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feministfocus · 1 year

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Girls Receive National STEM Awards

by Helena Donato-Sapp

Issues and concerns about women and girls in STEM have been hot topics for quite a while now. As recently as one month ago (September 19, 2022) Ms. Magazine’s Camille Steward and Lauren Zabierek wrote about Tennisha Martin, the founder of BlackGirlsHack, a nonprofit focused on getting more women of color into the field of cybersecurity. But as early as 1976, Ms. Magazine was also writing about “math anxiety” and the tendency of women to avoid mathematics. As long as we have been fighting for our rights as women, issues about equity in regard to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics have been a part of our conversation and our movement.

That’s why I am especially proud to introduce you to a group of young girls making a tremendous impact in the area of STEM. Full disclosure – I am proudly one of the awardees! Thus, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself before I introduce you to my brilliant STEM-sisters (and a few STEM-brothers) in this inaugural class of STEM awardees.

The award is from The 74, which is a relatively new nonprofit organization that covers America’s education system from early childhood through college and career. (3). In March they had a call for nominations for the inaugural class of “16 Under 16 in STEM” award. They asked their readership to help identify 16 of “the most impressive students who are 16 years of age or younger who have shown extraordinary achievement in STEM-related activities.” (3) Sixteen honorees were selected by a panel of judges who work across several STEM fields. The 16 honorees were notified on August 1st.

Why did I receive the award? You can read about my early love of science and some of the things I’ve done here. I would say that one of the reasons I am included among this extraordinary peer group is that I am a child scholar and activist – now a youth scholar and activist because I just turned 13 years old – and have published rigorous scholarly work and am a much-sought-after speaker and activist. My work is all the more impressive when you know that I have multiple learning disabilities, which is also why one of my areas of scholarship is Disability Justice. Indeed, my learning disabilities are a science area in and of itself as I dig deeply into what it means to have neurodiversity as one of my multiple identities.

I am so proud to be a part of the first class of “16 Under 16 in STEM” and I’m happy to tell you that 11 of the 16 are girls! Let me introduce these brilliant young STEM-sisters:

Aesha Bhatt (12) from Johns Creek, GA: Aesha immigrated to the U.S. from India five years ago. During the pandemic when we were all locked down and opportunities seemed thin, Aesha engaged with BYJU’s FutureSchool, which is an online technology and coding program for youth. For her capstone project, she created an app that allows students to digitally report instances of bullying. She had witnessed her peers get harassed in school but also that they were afraid to speak to teachers and administration and she felt that a tech-based approach might increase the chance of getting bullying reported. Her Anti-Abuse App is available for download on the Google Play Store and she is working on getting it picked up by Apple’s App Store. It’s great that Aesha wanted to help her peers feel safer at school and I feel this is especially important since I have been bullied a lot at school myself. I’ve already reached out to Aesha to learn more about her app and how we can use it at our own school since one of the things our GLI club is doing this year is an anti-bullying campaign.

Lydia Denton (14) from Wilson, NC: Lydia is a girl after our own hearts because she is on a mission to get more girls interested in STEM. She has life-threatening allergies and suffers from severe anxiety and her response to these concerns is to use them as the fuel for inventions. One invention of hers is the Halcyon Bracelet which recognizes recurrent movements associated with anxiety and gives the wearer a warning signal. She also invented a Beat the Heat Car Seat that can tell when a child has been left in a car and initiates a call to emergency services to rescue them. Lydia also co-founded Regame, Inc., which is a nonprofit that collects, repairs, and redistributes used gaming systems and tablets to keep them from being dumped in landfills. She regularly speaks to schools and programs for girls to encourage more female interest and representation in STEM.

Vanesha Hari (16) from Redmond, WA: Vanesha was a counselor-in-training for a program that had the purpose of igniting girls’ curiosity for math and that is where she saw a pretty major problem. The girls, she found out, thought math was not only boring but also that boys were better at math than girls. A second experience that impacted her were trips to India with her family where she witnessed girls giving up their opportunities for education so that they could work and support their families. These two experiences led her and her sister, Varshini, to co-found Joys of Giving, a nonprofit with the dual mission to fight youth hunger and close gaps in educational equity. A major goal of Joys of Giving is to encourage more girls to go into STEM fields. Vanesha has led more than two dozen STEM workshops and engaged hundreds of girls in coding, science, baking, and art.

Chelsea Hu (16) from McLean, VA: Chelsea is the daughter of an Asian immigrant family and spent much of her childhood moving around the country as her parents looked for work. She found that STEM was always a place where she could express and affirm important cultural experiences and find a sense of belonging. She saw rapid urbanization in her neighborhood in Virginia and how it was causing hazardous bank erosion which, in turn, was endangering the health and diversity of local habitats. That led her to an interest in the eastern skunk cabbage because that plant reminded her of vetiver, a similar plant her ancestors used to stabilize rice paddies. Because she is an International Science and Engineering Fair medalist, she has the platform to share her work with many communities to combat these harmful trends of urbanization and mismanaged stormwater. She is also a researcher at the Paranjape Lab at Georgetown University where she is heading a project on using silk fibroin microspheres to improve drug delivery in the lungs of infants who have a respiratory disease. But wait…there is more! She has seen that a lot of her peers are struggling with mental health issues and so she founded Teen Mobile Arts, a global nonprofit that builds communities for young underrepresented artists around the world in response to these mental health issues.

Pinyu Liao (16) from Kenmore, VA: When Pinyu’s grandmother died of a bacterial infection, it inspired her to study antibiotic resistance. She started her research project from her bedroom and is now working with the Research Science Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She acquired funding and produced a documentary, The Quest to Stop Antibiotic Resistance, which was selected to be part of the World Health Organization’s Health for All Film Festival. Pinyu shares her work through her blog, Lavender + Lab Coats, which gets over 35,000 views a month.

Garima Rastogi (16) from Concord, NH: Garima lives and breathes math. When she was in middle school she co-published a peer-reviewed research paper on probability games, presented to the American Junior Academy of Science on using machine learning to count microscopic worms, and co-published a paper on “The Stable Matching Problem and Sudoku.” She and her siblings co-founded the Rastogi MatheMagicians Club at their local library where they mentor elementary and middle school students who have an interest in competitive math.

