ATLASmagazine

THE

ISSUE

TRANSFORMATIONTHE

ISSUE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caroline Cassard CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Anna Buckley MANAGING EDITOR: Marlo Jappen

STYLE Editor | Erin Kayata

Writers | Michelle Ciccarelli, Lindsey Paradis

CITY Editors | Miriam Riad

Writers | Aubrey Gemmell-Nunez, Samantha Harton

HEALTH Editor | Erin Corrigan

Writers | Annette Choi, Courtney Major, Mimi Walker

GLOBE Globe Editor | Mehak Anwar

Assistant Globe Editor | Chantelle Bacigalupo Writers | Pimploy Phongsirivech, Ruhi Radke, Sabrina Thulander

COPY EDITORS Head Copy Editor | Lauren Milne

Copy Editors | Megan Cathey, Paulina Pascual, Lucy Wildman

PHOTOGRAPHY Photo Editor | Paola Camargo

Photographers | Catherine Gessner, Jenni Heller, Nora Wilby, Monique Woo

DESIGNDesigner | Anna Buckley

Illustrator | Holly Kirkman

MARKETING TEAM Marketing Director | Alexis Clemons

Marketing team | Mikayla Belson, Lili Clement, Paulina Pascual

ATLAS ONLINE Blog Editor | Charlotte Slota

Bloggers | Shannon Bushee, Lauren Lopez, Julia Roberto

ATLAS MODELS Ella Brooks, Danielle Davies, Morgan Sung, Mike Vinci

IN THE MEANTIME:ANNA’S & CAROLINE’S ROUTINE FAVORITES

1 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

IN THE MEANTIME:ANNA’S & CAROLINE’S ROUTINE FAVORITES

Arcade Fire “Reflektor”

The Canadian band’s live performance solidified the soul-soothing effect that

their Haitian-inspired music has on me. Though the album was released last year,

it still sets the pace of my walk to work.

Allah-Las “Worship the Sun”

The LA based band released their latest album in September, and maybe it’s the Californian in me, but their garage rock sound tinged with psychedelic pop will

keep me thinking warm, happy thoughts.

RadiolabHosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, this public radio podcast

broadcasts personality and particularity thought-provoking discussions that are

perfect for a long T ride.

Joy the Baker PodcastIn what feels like hanging out with your best friend, two food bloggers from San

Francisco and New Orleans converse about “totally important, unimportant

things.”

Blue Plate Specialby Kate Christensen

Novelist Kate Christensen narrates her unconventional coming-of-age story

across the U.S. and in Europe, as she tries to locate a sense of home and self

through the foods she eats.

Nine Short Stories by J.D. Salinger

Though I finished this collection this past summer, the emotional impact from the last story in particular, entitled “Ted-

dy,” still has me in emotional upheaval and re-evaluating my world view.

Fictions of Effect with William Donoghue

In the funkiest class I’ve taken thus far at Emerson, Professor Donoghue’s

selection of unconventional films and novels will have you questioning what art

should do, and what art even is.

The Arab Uprisings with Yasser Munif

When he’s not spending the weekend at a conference in Lebanon, Professor Munif

will change the way you view a revolu-tion, your own culture and an entire

region of the globe in this course.

EXPLORE:Green T Coffee Shop

It’s quiet and quiant, it’s indepen-dently owned and operated, the flavors are unique and delicious—and it’s the

perfect place to get some reading done before class.

Render CoffeeThe daily special pourover, a warm goat cheese and spinach quiche and a seat in the back under a glass ceiling can turn

an average study session into a cozy afternoon.

ReservoirThe reservoir at Cleveland Circle might seem foreign, but a walk or run around the forest-lined loop with Boston Col-lege’s castle-like campus in the distance

feels like an escape from the city.

Commonwealth Avenue MallThere is nothing more peaceful than

walking underneath a blanket of trees while still feeling like I’m amidst the

pulse of the city. Also, you’re bound to run into at least 12 cute dogs.

ENROLL: READ:

STREAM: STUDY:

LISTEN:

2 | TRANSFORMATION

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

CAROLINE CASSARDEDITOR IN CHIEF

ANNA BUCKLEYCREATIVE DIRECTOR

MARLO JAPPENMANAGING EDITOR

MIRIAM RIADCITY EDITOR

“Florals, forests, and family, forever.”“I still prefer to make dessert plans before tackling breakfast.”

“I always march to the beat of a dif-ferent drum.”

“I still can’t stand still for a picture.” “Still rocking the Ray-Bans, but I’ve replaced my sand for snow.”

“I still spend summers in the Ocean State with the sun, sand & waves.”

PAOLA CAMARGOPHOTO EDITOR

CHARLOTTE SLAVINBLOG EDITOR

3 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

MEET THE STAFF:

MEHAK ANWAR GLOBE EDITOR

ERIN CORRIGANHEALTH EDITOR

LAUREN MILNEHEAD COPYEDITOR

ALEXIS CLEMONSMARKETING DIRECTOR

ERIN KAYATA STYLE EDITOR

“I may be a tiny bit larger but I still smile way too hard.”

“I can’t rock a bow like I did back then, but I’m still steering my ship

toward adventure.”

“I may not wear much pink anymore, but I can still never have enough floral

in my wardrobe.”

CHANTELLE BACIGALUPOASSISTANT GLOBE EDITOR

“My favorite colors with my eighty-eight favorite sounds.”

“My love for animals has stayed strong.”

“I still want to be a princess.”

This past autumn, our staff wanted to create a people-focused issue about game-changers, inno-vators, and mind-opening experi-ences. Alden Jones’ memoir, The Blind Masseuse, launched the “Transformation” discussion, with essays about travel, culture, grow-ing up, and learning to see the world—and yourself—in a new way. We drew inspiration from courses and professors that surprised us,

and those who strive for change in Boston’s communities beyond our campus. From Darrin Korte’s Cam-bridge-based organization, The Hip Hop Transformation (p. 29), to Northeastern students’ startup, Fresh Truck (p. 35), local leaders are changing Boston’s culture.

This semester, Atlas signed the Coalition of Lions in Action with Workers (CLAW), and we are ex-cited to celebrate Emerson Sodexo

employees’ recent unionization with Unite Here Local 26. In the same spirit, we showcase other campus employees: the hardworking facili-ties workers who keep our campus running (page 11).

In our most versatile issue yet, we highlight transformations big and small. From the Kosovo kingdom’s cultural changes in a post-warzone to students’ evolving personal styles (p. 20) and a new look at the emo-

tional benefits of cozy comfort foods (p. 39), our staff tackled topics with refreshing perspectives.

As we’ve discovered, so many standout, forward-thinking indi-viduals are right here, in our own community. All you have to do is stop to talk.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CAROLINE CASSARD

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

4 | TRANSFORMATION

IN THIS ISSUE

Let’s Talk TravelAlden Jones discusses travel, tour-ism, and the craft of writing

An Inside Look At Emerson Murray Schwartz sheds light on strained inner-relations of Emer-son’s past

Community SpotlightFaces of facilities management

Q&A with Lauren ShawLauren Shaw shares her insight on how the art is changing

Transformation of Style StaplesAn exploration of classic style pieces that have stood the test of time

Style MetamorphosisStand-out students share how they emerged into their own distinct styles

Naturally FashionableAs the world focuses on creating a culture of sustainability, the fash-ion community evolves in the same direction

Rewriting a GenreCambridge-based arts organization, The Hip-Hop Transformation, gives a positive spin to the meaning of rap

Coffee Buzz The changing role of coffee shops in the bustling city of Boston

A Refreshing SolutionUnderneath Boston’s surface lies the issue of food deserts in lower income neighborhoods—a problem The Fresh Truck works to change

CAMPUS STYLE CITY

5 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

pg. 35

pg. 52

pg. 11

pg. 39

FALL 2014

The Comfort of Comfort FoodsRevealing the benefits of foods that make you feel at home.

Cuckoo for Coconut OilFrom sunscreen to mouthwash, coconuts open the door to versatile health care products.

Breathe DeeplyA look at how meditation and yoga can cure college stress

Ocean PioneersProfessional surfing’s latest improvements on the web and at the beach influence the sport’s ever-changing culture

Humble AbodesThe deceivingly simple concept of “home” for people who have lived in multiple cities, countries and conti-nents

The Kosovo Paradox Witnessing the beauty of a region in unrest

A New DirectionFemale directors past and present make their mark in a male-dominat-ed realm.

HEALTH GLOBE

Above photos | Paola Camargo, Jenni Heller, Catherine Gessner,

and Monique Woo

Section photos | Nora Wilby, Monique Woo, Paola Camargo,

Anna Buckley

Cover art | Anna Buckley

6 | TRANSFORMATION

pg. 24 pg. 43

pg. 47

pg. 32

LET’S TALKTRAVEL

WRITING, LITERATURE, AND PUBLISHING PROFESSOR ALDEN JONES DISCUSSES TRAVEL, TOURISM, AND THE CRAFT OF WRITING

TEXT | CAROLINE CASSARDPHOTOGRAPHY | KATE BONSIGNORE

7 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

Emerson literature and creative writing professor, Alden Jones, has traveled and photographed the world by studying abroad, leading trips for students, and teaching on Semester at Sea. In the past few years, she not only gave birth to her two children, but she also published two books in 2013 alone: The Blind Masseuse, a memoir of travel essays, and Unaccompanied Minors, a book of short stories. We caught up with her in Jamaica Plain for her insight on all things travel, writing and pho-tography.

BOTH OF YOUR BOOKS, THE BLIND MASSEUSE AND UNACCOMPANIED MINORS, DELVE INTO TOPICS OF YOUTH, TRAVEL AND A NEED TO EXPLORE. WHAT DRAWS YOU TO THIS FOCUS?

The Blind Masseuse spans about 15 years. It’s really an exploration – Publishers Weekly actually said it’s less about travel and more about a young woman coming into herself. So partially it is about growing up and travel being the metaphor for, “How much can you cling to youth and how much do you actually have to grow up?” With Un-accompanied Minors, it was much more sub-conscious. I was looking over 15 years of work and I asked myself, “What are the strongest stories?” And they all had to do with young people being in some kind of trouble. It was never an intentional theme. Then I came up with the title, and it seemed to work.

HOW DO YOU NAVIGATE SETTING WHEN SHAPING A STORY?

It’s come up a lot with Unaccompanied Mi-nors, my book of short stories. I had started almost every time with location and setting. [For example], I was compelled by this idea of the homeless shelter. It was a homeless shel-ter I had been to under very different circum-stances than my characters – who were kind of obnoxious people – and was like, What would happen if I put these characters in this setting? For each essay in The Blind Masseuse, first I chose the setting, then I wrote the essay. But sometimes I wanted to write about a setting really badly, and nothing had happened in that setting that was good enough to form into an essay. I went to France and I was there for five weeks, and I thought, “How can I write an es-say about my time there?” It just wasn’t coming to me, so there was no France in the book.

THERE’S DEFINITELY A FEELING THAT YOU HAVE TO CAPTURE EVERYTHING WHEN YOU’RE TRAVELING. DO YOU ASSOCIATE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY MORE WITH TRAVELING RATHER THAN YOUR LIFE AT HOME?

I definitely want to take pictures more when I’m traveling, just be-cause I think it’s the whole exoticism thing. When you’re seeing some-thing new, you’re more excited about the visual experience and you want to capture it. There’s an anxiety to capture the travel experience through photography that I definitely fall into sometimes.

IN YOUR BOOK OF TRAVEL ESSAYS, THE BLIND MASSEUSE, YOU EXPLORE THE RELATION-SHIP BETWEEN A TRAVELER AND A TOURIST. HOW DO THESE TWO EXPERIENCES DIFFER?

The “tourist versus the traveler” is something that I first heard men-tion of when I was a student going to Spain with a company called Put-ney Student Travel. I really believed in what they stood for, which was going into a culture to not just skim the surface, ride a bus through the major areas, and see the big monuments and say you’ve been there. But to actually participate in the culture and get to know people and make yourself a little uncomfortable and be willing to look stupid and try the language if it’s something you don’t speak fluidly. A tourist is someone who is always thinking about going home, and always has home as a point of reference. A traveler is someone who really tries to integrate into the culture or really investigate the culture on some level.

