Monday, March 19, 2012Daily Heraldthe Brown

Since 1891vol. cxxii, no. 37

66 / 51

t o m o r r o w

68 / 42

t o d aynews....................2-4science.............5feature............6sports.............7editorial...........10opinions.........11

insi

de

Science, 5

Outer space Physics professors teach children to stargaze

SeeeD lays base for growth in enterprise

FeatureS, 6 wea

therEnterprise

By ElizaBEth CarrCity & State editor

Gilbane Development Corpora-tion has proposed the construction of a four-story luxury apartment complex on Thayer Street between Meeting Street and Euclid Avenue. The building would be modeled after others built around the coun-try near college campuses, said Robert Gilbane ’71 P’02 P’05, chief executive officer and chairman of the company.

The complex would consist of 102 furnished apartments, housing a total of 277 students in single bedrooms, each with a private bathroom and connected to a living room with a 42-inch plasma screen television, Gilbane said. Residents would have access to yoga studios, fitness clubs, group study rooms, an underground parking lot, bike

storage and an interior courtyard encircled by the building complete with barbeque pits.

“We’re developing the next level of student housing,” Gilbane said. He estimated that rent for these “luxury” apartments would cost between $1,000 and $1,400 per month. Gilbane said the rate was comparable to rents at other buildings in the area, particularly considering that the estimates re-flect 2014 price levels and include heating, cooling, electricity, cable and wireless Internet. “What the students are getting is a higher-quality apartment,” he added.

Gilbane said he hoped the com-plex would help Thayer Street mer-chants by bringing students closer to their businesses. “A bunch of the

New student apartments proposed for Thayer

Courtesy of Stephen SoulsA company bills a proposed apartment complex as luxury student housing.

continued on page 9

By ClairE SChlESSingErStaff Writer

Bell Gallery curator Ian Russell was driving along the highway with his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day two years ago when he no-ticed a sign for a battleship in Fall River, Mass. The two stopped to check it out, and, captivated by the sight of a Soviet vessel in the middle of New England, he brought some visiting colleagues to see the ship again early this year. After speaking with Mat-thew Perry, the ship’s curator, it occurred to Russell that working with a treasure like the Hiddensee battleship might appeal to Brown

students interested in history.The battleship, stationed at

Battleship Cove, has captured the attention of a group of students who are working on various ac-tivities to improve the Hiddensee exhibit’s quality and depth.

a military treasureBattleship Cove is home to the

largest naval warship collection in the world and features ships that date as far back as World War II. The Hiddensee is a Soviet missile corvette built in 1984 during a pe-riod when the Soviet Union made military ships for export, primari-

ly to East Asia. Russell said people need top-secret military clearance to visit a battleship of the same model in India, which is still in operation today. The Hiddensee was a part of the East German navy during the Cold War and was therefore associated with the Soviet Union until the German navy gave it to the United States after Germany’s reunification.

The USSR designed the ships with the latest technology for military power and to maximize profit in sales, Russell said. When the U.S. Navy received the ship in 1991, officials realized the ship’s

Soviet battleship becomes R.I. museum

By luCy FEldmanNeWS editor

Aristides Nakos ’12 stepped out of a party and into a crime scene early Saturday morning.

At approximately 1:10 a.m., Na-kos saw three unknown men beat and rob a student at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Brook Street — “two males grabbing at him, the other punching him,” he said.

The suspects fled west on Euclid and south on Thayer, with Nakos, a former member of the men’s rugby team, chasing close behind.

City sport“My natural instinct was to

chase down the robbers because I thought it would just be another crime report that ends with the robbers fleeing the scene,” he said.

Minutes later, in front of City Sports on Thayer Street, Nakos was holding one of the suspects, wait-ing for police to arrive. “He was aggressive,” Nakos said. “He was trying to escape, tried to talk me out of it, but I identified him as the person who assaulted (the student) and held him there.”

People on the street encour-aged a physical altercation, Nakos said. When Department of Public

After Brook St. attack, senior chases down, catches mugger

By lEE BErnStEinCoNtributiNg Writer

As part of an effort to become more global, the University is planning to open an office that will serve as a one-stop shop for international student services. By consolidating services, the University aims to create a more welcoming and stress-free envi-ronment for international stu-dents, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. Though the plan is still in an early, exploratory phase, the University regards it as a top priority, administrators said.

The idea was raised at a Janu-ary 2011 retreat with deans of the college, campus life staff, the director of the Office of In-ternational Student and Scholar Services and other international faculty. At the retreat, an inter-national student panel pointed to the need to better coordinate services for international students in one location, Klawunn said.

Under the current plan, the international space will consoli-date pre-existing services into one house and combine the “inter-national efforts and supporting of (the) community” on campus, Klawunn said.

“It’s a strange way to be wel-comed to a campus if the first

U. proposes consolidating international services

continued on page 2

continued on page 2 continued on page 7

feature

arts & culture

continued on page 5

oPinionS, 11

dumbphoneHusted ’13 complains about smartphone dependency

By ju myOung kimStaff Writer

With the desks cleared out and chairs pushed aside, Foxboro Auditorium was transformed into a miniature con-cert hall Friday night for Brown Opera Productions’ chamber performance

premiere of “Don Pasquale.” “‘Don Pasquale’ is one of (Gaetano)

Donizetti’s last operas and stands as one of his greatest comic masterpieces from his prolific operatic career,” said Jacob Klapholz ’13, the music director. It is “a huge spectacle and a physical show,” said Director Michelle Migliori ’14. The plot and music are “silly and fun,” featuring humor, action and an interesting stage in the style of down-town Chicago, she added.

The chamber performance only presented the opera’s music without the acting or staging. The full perfor-mance was presented for the first time last night and will be presented again tonight in Alumnae Hall. The show opened with a quiet cello solo that soon developed into vibrant orchestral and vocal performances. The plot’s drama and comedy were projected through actors’ exaggerated but natu-ral motions and facial expressions that accompanied the changing tone and intensity of music.

The music of “Don Pasquale” “requires incredible voices from the four lead characters,” including Don Pasquale (John Brakatselos ’15), Dr. Malatesta (Zal Shroff ’14), Ernesto (Andrew Brown ’15) and Norina (Kathryn Cohen ’13), as well as from

Sam Kase / HeraldTwo student singers confront the challenging classic opera “Don Pasquale.”

Performers infuse classic opera with humor

Claire Peracchio, PresidentRebecca Ballhaus, Vice President

Danielle Marshak, TreasurerSiena DeLisser, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily. Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.browndailyherald.com195 Angell St., Providence, R.I.

Daily Heraldthe Brown

edItoRIAl(401) 351-3372

herald@browndailyherald.com

BuSIneSS(401) 351-3260

gm@browndailyherald.com

Campus news2 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

4 P.m.

Sufi Superstar Arif Lohar

Granoff Center

8 P.m.

Don Pasquale

Alumnae Hall

2:30 P.m.

Quirkestra

Grant Recital Hall

6 P.m.

Politics of the Imaginary

Maddock Alumni Center

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH

DINNER

Gyro Sandwich, Roast Beef au Jus, Vegetable Couscous, Mac and

Cheese, Smores Bars

General Tso Chicken Stir Fry, Italian Meatballs, Couscous, Cauliflower,

Smores Bars

Chicken Fingers, Vegetarian Submarine Sandwich, Zeppole

Pastry Dessert

Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich, Enchilada Bar, Rice Pilaf, Zeppole

Pastry Dessert

TODAY mARCH 19 TOmORROW mARCH 20

C R o S S w o R D

S u D o K u

M E n u

C A L E n DA R

place you go is an office that handles your visa problems,” said Katherine Bergeron, dean of the College. The proposed house will offer a warmer, more advising-focused atmosphere for interna-tional students, a contingent at the University that has doubled since 2006, she said.

According to Bergeron and Klawunn, the house will include a space for seminars, a reception area and other social spaces where faculty and students can gather. The house will coordinate a va-riety of resources, including in-formation on legal issues and the international mentoring program. It will also provide international students with access to advisers in different offices.

In addition to centralizing preexisting services for current international students, the house would also provide new services for internationally inclined do-mestic students and for inter-national students outside of the University.

Students with experience overseas would be able to use the house as a place to reacclimate, reconnect and find peer support on campus.

The office will most likely be located in an existing Victorian house next to the Watson Institute for International Studies on Thay-er Street, said Deputy Provost Joe Meisel, though he added that the plan is “not a done deal.” Such a house would give a welcoming feel and mimic the qualities of already internationally designated

spaces, such as the Third World Center, he said.

Despite support for the office expressed at the retreat, not all international students regard the house as a high priority.

Jules Kortenhorst ’15 ex-pressed skepticism about the use-fulness of providing such services in a unified location. Kortenhorst said he is worried this house will “institutionalize the divide be-tween international students and American students.”

Lloyd Rajoo ’12 called the plan “somewhat unnecessary” and added that “everything done now is pretty good.” He said he is “not sure what a new building would add.”

Administrators said they could not specify when the office will be opened.

U. plans to merge int’l student servicescontinued from page 1

Safety officers arrived, the suspect punched Nakos in the face. “Things got messy,” Nakos said. “We got into a scuffle until police broke us apart.”

The man Nakos apprehended matched a description the victim gave police. DPS officers handed Providence resident Carlos Falcon, 20, over to the Providence Police Department.