Cloris Shi (15) from Fullerton, CA: Cloris conducted research using machine learning methods to analyze the mutations of the receptor-binding domain of six different coronaviruses. Her project, “Analysis of the Amino Acid Frequencies in the Receptor-Binding Domains of Six Coronaviruses,” was recognized in the national Broadcom MASTERS top 300 projects and she was awarded a scholarship for it. She also founded her school chapter of STEAM for All, which is a nonprofit that wants to foster more interest in STEAM fields.

Harita and Sharada Suresh (15 & 13) from Jersey City, NJ: Harita and Sharada have always loved technology and they started learning how to code when they were 5 years old. They quickly saw that there were barriers in technology fields, though, that were based on gender, race, geography, and income. They launched Little Apple Academy, a nonprofit that offers free live coding classes online to other young people. When the pandemic hit and schools closed, the Suresh sisters led coding classes online that attracted students from around the world, and now they have taught over 450 students from nine different countries.

Sydney Vaughn (16) from San Jose, CA: Sydney’s interest in medicine comes from her brother who has special needs and has had 20 surgeries since his birth. She states that it was all those years of watching medical professionals care for her brother than was the catalyst for her own interest in medicine today. She lives in San Jose, California where the unhoused population grew by 11% during the pandemic. Sydney led a project to study and tackle how medical care was delivered to her community in San Jose. Her years-long research and planning led to an event where she and her peers – under the guidance of a local physician – provided food, first aid kits, and simple medical care to the unhoused members of the community.

Kavya Venkatesan (15) from Old Bridge, NJ: Kavya is a national ambassador for the Society of Women Engineers, a distinguished leadership ambassador for the Harvard WECode Conference, and a board and council member for New Jersey’s Women’s Future Leadership Academy, which organizes STEM symposiums for underrepresented students. She developed an app, NJX Connect, that connects individuals in low-income coastal communities with flood relief organizations and resources. A second app, Helios, is a heat advisory system that aims to educate users about their risk of being hospitalized from heat stroke.

And don’t forget to read the boys’ profiles too! Steven Hoffen (14), Zidaan Kapoor (15), Elliott Tanner (13), Sanjith Udupa (16), and Samuel Woods (13) are extraordinary and certainly deserved this honor along with the girls you’ve just met.

Like all movements toward justice and equity, we have a long way to go. Today there are lots of amazing organizations that encourage and support girls in STEM. I am proud to be a part of the movement towards justice and equity for girls by being a member of the Feminist Focus Blog Team…as well as being part of the movement for equity and justice for girls in STEM fields with my honor of being a member of the inaugural class of “16 Under 16 in STEM.”

Check out some of these great STEM organizations focused on girls and get involved:

The Alliance for Climate Education https://acespace.org ACE educates, inspires, and supports young people to lead the fight for their future.

Black Girls Code https://wearebgc.org BGC builds pathways for young women of color to embrace the current tech marketplace as builders and creators by introducing them to skills in computer programming and technology.

Black Girls Love Math https://www.blackgirlslovemath.org BGLM addresses racial and gender equality in math.

Latinas in STEM https://www.latinasinstem.com Latinas in STEM help Latinas currently pursuing careers in STEM to thrive.

Women in STEM https://womeninstem.org Women in STEM is about empowering and encouraging high school girls to be a part of the movement to increase female representation in STEM.

#girls in science #girls in stem

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sacramentonewsjournal · 2 years

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Why Its Onerous to Watch Natasha

Season seven of Under Deck Mediterranean has been hitting some tough waters currently, and paradoxically, it’s not making waves with many viewers. And Under Deck Crusing Yacht’s chief stew, Daisy Kelliher, believes she is aware of why. One of many important sources of rivalry this season is the inside crew — primarily the combined dynamics between chief stew Natasha Webb and second stews Kyle Viljoen and Natalya Scudder. The trio has divided themselves with Natasha and Kyle turning into a clique of their very own, leaving Natalya on the sidelines. This didn’t sit properly with the stew, which finally led to her chatting with Captain Sandy concerning the matter. Talking with Showbiz CheatSheet, Daisy says a profitable season begins with a powerful chief stew who can carry their group collectively, and Natasha being far and wide this season, each emotionally and mentally, makes it laborious for viewers to look at. Natasha has been fighting a relationship again dwelling and a flirtation with chef Dave White, and it’s taken a toll on her group. “It’s laborious to look at to be sincere, and I really feel sorry for her for certain,” Daisy stated. “In case you missed the mark they’re simply going to go after you.” Daisy continued by saying that viewers need to see a “supportive” chief that takes management of their group and might carry the drama with the visitors, and never with each other. “They need supportive. They need individuals who again their group, they usually need folks arguing with visitors, not with one another,” Daisy instructed the outlet. “And so they need to really feel like the way in which they do at their very own work… The client is an a**gap they usually love their group type of factor. So sadly, that’s gone a bit unsuitable for her with the preliminary Dave factor and the Natalya [Scudder] factor, and yeah Bravo viewers simply don’t like that.” Daisy went on to say that you just have to be in a very good place mentally to have the ability to lead your crew whereas on constitution — one thing that Daisy sees Natasha clearly fighting. “I’m actually fortunate as a result of I’ve all the time been in a extremely good place mentally after I’ve executed a present,” the Under Deck star shared. “God, forbid I do the present after I’m in a nasty place mentally. As a result of I may also act loopy and do irrational stuff. There’s all the time going to be one among [the crew members] in there. So, you simply type of go on the present praying it’s not going to be you.” Although she empathizes with Natasha, Daisy believes that there was no sturdy chief stew apart from herself and Aesha Scott because the departures of veterans Kate Chastain and Hannah Ferrier (Hannah was even harsher on Natasha, calling her “boring”). “I really feel dangerous for [Webb], it’s not simple to look at. As a result of [after Kate Chastain and Hannah Ferrier] there was no chief stew with the type of endurance aside from me and Aesha [Scott from Below Deck Down Under]. So, Natasha is getting a nasty run,” Daisy claimed. Under Deck Mediterranean airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo. Originally published at Sacramento News Journal

#Sacramento News Journal

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darkcloud-kcalifornia · 2 years

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The next story is “The Ghost of the High Hills” by Stephanie Shaver. This one has a trio of characters who help each other out with a problem. The first is Herald Challen, who developed a problem of losing any capability to shield after using her Mindspeech to stun an enemy mage while her allies filled him with arrows, leaving her in a state where she can’t bear to be near anybody but her Companion. Which is definitely a problem for her wife, a very large Shin’a’in woman named Aesha, though she also has backstory baggage with just how she left the plains. And finally there’s Khaari, a Scrollsworn who wound up in trouble when investigating an ancient Kaled’a’in artifact (a statue of the Star-Eyed) slammed her into being stuck astral projecting. And with one of the Star-Eyed’s servants around, well, the Velgarthian gods are known for not being afraid to intervene if asked. In this case it’s allowing the couple to use the statue to learn how to astrally project themselves, which would allow them to spend some time together as Challen couldn’t sense spirits. Buuuut as nothing is free, they’re in turn assigned to keep watch over the thing and make sure nobody messes with it. Presumably until the Mage Storms come in a few years and make it a moot point, at least.

