On good writing and good people

On good                 writing           and          good
people
By Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

Grinnell College, in partnership with the Iowa City    bookstore
Prairie Lights, hosted 10 writers over the course of   this term
to share their work and engage in conversation about   craft and
life. The five virtual events followed the theme of    “Literary

Friendships,” as each event paired two writers, friends,
siblings or colleagues who read from their most recent work
and responded to questions from their virtual audience.

Ralph Savarese, a professor in the English department at
Grinnell College, and Stephen Kuusisto each read selections
from their newest poetry collections: “Republican Fathers” and
“Old Horse, What Is to be Done?” respectively. Ada Limon and
Jennifer L. Knox, close friends since graduate school, bounced
poems back and forth from their most recent works: “Bright
Dead Things” and “Crushing It.” Dean Bakopoulos, author and
Writers @ Grinnell director, chatted with his sister Natalie
Bakopoulos, who read from her recent novel “Scorpion Fish” and
reminisced about their familial connection to Greece. Authors
and friends – who met originally at a previous Writers @
Grinnell event – Reginald Dwayne Betts and Kiese Laymon both
read excerpts from recent works: Laymon from his book of
essays “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America,”
and Betts’ piece “Kamala Harris, Mass Incarceration and Me,”
published in The New York Times. The last event featured
Danielle Evans and Laura van den Berg, both novelists and
short-fiction writers, who read from recent works “The Office
of Historical Corrections” and “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears.”

The S&B’s Nadia Langley attended each of this term’s Writers @
Grinnell events and compiled this selection of quotes from the
authors, each reflecting the times we’re living in and the
experience the authors brought to bear. The writers’ easy
humor and sage advice transcended their separate Zoom events
and when placed alongside one another, reflected the free-
flowing conversations enjoyed by all who attended F2’s
installment of Writers @ Grinnell.

On forming a collection of poems or short
stories
Laura van den Berg: There are a lot of collections that don’t

necessarily have sort-of really explicit thematic resonance,
but I think in my favorite collections there’s always kind of
like a unifying aura. There’s a sense of stepping into a world
with its own sensibility, its own energy and aura and rules,
in a way. And even in collections that aren’t necessarily
united by character, place or theme, or don’t have those very
explicit through-lines, there is still that kind of governing
sensibility, and I think I see a collection not just as kind
of a gathering of stories written over a specific period of
time, but as a chance to build a world. And I think order is a
really important part of how a reader moves through that
world.

Jennifer L. Knox: In this collection [Crushing it] it feels
like a very hard leap from poem to poem. … I wanted it to feel
like changing TV channels.

Stephen Kuusisto: I remind myself that I can’t always get it
right, that these poems have little lives of their own. They
come from often mysterious places that I didn’t understand
when I set out to write. One definition of the lyric poem is
that it surprises you, right? That you don’t know what’s
coming. And that’s the news that stays new for the reader as
well as the poet.

On writing and revision
Danielle Evans: There were writers who were like, ‘No, the
work is you get up at 6:00 a.m. and you sit in the chair,’ and
I was like, ‘Okay, but you know I’m not that writer.’ And I’m
happy for those writers, or that kind of writer. Like figure
that out early and, you know, set your schedule so it can
accommodate that. But I’ve made peace with the kind of writer
I am. I know that I kind of write when I feel inspired. …
There are more worthy books than I’d have time to read in a
lifetime – that existed at the time that I was born – and they
make more every year, so there is no urgency for me to make
more writing for the sake of making more writing.

Dean Bakopoulos: I think that urgency becomes – it’s the thing
you can’t manufacture, it becomes so much a part of the
process. Like, at some point your manuscript gets to feel
dead, and then all of a sudden the urgency taps in. … The book
takes on an urgency when I as the writer finally disappear.
And my drafts are so full of me, me, me. It’s probably just
the way my brain thinks, partly because I’m, you know, a self-
centered mess. You know, I’m the youngest sibling. But then
there comes a moment for me, where like the me of it becomes
less important than the feeling of it.

Kiese Laymon: I’m just like, thank God for revision, bruh,
because if it wasn’t for revision, y’all motherfuckers would
not know me, you know, at all. You might know of me from some
fucked up shit I did, but you wouldn’t know me.

On when you know you’re done with the
piece
Danielle Evans: Shortly after the story has tried to kill you
and failed, you should end the story.

