and a digital server. and film genres. Furthermore, The Films at Whitney It has grown overtime to keep up with the changes insures continued interactions between the New Ha- in the film industry from primarily film recordings to ven community and the university by recognizing the an abundance of digitized media. The preservation of work of local filmmakers. The program also collabo- film, on both 35 millimeter and 16 millimeter reels, rates and co-sponsors screenings with Yale film or- is the program’s attempt to continue to appreciate ganizations, such as The Yale Film Society. YFS, an film as an art form. Due to the increased presence of undergraduate organization, also has talkbacks simi- digital film, Yale is lucky to be able to offer 35 and lar to those of the Films at Whitney. The majority of 16 millimeter film, since their presence is becoming the movies that the group currently screens are in 35 increasingly rare. Tony’s projection for the future of millimeter film, one of the oldest forms of film. film is that it will end up being shown primarily at There is a great deal that goes into selecting which universities and museums, and with his work Films at films get screened, setting up talks with directors, Whitney serves as one such bastion of film and scheduling workshops for both writers and lovAlthough Ron Gregg, the mastermind behind Films ers of film. The films at the Center range from “the at Whitney, is leaving Yale and the WHC, the promost hyped-up recent Hollywood films, to work by gram’s future is still bright. On my trip to the center, local New Haven filmmakers and the avant-garde the large audience and high quality of engagement canon” according to Shpolberg. The task of select- demonstrated that the community and faculty of the ing a film is up to Shpolberg, Gregg, and Mark Bauer, Center have come to love the program. The Films at the Associate Director of the WHC. Students and Yale Whitney is an exciting opportunity to gain access to Community members are able to submit requests for films, workshops, festivals, and talks with filmmakers films they would like to see screened using an online that enrich the “film as an art” space. proposal form, which funnels the request to Bauer.

After the films are selected, the ball starts rolling to complete the extensive list of work required to guarantee a successful screening. Either the original of the film or the digital cinema package (DCP) is secured. WHC’s projectionist, Anthony Sudol (more

Graphic by Joseph Valdez YH Staff 18 _ The Yale Herald

Arrival (not the movie)

by Will Reid YH Staff

W

hen I was 13 or 14, I got hooked. No, not on a gateway drug (this wasn’t a D.A.R.E. scenario), but on a computer game. Here’s the gist: you’re a special forces commando, and it’s the future, so naturally, you’re wearing this bionic suit that turns invisible and whatnot. You’re sent to an island in the South Pacific where the North Koreans have inexplicably taken over and are terrorizing the populace. Soon it becomes clear that something much stranger is afoot. Perhaps, even, something not of this world. Near the climax of the game’s plotline, you find yourself underground, exploring the depths of a local mountain cavern. Suddenly, you round the corner to find… an alien spaceship! embedded in the rock!

This moment from preadolescence had entirely left my brain, that was, until a recent visit to Sterling Memorial Library. Intending to hit the Periodicals Room, I rounded the corner to find … the new Center for Teaching and Learning.

“What’s this?” I thought. “I knew the competition to recruit Yalies is fierce, but did Apple really need to set up