I admit I don’t have much of any kind of idea if this solution was a good one. Can’t say that I’ve ever been in a relationship or separated my spirit from my body in a controlled manner, so I… just dunno. You’d have to ask someone who at least has a spouse they’ve had to be away from for a while.

In the way of a little I found amusing, Aesha tells a Guard at one point that the local tavern puts tree sap in their ale, while assuring the guy he’s gonna love it. So I guess northern Valdemar has maple trees. Also amusingly Aesha worked hard at abandoning her old accent and picking up the local one, so now I’m just imagining a 7 foot tall woman with tree trunk arms and just the most friendly Canadian or Minnesota accent.

#book banter #heralds of valdemar #valdemar #boundaries #the ghost of the high hills

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candycoatddalek · 2 years

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CandyD’s Lovelink Masterpost

Here’s a master post of all my Lovelink works. List is in alphabetical order by character. I don’t normally take requests unless I feel like it so unless I put up a post or something on my sidebar that says requests are open please don’t make requests because they won’t be answered.

Check out the Key below to see how I tag my warnings on things, I’ve tried to place warnings on those fic’s that I feel may need it but I’m only human and some times miss some things, kindly send me a message if you think something needs to be tagged with a warning.

If you want to get an introduction to my OC’s take a look at this page.

Enjoy!

Other Masterlists.

Gaming Fanfiction|Original Fiction|Otome Fanfiction| TV/Movie Fanfiction

OC’s|MC’s

Key

Newest stories: N!

Smut: NSFW

Violence: V!

Horror: H!

Non-Con: N/C!

Last Updated: 00/00/0000

All

Oneshots

Adam Johnson/Dominic Wright

Oneshots

Aesha Nora/Samantha Clark

Oneshots

Albert Bishop/Jonathan Hayes

Mini Series

Oneshots

Alex Frederik/Calum Keys

Oneshots

Alice Martin/Eve Rockwood

Oneshots

Ana Samarine/Milena Sarafian/Ruby Thomas

Oneshots

Antoine Dawson/Noah Cruz/Nina Hawk

Oneshots

Austin Russo/Damien Jones

Mini Series

Oneshots

Bex Michel

Oneshots

Blake Bailey/Keanu Hale

Oneshots

Brett O’Hara/Susan Sheridan

Oneshots

Cainán Ó Faoláin

Mini Series

Oneshots

Clementine Hill/Grace Kim

Oneshots

Dahlia Vance/Rose Monroe

Oneshots

Daniel Anderson/Ryan Bryne

Oneshots

Didier Laurent/Mamoru Ito

Oneshots

Dr. Vile

Mini Series

Oneshots

Emerson Grey/Sage Foster/Vitoria Voznesenky

Oneshots

Fraz Jorgenson/Ingrid Holm

Oneshots

Gabe Scott

Oneshots

Garrett Brown/Rory O’Brien

Oneshots

Jaden Bower/Skylar Quinn

Oneshots

Jamie Grant/Seth Evans/Julia Greene

Oneshots

Julien Alexandre/William Chrome

Oneshots

Makoa ‘Aukai

Oneshots

Min-Jae Lee/Liam Park

Oneshots

Nick Klaus

Oneshots

Oliver Black/Stefan Silver

Oneshots

Raphael Becker/Wyatt Moore

Oneshots

Sheng Zhao/Tomas Antol

Oneshots

Tiros Darkmane

Oneshots

Theo Onasis

Oneshots

#Lovelink #Lovelink Masterpost #CandyD's Master Posts #CandyD Writes

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thequeenofpixels · 4 years

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So, I’m playing LoveLink now, and I noticed some characters are the same, I listed some of them that I already confirmed:

Skylar Quinn x Jaden Bower

Sam Knight x Michael Evans

Austin Russo x Damien Jones

William Crome x Julien Alexandre

Daniel Anderson x Ryan Byrne

Min-Jae Lee x Liam Park

Oliver Black x Stefan Silver

Adam Johnson x Dominic Wright

Rafael Becker x Wyatt Moore

Seth Evans x Jamie Grant x Julia Greene

Marco Bottazzi x Hugo Hornsby

Jake Gonzales x Zayn Kassab

Jonathan Hayes x Albert Bishop

Antoine Dawson x Noah Noah Cruz

Kayla Summers x Jasmin Medina

Clementine Hill x Grace Kim

Milena Sarafian x Ana Samarine

Samantha Clark x Aesha Nora

Vitoria Voznesensky x Sage Foster

Emmalyn Roberts x Angel Reed

Eve Rockwood x Alice Martin

I plan to add the others later... but some of them we can’t match yet I suppose...

_____________________

Edit: I stopped playing LoveLink, the game is too expensive. It was good while it last.

#lovelink

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corgibae · 3 years

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is there any special non-white lovelink match :( kinda disheartening

Here's some of my favorites.

Noah Cruz/Nina Hawk

This one is a bit biased cause I'm more attracted to their counterpart Antoine lol but they're one of the romantic matches in the game for me.

Daniel Anderson

Hot and sexy nerd who hates zombies.

Dahlia Vince

She's a surrogate mother to her gay friends. She's hilarious and her pregnancy journey throughout the game is heartwarming.

Jade Adisa

You get to see a glimpse of her career as a camgirl and how it affects her dating life.

Dominic Wright

If you don't mind the crazy ex girlfriend drama, his route is really charming and sweet.

Tomas Antol/ Sheng Zhao

When you want some royal romance and also the forbidden romance thing.

Michael Evans

Wannabe Troy Bolton. If you can tolerate his ego ,he can still be fun.

Keanu Hale

Very horny if that's what you're interested in.

Jamie Grant

For the international crime adventure experience, you'd want to match with this guy.

There's also several others like Emmalyn,Jasmin,Aesha and the K pop guys and some others that are ambiguous like Albert,Dr.Vile,Marco and Jaden. The only seasonal poc match we had is Makoa Aukai.

