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The Artsichokes #2

By November 29, 2024 Comics

Transcript:

Panel One: Depicts a green artichoke with eyes – it has an angry expression. It says, “Are you for real? Are you printing COMICS? Why is an art school doing that?”

Panel Two: A pink artichoke appears. It’s eyes are wide and says, “And why not?”

Panel Three: The green artichoke has its leaves on the side of its stalk (mimicking arms). It replies, “I thought we were supposed to be serious.”

Panel Four: The pink artichoke looks annoyed, sticking its tongue out.  “Really?”

Panel Five: The ending panel shows a pink mushroom walking with green legs. It reads, “Hey guys! S.A.I.C. is opening an M.F.A. in COMICS!”

In a smaller annotation, it says, “Ideas or comments? [email protected].”

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Spread Too Thin

By November 28, 2024 News, SAIC

Illustration by Sanjana Joshi

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s objective is to “assemble a diverse body of intelligent and creative students.” However, for students with disabilities, this vision often remains out of reach due to systemic barriers in accessibility. While the Disability Learning Resource Center plays a critical role in supporting these students, it is stretched thin by overwhelming workloads and inadequate resources. This article aims to shed light on the impact of these challenges on the academic experience of students with disabilities.

The DLRC, located on the 13th floor of the Lakeview Building, works to provide “equal access to all SAIC programs, services, and facilities for students with disabilities,” according to its website. The center exists to satisfy requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which require schools and employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate disabilities.

As a graduate assistant in SAIC’s DLRC, I have witnessed firsthand the strain placed on the staff tasked with ensuring accessibility for students. DLRC director Valerie St. Germain manages a team of only four staff, including herself.

St. Germain shared that “we are a compliance office that manages accommodations for 1,250 registered students.” There are 3,395 students currently enrolled at SAIC. These numbers are unusually high in comparison to the research from the Association on Higher Education and Disability.

With almost half of the school needing accommodations, it begs the question if there are aspects of SAIC that are generally inaccessible. St. Germain explained that it is the office’s job to look into where the institute is lacking in accessibility. However, with all of the DLRC’s responsibilities, it cannot be properly addressed.

In response, the office is crafting a proposal to hire additional staff, but the current imbalance between the demand for services and available resources underscores a larger institutional issue: SAIC’s failure to adequately support its DLRC, compromising the academic success and well-being of nearly half of its student body.

Many students feel SAIC lacks accessibility in both physical and academic areas. Students have shared concerns about the inconsistent awareness and support from faculty when it comes to accommodations.

“My health often leaves me too physically tired to walk to and from class but my professors insist they do not have the capacity to record the lecture or host a Zoom call,” said A, an undergraduate in the Painting and Drawing department, who asked to remain anonymous.

A said it is often difficult to manage all of her appointments outside of school while also having to find someone who can take notes and catch her up on the material.

Others said they felt that the process for receiving accommodations was unclear.

“I know a lot of peers who have accommodations but it’s still not totally talked about – how to get them or what they do. I didn’t know that there was even an accommodation that was an option for me,” said H, a senior in SAIC’s fashion department who also asked to remain anonymous.

“Students remain uninformed about the types of accommodations available,” H said.

These challenges, coupled with delays in receiving accommodations from the DLRC due to understaffing, leave many students feeling underserved and unsupported in their academic journey.

As more students with disabilities seek support from the DLRC, the team’s workload increases. Each student presents unique needs; for example, a student with a mobility impairment might require classroom adjustments or transportation accommodations, while a student with a learning disability may need extended time on assignments.

Increasing staff numbers is only part of the solution. A significant portion of the workload could be reduced by improving the operational systems used within the DLRC and by making SAIC’s teaching and campus environment more inherently accessible.

Many of the requests handled by the DLRC could be streamlined, or even eliminated, if the institution adopted more universally accessible practices. Accessible classroom layouts, closed-captioned lectures, and flexible assessment methods would allow students to engage in their education without individual accommodations.

Furthermore, upgrading operational systems within the school itself, such the DLRC’s digital system for scheduling accommodations and its communication platforms, would allow staff to focus on the more complex, high-need cases. This would reduce the burden of excessive administrative tasks.

SAIC does not have a dedicated Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator. This person would oversee that all campus facilities, from classrooms to public spaces, are fully accessible and compliant with the ADA, ensuring that faculty and staff, in addition to students, receive the accommodations they need to thrive in the workplace, creating an environment where everyone, regardless of ability, can contribute fully.

Many colleges and universities employ ADA coordinators, including several in Illinois. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois Chicago all have ADA coordinators.

Currently, SAIC has a 504 Coordinator, whose role focuses on ensuring compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This includes managing accommodations for students with disabilities to prevent discrimination and ensure they have equal access to education.

However, a broader ADA Coordinator role would expand these efforts beyond academics, taking a more holistic approach to campus accessibility, including physical infrastructure, employee support, and policy development. This position is essential to making sure SAIC meets its accessibility commitments in every area.

This year, SAIC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office has taken significant steps to foster a more inclusive and equitable campus. Its proactive approach gives me hope that it will address key areas of accessibility. Recognizing that accessibility is a vital part of equity, the DEI office has already started important conversations around how to make SAIC a more welcoming space for marginalized students.

