THE COLLEGE HILL

THE BROWN/RISD WEEKLY | NOVEMBER 4 2010 | VOLUME XXI ISSUE VIII 6 LIVING ON A BOAT, NOT FAR FROM HERE 7 INTERVIEW WITH THE INVENTOR OF ‘RADICAL CARTOGRAPHY’ 10 THOUGHTS ON POST-ITS. . . LITERALLY 11 LIVING ILLEGALLY IN ABANDONED BUILDINGS

“I don’t get paid for this,” says Rameau, who has been arrested twice. “We have a moral obligation to break these laws.” -p. 11 The College Hill Independent contents from the editors e notion of terroir, namely that food from a speci c region has a speci c  avor (or, more abstractly, character), is widely understood to be a European idea. It is illegal to label sparkling wine “Champagne” if it is not from the NEWS Champagne region, in France (even if is from a town called Champagne in Switzerland). Similar laws apply to 2 Week in review cheeses and other amuse-gueules (appetizers, you plebe!). Ashton Strait and George Warner Wine-makers in America are starting to embrace this trend; soon it may be illegal to say your wine is from 3 Rahm Emanuel’s mayoral bid Napa if you made it from grapes grown in Cranston, or Rehobeth. But the real American terroir pertains not to Mel Whelp  ne wines or cheeses (sorry Wisconsin) but to junk food. Philly Cheesesteaks, Bu alo Wings, Boston Cream Pies, METRO Gumbo, and all kinds of barbecue. More obscurely, Fat Sandwiches, Scrapple, or Buckeye Balls. 4Finding shelter What’s weird about American Terroir is that it shouldn’t exist, but people believe in it. I eat my Cheesesteaks Beth Caldwell with Cheez Whiz instead of provolone, something people say is gross—until I tell them it’s authentic; “that’s how SCIENCE they eat them in Philly.” What’s weirder is that it’s real. Bu alo wings are better in Bu alo. It’s because most places there they smoke 5 Misbehavin’ scientists them and then  ash-fry them instead of whatever bullshit they do around here. And it’s not that the recipe is Nupur Shridhar secret. It’s just that with junk food, people don’t care enough to track down regional recipes. But they makes a dif- FEATURES ference. 6 On a boat e reason I mention all this is because of a new establishment on ayer street, “Toledo,” a restaurant that Alex Spoto boasts as its main (and only) dish: “PIZZA IN A CONE” (!)... As far as I can tell from my research, pizza in a cone is 7 You are here a wacky new American food trend, bearing no relation to Toledo (Italy or Ohio). e restaurant shouldn’t lie. It’s Simone Landon an insult to the dignity of American terroir everywhere. ere should be a law against it. -EJS 9 What it means to veil Ellora Vilkin

11 Squatting in Providence Mimi Dwyer

POST 10  oughts on the fall FALL 2010 MANAGING EDITORS Katie Jennings, Tarah Knaresboro, Eli Schmitt • NEWS Ashton Strait, Emma Whitford, Jonah Wolf • METRO Maud Doyle, George A. Warner, Simon van Zuylen-Wood • OPINION Mimi OPINIONS Dwyer, Brian Judge • FEATURES Alice Hines, Natalie Jablonski, Marguerite Preston, Adrian Randall • ARTS 13  e utopia in your head Jordan Carter, Alexandra Corrigan, Erik Font, Natasha Pradhan • SCIENCE Katie Delaney, Nupur Shridhar • Brian Judge SPORTS Malcolm Burnley • FOOD Belle Cushing • LITERARY Rebekah Bergman, Charlotte Crowe • X PAGE X Katie Gui • NEW MEDIA Kate Welsh • LIST Simone Landon, Erin Schikowski, Dayna Tortorici • DESIGN Maija Ekay, Katherine Entis, Mary-Evelyn Farrior, Emily Fishman, Maddy McKay, Liat Werber, Rachel Wex- 14 Katie Gui ler, Joanna Zhang • ILLUSTRATIONS Emily Martin, Robert Sandler • COVER EDITOR Emily Martin • MEGA PORN STAR Raphaela Lipinsky • SENIOR EDITORS Margo Irvin, Simone Landon, Erin Schikowski, Emily Segal, Dayna Tortorici • STAFF WRITER Zachary Rausnitz • PHOTOGRAPHY John Fisher • MVP Brian Judge

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Concussions Unexplained bruises Bags under the eyes: How? Why? THEINDY.ORG 2 News A Rejected Letter to the Editors of the New York Law Journal

In my distinguished career as a Personal Injury Attorney, I often deal with the dam- age caused by reckless minors behind the wheel. erefore, I was pleased to read your report on the recent ruling of Justice Paul Wooten of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, allowing Juliet Breitman to be sued for negligence in mowing down frail, 87-year-old Claire Menagh. ough Miss Breitman may be only four years old, she must still be held account- able for her actions. After all, what excuse can she have? at she lost control of her bike? Unlikely, given that she was on training wheels. No, the fact of the matter is that she was racing her friend Jacob Kohn, a fellow four-year-old. And, in their crav- ing for a thrill, they neglected to notice the innocent victim in their path. Unfortunately, Ms. Menagh died three months after the incident (supposedly of unrelated causes, but I’m sure the stress of the incident took its toll), so she can’t relay the horrifying story to us herself. ankfully, Ms. Menagh’s estate is suing the children and their mothers, and I applaud their e orts to keep the streets safe from these young hooligans. Justice Wooten’s choice to base his decisions o court decisions from 1928 stat- ing that infants under the age of four cannot be held accountable for negligence, (assuming children over that age can), is also admirable. After all, in the nine months since Miss Breitman passed the age of impunity she has surely developed a tremen- dous capacity for culpability. And when Ms. Menagh’s estate sues Miss Breitman and, presumably, wins, might I suggest to the presiding judge the following punishments for Miss Breitman: that she be given a probationary period of several years in which she is not allowed to operate a wheeled vehicle, after which time, assuming she has been on good behavior, she may graduate to a vehicle with training wheels until such a time as her parole o cer sees  t; that she be given a time-out in federal prison; that she be entered into a rehabilitation center where she can learn to control her danger- ous impulses until she reaches adulthood; etc. However, if the presiding justice cannot fi nd a suitable punishment for the defen- dant, I say make the bitch pay. She’s sure to have a piggy bank somewhere. by Ashton Strait Sincerely, Lex Malus, Esq. and George A. Warner

-AS

No Fresh Bounty in Iowa

Yes, losing the House of Representatives was bad. Having Republicans replace Demo- crats in at least ten gubernatorial elections so far? Also bad. However, the biggest hurt for foodies on Tuesday night might have been the defeat of Francis icke, the Democratic candidate for Secretary of Agriculture in Iowa. e dairy farmer of 27 years was beat out by Bill Northey (R), an incumbent funded heavily by the Agricul- tural Axis of Evil (Monsanto, Syngenta and Dupont), and a man known outside Iowa for his unwillingness to inspect an Iowan farm suspected of producing salmonella- WEEK IN REVIEWinfested chicken feed, even as half a billion eggs were recalled this summer. icke hoped to bring the concerns of the sustainable agricultural movement di- rectly to America’s agricultural epicenter. Often touted as the “food capital of the World,” Iowa receives more federal farm subsidies than any state excluding Texas, grows a  fth of the country’s corn, and produces nearly a third of the nation’s hogs. Northey said that Iowa does “a great job of producing food not only for Iowans, but for folks all over the world.” But, as icke pointed out during his campaign, for all the food it produces, Iowa does a bad job feeding itself. Ninety percent of the food eaten in Iowa is imported from outside the state’s borders. Step one of icke’s program: make Iowa not just the food capital of the world, but the “food capital of Iowa,” as he described in an interview with Grist. Another step, he said, was to allow more local control over the location of and improve the regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), the giant feed lots oft maligned by foodies and neighbors alike. icke planned to set air quality standards so the family of four down the road would not have a side of ammonia and hydrogen sul de with their morning co ee. When Iowa Public Radio asked Northey about CAFOs, he remained mute on the subject, although he encour- aged listeners to “engage in the political process to set up those rules”...as close as it gets to a politician saying ‘vote for the other guy.’ Of course, the race was as much about symbolism as anything else. For icke, it was about having a Secretary of Agriculture who provides a vision for the future, not who just acts as an industry spokesman. For coastal foodies looking ahead towards the 2012 Farm Bill, icke’s campaign was meant to make a statement. But instead of proving that sustainable agriculture folks can have sway in farm country politics, and not just Greenmarket policy, the campaign results have only reinforced the sta- tus quo. Th e endorsements of Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, and Wendell Berry may mean enough to win an election in California, but they were not enough to crack the political war-machine known alternatively as Agribusiness. If icke’s loss means anything, it’s that the sustainable food movement, Whole Foods, farmer’s markets, and all, is still not part of the electoral equation in the America that actually grows most of the nation’s food. Illustrations by George A. Warner -GW 3 NOVEMBER 4 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT News RAHMMED DOWN YOUR THROAT Rahm Emanuel runs for mayor