#lovelink

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rainwolfheart · 3 years

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i've been playing lovelink for a few days and i have reviews

Adam/Dominic - total sweetheart. lil basic but I am absolutely spending gems on him. 9/10

Aesha/Samantha - I wanted to like her but I can't deal with the cringe. and mc being so oblivious to game culture. also I am not into the sexy videogame outfits thing. 3/10

Albert/Jonathan - no thanks I don't respect the troops. might match with Albert if I'm desperate to farm gems. 1/10

Alex/Calum - too forward, wish there were more "cool your jets bro" options like there are with Blake/Keanu. also just doesn't feel realistic. "couldn't afford canvas so I painted on myself"??? you can buy canvas at the dollar store, it's good paint that's expensive. try harder. 3/10

Alice/Eve - matched with Eve before I reset and I want her back. didn't get far enough to really get to know her tho. 7/10

Ana/Milena/Ruby - I'm not into the "born sexy yesterday and you're the only human she knows" thing. I think she's super sweet and interesting and I want to help her, but I want her to make real friends and do stuff without mc! the obsession makes me uncomfortable. 3/10

Angel/Emmalyn - super sweet but I want to have nuanced animal rights/veganism conversations with her every time 😬 5/10

Antoine/Noah - one of the only pairs who's never come up! I want to match with Noah and get dog pictures. 5/10

Austin/Damien - ehh could take it or leave it. probably gonna match with Austin to farm gems. maybe I'll be surprised. 2/10

Blake/Keanu - kinda enjoying it. I matched with Blake first with a more femme mc in mind and I was kinda creeped out, but after I reset I matched with Keanu with a more masc mc and I'm into it. he's cuter. wish his pics were actually covered in ink tho?? he's got a sleeve and like 2 big pieces, he's not even the character with the most lmao. 5/10

Charlie/Jake/Zayn - ngl Charlie was one of the reasons I reset. I had already matched with Zayn but I found out Charlie is probably trans and I couldn't not. honestly not super into the storyline, as a theatre major who is a terrible actor, but I can live with it. 6/10

Clementine/Grace - matched with Grace before I reset, gonna go for Clementine tho. Grace has too many "sexy nerd halloween costume" vibes for me. Clementine has the same name as my cat but at least she's less cringe. 4/10

Cpt. Muffin - BEST MATCH. BRING HIM BACK. 11/10.

Dahlia/Rose - I think Dahlia is the most like someone I'd date irl she's too fucking cute. I have spent gems on every single option so far. I am buying an engagement ring and all the snacks as we speak. 10/10.

Daniel/Ryan - matched with Daniel before I reset and probs will again. kept rolling my eyes at his story tho. you can't just breach your NDAs to a random person on a dating app!! 4/10

Didier/Mamoru - waiting patiently for Mamoru.... 5/10

Dr. Vile - I'm a lil disappointed he greyed out so early. I'm having fun with the story but not sold yet. 6/10

Eveline/Jade - had Eveline before I reset and I want her back!!!! possibly my fave after Dahlia and Adam. also the kind of person I'd be into irl. 9/10

Garrett/Rory - pls match with me Garrett. 8/10

Hazel - ??? 4/10

Hugo/Marco - unpopular opinion but I really really dislike him. he's constantly flirting with someone behind Sally's back, I'd call that cheating, and yet you can never be upfront with him. I choose the friendliest options every time and yet he persists. 1/10

Jaden/Skylar - everyone's obsessed with Skylar and I haven't found him yet. curious to see what the hype is about. 5/10

Jamie/Seth - I've heard so little about these two. curious but only vaguely. 5/10

Jasmin/Kayla - pleasantly surprised by how much I like her? I feel like both their profiles don't reflect how they are in conversations at all. wish she and mc weren't such dumbasses tho. 5/10

Julien/William - match with me pls Julien. 6/10

Liam/Min-Jae - matched with Min-Jae briefly before I reset and I'm curious about his story, not sold yet. I'm not into kpop so it's interesting for mc to also be an outsider. 5/10

Michael/Sam - you are a child!!! I don't want to match with them tbh. 1/10

Nicholas - I like the concept but because mc keeps worrying he's pranking them, he sometimes reminds me of those people who are really into historical rp to the point where they pretend to not understand modern life. that da Vinci pic is hilarious. I wish you had the option to talk about being queer in the 18th century with him!! 6/10

Nick - ??? 4/10

Oliver/Stefan - no. 1/10

Raphael/Wyatt - Wyatt looks too much like Shaggy for me 😂 curious to talk to Raphael tho. 4/10

Sage/Vitoria - big titty goth gf. love her. she's not a werewolf yet in my game but I am waiting respectfully. also wish mc wasn't such an asshole after she ditches the first date. 8/10

Sheng/Tomas - idk enough. curious. 4/10

Theo - so mad I missed them. come back. be queer with me. 7/10

Tiros - as long as you don't think too much about how centaur sex works he is so much fun. sexy constantly shirtless man lost on a beach trying to reclaim his honour. sign me up. 6/10

#lovelink #long post

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bisexual-maelstrom12 · 4 years

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Ranking the Lovelink Matches (a completely subjective list by moi)

22. Clementine Hill / Grace Kim

I already wasn’t into her because she’s a privileged rich girl who uses literary quotes to seem smart (but really it’s just obnoxious). But then she tells us she’s thinking about dumping us for her creepy old professor?? Girl needs an actual job so she can stop relying on her parents and a therapist for her daddy issues.

21. Dominic Wright / Adam Johnson

I’m still pretty early on in the storyline here but so far I’m just bored. A “love” photography theme? Big yawn.

20. Liam Park / Min-Jae Lee

How Is Dating A K-Pop Star This BORING

19. Jake Gonzales / Zayn Kassab

The sexting is fun but honestly his film project sounds terrible and he needs to cool his feelings down like 200%.

18. Angel Reed / Emmalyn Roberts

Look she’s amazing and gorgeous and the animals are ADORABLE but honestly I find her pretty boring compared to the other matches SORRY DON’T HATE ME

17. Antoine Dawson / Noah Cruz

He comes on too strong a lot but I dig the puppies and the sexual tension. I would absolutely enter a FWB relationship with him but nothing more.