He was then charged with rob-bery, said Paul Shanley, deputy chief of police of DPS. Because the events took place on public streets, Providence is conducting the rest of the investigation, he said.

hit and run“I didn’t hear or see anybody,

but I actually felt the punches first,” said the victim, a senior male who wished to remain anonymous. As he was receiving repeated punches to the face, the student asked his attackers what they wanted from him.

“Just give us the phone, man,” one of them said. The student, who had been texting on his phone just before the attack, handed over his

phone, and the suspects fled on foot down Euclid Avenue, leaving the victim with facial bruising, a swollen lip and a bloody nose.

The entire attack took less than a minute, the victim said. “The suspects were just as nervous as I was,” he said. He was carrying other valuables at the time, but the robbers did not ask for them. “They were also trying to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

The victim noted the Univer-sity’s fast and thorough response. Two administrators, as well as Health Services, contacted him later that morning to follow up and check on him, he said.

message received “I definitely know I should not

have my face in my phone,” the vic-tim said. “I believe I was taken ad-vantage of because I was distracted, not aware of my surroundings. I was vulnerable, and they saw that.”

This was the second assault that involved a Brown student in the recent wave of robberies on Col-lege Hill, Shanley said. On March 13, a student was grabbed from behind and robbed of his iPhone on George Street, he said.

Robbers have been targeting people who have been using their cell phones on the street, he said. “Number one, it’s a distraction. Number two, you have something that you’re showing out as valu-able,” he said.

The Providence police depart-ment is looking into whether Fal-con was involved in the March 13 robbery, Shanley said.

“Being a good witness and call-ing police is always a good thing to do,” Shanley said.

Nakos, who suffered minor in-juries, said he would do the same next time. Even so, when he saw DPS officers confiscate a three-inch blade from Falcon, he realized things could have ended differently, he said. “It was all pure instinct for me to just apprehend one of them,” he said. “I was lucky. Maybe if it had been slightly different, I would have resulted in being another victim.”

The victim said he thinks when DPS sends crime alert emails, stu-dents do not always take the news seriously enough to recognize their own vulnerability.

“It’s not until you actually expe-rience it that you know that kind of danger’s out there,” he said.

continued from page 1

Student safe after rescue by classmate

Are you artistic, funny, or opinionated? Draw Editorial Cartoons for The Herald!

Contact herald.design@gmail.com for more information.

Campus news 3the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

By dOri rahBarCoNtributiNg Writer

Professor of Engineering Huajian Gao was recently awarded a Hum-boldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Founda-tion in Bonn, Germany, in recogni-tion of the impact of the research he has conducted throughout his academic career.

The Humboldt Research Award is awarded annually to scientists who have made significant impacts in their fields, according to the foundation’s website. The award, valued at 60,000 euros, also in-vites the winners to spend up to one year conducting research in Germany.

Gao will spend his sabbatical researching with Joachim Spatz, professor of biophysical chemistry at the University of Heidelberg, who nominated Gao for the award.

“This is a humbling research award,” Gao said. “I’m very hon-ored that I could receive it.”

“It’s great news — I’m very happy. He really deserves it,” said Dean of Engineering Lawrence Larson.“The award is an external validation of our work at Brown.”

At Brown, Gao focuses on nanomechanics and their rela-tionship to biological systems. His work emphasizes cell me-chanics and how different nano-materials affect the relationship between cells. Nanomechanics is an emerging discipline that studies how things work on a nanoscale, Gao said.

“You have to approach mate-rial behavior from the atomic scale and up,” he said. “We have to understand how these small materials will interact with human beings, with animals, what are the impacts of these on our society, our health, how we can use them

beneficially.”Gao works with nanoscale

wires and other nanomaterials and researches their effects on different cells. His work impacts the medi-cal, energy and electronics fields, among others, he said.

“We’re routinely synthesizing nanoparticles, and all the new ma-terials we use in the microelec-tronics industry are nanoscale,” he said. “The research will lead to safe use of nanotechnology.”

Gao emphasized the role of sabbaticals in helping foster new research ideas and allowing pro-fessors to collaborate with new people.

“You get a lot of really good people to help you in the field, trade off new ideas, new coop-erations,” he said. “This is a really precious opportunity.”

Larson echoed Gao, saying, “When professors go on sabbati-cal, they pick up new ideas for courses, new teaching techniques.”

Larson spoke of the difficulty that students in research-heavy studies experience when their pro-fessors go on sabbaticals.

“Students are used to frequent contact with professors,” Larson said. “Especially graduate students who are doing research — it can be really hard when professors leave.”

To avoid such issues, Gao said he will use Skype to communicate with his students at Brown and continue to mentor them while abroad.

At the University of Heidelberg, Gao will emphasize biomembranes and look more closely at cell be-havior, in contrast to his research at Brown, which is rooted more in mechanical research than biologi-cal research.

“I’m trying to find a new prob-lem to work on for the next phase of my career,” he said.

Professor wins award, earns year in Germany By ShEza atiq

CoNtributiNg Writer

Applications to the Meiklejohn Peer Advising Program have fallen from 492 last year to about 470 this spring. The mentoring program has seen a decline in applications for the past two years, with a reported 5 percent decrease last year from 517 submissions in 2010, The Her-ald reported April 2011.

The number of students ac-cepted to the program has stayed constant at 350. Ann Gaylin, as-sociate dean of the College for first-year and sophomore studies, said the decrease in submissions is not particularly significant, add-ing that applications have risen considerably since 2005. In 2010, applications went up by 38 percent from the previous year, The Herald reported.

As part of an effort to increase the competitiveness of its appli-cant pool, the Meiklejohn Program held several information sessions last semester before applications opened in January. Gaylin also said the University used a new database as part of an effort to streamline the application process.

Not all students who were

Meiklejohns last year reapplied to the program, but Gaylin said this was not unusual. She attrib-uted the attrition to graduating seniors and students planning on studying abroad next year. Gaylin said rising sophomores continued to be the largest pool of applicants and that these students wished to join the program either because they had had positive experiences with their own Meiklejohns as first-years or because they thought the mentoring could be improved.

Oliver Diamond ’14 said he applied to be a Meiklejohn for the past academic year because he “thought it was a great program to kick-start freshman year.” Dia-mond said he was not assigned to his advisees until midway through fall semester, but he added that his was an exceptional case and that the program coordinators were closely involved throughout the process. Diamond reapplied and will continue to be a Meiklejohn next year.

Though it is uncommon, Gaylin said there have been cases when veteran Meiklejohns are rejected when they reapply. This could ei-ther be due to poor reviews from their advisees or because the stu-

dents are not in good academic standing. But getting rejected once should not deter students from reapplying, since it does not ham-per future chances of becoming a Meiklejohn, Gaylin added. She said that students who have had to overcome academic obstacles are often ones who dispense the best advice, making for great mentors to the first-years.

To further enhance the pro-gram, Meiklejohn leaders have incorporated events such as group advising dinners and di-versity workshops, and they have also refined the orientation pro-gram, Gaylin said. The program is an integral component of the University’s advising program, Gaylin said, which is reflected in the joint collaboration of stu-dents and faculty members on a newly published Undergraduate Council of Students handbook. The handbook, which was au-thored by both Meiklejohns and non-Meiklejohns, aims to facilitate the transition of new students to Brown.

“We’re giving first-year students many different perspectives on the first year, and the student perspec-tive is invaluable,” Gaylin said.

Fewer apply to Meiklejohn program

H e y M a M a

Tom Sullivan / HeraldMama Kim’s passed out free T-shirts with each order for its one-year anniversary as a Korean BBQ food truck March 16.

The other BDHblogdailyherald.com

Campus news4 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

By mariya BaShkatOvaCoNtributiNg Writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students is currently accepting applications for an inaugural award from its New Initiatives Fund. The council is offering $500 to finance a student organization or project that seeks to improve the University or greater Providence community.

“The types of projects we are trying to fund are projects that move the Brown community for-ward in a very productive way, that are widely reaching, that are community-focused,” said UCS Communications Chair Sam Gil-man ’15. Potential recipients can be student groups or individual students with well thought-out and detailed proposals, he said.

The $500 will likely be awarded to one student group or project, though there is a possibility that UCS will decide to split the money between two recipients, said UCS Treasurer Afia Kwakwa ’14. After the April 1 deadline, applications will go through a primary screen-ing to determine finalists, who the council will then interview. The council will hold a general body vote to decide on the recipient of the fund, she said.

The fund, which was proposed last year by the UCS E-Board, will use money from the council’s budget, which is allocated each spring for the following year by the Undergraduate Finance Board, Kwakwa said.

“We recognize that UFB is the main funding group, so we’re just trying to also show that we have a lot of support as student govern-ment for different student groups,” she said.

Both official and unofficial cam-pus groups can apply for the New Initiatives Fund, including groups that already receive funding from UFB. Student service groups that do not receive funding from the University may find it particularly useful to apply for supplementary funding, Gilman said.

“As student government, we’re representing the school, and we just want to be supportive of dif-ferent projects or ideas people might have,” Kwakwa said. “We want to encourage a bunch of people to apply, to bring up in-novative ideas.”

Brown Student Agencies re-cently announced a similar initia-tive — its Inspire Fund will offer up to $1,000 to support students working on similar projects, The Herald reported March 13.

UCS to award $500 to innovative group By WiniFrEd andErSEn

CoNtributiNg Writer

President Ruth Simmons and Jorge Moran, president and CEO of Sov-ereign Bank and Santander Hold-ings, signed an agreement Feb. 27 to renew the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes for an additional three years.