Working closely with the DLRC would put the DEI office in a strong position to push for meaningful changes that extend beyond basic accommodations and create an inherently accessible environment. The DEI office is well-positioned to advocate for digital accessibility across all platforms. By ensuring that online materials are captioned, compatible with screen readers, and structured in ways that are inclusive, the office can reduce the need for retroactive accommodations.

The accessibility challenges faced by students at SAIC underscore the pressing need for a more inclusive approach that addresses the diverse needs of all learners. Moving forward, it is essential for the institution to commit to ongoing evaluations and improvements in accessibility, ensuring that all students have equitable access to education and campus life. Only through sustained effort and collaboration can SAIC fulfill its promise of inclusivity and support for all members of its community.

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The Bag Critter

By November 28, 2024 Comics, Featured, Featured Comics

Transcript:

Panel 1: A man walking is wearing an over-the-shoulder briefcase that has a keychain with a fluffy striped tail attached, swinging behind him. Narration reads, “I have a keychain accessory I keep on my bag…”

Panel 2: The narration continues, “And people tell me that—” but a word balloon going off the panel interrupts: “It looks like you have an animal in there!”

Panel 3: A long panel where the narration continues at the top: “Little do they know…” while we can see a racoon-looking creature poking its head in on the left, walking across the panel in the center—but his striped tail is attached to his rump with a keychain—and climbing into the briefcase on the ground on the right.

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El Machete Illustrated: Hanging Ourselves

By November 27, 2024 Comics, Featured Comics

Transcript:

This is a one panel political cartoon. It depicts three individuals labeled “Woman,” “Latino,” and “Black.” They stand on trapdoors with nooses hanging above them, each holding a flag that says “Trump” and wearing a red MAGA hat. The imagery suggests that marginalized groups supporting Trump are acting against their own interests.

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We Cannot Be Silent While We Are Comomplicit in Genocide

By November 27, 2024 Opinion, SAIC

Illustration by Meghan Sim

On Oct. 17, the U.S.-backed Israeli military bombed the U.N.-affiliated Abu Hussein school located in Northern Gaza’s Jabalia, killing 28 Palestinians, many of them children. This was a targeted attack and not an isolated incident, as 85% of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. In Gaza, there are no universities left standing. The systematic targeting of schools and shelters is part of broader campaigns of scholasticide and genocide. As students at an American based university, we have an obligation to call out and dismantle our institution’s complicity in genocidal weapons manufacturing and ties with the U.S.-Israeli war machine.

Israel’s systematic eradication of education does not stop Palestinians from continuing to care for and learn from each other; from the rich educational pursuits of the Palestinian refugee camps after the 1948 Nakba, to the widespread popular education of the Intifada, or the Palestinian schoolteachers who continue to hold classes amid ongoing terror.

Our education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a privilege, something that should never be taken for granted. Understanding this privilege means understanding how the school is funded by the atrocities of the US-Israeli war machine. The Crown family, blood-stained donors to (S)AIC, accumulate their wealth from their partial ownership of General Dynamics, a weapons manufacturing company which directly profits off of genocide by selling the 2,000 pound bombs used frequently by the Israeli military to bomb Gaza, among other weapons and surveillance technology. SAIC is also investing our endowment back into General Dynamics, and a Crown family member sits on both our museum’s Board of Trustees and our school’s Board of Governors.

As students and artists who value accountability, empathy, and equity, we must demand justice. We must refuse to complacently benefit from enrollment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago without challenging the structures and institutions that make us complicit in apartheid, occupation, and genocide. We must build communities on our campus that pursue radical education and institutional accountability on students’ terms.

On Sept. 13, we, SAIC’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, held our first community Shabbat. As a ritual of rest, Shabbat allows us to reflect and to renew our commitment to each other and the world around us.

In Maggie Daley park, sitting around picnic blankets filled with new and old friends, Jews and non-Jews alike congregated to reflect on the violent present and share our dreams of  a safer future: olam haba, the world to come. As the sun set, we lit the Shabbat candles and blessed the challah, our hands extending in a chain around the group so that each one of us was physically connected. In a time where, rest, relaxation, and the presence of community are immense privileges, our gratitude for moments like these deeply moves us to act, to struggle toward an olam haba for all people.

Our Judaism fuels our collective grieving, educating, and organizing. Many of us are descendants of people who survived genocide, ethnic cleansing, and persecution for their identities. Our ancestors instilled in us a vital teaching: that to be silent in the face of oppression is to be complicit, and we as Jewish people must actively combat complicity in genocide.

We raise our voices to remind our community that it is not just the U.S. government that funds and benefits from war crimes against Palestinians, it is also our own institution. Furthermore, SAIC is not only complicit in violence globally, but also against its own students — last May, dozens of students were arrested, brutalized, and injured, some hospitalized, by police called and authorized by our own institution. We loudly call for the Art Institute of Chicago and SAIC to disclose and divest: divest from the U.S.-Israeli war machine, divest from the Crown family, divest from weapons manufacturing, divest from companies and donors that fund and profit from apartheid and genocide.

As JVP SAIC, we hope to create a space where Judaism can flourish beyond Zionism, where we embrace the diasporic, multicultural, and rich traditions that embody our Judaism and our values. We hope to combat the institutional narrative conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, which undermines and reduces our Jewish identities. We hope to join and grow a network of solidarity and action within our community.