16. Albert Bishop / Jonathan Hayes

This ranking is subject to change bc tbh I swiped left on these boys at first (#fuckamericanimperialism). But then other matches finished up and I needed more content and y’know what? Albert’s pretty okay. I like his backstory so far and he’s sweet and sexy. Should def get out of the military tho.

15. Stefan Silver / Oliver Black

I appreciate that he’s a more consent-friendly version of Christian Gray and I like the “defrosting ice king” trope. But I would much rather be using the riding crop on him than vice versa. >:)

14. Jamie Grant / Seth Evans

Jamie is kind of a weird match in that I LOVE his storyline but also the flirting is pretty weak?? Like, I literally would have had to pay gems for the first “date”. I’m not feeling much of a sexual connection here, but I’m all aboard the hacker kidnapping storyline.

13. Austin Russo / Damien Jones

He’s rough around the edges but the character growth is pretty spectacular. Gotta save my boo from death row.

12. Sam Knight / Michael Evans

Never thought I’d be into a jock frat boy but here we are. I like how I snarked at him constantly for a week and he still fell for me. Ghosting us after we call him out on his daddy issues is pretty weak tho.

11. Samantha Clark / Aesha Nora

Okay she isn’t the greatest person or partner but cute gamer gf?? Yes please. And she can cook and bench press me too! *swoon* Also Fiction needs to be real asap.

10. Sage Foster / Vitoria Voznesenky

Sage was one of my first matches and was my favorite for a while. Who doesn’t want a hot goth gf? But then she PUNCTURED MY LIP (does that even heal??) and almost ate me and I’m just not about that. Hopefully she can go give Baba Yaga a talking to and get that curse removed.

9. Skylar Quinn / Jaden Bower

So making us commit a crime and then ditching us on the first date wasn’t cool, and I’m not much for a “rebel without a cause,” but then Skylar hit me with his tragic backstory and, well, I’m weak y’all. Also he’s so smart and snarky and sexy and I want him to achieve his dreams.

8. Eve Rockwood / Alice Martin

Look I’m still pissed at Eve for ditching us in Ibiza. But also I would absolutely drop everything to follow a hot girl to Japan.

7. William Crome / Julien Alexandre

I was never really into the whole dating a vampire thing but William just does it for me. I think it’s the hair and the old timey fashion. And he told off his mom for me, which is more than I can say about SOME of these matches.

6. Hugo Hornsby / Marco Bottazzi

Hugo is lowkey a garbage human who absolutely emotionally cheated on his long-term fiance with us. So why do I love him so much?? Idk, could be my trash taste in men, could be my love of geeks, could be the delicious drama of his plotline. Hugo pls come back from ur convo with ur fiance and d*ck us down already.

5. Kayla Summers / Jasmin Medina

Kayla/Jasmin is objectively the most badass match in Lovelink. She’s hot, ambitious, and didn’t ghost me for a dumb reason. She can kill it in heels AND kill actual killers! Get you a girl who can do both!

4. Raphael Becker / Wyatt Moore

The creepy cult plot is fascinating and Raph is the perfect combination of sweet/romantic and hott. That dream date was amazing. Pls Lovelink, when will my husband* come back from the war**?

* musician boyfriend

** creepy cult village

3. Ryan Byrne

Ryan is lowkey my perfect guy--sweet, nerdy, and SO SEXY OMG. I need his sex scene so bad pls. Also he might have caused the zombie apocalypse and that’s very interesting of him. I’m hooked on his story and I want his **** hooked in my *****.

2. Milena Sarafian / Ana Samarine (also maybe the same route as Ruby Thomas and Julia Greene?? Idk I’m pretty confused by this whole situation)

Apparently my ideal type is an adorable yet sexy computer who discovers love and how to be human through interacting with me. I should probably go watch that Her movie.

1. Cpt. Muffin

CAT. SHY BOY. <3.

#lovelink

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fortysevenswrites · 3 years

Text

Kathryn’s Trash TV

All right @myletternevercame. Let's Below Deck Med Season 5 this shit.

I figured it would be easier to just tag you in a post instead of sending you all of this in a message, because like...this is a lot.

The people:

Sandy Yawn—the captain, female, lesbian, sometimes is kinda a micromanager. I want to like her, but sometimes she can be annoying.

Hannah Ferrier—longtime chief stew on the Med show(aka the head of the interior, usually a staff of 3). Relationship with Sandy has always been kind of iffy. Was actually surprised to see her come back after season 4 because Hannah was SO over Sandy and Sandy didn’t like the fact that Hannah isn’t good at making pretty table-scapes. I love her, but she really never should have come back after last season and should have ended on a high note.

Malia White—the bosun. Came back after being a deckhand on season 2. A bosun is like…the person in charge of the exterior. I want to like her because she’s the most competent bosun BDM has ever had, but she’s a shitty human being.

The show made a big deal about marketing the fact that the 3 most senior people on the show (Sandy, Hannah, Malia) are all women for the first time ever. Technically there is also a first officer and a couple other crew members but they’re not part of the primary cast.

Hinrigo “Kiko” Lorran—the chef. Adorable, from Brazil, and not a great yacht chef. Gets fired mid-charter, the world was very sad about it.

Tom Checketts—the chef who replaced Kiko. Also Malia’s boyfriend. Is AN ASSHOLE. Like seriously, fuck this guy. I don’t care how good a chef he is, he’s trash.

Christine “Bugsy” Drake—second stew who is promoted to chief stew after Hannah leaves the boat (more on that in a bit). I actually do love her. Hannah does not like her because they didn’t get along well back during season 2. Bugsy’s sister is one of Malia’s best friends, so they’re close. Bugsy actually didn’t come back until episode 4, because the original second stew, a crazy Italian lady named Lara, up and quit because she didn’t follow any of Hannah’s directions and when Hannah confronted her about it, she flipped out. Bugsy is great at tables capes and that is basically the number 1 reason why Sandy loves her so much.

Aesha Scott—actually one of Hannah’s BFFs from season 4. Ridiculous New Zealander. Has no filter. Replaces Bugsy as second stew when Bugsy gets promoted after Hannah leaves. Shows up for 7 episodes but it feels like…less than that. She has less of a fun time this season because she gets homesick.

Jessica More—third stew. Annoying. Not good at her job (which is literally primarily to do laundry and clean the bedrooms). Was surprised that she didn’t get promoted to second stew after Hannah left. Starts hooking up with Robert, one of the deckhands, early on in the season. Their relationship goes from hookup to I love you lets travel the world together WAY TOO FAST. Is annoying. I don’t like her.