IS THERE A SPECIFIC PART OF THE WORLD THAT YOU WOULD ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO EXPLORE?

I felt that I had to go to Latin America or Spain because I spoke Spanish and I’m very glad that I did it that way. But I always felt that Asia was inaccessible because I had this idea that if I didn’t speak the language, then I shouldn’t go there. And that was ridiculous. I really loved going to Asia, and I was only able to go there because I was work-

ing on Semester at Sea. Don’t limit yourself. If you think a place is inac-cessible, just figure out a way to get there.

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR A WRITER TO KNOW ANOTHER LANGUAGE? DO YOU THINK KNOWING ONLY ONE LANGUAGE LIMITS A WRITER?

I think only knowing six languages limits you in some ways. When you get your Ph.D. in literature, you’re required to know, at least on a reading level, two foreign languages. But I think more, it’s about per-spective. When you’re forced to speak another language and participate in a culture that’s not your own language, you see the world in a more objective way. You start to understand that your perspective is only one perspective, and your culture is not the only culture out there.

ALTHOUGH EMERSON IS A COMMUNICATIONS SCHOOL, IT DOESN’T OFFER ADVANCED LANGUAGE PROGRAMS. DO YOU THINK THIS LIMITS STUDENTS?

I don’t even think that the best way to learn lan-guage is to study it in college. My parents actually were very discouraging of me studying Spanish and French in college because they thought I was taking too much of my class time in something I could learn someplace besides college. They were like, you could be taking anthropology, you could be taking history, and you could take Spanish at a Spanish school in Guatemala in the summer. Or you can go to France and work there if you want to. So I kind of agree with them a little bit. I think it would be nice if you could have the option. But I think you do have the option of studying abroad, and I would highly recommend that everybody does that. Everybody. Just to get a chance to see life outside of your own world.

HOW WOULD YOU ADVISE ANYONE INTERESTED IN WORKING ON A WRITING OR PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT WHILE TRAVELING?

Write down the details that you think you’re going to remember but that you’re going to forget. What’s the unit of money, how much does something cost, what are the names of the streets, what are the names of the people you meet – write all of that down. Be-

cause when you want to access them later, you need as many of those details as you can. Don’t try to write about the place while you’re there – just take notes.

And for photographers, if you’re going to take pictures of people, in-teract with them and become friends with them instead of seeing them as objects to photograph. Because I think that happens a lot, and it cer-tainly happened to me. When I would see a photogenic moment, it was very tempting to just take the picture and run. The best photographers that I met abroad are the ones who would go into a new environment and really get to know the people there and play with the kids, talk to the grown-ups, and let the subjects be participants in the process.

IN THE BLIND MASSEUSE, YOU TOUCH A LITTLE ON CULTURE SHOCK. WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CULTURE SHOCK YOU’VE EXPERIENCED?

One of the biggest culture shocks I’ve had is coming home from Costa Rica after a year. I came home in January and all of a sudden the world made no sense to me. I was like, “Why did humans settle in this godforsaken frozen tundra?” The babies carried in strollers covered in plastic, and the money people spent on stupid things – it just seemed very weird to me to be home and to not have noticed how strange life was.

But I think in terms of the biggest culture shock countrywise, prob-ably Burma. I felt very overwhelmed by Burma because I was only there for five days, and I knew that there was this oppressive government. The ethical thing to do was not support it, but I didn’t know how to sup-port the citizens without supporting the government. I would love to go back there now that I’ve had some time to know what kinds of questions to ask. I’ve actually always been that kind of traveler – I’m much better at researching the country after I’ve spent a little bit of time there.

HOW CAN A TRAVELER MAINTAIN A GLOBAL MINDSET WHEN READJUSTING TO COM-FORTABLE LIFE AT HOME?

That’s the great thing about traveling somewhere for a long time. There’s no way you’re going to forget that experience. Even though you do readjust and you do start to think it’s normal to spend $3 on a cup of coffee again, you don’t forget that there are places where other people don’t live this way. I think that that’s one of the main benefits of travel.

“I came home in Janu-ary and all of a sudden the world made no sense to me. I was like, ‘Why did humans

settle in this godforsaken frozen tundra?’ The babies carried in strollers covered in plastic, and the money people spent on stupid

things—it just seemed very weird to me to be home and

to not have noticed how strange life was.”

8 | TRANSFORMATION

AN INSIDE LOOKAT EMERSON

9 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

AN INSIDE LOOKAT EMERSON WRITING, LITERATURE AND PUBLISHING PROFESSOR

MURRAY SCHWARTZ SHEDS LIGHT ON STRAINED INNER-RELATIONS OF EMERSON’S PAST

TEXT | ERIN CORRIGANPHOTOGRAPHY | ANNA BUCKLEY

Much of Emerson’s recent news is centered around the co-lossal, monumental work of art that is the Los Angeles center. From its flaring, silver and glass siding to its prime location on Sunset Boulevard, the expansion is a concrete – or rather, aluminum – mark of how the school is transforming. But more prominent advancements like LA are products of less publi-cized – though still momentous – changes in the college’s inner workings.

Writing, literature and publishing pro-fessor Murray Schwartz has experienced Emerson’s modifications since 1997, when he first served as vice president of Aca-demic Affairs. Looking out at a bleak Bos-ton Common through his rain-spattered, ninth floor office window, Schwartz de-scribes one of Emerson’s greatest acts as “a transformation, to put it in its most gener-ous terms, of the relationship between the faculty and the administration.”

When Schwartz arrived, most faculty matters were negotiated through a con-tract between the college and a faculty union. Schwartz says nearly everything was dealt with this way, including number of faculty, course load expectations, pay scale and parking regulations. “It was a very cumbersome way to operate,” Schwartz calmly recalls. “It was, by its very nature, antagonistic: administration on one side, faculty on the other.”

Attempting to reach agreements through mediators re-quired an elaborate process and usually resulted in only short-term contracts. But due to rising tensions and his desire to get back in the classroom, Schwartz left his administrative role and joined the faculty in 2000. “I didn’t want my job to be on the op-posite side of the table from the faculty,” he says.

A few years after his switch, Schwartz saw that tension cul-minate with conflict between the faculty and then President

Jacqueline Weis Liebergott – but for the better. “There were several votes of no confidence,” he says, maintaining his soft-spoken, though assured, tone. “And the result of that protract-ed antagonism was actually positive in the sense that the faculty agreed to a different kind of organization,” making room for more direct communication and relations.

Last year, under the direction of Amy Ansell, dean of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdis-ciplinary Studies, tenure and tenure-track appointments were moved to the Institute. This key move, as Schwartz explains, allows faculty from differ-ent departments to “engage in closer dialogue and collaboration in creating interdisciplinary courses and minor programs.”

This move, along with the addi-tion of new full-time, tenure track and adjunct faculty members, shaped a creative and productively cooperative environment. Even now, Schwartz sees continuous overall improvements. “It’s changing, mainly because the organiza-

tion of the college has made it not just easier, but encouraging to be innovative.”

And although Schwartz is retiring at the end of this year, one of his current projects proves that he’s got a strong grasp on the innovation Emerson strives for. He is developing a co-operative program between Emerson and the Boston Psycho-analytic Society and Institute (BPSI), which will offer a minor in psychoanalysis, the arts and society. Emerson students will gain access to resources at the BPSI, including lectures, con-ferences, library resources and research facilities. “It’s another example of the types of transformations going on,” Schwartz says. “Emerson is in a whole new place from where it was 15 years ago.”

“It’s changing, mainly because the organiza-tion of the college has made it not just easier, but encouraging to be

innovative.”

10 | TRANSFORMATION

COMMUNITYSPOTLIGHT

THE

FACES OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT ON EMERSON’S CAMPUS

TEXT | CAROLINE CASSARDPHOTOGRAPHY | PAOLA CAMARGO

This semester, Atlas signed the CLAW Petition to support Emer-son Sodexo workers’ unionization. Emerson P.R.I.D.E. recently reformed their mission statement to encompass all campus workers, stating that everyone subcontracted and directly hired is part of the Emerson community. In light of this development, we’re excited to

recognize some of the people who help Emerson thrive.

11 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

COMMUNITYSPOTLIGHT

TEXT | CAROLINE CASSARDPHOTOGRAPHY | PAOLA CAMARGO

RAMIRO SOTO MARIO ERNESTO OSORIO

MARVIN MOLINA ANA CARMEN CRUZ

12 | TRANSFORMATION

Q&AWITH LAUREN SHAW

PHOTOGRAPHY PROFESSOR LAUREN SHAW SHARES HER EXPERIENCE STUDYING THE ART FORM UNDER HARRY CALLAHAN & HER PAST 40 YEARS AT EMERSON

TEXT | ANNA BUCKLEYPHOTOGRAPHY | COURTESY OF LAUREN SHAW

13 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

Q&AWITH LAUREN SHAW

“I learned history of photography, but I never had a for-mal course. I just devoured books. I’ve always been outra-geously curious. It’s what keeps me going. I went to every lecture—everybody that I could hear that I heard was in town. I heard Brassaï speak, I heard Kertész speak, Walk-er Evans – they were all alive. And you could go and visit them – you could get in the car and go up to Abbot Vil-lage, Maine and see Berenice Abbott, and I could go and meet Ansel Adams in Monterey if I wanted to, which I did. Those were the days. You learned from each other, and my entire identity was photography. Out of that, I came right into Emerson. So my love life, my personal life, my working life, was totally photography.”

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENT AT THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN (RISD)?

I chose RISD because of Harry Callahan, who was there. I had a very romantic idea that I needed to go and be in the presence of somebody great. Almost like [the way] Michelangelo worked initially as an apprentice under some great sculptor. My interest has always been documentary. It was really about the people, and learning how to tell a story. My two years of graduate work at RISD I spent photographing in my neighborhood and the Cape Verdean community.

[The project] came about after meeting Robert Frank the first night at Harry’s house. We go in, and there’s Robert Frank in Harry’s living room. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. We showed him our portfolios, and then it came time for me to show him mine, which were pictures I’d done in France of lace and beds and fields. They were very romantic – they were printed well but they were pictures of objects. Robert looked at me and said, “Don’t you know anybody?” He said, “Go and shoot people,” and he pushed the portfolio into my stomach, which I’ll never forget. So the next day, I walked out of my little attic apart-ment at RISD and I just said to a neighbor, “Where would you go to-day if you had a camera?” and he said, “I’d go down to the docks and shoot my friends.” And that’s where I went. That project taught me about the ethics and morality of photography, and what it means to bring a camera up to your eye.

HOW DOES TODAY’S PHOTOGRAPHY WORLD DIFFER FROM A TIME WHEN YOU COULD CASUALLY HANG OUT WITH ANSEL ADAMS?

First of all, the accessibility through digital has allowed so many more photographers the access to make really good images. From Instagram to every website that you can put pictures on, there’s just an enormous amount of work out there. So, in some ways, the community is not physical. It’s not necessarily in real time, and that to me is the biggest change. And I don’t think there’s the desire, or the need, or the accessibility to go and seek out someone famous. We did do that, and other generations have done that too – like the Beat Generation, the Abstract Expres-sionists – that was just part of the zeitgeist of being an art-ist. You’d be in New York, you’d hang out at someone’s loft. That’s just what happened. It still goes on in New York. But for students, I don’t think there’s the culture for it. But I do think there are so many accessible, young photogra-phers that are starting to teach.

The main thing is that if you want to go show your

work to someone that you respect, is that you really have something to offer them too. You’re there to show them your work in a nascent stage and you’re not just taking from them or are there for the sensationalism of being near someone great. It’s just a whole new world of networking. Maybe online you find a mentor, or you go to a photo re-view and you connect with someone. But it’s never going to come to you. Never. It’s not. You have to reach out; you have to humble yourself.