by Mel Whelp Illustration by Katherine Entis ans. But within the city itself, his roots e group formally known as the Chi- are slightly more complicated. He spent cago Coalition for Mayor—an assorted most of his childhood in Wilmette, an collective of over 60 African-American affl uent Chicago suburb. He has also groups, including elected o cials, reli- spent a large portion of his adult life in gious leaders, lawyers and businessmen Washington, D.C—making him sensitive throughout the city—chose her to be to accusations of carpet bagging. Addi- the African-American “consensus candi- tionally, he arrives in Chicago without date.” However, she is still tainted by a an obvious coalition to form the base of scandal during her term as U.S. Senator. his support. Most candidates start with In 1996, despite US sanctions against one or more blocs: the black vote, the la- the country, she made a clandestine trip bor vote, the Hispanic vote. He does not to Nigeria where she met with dictator Mayor Daley has ruled immediately possess any one of these Sanchi Abacha. She subsequently de- machine is now a shadow of what it once Chicago since 1955, ex- blocs, except for possibly the notorious fended his human rights abuses in Con- was. e increasing cosmopolitanism of cept for a memorable “lakefront liberal.” Also, as several news- gress. Not long after, it was revealed that the city and its elites, the growing in u- twelve year interrup- papers have been quick to point out, her  ancé was a lobbyist for the Nigerian ence of the media, and the very public tion, resulting mostly in Emanuel does not appear to have any government. conviction of Daley’s patronage chief, chaos. When the current sincere a liation with a Chicago base- Rev. James Meeks polled well in Sep- Robert Sorich, in a city hiring scandal, Mayor Daley, Richard M., ball team. In a city that loves politics and tember. At ten percent he came in sec- have contributed to weakening the ma- announced his decision sports and politics as sports, this seem- ond behind Tom Dart, who has since chine’s power. not to seek a seventh ingly minor detail weighs heavily on the dropped out of the race. However, he Money will play a bigger role than in Aterm in September, Chi- minds of voters who already see him as was snubbed as the African-American the past. Emanuel and Moseley Braun cago newspapers deemed it a “political an outsider. “consensus candidate.” Until Tuesday he have the advantage here—they are the earthquake,” and headlines ranged from But in the words of one unhappy al- also had insisted that if elected, he would only candidates who are likely to raise “Daley a father  gure for Chicago” to derman, there seems to a strong chance remain pastor of his church, which hurt money from across the country. Com- “Daley’s decision means the time is now that City Hall could “go from a Daley his legitimacy. He then handed over his plicating matters is a $10,000 limit on for democracy.” Daley’s 21-year tenure dictatorship to a bully dictatorship.” church duties to a man who has  led for donations from corporations and unions has been marked by the city’s revitaliza- ere are the stories: the dinner after bankruptcy twice, owns three cars, has that will take e ect on January 1. In a tion and new-found status as a ‘world Bill Clinton was  rst elected president in a second mortgage on a Chicago house, better  nancial atmosphere, there would class city.’ While Daley is oft criticized 1992, Emanuel rattled o the names of and has timeshares in the Bahamas and be a mad dash to raise money before the for his bulldozing tactics (literally—he everyone who had wronged them during another vacation area in Illinois. Meeks end of the year. But in a down economy, once bulldozed an aviation strip that the campaign. After each name, he lifted has called homosexuality an “evil dis- corporate donors are less inclined to give bordered the Chicago Bear’s football sta- his steak knife, brought it full force into ease,” but assured the gay community, large sums of money until the race nar- dium in the middle of the night, without the table, and screamed, “DEAD!”; the “Now, if I were sitting around bored with rows signi cantly. permission from the Chicago City Coun- two-and-a-half-foot decomposing  sh nothing to do, that stu might come up. Aside from the issue of money, can- cil or the Federal Aviation Administra- he sent to a pollster; the expletive-laden But I expect to be so busy with schools, didates must also  gure out how to  nd tion, in order to pave way for natural invective directed at Senator Lindsey crime, and budget problems during my their foot soldiers and best put them to grasslands and a bandstand), nobody de- Graham, loud enough to hear through  rst term that I won’t have time.” use. At one time, Mayor Daley and oth- nies—or would dare to deny—his ability the phone, while the senator was tour- As for City Clerk Miguel del Valle, he er political leaders were able to deploy to get things done. ing the Chapel of the Ascension in Je- is by far the most prominent Latino can- armies of people to work on behalf of in- When Daley shocked the city with his rusalem. Despite these horror stories, didate in the mix. He is coming from a dividual candidates. at is no longer the announcement to retire, he opened the Emanuel’s boundless energy and relent- position of obscurity, but he could cap- case. Now, as happens in other cities not  oodgates to a series of candidates eager less campaigning led him to become one ture a signi cant vote share from the dominated by machine politics, people to stick their toes into a Chicago mayoral of the top engineers of the Democrats’ city’s Latino community. Although Lati- working to get votes in their wards must race. After the initial rush, however, the takeover of Congress in 2006, and, as nos make up about a fourth of the city’s  nd volunteers enthusiastic enough to pool has thinned signi cantly. e popu- President Obama’s chief of sta , he or- population according to the 2000 cen- spend their time and energy on a candi- lar Cook County Sheri Tom Dart, and chestrated the passage of the stimulus sus, they are only 15 percent of the city’s date. Illinois Congressmen, Luis Gutierrez and package and health care bill. He is a rec- voters. ey are underrepresented at the All of these factors point to an Eman- Danny Davis, were leading candidates, ognizable and strong—if sometimes po- polls partly because they are younger uel victory. He has money, name recogni- but they dropped out. Now, former larizing— gure. In Chicago politics, this than most Chicagoans—40 percent un- tion, and a chutzpah that could inspire Obama chief-of-sta , Rahm Emanuel, can only work to his advantage. James der 18—while many are not U.S. citizens volunteers. But the election is not until appears to be the most formidable con- Morone, Professor of Political Science or eligible to vote but have not yet regis- February, and in a city with politics’ as tender. and Urban Studies at Brown University, tered. volatile as Chicago’s, anything can hap- To people elsewhere, this may have said “Emanuel’s style is just business as All candidates must reckon with a pen. been obvious. Emanuel represents Chi- usual in the Windy City… In fact, Rahm’s key issue: how to successfully mount a cago in a White House full of Chicago- probably going to have to toughen up.” citywide e ort without the political ma- MEL WHELP B’12 is Chicago 4 lyfe. His main opponents appear to be for- chine that propelled Daley successfully mer Senator Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill), through six mayoral elections. is mat- Illinois state senator Rev. James Meeks, ters especially for Emanuel. Not only did and City Clerk Miguel Del Valle. Moseley Daley endorse him in 2002, but he also Braun became the  rst African-Amer- supplied him with his army of patronage ican woman to serve in the U.S. Senate employees, who knocked on doors up when she was elected in 1992, and her and down the 5th Congressional District. name is recognized throughout the city. In less than ten years, the old political THEINDY.ORG 4 Metro HOMELESS ALONE Homelessness soars as budgets shrink by Beth Caldwell, Graphic by Elizabeth Filth