Robert Westergaard—Deckhand, is bad at his job because he spends so much time thinking about the drama going on between him and Jessica. Has an opportunity to get another certification for sailing after the season but instead decides to follow Jessica to Bali where their relationship implodes.

Alex Radcliffe—one of the other deckhands. Is basically madly in love with Bugsy. Not bad at his job, and also not annoying. Really, really, really, really in love with Bugsy, but they only made out a couple times when she was drunk.

Peter Hunziker—total tool. Got fired by the production company behind BDM after he shared some really inappropriate and super duper racist content about black women on social media during the BLM protests last June, so the show was recut to minimize his appearances and disappeared his storyline.

You could potentially make a drinking game out of trying to find Peter in the background of the show after Episode 3.

Okay, now time for THE SHIT(TM)

(which, by the way, happens in the 36-or-so hours between two charters, and over the span of like…the second half of one episode and the first half of the next)

So. After Bugsy comes on as second stew, Hannah and Bugsy agree to remain professional even though they don’t like each other and will never be friends, and IT’S ACTUALLY FINE. Except for the one time that Hannah didn’t provision enough lemons for drinks and Bugsy had to borrow them from Kiko. Apparently it was a thing…

Hannah and Malia are rooming together, and it’s all fine.

Then, Kiko starts to struggle because he’s not a yacht chef and there’s ALWAYS drama in the kitchen (same with this season of Sailing, the chef, Natasha, is a BITCH—and not in the good way like how I am a bitch. The annoying, shitty kind), and during this, the show has been putting together this storyline of how Malia’s boyfriend Tom, who is coming to visit—JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE A YACHT CHEF.

Foreshadowing much???

So Kiko leaves, Hannah is sad because he’s her only friend there, and Sandy asks Tom to come on the ship to replace Kiko as chef.

Then, we get the roommate drama. While it is common for couples to room together (like Paget and Cierra on Sailing Yacht), nothing is guaranteed on a yacht.

But Malia wants to be able to bone her boyfriend on the regular for the last two weeks of charter season, and she asks that Bugsy and Hannah share a room so she can fuck Tom on the reg. But Hannah doesn’t want to because she and Bugsy aren’t friends, and the two actually talk about it and Hannah AND Bugsy agree that it’s not a good idea for them to room together. It’s a very mature decision and was for the good of the ship and like…suck it Malia, and let work come first for five goddamn minutes (or two fucking weeks).

But Malia whines about how she should be able to fuck her boyfriend, and instead of being mature about it and fucking her boyfriend between charters in one of the guests bedrooms like normal couples do, she runs to her BFF Captain Sandy (who is tired of Hannah anyway, and it TOTALLY informs her decision making) and while Hannah is off the boat, she decides that what Malia wants, Malia gets, and that Hannah and Bugsy are going to have to room together. Malia justifies this by saying that couples ALWAYS room together (except that only really applies when they join together at the beginning of a season), and also…Sandy decides that the chef is actually above the chief stew in the hierarchy, which…isn’t actually a thing (because it hasn’t been in ANY OTHER SEASON. The chef is department of one that reports directly to the Captain and works WITH the chief stew, isn’t actually in charge of them or below them.

BUT, that night Malia finds Hannah’s prescribed valium and her weed pen, which may or may not have been prescribed valium and may or may not have been an illegal weed pen (I was never quite sure and didn’t really care to find out more), and takes it to Sandy, who uses it as an excuse to fire Hannah, and Hannah’s just like, first of all, I was having a panic attack because I have bad anxiety and it wasn’t actually valium that I took the episode before when she had a panic attack and took a tylonel PM or something, and also like, okay bitch bye, I’m over this and am out and I’m also getting out of yachting because real-life Hannah actually announced her pregnancy when the show started airing.

So, that was like, the good drama of season 5, because the rest of the season we have to suffer through Jessica and Rob going back and forth on whether or not they actually love each other (spoiler alert, they’ve known each other for a MONTH AND SO OF COURSE THEY DON’T) and Rob is kind of an awful person and Jessica is super needy and gets super jealous if any woman sneezes in Rob’s direction and it’s super duper annoying, but also like, the only storyline the show had toward the end of the season, other than Tom flipping a shit in the galley any time anyone asked him to, you know, do his fucking job.

Tom got into fights with literally everyone, from Sandy to Malia to yelling at Aesha when the primary guests asked for some fucking avocados.

So, yeah, that’s season 5 of BDM in a very, very, very long nutshell.

#fortysevens rambles #fortysevens watches trash tv on mondays #fuck i do love this show #here you go Emily!

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swanlake1998 · 3 years

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Article: Tokenism vs. Representation: How Can We Tell Them Apart?

Date: January 19, 2021

By: Theresa Ruth Howard

Last year's Black Lives Matter protests jolted the ballet world into action. All of a sudden, things that once "took time" instantaneously became easy fixes, like it was an episode of Oprah's favorite things for Black people: "You get an opportunity, and you get an opportunity!" Much of this sudden, reactionary change has elicited high levels of skepticism, prompting the query: Is this true representation or is it merely tokenism?

There is empirical data that white people seldom keep word when it comes to BIPOC individuals. Social justice (especially when it comes to Black people) has almost always been a trend, a tool wielded to benefit white people more in the end, and there usually is an end marked by a lull and a slow, silent rolling back of the majority of what has been accomplished.

In the early stages of addressing systemic racism, until companies have a proven track record, it will always be a "damned when you do, damned if you don't" situation. Trust must be earned. Nothing done will be enough because it feels like trying to make an ocean out of a desert with an eye dropper.

That is not to say that there isn't meaningful progress being made. We are in the midst of a global shift. Power is being redistributed, rules and criteria are being altered. The standards of what was once acceptable, or enough, no longer suffice. People are no longer just "grateful" to have a seat at the table—not only do they expect to eat, they want to help plan the menu. The truth is, we lack a suitable metric to measure this progress because we have never been here before.

What is “representation”? What exactly is “tokenism”?   

The Oxford Dictionary defines "tokenism" as "the practice or policy of making merely a token effort or granting only minimal concessions, especially to minority or suppressed groups."

The complexity of the question "What qualifies as tokenism and what as representation?" rivals that of Blackness itself. There is often a conflation perhaps because representation is part and parcel of tokenism, making it difficult to discern one from the other, or at what point it shifts. What it looks like for the bystander may not be how it is experienced by the person in the situation.