IN THE TRANSITION OF FILM INTO DIGITAL, HOW DID YOUR WORK CHANGE AS A PHOTOGRAPHER?

My work changed exponentially because of the Canon DSLR. It could shoot video, so I got into film. It was very clear to me, not because I thought film was cool, but be-cause I really wanted to hear the voices of my portraits. I wanted to see them move, and I wanted to know what that would look like. I’ve always loved storytelling, and I think it’s harder to do it with one photograph.

In 2003, I was working on “Maine Women: Living on the Land.” I realized that I needed to hear these women’s stories, and my audience needed to hear them. And that’s when I made the leap over. And now, I’ve done my first fea-ture documentary, and I’m longing to go back and make

still pictures, and I would love to shoot film. I have a darkroom in my studio, and it’s so nostalgic. I go in there and see this beautiful sink, and yet I haven’t printed in years. I love digital printing. I love silver printing, but it’s limited. Even if it’s in the negative, you can only go so far. In Photoshop, I can go so much further.

The state of the art of photography right now is in a really good place. The darkroom will go, eventually. Analog will be a boutique practice in the next five years. I think as long as film stays around, there’ll be a hybrid between shooting film and scanning.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN EMERSON’S PHO-TOGRAPHY PROGRAM TRANSFORM DURING THE PAST 40 YEARS THAT YOU’VE TAUGHT HERE?

I was really young when I came to Emerson – in my early 20s – and I just grew up here. There were five enlarg-

ers, and the class was 20 students. We had to break it down into groups of five students. The classes were two hours long, so we had to do five students every 30 minutes, and we did it for years that way. It was a tiny program. There were two of us teaching, and we had a ton of Photo I and Photo II [students]. We were in a darkroom down near Beacon Hill in the back part on Brimmer Street. The tides would come in twice a day and back up the sinks, so we had palettes on the floor so students wouldn’t get shocked, because water would come up from the floor. It was crazy.

Somehow, we ended up starting out in a fine arts de-partment – it was just photography, some painting and drawing, and a lot of art history. It got to the point where the students wanted so much that I set up the history of photography and did that, built up the slide collection, and then it started to expand with more students. It was just me and adjuncts for, I want to say, 30 years. We had some great part-timers. Two years ago, I finally got a photo track – a tenure track – so we could hire someone, and we hired Camilo [Ramirez] after going through a huge search. The darkroom is what it is, and we have this brilliant photo lab. It will just get better and better, beyond the years that I’ll be here.

“Those were the days. You learned from each other, and my entire

identity was photogra-phy. Out of that, I came right into Emerson. So

my love life, my personal life, my working life, was

totally photography.”

14 | TRANSFORMATION

STYLE• STYLE STAPLES, PG. 17

• STYLE METAMORPHOSIS, PG. 20• NATURALLY FASHIONABLE, PG. 24

CLASSICAL,TRANSITIONAL,

PERSONAL

STYLESTAPLES

AN EXPLORATION OF CLASSIC STYLE PIECES THAT HAVE STOOD THE TEST OF TIME

TEXT | LINDSEY PARADISILLUSTRATIONS | HOLLY KIRKMAN

THE TRANSFORMATION OF

Louis XIV of France originally made high heels fashionable for men in the 1660s, and women adopted the accessory shortly after.

French men initially wore heels to create an illusion of height. The heel also showed elevated status, as one of noble blood was literally elevated over others. Louis XIV declared red heels could only be worn by nobility at court, as they too were a sign of higher rank. When the French Revolution oc-curred, heels fell from fashion in order to keep with the new democratic view that everyone was equal. Not until the 1850s were heels reintroduced for women.

A significant transformation for high heels came about in 1947, as Christian Dior introduced his spring/summer collec-tion, the “New Look,” which showcased a slim and elegant high heel. This was the first version of the now well-known

stiletto. However, stilettos were impractical and slowly fell out of fashion in the early 1960s, only to make a comeback in the 1980s. It was then that stilettos became a symbol of sexual power and dominance as working women started a movement called “power dressing.” Business women power dressed by wearing tailored suits with padded shoulders, high heels, and sleek makeup and hair.

“When you put on a pair of high heels it’s a power thing,” says Kristen Bousquet, a fashion blogger for StyleCaster and Styl-ish in Sequins. “You just feel confident when you’re wearing a pair of stilettos.”

Since its reintroduction, the high heel has never faded from style. Whether worn as a constant day-to-day accessory or for only special occasions, high heels are a staple of women’s fash-ion.

HIGH HEELS

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STYLESTAPLES

AN EXPLORATION OF CLASSIC STYLE PIECES THAT HAVE STOOD THE TEST OF TIME

Neckwear became a distinct feature of Western men’s style in 1650. Yet, it was in the 19th century that four main styles of neckwear emerged: the bow tie, the neckerchief, the ascot, and the long tie.

While neckerchiefs and ascots have relatively gone out of style, we still find the bow tie and long tie to be staples of the modern man’s wardrobe.

By the end of the 19th century, the bow tie resembled two dominant shapes: the butterfly and the bat’s wing. The latter is a slim bow that is cut straight, while the butterfly has a large bow with more volume. Both are similar to the shape and style of the bow tie that men still wear today.

Early versions of the tie were rectangular strips of fabric with identical square ends. It was in the early 20th century that

Jesse Langsdorf created the traditional shape of ties today as he cut them diagonally. This set a standard shape and dimen-sion for ties and allowed them to be mass-produced. The focus of ties after that became the use of color, patterns and fabric.

The tie became less popular in the late 20th century as newer generations adapted a style of more casual dress. Yet the tie’s style adapts to maintain a spot in the modern man’s closet.

“It’s definitely still a staple in a lot of guys’ wardrobes. They just make it look a little bit more casual,” says Bousquet. “They’ll put on jeans and a little-button up shirt with a tie. It doesn’t look dressy but it’s still a tie.”

Even in today’s societal shift to casual dress, the tie seems to find its place in that sphere with styles such as the skinny “mod” tie, while still holding onto its roots of formal attire.

THE TIE

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By definition, black is the absence of color. However, style-wise, black is the definition of chic, elegance, class and sophis-tication. Think Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” throwing on a sophisticated yet simple little black dress, affec-tionately referred to as the LBD. Yet women’s cocktail dress of choice hasn’t always been the little black dress.

In the early 1900s black dresses were sold in department stores, but they were still classified as “widow’s weeds” for mourning. It wasn’t until 1926 that the little black dress was born, all thanks to the the iconic Coco Chanel. Chanel was nauseated by the recent output of fashion with vibrant colors. Instead, she favored neutrals, such as black.

“Coco Chanel’s little black dress is what is known in fashion lexicon as a ‘classic,’” says Mary Harkins, Emerson professor and head of the Theatre Design/Technology program. “Clas-sics are those styles that, once they are introduced, continue to be popular over an extended period of time.”

The little black dress popped up everywhere, from fashion

magazines to designer collections, positioning itself as a versa-tile staple for women. Christian Dior was one of these design-ers. “You can wear black at any time,” Dior stated in 1954. “You can wear black at any age. You may wear it on almost any oc-casion. A little black frock is essential to a woman’s wardrobe.”

The 1960s focused on youthful and fun colors instead of sophistication, and master designers of the little black frock started to retire; consequently, the LBD faded into the back-ground.

The revival of the little black dress came in late 1970s and early 1980s, as a new generation of designers once again made it a staple for the modern woman by adding edge to the LBD. Leather and other fabrics were incorporated into the garment, shapes and hemlines were altered, and fashion photographers once again emphasized the diversity of the little black dress.

The little black dress has survived decades of fashion be-cause it can transform, adapting to the cut and style of any time period. Its’ simplicity allows for versatility.

THE LBD

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STYLEMETAMORPHOSIS

STANDOUT STUDENTS SHARE

HOW THEY EMERGED INTO THEIR

OWN DISTINCT STYLES

TEXT | ERIN KAYATAPHOTOGRAPHY | CATHERINE GESSNER

Anthony Betances walks into the student lounge with a suit flung over his shoulder. It’s wrapped in plas-tic, as he intends to take it to a tailor later. “I like having a fit,” he says. “I cannot stand a badly tailored suit.”

He intends to wear the suit to Revolt, a music and media conference in Miami Beach. Betances, commu-nication studies ’16, says getting his suit tailored is part of a growing focus on the fit and simplicity of his cloth-ing. All this is part of a greater fashion transformation that he’s undergone since coming to college.

Raised in Boston and a graduate of the rigorous Boston Latin Academy, Betances says his daily uniform in high school consisted of jeans, sneakers, a hat, and a T-shirt from his favorite local brand, Johnny Cupcakes. “What made me stick out from everyone else were these Johnny Cupcakes T-shirts,” he says. “Everyone knew I was part of this core [brand] community.”

Betances says that wearing these T-shirts became his signature, as well as a way for him to express him-self against the landscape of his intensive high school. Now, with half his college career behind him, Betances is looking to expand and polish up his younger look. “I still like some of that stuff,” he says of his T-shirt-loving days. “But it’s not me all the time. I’m too grown. I don’t want to look fifteen anymore. I’m being held back,” he says of his old wardrobe.

Not only is Betances changing in attitude, but in his views of fashion as well. Now, he is trying to expand his style to reflect his newfound maturity and growing mindset. A wardrobe once filled with logo tees is now being replaced by classic pieces like long-sleeved T-shirts, tank tops and jeans that fit just right. All this is part of Betances’ growing view of style, which is about building an outfit from perfect basics.

Some people cringe at the thought of a closet of ba-sics, fearing that a simplistic style would cause them to blend in, especially at a school with such a mix of cre-ative personal styles. But Betances shrugs away such fears. “I’m not really for the fit in-stand out life. I’m about doing what I want to do and just enjoying that and in-serting myself into the conversation, but making sure I’m not another brush stroke on the wall of all the same color,” he says.

Instead of looking to others to shape his style, Be-tances looks ahead at what is in the future for himself and his style. “If Kanye had a baby with your closet,” he says, when asked about his dream wardrobe. Recently, he put up his signature T-shirts for sale to raise money to attend Revolt. This is symbolic of how Betances is ready to shed his younger self and to embrace a more professional, mature version of himself.

ANTHONY BETANCES

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Imagine going to a high school that was a living fashion show, where people gathered at the exit of your school every day just to watch you leave. This was a real-ity for Dana Nurse, writing, literature and publishing ’15, as a graduate of the High School of Fashion Indus-tries in Manhattan. “Everyone had the most amazing style,” the Brooklyn native says of her high school ex-perience. “Even at 15, 16 years old. And everyone knew what their style was.”

Starting out, Nurse did not fall into that category. As a fashion major, she devoted four hours a day to sitting at a sewing machine. She ran track after school, so she began to wear T-shirts and sweatshirts regularly.

It wasn’t until Nurse’s junior year of high school that her style really developed. Around this time, she began going to local businesses in Manhattan for her classes and realized she could not get by in the profes-sional world wearing sweatpants. So her style emerged, changing from that of an average high school kid to something unique. “I started getting into what I wanted to look like,” she says. “And that was more like grunge, ’80s, ripped jeans, all black all the time. That was my look.”

Nurse eventually graduated with a degree in visual arts – she switched majors halfway through – and then came to Emerson as a writing, literature and publishing major, after a high school teacher sparked her interest in poetry during her senior year. Many students who come to Emerson and Boston find the style transition jarring due to a more high style nature. Nurse found the change shocking for another reason – people weren’t dressing up enough.

“People do not take fashion as seriously here,” she says of Boston. “I was coming from somewhere where people held fashion to this incredible level and it was very important to them. Coming to a place that didn’t have a fashion design major, you had your pockets of people who really loved fashion and style, but it wasn’t a majority.”

However, Emerson’s overall professional vibe still played a role in Nurse’s college style update. “We are go-getters at heart,” she says of the Emerson community. “And it has a lot to do with how much Emerson students pack into their day. I don’t really have a downtime. So if I’m busy – it doesn’t matter what I’m doing – I want to be able to look appropriate throughout the entire day.”