a satellite office?” However, I soon found my apprehenThis success has long been in development. The CTL sion to be unfounded. was founded in the summer of 2014 with the goal of “We’re pretty tech agnostic,” said Jennifer Frederick, uniting various teaching departments, heretofore scatExecutive Director, in an interview earlier this week. (A tered around the university, under the belief that their few feet from where we were sitting in the Center’s ex- sum could very well be greater than its parts. Now, empansive central study space, a reel of video interviews— ployees for different departments easily collaborate and including one with Frederick herself—flashed across a share expertise behind the floor-to-ceiling glass walls of wall-mounted display. Nearby onlooker (and eavesdrop- their open-floor-plan offices. “We see so much more of per!) Tom Cusano, TC ’18, the Herald’s own former Edi- each other,” Frederick chimed. tor-in-Chief, later told me that the stereo effect, hearing Here as before, architectural form followed organizavideo-Frederick in one ear and live-Frederick in the other, tional function. A local New Haven firm, Newman Archidisoriented him considerably.) tects, needed a design that followed the center’s values The center does, of course, use a lot of digital de- of transparency, flexibility, and experimentation. “The vices. Each room comes equipped with a wifi-connected challenge of the project was fundamentally to make those screen and a custom iPad, fastened to the door frame, qualities...come to life in the space available,” Richard which lists its daily availability. But these apparatus, Murray, principal architect at the firm told me via email. like the architecture in general, are only important in Their solution? Moveable wall partitions, staff offices that so far as they further the Center’s mission, what Freder- are distributed throughout the Center, and the multi-use ick described as an “in situ experiment” in deconstruct- teaching spaces so straightforwardly named by Fredering the classroom. In fact, if you try to reserve a space, ick’s team. Even the spartan interior decorating plays a you won’t find the word “classroom” (or “study space” role: it doesn’t distract. “The people and the ideas proor “conference room”) used at all. “We realized that vide the color,” related Frederick. “When it’s busy and those labels limit flexibility in the ways that you think happening, you don’t really notice that it’s so neutral.” about things,” Frederick explained. Instead, they’re Despite my initial skepticism, the CTL has steadily simply referred to by size—small, medium, and large. grown on me. The hallway that connects it to the rest of (Around this point in the interview, I realized that the Sterling seems less jarring than it once did. In particular, CTL’s postmodern cred far surpasses my own. And I’ve I’ve started to appreciate what the Center left untouched. read Infinite Jest!) Faculty and teaching fellows have Like artifacts in a museum, scattered architectural deonly used the center for a few weeks now, but so far, tails—a stained-glass window or an impressive wooden the experiment seems to be going well. According door—recall the Center’s history as a back office for the to Frederick, several professors have commented older, more venerable building in which it resides (even that the space’s design is inspiring new ways to think if ultimately, they fail to rid the impression that you’re in about their teaching. (The Astro-Physics professors es- an Apple Store). Go check out the CTL soon! You never pecially must feel that whole new worlds have become know—it still may take off. available to them.)

Learning from women who lead

by Carly Gove

I

n the days leading up to the Yale Women in Leadership Conference, on Sat. Feb. 25, I asked a male friend of mine if he wanted to reserve tickets and come with me.

We both knew the Conference Chair, Kendall Schmidt, SM ’19, and how much work she’d put into the event, and I was excited not only to go and experience it, but also to support her. I saw no reason why he shouldn’t come— that is, until he pointed out, as though it was obvious, that this would probably be an all-female space, and while it sounded really great, he didn’t want to intrude. I was completely taken aback—it hadn’t even occurred to me that the attendees, in addition to the panelists, would all be women. And even after that possibility was pointed out, I wasn’t terribly invested in the idea. Wasn’t hearing the panelists speak enough? However, the day of the event, I was shocked by the palpable comfort I felt just from being in an all-female space. It’s not a feeling I have very often—most of the circles in my life have been male-dominated, especially since coming to Yale. While this isn’t always a bad thing, the value in all-women spaces became immediately clear to me as soon as I entered the room. It felt approachable, validating, good. Not to mention, the schedule was filled with a slate of incredible women from a variety of fields (the organizers secured speakers from tech companies, activist circles, government positions, and academia, among others) who have proved, and continue to prove, that achieving success as a woman is more than possible.

The day opened with a short speech from the Conference Chair, followed by a keynote from female leadership advocate Liz Azbug. The next few hours were split between three panel sessions, an additional keynote from Dr. Deep-

ali Bagati, and a few closing remarks. I was able to attend two panels. The earlier one, “Fostering Queer Womanhood,” hosted two speakers: the first was Clare Kenny, a recent graduate of Skidmore College who’s been working with GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, and the second was a Robin McHaelen, a woman who’s worked extensively in LGBTQ-centric activism and social work in Connecticut over the course of her life. It was a fascinating opportunity to hear the perspective of two women who clearly came to queer activism with hugely different life experiences.

The conversation was both moving and useful. Still, one would have liked a little more trans-inclusivity on a panel for LGBTQ issues, preferably in the form of a transwoman speaker, a clear lacuna that wasn’t acknowledged. However, the pair did almost immediately acknowledge the problem with heading a queer-centric panel with two white women (Allison Graham, a woman of color and the planned third attendee, unfortunately couldn’t make it), which, while not a solution on its own, was a helpful reminder to audience members about the epidemic of white centricity in allegedly queer spaces.