ohn Joyce isn’t afraid to these startling  gures. Two hundred larly acute. e city has the most home- “ ltered down” middle-class housing. As talk about death, par- eighty-two additional shelter beds are less in the state, and the Taskforce has the housing stock dwindles and rents ticularly in front of a needed. By contrast, Rhode Island faced yet to con rm any additional shelters in continue to rise, the poor have increas- news camera. When a a de cit of 75 shelter beds last fall. “We the area. Th e Mathewson Street United ingly fewer options. Hirsch calculated friend and fellow home- have an emergency on our hands,” said Methodist Church has o ered space to that a family needed to earn $48,440 in less man froze to death Jim Ryczek, executive director of the Co- house people, and ACCESS Rhode Island, order to a ord the average two-bedroom underneath a bridge on alition for the Homeless. Since 1988, the which runs a permanent and emergency apartment in Rhode Island in 2008, as- JNew Year’s Day in 2009, Joyce—who Coalition has sought comprehensive so- shelter in Pawtucket, is willing to run suming that a family spends 30% of himself spent three years without a place lutions for issues of housing and home- the site. But adequate funding is still a its income on housing. Almost half of to live—and others sleeping outside lessness, primarily through legislative tremendous obstacle. Twenty thousand Rhode Island’s households make less faced a tragic reminder. A whole win- advocacy. More recently, a group of cur- dollars of previously unallocated state than $50,000 per year. ter—or even one night—without shelter rently or formerly homeless individuals funds are now allotted for winter shel- Housing concerns have only been ex- could have permanent consequences. formed the Homeless Advocacy Project ters, along with some private grants acerbated by the continuing foreclosure Yet the state hadn’t come to the same to engage in peer-to-peer organizing, ad- and anonymous donations. Between crisis—at 8.73 percent, Rhode Island conclusion. Shelters were over capacity vocacy, and action to end homelessness these private and state funds, Jim Ry- has the highest foreclosure rate in New and Joyce and the others had few op- in Rhode Island. Together, the organiza- czek, representative of the Coalition England and the eighth highest rate in tions. ey decided to pitch a few tents tions are committed to keeping people for the Homeless on the Taskforce, said the country. Because of the lack of af- alongside the Providence River. Hope safe through the winter. he is pretty con dent that there will be fordable rental options, Rhode Island City, as they called it, provided some enough money for one Providence shel- families were particularly susceptible to shelter and a safe community. But its PLANNING FOR EMERGENCY ter to operate for  ve months. e Task- subprime lending. Now, experts predict political message—that homelessness In 1999, in response to annual calls by force is also hopeful that the Diocese of one in ten mortgaged houses in the state is a growing problem that demands im- advocates for additional winter shelters, Providence will open and run another will face foreclosure by 2012. In a state mediate recognition—remains largely Rhode Island established the Emergency space independently. If both sites come where many houses are multi-family unheard nearly two years later. Winter Shelter Taskforce, which includes together, Providence will have the same residences, a foreclosure can mean  ve Currently, shelters are over owing shelter administrators, various state em- provisions as last year, when it opened families pushed onto the streets. like never before, but Rhode Island has ployees, and representatives from other two emergency shelters. Yet the need is Homelessness is not just a prob- no  rm plans for emergency shelters in statewide housing organizations. Each more than double this year. Unless the lem of physical space or immediate Providence. “Right now, we have over fall, the committee tries to determine Taskforce can  nd additional resources, safety. Without a permanent place to 175 residents of our state who are home- the need for the coming winter and  nd many may be forced to camp in tents or live, adults are often unable to  nd and less and in the streets of our city. Some- funding to operate temporary shelters. squat in Providence’s hundreds of fore- maintain jobs. Families are often forced thing has to be done, and soon, before Over the last few years, homeless in- closed buildings (see page 7 of this is- to live separately due to shelter restric- someone dies,” said Joyce. dividuals—some of whom rely on the sue). tions. Frequent moves and communal emergency shelters—have also added “ e scope of the problem just far out- living cause disruption in children’s edu- SHELTER SKELTER their voices to the Taskforce. As mem- stretches the system’s ability to deal with cation in addition to the crippling stigma Between February 2008 and 2009, shel- bers of the Homeless Input Committee, it,” said Ryczek. Others point to a greater attached to their status. Public health ter use in Rhode Island spiked by 43 per- these homeless Rhode Islanders have lack of political will. Barbara Kalil, who experts often refer to the lack of preven- cent as the state drastically cut funding pressed the Taskforce to provide more spent the winter and spring of 2009 in a tative healthcare and the poor nutrition for a ordable housing in the midst of than a place to sleep: case management tent city, says she understands the mon- of homeless families. Disabilities and rising unemployment and a deepening services, more convenient hours of op- ey issues but still believes the “state’s got health problems become far graver with- recession. is year, advocates predict eration, and a respectful sta are becom- to step up.” As she describes, the same out a safe space for recovery. Safe perma- the same upward trend. An estimated ing part of the planning process. HIC thing happens every year. “Housing has nent housing is a fundamental source of 4,340 Rhode Islanders will seek out shel- members hope these changes will make never been a priority,” adds Joyce. stability, but that foundation is gradual- ters at some point this year, a 29 percent it easier to convince those who have had ly crumbling for many Rhode Islanders. jump from last year. More than half will bad experiences in the past to come in- MORE THAN A SEASONAL Many advocates—though deeply be using shelters for the  rst time. 40 side on the coldest nights. Despite prog- CRISIS concerned about the coming months— percent of those in shelters this year will ress, the committee is often slow in its Despite the immediate push for better- see this emergency as an important op- be families, the fastest growing demo- planning. John Joyce, co-founder and run shelters and an advanced winter portunity to make homelessness a prior- graphic. co-executive director of the RI Homeless plan, many advocates see these e orts ity for legislators. “Why do we wait for e results of recent on-the-ground Advocacy Project, says the Taskforce pe- as a short-term necessity rather than a crisis to act?” asked Ryczek. “ e only research also paint grim prospects. On rennially waits too long to begin prepa- a real solution to the larger causes of silver lining in this situation is that this September 23, shelter sta and volun- rations. homelessness. Eric Hirsch, the chair of may help to move forward our agenda teers counted the number of individuals is year, Joyce and others pushed the Homeless Management Informa- for larger systemic change.” In the com- staying in each shelter and those they the Taskforce to convene earlier, antici- tion System Committee, says the im- ing legislative session, the Coalition for could  nd sleeping outdoors in seven cit- pating the dramatic increase in shelter pact of the Great Recession and limited the Homeless plans to lobby for a perma- ies and towns across the state. Four hun- needs. In response, the committee be- low-income housing are the two primary nent funding stream for the production dred seventy-eight individuals crowded gan discussions in June. In recent meet- causes of homelessness in Rhode Island. and maintenance of a ordable housing into Rhode Island’s 391 available shelter ings, the Taskforce has begun to lay out e housing shortage goes back to the units. But the short term is still the pri- beds the night of the count—many slept a detailed budget and to discuss various ’80s and ’90s, Hirsch explains in a so- ority for most, said Jim McCartin, who on mats in communal rooms. Outreach site locations, many of which have pro- ciological article, “Understanding Home- plans to work as part of a nightly street workers found another 195 individuals vided shelter space in the past. And in lessness.” As Rhode Island experienced outreach team, encouraging people to sleeping outside, 78 in Providence alone. Pawtucket, Westerly, and Woonsocket, increasing income strati cation, hous- stay in the winter shelters. “Our job is to At the mid-October press conference and emergency shelters are already set to ing developers focused more on new sub- get people inside and safe so there aren’t demonstration, the Rhode Island Coali- open in early November. But as Jim Mc- urban developments and luxury apart- any deaths this winter. at’s a low bar tion for the Homeless and the Rhode Is- Cartin, a homeless member of the RI ments complexes in the city. Ten years to set, but that’s where it is.” land Homeless Advocacy Project, two of Homeless Advocacy Project, says,“Th ere later, the lack of housing construction the most prominent homeless advocacy are still more bodies than beds.” targeted at the middle class is hurting BETH CALDWELL B’12 wants to step organizations in the state, announced e crisis in Providence is particu- the poor, who most often live in older, it up. 5 NOVEMBER 4 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT Science SCIENTIFIC MISDEEDS Are researchers forced to lie to us? by Nupur Shridhar Illustration by Charis Loke

n August, after three enthralled audiences in the early 1900s in men, and others, like BiDil, a heart thority to tell us who’s good and who’s years of internal inves- with his ability to tap out the answers to disease medication for “self-identifying bad. tigation, Harvard Uni- simple arithmetic problems. But in 1907, African Americans,” may only work in in- Yet Hauser’s premise in Moral Minds versity found Dr. Marc psychologist Oskar Pfungst proved that dividuals with a particular set of genes. is that language itself is a highly evolved Hauser, a renowned Hans wasn’t a math prodigy—he was For this reason, it’s possible to imagine organ that’s been selected for like our evolutionary biologist just so good at reading his trainer’s body how Hauserian manipulations of data large brains and opposable thumbs. Only (and, perhaps ironically, language that he could tell when he’d could have lethal e ects in pharmaceu- a handful of species have created vocab- I author of Moral Minds: tapped his hoof enough times. Hans tical research—but it’s just as problem- ularies, and out of all of them, humans How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense was brilliant, it turns out—just not in atic to make assumptions about how and certainly seem to enjoy talking the most. of Right and Wrong) “solely responsible” the ways his trainers had predicted. As what we’ve evolved to think. As Emory Language, then, becomes the evolution- for eight counts of scienti c misconduct. Brown University evolutionary biologist University primate researcher Dr. Frans ary trait that allows us to communicate e resulting government investigation, Dr. David Rand notes, “It’s notoriously de Waal told USA Today, Hauser’s mis- our pain and pleasure and to negoti- which may take up to eight years to re- di cult to test these sorts of things. Be- conduct “leaves open whether we in ate these needs and emotions socially. solve, has revealed fundamental prob- havioral study is fraught with complicat- the  eld of animal behavior should just What’s evil causes societal pain and lems about the way scientists examine ing variables, and you can never really worry about those three articles or about what’s good increases societal pleasure. behavior—especially their own. By extension, only by learning our Hauser’s controversial work fo- cultural vocabularies—the words cuses on the linguistic capacities of we charge with positive connota- cotton-top tamarin monkeys. In a tions (strong, nurturing) as well paper published in Cognition in 2002, as the words some cultures leave Hauser and his team concluded that out (homosexuality, interracial)— his animal subjects could identify a do we develop a sense of morality. novel sound from background chat- Science certainly has the ability to ter. eir experiment involved habit- study both the origins of language, uating infant monkeys to one of two through experiments like Hauser’s, consonant-vowel sequences—AAB and the kinds of neurological and (“wi wi di”) or ABB (“le we we”)— hormonal circuits that are respon- which served as controls. Using this sible for our experience of emotion. model, Hauser concluded that the As neuroscientist Sam Harris em- monkeys turned their head toward phasizes in his TED talk, science the speaker when they heard an unfa- can answer moral questions. “Th ere miliar test noise. is readily identi - are truths to be known about able response to new stimuli proved, how human communities  our- as Hauser sought to, that the ability ish, whether or not we understand to distinguish sounds is the funda- these truths. And morality relates mental evolutionary talent that al- to these truths…I’m not saying lows for the primate’s intimate rela- science is guaranteed to map this tionship with language. space, or that we will have scien- But a student whistleblower work- ti c answers to every conceivable ing under Hauser revealed problem- moral question. I don’t think, for atic holes in the experimental data: instance, that you will one day the lab tapes only show monkeys re- consult a supercomputer to learn sponding to novel sounds; there are whether you should have a second no tapes of the controls, which are child, or whether we should bomb essential in proving any hypothesis. Iran’s nuclear facilities…but if ques- Without these baseline values, there’s tions a ect human well-being then no reason to believe Hauser’s incomplete know what the animals are thinking.” many more, and then there are also pub- they do have answers, whether or not we conclusions. So did Hauser fabricate his Unsurprisingly, Hauser’s incomplete re- lications related to language and mo- can  nd them. And just admitting this— controls (criminal) or simply forget to cords are likely unable to account for all rality that include data that are now in just admitting that there are right and include them in his data (stupid)? the possible sources of error. question.” wrong answers to the question of how Without access to the investigation’s But perhaps the problem derives It’s worth deconstructing this rela- humans  ourish—will change the way evidence, it’s impossible to do anything more generally from science’s depen- tionship between language and morality we talk about morality, and will change but hypothesize about what did or didn’t dence on statistical manipulation. In or- because, even if Hauser is an unethical the expectations of human cooperation go wrong. Perhaps it was the double- der to be taken seriously (and to receive scientist, his book’s conclusions on lan- in the future.” blind nature of the experiment itself. funding) every scientist needs to show guage and its importance to human- It’s likely that in a few months, Haus- Th e researchers, including Hauser, didn’t that results are signifi cant. Yet diff erent kind seem to ring true. As Rand points er’s case will be long resolved and forgot- know what the monkeys in the sound- statistical tests are more or less sensitive out, what makes the scienti c study of ten. Right now, however, it’s an oppor- proof booths were hearing because the to irregularities in data. Some require morality di cult is that natural selec- tunity to learn more about how di cult noises were randomly generated by com- high levels of correlation to prove signif- tion has little to contribute to notions it is to con rm and replicate scienti c puters, so the controls could be missing icance; Hauser’s students have accused of good or evil. “Sel shness in animals, results. Despite the rigorous peer review or mislabeled. Or perhaps it’s the fact him of pressuring them to use tests that like a lion killing its prey or competing process and governmental standards that Hauser and his students interpret- admit signi cance very easily. with other lions for mates, isn’t viewed for behavioral research, there is much ed the monkeys’ movements di erently. What’s at stake, then, is the very va- as immoral, and people who are immoral more work to be done before scientists It takes many years of practice to under- lidity of the theories we’re told to accept or even just amoral aren’t genetic devi- can truly understand animal behavior stand and codify the subtleties of pri- as fact. Research is essentially a numbers ants. Just like with every heritable trait, objectively, and what, even, it means to mate behavior—observers may under- game, and the continual quest for sig- it’s an issue of how much of the variation behave. stand movements di erently. Of course, ni cance reveals the range of possible in moral behavior has to do with genetic it doesn’t help that, just like every other errors worked into each ‘truth.’ Consider variation as opposed to environmental animal, some tamarins are just smarter manufactured drugs, which have di er- variation—things like, did you have dot- NUPUR SHRIDHAR B’11 looks for- than others. ent e cacies in each user. Some medi- ing parents?” By this line of reasoning, ward to Hauser’s next book – Evilicious: Consider Clever Hans, the horse who cines are for children, others work best evolutionary biologists have little au- explaining our evolved taste for being bad. THEINDY.ORG 6 Features