That includes being interview ready at all times. Af-ter having an on the spot interview and not being pre-pared, Nurse tries to always look top-notch. While she once veered toward a more casual look, her outfits ma-tured with high-waisted pants, button-downs and heels, always. However, she keeps her grunge spirit by wear-ing lots of black and sporting a partially shaved head.

Nurse’s more professional style reflects a major shift in her life as she prepares to graduate. Her plan now is to become an English teacher, like the one who inspired her to write in high school. She doesn’t plan to look like a typical teacher though. She aims to maintain her style, wherever she goes.

DANANURSE

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PILAR DURALDE

Most people wore store-bought dresses to their high school prom, reflecting the season’s hottest trends. Pi-lar Duralde, on the other hand, opted for a self-made rainbow-colored dress, topped with a purple wig.

Duralde, writing for film and television ’17, spent her high school years in a conservative private school near her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. With this private school came a uniform with strict regulations. Duralde wore a white or navy polo and khaki skort every day, usually with tights underneath. Shoes had to be brown and closed-toe, earrings could not be dangly, and hair could only be natural colors. Even scarves and rain boots had to be in muted colors.

Duralde did the best she could to let her style shine under such restrictive conditions. “I tried to make it work. I’d have a fun time with scarves and things, but on the weekends, I’d go crazy,” she says. “I’d try to wear almost everything cool in my closet at once.” This often meant a colorful shirt, Dr. Martens, and a fruit-pat-terned scarf.

For Duralde, showing this kooky side was not only about expressing herself, but about distinguishing her-self from her peers as well. She describes her goal as “be-ing as out-there as I could and showing everyone I was so not them.”

However, things changed when she came to Emer-son. When classes started her freshman year, she no-ticed that Emerson students dress to impress. “I real-ized that people were looking good for 8 a.m.,” she says. “So I could be more careful and selective about everyday outfits.”

Gradually, from freshman year to now, Duralde’s look has transformed from a self-described “quirky throw-up” to something a little more polished. “I think what’s inter-esting is even though I was anti-prep in high school, my style has kind of evolved into a preppy sophistication,” she says. “But I still have a lot of weird stuff that I like to throw in and my own touches and twists. I still like to wear things that I make. But I definitely think that it’s become more professional.”

Now Duralde’s uniform consists of more refined and stylish pieces, such as her favorite high-waisted jeans or a camouflage-patterned pencil skirt. She goes for state-ment necklaces, rather than her old scarves. “I think in high school, I was very determined to stand out all the time,” she says. “Now, because Emerson is such a cre-ative place and I’m really with my peers, I don’t feel like I have to compete with them. I feel like every day I wake up and I choose who I want to be that day and it’s just as simple as that.”

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naturallyFASHIONABLE

mooth, handcrafted, triangular earrings placed meticulously on a repurposed wooden table. Soft, pastel sweatshirts created from hemp displayed on hangers made of bamboo. Colorful, tightly woven clutches made out of recycled

magazines. These are just a few of the pieces of environmentally conscious fashion. The world of fashion is always evolving, yet the eco-friendly trend has grown rapidly throughout the last decade, and shows no signs of stopping.

AS THE WORLD FOCUSES ON CREATING A CULTURE OF SUSTAINABILITY, THE FASHION COMMUNITY EVOLVES IN THE SAME DIRECTION.

TEXT | MICHELLE CICCARELLIPHOTOGRAPHY | MONIQUE WOO

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Various companies are committing to methods that will lessen their ecological footprint by using hemp and other sus-tainable materials, recycling used clothes, or using recycled ma-terials such as plastic to produce new clothing and accessories. However, many shoppers who want to be eco-friendly in their fashion choices do not know which companies are taking eco-friendly steps and which are not.

In a 2012 Greenpeace study entitled “Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up,” testers sampled products from vari-ous brands for different types of chemical content, with shock-ing results. High levels of damaging chemicals were identified in the dyes used by companies such as Calvin Klein, Zara, Levi’s, and Victoria’s Secret. Zara’s clothing in particular posed high risks because it contained both NPEs and phthalates, two carcinogenic chemicals, while other companies’ clothing only contained one or the other. These chemicals harm the environ-ment, especially aquatic life, and negatively affect the body’s hormone levels. Greenpeace urged these companies to adopt

zero discharge goals for the future. Some companies, such as Victoria’s Secret, agreed and adopted this policy, while others, such as Zara, merely added vague claims about saving energy and recycling to their mission statements.

Some popular brands, however, have stepped up to the plate to inform their customers that they are changing their cloth-ing for the better. Stella McCartney, Freedom of Animals and Clare Vivier are brands known for using sustainable or even vegan materials to fight against animal cruelty. Others, such as The Hempest, a New England-based brand, have built their company on the notion of using sustainable material.

H&M, a brand known for its affordable fashion, recently ad-opted initiatives to become a greener company under pressure from consumers. The company announced that it will adopt a closed loop recycling method, in which customers are encour-aged to bring in unwanted clothing from any brand to create new clothing, therefore keeping discarded clothing from end-ing up in landfills.

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However, smaller companies often have the greenest initia-tives. Alex and Ani is a local New England jewelry company that prides itself on having an eco-conscious culture. All of the jewelry is handcrafted in America in a factory in Rhode Island. Alex and Ani uses recycled materials for its bags, and the floors of many of its stores are constructed from bamboo.

Ore Jewelry by Sophie Hughes creates eco-friendly acces-sories even closer to home, in the Back Bay area of Boston. Hughes, who graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2008, knew that she wanted to design with her personal value of sustainability in mind. “We have one Earth, one chance; I don’t need to make the situation worse,” Hughes says. The silver, gold and platinum used in Hughes’ delicate yet durable jewelry is recycled. The company buys from a middleman who uses larger suppliers, such as from Cash for Gold and estate jewelry companies, to process the reclaimed jewelry. “It ends up looking brand new, but it’s all

recycled,” Hughes says. Even some of the display tables in her shop are made of repurposed wood.

An eco-friendly business foundation allows Hughes and her production manager, Bess Morin, to be more creative in the process. They use recycled mine cut diamonds from the 1800s, which have a unique shape and shine that modern diamonds do not. The company uses hammers and anvils, which are also repurposed, to give its jewelry a one-of-a-kind texture that can-not be replicated in factories.

Pressure from consumers to be green is pushing many companies to make a change for our planet’s future. Although smaller, local companies like Alex and Ani are making the larg-est shifts in sustainable fashion, big companies like H&M are beginning to incorporate eco-friendly policies into their busi-nesses. And with its thin ombre hoop earrings, delicate golden chains and simple yet stunning bangles, Ore Jewelry is proof that the sustainable future of fashion looks bright.

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• REWRITING A GENRE, PG. 29• COFFEE BUZZ, PG. 32

• A REFRESHING SOLUTION, PG. 35

STORIES OF

BOSTON

CITY

REWRITING AGENRE

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TEXT | SAMANTHA HARTON PHOTOGRAPHY | NORA WILBY

CAMBRIDGE-BASED ARTS ORGANIZATION, THE HIP-HOP TRANSFORMATION,

GIVES A POSITIVE SPIN TO THE MEANING OF RAP

ip-hop gets a bad rap. Older generations see their children listening to artists like 2 Chainz and Ace Hood rap about sex, drugs and alco-hol, and wonder where the artistry is. Many members of the younger generations that the genre tends to appeal to even recognize today’s rappers’ immoral and vulgar messages, yet

can’t resist the killer basslines and catchy lyrics. The rap genre has an inherently negative connotation, and implies a style of music full of profanity and immorality. Darrin Korte, founder of The Hip-Hop Transformation, wants to change that.

Korte started The Hip-Hop Transformation (THHT) two years ago, when he realized the Cambridge Community Center was doing great things for the youth of Cambridge, but that youths develop different in-terests with age. Having worked at the Center since 2009, Korte founded THHT in order to cre-ate more teen programs. “I’m just a firm believer in meeting kids where their passions already are,” says Korte, “so we developed a program to meet their needs.”

THHT’s ultimate goal is to change the face of hip-hop by cre-ating rap that can be perceived in a positive light. Korte explains that the music industry has ap-propriated hip-hop culture and used it to turn a profit, degrading the culture in the process. Today’s rap creates a negative image of the woman or the black male that reinforces false stereotypes. He sees artists put-ting on a facade as people that live perfect lives with all the sex and money that listeners could only dream of, instead of portraying themselves in an honest light. Korte wants his artists to be “ambassadors” to a different type of rap that tells the truth about the artist and about the world in order to help the genre become “a more respected art form.”

One of his ambassadors, 18-year-old Brandon Lewis, says that mainstream rap is a “delusion that portrays an image of the artist that is false and glorifies it.” He insists, “that’s not music,” an idea that THHT has worked hard to ingrain within its artists. Although he is certain as to what “real rap” is not, he has a much more difficult time defin-ing what it is. “I don’t feel like I can categorize it,” he says, but describes underground hip-hop and his own music as “real rap.” When asked about where he’s taking his own music, he takes a long pause to consider, and finally says, “I’m trying to fill the gap.” This simple, six word sentence embodies not only Lewis’ primary goal, but that of THHT

as a whole: to make “real rap” more accessible so true hip-hop does not just have to live underground. Korte and his artists seek to create art and educate the public on the in-justices that the music industry has performed on hip-hop culture, as well as the difference between “gangster rap” and “real rap,” so that more people will recognize the merit in hip-hop music that tells the truth about the artist.

But when Lewis first came to THHT, he did not under-stand this distinction so well. Korte’s program is not just a vehicle for kids to come in and record music. Before they can even get into the studio, Korte educates them on hip-hop culture by giving them a series of lectures about the his-tory of hip-hop, the culture of hip-hop today, and the music

industry in general. For instance, in one of the lectures, Korte spoke about the control that big record companies take over their artists, creating a music indus-try in which artists get paid big money to make music that they don’t have much control over. He says that this lecture an-gered his students, especially Lewis, who chose to turn his emotion into creativity by immediately writing the lyrics to “Pup-pets,” a song containing lyrics like “they give me a deal / I don’t trust it / the only goal is to turn us to puppets.”

Korte not only wants to encourage creativity in his artists, but also the ap-propriate kind of creativity. He doesn’t allow his artists to use foul language or degrade women is their music, which are two elements that are characteristic to a large portion of the hip-hop genre. He made the rule prohibiting swear words

so that THHT’s music would be accessible to all age groups. These limits are actually liberating for the artists, as it challenges them to consider every word they say and how it contributes to making what Lewis calls a “real song.” He says, “Whenever I write songs, I try to speak the truth first,” which is exactly what Korte is trying to instill in his students.

Although the program seeks to change the hip-hop genre in Cambridge and beyond, it is also changing lives within its own studio walls. When asked where he would be without Darrin Korte and THHT, Lewis replies, “In the streets probably, not doing what I’m supposed to do.” He says that he still battles with various temptations, but with his rising career as a rapper that THHT has helped him develop, he finally has something to be passionate about. Lewis admits that without having a serious talk with Darrin about the path he is taking, he might be in jail. Now, instead of creating trouble, he’s creating music, al-lowing his past to influence him positively and creatively.

“I’m just a firm believer in meeting kids where their

passions already are, so we developed a program to

meet their needs.”

-Darrin Korte(Founder of The Hip-Hop

Transformation)

H

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COFFEE BUZZ

“‘I don’t feel like I can categorize it,’ he says, but describes underground hip-hop and his own music as ‘real rap.’ When asked about where he’s tak-ing his own music, he takes a long pause to consider, and finally says, ‘I’m trying to fill the gap.’”