It is important to note that the act of being the "only" or one of a few does not in and of itself amount to tokenism. Too often that assumption is made by the public and it is unfair, reductive and wounding to those holding those spaces. What determines tokenism depends more on why and how someone occupies the space.

This is where the process of diversification gets slippery, manufacturing conflicts of confidence for Black dancers who, like sacrificial lambs, may question the reasons they were hired, cast or promoted. Were they given an opportunity for their talent, or because they are Black, and in what measure? These are often the speculative whispers from colleagues, classmates, parents and patrons. It is a psychological head trip to which one will rarely get a satisfactory answer.

The way diversification is approached says everything. When the motivations are authentic, there will be respect, sensitivity and mindfulness; an effort to cultivate cultural competence will be made. This requires a great deal of humility. In order to be able to interact effectively with people of different cultures, racial and ethnic backgrounds, you have to admit that you have blind spots, and are ignorant of things and, more importantly, are desirous to learn. This requires engaging them as human beings, not just tools as a means to an end.

Faculty additions

The recent hiring of full-time Black faculty members at Boston Ballet School (Andrea Long-Naidu), Pacific Northwest Ballet School (Ikolo Griffin), San Francisco Ballet School (Jason Ambrose) and School of American Ballet (Aesha Ash) all came to fruition during the COVID-19 crisis and the BLM reckonings. All four schools were part of the Equity Project's 21-ballet-organization learning cohort—the three-year partnership between Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance/USA and the International Association of Blacks in Dance that aimed to increase the presence of Blacks in ballet, onstage and off. (Full disclosure, I was a member of the design and facilitation team.) There were a number of school directors in the room, including BBS director Margaret Tracey, PNB's Peter Boal (artistic director of both school and company), SFBS's former administrator Andrea Yannone and director Patrick Armand, and SAB's chairman of faculty Kay Mazzo.

One of the constant discussions was the importance of having representation on school faculties; it was drilled into their psyches. There were multiple conversations, and eventually the ball started rolling downhill. Unfortunately, the news of these faculty additions was only made public after last summer's social media protests by Black ballet dancers, making them appear reactionary.

The announcements began with a cacophony of press about Ash's appointment at SAB, which was met with underground backlash. Much like the overwhelming coverage about New York City Ballet's first Black Marie in 2019, which other companies had been quietly and consistently doing for years (without fanfare), the jump over contrition and bolt towards heroism for many soured representation into tokenism. In contrast, when Balanchine took Arthur Mitchell into NYCB as its first Black principal dancer, Mitchell asked that there not be a press release heralding the advancement. Instead, he wanted simply to appear onstage as a matter of fact.

When you wave a flag too hard late in the game, and are overly pleased with the little you have done over decades, you get no pat on the back. Though pleased for Sister Ash, inherent distrust has the Black community sitting with its arms folded, watching and waiting to be served the pudding that holds the proof of change.

This is the flip side of the representation coin. Organizations can dust their hands off and feel good about the progress they have made, while the actual burden and responsibility of "representing" gets laid squarely on these new Black hires. Ironically, these Black instructors return to the space of racial isolation they inhabited as dancers, with one major difference: Now they are expected to be an agent of change.

With the media blitz around her being SAB's first full-time Black faculty member, Ash is very clear when I ask her what her role is. "I am a teacher," she says. "I am not there to transform the entire structure. I was hired to be a teacher and I am hyper-focused on being the best darn teacher that I can be."

Her refrain sounds exactly like most Black ballet dancers who just want to dance, but whose very presence is a statement of silent resistance to a centuries-old system of whiteness. With this lack of representation, coupled with the increased visibility via social media—whether intended or not—they are instantaneously branded as "role models," and saddled with the pressure of expectations from the public at large, the Black community specifically, as well as their organization.

For these new faculty members, if and when their institutions make a faux pas, you can be certain the first question will be "Where were they?" When presented with this reality, Ash resolutely replies, "Let's make it very clear that I'm not the executive director or the artistic director of the School of American Ballet. But if I see things that don't look right to me, I'm absolutely going to feel very comfortable going in there and saying 'This does not look right.' " She sees her role as a long-time member of the Alumni Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion as the space to do that.

Conversely, when asked what Ash's role is, Mazzo replies—along with giving glowing compliments about Ash's teaching abilities—"We feel that we hired an activist who wants to make more change," referring to her creation of her Swan Dreams Project. "We'll look to her for her perspective, her opinions or insights or feedback. It'll carry an enormous amount of weight as we continue to evolve and learn. I think she might not even realize what that means."

It could well be within this sliver of obfuscation that genuine representation can curdle into tokenism—the space where boundaries are unclear and assumptions are made. There has to be an agreement and clear boundaries with veto power enabling a person to control the way their Blackness, gender, sexual orientation or identity (in body and voice) are utilized both internally and externally for it not to wander into the realm of tokenism.

A person's desire to participate (and to what degree) should not be assumed because they represent a particular demographic. Having your thoughts, feelings, experience and emotional labor taken into consideration is something that is often not afforded to marginalized people. Being granted the power of choice with regards to participation, though not the norm, would be equitable. In this way the truest measure of whether something is tokenizing lies with the person in the experience: If they have agency and are empowered, it matters little how things appear.

In extending the invitation to Andrea Long-Naidu to join the Boston Ballet School, director Margaret Tracey was clear: "I need someone like this to hold me accountable. Knowing Andrea's commitment to supporting the Black student in the white ballet world made me think this is the kind of person I need on my team." The discussions between the two solidified what feels like a developing partnership.

Long-Naidu is looking for a space that will allow her to stretch into her desire to be a part of the change, and influence the field's push towards diversification. "I want to be at a high-level ballet institution where I am working with dancers, where I can make a difference," she says. Over the past five years she has been stepping into her power, both as an educator and as an advocate. "I am finding my voice in this work. I want to be a part of helping predominantly white institutions be more welcoming for Black bodies."

It helps that the two share history as former NYCB dancers, allowing for the uncomfortable dialogue necessary both for the learning curve and the strengthening of the new allyship. They align in their growth journeys: Tracey is prepared to receive radical feedback and Long-Naidu is ready to share. "Andrea is my first hire where I have shifted my focus from whether this outside person is a good fit for us to making sure that our environment is not stuck in a place that may not allow someone like her to fit in," says Tracey.