BOAT LIVIN’ Photographs by Mats Horn

Lifestyles on landing pad for the houseboat doesn’t sound too far-fetched. the amphibious Despite the striking initial impres- sion, the  rst moments on board reveal frontier that boat living is no freewheeling, rus- by Alex Spoto tic, aquatic joyride. Not only must the ship’s residents be resourceful and dili- gent in meeting their daily needs, they also are responsible for carving out both a social and conceptual niche for house- boat residents in and around Providence. e approached the vessel by MAKING HOME c a n o e — t h e Weindel and Gladstone built the wooden wSeekonk River was placid and frigid base, a 50’ by 50’ platform, on land, then at 7:30 in the late October morning. got it a oat with two pontoons made A hoodied  gure in shredded, paint- out of 26 old barrels, recycled foam, and precedent for it yet! ere’s no regula- stained jeans, sporting some feral bed concrete. ey built the cabin out of lo- tion that has ever been made about know, you get the weirdest o erings head, emerged from the boat’s cabin cal wood and two pallets’ worth of poly- where you can moor your houseboat.” from local people,” Weindel says. “Peo- with a steaming cup of co ee and a face iso foam from a nearby testing company, e few folks who do live-on-board often ple come by and say, ‘What do you guys fresh from having woken up to the wa- fastened a modest 85hp motor to the do so seasonally and on more traditional need out here?’ then they come back ter. As he called out to us in the canoe, back, and set it out in the water. crafts like sailboats or yachts. with some toilet paper or canned food or a massive, jet-black raven landed on the e top level features a ship’s wheel In Providence and Pawtucket, there something.” man’s shoulder. (the helm) and a literal “crow’s nest,” a is not very much boat tra c. But some- Once they were bequeathed a piping- Zachary Weindel and Daniel Glad- netted habitat for Gurgy. e inside of times, the two moor the boat in the hot pepperoni pizza. e boat has made stone are the architects and engineers the cabin is an expertly mixed use of city of East Providence, where there is a splash at nearby  shing spots and boat behind a houseboat currently moored in space. It has a shotgun  oorplan: a small a wealth of coves and anchoring places, ramps, and the o erings are usually the Upper Narragansett Bay near Provi- bunk area, a storage area, a kitchenette, but more laws restricting boat move- made by fans showing their support. dence. ey are both in their early 20s and a sitting area with a workbench. ment. And then, of course, there is the con- and built the boat from scratch over two e walls are made out of expanding “ ey have a harbor master because stant hassle of getting to and from land. years, glomming it together from used polyurethane foam that keeps the cabin East Providence has several anchoring “It’s got me thinking a lot about an am- and recycled materials with some help well insulated, and many of the building and mooring  elds, and lots of water- phibious vehicle,” says Weindel. from the “free” listings on Craigslist. materials are clearly recycled. e boat’s front, lots of really nice property, and He says he has plans to build one—an e two have been living on the boat full exterior is a spectrum of foam grays and lots of little coves and stu … and he hydroplaning, scooter-engine-powered time—residing in homey tidal coves in un nished wood, and the washers that keeps things ship-shape and organized,” model—but for now, Weindel and Glad- and around Providence—since August. hold the structure together are a hodge- Weindel says. “He’s called us out on a stone must stick to the trusty canoe and Gladstone, who grew up in Rhode Island, podge of beer bottle caps. couple of violations we’ve had in the focus on the more urgent obstacles pre- is still a student at URI, so he makes Gladstone casually jabs a knife into past, and that’s probably a good thing sented by the winter. frequent trips to the mainland. But their experimental poly-iso foam wall to because we’re better o and more in- Weindel, who is originally from Eastern demonstrate its resilience. All the while, formed.” INHABITING THE FUTURE Connecticut, goes weeks without ever Gurgy croaks and gurgles from the roof, roughout the Fox Point Reach and e guys’ ultimate vision is to start a cre- leaving the boat. “always less, always less.” south of the upper bay, the Coast Guard ative and sustainably-focused live-on- Instead of the hackneyed pirate’s Weindel, who brie y went to school enforces the law. Still, in the less fre- board community. ey’ve been settling parrot, Weindel has a trained, pure- for mechanical engineering, prides him- quently boated areas where the two tend into full-time boat living, and say they’re bred corvid-hybrid—a more  tting bird self on being able to see applications for to keep their home, Weindel is quick to going to start a blog about the boat to for Providence. Th e raven-esque bird is unlikely materials, such as an experi- point out that, although the laws may be get people interested in sustainability, named Gurgy and she doesn’t just talk— mental glue or a newly designed  ber gray, there is some sense of order. “It’s building one’s own dwelling, and house- she croaks in a Tom Waits timbre, “al- blanket. not lawless—there’s all the federal laws: boat communities. ways less.” e phrase is something of a “Sometimes one of the things that you can’t discharge into the water, oil or “What I’d really like to see is a group of mantra for the boat people: it positively I call myself is a ‘materials application sewage; no litter, you’ve got to take out houseboats clustered along the bottom inverts the landlubber’s “nevermore” and specialist,’” he says. the trash… ey’re all about environ- of a wind turbine,” says Weindel. is encapsulates their sustainably-minded is type of knowledge is often mental stu .” may sound far o , but nearby Wood’s lifestyle of minimal consumption. learned on the job—living full time on a Hole in Cape Cod has an established, Weindel said he picked a bird as the boat is a life-encompassing art. Neither INHERENT CHALLENGES thriving community of boat-dwellers, perfect pet because it can do everything Weindel nor Gladstone work on land Living on the water means rent is free. many of them professors doing research he wants to do: cross the water and the very often on. ey focus most of their Nevertheless, several issues come to at the Cape’s Oceanographic Institute. sky. When I ask, “sky?” I’m not surprised time and energy toward the upkeep and mind when living o the grid. ere are en there’s the more pressing future: to learn that he’s a licensed aeronaut construction of the boat. the basics: clean water, heat, and elec- the cold weather presents a more imme- who built and  ies a hot air balloon. Con- tricity. Th en there’s the question of what diate problem—and opportunity. Wein- sidering how successfully he and Glad- A MARITIME HABITAT to do with one’s waste, and the problem del and Gladstone are installing a brick stone have patched together a creative Gladstone says a houseboat community of  nding a safe, legal place to anchor. masonry stove inside the cabin and will and original dwelling, a hot air balloon “doesn’t exist in Providence—there’s no e boat has a rain-water collection sys- be tenting in the part of the deck with tem and an outhouse which composts the outhouse and outdoor workbench. waste. Food mostly comes from shore ey are con dent that the foam walls and a propane tank and burner facili- will keep them warm. tate cooking. e most complex utili- As of late, the boat has been consum- ties present the biggest hurdles. “Elec- ing most of their time, and the two are tricity is the most di cult commodity crafting a tailored, skillful art of mari- out here,” says Weindel. time habitation. I ask who is technically ey have a wind turbine that can the captain. One replies, “Gurgy’s the charge the boat’s deep-cycle batteries, captain, we’re just crew,” and the other but Weindel has taken it down for the says “I don’t think a boat really needs a day since there isn’t much wind and the captain.” out-of-balance blades threaten Gurgy. For other needs, they sometimes get ALEX SPOTO B’11 [Jalopy  oats]. help. Passersby, regular  shermen, and boaters often supply them. “Probably To tune in to the community around the more than anything I get  shers that boat and see more pictures and videos come and they give me Corona and (including Gurgy glamour shots), search off er me weed and stuff like that. You “Landlord Independent” on Facebook. An Interview with Bill Rankin,