The second panel, “Women Writers,” was a little more formal. Featuring heavy-hitters like a Presidential speech writer (Vinca LeFleur), a debut novelist (Nicole DennisBenn), an academic (Ruth Franklin), and a poet (Rachel Zucker), this panel became something of a rumination on how to maintain political integrity in this specific moment in their individual fields. According to Conference Committee member Catherine Cray, “Going in, my goal was to get people from different genres and different places, because I wanted to find unexpected commonalities, and I think it

ended up working out really well.” Each woman, to varying degrees, had found themselves discomfited in their fields since Nov. 9, and were also coming to activism from varying levels of experience. LeFleur confided in us that while she attended the Women’s March, she’d never done anything like that before, and was still figuring out what to do next. Franklin told us to remember the things we thought were important before the election, and to keep investing in them, and Dennis-Benn emphasized the importance of bravery and openness. But it was Zucker’s advice that seemed the most fitting to this moment, and to the Women in Leadership Conference in general: she told us to be disruptive. To rattle the bones of power in every moment of our lives, through marching, or rudeness, or loud poetry, or carving out a day, like the Conference itself, catered exclusively to women’s success. It’s good advice.

Graphic by Joseph Valdez YH Staff Mar. 3, 2017 _ 19

REVIEWS

We Are Proud to Present

by Stefani Kuo, Rob Newhouse YH Staff, & Victoria Wang German South West Africa. The result is messy, exhausting, and horribly necessary.

Starting out innocuously enough in a cozy rehearsal room, the “art director” begins by reading off index cards, while the rest of the actors put on a gorgeously designed shadow-puppet show. The whole thing is reminiscent of an awkward high school history presentation, complete with overhead projector and dry erase marker.

SOURCE: artscalendar.yale.edu

Editor’s note: On Wed, Feb. 22, the Dramat 2017 spring mainstage, We Are Proud to Present, premiered at the University Theatre. The “incendiary, funny-until-it-isn’t” play captured the attention of the Yale community. Because of its complex nature, we at the Herald felt compelled to publish not one review of We Are Proud to Present, but three interwoven perspectives. To narrow the scope to one point of view seemed both contrary to the show’s intention and unfair to its audience. Stefani Kuo (SK), Rob Newhouse (RH), and Victoria Wang (VW) each reflected on how this production inspired them to contemplate how removed (or how close) we may be from performed narratives of historical atrocities.

SK: Written by alumna Jackie Sibbles-Drury, YC ’03, in 2012, We Are Proud to Present was born here at Yale.

Though the presentation is about a genocide oceans away, the story is not solely about the atrocity. Rather, it concerns the formation of narrative: how do we tell a story complicated by the tug-and-pull of truth and fact, evidence and reality? It is also the narrative that characterizes almost any school collaboration. It is history that is written in the everyday, in the rehearsal room, in our classrooms, our suites, our club meetings. The play uses the bodies of the people we meet as innocent actors and turns them into pieces that re-member history as it repeats itself. The act of retelling sews fragments of history back together, as it occurs in the present.

VW: Nominally “a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884 – 1915,” We Are Proud to Present is also an American play about a group of Americans trying to understand their place in the history of African colonization and genocide.

Their chosen method is an improvised “presentation,” loosely based on a photo of a Herero woman, a cache of letters from German soldiers, and the Wikipedia entry for

20 _ The Yale Herald

RN: We Are Proud To Present is certainly not any sort of “‘play”’ in the traditional understanding of the form.

Where we could usually expect a clear delineation between reality and fiction—here and now, there and then— what we were instead presented with was a play whose subject was at once another play and itself. There are plenty of famous plays whose subjects are themselves.

But the ‘meta-ness’ of We Are Proud To Present extends well beyond questions of what theater can be and not.

The ‘meta-ness’ of Drury’s work instead forces us to ask ourselves how complicit we all are in the terrifying act of violence occurring both on and off stage. We Are Proud To Present therefore doesn’t so much question what theater is and can be, but rather why we need it—how it can be valuable, and how it can hurt. How much trauma is it reasonable for theatergoers to be expected to sustain?

VW: The characters are named Black Woman, Black Man, White Man, Another Black Man, Another White Man, and Sarah (the placeholder recipient of every letter from the German soldiers—so basically, White Woman). These names largely inform their roles both in the presentation and in the backstage dynamic.

Sarah becomes enraged when she realizes the letters only give voice to men; Another Black Man enacts a cartoonish stereotype of the lion-fighting, raw-heart-eating African chieftain; White Man envisions himself as the good boy savior, accusing Black Man of being “angry;” Black Woman, the in-text director, just wants everyone to finish the play and make something “real.” They’re not quite people, but they don’t need to be. Their role is to convey the universality of how the lines between actor and portrayed can be blurred, to problematic effect. The actors—the real ones—understand this and approach their characters with the requisite nuance.