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COFFEE BUZZTEXT | MIRIAM RIAD

PHOTOGRAPHY | CATHERINE GESSNER

THE CHANGING ROLE OF COFFEE SHOPS IN THE BUSTLING CITY OF BOSTON

tudents hunching in front of their laptops, cupping a latte with an extra shot of espresso as they squint at their latest homework assign-ment. Old friends reuniting after years apart, catching up on all the news. Professors ex-

changing ideas over mugs of frothy cappuccinos. These are the everyday happenings that occur in Boston’s coffee shops. With over 100 colleges and thousands of students who depend heavily on caffeine to pull all-nighters before exams and deadlines, Boston is the perfect setting for a thriving coffee culture.

Cambridge’s 1369 Coffee House has been around the Boston area since 1993 and has seen a lot of change and growth in the coffee scene in the past 21 years. Kelley Foley is COO of the company. In her seven years with the coffee shop, Foley has noted many trends. Foley spent some time on the West Coast, and she notes that Boston’s scene has a distinct flavor. “It’s slow coffee over there,” says Foley. “People here want their coffee and they want it fast.” 1369’s customers tend to take their coffee to go on their way to work.

Foley has noticed that people have become more ex-cited about coffee in the past few years. “It’s grown in a

different way nationwide – it’s more speciality coffee.” Specialty coffee ecompasses coffee that is grown in mi-croclimates, producing a very specific flavor and quality. Americans spend18 billion dollars yearly on specialty cof-fee.

Ellen Blanchette, manager of Pavement Coffeehouse’s Newbury Street location, also notes Boston’s brewing excitement about specialty coffee. “People are opting for quality over the cheapest cup they can find,” she says. “Education about coffee is a huge part of that.” Blanch-ette says that the more customers learn about how coffee is sourced, the more they want to buy speciality coffee. Pavement, with five locations and looking to open a sixth in the Fenway neighborhood, has been in Boston for 10 years – although it used to be called Espresso Royale Café – and is found on several of the “top coffee” lists and was named one of the “Top 10 Coolest Cafes in America” by Travel + Leisure.

In the past few years, over a dozen independent coffee shops have sprung up. Often, customers will stroll into a cafe and have a hard time finding a place to sit. While there has been an increase of coffee shops in Beantown, Jake Robinson of Counter Culture Coffee in Somerville

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thinks there is still room for growth. “It might be the least developed coffee market in the United States,” says Rob-inson, who has observed the coffee scene in Boston since 2011. “New York, Providence and Seattle have a much higher amount of contemporary coffee shops than Bos-ton does.” While Seattle has 35 coffee shops per 100,000 residents, Boston provides a mere nine. Blanchette attri-butes Boston’s smaller specialty coffee scene to the pres-ence of Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts and Bostonians’ diehard loyalty to these familiar brands.

Despite the small number, Robinson says that Boston is home to some of the best coffee in the country. He’s not alone in his opinion. A handful of Boston coffee shops, including Render, Thinking Cup and Pavement, have made it into lists by The Daily Meal, USA Today, Bos-ton.com, Food & Wine and more. In Robinson’s perspec-tive, coffee has long been a driver of innovation, and this is true for Boston’s caffeine scene as well. “People visit cof-fee shops to be open to new ideas,” Robinson says. There is a lot of innovation on how baristas prepare coffee and how they serve the beverage, such as what type of espres-so machine is used, explains Robinson. As America’s col-lege town, Boston is the perfect place for these hubs of

intellectual conversation and social connection. “Caffeine makes people talk, and makes people open up a little bit more,” Robinson says.

Foley also agrees that coffee shops create community in a city. “Coffee houses are the third place,” she says, re-ferring to the Starbucks model, the third place between home and work. “People come every day, it’s like their of-fice – people from all different walks of life,” says Foley of their regulars. From professors to the homeless, 1369 has become a hub for the whole community.

Blanchette comments on the transformation in Bos-ton’s coffee scene, saying that people are shifting their mindset from viewing coffee as a “64 ounce.” beverage to a smaller, simpler and better quality experience. “It’s not about size, it’s about the coffee you’re drinking,” she says.

Slowly but surely, Boston is embracing coffee. As spe-cialty coffee streams into the city and more consumers are educated, a few more shops open up every year and become hubs of socializing and studying. “Bostonians are cautious in taking on new trends,” says Robinson. “They want to make sure it’s the real thing before they dive in. That being said, it has all the ingredients for a vibrant cof-fee culture.”

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A REFRESHINGSOLUTION

FOOD DESERTS IN LOWER INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS ARE WHAT THE FRESH TRUCK AIMS TO CHANGE

TEXT | AUBREY GEMMELL-NUNEZPHOTOGRAPHY | PAOLA CAMARGO

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ruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains may be at the fingertips of many Bostonians, but for certain neighbor-hoods in the city, access to basic nutrition is limited. Last year, a retrofitted school bus driven by the vision of a healthier Boston – carrying 30 different varieties of produce – decided to change that.

The side of the bus reads “Fresh Truck,” and the in-side displays their simple, yet luscious, array of food hanging in metal baskets. Options range from mushrooms, to kale, to cucumbers.

Founded by recent Northeastern graduates Josh Trautwein and Daniel Clark, the idea of bringing affordable and nutritious groceries to neighborhoods without access took shape last year as the Fresh Truck bus began its pilot route of Boston neighborhoods.

Annika Morgan, a junior entrepreneurial student and the marketing director of Fresh Truck, helped to make the pilot a success.

“It all started when Josh was working at a health center in Charles-town. There are lots of people living there, there is just not a lot of gro-ceries,” said Morgan.

The neighborhoods Morgan refers to are food deserts – areas where access to grocery stores are limited and income is low. These include areas such as Charlestown, MA, where the idea for Fresh Truck first sprouted.

The bus launched its pilot operation in July of 2013 and ended it in October of that year when the Fresh Truck team decided to stop and re-evaluate the needs of the company and concentrate on expanding their success.

During the operation the bus made weekly stops at neighborhoods ranging from Charlestown, to Mattapan, to Dorchester, reaching 1,120 families and selling 17,541 pounds of food.

The majority of the produce carried by the Fresh Truck comes from the wholesaler Chelsea Market. Fresh Truck sold the produce at about 20 percent less than stores such as Stop & Shop and Shaws, and 40 percent less than Whole Foods Market, which is also supplied by Chel-sea Market.

In the areas Fresh Truck targeted during the pilot, median income is $48,057 in data collected by City Data Boston from 2001–2011 and the reported population density is 14,350 people per square mile. Compared to a more affluent Boston neighborhood such as Back Bay, where the average income is $84,375 as of 2008, areas such as Dorchester have a much lower average income, which lends to the already existing prob-lem of food disparity.

The issue of food disparity has many underlying causes, but natu-ral food stores with a high-end feel and price tags like those at Whole Foods Market do not help the problem. Whole Foods “is very expensive for these families and brings in a foodie culture that they cannot be a part of. It takes the whole healthy living aspect and puts a bad vibe on it,” says Morgan.

Fresh Truck aims to expand from the one bus they have now to a second bus launch which will help to cultivate local communities where fresh food is a staple, not a luxury. With two buses, the Fresh Truck company will be able to focus equal energy on weekly routes as well as community events that they already support, such as Lawrence School in Brookline and Neponset Health Center.

To foster this evolvement, the Fresh Truck team has temporarily taken its bus off the weekly routes. The company plans to fundraise and create a bus model that will sustain itself throughout the seasons, in-cluding the addition of better air conditioning features.

The issue of climate control on the bus is only one of the many ob-stacles the company faces as a traveling business. “The original idea was if we were there, people would show up,” says Morgan. Coming into a community as a new business and developing a loyal customer base, though, is not that simple.

To help cultivate the community, Fresh Truck offers volunteer op-portunities for youth in the Greater Boston area. “We hope to provide a great experience so that people share it and feel that they can depend on us and want to come back to share with their friends and family,” Morgan says.

Morgan recalls one faithful customer, a young child who came onto the Fresh Truck bus every week without fail during the pilot operation. “He will eat whatever he picks out,” she says. “This kid is really excit-ed and he takes ownership in the decision making and learning about something new.”

Reaching into these communities is not as easy as it seems, and al-though impactful connections are made, the bus’s design still lacks the permanent presence a regular grocery store would provide. The bus only stays in each neighborhood for two hours at a time.

The concept of the grocery store on wheels is a realistic alternative to setting up permanent grocery stores in a city where space is limited. Erin Anderson, program manager for Future Boston Alliance, feels that organizations like Fresh Truck are the first innovative steps toward solving the food desert problem.

Future Boston Alliance supports start-up entrepreneurial creative businesses and encourages Bostonians to take part in the conversation regarding the city’s future. Through her experience with Future Boston Alliance and with her extensive knowledge of the city’s needs, Anderson sees food deserts as a “very real issue,” and believes businesses like Fresh Truck can only help address the problem.

“What they are doing is necessary and needed,” says Anderson. “I think it’s great to come into communities and feed people. With this limited access to space, folks have had to get creative.” Anderson be-lieves that Fresh Truck may be the first step in changing the city’s food dynamic, but it is certainly not the last. “We need to go in and completely change our food system and structure,” she says. “We need to build sys-tems that think seven generations from now.”

Morgan and Fresh Truck are thinking about the future, but their start-up company and its mobile operation lack the concrete effect a per-manent location would provide. Likewise, Anderson emphasizes that in order to cause community change, there has to be a place where the community can come together.

“The model is cool and unique and trendy,” says Morgan of Fresh Truck’s business style. “It gets people’s attention regardless of where they are from or what their backgrounds are.” Perhaps this idea can dissolve boundaries to form a city-wide culture of healthy eating. Fresh Truck has the power of mobility, but its catalyzing potential to evolve Boston’s food culture will grow as the project moves into the future.

F

A REFRESHINGSOLUTION

36 | TRANSFORMATION

HEALTH

• COMFORT OF COMFORT FOODS, PG. 39• CUCKOO FOR COCONUT OIL, PG. 41

• BREATHE DEEPLY, PG. 43

COMFORT, COCONUTS

& CALM

HEALTH

39 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

THE COMFORT OFCOMFORT FOODS

REVEALING THE BENEFITS OF FOODS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL AT HOME

TEXT | ANNETTE CHOIPHOTOGRAPHY | ANNA BUCKLEY

ou’re finally home. Utterly exhausted, you throw yourself on the couch with absolutely no intention of getting back up. It’s been a long, tiring day. Your feet are aching and

your brain is steaming, radiating indeterminable lev-els of stress. All you want to do is snuggle up in a cozy blanket in front of the TV with a big plate of home-made (fill in the blank). For some people, it might be mac and cheese with extra cheesy sauce. For others, it might be buttery chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, baked to perfection, just warm enough to fall apart in your mouth in gooey goodness.

Comfort foods are loosely defined as foods that each individual associates with home and wholesome feelings. Emma Brockes, a New York-based feature writer for The Guardian’s Weekend Magazine, shares that “comfort food is really just a route back into memory.” Oftentimes, an individual will crave a comfort food in the specific fashion and form that he or she re-members from the past.

Kathy DeGregorio, a chef that has served in the school food ser-vice for over 14 years, believes that “food is the center of the universe.” She says, “Food is not just for sustainability, it’s part of our ev-eryday life and culture. It affects our moods because as an adult it brings you back to childhood, to family, to memories.”

Depending on gender, the comfort foods that an individual desires and associ-ates with consolation differ tremendously. In 2005, Cornell University surveyed 277 individuals to ana-lyze the difference in preferences. Results showed that females preferred sweet and sugary foods, such as ice cream, while males favored savory foods, such as steak. Also, women admitted to feeling guilty af-ter consuming these comfort foods, while men felt a sense of being rewarded.

Laura Cafasso, writing, literature and publishing ’18, shares that her favorite comfort food is chocolate chip cookies. “They soothe me when I’m stressed.

My aunt makes really nice chocolate chip cookies. They have just the right amount of salt.” Interestingly enough, when asked how she feels after consuming these cookies, Laura says that she feels guilty. “All the time. Every single time.” However, Cafasso also men-tions that despite the regret that she feels after eating the cookies, “in the moment, it’s absolutely worth it!”