Casting and marketing

We all want to see Black and brown dancers rise through the ranks. What we don't want is Black dancers being cast when they are not ready, or prepared for a role just for a company to showcase it has them. This is the epitome of tokenism and sets dancers up to fail, a luxury, by virtue of their Blackness, they do not have. Blackness is held to a different standard so unlike their white peers, whose failings are their own, the "representation" Black dancers carry comes with the heavy burden of the entire race.

Artistic directors might not view it this way when casting, but being culturally competent would mean taking this into consideration. When fast-tracking a Black dancer, true equity would mean providing the extra support (technical and emotional) they might need to have them succeed. Hence, it's not about what is normally done; it is about what is necessary in this instance.

Tokenism in casting can stigmatize the dancer amongst their peers and the artistic staff, setting off the cascade of whispering echoes of "They only got it because they are Black." Even though white people have been getting opportunities because they are white for eons, it creates yet another level of isolation, stress and vulnerability in a Black dancer, potentially crippling both their confidence and their career.

Ballet organizations that have been actively working to educate and examine themselves, and are successfully expanding recruitment, increasing diversity in training pipelines, company rosters, faculties and administration, are grappling with how to best communicate progress without tooting their own horns too loudly. This is the space between a rock and a hard place; if they quietly go about their work, no one will know, and if they promote too heavily it could be perceived as pandering.

This culture shift demands transparency. Gone are the days of blind acceptance; the people demand receipts. Ballet has seldom had to explain itself, aloft at the pinnacle of the dance hierarchy, supported by centuries of tradition, the very act of "showing" deemed beneath it. Those days are on the wane.

The majority of ballet companies use the traditional rankings system. Star power is real, ballet lovers are loyalist, and marketing campaigns often follow suit by using images of principal artists or those performing lead roles. Hence, when most of your diversity (specifically Black dancers) resides in the corps de ballet, purposefully diverting from the marketing norms to telegraph the presence of nonwhite artists is by definition tokenism.

That is, of course, if marketing followed that hierarchy to begin with. When Tamara Rojo took the helm of English National Ballet in 2012, the company underwent a rebrand, highlighting ENB as a company that tells stories. Together with Heather Clark Charrington (director of marketing and communications since 2014), she transformed the promotional black-and-white backstage images into evocative art pieces capturing a moment, feeling or mood of a work. Together, Rojo and Charrington identify the dancer who can best capture it, regardless of rank or role. Many times there isn't correlation between the dancer on the poster and the principals on the stage.

Ironically, this nonhierarchical norm had gone unnoticed until 2018, when the breathtakingly stunning poster of Swan Lake featuring Precious Adams was released, and comments about casting and tokenism were raised. This is a prime example of when righteous indignation based on assumptions and lack of knowledge results in possible collateral damage to the very person you are advocating for. If companies are expected to do better by their artists, then the public needs to check itself, as well.

We need new procedures and practices to check our work. If your whole marketing department is white, perhaps consider enlisting the eyes of nonwhite members of the organization or cultivating external critical friends to look through a different lens to vet images and copy. The trick is you have to trust and listen to their feedback.

COVID commissions

The call to give Black choreographers opportunities was right up there with the call for ballet teachers, and the excuse was the same: "We can't find them." It seems that the glow from the world being on fire illuminated the field such that suddenly Black choreographers could be seen raining from the sky like extraterrestrial squids in Watchmen.

Black folk have been in the game long enough to know that the majority of recent commissions are purely reactionary. "Of course when I received multiple commissions, it crossed my mind that it was in alignment with the Black Lives Matter movement…and being a Black woman I tick two boxes," says Francesca Harper, who has eight commissions on deck. "I have been creating films since the beginning of my career—two of the companies came to me specifically because I can create something for film."

However, the nagging question of Blackness versus talent conjures uncertainty. "You wonder, Are they really looking at me?" asks Harper. "Are they looking at my work? That, for me, is always a painful moment."

Darrell Grand Moultrie is another of the numerous Black choreographers the ballet world is now inviting to take center stage, albeit virtually. While he has choreographed repeatedly on Atlanta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet, Ailey II, Milwaukee Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, when American Ballet Theatre's Kevin McKenzie called to extend an invitation, according to Moultire, McKenzie apologetically said, "Unfortunately, I have not been exposed to your work."

Before Moultrie accepted the commission to choreograph in a bubble for ABT's virtual gala in November, he made three things clear: "First of all, I wanted this to be on the Met stage," Moultrie says. The second was a commitment to make that happen post-COVID. The third was he wanted to up McKenzie's "exposure" to Black choreographers in the game. McKenzie agreed.

"I think my commission with ABT is Kevin opening up to see who is out here," Moultrie says. However, that work should have already happened: Over the term of the Equity Project (which ABT was a part of), names of Black choreographers were often bandied about, including veterans Donald Byrd, Robert Garland, the overlooked Christopher Huggins, and Jennifer Archibald, who deserves a bump up, and Amy Hall Garner, who is on the come up.

The "it takes time" and "we can't find" mantras are to some degree the by-product of a lackadaisical attitude. One can believe that these recent gestures are earnest attempts to right a wrong. But the ease with which it could have been done before (and was not) is insulting, and makes it look and feel like tokenism.

It always feels like when Black people's houses are on fire, white folk can't seem to find a cup of water to fill it, yet when their houses are ablaze, here we come with buckets and hoses, always in service. At this critical time when the world is operating in crisis mode and on the learning curve of working remotely and presenting digitally, it feels like Blackness is used as a convenient tool to get out of the diversity doghouse. The fact that these opportunities are being given with anemic budgets cannot be overlooked and one has to wonder if these commissions offer parity.

Black people are too familiar with this type of post-woke euphoria, white guilt and shame married to a need to save face, creating just enough access and opportunity to smother the flames. Then, slowly, things begin to settle pretty much where they were before.

That being said, this time feels different (though we say that every time) because the landscape and the rules have changed. Increased exposure, transparency, the power of influencers' individual platforms and call-out culture all make it possible for anyone to write or contribute to the narrative. This collaborative quilt of divergent perspectives, which in time will become history, will now include more voices and experiences, forming a mosaic revealing a more comprehensive picture.

The work that ballet is attempting is a process, not a project. As to whether or not this is sustainable representation or mere tokenism, Moultrie sums it up this way: "We know what is happening right now is just a reaction. A good reaction, but only time will tell."

#article #ballet #theresa ruth howard #racism #anti black racism #aesha ash #andrea long-naidu #francesca harper #darrell grand moultrie #dance magazine

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