But as the play progresses, it gets harder to laugh.

As the situation for the Herero worsens,the actors pause repeatedly to argue over their roles. They become increasingly vexed by their differences and the difficulties of faithfully representing the Herero genocide. The walls of the set collapse, revealing both the unforgiving African desert and backstage props.

Having completely embodied the horrors they are trying to represent, the actors succeed in their mission—but not in the way we expect. In the desperate final scene, as the Herero, as Black Man, flees from his pursuers, the actors chant “Run black man run,” a reference to an American folk song about an escaped slave.

Before our eyes, the genocide of the Herero people

by German soldiers in Africa suddenly—inevitably—becomes a haunting tableau of racial violence in America.

We never left this country. The play has been grappling with the trauma of slavery all along, a trauma that, as demonstrated by the finale, is far from resolved.

SK: It is so important for us, as members of this institution, to take responsibility for the things we choose to support, and the art we choose to present. But it so often happens that the people who support art are the ones already making it. So many people, particularly on this campus, do not make time for theater or art, because it is fun and entertaining, and there are constantly so many fun (or more important) things happening on campus. We Are Proud to Present was not fun. It was a production, naturally, but there is an honesty to the rehearsal process (however rehearsed) put onto display. The production was not only refined, beautiful, and honest, but was also the most important piece of theater I have seen at Yale. As Professor Deb Margolin says, “tragedy is the floor comedy dances on.” The play begins with moments of levity, with portrayals of typical “actors’ antics,” from wanting to be the star of the show to needing a backstory and sense of motivation for every move and utterance. But the laughter then descends into discomfort, where needing an objective for the character turns into needing evidence for the character’s existence. How can we tell the Herero’s story if the only letters we have were from the Germans? How can we prove their stories existed? The play descends down a steep hill, with no turns or curves. At no point in the play is the audience led to believe there will be a happy ending. With every proceeding moment, we descend deeper into a tunnel that leads to an abrupt dead end.

VW: We Are Proud to Present is an unsettling critique of a common brand of liberal self-righteousness—the worst instances of human suffering happened long ago, and far away; and that they would never happen here.

The play’s final scene refuses to provide such an idealistic sense of closure. Instead, it leaves the audience keyed up, confused, desperate for some resolution, leaving us very little to be proud of.

RN: It was while considering the show’s potential to inflict pain—whether useful or not—that I realized that the most important part of my experience of We Are Proud To Present was what I thought while leaving. Passing row after row, I couldn’t help but worry that the hurt I had just felt, while overwhelming, was gravely fragile. Though I had no doubt been deeply moved by the show, I knew the figurative wound it left on me would soon heal—and possibly without even leaving a scar. In this moment, I knew that the component of whiteness that allowed me to escape the show’s charge on my privilege was an extension of what the performance had been demonstrating all along: whiteness’ insidious capacity to erase and rewrite.

In this moment and in moments long after, I knew that the show hadn’t ended. I knew that We Are Proud To Present would continue; that in fact it’s still happening—right here, right now.

Misadventures in La La Land

by Sahaj Sankaran YH Staff

SOURCE: austinmonthly.com

A

nother February has come and, rather ponderously, departed with all the stealth of an M. Night Shyamalan plot twist. And with February came—you guessed it—the Golden Globes! I have always been a fan of the big screen, and I’m extremely thankful for this opportunity to review the Golden Globe Awards, such a true honor and… sorry, what?

I’m so, so sorry, there’s been a terrible mistake. It’s actually the Oscars I’m supposed to be reviewing.

Yes, the Oscars (well, 89th Academy Awards, for all those consultants hired to keep count) took place last Sunday, and left in their wake celebrations, headlines, and controversies by the dozen. They routinely keep the newspapers occupied for an entire week post-show, and with good reason: the Oscars are, and always have been, a symbol. To be seen at the Oscars, flaunting designer apparel that costs as much as several automobiles and change, is a necessity for any actor or actress, and the behavior of the fortunate attendees is closely watched by millions all over the world. Close scrutiny is not limited to the attendees and awardees—such a world-renowned symbol is bound to face criticisms of its own. Yet the Oscars have for some time now been beset by maladies. They have been attacked on all sides with claims of a lack of diversity so deep it verges on explicit racial exclusion, a situation made no better by a few less-thantactful hosts over the last few years.