We are calling out to our campus community to join us in raising the volume of our advocacy in any way possible. In your classes and studios, make art that challenges the status quo, art that strives for liberation. At your workplace and in your free time, take risks that may activate, educate, and inspire others to take a stand. Right now, send an email to our president and provost demanding divestment. From this point on, give this and any struggle against oppression your time, energy, and dedication.

Join us in imagining and creating a better world together.

For more information on our future events or to get involved, find us on Instagram, @jvpsaic.

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Invisible People

By November 26, 2024 Comics, Featured, Featured Comics

Transcript:

Page One

INVISIBLE is written atop the 3 x 3 black and white panel layout.

Panel One: Two people are across from one another in a hallway labeled “ward 3,” the caption writes “I saw invisibility that night” and the person on the left is whispering to the person across the hall saying “look at this!”

Panel Two: “They told me to look, so I did” with a closeup drawing of the girl on the right gazing across the hall.

Panel Three: “Everything was gone, shrouded by darkness,” with a drawing of a glowing arm attached to a shrouded body which stands next to a nurses rolling station.

Panel Four: “Besides their arm and the nurse desk.” Both are shown surrounded by darkness.

Panel Five: “I was astonished and I knew I could try “it” too” with a drawing of the patient stretching her hands and smiling in preparation.

Panel Six: “I grabbed a green apple and held it by my side in public” while the drawing shows the apple in the foreground and the public in the background.

Panel Seven: “And wished it invisible” with a drawing of a hand, apple, and brain connected to one another.

Panel Eight: A lady is shown gawking at the invisible apple in the foreground, and the caption writes, “The lady looking made a face I will never forget.”

Panel Nine: “And since then I have been convinced… Invisibility exists” with a bunch of invisible people shown by dotted lines.

Page Two

Panel One, Two, and Three: The patient is shown walking through a crowd of invisible people. “I can walk through them but feel a coldness.”

Panel Four: A hand holds an invisible hand “Hold a hand”

Panel Five: A closeup of the hand “that slips away” and the invisible hand does slip away.

Panel Six: The girl has her finger to her lips with a long shhhhhhh beside her. The caption writes “Don’t talk about the feeling.”

COLDNESS is written in bold as a gutter barrier before the last 3 panels.

Panel Seven, Eight, and Nine: A profile of the girl eating an apple. Crnch, open mouth, and crnch again.

Page Three

Panel One: An invisible figure with a bob haircut says, “eat the apple slowly, or else”

Panel Two: The invisible figure is typing at a keyboard on a nurse desk while saying, “The fruit you begin with becomes part of your power — it becomes the Initiator.”

Panel Three: The patient girl is facing away from us and towards the invisible figure who continues on by saying, “I ate my fruit too fast so mine tends to glitch” The figure’s arm and bob haircut are more clearly seen (the glitch).

WARMTH is written in bold as a gutter barrier on top of the next 3 x 2 panels.

Panel Four: Cherries floating with The invisible person stating, “I chose cherries”

Panel Five and Six: An apple degrading and decaying in a row. The invisible lady says, “you chose — the apple”

Panel Seven: The patient girl is on the phone. The person on the phone says, “you are deeply loved”

Panel Eight: The person on the phone continues, “even though your brain is different” while the girl sheds a tear and stares at her eaten apple pit.

Panel Nine: The girl thinks “um…” and then responds with “you are so right! I LOVE YOU” while the shadow of the apple pit floats alongside her.

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Mars

By November 26, 2024 Comics, Featured, Featured Comics

Transcript:

Page 1:

Panel 1: “This weekend, Mars went stick collecting.”

Mars pushes a shopping cart over a swirly background.

Panel 2: “Here is Mars in her grove.”

Mars pushes the shopping cart amidst a lush field, in front of trees and flowers.

Panel 3: “There she found… a pipe, a cicada shell suspended in spiderwebs, a yonic log, an ant

conference, a hitchhiking spider, a really cool leaf…”

Each discovery is depicted beneath its text.

Panel 4: “And even though her work may have been forgotten,”

Mars’ backpack and computer look sad and worried, calling out “Mars?!” together

Panel 5: “she got to feel her true joy out in nature.”

Mars dances amidst vines and plants which seem to grow from her body.

 

Panel 6: “All of this is to say, Mars has a lot to do. Good luck my love!”

Text intercepts image of a spiral-bound notebook, presumably with Mars’ to dos somewhere

inside.

Page 2

Panel 1: “Mars’ To Do List by Nao”

Text sits above the same spiral-bound notebook from Page 1, Panel 6.

Panel 2: “Talk to freaking insurance”

Mars: “Please help me”

Blue Cross/Blue Shield Logo: “no”

Mars is depicted as a phone with praying/begging hands as she pleads with her insurance

company (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) to help her.

Panel 3: “Beg for the prescription she requires”

Mars: “Please?”

Her pills: “No”

Mars is depicted now as a pill bottle, leaning towards her pills as she talks to them.

“Smash the US Healthcare system”

Mars is depicted taking a hammer to a medical cross.

Panel 4: “Toil away to become a cog in the system (job search)”

Mars is depicted typing at her computer, swirls coming out of the screen.