Natalie Bakopoulos: You don’t know. I mean, I feel like puking
mostly when it goes out. I feel sick and then I feel – the
problem is you send something and then you see everything
that’s wrong with it. Like that’s the only way I can sometimes
see it, is if I start to imagine it through somebody else’s
eyes.

Kiese Laymon: I mean, first of all, I never know and like,
just the kind of person I am, I just always, I don’t, I expect
it not to hit. Like I expect – the shit that I think is going
to hit – I expect it not to hit. But when I read “Heavy,” when
I read that first section “Train” [in front of an audience] …
I just knew that like, I wasn’t wasting writing’s time, I’ll
say that. I didn’t know it was gonna hit but I knew, I was
like, ‘Oh okay, all this time I put in, I just didn’t waste
writing’s time,’ and sometimes you need audience for that

shit. Sometimes you need an audience to let you know, you
know? You can think that shit is fresh or hot, but sometimes
if you don’t share it and like sit in the response, like
really sift through the response, you just sort of don’t know.
So, I knew that day, that’s when I knew, I was like, ‘Okay,
this is gonna hit a little bit more than I thought.’

Dean Bakopoulos: When you don’t think it’s so good. When you
think it’s so good it’s still early. But when you think it’s
trash, you probably are being too hard on yourself.

On writers supporting one another
Ada Limon: It’s really great to have people who hold you
accountable.

Kiese Laymon: Sometimes these deadlines, we be writing to the
deadline – even though we can work on a piece for fucking five
months – sometimes we just want to be done. And I think, I
think I need somebody sometimes to be like, ‘Yo, you done, but
do you really like that shit? Do you really, or do you like
that you’re done?’ You know, that’s what I need motherfuckers
to tell me.

Reginald Dwayne Betts: You got to know your peers in an
intimate way to actually learn from them.

Jennifer L. Knox: I wouldn’t give them a poem I didn’t think
was talking to people.

On writing during the pandemic
Ralph Savarese: I posted a lot of these poems on Facebook and
I published a lot of them, but I also sort of gave up that
idea – that overly professionalized idea – of hoarding my
poems and only letting people see them when a magazine has
certified that it’s fantastic. Posting them and hearing from
my friends – and so many of you are on this call – writing a
note that said, ‘Thank you for that,’ was actually part of

what got me to the next hour.

Stephen Kuusisto: I’m also mindful of the fact that there are
people in literary life who have had it much harder than I
have. You know, some are still with us, some are ancestors. I
look to poets like Langston Hughes for instance, whose work I
love, and I take solace and sustenance from their ability to
power through times that were even darker than this one.

Natalie Bakopoulos: Specifically at the beginning of pandemic,
there was all this talk about remaining productive and
becoming expert online teachers and, you know – it’s just – it
seems so, so beside the point of what was actually happening.
Like, we only have one body, and we have to take care of that
body, you know? And so this idea of this – having to be
productive during a pandemic – I think everyone needs to give
themselves a break.

Dean Bakopoulos: I don’t think you can force the mood right
now. The mood for me with writing in the pandemic is always
like, ‘Okay, here’s how I’m going to survive these next few
days. I’m intrigued by this project, and this will get me
through.’ But there’s also days where I don’t think you can. …
The pandemic is teaching us a little bit about limitations
being a very big part of the creative process.

On writing           with       current          political
tensions
Natalie Bakopoulos: I think the political anxieties of the
present always inform something you’re writing, and I also
think we read things with the lens of the current moment. So
even if something was written twenty years ago, we might say –
or thirty years ago, fifty years ago – there’s things that are
going to feel dated, but we can still talk about them through
the lens of now and think about the tensions between those two
things.

Danielle Evans: Most of the stories that ended up feeling
topical when they came out I had been working on for a long
time and they didn’t feel topical to me and so it was more of
like a working against, of like, ‘what else is there to read
in the story.’ I held on to some things because I was worried
that if I tried to publish them in the middle of something, it
would seem like they were responsive to headlines or that’s
the only way people would have to read them. And I wanted to
make sure both that the story had enough room to have the
bigger picture questions that would sort of outlast whatever
public conversation was happening at that moment – and also
that people would understand the sort of work of the story and
not to be kind of ripped from the headlines.