The program, run by the Brown Office of International Affairs and led by faculty members, brings young scholars from around the world to campus during the sum-mer for two weeks of lectures, sem-inars, research presentations and networking on topics including climate change and global health. Since its inception in 2009, more than 400 scholars from 72 coun-tries have participated, said BIARI Director Keith Brown.

Administrators from both in-stitutions said they were pleased by the program extension.

The renewal is “a vote of con-fidence in the program’s achieve-ments and promise,” said Keith Brown.

“We feel proud of what has been achieved with BIARI, (and) we feel very happy to be able to renew BI-ARI,” said Director of Santander Universities Eduardo Garrido.

Vice President for International Affairs Matthew Gutmann said the program’s setup “is very Brown.” He added, “It’s very interactive. … It’s not just inviting people from around the world to come and sit quietly and listen to the authori-ties.”

The program is highly selective, admitting 150 participants from approximately 1,000 applicants, according to Gutmann. “The idea is to get the rising stars,” he said.

The 2012 BIARI will run from June 9-23 and includes four inter-disciplinary institutes — Theater and Civil Society, Population and Development, Climate Change and its Impact and Global Health and HIV/AIDS. Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel laureate in economic sci-ences, will give the keynote address June 14.

Visiting Scholar at the Watson Institute Patricia Agupusi, who at-tended the 2009 BIARI, said the connections she established there are the reason she is at Brown now and added that those formed rela-tionships have proved valuable for her research.

She said the program is “quite intense,” with breakfast beginning at 7:30 a.m. and lectures occasion-ally going past 7 p.m. Outside of

the lectures and seminars, she said participants are expected to com-plete lengthy reading assignments.

Benefits of BiariParticipants, coordinators

and sponsors cite multiple ways in which the rigorous program benefits both the University and international communities.

Associate Professor of Sociol-ogy Patrick Heller said BIARI of-fers Brown faculty who facilitate discussions “the opportunity to catch up on the latest research and a range of perspectives and appli-cations.” Though it may come as a surprise, it is rare for faculty to get the chance to learn about their colleagues’ research, Heller said.

For many participants, BIARI is their first experience abroad, and Heller said he is “astonished by how excited they are about coming to Brown.”

Heller said BIARI aims to close the knowledge gap between the north and the south. “As much as we like to think we live in a global-ized free-flowing world, it’s much harder for scholars from the global South to get access to the best work being done out there,” he said.

A select number of students in the Graduate Program in Develop-ment have participated in BIARIs, and they have also gained new knowledge and developed valu-able contacts, Heller said.

Though BIARI is not open to undergraduates, Heller said un-dergraduates reap indirect benefits from the program because faculty members are engaged in interna-tional research.

“You’re not just getting a text-book lecture — you’re being taught by folks who are at the cutting edge of their field,” he said.

BIARI also plays a key role in building the University’s reputa-tion abroad. “The program attracts both strong interest … and excel-lent reviews from participants and visiting faculty,” Keith Brown said.

Partnership with Santander universities

The funding BIARI receives from Sovereign/Santander comes from Santander Universities, a program launched in 1996 by Santander Chairman Emilio Botin in order to demonstrate Santander’s commitment to higher education. Santander Universities funds more than 1,000 universities around the world today, Garrido said.

Keith Brown said Sovereign |

Santander encourages scholars at other universities in the network to apply for BIARI, but beyond this support, they leave the program in the hands of the Office of Interna-tional Affairs.

Heller said it is a “good part-nership. We have complete and total autonomy on what we teach and how we teach it, and we would never do it under any other cir-cumstances.”

University faculty and staff are grateful for the opportunity Santander Universities has made possible, Gutmann said.

“A lot of banks would have pulled the plug and said they couldn’t have afforded this luxury, but (Sovereign sees) the value in this program,” he said.

Garrido said Santander Uni-versities funds 4,500 projects per year, and “BIARI is one of the best examples we have of a global pro-gram.”

“We look forward to main-taining the relationship for a long time,” he said.

Biari’s futureOver the last three years, BI-

ARI has grown in size and scope, and adjustments have been made to refine and improve the pro-gram. The institutes offered have changed in order to “respond to evolving Brown faculty interest and expertise,” Keith Brown said. Heller said more time has been al-located for research presentations and informal networking among participants.

For BIARI alums, the establish-ment of seed grants and residen-cies has helped them to continue to develop the “conversations and collaborations they begin during the two-week summer institute,” Keith Brown said.

In the future, the office of inter-national affairs “will continue to explore ways to grow and deepen collaborations between BIARI par-ticipants and involve more Brown faculty to expand our range of of-ferings,” Keith Brown said.

He said the office is working with faculty in the political science, mathematics and modern culture and media departments to develop potential new institutes on topics such as comparative welfare policy and the science of massive data.

Gutmann said the program may expand to host BIARIs in other countries like Spain, South Africa and China, though these BIARIs would likely be smaller in scale and shorter in duration.

International scholar program renewed

Science 5the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

By jEhanE SamahaCoNtributiNg Writer

Astronomers from the Department of Physics taught a crowd of more than 100 children and parents about outer space at “Stargazers,” a collaborative event held at the Providence Children’s Museum last Friday. Attendees romped between models of the Earth and moon, peered through a telescope and listened as scientists explained vid-eos of meteors, planets and stars.

“This is a great opportunity for a lot of children who might have never thought, ‘Wow, this is some-thing that I could study, it’s a job that real people have,’” said Cathy Saunders, director of education at the museum.

The event featured a partially illuminated globe, which showed how day and night are caused by the Earth’s rotation. Michael Um-bricht, Ladd Observatory curator, projected time-lapse videos of the night sky onto a wall. As the film sped through a night’s worth of pictures, Umbricht pointed out clouds, planes, meteors and the slow rotation of the constellations around the North Star. John Rossi, an AmeriCorps Museum educator, asked children to look at a model and identify which side of the moon they always see from Earth.

Ryan Michney GS showed videos of the aurora borealis — charged particles from the sun that are drawn to Earth’s magnetic poles also known as the “North-ern Lights” — as seen from space. “I’m more interested in research and science, but it’s really fun to come and do things like this and

talk to kids who are interested in astronomy, and I can tell them, ‘Hey! Watch NOVA, or come to the Ladd Observatory,’” Michney said.

One young boy sat transfixed in front of the projected images of space, whispering questions about Pluto’s moons to his mother to relay to Michney. He already knew about the moon Charon but wanted to know about the other smaller ones.

“He has all these little factoids because he loves to learn about it,” his mother said to Michney.

The room bustled with activity as children huddled around each scientist to point and ask ques-tions. “The kids have so much fun and remind me of how I want to interact with the world,” said Ra-chel Cronin ’08, experience coor-dinator at the museum.

The event was offered for free through the museum’s MetLife Family Friday program. Aamina Ahmed, a parent from Cumber-land, RI, heard about the event online. “My daughter just learned about the solar system in school, so she was excited to come,” Ahmed said.

Ian Dell’Antonio, assistant pro-fessor of physics, reached out to the museum through Brown’s Sci-ence Center last fall about a pos-sible collaboration. The museum does not have an exhibit about stars, so “it’s good that we can fill a niche that they don’t already have,” Dell’Antonio said.

The museum is very receptive to collaborators and volunteers from Brown, said Carly Baumann, education programs coordinator

at the museum. “When a child can talk to someone with a passion for the space and the stars, it just brings everything to a whole new level.”

Since clouds blocked the eve-ning sky Friday night, the event was held indoors. Despite the clouds, new opportunities are on the horizon for collaboration be-tween the museum and University astronomers.

AmeriCorps volunteers from the museum will receive training to use small portable solar tele-scopes to see the spots on the sun during the day. The Ladd Observa-tory will then lend these telescopes out to the volunteers for use in programs like the Learning Club, a science-focused after-school program at the South Side Boys and Girls Club.

The AmeriCorps volunteers will use the solar telescopes to teach multi-session lessons about the sun. “If you loan the telescopes out, kids can look at the sun over multiple days and see the sun’s rotation,” Dell’Antonio said. “We don’t typically think of the sun as rotating.”

Brown students can get in-volved at the museum by vol-unteering, curating exhibits or proposing ideas for events. The museum is holding another col-laborative event April 28, a neu-roscience exhibit called “SENSEsa-tional” with hands-on activities for each of the senses, Baumann said. Students from Brown Science Prep will help develop the event and serve as museum guides at the exhibit, said Stephanie Koo ’13, a member of Brown Science Prep.

Astronomers pass on passion for space

Jehane Samaha / HeraldAmeriCorps Museum Educator John Rossi shows children a globe during the “Stargazers” event held last Friday.

merchants on Thayer Street have been struggling,” he noted.

Gilbane embarked on the proj-ect nine months ago. He said he was discussing his apartment de-velopments near colleges across the country while receiving a haircut at Squires Salon, and the barber sug-gested he build a similar complex for Brown students. While lectur-ing to a group of Brown students for the Entrepreneurship Program, he described his complexes near other campuses and asked how many students would be interest-ed in living in similar apartments. “One hundred percent of students raised their hands,” he said. “We think it would be a big hit.”

“It’s an upgrade for the street, for the neighborhood,” said David Schwaery, owner of Squires Salon and the property on which the apartments would be built.

In addition to installing an un-derground parking structure, the company would repave the side-walks, plant new trees and install historic streetlamps, Gilbane said.

The building’s main entrance would be located on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Thayer Street, where Sahara is currently located, and the apartments would be lo-cated within the block behind the Thayer Street fronts. Mark Najib, owner of Sahara, was unaware of the proposal before speaking with The Herald and declined to com-ment on the proposal before dis-cussing it further with Schwaery.