Bill Rankin is the founder and key contributor to radicalcar- BR: I don’t know. Some of the most segregated cities tography.net, an online archive of uncommon maps. He is a are the ones with the most rigid grids, like Chicago or doctoral candidate in the History of Science and Architecture Detroit—radical transformation across a street or train at Harvard. In his spare time, he takes public records (like tracks or something like that. One side it’s all African- demographic census data) and uses them to make maps. e American, the other side it’s all Hispanic/Latino. You ‘About’ page for Radical Cartography is simply a Jean Bau- don’t really have that as much in Boston. You defi nitely drillard quote, but, happily, Rankin is personable and more have neighborhoods that are segregated, homogenous. than willing to explain his project to the Independent (I). But the boundaries aren’t—there’s no stark one side of the street is one thing and the other side the other. And I: Tell me where we are and what we’re doing. I don’t think that a di erent street pattern would nec- essarily lead to di erent patterns of segregation. [Seg- Bill Rankin: We’re in Central Square [Cambridge, MA]. regation] is often determined by mortgage policies and You said to meet some place cartographically interest- where highway planners put highways—they put them ing. ere are a lot of di erent grids coming together through neighborhoods that can’t organize to prevent here. People who study the way people understand cit- it. I think what you would see [with a di erent street ies,  nd that when di erent grids are colliding, every- pattern] is a lot more people interacting with each one gets disoriented. No matter how well they know other. Th e way that New York is just as segregated as the city, moving from one grid area to another is always any city, but in Manhattan you’re always encountering confusing. It’s really interesting in terms of how we people. On the subway, people are working together, understand space and how maps should be laid on the that kind of thing. And I think in Boston, I talk to a world. lot of people at Harvard who just say “oh it’s just su- per white, there’s no interaction,” when in fact there’s I: So was it just poor planning that that’s how these lots and lots of people who aren’t white, but if you only grids came together? take the red line, from Harvard down to downtown or something like that, you’re never going to interact with BR: In this case, there was a path in the 17th century anyone who’s di erent than you. So I think the street that went from one small town to another small town; pattern could change that. that was the main drag. And then, as Cambridge was e other cartographically interesting thing about developed, mostly in the late 19th early 20th centuries, Central Square is that it’s actually pretty diverse. Th ere’s various developers would just put in grids to  ll in the a longstanding black community here, there’s a long- triangles between these big cow paths. So I don’t think standing white community. ere’s some more recent it’s poor planning exactly. ey were just working with immigrants, South Asian, Middle Eastern. It’s often re- a historical set of paths. ally tough to show that kind of diversity on a map—a demographic map—because most demographic maps I: And Cambridge never had a time where they had shade solid colors. Each neighborhood has a certain col- something like a great  re and had to start over? or that’s percent black or percent white, so the question is, how do you show neighborhoods that are really di- BR: No, nothing like that. ere are more disconnected verse without just having them be shaded ‘no majority’ neighborhoods. at’s also where you get those grid or something like that? Or if you were going to shade shifts. at’s also where you get big infrastructural the Central Square area it might actually be 65 percent projects. MIT used to be all salt marsh. You had a neigh- white or something like that, so you actually have no borhood that was self-contained, and a salt marsh, and sense of who the other 35 percent are, or the fact that it another neighborhood, and when [the salt marsh] was feels actually quite diverse to walk around.  lled in, the neighborhoods were connected and there’s I think that’s pretty interesting, the way that maps this weird disjunction that still makes the neighbor- tend to make us think about neighborhoods in a ho- hoods actually quite distinct, and tough to navigate mogenous way. Either they focus on majorities and through them. ere’s big infrastructure, big industry, those kind of things instead of trying to focus on diver- some grid shift. Even though now Boston looks like it’s sity and how things come together. all sort of  lled in and continuous, you still have this sort of sense of these neighborhoods that don’t quite I: So where are you from? align and people still don’t move between them very easily. So it’s still quite fragmented, even though it’s BR: Just north of Chicago, about ten minutes from been sort of stitched together over time. Northwestern, a couple towns north of Evanston. Sort of similar issues there: what do diverse neighborhoods I: Is that fragmentation just geographic, or are there so- look like, how do we understand them cartographical- cial implications? ly? Dichotomies between city and suburb start not to make sense in places like Evanston. BR: It’s just as much social as geographic, for sure. I went to school in Houston. I had never been to Texas before—I thought it was all desert and cowboys. I: Do you think the geography of it helps to contribute at’s not true. And it’s a totally di erent kind of city. to that? If, say, Boston were arranged on a straight grid Was there for 45 years, then bounced around a little bit pattern, would there be more residential integration? and ended up here eight years ago. An Interview with Bill Rankin, by Simone Landon, Maps by Bill Rankin Radical Cartographer Design by Joanna Zhang