On advice for young writers
Stephen Kuusisto: One thing that really helps when you’re
starting out writing poetry is to allow it to be a game,
rather than a serious weight of all of human history literary
temple that sits on your shoulders and crushes you down, you
know? And there are a lot of really good games you can play
with poetry. One of my favorites, and I still use it myself,
is based on a poem by Charles Simic called “Stone.” … In that
poem he imagines going inside a stone, and inside that stone
is so much richness and strangeness and loveliness and
weirdness. And it’s a captivating little poem. And once you
read it, do your own version. And it doesn’t have to be a
stone. … Go inside an apple, you know, what’s inside there? Go
inside an electric wire, what’s inside there? You wind up
coming up with all kinds of really interesting, strange stuff.
And of course, that’s the stuff of poetry.

Kiese Laymon: I love reading people who are better than me,
because I’m not afraid to say, ‘Nobody better than me,’ but
I’m also not afraid to imitate them until I can get better.
That’s what I feel like with both of you and when Dwayne
[Reginald Dwayne Betts] hit me, I’m always like I’m finna be a

better person and a writer.

Reginald Dwayne Betts: You write to be a better writer. So
much other stuff is just a consequence, and I think I write to
be a better person.

Kiese Laymon: Do everything you can in the world to be a
better person than you are an artist and realize that in doing
that, you might be making yourself into a better artist.

On being a writer
Reginald Dwayne Betts: The hardest part as a writer is to
figure out how to move through those different emotional
layers, you know, from like the seriousness to the laughter.
And to do it in a sentence or a paragraph, it’s almost
impossible. … As a poet I think too often we can get into one
lane. But I think when you’re an essayist, and definitely when
you’re writing fiction, I feel like you got to touch on all of
it, you know. You can’t help but to touch on all of it.

Danielle Evans: I’m writing a book for this sort of reminder
that constructing narrative is how we find meaning and form a
sense of self.

Ada Limon: We’d rather be good people than good poets.

“Copenhagen!?”
By Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

Sharene Gould Dulabaum ’22 has been planning to study off-
campus in Copenhagen since her second year.

As a biology and political science double major with a
concentration in environmental studies, Gould Dulabaum found
it difficult to locate an Off-Campus Study (OCS) program that
would allow her to pursue all of her areas of study
simultaneously. Then she found DIS Copenhagen, which was able
to provide the range of study she required. And while the
coronavirus pandemic has squashed other students’ study abroad
plans, Gould Dulabuam still plans to set off for Denmark in
January as DIS Copenhagen is one of only four OCS programs
available for Grinnell College students to attend this spring.

She will not be alone. Of the approximately thirty Grinnell
students now planning to study off-campus in Spring 2021, many
chose DIS Copenhagen as a second or third option after their
original program was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Copenhagen presented a possibility for these students as
Denmark currently allows foreign students into the country
and the program ensures compliance with the College’s COVID-19
requirements and its considerations for students’ safety.

Sophie Jackson ’22 was planning to attend the SRAS Moscow
program in Spring 2021 before it was canceled in October.
While she still hopes to attend the program in Fall 2021,
Jackson decided DIS Copenhagen would be a great opportunity to
study off-campus this spring.

Even though students are expected to depart for Copenhagen in
January, there’s still some uncertainty. One common concern is
traveling during the pandemic. “I mean we all kind of realize
how crazy it is, the idea of traveling with COVID cases so
high, during a pandemic. And so, I think we all kind of feel
bad, just like, ‘Is it worth it, is it not?’” shared Gould
Dulabaum.

 “We all kind of realize how crazy it is, the idea of
 traveling with COVID cases so high, during a pandemic. –
 Sharene Gould Dulabaum ’22

Jackson has been questioning what might happen when she
reaches Copenhagen. “I’m very worried that the program will
probably be low density and so I am slightly concerned about
[not] having the chance to connect with my peers and people my
age and kind of being too isolated in an unfamiliar place.”

A concern for both Jackson and Gould Dulabaum is what will
happen if DIS Copenhagen cancels the program partway through
the spring semester. Will students be forced to return to the
United States prematurely, as many Grinnell students in OCS
programs last spring were when the pandemic first broke out in

March?

While the College has assured students that they will not
revoke approval for any of the OCS programs set for Spring
2021, the programs themselves can still be canceled. CET
Taiwan, an OCS program based in Taipei, was canceled just last
week. The cancellation was due to COVID-related travel
restrictions, as Taiwan has not been issuing short-term
student visas, which would be required for Grinnell students
to spend a semester in Taipei. “I was not really that
surprised, I was kind of expecting it,” said Makaela Burch
’22, one of the students planning on attending CET Taiwan this
Spring.