On the other hand, Pat Timmons, marketing ’18, reveals the emotion he feels whenever he eats steak or mac and cheese, his preferred comfort foods. “I feel very satisfied. I feel very comforted. I feel like I’m at home. Just good feelings.”

Timmons’ feelings correlate with the idea that certain foods boost an individual’s morale and mood.

While there has been an over-whelming debate about this concept, Karina Martinez-Mayorga, Ph.D., shares that when the mood-lifting chemi-cals found in foods are com-bined with healthy lifestyles and conditions, significant mood boosts can take place. There are two neurotransmit-ters that connect our brains and bodies with moods: ex-citatory and inhibitory neu-rotransmitters. Excitatory neurotransmitters stimulate our bodies and minds, while inhibitory neurotransmitters calm them. Comfort foods, such as chocolate, trigger endorphins and serotonin,

which are chemicals that elicit good feelings and moods. These comfort foods are not only delicious, but also psychologically positive and beneficial.

Whenever those cravings for some good energy and homey goodness come along, don’t hold back! Devour that plate of steaming mashed potatoes or that mountain of creamy chocolate ice cream with ab-solute confidence. Despite prior doubts about the ac-curacy of the impact comfort foods can have, comfort foods are an important aspect in getting that boost of energy. And as Chef DeGregorio shares, “it brings us back to a place in our lives that is better.”

Y

“Females preferred sweet and sugary foods, such as ice cream, while males favored savory foods, such as steak. Also, women admitted to

feeling guilty after consum-ing these comfort foods, while men felt a sense of

being rewarded.”

40 | TRANSFORMATION

REVEALING THE BENEFITS OF FOODS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL AT HOME

cuckoo forCOCONUT OIL

FROM SUNSCREEN TO MOUTHWASH, COCONUTS OPEN THE DOOR TO VERSATILE HEALTH CARE PRODUCTS

TEXT | MIMI WALKERILLUSTRATION | HOLLY KIRKMAN

41 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

h, the coconut. The glorious brown shell filled with pearly, meaty fruit has been around since the dawn of time. Its purposes are endless – co-conut water has tons of electrolytes, coconut

milk is great for the lactose-intolerant, and the fruit itself is yummy on its own or in a cake.

However, the real essence – or blood – of the fruit is its oil. Even though it was only introduced to grocery stores at the beginning of this decade, the product has caught on rapidly – and with good reason. This smooth oil has endless capabilities.

It is even possible to make guilt-free french fries with it! NaturalNews reported in February 2014 that add-ing two tablespoons of coconut oil to cooking helped participants reduce midsection bloat in three months. Molly Robson, a certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant, explains, “Coconut oil is a naturally occurring saturated fat (rather than a hydrogenated or processed one, such as margarine or shortening), comprised of 50 percent me-dium chain fatty acids and 50 percent lauric acid, which is antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial and antimicrobial. It is very easily digested, so it can be cooked or baked with, but it can also be absorbed through the skin, making it a superior topical moisturizer.”

The body does not store lauric acid as fat. Rather, it goes directly to work cleansing the liver. Additionally, it kills protozoan bacteria in the gut, which is known to cause gas and ulcers, and rebuilds tissue damaged by in-flammation. Robson says, “The lauric acid content in co-conut oil challenges a great number of health conditions, such as athlete’s foot, candida, HPV, chronic acne, and can even benefit those suffering from Crohn’s Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and HIV.”

Women in India have historically used coconut oil as an overnight hair mask or pre-conditioning treatment. This is useful for people with dry, brittle or thin hair. The oil improves protein levels by penetrating deep into the hair shaft, due to the oil’s fattiness, low molecular weight and straight linear chain.

Coconut oil has been used as a sunblock and general moisturizer for many eras in countries with an abundance of coconut. Ghana News Agency reported the women of Ghana have used it for centuries as a preventative mea-sure against stretch marks during pregnancies. Addition-ally, coconut oil contains a good percentage of vitamin E, which fades scars. People of the Philippines have long used the oil as bath lotion and as a lice repellant.

In a clinical study published by GreenMedInfo in 2010, coconut oil mixed with star anise essence worked to

significantly reduce the amount of lice present in patients’ hair. This is due to the fatty content of the oil, which smothers nits and loosens the grip of a fully grown louse.

Perhaps the most unusual and interesting approach to utilizing coconut oil is how it works as a tasty mouth-wash. The process is called oil pulling. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states that it has been practiced in Indian medicine, or Ayurveda, for sev-eral consecutive eras.

All you have to do is spoon out a small amount of oil from the jar after brushing your teeth, and swish it around your mouth for about 15–20 minutes. The timing is crucial – during those minutes, the oil pulls out bacteria within the tongue and dissolves the plaque on teeth. As it turns out, plaque is fat-soluble. It is extremely important not to swallow the oil and to spit it out directly into the trash bin – not into the sink. Over time, the tongue’s gray mat-ter will slowly revert back to pink and teeth will become whiter. The oil also kills bacteria that cause strep throat. Additional benefits include well-nourished lips, rejuve-nated gum lines and reduction of cankers.

Coconut oil is also used as an alternative to traditional store-bought sunscreen. Brand name sunscreens contain substances which can cause endocrine disruption and are known carcinogens and eye irritants. These ingredients can break down rapidly when mixed with water and ex-pose the body to free radicals, which oxidize the skin and cause sun sores. Hence, the need for constant and tire-some reapplication.

In essence, so many lotions are pumped with preserva-tives that they work against vitamin D production. There are two sun rays: UVA and UVB. UVA, as we know, are the intense ones – the ones that burn you and leave you red and crying. UVB, however, work to promote vitamin D production throughout the body. Heavy-duty sunscreens filled with fragrance can block both UVA and UVB, or, in cases where toxins are absorbed into the body, allow only strong UVA rays to come through.

The trick for swapping generic sunblock for the nutty stuff? Stay out in the sun for 20 minutes without anything on your skin. Then, slather the oil all over your body. Re-lax for another 30–60 minutes in the sun. The skin on your body will temporarily turn red – don’t panic. You are not burning, you are sulfating, or absorbing vitamin D-3 di-rectly from ultraviolet rays.

The other bonus? The constant use of the oil gives softer, smoother skin and a much cleaner shave. Points for healthy fat that smells like a tropical vacation!

WHEN SEARCHING FOR A SPECIFIC BRAND OF OIL TO PURCHASE, GO WITH COLD-PRESSED. THE REASON? WHEN ELECTRIC HEATERS ARE HOOKED UP TO THE NUT PRESS IN AN OIL FACTORY, IT IS REALLY MORE OUT OF CONVENIENCE – THE HEAT PUSHES THE OIL OUT OF THE SEEDS QUICKER, BUT THE NUTRITIONAL CONTENT IS COMPROMISED SLIGHTLY AS IT IS BEING PREHEATED. PRE-PREHEATED, IF YOU WILL. WHEN SEEDS ARE PUT IN A SOLITARY PRESS, THE SCREWS INSIDE WORK TO GRIND THE SEEDS

DOWN AND COLLECT THE OIL IN A FILTER AT THE BOTTOM. IT IS A LONGER PROCESS, AND PERHAPS A FEW CENTS UP FROM THE REGULAR BRANDS, BUT COLD-PRESSED OIL CAN PROTECT SKIN FROM SUN EXPOSURE FOR LONGER PERIODS OF TIME.

cuckoo forCOCONUT OIL

FROM SUNSCREEN TO MOUTHWASH, COCONUTS OPEN THE DOOR TO VERSATILE HEALTH CARE PRODUCTS

A

HEALTHY TIP:

42 | TRANSFORMATION

43 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

BREATHE DEEPLYA LOOK AT HOW MEDITATION AND YOGA CAN CURE COLLEGE STRESS

TEXT | COURTNEY MAJORPHOTOGRAPHY | CATHERINE GESSNER

hether it is an upcoming test, an encroaching deadline or an ever-growing workload, there is always something that can lead to that anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach. When Greg

Wayne, animation ’16, is faced with feelings of stress he turns to meditation as a way to settle his busy mind. He takes out his Tibetan singing bowl, a type of brass bell, rings it once, and allows his mind to focus on the rever-berating noise until his thoughts drift away. He closes his eyes after sitting someplace silent and allows both his mind and body to quiet as he puts his responsibilities into perspective.

Wayne, who has practiced meditation for five years, finds internal balance with his growing responsibilities when meditating, and often realizes that his workload and commitments aren’t as terrifying as he thought prior to meditation. He is able to look at his work as what it is: manageable individual tasks rather than one enor-mous, looming assignment. After meditating, Wayne realizes that “the size of your problems are an illusion based on perspective.” He explains that meditation is “like dipping your head into a warm bath. It makes me feel like I’ve got just the right amount of sleep.” Meditation allows Wayne to wake up feeling refreshed and clearheaded, with a renewed focus.

Mentally, increasing stress acti-vates the sympathetic nervous sys-tem, which causes your muscles to subconsciously tense, your breath to shorten, and your body to go into fight-or-flight mode. Without real-izing it, your body is on edge. Erin Tetler, a family nurse practitioner in Boston, says, “Often, when a student feels overworked about something, those stressors come first, and taking care of their mind and body becomes a secondary concern.” This poses a prob-lem because the long-term side effects of stress include stomachaches, irritability, trouble sleeping and even decreased concentration. “I feel that all college students suffer from varying degrees of stress. However, learning to manage that is a part of life,” Tetler says. “When stu-dents get stressed, it is important for them to have ways to relax. People have individual ways to reduce stress but some ideas would be exercise, yoga, meditation [and]

deep breathing.” Stress outwardly manifests itself differently in each

individual, but on a biological level it raises the level of the hormone cortisol in the body. Too much cortisol for a prolonged period of time leads to weight gain, loss of memory and a harder time encoding new information. A simple way to battle this stress: learning to breathe deeply and care for yourself. Kate Heffernan, a yoga instructor of five years, says, “I can be aware that there is stuff I still need to do, but instead use this time as self-care. Use this time to be in my breath and in my body. Because it’s when you are really in that present moment you start to actively relax.” Heffernan has been teaching at the Down Under Yoga Studio in Brookline and Newtonville for the past two and a half years. Her Relax N’ Renew class is recommended for managing stress, centering around re-

storative poses to open the body. She tells her students to focus on the movement of the poses and be fully present in their body. Con-centrating on the count of their breaths helps to momentarily for-get stress, which in turn quiets the sympathetic nervous system responsible for the body’s overpro-duction of cortisol.

At first, yoga is a way for stu-dents to distract themselves for a short period of time, but this self-care of learning to calm yourself and learning to breathe will bleed into your everyday life. “When you get really depleted, your stress levels rise, your cortisol rises, and as a result your adrenal glands just can’t handle it anymore,” says

Heffernan. When this happens, she advises her students to remember self-care, active relaxation and deep breath-ing. This will help to keep the body from going into over-drive.

Stress is a disease to the body and mind, but everyone can find a way to calm and center themselves, whether it is through meditation or yoga, or something as simple as just breathing into your entire body. One thing is certain, as yoga instructor Heffernan says, “It’s not one size fits all. Especially when you are trying to relax yourself, it’s a prac-tice of self-study. There is a style and a teacher out there for everyone.”

W

“WHEN STUDENTS GET STRESSED, IT IS IM-PORTANT FOR THEM

TO HAVE WAYS TO RE-LAX. PEOPLE HAVE

INDIVIDUAL WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS BUT SOME IDEAS WOULD BE EXERCISE, YOGA,

MEDITATION AND DEEP BREATHING.”