This year’s Oscars seemed determined to redeem themselves, and, it must be said, have made decent progress. Moonlight’s Best Picture victory, definitely well-deserved, will go far towards bolstering the African-American film community, backed up by the new laurels of Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis. (Yalies ought to be proud—Moonlight started as Tarell Alvin McCraney’s, DRA ’07 School of Drama project). Yet I could not help but feel that the joy of the occasion was somewhat marred by two unfortunate factors,

one of which is merely embarrassing, and the other deeply troubling.

I’m sure I have no need to reiterate what the Internet has been buzzing about for days—the Oscars did a Steve Harvey. However, in the interests of jocularity, I’ll repeat it anyway—the Oscars did a Steve Harvey!

Hilarity aside, this incident reflected rather badly on the professionalism of what is usually an excellently coordinated ceremony. The strange, difficultto-read new envelope design was apparently procured by the Academy and not PricewaterhouseCoopers (yes, we can’t blame the accountants this time), and, though the incident wasn’t a serious one, it was handled poorly.

The other factor was not so much embarrassing as depressing. Jimmy Kimmel was always a compromise choice of host, a sometimes incisive but fairly dependable comedian who could be relied upon to avoid the harsh controversies of the last five years. His opening remarks and his comments on the nominated movies (his gentle pokes at Damien Chazelle’s youth and Mel Gibson’s Scientology in particular) were pretty good; moderately funny at their worst, and, particularly when he accused the audience of not having watched Moonlight, well-done at their best. I had great hopes for Kimmel’s performance, and felt vindicated—a vindication that died a quick death when Kimmel, perhaps sensing his success, began slipping into the same habits that marred the last few Oscars. His quasiracist quips drew uncomfortable laughs from the audience, though even this audience drew the line at his mocking Mahershala Ali’s name and suggesting he name his daughter (about two weeks old at press time) “Amy” or something “normal” like that. All the while, Ali was in tears at just having won Best Supporting Actor. The audience was, thankfully, silent.

Kimmel’s remarks, drawn straight from the Steve Harvey School of Cringe-worthy Comedy, struck an uncomfortable chord; they reminded me far too much

of Chris Rock’s “accountants” bit at the 2016 Oscars, wherein he introduced several Asian American children onto the stage as his accountants. Rock’s opening monologue had been a masterpiece of satire, an honest look at the bias and lack of inclusivity of the Oscars in a year where every single acting nominee was Caucasian, but his casual use of racist tropes to garner cheap laughs was hypocrisy of the highest order. Kimmel, who in his opening monologue denounced Donald Trump as “racist”, seems to have repeated this hypocrisy.

Moonlight has triumphed, and its awards-season success has been regarded as a symbol that the Oscars are improving, but things like Kimmel’s remarks worry me. A similar hope was expressed in 2014 when Twelve Years a Slave won Best Picture, yet two years of virtual homogeneity followed. That being said, I do hold out hope. It is well known, of course, that Oscars are won essentially through money and influence, and have never been particularly good barometers of true quality (though they are excellent indicators of how much Harvey Weinstein likes you). Nevertheless, the success of Moonlight, produced on a microscopic budget with remarkably little of the marketing and toadying that usually precede an Oscar victory, is an encouraging sign. Damien Chazelle and Casey Affleck’s victories were unquestionably merited (though the latter’s 2010 sexual harassment lawsuit casts a shadow over this year’s award), and the overall quality of this year’s Oscar winners has been a pleasant surprise.

There are definitely things wrong with the Oscars, and there are a lot more things that could go wrong.

But there are people trying to fix it, and the lack of diversity at the Oscars has become quite the cause celebre among both liberal intelligentsia and the more socially conscious parts of the Hollywood community.

Susan Sarandon’s anti-Oscar harangue last year was a ray of hope, and we owe it to her, and others like her, to give them the chance to fix it.

Mar. 3, 2017 _ 21

OR IA

NA .TA NG C @ ON YA TA LE CT .ED : U

BULLBLOG BLACKLIST getting your hair sniffed at the Dollar Tree

I just want to buy some peeps in peace

WHAT WE HATE THIS WEEK

cape shark not the kind of jerk roasted I’m looking for ya know?

torn by natalie imbruglia

feeling guilty about enjoying the weather because of climate change

WHY DON’T YOU MELT???

detergent pods separate shipments

corraling

two piece swimsuit does not need to be in two different boxes

like herding cats

this week it rick rolled me

snap filter that says “Make Box63 great again”

when Discover Weekly misses the mark Harold’s got enemies these days

Mar. 3, 2017 ­– 23