Adam Solar ’22, another Grinnell student who will no longer be
attending CET Taiwan, shared Burch’s sentiments, saying that
he expected the cancellation as well. The program was not set
to start until mid-February, meaning Burch and Solar haven’t
yet bought plane tickets and the money they did invest in the
program, a $500 deposit, will be refunded in full.

Alicia Stanley, the director of Off-Campus Study at Grinnell,
assuaged worries of further cancellations in an email to The
S&B, writing that, “Grinnell’s OCS partners have been
preparing well for Spring 2021 and have been putting measures
in place to successfully manage COVID-19 considerations. It is
highly unlikely that the programs would cancel part-way
through the semester.”

In the chance that the programs do need to cancel prematurely,
Stanley explained that students would likely pivot to online
learning but remain in their country of study.

For students like Gould Dulabaum, whose fourth-year class load
won’t support future semesters of off-campus study, this
spring is their last chance to study abroad. “Now or never,”
said Gould Dulabaum. “It’s nerve-racking trying to navigate
that risk.”

For other students like Jackson and Burch, studying off-campus
in the summer, fall 2021 or spring 2022 is still an option.
Grinnell College does not have a cap on how many students can
attend OCS programs each year, and Stanley encourages all
eligible students to apply for College approval to study off-
campus in the 2021-22 academic year. Applications for approval
are due December 5 for select programs and February 14 for all
others.

 “Now or never…It’s nerve-wracking trying to navigate that
 risk” – Gould Dulabaum

While Jackson and Gould Dulabaum continues to debate the
merits of attending DIS Copenhagen in the Spring, a small bit
of hope remains in a Google document shared among the friends.
Made up of lists of packing essentials and possible cool
tourist spots to check out, the document is perfectly titled
to encapsulate both the excitement and uncertainty of the
coming spring: “Copenhagen!?”

Spice up your kitchen with
these Grinnell favorites!
By Nadia Langley
langleyna@grinnell.edu

As the seasons change in Grinnell, long walks in the sun are
exchanged for cozy, sweater-clad nights inside. No matter
where you’re located in the world right now, take this
opportunity to spice up your time in the kitchen with some of
these favorite dishes, ranging from the sweet to the savory.
The following recipes were all submitted by Grinnell students
and cover a range of dietary restrictions, so there’s
something for everyone to enjoy.

Soy Free and Vegetarian SunButter
Noodles
Sophie Jackson ’22, International Relations

I made this dish for the first time a few months ago. Because
I am allergic to soy, I have not been able to have Asian
noodles for several years (they used to be one of my favorite
foods). When my housemate told me that there was a good soy
sauce alternative (coconut aminos), I was suspicious but very
excited. I made this dish the first time I tried them out and
it turned out to be delicious!

Ingredients

Jackson ’22 uses coconut aminos as a soy sauce substitute. Photo
uted by Sophie Turner.

     Rice noodles (however many you desire)

     Onion

     Garlic

     Peas

     Chinese cabbage or bok choy

     Red pepper

     Beyond Meat

     Eggs

     Bean sprouts

     Green onions

     Peanuts

     Coconut amino acids

     Rice wine vinegar

     Brown sugar or tamarind

     Fresh ginger

     Fresh garlic

     Sweet chili sauce

     SunButter

Preparation
Step 1

Soak the rice noodles for 15 minutes in hot water.

Step 2

Saute onion, pepper, Chinese cabbage, peas and garlic in olive
oil. In another pan, cook Beyond Meat.

Step 3

While meat and vegetables are cooking, prepare the sauce.
Mix coconut aminos, rice wine vinegar, sweet chili sauce,
garlic, ginger, brown sugar or tamarind and SunButter. Use a
whisk or a fork to fully combine the SunButter with the rest
of the ingredients.

Step 4

When ready, add the meat, some water and the rice to noodles
to the veggies. Turn up to high in order to cook the rice
noodles and burn off the extra water.

Step 5

Add the sauce and fully combine with ingredients.

Step 6

Scramble eggs separately and then combine.

Step 7

Add bean sprouts and top with crushed peanuts and green onion!

Notes from the chef:

Add any other vegetables you like, and exclude eggs for a
vegan option. You can also exclude SunButter for a more pad
thai-like option. If I do this, I like to add some pineapple

juice to the sauce. You can also boil your rice noodles for a
few minutes [instead of soaking].