to preserve area. ere’s some that try to preserve shape. that I was a right-wing fearmonger showing the invasion I: What are you working on? What’s your dissertation? of the Mexicans, because I had a very low threshold (zero I: When you say “look right,” what do you think people percent to  ve percent). It showed much more of the BR: My dissertation is basically a history of mapping sci-  nd “right”? southwest as having a lot of Hispanic population. But at ences in the 20th century, looking at a few big interna- the same time, it was also used as the featured map on the tional projects to try to track how changes in mapping BR: I think that some of it is just not having anything too Hispanic portal because it showed that, in fact, the His- technology reinforced or echoed changes in political ge- squishy in the poles or something like that. But some of panic population is part of the United States and not just ography, ideas of territory, and sovereignty. A GPS is a dif- it is that, for more than a hundred years, when people a minority along the border but all throughout the south- ferent kind of political system than a paper map, not just looked at world maps, they looked at the Mercator map— west with a signi cant presence in every city. at’s one a di erent kind of geographic knowledge. So I’m looking which is a map that is great for navigating. It’s used on instance where the message of the map can be seen more at the transition from paper mapping to electronic sys- Google maps because when you zoom in, it’s undistorted. than one way. At the same time, I think it’s possible to tems, looking at the evolution of international mapping Not so great for a world map. analyze the decisions I made. e message was in fact that across World War Two, when the United States Military So there’s lots of good reasons to have this, but it was there are Hispanic people all throughout the southwest got really involved and had a huge impact on how map- used for wall maps and shower curtains, and textbooks, and in all suburban and metropolitan areas. But then the ping was done. So it’s a historical project. It’s not related everywhere for a long, long time. I think people got used question [becomes] is that about showing an invasion or to the maps that I make, but I’m looking at sort of similar to it, that’s what the world looks like. And so now when showing a presence? issues in terms of how maps construct reality, what are you make a world map, it looks more right if the poles the political implications of representing space in di er- are a little bit bigger than they ought to be, if Greenland’s I: Your website is called Radical Cartography. Are you try- ent ways, that kind of thing. a bit distorted relative to Africa and that kind of thing. ing to convey a certain message? When people are thinking about what “looks right,” I: Is your dissertation focusing on the United States? they’re keeping in mind all the maps they’ve seen their BR: ere’s at least two things people mean by radical entire life. If it looks really funky, it doesn’t look right. cartography. One is maps of radical things. So you have a BR: It’s focusing a lot on the things that the United States People are always surprised to  nd out how small Green- certain radical political agenda, let’s say you want to stop Military was involved in. It’s starting from a lot of inter- land is, even though it has always been that size. the CIA from doing bad things, which would be great. You national scienti c collaborations that then get folded into make maps showing what the CIA is doing and raising US Military operations. So the stuff I’m looking at from I: My old roommate had an upside down world map. awareness about this as a way to try to organize people, the 1890s is in French and German but by the 1950s it’s educate them, whatever it would be. You’re using maps as all in English. BR: It’s funny. I’ve seen a few South-up maps. ere are part of an organizing or activist campaign. South-up Mercator maps that maintain all the distortions e other way to mean radical cartography—which is I: How did you get into mapping? of the Mercator—it just  ips it upside down. at sort of the way I mean it—is more that the way we’re making the drives home the point of what are you trying to unset- maps themselves is sort of radical; we’re not deferring to BR: I was doing these maps of my own, the ones that are tle? I don’t think that accuracy is the way to think about the government or to large corporations to make these on the web now, for a long time, starting from when I maps. Rather, what is the message of the map? So what maps. We’re making them ourselves. We have the tools, took a history of cartography course in college. e teach- is the map distorting, because it has got to distort some- we have the data. We can download census data and make er said you could either respond to the books with a writ- thing. What’s in the center of the map—something’s got our own demographic maps. We can get data from the Bu- ten essay or you could make some visual responses. to be in the center. Is it going to show political boundar- reau of Land Management to show grazing rights in the ies, is it going to show topographical features, is it going southwest, when in fact all of the government maps show I: What did you make? to show demographic information? It has got to choose these wilderness areas as empty, they’re not. ey’re all to show something. Is it going to distort areas, is it going  lled with sheep and cattle and stu . So there’s ways to BR: We read a book about projections and how di erent to distort shapes? Is it going to show simple lines that are use data from the government or from private compa- kinds of projections distort the earth in di erent ways. easy to understand, like here’s where trade goes, or is it nies to make di erent kinds of maps. When I make maps I took maybe 25 projections of South America and over- going to show complex motions that are perhaps less easy of race, I don’t use the solid colors showing each neigh- laid them on top of each other. It’s on my website. ere’s to get your head around? borhood as homogenous. I use little dots. So each dot is a fuzzy South America that we recognize in all of them, It’s less about ‘is it accurate or not’ but rather what’s twenty people and so that’s how you can see in Chicago even though none of them is accurate or the real one. the message of the map. And then the question is, is this these very stark boundaries. You have all these little blue message generally moving us in the right direction? dots representing African Americans on one side of the I: What’s accurate and what’s inaccurate and is it even road and all these little orange dots representing Hispan- possible to achieve accuracy? ics on the other side. And then you can see areas where I: What’s the right direction? those are really blurring together where you have blue BR: Well I think it means di erent things. Certainly, in the and orange dots together. And maybe some pink dots and narrow sense of projections, they’re all accurate because BR: It’s whatever it is you want to do. If you think Europe green dots. And that’s challenging a certain way of think- they’re all mathematically rigorous, right? So if you take is the best place in the world, then make it big and put in ing about neighborhoods. What’s radical is the way the a sphere and project it in a certain way, that’s accurate the center of the map, right? map is drawn. It’s a radical away of approaching what is a because you’ve accurately projected it in that way. It’s just I made a map of the Hispanic/Latino population in the very non-radical idea, that is, a neighborhood. What are a question of what properties you want to preserve when United States. And so it was a map of the United States neighborhood boundaries? at might not necessarily you project it. Do you want the areas to be the same, so and I shaded based on percent Hispanic/Latino. And you align with a radical politics, but encourages you to think that the area of Greenland is the same proportionally as have to  gure out what the colors are going to mean. Is di erently about neighborhoods, neighborhood change, the area of Africa as it is on a globe? Or do you want to each color going to be a twenty percent step? I decided transitions, public planning those kinds of things. Be- preserve the shapes of little bays and rivers and stu , that wasn’t the most interesting or helpful. So I did zero cause the map itself has radicalized the conventions of so that the shape of the coast of Greenland is the same percent to  ve percent, to show where there was almost cartography. So that’s what I mean. at we’re starting as the shape on a globe? en you can have compromises no Hispanic population. Five to 50 percent, and then 50 from scratch in terms of who’s making the map, what are between those two. ere’s map projections that sort of to 80 percent because I wanted to know where there was a the messages of maps, and being more deliberate about try to look right for a world map. ere’s some that try majority. I posted it to Wikipedia. Some people were sure what maps are saying.  9 NOVEMBER 4 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT Features LAWS AND ORDER In countries where hijab is required by law, the question of what it means to the wearer gets decidedly thornier. Many Muslim nations incorporate some as- pect of Shariah, Islamic law, into their legal systems to re ect God’s will as it is expressed in the Qur’an and interpreted by legal scholars. Modest dress is often required as part of Shariah. Currently, Saudi Arabia requires women to wear the niqab, Iran insists on hijab, and there remains a strong incentive to wear the burqa in post-Taliban Afghanistan. ese kinds of compulsory veiling of- ten correlate with decrease in women’s rights. Iran provides a prime example. After the 1979 revolution, new laws stripped women of civil rights and re- THE RIGHT TO VEIL quired them to remain within the home, completely veiled. Here, veiling was one by Ellora Vilkin sador, a proponent of forum. e veil thus empowers women, aspect of broader trend against women’s the “strength, piety, allowing them to refuse our looks-based rights. us, the stereotypes linking veil- Illustration by Carolyn Shasha and resolve” she  nds in her faith as a society its chief criteria for judging wom- ing with oppression are not unfounded. member of Islam’s peaceful majority. en’s worth. Some Muslim women, then, Where the veil is imposed upon women rance’s September She says, “Th e niqab is a constant re- might choose to veil so that their sexual- from the top down, it is often part of a decision to ban full- minder to do the right thing. It’s God- ity can remain a matter decided by indi- political system more concerned with face veils will de ne consciousness in my face.” viduals rather than dictated by advertis- maintaining patriarchy than advancing relations between Ahmed is not the only Muslim to ers’ airbrushed billboards and oversexed equality. But the Qur’an does not ex- Islam and the West adopt the veil in response to 9/11; in reality TV scripts. pressly require veiling; it has been states for some time. e her 2003 book Th e Muslim Veil In North acting in the name of Islam, not the ide- ban forbids Muslim America, researcher Homa Hoodfar has <3 MOM + DAD ology itself, that have used the veil to women to publicly observed that with “heightened aware- And then there are the family ties wo- limit women’s freedom. wear either the burqa, ness of ‘Muslimness’” since the attacks, ven into the fabric of the veil. Fatema Free women in the West are able to F a full-body covering many Muslims have decided to dress in Zerin B’14 moved from Bangladesh to challenge these negative associations with mesh paneling to allow for vision, a way that clearly associates them with New York when she was fi ve years old; of the veil by contributing to the living or the niqab, a similar garment that their faith to maintain their presence in when she was ten, she asked her mom tradition of Islam. But as Hoodfar points leaves an open slit for the eyes. France society. By veiling, these women become if she could start wearing a hijab. “My out, this self-assertion can make domi- already limits wearing the less conserva- unmistakably Muslim; their actions take mom wore it,” she says. “So I just said, nant ethnic groups feel uncomfortable, tive hijab, a headscarf that conceals the on new signi cance in shaping how oth- ‘Why not?’” Zerin has kept her hijab on even in societies where “di erences are hair and shoulders, as part of a 2004 ers perceive their religion. For them, the ever since, even after her mother was expected to be tolerated, if not under- law banning conspicuous religious sym- veil stands as a personal and public re- targeted for wearing a burqa after 9/11. stood and celebrated.” Take France as bols from public schools. Th e new burqa minder that radical Islam is not the only “People would try throwing glass bottles an example—any woman with enough ban, which further stigmatizes Muslims Islam. at her,” Zerin said. So why not just take spunk to picket for her right to dress by explicitly targeting Islamic dress, has it o ? “For someone like my mother, she modestly would seem to have ample dig- only intensifed the already di cult situ- UNMAKING SEX wants to keep it on,” Zerin explained. nity and self-worth. Yet France’s reasons ation of Muslims living in Western na- Pamela K. Taylor, a mother and gradu- Taking if o would be “[like] taking away for banning the veil, namely that it is op- tions; French president Nicolas Sarkozy ate of the Harvard Divinity School, fi rst a part of her. at’s what she believes.” If pressive, inegalitarian, and degrading, explained the ban by saying that the began veiling when she converted to Is- family was Zerin’s initial reason to start re ect a stubbornness to see the veil as burqa “hurts the dignity of women,” and lam some twenty years before the towers wearing hijab, she says her motives for anything that could be positive or pro- Belgium, Denmark, and Spain are con- fell. For Taylor, who lives in Indiana, the keeping it on are more personal: “I’ve gressive. Instead, France’s ban perpetu- sidering similar legislation. decision to cover up was an in-your-face made di erent friends wearing the hijab. ates the stereotype it purports to over- ese states say that the veil is dan- feminist statement. In her essay “I Just People saw me for who I was, it wasn’t come—of veiled women as so weighed gerous, yet many Western Muslim wom- Want To Be Me,” she defends her choice just the surface.” down by their religious observance that en maintain their right to veil, arguing to veil, explaining that it was “an unam- While Zerin’s parents let her decide they are incapable of acting as individu- that it is a personal choice. It would seem biguous rejection of the objecti cation for herself, many women feel they must als. In banning the veil, France threatens as though the dialogues from either side of women by men, by advertisers, by the veil in order to stay connected to their to dismiss Islam as a religion lodged in of those controversial, whisper-thin beauty and fashion industries and Hol- families. In a survey of Muslim-Cana- the past, incompatible with the modern squares of fabric don’t quite match up. lywood.” dian women, researcher Homa Hoodfar world. Instead of leaning on narrow- e disconnect between political dis- By covering her head with the hijab found that many women cover up to minded stereotypes, we should consider course about the veil and the human ex- (covering her hair), and wearing a long, show that they “are not relinquishing Is- the ways in which Muslim women have periences of those who wear it is great, loose- tting dress, or jilbab, Taylor has lamic mores in favor of ‘Canadianness.’” drawn power and strength from the es- so it is no wonder that these pieces of sent a silent but powerful ‘screw-you’ to Many said they wore hijab so that they tablished traditions of their faith. Zerin cloth have become objects of mystique, some of the most potent determinants could pursue college degrees and careers says, “I feel like now I’ve de nitely be- sources of confusion, and even labels of how women feel about themselves. without estranging their families. In this come mature, and I thank my hijab for that—to the uninformed—single out Refusing strangers the opportunity to case, the veil seems almost a concession: that . . . but people should have the free- the women who wear a form of the veil assign her worth by sight alone is, Tay- a kind of license required for women dom to cover or not cover.” as meriting pity, scorn, or hatred. lor says, “a clear statement that I [do] to move beyond their family’s comfort not want to be judged by my body, my zone and challenge traditional ideas of ELLORA VILKIN B’14 is not relin- SYMBOL OF FAITH beauty, or the lack thereof, but as an in- what Muslim women can and cannot be. quishing. For many Muslim women who wear the dividual, for my personality, my charac- veil—whether burqa, niqab, or hijab— ter, and my accomplishments.” it’s a way of expressing faith. In a New Egyptian anthropologist Fadwa El York Times article published last June, Guindi’s research on the evolution of Hebah Ahmed, a New Mexican woman the veil within and beyond Arabia in- who began veiling soon after 9/11, ex- cludes similar claims as to its potential plained her choice: “‘I do this because I as a feminist statement; “contemporary want to be closer to God, I want to please veiling,” she explains, “is more often him and I want to live a modest lifestyle . than not about resistance.” If it seems . . I want to be tested in that way.” counterintuitive, think of the way Tay- For Ahmed, 9/11 sounded a call to lor subverts the Western meanings as- arms. Confused and shaken, she turned signed to the veil—oppression, inequal- to the Qur’an and other Islamic texts to ity, and misogyny—to insist that others search for answers. Eventually, she ad- consider her not as a sexual object but opted the veil—a niqab—as a defense as a person. El Guindi says that the veil of her religion against the extremism enables women to both ally themselves linked to the terrorist attacks. Veiled, with the tradition of Islam and keep Ahmed sees herself as a peaceful ambas- their sexual identities out of the public