Panel 5: “Sort through stick collection”

Mars is depicted as a log, holding up and surrounded by other sticks and bark.

Panel 6: “Clean room”

Mars is depicted as her bed, picking up a book out of a pile of clothes on the floor.

Panel 7: “Cultivate inchworm community & lead ecological/entomological revolution”

Mars holds an inchworm in her palm and other inchworms rally in a small crowd beneath.

Panel 8: “Divest from conglomerate machine of Meta-Instagram-Capital-Death?”

Mars’ body floats in the panel, her pupils spiraling and the Instagram logo occupying the space

where her brain should be.

Panel 9: “Make cute & awesome moodboard!”

Mars cuts some paper scraps with scissors, surrounded by collage materials.

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5 Steps To Protect Women During The Incoming Administration

By November 25, 2024 Featured, News, Opinion

Illustration by Gren Bee

The second Trump administration is coming, and things are about to get a lot scarier for women — especially for trans women and women of color — than they already have been. Nobody is more to blame than the men who voted Donald Trump back in office. 

Specifically, 59 percent of white men voted for Trump, and 61 percent of white men voted for Trump in the 2020 election. Men in general voted 54 percent in favor of Trump, with only 44 percent of men voting for Harris. That the majority of men are voting against our interests shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but it especially doesn’t come as a surprise to women. 

But it’s not just the usual boomer white guys we normally have to worry about, because in the 2024 election, Gen Z men are just as much to blame. Young men in swing states (largely defined as men between 18 and 29) surveyed 13 points above 50 percent planning to vote for Trump, whereas their female counterparts surveyed 38 points above 50 percent  for Harris. So no, unfortunately, we are not just “waiting for the older generations of men to die”; the problem has spread to the new generations of men as well. 

There is no reason to think that the Republican party won’t do everything it can to attack trans people on a national level — especially trans women and children. Project 2025, a template of policy designed by former Trump staffers and spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, aims to dismantle democracy, women’s rights, and trans rights, and essentially make living under the incoming Trump administration as difficult as humanly possible, especially for marginalized people, and more specifically, Black and brown women of color. 

In areas like Texas, access to reproductive care and safe abortions are at an all-time low, and the deaths of young pregnant women like Nevaeh Crain are on the rise. Remember, the incoming presidential administration is only a small part of what we’re fighting against, and we need to work hard to defend ourselves against the Senate, House, and Supreme Court as well. 

The Trump administration also aims to dismantle and destroy the little protections and access to gender-affirming care that trans women do have on a national level and make it impossible and illegal to live a dignified life as a trans person, let alone access hormones. Vice president elect JD Vance already introduced a bill in July 2023 as a senator in the state of Ohio to prevent trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care with punishment of up to 12 years in prison for health care providers.

Among other restrictions posed by Project 2025, such as the reduction of social welfare programs, the dismantling of affirmative action, and the mass defunding of public education, all of which threaten to rollback decades of civil rights progress, there are also a litany of anti LGBTQ and anti-trans restrictions being posed. Anti-trans goals include reversing Title VII’s workplace protections for queer and trans people, reversing the Affordable Care Act’s protections against sex discrimination in health care, and restricting access to hormone therapy and gender-affirming care for trans youth. 

Anti-trans legislation begins with targeting children, but trans adults are the next course. As a trans woman from Texas, a state with some of the most egregious anti-trans legislation, I can confirm and say with confidence that living under Greg Abbott’s regime worsened my life dramatically. As a trans performer, my practice was impacted by the Texas drag ban. As a trans woman in the dating scene, my life was put in harm’s way by the “trans panic defense.” And as a trans woman trying to update my ID to reflect my chosen name and gender marker, Texas made it illegal for me to do so, putting me at risk. And if this can happen in Texas during a Democratic administration, then there’s no reason to think it won’t happen in your state next no matter how blue. 

So where do we go from here? How can we organize to protect ourselves and the women and trans people in our lives who will be impacted by this administration the most? Because at the end of the day, patriarchy is what we need to resist, no matter who gained control of the White House. In preparation for what’s to come, I suggest that we follow this five-tenet plan that even has a catchy acronym; for the next four years, we SHOVE no matter what. 

Here’s how to SHOVE:

  1. Ship and Synthesize 

Distribute and create networks for Hormone Replacement Therapy and emergency contraception.

The first of SHOVE’s principles comes from the good folks over at Boobs Not Bombs, an unofficial coalition of trans women who have found a way to create their own transdermal estrogen. After finding and testing a formula that worked for them, they distributed it locally to trans women who needed it in their community, and made their research accessible to all.

If you are someone who needs access to hormones or other life saving medicine, it may still be possible for you to have certain medications mailed directly to you no matter what state you live in, and there are still ways to access emergency contraceptives by mail in states where access to reproductive care is very difficult to obtain like Texas. If you live in a blue state and have friends or connections that need access to these kinds of resources, you should see what they need and consider how you might be able to help them. At the very least, you can send them links to people and organizations who can help them in their state.

I cannot stress this enough: please do your own research and seek medical professional guidance before trying to make your own HRT. Boobs Not Bombs has principles that can help you even if you don’t plan on making your own HRT, and even if you’re not someone who takes it. 

If you do not require HRT or emergency contraceptives, then you should still be doing this research, aiding in the shipment, synthesis, and distribution of life-saving medication to those who need it.