“That building will fit in per-fectly with the Thayer Street neigh-

borhood,” Schwaery said. Gilbane and his architects studied the East Side’s architecture to plan a build-ing that would complement the area.

Schwaery currently rents to about 15 students. “I see how dan-gerous it is for open homes, the way they are now,” he said, not-ing that the enclosed nature of the building would create a “safety en-velope” for the students.

Schwaery said though he is ex-cited by the prospect of the com-plex, he is also cautious — the pro-posal will need the Providence City Council’s approval before work can begin.

If the plan is approved, con-struction would begin in June 2013 and be completed in time for the 2014 school year, Gilbane said. The company has reached out to make the University aware of its plans, but it is building the complex in-dependent of the University as a purely private enterprise.

“Brown welcomes projects and activities that strengthen the char-acter and offerings of the Thayer Street district and that are consis-tent with what we understand to be in the interests of the College Hill Neighborhood Association and others with a stake in the success of the area,” wrote Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations, in an email to The Herald.

Gilbane Development present-ed its proposal at a recent College Hill Neighborhood Association board meeting. The group is still reviewing the proposal and de-clined to comment on it.

Builders tout luxury of planned Thayer complex

continued from page 1

Got something to say? Leave a comment online!Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.

Feature6 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

By ElizaBEth kOhSeNior Staff Writer

Social enterprise is like many spokes connected at a central hub, said Melanie Friedrichs, an organizer of the first ever Social Enterprise Ecosystem and Eco-nomic Development Summit.

“You have the ecosystem’s en-terprise hub and different spokes of organizations that reach out to those social ventures in the city,” she said. “You want to make sure everyone is kind of connected to the hub so they’re all talking to each other.”

The summit, which drew more than 400 attendees to campus last weekend, aimed to encourage this sort of communication. During the conference, organized by Brown’s Social Innovation Initiative and Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, participants discussed the models and philosophy of social enterprise — a business model that seeks to fuse economic sus-tainability with a commitment to improving social good. The confer-ence also featured events designed to connect attendees with social enterprise resources.

During the conference’s clos-ing event Saturday. Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., announced to a standing ovation that he is sponsoring a bill to further fed-eral government support for social enterprises. The bill, informally called the “SEEED Bill” in honor of the conference, is the first na-tional piece of legislation to deal directly with social enterprises, said conference organizer Jose-phine Korijn ’13.

Sowing the SEEEdThe SEEED summit drew in-

spiration from previous social en-terprise conferences — primarily the Social Enterprise Rhode Island Summit hosted by Social Venture Partners Rhode Island at Bryant University in 2009 and 2010. The conference moved to Brown to make it “more nationally acces-sible,” said Kim Hanson, program director for SVPRI.

The move was also a part of an effort to make Providence “a social enterprise hub for the country,” said Hilary McConnaughey GS, a master’s student in public policy and a conference organizer who managed the SEEED website. The conference organizers wanted the summit to serve more as “a nation-al platform,” she said. “It’s almost like a new conference.”

Attendees hailed from as far away as the West Coast. McCon-naughey attributed the turnout to social media outreach.

“It’s had more of an impact than we anticipated,” she said. “We’re actually getting registration from people that we didn’t even try to reach out to, especially people out of New England.”

“The SEEED name just kept going, which is really exciting,” she added.

Branching outThe conference fostered con-

nections among students, aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals in

attendance.“We’ve tried to create an envi-

ronment where people can easily talk even in panel discussions,” said conference organizer Jose-phine Korijn ’13. “We’ve seen a lot of collaboration because of that.”

Participants in the conference agreed that collaboration was a key aspect of the summit.

The conference “provided a lot of basic information and a lot of inspiring models,” said Chris Ack-ley, a staff member for Olneyville Housing Corporation. “It’s really just the support — seeing people doing similar work and the pas-sion people are bringing to it. It just reaffirms your desire to do this work.”

The conference also showcased entrepreneurs from the ages of 11 to 18 in a panel entitled, “Teenag-ers and Kids Who Are Changing the World.” Social Venture Part-ners Rhode Island, which invited the panelists from its Young So-cial Innovators Program, sought to highlight their work and to connect them with community sponsors at the conference.

Hanson, who helps run the pro-gram, noted that the experience was valuable for both the young entrepreneurs and the audience. It was “an opportunity to see what the young people are doing,” but it also offered “an opportunity for young people to be involved at a national conference,” she said.

Riley Kinsella, 11, the youngest of the speakers, said the panel was “a great networking opportunity.” He said he “got a lot of very good ideas from the other panelists.”

Kinsella has hand-crafted and sold more than 100 flutes since he began his business, “The Music Smith,” two years ago.

Members of the audience also expressed interest in following up with its speakers, Hanson said.

“I had about three to four peo-ple who would be willing to men-tor the students (after the panel),” Hanson said. “A lot of adults are interested in learning more.”

“A big takeaway for (the at-tendees) was the power of young people,” Hanson added. “They are our future.”

nurtured growthThe conference also offered

opportunities in mentorship and coaching. Events like BIG Chal-lenge Coaching provided 30-min-ute sessions with business experts and leaders. Larger panels and workshops promoted network-ing with sponsors and investors.

Korijn, who helped organize the coaching sessions, said it went “exactly how (she) hoped it would go.” All 75 spots for Friday’s ses-sions were booked, and some of Saturday’s sessions were only 15 minutes long to accommodate the influx of attendees who wanted to participate, she said.

The coaching has been very exciting for participants, Korijn said. “Thirty minutes can change your entire venture,” she added.

Sun Yeong Chang, a gradu-ate student at the Rhode Island School of Design, attended a ses-sion Friday and said the sessions

were more personal than the larger lecture events.

“You can have a really close re-lationship” between coaches and mentees, she added.

David Poritz ’12, CEO of Exec-utive Origin and former executive director of Esperanza Internation-al, used his experience in social entrepreneurship in his coaching at the conference. He noted that most of the advice he gave was gained through his personal ex-periences.

“Through experience, you learn what works and what doesn’t work,” he said. “The more advice you get, the fewer mistakes you make.”

Poritz also noted that the sup-port offered at the conference was especially invaluable for college students.

“The beauty of starting a busi-ness in college is that there’s the almost never-ending network of support,” he said. “SEEED is an example of that.”

Putting down rootsPart of SEEED’s goal is to bring

social enterprise into the national spotlight.

The organizers of the summit have announced plans for a con-ference next year and hope that it becomes an annual event, McCon-naughey said.

“With time, it’s only going to get more renowned and more popular, and we can really build a name for ourselves,” she added.

Organizers observed the fruit of their efforts when Cicilline an-nounced the new national social enterprise bill he is sponsoring.

“It was a really wonderful end-ing to the conference,” Korijn said. “People were left with the biggest buzz.”

Korijn acknowledged that even if the bill does not pass, “it’s a step, more than anything, that will build awareness.”

Friedrichs noted that social enterprise plays a valuable role in social change that for-profit businesses and non-profit orga-nizations cannot fulfill. This niche has a specific appeal to Brown stu-dents, she said.

“Social enterprise is already a large part of the student body,” she said. “Being Brown, we have a lot of people who want to make a difference in the world. Social enterprise is one of those grow-ing movements — it’s a new way to approach changing the world.”

Enterprise conference inspires communication, legislation

Corrine Szczesny / HeraldStudents learned about the value of businesses that contribute to the common good at the SEEED conference.

f ly i n g f o r f r i s b e e s

Emily Gilbert / HeraldSpencer Fields ‘12 reaches for a frisbee as Brown Men’s ultimate went 3-0 in Sunday’s round robin.

Sports Monday 7the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

technology was beyond their ca-pabilities at the time and set about reverse-engineering it to incorpo-rate the technical knowledge into American boats. With this new technology, the Navy was able to weaken the Soviet Union’s control on the military market, Russell said, adding that this is a prime example of the military-industrial Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. East Germany gave the ship to the U.S. as a snub to the Soviet Union, Russell said.

After the U.S. Navy used the ship from 1991 to 1996, it came to Battleship Cove, where it was largely ignored for 15 years.

“Now she’s alive,” Perry said of the ship.

a hands-on ventureTwo groups of Brown stu-

dents are involved in the ex-hibition project. Students in Russell’s course AMCV 1904L: “Cultural Heritage, Curation and Creativity” will be working on the exhibit’s presentation to make the layout more accessible to visitors. The nine students in the class will submit proposals for ways to improve the exhibit, such as providing tours or think-ing of creative ways to display the exhibit’s information. They will present these ideas to the curator for him to consider incorporating in the exhibit, Russell said. This is a chance for students “to not just have airy-fairy ideas but to really, practically get to influence a new curator on a project that’s going to go in a new direction,” Russell added.

Four undergraduate students taking HIST 1420: “Twentieth-Century Russia” are also volun-teering to translate the Russian text on the boat and in its manu-als. The promise of translating primary sources was a big draw for the students.

As a diplomat’s daughter and the sister of a West Point student, Ksenia Weisz ’15, a Herald copy editor, has had exposure to the military in the past. Weisz also grew up in Russia and lived in Germany for two years, so she said the project “kind of combines everything.”

Caroline Sagalchik ’13, whose parents emigrated from Belarus in 1981, said she is now taking class-es focused on Eastern Europe to learn more about her heritage. As a DJ at the radio station WBRU, she hopes to work more closely with the radio room on the boat, she said.