by Mimi Dwyer Illustration by Robert Sandler Abandoned

n certain blocks of the south and west “We just wanted to create a sides of Providence, burnt and dilapi- tool for the community.” Homes, Squatting, dated abandoned homes are as com- But the tool was not mon as inhabited ones. ese blocks enough to excavate the O are eerie, half-dead, and as the sun mess of backlogged and dis- goes down, three di erent people tell organized paperwork that and Revolutionary me I shouldn’t be wandering around alone. In front of Oakhurst unearthed. Many his barbershop on Broadway Street, a lifelong Provi- house deeds haven’t been dence resident sums the problem up: “Everybody used digitized and are only ac- Action to say owning a home was the American Dream. But cessible at the city court- dreams don’t come true. Shit, here, it’s the American house. Code enforcement Nightmare.” laws are antiquated. Evic- Providence is experiencing two interrelated cri- tion hearings are backed up ses: homelessness and home abandonment. ere are for months. e bureaucracy roughly a thousand abandoned homes in Providence and red tape from city o - and, throughout the course of the year, over 4,000 peo- cials that Oakhurst spoke to ple who will use the shelter system. was like a parody of govern- e city has been ine ective in addressing both is- ment ine ciency. “It’s a run- sues. ey expect a bed shortage in shelters this winter, around,” he says. “ ey tell but it’s illegal to sleep outside in Providence, placing you to call this and that guy hundreds of homeless in a nightly double bind. Provi- who tells you to call someone Reckless Abandon dence has one state-funded subsidized housing pro- else… and the trail goes cold.” gram, the Neighborhood Opportunities Program, and After nearly a year and a half of work, the Forgotten SCAT TERED SQUAT TERS its budget has shrunk from $7.5 million at its incep- Providence team eventually abandoned its project. Most squatters I encountered in Providence agreed tion to $1.5 million. Th e US Department of Housing Oakhurst says one salient message emerged from with Oakhurst’s characterization—people squat tem- and Urban Development, which sells empty homes to his time with Forgotten Providence: houses rot when porarily and out of necessity, usually in execrable condi- nonpro ts for a dollar, lists only one available house in abandoned. tions. Outside Crossroads Shelter on the South Side, a Providence on its website. Meanwhile, banks continue “Houses need people in them,” he says. “As soon man who calls himself China says he’s squatted on and to evict Providence families from their homes for de- as they’re empty, mold sets in, windows break, ani- o for years. “When it was cold and I had nowhere to faulting on their mortgage payments, and the homes mals come. Without people, homes decay unbelievably go,” he says, “I’d sleep in a building for a couple nights often lie empty for years afterwards. quickly, and before you know it they’re unlivable.” and take my stu out in the day… ere were rats, cock- But beneath notions of property rights and regula- When I ask him if he ever encountered people in the roaches, no electricity. You heard about people getting tions on legal ownership and debt, there is an intuitive houses he investigated, he nods. “Sure, we met squat- killed.” and elegantly simple solution: why not match the emp- ters. You could tell from the sidewalk if somebody was But considering the alternatives, squatting was a ty homes with homeless people? Squatting, the unlaw- staying in a house because lights would be on inside... decent prospect for China. “You have to get to shelters ful occupation of a building or piece of land, happens But we never encountered anyone trying to  x up [a hours early to get a bed,” he says. “And no one’s watch- all the time on an individual and tem- ing you when you squat. So people use the porary basis. In the face of the housing houses if they want to party and do drugs crisis, movements that aim to lend or- and whatever. I know, I did it.” ganization and manpower to squatters He pauses, then hits the heart of the are cropping up across the US. So can it issue: “You’re asking if people fi xed the happen in Providence? places up; I’m asking how could they? How do you pay for that? And what about INDIVIDUAL ACTION the police?” In November 2008, Josh Oakhurst started to notice the astounding num- COLLECTIVE ACTION ber of abandoned homes in Provi- I sit down with John Joyce and Megan dence. On his way to work, he would Smith B’10, co-directors of the Rhode Is- pass by 228 Broad Street, a three-story land Homeless Advocacy Project (RIHAP), scorched wooden shell of an apart- a program that facilitates peer-to-peer in- ment with its front door ripped from teraction among the homeless. its hinges, rusty nails protruding like Joyce con rms immediately what thorns. He wondered why no one had Oakhurst and China told me: “ e vast boarded the place up, especially when it majority of squatters are hit-and-run,” he was directly across from the local high says, “and people who squat are very pri- school. e building would become the vate about it… ey don’t want to give up  rst entry on forgottenprovidence. their spot. I know people who I’ve worked com, Oakhurst’s grassroots approach with for two, three years who still won’t to the dearth of uni ed information on tell me their spot.” abandoned houses in Providence. “Until two weeks ago,” says Smith, “All over Providence,” he says, citing an example, “a guy was squatting in “neighbors go outside and see a proper- a cellar on Wickenden Street. He’d go in ty that’s been sitting empty for months. after eleven and leave at  ve [in the morn- No one knows why these houses were ing] to go to work… e people living in abandoned or what is being done about the house never knew he was there. His it.” boss had no idea he was homeless.” During summer 2008, Oakhurst While it’s rare, organized squat- and two other volunteers shot pic- ting has happened in Providence. Joyce tures of 300 of the estimated 1000 remembers: “Two years ago, a six-story empty homes in Providence (he makes building near the Rhode Island Hospital it clear that they never entered any of complex was abandoned. A guy broke in the houses illegally). ey knocked on and  xed it up and started letting people doors and gathered anecdotal informa- stay there. You’d crawl through a dark slot, tion about what had happened to the go up to the fourth  oor, ask for Savage, houses from people in the neighborhoods, and they property]. Th e houses were decrepit. Trashed. You give him twenty bucks or work something out and he’d cross-referenced their  ndings with legal ownership in- wouldn’t want to imagine anyone living in them.” let you stay for the week. It was all carpeted. ey got formation from databases online. the water running and electricity and you could take a ‘We didn’t have a political agenda,” Oakhurst notes. hot shower. It was a sweet setup.” I ask what happened. “ e copper [in the pipes] start- tion,” says Rameau. “We won’t move people into places times when that happens the police just leave. But if [the ed to lose it,” he says. “And the word-of mouth got out of without running water or the capacity for electricity. police] want to go forward with the eviction, then people hand. ey had to abandon ship. It was too easy and too at would defeat the purpose.” e  rst step is to send a get arrested.” convenient.” scouting team that tries to get access to a home to make “I don’t get paid for this,” says Rameau, who has been But  nding shelter has rarely been this convenient for sure it’s salvageable. en a vetting team trudges through arrested twice while working for Take Back the Land. “We Providence’s homeless. “What it comes down to is our public records databases and deed  les to ensure the have a moral obligation to break these laws.” administration is not pro-housing [for the homeless],” home is foreclosed or government-owned, often pairing says Joyce. “It’s illegal to be homeless in Providence.”  ndings with real estate websites—the very same grass- THE OTHER HALF Eventually, Joyce and Smith got fed up. ey formu- roots methods Forgotten Providence employed. Lastly, While Rameau is prepared to stand up for squatters’ lated a plan to place squatters in a Charles Street “aban- the organization changes the locks, cleans, paints and rights, squatters sometimes reject outside help. Back at dominium” while publicizing that Dollar Homes could be furnishes the house, and sets up the utilities. Crossroads, TJ stands outside the shelter waiting for a a viable option for low-income families. “When families move in, we ask them to keep records bus, hunched over with his hands deep in his sweatshirt “We made the preparations, noti ed the neighbors of  rst piece of mail to get the clock ticking on adverse pocket. “I used to stay here some nights,” he tells me. But and the press,” Smith explains. en something truly possession… But we aren’t trying to skirt the real issue more often he would squat—ten years ago he lived in an ironic happened: the bank that owned the house sold the by falling back on that. e real problem is that there are abandoned Providence house for eighteen months. “I’ve property the day before the squat. “We’d been planning tens of thousands of vacant homes [in Miami]. We could got an apartment nearby now,” he continues, pu ng for so long,” Smith says. “It was unbelievable.” literally end homelessness tomorrow if we put people in out his chest slightly. I congratulate him and ask how he Joyce and Smith would have assumed a signi cant them. We don’t want to use a loophole. What we really thought the city should deal with squatters now. “Th ey legal risk in occupying the Charles Street home—squat- want,” he says, pausing for breath and e ect, “is to elevate [the homeless] shouldn’t be doing that,” he answered. ters are by de nition both trespassing and breaking and housing to the level of a human right and create commu- “ ey don’t have any rights, it’s trespassing. ey don’t entering. However, there are some laws on the books nity control of land through co-ops and land trusts… We own the places, it’s illegal… at’s the way it is.” TJ’s reaction re ects the con ict between the transience of homelessness and the comfort of a place in civil society, a comfort that fundamentally links ownership and worth. e homeless own noth- ing. ey commit a crime by staying in Providence: when they sleep they lie in hiding and when they walk they loiter; they pay no taxes, so they have di- minished rights. e police tell them to clear o the grass while college students and business people lounge nearby. So it makes sense that when they pull Recklessthat can protectAbandon them. e most commonly cited defense need a portion of homes to operate outside market forc- themselves out of the shame of having nothing, they is called adverse possession, which states that if a person es.” would reject all that came with it, embracing the prospect occupies a private structure or piece of land in a way that e issue becomes how to create this subset of homes of a home, of owning things, of a voice as a citizen. is (1) open and notorious (2) continuous and (3) unchal- considering the housing crisis, and more fundamentally, e issue we need to address is this culture premium lenged over a considerable period (ten years in Rhode Is- the American capitalist economy. Take Back the Land on accumulation, property, and competition over basic land), then the property right transfers to the occupant. has set up direct action systems and made demands for welfare and respect for human life. Th e squatters’ rights But for adverse possession to apply to squatters, they changes in public policy, but how to codify these systems movement challenges it on a structural level. e problem have to manage to stay in a home for ten years and prove and make them economically feasible remains unclear. is nuanced, complicated by economic obstacles of incen- in court that they haven’t hidden their squatting—signif- e bottom line is that a movement like Rameau’s needs tives and loans and bank debt. But Forgotten Providence icant hurdles, especially for someone as legally vulnerable a critical mass of support before it can e ect overarching and RIHAP are evidence of the will for justice fermenting as a homeless person. change because the change it seeks is so radical. When I in the community. Th e question becomes how to channel Another approach is the necessity defense. “ at’s ask him what’s happened to his squatters, he thinks his that will, how to induce a paradigm shift strong enough what we tried with the Tent City,” says Smith, referring response over carefully: to politicize it and create foundational, revolutionary to the 90-person squat off of Point Street that RIHAP “Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, people change. organized in 2009. “ e city didn’t have anywhere else have gotten up and left when the police get there. It’s to put the squatters,” she continues. “So we argued that up to them whether they want to challenge the police MIMI DWYER B’13 has a moral oblication to break the they had no choice.” e argument failed in court, how- or leave… In some instances the families stay and most law. ever, and Providence eventually forced the Tent City to disband.