     2. Homosexualize 

Break up with your Republican boyfriends!

Currently, many South Korean women are participating in the 4B movement to fight against patriarchal issues such as sexual harassment in the work place, and domestic abuse from men at home, and the movement is catching on in the US. The 4B initiative is as follows: Bihon, the refusal of marriage. Biyaeonae, which means no dating. Bichulsan, which is the refusal of childbirth. And lastly, Bisekseu, which is the rejection of relationships with heterosexual partners. 

According to a report by Gallup, as of August 2024, 20.7 percent of Gen Z women identify as bisexual, and 5.4 percent identify as lesbians. That’s over a quarter of an entire generation that does not need to centralize men in sexual and romantic relationships, and we should encourage this. 

If you have a boyfriend, talk to them. Ask them if they would support your decision to have an abortion for any reason, and ask if they would do anything to help you prevent an unwanted pregnancy. If they say no, or even try to make conditions, break up with them right then and there. There is no excuse for dating men who don’t support you and your bodily autonomy 100 percent. 

     3. Organize 

No matter the office, today, tomorrow, always. 

Winter is coming, and people are going to need clothes, food, and warm shelter, especially with the destruction of encampments, like the tearing down of one of Chicago’s larger encampments in North Park. There are thousands of unhoused people in this city, and hundreds of thousands across the country, and they need our help and have needed our help, no matter who is in the White House. 

The fight against displacement doesn’t stop in our cities, either. Families in Gaza are constantly having to evade attacks from the Israeli State, and as of Nov. 5, Israel has officially announced that Palestinians will not be able to return to their homes. So organize for the people of Palestine. Raise money for Palestinian GoFundMes, and donate eSim cards to the people of Gaza so that they can contact their families and people in the West Bank who can organize aid and get them evacuated. 

Remember, support of the people in Gaza is a women’s rights issue too. Palestinian women and children deserve to live a dignified life and they need access to medical care and attention.
And organize for your communities. Remember that the Trump administration is specifically targeting trans women, reproductive rights, immigrants, and Muslims. So, when you organize, organize for these folks specifically. 

     4. Vasectomize 

You heard me right. If you have a penis, it’s time to do your part in standing up for reproductive rights by taking control of your own autonomy. 

I’m a trans woman, I have a penis, I am already seeking consultation for a vasectomy, and you should too! Remember, a vasectomy is reversible, and having one doesn’t automatically mean you can’t plan for a family in the future. But right now, depending on where you live, an accident could mean life or death. With emergency contraceptives at legislative risks, there’s no telling what might happen to access to other contraceptives including condoms, birth control, and IUDs. So do your part for the people you love, and get those tubes cut, blocked, and sealed. If your partner has a penis, talk to them about getting a vasectomy, and talk with your insurance provider about options if you have insurance and a penis. 

     5. Emote

Now is not the time for Nihilism. 

There is so much work to be done, but you also need to allow yourself to feel your feelings. Part of organizing and community building is just being there for each other, so have hard conversations, hug each other, go to the movies, and eat some damn soup. Revolution doesn’t happen in a day, and it doesn’t happen any faster if we ignore our bodies, our needs, and our families. So reach out; be there for each other, be there for yourself, and most importantly, be there. Plain and simple. 

So that’s my plan. I’m going to do it, and I hope you do it too, or that you deconstruct the whole thing and come up with something even better and twice as effective. I sincerely hope you do something and you put this grief to good use. 

If SHOVE works for you, spread the word! Make some infographics, and get people you know to shove back against the patriarchy!

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Stanley Pines!

By November 25, 2024 Comics

Transcript:

Next to the title is a scruffy looking man, known as Stanley Pines, a character from the Disney cartoon Gravity Falls. He is wearing a suit and fez hat, holding a thumbs up. The narration reads, “Recently, Gravity Falls, a beloved childhood cartoon, has resurged on current (probably Queer-leaning) Media. And with it new content… I actually took part in rewatching the popular, surprisingly story enriched, cute show.” Under the text box a hand is depicted holding a phone watching TikTok videos of Stanley Pines.

The following body of text is inside an old-fashioned tv resting on a stand with miscellaneous objects on top, including a bobblehead of Stanley Pines. In front of the tv are two people, one with horns and glasses and the other with red hair and star accessories (the narrator/author). The text reads “However this was my first time watching it, and through it I found Stanley Pines.” There is an arrow pointing from the text to the man, Stanley Pines, who is eyeing the arrow and glimmering.

The narration continues “My affection for Stanley wasn’t immediate either, no; instead, it has a direct correlation with the amount of time I spent watching the show.” Under this text box there is Stanley Pines staring alarmingly at the narrator pointing to a graph that shows an upwards incline. The x-axis reads “Time Watching Gravity Falls” and the y-axis “My Attraction to Stanley Pines.”

The next two text boxes read “I know it’s “odd” and “unconventional” but I can’t help it…I’m in love with Stanley Pines (a heart is drawn next to his name). Sure, he’s a con-man with the look and vibe of an old conservative white man BUT his love for his family and his utter patheticness makes him a CATCH!” Under this text box there are 11 different Stanley Pines, drawn in different outfits and expressions. Some of the different poses of Stanley Pines are him eating a burger in only a muscle tank and gold chain, counting money, his bow tie loose as he raises an eyebrow smugly, and one of him when he was younger with a mullet and beanie. The narration continues “And not as regrettably as I’d like to be, I find him” and in big pink text: “KINDA HOT.” Beneath the pink text is Stanley with a smug face shooting finger guns and a miniature of the author kissing his cheek.