Bethany Marshall ’14 said she grew up in a “gearhead” family, so working in the engine rooms will give her exposure to something in which her family has always been interested. But the main appeal for her was getting to put her Russian to use. On her first visit, Marshall said she identified a first aid kit that had been mistakenly labeled in English as radar equipment.

“It’s like being a kid in a candy shop,” she said. “Every time I walk on the boat, there’s something new to see.”

‘Engaging’ opportunities and trials

Russell, who is also a research fellow for the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humani-ties and Cultural Heritage, said this ship presents an opportunity to question “unknown histories, forgotten histories or really ste-reotyped histories.” He also said he saw involvement with the ship as a way to challenge students in several ways.

Military history is not “the first thing that a young, 20-something student these days is excited about engaging with,” he said. “Maybe it’s because it’s exotic, maybe it’s because it’s something they don’t normally encounter,” but Russell said the students he has taken to

see the ship have reacted enthu-siastically.

All of the students involved in the translation process speak Rus-sian, but the translation work is very technical. Sagalchik said she uncovered a technical dictionary, but Weisz said the terminology is something she “frankly (does not) even know in English.”

They also face a transportation problem. Battleship Cove is not accessible by public transporta-tion.

Despite these difficulties, the students, all of whom are affiliated with the Slavic studies program, said they want their work with the Hiddensee to be an ongoing project throughout their time at Brown.

mutual advantagePerry, who is a veteran of the

U.S. Marine Corps, said the proj-ect represents a “symbiotic rela-tionship between Battleship Cove and the educational community.”

Russell said he is enthusias-tic about the significance of the overall experience, adding that students might forget the value of interacting with people outside of the community for both parties.

“In a university, we’re privi-leged to have the time and the space to just think and reflect,” Russell said. “In the professional world, they sometimes don’t actu-ally have much time to learn a new skill or to take a new perspective.”

Russell, who has no back-ground in Russian history and has never done anything concern-ing military history before, said he gets “involved in crazy things because they’re fun.”

“Sometimes the most impor-tant work that you will do is not something that is part of your course curriculum,” he said. “When it works and supports their academic aspirations — well, isn’t that precisely what we’re sup-posed to be doing?”

Students help curate battleship exhibitcontinued from page 1

Courtesy of Caroline SagalchikCaroline Sagalchik ‘13 (left) and Bethany Marshall ‘14 (right) are helping to translate Russian texts found on the battleship.

By nikhil ParaShErSportS Staff Writer

In the final act of the 2011-12 sea-son, wrestlers Dave Foxen ’12 and Ophir Bernstein ’15 competed in the NCAA Tournament Thursday in St. Louis. Both wrestlers went 0-2 at the tournament and were eliminated, but despite the losses, Head Coach Dave Amato said he was pleased with the effort shown by both wrestlers.

“They both wrestled very hard out here,” Amato said. “Unfortu-nately, sometimes breaks don’t go your way. Ophir was winning like 3-0 and got pinned. And then Dave lost two really tight matches.”

Foxen said though the losses “left a sour taste” in his mouth, he is proud of his season, espe-cially his victory in the 174-pound weight class at the Eastern Inter-collegiate Wrestling Association Championship at Princeton ear-lier this month. Foxen, who was named to the All-Ivy second team, became the first unseeded wres-tler to win any weight class at the EIWA tournament since 1963.

Amato said that Foxen’s victory was “a great way for a great young man to end his season.” Despite Foxen’s unseeded ranking at the EIWA Championship, Amato said he had been wrestling at a high level for months.

“I think when people look at his season, they thought that he came out of nowhere to win (the EIWA Championship),” Amato said. “And we didn’t really feel that way. If you look at Dave’s sea-son from January and February, I think he only had three losses and maybe like 10 wins. … He started believing in himself. And it’s funny what confidence can do to someone.”

Like Foxen, Bernstein said he was disappointed with his own performance at NCAAs, citing his loss in the second match. But

Bernstein said he is not discour-aged — he has set goals to become an All-American next year and return to the NCAA Tournament.

Amato said Bernstein, who was also an All-Ivy Honorable Men-tion and runner-up for Ivy Rookie of the Year, had both a strong start and a strong finish to the season.

“Ophir came out of the gates quite well, right from the get-go,” Amato said. “He had a great fresh-man year.”

This season, the squad went 9-8, a significant improvement over its total of two victories last season. Amato said the team persevered and had a successful season, especially after coming under the threat of elimination last spring.

“The team really hung tough,” Amato said. “I thought it was a great year for the team. … I think it’s just a credit to the whole team, the alumni, the seniors, their lead-ership and their attitude.”

Amato also said he wants his team to build on this season’s improvements and have an even more successful year next season.

“We want to continue where we left off, and we want to con-tinue to get better as a team,” Amato said. “We want to continue to take it to the next level, which means more than two guys at the national tournament ... a higher placemanship at the Eastern Tour-nament.”

Amato said his hopes for next season are best summed up by Bernstein’s comments immediate-ly after losing his second match.

“I think the thing that speaks to the character of the team is like Ophir said after he got beat: ‘Coach, don’t worry. I’ll be back here next summer. I’ll be All-American,’” Amato said. “I think that’s where the team’s at. They all believe in ourselves and, hope-fully, belief turns into reality next year.”

Wrestlers take on the best at NCAAs

WRESTLING

By Sarah manCOnEartS & Culture editor

People of all ages and ethnicities sang and danced with remark-able energy Saturday night during a performance by Arif Lohar, a beloved Pakistani folk singer with 150 albums, 50 international tours and 5 million hits on YouTube.

Lohar’s performance, preceded by a performance by world music songstress Arooj Aftab, was part of “Caravanserai: A place where cultures meet” — a program that coordinates artist residencies to “invite American audiences to have an experience of some of the most dynamic Muslim artists,” said Kathleen Pletcher, executive artistic director and founder of FirstWorks.

FirstWorks, a nonprofit pre-senting organization established eight years ago, is one of five pre-senters for Caravanserai nation-wide. The artistic residency con-sists of not only performances but also workshops and conversations at schools, libraries and commu-nity centers, Pletcher said. The goal of the project is to create un-precedented access to artists and build bridges between performers and the audience, she said.

Lohar and his band traveled 7,000 miles to take part in this program, Pletcher said.

Pletcher said so far there have been some “really beautiful mo-ments,” including when the artists sang and danced with students with disabilities. “The categories and boundaries that divide us are dissolved,” she said.

Pletcher added that the Paki-stani community in Rhode Island has embraced the program, and some have told her they have nev-er felt more welcome in America.

The performance began with Pletcher and Zeyba Rahman, ar-tistic director of Caravanserai, speaking to the largely Middle Eastern audience packed into Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium.

Aftab, accurately described by Rahman as “minimalistic, deli-cate, contemplative,” then took the stage with acoustic guitarist Bhrigu Sahni. Aftab’s music “fuses classical Pakistani and Sufi mu-sic traditions with contemporary jazz, folk and pop influences,” ac-cording to a pamphlet handed out at the performance.

The pieces performed by Af-tab and Sahni were soft, slow and emotional. Both performers were swaying to the music, and Aftab frequently closed her eyes as though she was entirely consumed by the melody.

The performers were extremely connected throughout — their eyes met frequently while they played, and they moved to the music in unison. “You have to re-ally blend and merge together,” Sahni told The Herald.

Despite coming from countries that have experienced strained diplomatic ties — Sahni is from India and Aftab is from Pakistan — the performers blend perfectly. “It’s about music, and it’s about love,” he said.

The emotion of Aftab’s ethe-real, light voice and Sahni’s acous-tic guitar appeared to affect the audience as well.

Following their performance, Lohar’s band of Pakistani in-strumentalists and female singer Fozia performed one song as an introduction for Lohar. The music was much faster-paced, with Fozia encouraging audience members to clap along to the beat.

When Lohar finally took the stage, the audience roared with applause and cheers.

Lohar had an enormous, pow-erful and rich voice that filled the auditorium. While he sang, he played a chimta — a percussion instrument from South Asia re-sembling large tongs with brass jingles on the sides.

The music they performed consisted of contemporized in-terpretations of traditional Pun-jabi songs. Punjab is a region of South Asia where the five rivers of Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum flow.

Arts & Culture8 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

beginning, Axelman said that they pushed forward because the “pros outweighed the cons.” Both Kliger and Axelman had worked on film festivals before, and this festival was created to fulfill goals that had not been met in those past experiences.

Kliger, who worked on an Is-raeli film festival last year, said she the festival’s goal was not to sway audience members to sup-port a political stance or side. Axelman, who is also the presi-dent of the student group Com-mon Ground, which planned a Palestinian film festival last year, said he wanted to create more discussion and honest debate. He also wanted to draw people who did not know much about the conflict into the conversation, he said.

Apart from issues of politics, these movies are a treasure for those who believe themselves unknowledgeable of Israeli or Palestinian culture.

The movies themselves seemed to be well-received, with audi-

ence members’ criticisms solely focused on other aspects of the festival.

Gordon, who attended “Po-liceman,” said he wished there had been a discussion either be-fore or after the film.

Sandra Gandsman, a Rhode Island resident who attended three of the films and has been to “countless Brown events,” was disappointed by audience turn-out, adding that at the films she attended she counted fewer than 20 in the audience. The major-ity of attendees were community members like herself, and not students, she said. She attended “Restoration” on Sunday, which she said was a “good film” but one that “you need a real audi-ence for.”