44 | TRANSFORMATION

AROUND THE WORLD IN

3,720 WORDS • OCEAN PIONEERS, PG. 47• HUMBLE ABODES, PG.59

• THE KOSOVO PARADOX, PG. 52• A NEW DIRECTION, PG. 55

GLOBE

GLOBE

OCEAN PIONEERS

PROFESSIONAL SURFING’S LATEST IMPROVEMENTS ON THE WEB AND AT THE BEACH INFLUENCE THE SPORT’S

EVER-CHANGING CULTURETEXT | CHANTELLE BACIGALUPO

PHOTOGRAPHY | COURTESY OF RYAN MCMANUSILLUSTRATION | HOLLY KIRKMAN

47 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

TEXT | CHANTELLE BACIGALUPOPHOTOGRAPHY | COURTESY OF RYAN MCMANUS

ILLUSTRATION | HOLLY KIRKMAN

Never turn your back on the ocean – the number one rule for any marine newbie. The ocean is its own being with an undeniable allure just as dangerous as it is charismatic. It’s a mysterious frontier. Maybe it’s the gravitational dance with the moon, or its mass coverage of over 70 percent of the planet, or maybe it is that less than 5 percent has been explored.

Surfers are the pioneers that dare to intimately connect with such a presence. Their easygoing attitude has inspired them to take hold of nature’s hand in an area where two op-posing forces meet – land and sea. Formally known as point breaks, these waves are considered a violent feature of the abyss. But these men and women fortified with wetsuits, athleticism and a freeing, salty mist innovated their way to-ward the blend of human plus wave.

By the 1980s, these forerunners had created an activity and lifestyle that became synonymous with youth culture and surf companies. However, surfing as a professional sport flowed just like the waves of the sea, experiencing highs and lows in both popularity and business. Although radiating potential since its birth, it is not until the recent two-year transformation of the Association of Surfing Pro-fessionals (ASP) that the activity has aimed to achieve the same commercial force as any oth-er mainstream sport. The ASP’s efforts toward this transformation include improved webcasting, a new ownership group, gender par-ity and the core embrace of surf culture.

During the mid-1990s, some visionaries transported the sport away from metropolitan venues to commit to quality waves and locations. Remote beaches and un-predictable swell did not mix well with traditional blocks of time on broadcast television. Webcasting became the dominant interface for fans to connect with the sport be-cause of its flexibility.

The ASP created aspworld-tour.com as the singular home for professional surfing, which results in minimal clicks to access all 11 events – a significant improvement from the multiple links needed to access various events in previous competitions. They also launched their new web-cast streaming through YouTube, which has given the abil-ity to track accurate viewing numbers. YouTube doubtfully estimated a total of 350,000 hours watched per event. But to much surprise, the Tahiti surf competition generated a total of 2 million hours watched. The ASP is a cutting edge example of what can be done with a professional sport via Wi-Fi.

But the ASP also carried over the centralized home from online to offline. As opposed to the previous fifty-fifty own-ership split between athletes and surf brands (including Billabong, Quiksilver, and Rip Curl), the ASP is now a pri-vately owned company. Vice President of Communications Dave Prodan says, “The ownership model – but also the structure of the organization this year and in future years – I think benefits all stakeholders of the sport, whether it’s the surfers, or the partners, or the employees, or the fans.”

Despite the growing popularity and success so far, the underrated sport still faces competition. After all, Sunday nights with beer and football have been long a tradition.

Strategically, the new ownership group and senior man-agement blended a small group of individuals with institu-tional knowledge about the ASP with a large group from industries like Time Inc., NFL, ESPN, and FOX Sports to work together and provide sport insight. Prodan says, “I think the blending of cultures has been very important to our ownership and management team. And that’s really contributed to our success so far.”

But the success has transcended strictly business. For all the feminists out there, this might just become a sport held close to the heart. Deputy Commissioner Jessi Miley-Dyer, who also once held the World Junior Title, says, “I think the women have been the biggest winners in the [company] change.”

This is the first time that management has been commit-ted to focusing on and rebuilding the women’s world tour. For the 18 women competing, management increased their total prize money from $120,000 to $250,000. The increase has created complete parity amongst the men and women. In an equal ratio, the men’s world tour has 36 competitors and a total of $500,000 in prize money. Trestles, Maui and Fiji have also been added to the list of events for women.

New management believed that if the women were pro-vided with quality waves, their performances would progress significantly. As the events have proved, Prodan says, “Their per-formances have shattered every expectation.” Miley-Dyer hopes that professional women surfers will continue to grow in status. She says, “It would be really grat-ifying if people knew [a profes-sional women’s surfer] just from her face. Just like any other big time athlete.”

The ASP hopes to reach the masses not only for business purposes, but also to share the culture and transformative expe-rience of surfing with those who have not been exposed to it.

Hawaiian resident Jordan Matayoshi, acting ’15, says, “It is very much a community. You go out with a lot of your friends and

surf all day.” Whether you’re getting pushed into waves, being the competition fanatic, or sporting salt encrusted hair, the surf community remains. It’s all about location. Matayoshi says, “You hang out and end up talking to a lot of people out in the ocean.”

For inlanders, surfing may seem out of reach, but all it really takes is one time to get hooked. Miley-Dyer explains the obsession, saying, “People talk about being bitten by the surfing bug. You end up being obsessed with it a little bit.” But how can you not? A wooden tablet is the only thing be-tween your bare feet and mystical nature. Ryan McManus, visual and media arts ’17, describes the experience of stand-ing on a gliding surfboard as “second to none.” He says, “I think it is like a dance almost. There has to be an aspect to it that you have to repeat and rehearse over and over again. I think it’s a lot like an art form.”

Surfing means something different to each person. It’s like the body of a newly carved surfboard waiting to be uniquely designed. Miley-Dyer says, “No matter what kind of day I’ve had or who I’ve been fighting with, it just feels like it’s just been washed away once I get in the ocean.”

48 | TRANSFORMATION

HUMBLE ABODES

TEXT | PIMPLOY PHONGSIRIVECH PHOTOGRAPHY | MONIQUE WOO

49 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

THE DECEIVINGLY SIMPLE CONCEPT OF “HOME” FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE LIVED IN MULTIPLE CITIES,

COUNTRIES AND CONTINENTS Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines home as “one’s

place of residence.” Urban Dictionary defines it as “where your Wi-Fi connects automatically.” One usually thinks of a location when the word “home” is mentioned, but it isn’t always that straightforward.

The word “home” is like a boggart – a shape-shifting nonbeing that appears in stories like “Harry Potter.” But instead of transforming into one’s worst fears, this type of boggart embodies one’s interpretation of home, shifting from one entity to another. Home can mean a whole spec-trum of things, whether it’s a street, a corner or a neighbor-hood playground. Home could be the nostalgia inspired by a specific scent; the clammy smell of the subway could insti-gate the feeling of home to a person as much as the aroma of grandma’s French onion soup could to the next.

But what happens if home takes the form of a suitcase? What does home mean to people who have moved to so many cities, countries and continents that they’ve lost track? These people are often dubbed Third Culture Kids (TCKs). Ruth Van Reken, coauthor of “Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds,” defines the term TCK as “a person who was raised for a signifi-cant portion of their childhood out-side their parents’ culture.” She is of-ten asked how to identify TCKs, to which she responds, “I suppose the minute someone can’t answer where they [come] from properly, then you know you have something.”

Van Reken has firsthand expe-rience, being a TCK herself. Her parents are both American citizens, but she was born and raised in Kano, Nigeria. She moved back to the U.S. when she was 13, and struggled to find a straightforward answer to the simple question. She says, “In school they used to ask, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘Nigeria.’ They said, ‘No, you don’t look like you’re from Nigeria,’ so I said, ‘Okay, I’m from Chicago.’” Now, Van Reken says she merely answers with “I live in Indianapolis” to avoid the question entirely.

Inbal Kadim, visual and media arts ’18, is in the same boat as Van Reken. She was born in Israel but has lived in Athens, London and Vienna, and now lives in Boston. For Kadim, the answer to the question “where are you from?” elicits an exhaustive explanation. To her, home doesn’t re-

fer to a location. It means family. Kadim says, “Things kept changing, we’d get new furniture, new homes, new schools, new friends, but my family was always the constant.”

Caitlin Combe, visual and media arts ’17, agrees. Home is never one place for her, but if she had to pick a location it would be wherever her family is. She says, “I’ve realized over the years that [home] is more my mom, my dad and my brother because we’ve moved around so much. So wherev-er they are is home.” For the first decade of her life, Combe moved to over four different countries on three different continents. Her parents are from Ireland, she was born in Singapore and later moved to Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, England, back to Singapore and now Boston.

Combe also says that smells are, for her, intricately linked with memories of home. She says, “The other day [I] picked up this candle. And I recognized the smell. I couldn’t tell you what it was, but I knew exactly what country I associat-ed with it. I knew it was a smell [from] Sri Lanka.”

Van Reken, who has studied TCKs and multicultural topics for decades, has similar mixed feelings about defin-ing home. She says that she struggles to find a definite answer, and that she has multiple homes. Each of these homes is related to different feelings and memories. Her Nigerian home reminds her of her childhood, her Chicago one of her grandmother and her high school years, and finally, her Indianapolis one – the current one – of her children and grandchildren.

Perhaps you don’t have to have a definite answer, and maybe you belong in several places. An individual doesn’t have to belong in one home, but multiple, and as Combe says, “Everywhere I’ve been I’ve called home at one point.”

TCKs may find it harder to pinpoint a specific location when answering a question, having grown up immersed in diverse cultures in several locations, but you don’t have to be a TCK to have no solid answer to where or what your home is.

And perhaps there isn’t an answer to what constitutes home. You might be able to recite the exact longitude and latitude of home. Or maybe home remains to you a concept as impalpable as a boggart.

But what happens if home takes the form of a suitcase? What does home mean to people

who have moved to so many cities, coun-tries and continents

that they’ve lost track? These people are often dubbed Third Culture

Kids.

50 | TRANSFORMATION

“TCKs may find it harder to pinpoint a

specific location when answering a question, having grown up im-mersed in diverse cul-tures in several loca-tions, but you don’t have to be a TCK to have no solid answer

to where or what your home is. “

51 | ATLAS MAGAZINE

KOSOVO PARADOX

WITNESSING THE BEAUTY OF A REGION IN UNREST

xplaining to my friends and family that I would be travel-ling to Kosovo over the summer produced two reactions; “I’ve never heard of that,” and “Why would you want to go there,” accompanied by an inquisitive raise of the eyebrow.

But I was going to Kosovo to study peaceful conflict resolution, eth-nic conflicts, and international security, so in my mind there is almost

no place better to go.

E

TEXT | SABRINA THULANDERPHOTOGRAPHY | SABRINA THULANDER

THE

Explaining to my friends and family that I would be traveling to Kosovo over the summer produced two reactions: “I’ve never heard of that,” and “Why would you want to go there?” accompanied by an inquisitive raise of the eyebrow. But I was going to Kosovo to study peaceful conflict resolution, ethnic conflicts and international security, so in my mind there is al-most no place better to go. Kosovo has a poorly functioning government, crime and unemploy-ment rates are exponentially high, and ethnic ten-sions between Albanians and Serbians remain taut 15 years after the end of the war.

Prishtina International Airport, Kosovo’s big-gest airport, only has four gates. After riding down the only escalator and grabbing my suitcase from the only baggage claim, my initial, modest impressions of Kosovo were completely dashed. Standing 360 degrees around me were the peaks of the North Albanian Alps, some poking into the clouds.

There couldn’t have been more than 30 cars in the parking lot, or even 30 houses scattered around the valley. With the exception of the skel-eton of the old airport set off to the side, the valley floor was nearly flat. Looking around, I saw the valley had a look of emptiness, like looking out at the open ocean. Not only that, but echoing in my ears was a dull roar like the passing of waves, which lacked an obvious source.

On the drive from the airport to downtown Prishtina, it became clear that this is a developing nation. Crumbled buildings without doors or windows stood amongst dozens of Roma with babies in their arms,

begging for change. One mother even came up to the car and stuck her baby through my open window. She hissed something at me in Alba-nian, but I couldn’t make it out.