“He’s got suave, a little bit of stupidity and he’s got some major trauma…” an arrow, with an equal sign next to it, points to a pink heart with “A PERFECT MAN” written inside it. Next to the pink heart is the author as a cupid winking at Stanley Pines who awkwardly rubs at his head in fear/confusion. Three text boxes read “And while I joke and exaggerate for this “bit” there is actually something amazing about seeing the love and joy coming from the community and creator himself, Alex Hirsch. Simple joys like these, fictional or not, bring a lot of happiness to people (me), and if that’s “cringey” then I don’t care cause…” and in big pink text “CRINGE IS DEAD” Around the three text boxes are illustrations of the Mystery Shack, Stanford Pines, Bill Cipher, Dipper, and Mabel. Leaning against the “Cringe is dead” text is the narrator leaning against it while waving goodbye to the audience.

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Disabled Characters Are Not Novel

By and November 24, 2024 Literature

The book covers of “The Centaur’s Wife,” “The Biz,” “Black Sun,” “The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded,” “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”

It is a struggle to find good disability representation in fiction. Too often, characters with disabilities are either killed off to further the plot of an able-bodied character or they’re unrealistic inspiration porn. But well-written characters with disabilities and narratives about disability are out there. “Crip Lit” and “DisLit” have an ever-expanding canon. We’ve curated this list of books; centering stories that approach disability with nuance and depth. These are not easy reads, and you may find yourself affected by them. This is intentional: living with disabilities can be complicated and messy.

“The Centaur’s Wife” by Amanda Leduc, selected by Sidne K. Gard

Part climate-revenge story, part fairy tale, Amanda Leduc’s “The Centaur’s Wife” is a beautifully braided narrative of disability, survival, and motherhood.

Heather, the main character, was born with cerebral palsy. As a child, she ventured up the mountain that overlooked her hometown with her father, who sought a way to heal her. Her experiences with the creatures on the mountain color the rest of her life. As an adult, Heather gives birth to twin girls the day the world ends as comets crash into the Earth. She and fellow survivors stumble through a world where greenery overtakes the remains of humanity and fables are the only thing left to hold on to.

This narrative is not for the faint-of-heart, touching on suicide, pregnancy, and deep wells of grief. But Heather’s understanding of her disabled body in relation to being a mother is a moving tale interwoven inside a dreamlike, deadly world. For those who prefer audiobooks, the narration for “The Cenaur’s Wife” is phenomenal.

“True Biz” by Sara Novic, selected by d.l.adams

Written by deaf rights activist Sara Novic, “True Biz” follows the students and teachers at the fictional Riverside Valley School for the Deaf. The book follows three main characters in the school: February, the headmistress who is a Child of Deaf Adults and speaks fluent American Sign Language; Charlie, who has never met another deaf person until enrolling at Riverside Valley, and has a malfunctioning cochlear implant and cannot speak ASL; and Austin, who comes from a proud deaf family and has been immersed in deaf culture his entire life. The three characters are at pivotal points in their lives and the book follows them throughout one school year. Interspersed throughout the novel are lessons and informative graphics so the reader can learn more about ASL and the deaf community.

“Black Sun” by Rebbeca Roanhorse, selected by Sidne K. Gard

If you’re looking for a new epic fantasy story to get lost in, look no further. Rebbeca Roanhorse’s “Black Sun,” the first book in the “Between Earth and Sky Trilogy,” is inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and delves into prophecy, magic, politics, love, and the body. Through the novel, the reader follows many different points of view of characters, all ultimately on their way to converge for the winter solstice in a holy city called Tova. These rich characters are each outsiders in one way or another.

Serapio is one such character. As a child, his mother blinds him as part of a ritual. He is raised to fulfill a prophecy. Is he a man or is he a symbol? This question ties into the way his blindness is handled within the narrative. Serapio’s blindness is grounded, even when tied to magic. His disability is constantly present, without being what defines his entire character. His gray morality, his wonder about the world, his prophecy’s future, and his budding romance with a ship captain are all just as much part of who he is.

Be warned, when you pick up “Black Sun”, it will be hard to put down until you’ve finished reading all 454 pages.

“The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded” by Molly McCully Brown, selected by Sidne K. Gard

Sometimes the only way to reckon with history is through poetry. In this poetry collection, poet and essayist, Molly McCully Brown, puts a microscope on the lives of the patients (and doctors) who lived at the real Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded — a notorious institution tied to the American eugenics movement in the early to mid 20th century.

Brown, who herself is disabled, grew up only a short distance away from the remaining buildings of the institution. In the first poem, she writes, “It is my backyard but not what happened to my body—” Her poems give voice to the ghosts of the many people who were once institutionalized, harmed, forcefully sterilized, and died within those walls. These poems demand that the reader not look away from these histories, but assert that the past is still part of today’s generations.