Arnold Herman, another com-munity member and grandfather to a Brown alum, said he wished for a better introduction prior to each film to provide more context for the audience, including facts like when the film was released, the director’s background and information about its reception in its native country, he said.

continued from page 12

Film festival spurs dialogue on Middle East divisions

Follow The Herald on Twitter

twitter.com/the_herald

Sarah Mancone / HeraldPakistani singer Arif Lohar played the chimta while singing Punjabi folk songs.

Pakistani folk music inspires dance, joy

continued on page 9

Arts & Culture 9the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

Fraternity of Evil | Eshan Mitra, Brendan Hainline and Hector Ramirez

Co M I C S

By EuniCE kimCoNtributiNg Writer

As part of Brown’s Year of China, the film festival “Chinese Women’s Documentaries in the Market Era,” held this past weekend, projected female directors’ views of contem-porary Chinese culture, politics and economic development.

The festival was organized through the Nanjing-Brown Joint Program in Gender Studies and the Humanities and sponsored by a number of University pro-grams, including the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. Six female film direc-tors screened their works, with a question and answer session after each documentary. The festival will be followed by a symposium, with discussions about Chinese women’s film by international scholars and experts in gender studies, history and the study of sexuality, Wednesday at the Watson Institute for International Studies.

Brown has not previously held this kind of event, said Lingzhen Wang, associate professor of East Asian studies and the head orga-nizer of the festival. “It’s probably also (the) first of its kind in United States, centering just exclusively on women documentary direc-tors,” she added.

Many of the films touched upon specific gender-focused topics and themes. “My Fancy High Heels,”

for example, illustrated the dreams and pursuits of three women — a farmer, the manager of a contract manufacturing firm and a wealthy New Yorker.

Some films were “not specifi-cally gender-oriented” but rather reflected social issues through a female director’s point of view, Wang said. “Speaking Up 2” and “Rice Distribution” do not spe-cifically discuss gender issues, instead they focus on the lives of primary school children and the distribution of rice to the elderly, respectively.

The children in “Speaking Up 2” already had set opinions about China’s foreign policy. They described China as the greatest country and Chinese people as the best and as more mild-tempered than “less civilized” foreigners. Asked how he felt about Japan, one child in the film said, “I hate Japan because they invaded our country.”

But the children in “Speaking Up 2” did answer questions about one issue directly pertaining to women — foot binding, the pain-ful practice of binding young girls’ feet that has largely faded into ob-solescence — among other contro-versial issues in Chinese politics.

At the question and answer ses-sions following each film, several directors spoke in both Chinese and English, as the audiences in-cluded a large proportion of Chi-nese speakers.

Chinese film festival offers female perspective

It was “music that has been practiced in the villages for cen-turies,” said Tariq Malik, clinical associate professor of medicine.

“It got me in touch with my Punjabi side,” said Providence resident Sheza Iqbal.

Buelqies Kahn, another Provi-dence resident, said the concert was a nostalgic experience for her after being away from Pakistan for so long.

Audience members clapped their hands, tapped their feet and danced in their seats throughout the entire performance. As the performance progressed, more and more people left their seats and danced in front of the stage. Some even tossed handfuls of dol-lar bills at Lohar.

“Audience participation is an

essential part,” Malik said, adding that everyone dances differently according to how the music affects them. “Everybody moves as does their soul.”

Lohar’s stage presence was as impressive as his voice. He smiled constantly and would frequently step back from the microphone, pause and then jump toward it while yelling to the music. The au-dience responded with roars and cheers. He also played air guitar at times and swung the micro-phone around, almost throwing it to the floor.

“He is so eccentric,” Iqbal said, adding that it makes audience members want to join him.

Even children in the audience gravitated to the stage in order to be nearer to the performers.

The band had a powerful sound that supplemented Lohar’s ener-

gized performance. “You have to start jumping and dancing,” Sahni said. “It’s just this wall of sound.”

At the end of the performance, Lohar and his band received a standing ovation and calls for an encore. The band played one more song, and with it people resumed dancing — some climbing onto the stage and dancing with Lo-har. Lohar even coordinated some dances with a few teenage boys who gathered around him.

“It was amazing,” said Provi-dence resident Caitlin Strokosch. It is great that even non-Pakistani members of the audience were swept up in the music as well, she said.

Lohar and Aftab will be par-ticipating in a lecture and dem-onstration concert in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts today at 4 p.m.

continued from page 8

Performance connects audience to Muslim artists

Got tips?herald@browndailyherald.com browndailyherald.com/register

the ensemble, Klapholz said. He added that the music will make

audience members laugh. Miranda Forman ’12, who plays the viola in the orchestra, said the chorus is “breath-taking,” especially with the uncon-ventional chord changes in the last serenade, she added.

“The music is definitely not designed for 20-year-olds to sing,” Brown said. Forman said the prepa-ration was challenging, with several late night rehearsals. Nevertheless, performing with the orchestra was an “exhilarating experience” filled with much energy and excitement, Shroff said.

The actors had different concerns for the performance. Brakatselos said he tried hard to keep the diction clear and maintain a sense of power in his voice. Brown, who described the role of Ernesto as a “hopeless romantic,” said he tried to express the anguish, passion and love in his character.

Shroff said working with people with a common interest in classical

music was the most enjoyable part of the project.

Klapholz said he enjoyed work-ing with the singers in addition to conducting the orchestra. Some of the singers “have never sung opera, never sung in a chorus (and) never performed on stage before,” he said. It was a rewarding and exciting experi-ence to “open people’s eyes” to a new form of art, he added.

Many performers recommended that audience look out for the sheer fun and humor in the plot. Klapholz said he hopes the performance will show people how accessible opera can be and “how fun it can be to perform, watch and listen to.”

Tor Clark, an audience member, said he looks forward to Brown Op-era Productions’ show every year and added that the quality of this year’s concert matched his high expecta-tions. Despite the lack of subtitles for the Italian opera, the plot and comedy were still easy to follow, he said.

Richard Van Horne, another au-dience member, said the performers sounded “fabulous and professional.”

Classic opera challenges student performers

continued from page 1

Got something to say? Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment

on our opinions and editorials.

editorial & Letter10 the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

L E T T E R To T H E E D I To R

C O R R E C T I O N S P O L I C YThe Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C O M M E N TA R Y P O L I C YThe editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R P O L I C YSend letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

A D V E R T I S I N G P O L I C YThe Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

Bookstore opposes sweatshop laborTo the Editor:

An article in Friday’s Herald (“Teach-in calls for end to sweatshop purchases,“ March 15) correctly recognized the University’s early national leadership in the drive to end sweatshop labor in the production of university apparel. For that, thank you. Brown was indeed a founding member of worker-rights organiza-tions and continues to work against the exploitation of third world labor.

The second paragraph of your story, however, in-cluded an unchallenged statement that “the sweaters, the T-shirts — almost everything (in the Brown Bookstore) is being produced in a sweatshop.” That is simply not true. Your readers should know that:

• All vendor licenses for Brown apparel are managed by the Licensing Resource Group. Brown-licensed apparel is produced solely by companies that honor Brown’s Vendor Code of Conduct, are members of the Fair Labor Association and honor the rules and code of conduct of the Worker Rights Consortium.

• The vendor group providing 70 percent of branded apparel for the bookstore has inspec-tors in the factories in all 12 countries where

the product is produced.• The Brown Bookstore has received no com-

plaints of unfair labor practices from the Fair Labor Association, Worker Rights Consortium or Licensing Resource Group regarding any vendors who furnish Brown-licensed apparel.

• The Brown Bookstore is working with manufac-turers to feature more made-in-America items and to develop product lines manufactured by Alta Gracia, a manufacturer in the Dominican Republic that pays its workers a living wage — 338 percent of the prevailing wage.

• The Brown Bookstore has refused to carry mer-chandise from suppliers who insist on exemp-tions from provisions of the University’s Vendor Code of Conduct.

• The Brown Bookstore, the University’s senior administration and student groups have worked together effectively in the past to address sweat-shop labor, as your story points out. The book-store has championed Brown’s code of conduct for vendors for more than a decade. We intend to continue that work.

Steven SouzaDirector, Brown university Bookstore

E D I To R I A L C A R To o n

“It’s about music, and it’s about love.”— Indian guitarist Bhrigu Sahni

See CaravaNSerai on page 8.

E D I To R I A L

Rhode Island is currently considering a bill that would require physicians not only to perform an ultrasound on women before performing an abortion but also to display and describe the ul-trasound’s images. It is already Rhode Island law for a woman to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion in order to determine the gestational age of the fetus. Thus, the changes called for in the bill place an unnecessary obstacle between a woman and her right to choose.

Rep. Karen MacBeth, D-Cumberland, has introduced the bill, which she describes as “pro-information,” every year for the last four years. While the bill does not require women to view the ultrasound image, MacBeth said she believes the opportunity to do so could be a vital part of a woman’s decision whether or not to proceed with the abortion. But the majority of clinicians interviewed in a study by Tracy Weitz, assistant medical professor and the director of a center on reproductive health at the University of California San Francisco, said that in their experience “ultrasound viewing typically had little or no impact on a woman’s decision.” Paula Hodges, public policy and advocacy director for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said the bill “is not grounded in scientifically-based or medically-based standards of care,” and was instead “a political statement.” In fact, in a response to an opinion piece by New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof regarding the wave of similar legislation around the country, MacBeth admits that “ultrasounds are already being performed as part of most abortion procedures.” It follows, then, that her bill’s requirement that physicians offer to display the images — or face a fine of up to $100,000 — results from her personal beliefs rather than medical fact.