COLLECTIVE REVOLUTION Squat occupations require a tactical shift from working within a government’s legal structure to working against it. It might seem unlikely that a few individuals or an or- ganization like RIHAP could take on a city wielding  nan- cial and police power. But in other parts of the country, squatters’ rights activists are taking a more aggressive stance, refusing to yield, and in some cases, succeeding. Max Rameau heads Take Back the Land, a Miami orga- nization that illegally seizes abandoned homes and places squatters in them, and then defends them against law en- forcement. Rameau sums up the group’s purpose in an epigram: it “matches homeless people with people-less homes.” Rameau is ambitious and he wants Take Back the Land to spread. Ten US cities have direct action land rights groups connected to his. He has been to Providence twice to gauge the viability of one and made a name for himself among local advocates for the homeless. Take Back the Land’s basic tenet is that housing is a human right, a concept that is anything but radical—the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifi - cally delineates a human right to housing. Rameau sees his organization  tting into a tradition of morally justi-  ed and mandated resistance. “We’re directly implement- ing our own public policy,” he says. “It’s not just civil dis- obedience, it’s positive moral action.” Take Back the Land aims to organize individual squat- ters to give them the best chance of success in keeping their homes. It has a manifold pre-squat screening pro- cess: the families it moves in need “some level of income, to pay their utility bills, and to be good neighbors.” is last factor is crucial, Rameau says, because “at some point you’re going to get found… and you’ll need the support of your community.” Th e houses Take Back the Land squats also undergo a screening process. “ e house has to be in good condi- 13 NOVEMBER 4 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT Opinions THERE’S ‘NOPLACE’ LIKE

HOME Thinking in the Dystopia

by Brian Judge Illustration by Charis Loke

he year is 2016. Republicans seems perfect, but it can never quite live up to its con- topic if people are still a orded this pleasure? Would control the House of Repre- ception. In this sense, a utopia is truly “no place.” Like Harrison Bergeron still be dystopic if the people could sentatives by a 4,122-to-93 a utopia, the pleasures of the mind do not exist in the be uninhibited in their thought? margin and John Boehner material world. e joy I feel at the sight of a painting We see the people of these works as being miser- has been coronated Dear I love is only a physical phenomenon in the crudest able because their only pleasure is derived from con- Leader. Triangular hat-wear- sense: some electrical impulse does something some- sumption, which they cannot sustain at an adequate ing hordes patrol the streets where in my mind, but the thought itself somehow level. e fascination with celebrities illustrates this T jamming their muskets in the transcends the physical, existing above and beyond point. Images of people enjoying lavish lifestyles can face of anyone they suspect of being an illegal or a it, though dependent on the material world for its be found in every checkout line in the United States. gay. e military has reinstated the draft to support existence and possibility. Likewise, utopian socialism ey are happy because they are wealthy. ey have ongoing military operations in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Ara- or anarchism seem appealing because they reference piles of disposable income to satisfy their every pos- bia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Colombia and In- the discontents of the world in which we live. at is sible want. Th e old Socratic equation of happiness donesia. Rupert Murdoch is the head of the FCC and to say, if we lived in a utopia, there wouldn’t be any with virtue lives on in the modern era. e thought is Fox News is broadcast on every channel. Jon Stewart utopian visions. Instead, we live somewhere in a pur- that each individual could be happy if only they were has been murdered by Glenn Beck. As some imagine gatory, somewhere between utopia and dystopia. Not rich enough. If they work enough within the total- it, this would be life in the Republican dystopia. As quite heaven, not quite hell. izing capitalist system, they will be rewarded with a others imagine it, this would be life in the Republican One common element in depictions of dystopias beachfront condo in Boca Raton and in nite bliss. At utopia. is the inability of people to partake in the pleasures least, this is how the image goes. Consider the etymologies of the words ‘utopia’ of the mind. e oppression of the state is seen as It is this prejudice that creates the totalizing dys- and ‘dystopia’. In Ancient Greek, utopia means ‘no totalizing: even in the realm of the mind, there is no topia: that there is no escape from the system of pro- place,’ while dystopia means ‘bad place.’ One is imag- escape from the dictates of the state. In Kurt Von- duction and consumption. To think is to take oneself ined and the other is real. Utopias are oftentimes the negut’s short story Harrison Bergeron, the state is out of the frenzy of the world. ere is a distinct plea- end point of political idealism. William Morris’ News careful to ensure that even people’s mental faculties sure and reassurance in the knowledge that what- from Nowhere and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Back- are severely handicapped. ever the totalizing force that creates the dystopia is wards, both bestsellers at the time of their publica- What does this prejudice show us about ourselves (e.g. the state, the economy), an individual still has tion, depict life in a Marxian socialist utopia. How- and our own fears? Does it show that we value the the power to retreat into his or her own mind. In the ever, history has shown us that utopias only exist in pleasures of the mind or does it show that most au- words of Cato, “never is man more active than when the mind. Oftentimes the attempt to bring about a thors do not consider the possibility of freedom of he does nothing, never is he less alone than when he utopia creates a dystopia. For example, North Korea the mind existing alongside oppression and tyranny? is by himself.” is guided by a utopian philosophy of self-reliance and e prevalent image of the average consumer as If we are on our way to worshipping an orange- self-su ciency that has utterly failed, much like the a mindless, utility-maximizing automaton presumes hued Dear Leader, at least we will still have the plea- communist philosophy of the Soviet Union before it. that all pleasure must be derived from consumption. sure of remembering and contemplating life in the Even smaller scale utopias such as Brooks Farm in However, the very act of thinking and refl ection, good old days of our Socialist Nazi Caliphate. Massachusetts have failed because of the inability of which requires no inputs or exclusive consumption, is reality to match the grandeur of the ideal. a pleasurable pastime for many. Would it be possible Utopias can only exist in the mind. Th e vision to create a world we would  nd to be inherently dys- BRIAN JUDGE B’11 only exists in his mind.

X

Katie Gui FRIDAY | 5 Guy Fawkes Day. Burn effi gies, buy “Tha Carter IV.”

12 PM “Mapping Decline.” Colin Gordon, an historian at the University of Iowa, examines the transformation of the St. Louis metropolitan area over the course of the 20th century. At Mencoff Hall, Brown University, 68 Waterman St, Providence. FREE.

8 PM “O Barulho Mesmo.”A concert using a custom digital instrument that combines tech- niques from soundscape music with a variety of audio spatialization techniques. The works blend the sounds of present-day Angola with the acoustic environment of the concert hall. At Grant Recital Hall, Brown University. FREE.

5 PM Armenian Food Festival & Bazaar. Losh! Raffl es! At Sts. Sahag & Mesrob Armenian Church, Providence. FREE.

9 PM Deer Tick weekend at AS220. Three shows, the fi rst tonight. We hope they do a Sean Kingston cover. Tickets are at-the-door and fi rst come -fi rst-serve. $5.

10 PM Live Bait. Real talk. This month’s theme: “Die, Monster, Die.” At the Perishable The- atre, Providence. $5.

SATURDAY | 6 11 AM - 4 PM Museum of Natural History’s Annual Community Day. Tour to see the 98% of the museum’s collections hidden from public view. Meet the artists of the new exhibit, CURIOUSER: New Encounters with Victorian Natural History. And a Sky Views Plan- etarium Show. At the Museum of Natural History and Cormack Planetarium, Provi- dence. FREE with a canned good donation for RI Community Food Bank.

6 PM Providence Roller Derby’s 2010 Championship. The Old Money Honeys take on the Sa- konnet River Roller Rats. At the Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence. $10/$13.

8PM Bakin’ with The Boss. (Sadly, not “Spumoni with Springsteen,” but rather, Buddy Va- latstro, star of the mega-popular TLC show that puts a mafi oso twist on cupcakes per- forms. At Providence Performing Arts Center, Providence. $25.

8 PM “Nunsense.” The convent musical almost as good as “Sister Act.” At Production Work- shop, T.F. Green Hall, Brown University. FREE.

SUNDAY | 7 12 PM Chocolate Brunch. Just what it sounds like. Benefi ts the Visiting Nurse Services of Newport and Bristol Counties. At Easton’s Beach Rotunda, Newport. $75.

7 PM Sounds of the Republic of Georgia, Appalachia, and early Europe. Grant Recital Hall, Brown University. FREE.

8 PM The Empire Revue. Variety show featuring music by Superchief Trio and comedians The Sparkling Beatniks. At AS220, Providence. $8.

8 PM Adult Synchronized Skating. “If you need a night out with a great bunch of women, we are an adult open synchronized skating team. Former skaters and those new to the sport are welcome, minimum age is 16, no max!” At Norfolk Arena, Norfolk, MA. FREE.

MONDAY | 8 9 PM UT, Neptune, and Whore Paint. Ut reunited! No Wave(o). At AS220, Providence.

TUESDAY | 9 3 PM “Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade.” Author Justin Spring discusses the issue of gay self-esteem in rela- tion to his biography of Steward. At the John Hay Library, Brown University. FREE.

9 PM Quiet Hooves / Quilt / Cool World / Southern Nights. At Building 13, Providence. $donate

WEDNESDAY | 10 5PM “Muslims in the West After 9/11: Religion, Law and Politics,” with Jocelyne Cesari, Director of the Islam in the West Program at Harvard. McKinney Conference Room, Watson Institute, Brown University. FREE.

6 PM Dust off your best corduroy and denim. David Sedaris speaks. Reads, rather. He wants a lot of money, though, like $23.53 (okay, it includes a copy of his new book “Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk” and maybe his autograph.) At the Brown Bookstore. $23.53.

THURSDAY | 11 11 AM “Saving the Physical Evidence: Preservation and Conservation of Books.” Attn: bib- liophiles, luddites. Donia Conn will show a variety of books in different stages of con- servation and talk about how you can preserve your books. At the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University. FREE.

7:30 PM “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.” An abstract audiovisual poem/performance by Aus- trian digital artist and electronic writer Joerg Piringer. At McCormack Family Theater, Brown University. FREE.