“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin, selected by d.l.adams

Selected as the Chicago Public Library’s One Book, One Chicago (a shared-reading initiative) for September and November, Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” follows two friends, Sadie and Sam, as they design a video game and build their gaming company. The story is told in alternating narratives, including flashbacks, flash forwards, and various character perspectives. Zevin captures readers, immediately making you care about the charactersx, even if they come off as a little pretentious. In fact, that’s the point: they’re Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates, after all.

Sam and Sadie meet in a children’s hospital ward — Sam’s there after a tragic accident that crushed his foot and Sadie is there because her sister has cancer — the two of them bond over video games. Readers follow along as Sam deals with the aftermath and further complications with his foot. Zevin doesn’t make Sam’s disability the primary aspect of his identity; instead, we get a rounded character with desires, needs, and flaws.

Living with disabilities and chronic illnesses is not one simple story — which is exactly why it is important to be sharing books that tell these complex narratives. These four novels (and one poetry collection) are just the tip of the iceberg. Literature gives an insight into one another’s experiences.

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Punk Academia

By and November 22, 2024 Comics

Transcript:

Panel 1: A girl (Eloise) dressed in the “Dark Academia” style (with brown tones and a diamond-patterned sweater vest), studies in a library. She looks wistfully at the clock.

Panel 2: A girl (Jo) dressed in a punk-rock style (with an anarchy-style “Band” t-shirt and black jacket) catches a frog at the edge of a pond.

Panel 3: Eloise excitedly runs out of an old University building, holding on to her satchel bag.

Panel 4: Jo skates on a skateboard through her college campus.

Panel 5: Eloise twirls the cord of an 80s-style red telephone on her finger. She is in a hallway with a window that shows the gothic architecture outside. The base of the telephone is in between the two panels.

Panel 6: Jo sits in on her bed in her dorm. There are posters of a movie, accordion, and the same Band she had a t-shirt of. She holds a frog stuffed animal while calling Eloise on a red telephone.

Panel 7: A montage sequence shows a date between Eloise and Jo. They put flower crowns on each other’s heads, drink a milkshake together, and skate. Jo on a skateboard holds up her hands to reassure the flailing Eloise on skates. Eloise and Jo hold hands on the lakeshore at sunset.

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A Clarion Call for Divestment and Disclosure

By November 19, 2024 Featured, News, SAIC

Students holding slogans at the Sir Georg Solti Garden demanding SAIC cut financial ties with the Crown family. Photos by Gouri Bhuyan.

Author’s Note: Individuals who spoke publicly at this gathering were intentional about introducing themselves with first names only. As part of the student community, even though the author, editors, and many of our readers may be aware of the full names of the speakers referenced in this article, the author has deliberately chosen to stick to the manner in which the speakers identified themselves, in order to preserve the safety of peers and community members, over any journalistic practices that mandate the listing of full names as a rubric of credibility. The editors of this article have also chosen to back this journalistic agency.

Classes hadn’t ended, and lunch hadn’t started, but students nevertheless left their classrooms and exited buildings at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at noon on Oct. 24. They were participating in a staged walkout, organized and led by the Students for Palestinian Liberation. En masse, demonstrators gathered outside the MacLean Building. If you were anywhere nearby, you heard it and felt it in all its unequivocal strength and numbers.

Emotions were high and intentions clear as the students rallied against what they described as SAIC’s complicity in the ongoing genocide against Palestinians.

Approximately 300 students and community members turned up to demonstrate their support. Donning keffiyehs and masks, carrying posters and slogans, protesters chanted, “Disclose. Divest. We will not stop; we will not rest.”

The SPL publicized their agenda on their Instagram page in a post on Oct. 20.

“There is no ethical education at a school funded by genocide, funded by the Crown family, General Dynamics, and the sales of 2,000 pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs used frequently by the IOF,” the post reads.

As of Nov. 12, the post has over 780 likes and approximately 400 shares.

According to a news item posted on SAIC’s website, the school received a $2 million gift from the Crown Family Philanthropies in 2016. The gift endowed a full professorship in the Painting and Drawing department, who would be known as the Crown Family Professor.

In 2021, Forbes listed the Crown family as the 34th richest family in the United States of America. According to a 2024 Forbes article, their net worth is $14.7 billion, and their primary source of wealth is “defense, investments.”

In 1959, Henry Crown merged his building supplies company with General Dynamics, which is, according to its website, a “global aerospace and defense company.” Its portfolio of products includes business jets, wheeled combat vehicles, command and control systems, nuclear submarines, and more. As of 2024, it is the world’s fifth largest military contractor.

According to a 2024 report by the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs, General Dynamics makes the metal bodies for Israel’s MK-80 bomb series, one of the primary aerial weapons Israel has used to bomb Gaza. At least 208 craters likely caused by the use of the 2000-pound variety in the bombing of Gaza were identified using satellite imagery and drone footage in the first six weeks of the war alone. According to a CNN analysis, these bombs were four times heavier than the majority of the largest bombs the United States dropped during the war against the extremist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Though Henry Crown, who had been the largest shareholder in General Dynamics, died in 1990, the Crown family continues to own 10 percent of General Dynamics, and James S. Crown is the company’s lead director.

Steven Crown, a member of the family, is a member of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Board of Trustees and SAIC’s Board of Governors. The Art Institute of Chicago is home to the skylit Henry Crown Gallery at the top of the central stairway.