And though women are not required to view the ultrasound, they are required to listen to “a medical description of the ultra-sound images, which shall include the dimensions of the embryo or fetus and the presence of external members and internal organs, if present and viewable.” Depending on the gestational age of the fetus, this could mean revealing the fetus’ sex. We believe this provision is intended to appeal emotionally to women who have already undergone an emotional decision-making process. It is inappropriate for legislation to reflect the personal beliefs of the legislators — an abortion is a medical procedure that should not be subjected to legislation detached from recommendations from the medical community.

This legislation is in line with a recent phenomenon that many are, rather accurately, calling a war on women. Though several states already required the ultrasound image to be displayed or described to women seeking abortions, this type of legislation has been catching steam in recent months. Virginia became the seventh state to require an ultrasound before an abortion March 7, and other states such as Pennsylvania and Idaho are moving forward with similar legislation. We hope that Rhode Island citizens will stand up for the women of their state and rally against this bill that does more harm than good.

editorials are written by the herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

Q u oT E o F T H E DAy

the brown daily herald

Sarah manconeEmma WohlElizabeth Carrkat thorntonaparna Bansaljordan hendricksdavid Chunglucy Feldmangreg jordan-detamoreShefali luthraSahil luthraEthan mcCoyashley mcdonnellSam rubinroitjonathan topazCharles lebovitzjared moffat

Eva ChenEmily gilbertrachel kaplanjesse Schwimmer

Graphics editorphoto editorphoto editor

sports photo editor

Graphics & photos

Business

Olivia Conettakyle mcnamarajulia Shubeneal Poole

production

copy desk chiefdesign editordesign editor

web producer

editorial

arts & culture editorarts & culture editor

city & state editorcity & state editor

features editorassistant features editor

news editornews editornews editornews editor

science editorsports editorsports editor

assistant sports editoreditorial page editor

opinions editoropinions editor

Editor-in-chiEf

Claire Peracchio

sEnior Editors

tony Bakshinatalie villacorta

ManaGinG Editors

rebecca Ballhausnicole Boucher

BloG dailY Herald

jennifer Bloommatt klimerman

editor-in-chiefManaging editor

GEnEral ManaGErs

Siena delisserdanielle marshak

officE ManaGEr

Shawn reilly

dirEctors

julia kuwaharaSamuel Plotnernikita khadloyaangel lee

ManaGErs

justin leekaivan Shroffgregory Chatzinoffmahima Chawlaluka ursicalison PruzanElizabeth gordondavid Winer

salesfinance

alumni relationsBusiness development

Human resourcesresearch & development

collectionscollections

finance operationsalumni engagement

fundraising Marketing

Post- maGazine

Sam knowles editor-in-chief

War on women arrives in Rhode Island

By R AC H E L H A B E R S T R o H

opinions 11the Brown Daily heraldMonday, March 19, 2012

Brown needs a place for strangers — a place where it is not only permissible but expected to engage with an unknown fellow student.

It is more than a platitude to say that col-lege is a long series of lost opportunities to meet new people. Ask around, and you’ll find that everyone has his or her half-dozen stories about chance encounters, tender moments and bizarre bonds with nameless peers. It is no secret that there is a certain allure to the wistful intimacy found with strangers. I must add that I am not speaking exclusively of ro-mantic engagements.

Considering all this, if these fortuitous connections are so valuable and so consti-tutive of our Brown experience, we might imagine a need for a venue conducive to this immanent desire — a space where this seren-dipitous potential can blossom.

Right now, at Brown, this place does not exist.

The dining halls, despite being the largest social forum at the University, are not fit for such a role. When one goes to the Sharpe Re-fectory, either he or she eats with friends, runs into friends or eats alone. There is no ambient expectation that people eating alone ought to introduce themselves. Witness the phenom-ena of two solo diners at two adjacent tables.

Now this behavior is obviously reasonable.

The desire to read the paper and have break-fast without conversation is an entirely un-derstandable one. I do not think dining halls can be an institution for engaging strangers comfortably. Approaching people here seems either intrusive or too deliberate.

Other candidates similarly fail to meet the post. The library? Meant to be quiet. School performances? Nobody talks in the audience. Clubs? Too self-selecting. Even classes don’t really work as a place to meet peer-strangers. While of course, some friends will be made

in class, more often than not, there is a subtle barrier to friendship with kids met in class. It is as if somehow the formalistic behavior set-ting of a classroom cannot be reconciled with a social atmosphere.

When it comes down to it, there is really only one possible alternative: SafeRide.

It’s a bizarre, if counter-intuitive option, but with some work, and a mental adjust-ment, I think it might fit the bill. Ironically, this moving caravan of safety vehicles hap-pens to be the only place where students en-tirely foreign to each other sit together in a confined space.

Currently, SafeRide is more or less a ter-minus. By this I mean that the act of hopping into SafeRide is a decisively end-point ma-

neuver: You enter into the van, and your pre-vious endeavor is over. Your friends are gone, and your night out has ended. Of course, there are the occasional friends who ride Saf-eRide together but this is usually in a reserved manner, observing a presumed “elevator si-lence” model of behavior.

My proposal is to convert SafeRide into an institution that would embrace its peculiar micro-sociological space.

You’re sitting on the vinyl seats, riding to your dorm, and a lowly lit stranger sits next

to you. A blank slate acquaintance. No need to fear awkward lingering because in a couple minutes this encounter is going to end either way. So you strike up a conversation.

My vision is of SafeRide as a sort of Archi-medean social place. By this I mean an inter-actional space existing outside of the normal network of one’s social life. Far too many stu-dents leave Brown with homogenous friend groups for the simple reason that they never had a proper pretense to meet anybody who might have represented an outsider.

I readily admit that there would be many potential pitfalls involved with turning SafeR-ide into something approximating a place for strangers.

The first is the threat of creating a de-

bauched monster out of a previously whole-some shuttle service. We would need to ad-amantly oppose turning SafeRide into a ex-tension of the lowest common denominator night out with Top 40 sonic decorations. I am not against music, but I am against creating a simulation of a club with sliding doors and four wheels.

Furthermore, there will always be people on SafeRide who want to spend their four-minute transit in introspective silence. There will also be those who want to engage too much. As it stands, the current non-expec-tations of the SafeRide social space solve this dilemma.

Another urgent problem worth consider-ing is the need to avoid creating a situation in which the SafeRide riders pester the driv-ers. Obviously, this is a mandatory condition. That said, if the SafeRide social space consist-ed of polite conversations at proper decibel levels, this problem might not be one at all.

Finally, how would we keep SafeRide con-versation from degrading into simply an ex-change of superficial pleasantries, populat-ed by conversational themes akin to, “How about this weather?” Surely, this would be the saddest outcome. Beyond formal expec-tations somehow published in the unwrit-ten manual of Brown social behavior, I am not sure how this particular obstacle could be overcome. Here, I leave it to the reader’s imagination to tie together these loose ends.

Houston Davidson ’14 is fascinated by the micro-sociological potential of awkward

public spaces.

A place for strangers

I confess that I do not own a smartphone. I am a member of a dying breed of reg-ular phone users, and my sin does not go without punishment. This summer I went into a store to replace my old phone, which I purchased in 2007, and was ridi-culed by the store clerk when I pointed to the “new” phone that I wanted. To be honest, the phone I was pointing to had less technological capacity than a toaster. It seemed shocking to him that I would willingly choose to lock myself into a two-year contract with one of the hand-ful of remaining “junk” phones.

Technology moves quickly. Just five years ago, my LG Voyager, Fred, was one of the best phones I could buy for per-sonal use. Now he is so dated that old la-dies would laugh at him.

There are several practical reasons to not own a smartphone. Perhaps you don’t want to shell out $30 a month for a data plan. Or perhaps you don’t want to re-spond to emails while having sex.

What if owning a Stone-Age phone is actually more pragmatic? Students at Brown are members of a generation that gets routinely criticized for its lack of pa-tience and attention span. We need things quickly and painlessly whether it is infor-mation or entertainment. We used to get by with simple phones like Fred, but now

we live in an age where Siri thinks and texts for us.

Buy a smartphone, and never be bored again. You can sit on a bus and play An-gry Birds. Who wants to actually look around — or think, for that matter? That is far too boring. I am not saying that I’m not sometimes guilty of this. I waste time texting on Fred 2.0, but at least I’m com-municating with another person. I don’t own a smartphone because I don’t need to see what Lil’ Wayne is tweeting while I’m on the toilet.

What is perhaps the funniest aspect of smartphones is how utterly unnecessary they are yet how dependent people have become on them. It’s pretty ironic that iPhones come with a compass since be-cause of these devices we can’t read maps anymore. Thanks for making humanity stupid, Steve Jobs.

Comedian Louis C.K. was on a talk show recently and commented about our tech-crazy society. Noting that people complain when they have a slow Inter-net connection, he responds, “It’s going to space! … Is the speed of light too slow

for you?” He implies that people are not only ungrateful for the recent advances of our society but they feel entitled to these advances and are entirely dependent on them.

When Brown was switching around the Google apps this past summer, all of the students and professors that had naming conflicts with their accounts were notified. Unfortunately, the email that went out created a massive chain. Without the cover of anonymity, angered people harangued those who posted ran-

dom videos or otherwise spammed the listserv. Compounding the problem were those who did not even bother to read anything in the chain and simply sent “unsubscribe” to everyone.