Arriving downtown, things did not change. Even my hotel, the historic Grand Hotel Prishtina, had an entire floor with no walls or windows. You could walk straight up to the edge and jump if you wanted to. Upon researching, several friends and I discov-ered that this place was once home to the Kosovo Liberation Army during the war years. Torture, rape and organ harvesting were among the atroci-ties performed here. The areas in which these hap-pened were not blocked off, but instead were open for exploration. Most hallways looked like those

of a psychiatric hospital: all white walls and doors, with heavy padlocks on some, as if to hide the hotel’s secrets. Handprints in blood and dust were scattered about the walls and skeletons of dead birds sat in corners beside piles of concrete rubble. Bombs truly went off here, and no one bothered to clean up afterward.

Following the end of the war in 1999, Kosovo finally declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. The remains of the region were neglected. No one built a sound infrastructure or a functioning govern-ment. Kosovo still lacks industry, economy and solutions. Its natural resource potential remains untapped, and the country currently relies on inefficient and unwanted brown coal. Most people here work in food service or on farms, because there is nearly nothing else.

“Handprints in blood and dust are scattered about the walls and skeletons of dead birds sit in corners beside piles of concrete rubble.

Bombs truly went off here.”

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Prizren and Mitrovica account for two of the few other cities in Kosovo. Prizren, to the south, resembles a Western European city. The entire city is made out of red and white brick and, of course, surrounded by mountains. Coffee shops and bakeries are on every street corner in Prizren, and a full day’s meals will cost less than 10 Euros. Meals usu-ally consist of burek, a traditional Albanian pastry filled with meat or cheese, and a Peja, Kosovo’s own brew. The Sinan Pasha Mosque in central Prizren welcomes visitors. The 17th century mosque is stun-ningly ornate. The muezzin calls in a pained but ador-ing tone, as if he is still singing of the pain caused by war. The mosque itself is painted in deep cerulean blue and burnt orange, and the floor is blanketed in rugs of the same colors. Scripture, painted in black and blue, is painted on in interior of the dome, and stands in stark con-trast to the stone ceiling. A steep climb to the Prizren Fortress reveals a breathtaking view of the rooftops below and of the surrounding Sharr Mountains.

Compared to Prizren, Mitrovica has less charm. Mitrovica is the northernmost city in Kosovo, closest to the Serbian border. There, the city is split down the middle by a river. Kosovar Serbians live to the north, and Kosovar Albanians to the south. There are, of course, bridges over the river. But they are rarely crossed. Ethnic tensions still run high in this city, so much so that Albanians will truly fear for their lives should they have to cross the bridge. The bridge is guarded by both Italian military forces and Kosovar police, a duty the Italians share with

Germany and the United States. A “peace garden” rests at the center of the bridge. This just seems to be a face saver, because the only time the peace is kept is when no one is crossing the bridge.

But Kosovo’s Mirusha Falls feels untouched by outside struggles. Mirusha itself is small, but its crystal clear lake is a breath of fresh air.

Entering the basin from the trails, the falls feel like an ethereal paradise after trudging through a District 12 type of hell. Granite walls and clear skies tower above the pooling water, and gazing across the shallows of the lake you can see bright blue dragonflies flutter every-where. There are several picnic tables and a little concession stand, complete with Peja and potato chips in every imaginable flavor.

Of all that I have seen and experienced in Kosovo, the only way I can think to describe it is paradoxical. There is clearly so much struggle and so much need, but there is so much beauty as well. In some moments, the stark contrast between the developed and the developing parts of Kosovo is what makes it such a fascinating place. Walking through the streets, stepping over rubble from collapsing buildings, and watching a developmentally disabled Roma girl being physically pushed away and avoided by her mother are experiences that will always remind me of the many problems in Kosovo that remain unsolved. Interacting with knowledge-hungry Kosovar students and encountering the one-of-a-kind culture of Kosovo, however, will always remind me that the dis-tinctiveness of this small nation is enough to make me visit again.

“Ethnic tensions still run high in this city, so much so that an albanian will truly

fear for their life should they have to cross the bridge.”

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A NEWDIRECTION

FEMALE DIRECTORS PAST

AND PRESENT MAKE THEIR MARK

IN A MALE-DOMINATED

REALM

It’s dusk. Men are working on set, with bright lights glaring down on them. Some raise their hands to wipe the sweat from their foreheads as they face the hard work ahead. A large metal door swings open and a woman stands by the entrance. She walks in with a handful of papers in one hand and a light meter in the other. A throng of men gravitate to her, but she walks past them. The

woman walks on to her set, sits on her chair, and calmly says,

“Action!”

TEXT | RUHI RADKE ILLUSTRATION | HOLLY KIRKMAN

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TEXT | RUHI RADKE ILLUSTRATION | HOLLY KIRKMAN

FRANCE The first female director in cinema dates back to 1896 when French filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché directed “La Fée aux choux,” which translates to “The Cabbage Fairy.” Guy-Bla-ché worked her way into the film industry as a secretary to a successful film director. For a legacy that now shines so important, many have hardly heard her name.

As a director, Guy-Blaché worked in France and the United States and founded a production company called Solax that was based in New York, and later, New Jer-sey. Guy-Blaché is credited for innovations such as synced sound, special effects and naturalism on screen. These in-novations changed cinema in her time and the way we view it today.

When we think of Hollywood we think of old men in dark, vintage suits smoking Cuban cigars and creating magic. This Hollywood stereotype flourishes because many female directors go unrecognized.

There are films around the world that have been direct-ed by women and have created waves at festivals. Cinema is one of those rare things that can bring people around the world together, regardless of language, culture or religion. In countries worldwide, women have broken the mold.

BRAZIL Today, Alfonso Cuarón is one of the best-known di-

rectors of Latin American cinema, but Brazilian director Suzana Amaral is equally important. After giving birth to eight children, Amaral wanted to try her hand at filmmak-ing, so at age 37 she enrolled in the University of São Paulo film school. At the age of 54 she directed her feature film, “Hour of the Star,” which follows a young woman’s journey in Brazil amidst socioeconomic barriers. The film was Bra-zil’s official selection to contend for the Oscars’ 1986 For-eign Language Film award.SAUDIA ARABIA

In 2012, Haifaa Al Mansour made history when she di-rected “Wadjda,” a film about a 10-year-old girl who wants to buy a bike. Set in Riyadh, the film shines light on the complexities of a conservative society through the eyes of a strong willed girl.

In a country that has no film industry and has banned cinema halls, Al Mansour stands tall as the first female di-rector and the only filmmaker in Saudi Arabia to shoot an entire feature film there. “Wadjda” was sent to the Oscars as Saudi Arabia’s first official entry. It was nominated at the BAFTA Awards and won awards at the Venice Film Fes-tival. Saudi Arabia has strict social laws limiting women’s movement on the streets and stating that they can’t speak to men they aren’t related to. This was a problem for Al Man-sour, who had to direct from a van with a walkie-talkie and a monitor.

UNITED STATESWomen comprised 6 percent of all directors working on

the top 250 films of 2013 in Hollywood. 93 percent of the films produced by Hollywood were directed entirely by men. In 2010 Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for the direction of her film “The Hurt Lock-er,” which also won Best Picture.

In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass,” the Red Queen offers Alice wise advice. “It takes all the run-ning YOU can do, to keep in the same place,” she says. “If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” Smart female filmmakers run as fast as they can to overcome the industry’s bleak statistics.

The rest of the world is catching up.

INDIAFilm made its journey into India in 1913 with the silent

film “Raja Harishchandra.” Thirteen years later, Fatma Begum became the first female director in India with her film “Bulbul-E-Paristan.” Begum, a famous actor, did not have the patience to simply wait around to be directed. She grabbed a camera and made her own films. Similarly, Apar-na Sen is an actor who directed her first film, “36 Chowring-hee Lane,” in 1981, which won the Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Festival. Sen’s films mark the country’s indie genre with topics such as identity in India after inde-pendence, as well as religious strife in the world acclaimed “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer.” Aparna Sen handles topics like these with sensitivity and respect.

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CONFESSIONS OF A HOMEBODYBY SHANNON BUSHEE

I’m pretty much the textbook definition of an introvert: there is nothing I like more than hanging out in my own head.

But sometimes, even though I’m perfectly content with what I’m doing at home, there is still a small, raw, gnawing feeling in the back of my mind that I could be doing something more, or that I am missing out on a life-changing moment by staying in on the weekends. This sense of FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, has plagued me my whole college career. You’d think that I would’ve gotten over this, now that I’m gradu-ating in seven months, but nope. Every once in a while, I’ll get hit with this sense that by not going out every weekend, I’m somehow not be-ing a “real” college student. I’ve seen the movies, after all: college means crazy adventures and frat parties. If I’m not having the time of my life, I’m doing it wrong, right?

There is a very small distinction between staying home because I want to stay home and staying home because I don’t want to go out. But that’s a distinction that I’ve tried to keep in mind when, as a self-confessed couch potato, I decide how to spend my time. This is a tough balance I’ve tried to achieve: on the one hand, I need to be willing to take more chances, but on the other hand, why should I do things I don’t want to do just to prove that I have a life to people who aren’t even part of it?

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART ISBY JULIA ROBERTO

Think of middle school. Try not to cringe.

There were braces and Hollister T-shirts that were so simple and bor-ing but cost a fortune. There were crushes, AIM profiles and giggles ex-changed next to vending machines—attempts to talk to cute boys from class. There were angsty pop-punk lyrics written in your math notebook and Jonas Brothers posters hanging in your locker. (Maybe this was just me, but humor me here.)

We were all navigating “teenage years” and constantly changing so-cial hierarchies. We were coming to terms with our bodies as “adults” and feeling more emotions than we thought possible at such a young age. Life was starting to become real, at times too real, which is why we whispered to our friends over a bag of Doritos at 4 a.m. on Friday nights.

And I think there’s something so inherently beautiful in that. The friends I cried on the bathroom floor with when I was 13 over a bad report card became the people I turned to when I had my first broken heart. They were the first people to call me out when I lied about being okay, because they had seen me in middle school when absolutely noth-ing was ever okay.

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HOLIDAY CHEERBY LAUREN LOPEZ

By November, you’d expect stores to clear out their stock of candy and start selling things for Thanksgiving. It’s the next major holiday, after all.

Wrong.

The sleigh bells are jingling and the stores are stocked with holiday mer-chandise. Every radio station plays “White Christmas” and “Home for the Holidays,” and you know if you hear the word “snow” one more time you might just go insane.

When is it too early to start? Is all of this excessive? It’s not even Thanks-giving and the holiday season is already in full swing. Should they wait until after November to officially start the holiday cheer?

I suppose I’m not really the best person to offer an answer to this ques-tion. I, for one, spread the holiday cheer whenever the mood strikes me. My friends often complain, “It’s completely inappropriate to be singing ‘Jingle Bells’ in July.” What can I say? If it’s stuck in my head, I just sing it.

HOMESICKNESS ABROADBY CHARLOTTE SLOTA

I’m from Rhode Island, so when I was starting the first few months of my freshman year at Emerson College, I was lucky enough to only be an hour bus ride away from home.

Fast-forward a year and I am currently enjoying the amazing opportu-nity of studying abroad at Emerson’s European Center at Kasteel Well in the Netherlands. I’m also having the not-as-amazing opportunity of experiencing homesickness for the first time.

The program here is designed to be fast-paced. We’re constantly go-ing and going and going, never really having a chance to take a break and breathe. During the week we go to class and study, and then, come Friday morning, we’re up early, ready to take on a new European city and adventure. We are surrounded by so much overwhelming beauty and culture, trying to take both physical and mental photographs, while forcing ourselves to realize that this is actually real life.

There really shouldn’t be any time to be sad or homesick. Yet, there are still moments here where by some sort of miracle you may actually have the dorm room to yourself. Or maybe you are surrounded by people in the dining hall when your mind drifts back to what your friends in Bos-ton are doing. Maybe it’s noon and you so desperately want to talk to that one particular person back home, but it’s 6 a.m. there, or maybe it’s 3 a.m., or maybe it’s one in the afternoon and he or she is just as busy as you are.

FROM THE BLOG

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