SPL was founded in 2023 by students of SAIC in response to the genocide in Gaza. They staged this walkout in strong opposition to SAIC’s continued ties to the Crown family.

In solidarity with SPL were representatives of other Chicago pro-Palestine organizations as well as other SAIC student clubs. Representatives from Jewish Voices for Peace, Palestinian Youth Movement, U.S, Palestinian Community Network, Jisoor, University of Chicago Students for Justice for Palestine, the SAIC affinity group SAIC UNIDXS, and the SAIC student government were among those assembled.

A protester holds a sign calling for an arms embargo as they walk from the MacLean building to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The walkout featured individual speakers who touched upon topics such as the systemic downplaying of the death toll in Gaza and SAIC’s complicity in this ongoing genocide, and were met with reverberating support in the form of chants of “Shame!” from the gathering of protesters.

Addressing the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, Marium, the representative of SPL, spoke to the accusation by the Israeli Army of six Al Jazeera journalists covering the war on Gaza as being members of the military resistance group, Hamas. These journalists are the only six left documenting the atrocities in Northern Gaza. Al Jazeera rejected these claims.

On Oct. 25, the day following the student walkout, an air strike by Israel killed three journalists in southern Lebanon, as reported by CBS News.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 134 journalists and media workers are among those killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon as of Oct. 30, 2024. This makes it “the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”

The speakers of the walkout were determinate in their belief of the complicity of the United States of America and institutions like SAIC in this ongoing genocide.

“Ultimately, this is a U.S. war as much as it is an Israeli war on Palestine and Lebanon, and it’s funded by our tax money. And we are gathered here today because we refuse to abandon our people and promise to continuously fight for them,” said PYM representative Rama.

SAIC Student Government representative Annikah Godard (BFA 2026) reiterated a speech she gave to the Board of Governors at their meeting on Sept. 16, 2024, that emphasized the importance of SAIC aligning its values with those of its students. Godard demanded full transparency of SAIC’s financial affiliations.

“It is imperative that we cut ties with the Crown family, whose investments do not reflect the social responsibility of our school, and what we should uphold,” said Godard.

Many of the speakers discussed the discrepancies between the rhetoric of the Israeli administration and ground realities. They spoke of significant downplaying of the death toll in Gaza by the Israeli administration.

Jisoor representative Saif spoke about the death of Hamas chairman Yahya Sinwar, saying, “[He] was killed, not assassinated — the distinction must be made. He was killed in action, with only one arm left, sitting in a chair, striking fear in the hearts of his enemies. Yahya Sinwar made his last stand for Palestine.”

Saif read excerpts from an interview with Sinwar taken by La Repubblica reporter Francesca Borri in 2018. Sinwar spoke to the misrepresentation of Hamas as solely an armed group, instead of a social movement. In the interview, he emphasized the goal of Hamas being “a state based on democracy, pluralism, cooperation.”

Continuing the process of reframing the narrative, SAIC JVP founder and representative, Sam, spoke to the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and the weaponizing of antisemitism by Israel and college campuses like SAIC, to justify genocide.

“Let me be clear: Zionism is a racist, settler-colonial, white supremacist ideology,” said Sam.

Sam emphasized SAIC’s history of student protests: “At SAIC, we have a history of fighting for justice, and we should let this history fuel us today.”

Referring to the larger movement for Palestinian liberation, the representative of the University of Chicago SJP/Dissenters, Lucas said, “This movement was not born out of hatred towards our oppressors. But rather, it was one that was born out of love for the oppressed.”

When asked for a comment in response to the demand for divestment, a spokesperson for the School emphasized that tuition alone does not cover the full cost of students’ education. This stands true for students receiving financial aid (90 percent of the student body according to SAIC), but also for the small number of students who pay full tuition.

“The cost of educating our students is subsidized by money generated by the endowment,” said the spokesperson.

Given that SAIC does not control the stocks selected for inclusion in index funds, it would need to exclude index funds from its portfolio, SAIC’s spokesperson said. “This limits our investment flexibility and limits our returns, which will significantly impact the value of the scholarships available to students,” said the spokesperson, while iterating how crucial the endowment is for keeping the cost of tuition lower than would otherwise be possible.

“For this reason, the Art Institute maintains a strong presumption against divesting for social, moral, or political reasons; however, we do have a process in place for community members to request that the investment committee considers divestment,” said the spokesperson for SAIC.

The Art Institute of Chicago adopted a policy on divestment in 2013. Community members who believe certain investments hinder the Institute’s mission to “promote art and design” must build a case and submit it to a Management Committee. The Management Committee may either investigate the case further or “consider the request on its face without any further investigation.” If they believe it to be a strong case, it gets passed forward to the Executive Committee, which re-evaluates it. Denials on the part of either committee cannot be appealed. Furthermore, neither of the committees is mandated to issue statements explaining their decisions or keep minutes from meetings in which divestment cases are reviewed.

On SAIC’s official website, commemorating 150 years of SAIC is the statement, “We are the challengers to the status quo. We design the world as it could be.”

Amidst chants of, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free; From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever,” keffiyehs draped across the shoulders and around the faces of the gathered protesters fluttered in the chilly Chicago wind. Surrounded non-intrusively, yet closely, by the Chicago Police Department, the chants for freedom rang loud right up to the very end.

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