This email chain was not a big deal. It was a mild-mannered annoyance at the most and a nice break from typical emails at the least. But the level of anger and outrage expressed by those who had smartphones was comparable to the wail-ing heard at Kim Jong-il’s funeral.

A BlogDailyHerald article was pub-lished in response to this event (“Why

‘reply all’ should be eradicated,” July 20), in which the author gave a play-by-play of the “catastrophe” as the violent threats exchanged became more and more ex-plicit — to point where an administrator had to step in and break up the fight. The author described the event as if it were morally on par with Kony’s enlistment of child soldiers. Her headline was not meant to be a funny joke — she was Siri-ously upset. But arguing that the struc-ture of email should be changed because of this fiasco is like wanting to end mass transportation because it isn’t always fast.

My long, drawn out point is this: The problem isn’t the “reply-all” feature of email. The source of this rage is the self-importance and impatience that goes along with owning a smartphone.

I want to make it clear that I am not against progress. That would be foolish. But progress is not necessarily desirable. The development of the plow ended well before it started telling us what restaurant we should eat at. The smartphone has not really made the phone better — it has just changed the definition of a phone. Now a phone is a gaming-camera-Internet-mu-sic-calling thing. I might add that it is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.

Fred may be less flashy than Siri, but he’s more of a true friend. I can depend on him when I need him, but he’s not a money- and time-sucking vampire.

Lucas Husted ’13 can be reached at lucas_husted@brown.edu, but Fred

isn’t email capable, so it will probably take him several days to respond.

Why I hate smartphones

It’s pretty ironic that iPhones come with a compass, since because of these devices we can’t read maps anymore.

Thanks for making humanity stupid, Steve Jobs.

My vision is of Saferide as a sort of Archimedean social place. By this I mean an interactional space here existing

outside of the normal network of one’s social life.

By LuCAS HuSTEDopinions Columnist

By HouSTon DAVIDSonopinions Columnist

Daily Heraldthe BrownArts & Culture

Monday, March 19, 2012

By maddiE BErgStaff Writer

Between writing, directing and producing, a show cannot come together without hard work. But when it comes to “Chemistry,” a production by Arianna Geneson ’14 performed in the Production Workshop Upspace this past week-end, one element proved effortless — casting.

In “Chemistry,” a one-woman show in which Geneson plays herself, the actress dissects her life experiences, particularly her relationships with men. The script investigates these relationships — romantic, platonic and profes-sional — as Geneson attempts to “find (her) own identity and shed past identity threats and stereo-types … in order to learn to love (herself),” she said.

Geneson, who has previous-ly acted and stage-managed at Brown, chose to put on a one-

person show because this is her first time showcasing her own work.

“In a lot of ways it’s easier,” she said. “Trying to cast it, trying to get all of the aspects together is in some ways more stressful than just doing it yourself.”

Throughout the show, Gene-son communicates almost entirely through spoken word. She plays with sound, rhythm and language to form her narrative, incorporat-ing rap-style speeches to propel the story. Occasionally singing songs and pronouncing Italian phrases influenced by the year she lived and performed in Florence, Geneson keeps the audience in-terested, despite the lack of other actors.

As the show follows the trajec-tory of Geneson’s relationships, the spoken word style becomes a vital element in projecting Gene-son’s mood and attitude towards these different moments in her

life.In a tone that mixes power, ac-

ceptance and vengeance, her show starts with a monologue describ-ing how she will no longer put up with being taken advantage of or used.

Afterwards she recounts snip-pets of various stories in which her attitude towards both men and herself vary from nostalgic and vulnerable to bitter and frustrated. At Saturday’s performance, each of these shifts of tone were met with approving snaps from the audience. The show recalls light-hearted moments, such as a first kiss, but quickly moves into darker subjects, such as issues of control and maintaining an individual identity within a relationship.

The show ends with a speech in which Geneson not only accepts the difficulties and scarring na-ture of life and relationships, but also acknowledges that she has the inner strength to overcome

future challenges. It is precisely this powerful ending that best aids the audience in understanding Geneson’s message of “recovery from what other people have con-ditioned you to be like, recovery from trauma and learning to ac-cept yourself.”

Geneson’s struggle between giving herself to men and losing her own strength and identity is made all the more powerful by the set. She performs in the all black room with her only set piece, a black box, which she alternatively jumps off and performs on, de-pending the tone of her speech.

The setting, rhythmic mono-logues, changes in tempo and outbursts of jazzy songs encour-age the audience to realize that while Geneson is recounting her personal experiences, her story is one that will resonate with many college students.

“We are all young people trying to come into our own,” she said.

One-woman show dissects life of writer, actress

By COrinnE CathCartCoNtributiNg Writer

“This is the most beautiful coun-try in the world,” proclaims coun-terterrorist police officer Yaron as he looks out over Israel with his fellow officers in the first line of Nadav Lapid’s Israeli film “Po-liceman.” The film was one of six shown in the University’s first-ever Israeli and Palestinian Film Festival this past week.

The contemporary conflict be-tween these two nations makes the combined showing of the countries’ films controversial, but festival organizers Eric Axelman ’13 and Gili Kliger ’12, a former Herald design editor, stressed that the focus of the festival was not political conflict.

Though the event was not de-liberately political, the organizers did choose some political films to reflect the contemporary artis-tic and cinematic voices of both countries, Axelman said. “Po-liceman” is centered on themes of terrorism and follows the ac-tivities of an Israeli counterter-rorist unit’s leader. Even more controversial, Saverio Costanzo’s “Private” is the story of a Palestin-ian family whose home is seized by Israeli military for strategic reasons.

The festival organizers sought to create a “collage, not a com-parison,” Axelman said, “showing both narratives, not in a com-parative way, but in an observa-tional way.”

Brown Students for Justice in Palestine had reservations about the festival. Alysha Aziz ’12, a member of the group, said though her group appreciated be-ing consulted in the process, the creation of the festival “implies that the Palestinian narrative can’t stand on its own.” It also is hard to separate this festival from politics and put these films in “conversation with one another,” she said, because of the “uneven power dynamic characterized by the domination of one group of people over another … making any conversation useless.”

Brown Students for Israel, a pro-Israel student group, is rela-tively supportive of the festival, said spokesman David Gordon ’13. While Brown Students for Israel has a clear political stance that is pro-Israel, “we are very much like Israel in that we are also pro-engagement and pro-conversation,” Gordon said. “At its core, this is a cultural, not a political event,” even if the “or-ganizers ran a pretty thin line,” he added.

Recognizing that controversy was almost unavoidable from the

Films delve into Israeli, Palestinian struggles

By jamES jOhnSOnCoNtributiNg Writer

University Organist Mark Stein-bach played a concert featuring the music of Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Anton Heiller in Say-les Hall Sunday evening. Baritone Andrew Garland, a voice teacher in the Applied Music Program at Brown, accompanied Steinbach for the Mahler songs.

The seed that grew into last night’s show was planted in No-vember when Steinbach and Gar-land first met at the November concerts celebrating the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt. Stein-bach said he had been planning a much different show, but when he heard Garland sing, he could picture him singing Mahler right away. Steinbach chose to begin the concert with Brahms, and to fol-low with Mahler and the lesser-known Heiller, three composers who spent most of their lives in Vienna, Austria. Vienna then be-came the theme of the evening. The two began to run through the music together in January.

Steinbach said he has “lived with this music” for many years — he played some of these pieces in a concert more than a decade ear-lier, and he even wrote papers on some of them in graduate school. Steinbach arranged the Mahler pieces for organ himself, as they were previously written for voice and piano or voice and orchestra. Garland said it is a privilege to sing Mahler because, as a professional singer, he often does not have the opportunity to sing such classic repertoire.

The concert began with the “Praeludium und Fuga in G Mi-nor, WoO 10” of 1857 by Brahms. Composed when Brahms was just 24 years old and studying coun-terpoint and organ, the music sounded bold and reminiscent of the Baroque period.

The second piece was the “Pas-sacaglia in C minor,” written in Austria by Heiller between 1940 and 1942. Steinbach’s notes in the program indicated that this was written during the time of the Nazi annexation of Austria, just before the military drafted Heiller in July 1942. Also inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor,” the music was a dark rendition of an old Baroque genre, building to a thunderous climax before fading away.

Next were the five Mahler songs of the “Ruckert-Lieder” that both Garland and Steinbach seemed particularly excited to perform.

The archetype of melancholy and poetic love, Mahler’s music was particularly emotional. Steinbach described these songs as “intimate … very intricate and complex, yet slow and quiet.” Garland took great care to articulate each word of the German he sung, both literally and emotionally. Though protocol is to wait for all the songs to be sung before applause, after Garland’s powerful performance of the third song, “Um Mitternacht” (“At Mid-night”), the crowd immediately broke into applause.

The concert closed with Heiller’s 1977 “Vorspiel,” “Zwischenspiel” and “Nachspeil” from Vesper, a

service of evening prayer in the Catholic Church. Written for the 850th anniversary of the City of Graz and the dedication of a new organ at the cathedral there, the music was a cornucopia of tones, textures, counterpoint and mo-tives. Steinbach described Heiller as “Mahler on steroids … like Stravinsky on organ” with “jazzy harmonies and jazzy rhythms.” This accurately described the sound of this final piece.

Clearly moved by Mahler, entertained by Brahms and in-trigued by Heiller, the audience responded enthusiastically to the performance.

Steinbach brings Vienna to Providence

Sam Kase / Heralduniversity organist Mark Steinbach arranged pieces by Mahler for the organ as part of a concert performed yesterday.

continued on page 8