Dubu   Jorim                (From         Maangchi’s
cookbook)
Priyanka Dangol `22, computer science

Dubu Jorim (두부조림) was one of the first dishes I learned to
make with my boyfriend. Ever since we started dating, he
wanted to make me try some Korean food (he’s Korean), but
since Grinnell didn’t have any Korean restaurants, he decided
that he would purchase the ingredients online and we could
make the dish together. The first time around, although it
didn’t taste as good, I loved the flavor of the Korean red
pepper so much – it was unlike any other type of pepper I’d
had, and I couldn’t wait to make it again. This is one of our
favorite dishes to make as the steps aren’t really complicated
and we love tofu! I also went on to make this for Food House
guests two times and it was a big hit.

Ingredients

Priyanka Dangol `22 makes Maangchi’s Dobu
                 Jorim, and it’s always a huge hit. Photo
                 contributed by Priyanka Dangol.

1 package of tofu (18 ounces: 510 grams)

3 tablespoons cooking oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup onion, minced

2 green onions, chopped

For the sauce, mix in a small bowl:

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes

½ cup water

Preparation
Step 1

Rinse tofu in cold running water and dry it with a cotton
cloth or paper towel. Cut it into ¼ inch-thick bite-size
pieces.

Step 2

Add the cooking oil to a non-stick pan and heat it up over
high heat.

Step 3

Gently set the tofu onto the pan and cook for 7 to 8 minutes.
Rotate the pan to cook the tofu evenly. When the bottoms get a
little crunchy, flip them over one by one with a spatula. Let
cook another 7 to 8 minutes until both sides of each piece of
tofu are a little crispy and golden brown.

Step 4

Transfer the tofu to a plate. Keep the leftover oil.

Step 5

Heat up a small pan over medium-high heat and add the leftover
oil.

Step 6

Add chopped onion, garlic, and green onion (less than one
tablespoon, the rest will be used for a garnish later). Stir
with a wooden spoon for a few minutes until the onion gets a
little crispy.

Step 7

Add the sauce and keep stirring until it reduces a bit and
thickens.

Step 8

Add tofu and braise for one minute until the tofu absorbs some
of the flavors of the sauce. Add some sesame oil and stir.

Step 9

Sprinkle some sesame seeds over top and add the rest of the
chopped green onion. Serve right away with rice.

Cranberry Sauce
Andrew Tucker ’21, biology and economics

My mom always makes cranberry sauce and has since I was super
young. Since I’m not home for Thanksgiving, this is the first
time I’ve made it.

Ingredients

Tucker ’22 makes his mother’s       cranberry   sauce   recipe   for
iving. Photo by Andrew Tucker.

    1 cup cranberry juice concentrate

    ½ cup dried cranberries

    1 bag (12 ounces) fresh cranberries

    ½ cup sugar

    3 tablespoons orange marmalade

    3 teaspoons orange zest

    3 tablespoons orange juice

    ½ teaspoon allspice

    Preparation
    Step 1

    Add concentrate, dried cranberries, fresh cranberries and
    sugar to pot and heat over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes
    (or until fresh cranberries have “popped” and are tender).

    Step 2

    Remove from heat and stir in orange marmalade, orange zest,
    orange juice and allspice.

    Step 3

    Transfer to a bowl or container and place in refrigerator
    until fully cooled.

    Editor’s note: Andrew Tucker is the Visual Editor for The S&B.

Gingersnap Crusted Squash Pie
Rachel Eber ’21, anthropology

This is a gingersnap crusted squash pie recipe from my mom.
It’s originally a pumpkin pie recipe, but I started
experimenting with other kinds of squash in Food House after
this one time that I was gifted a gigantic yellow squash that
was just so big I didn’t know what else to do with it. The
gingersnap crust is also really incredibly delicious. The
picture is a version of the pie I made for my boyfriend’s
birthday, decorated with some fall-themed chocolates.

Ingredients

Rachel Eber ’21 tops her autumnal pie with some fall-themed
chocolates. Photo contributed by Rachel Ebers.

    8 to 12 servings

    ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter

    8 ounces gingersnaps (about three cups)

    1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

    ¾ cup plus one tablespoon sugar

    2 large eggs

    1 15 ounces can pumpkin purée

    ¾ cup half-and-half

    1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

    1 teaspoon ground ginger

    ½ teaspoon salt

    Pinch ground nutmeg

    Pinch ground allspice

    Pinch ground cloves

    Preparation
    Step 1

    Heat the oven to 350°F. Melt the butter in a small saucepan
    over low heat (or in a small bowl in the microwave).

    Step 2

    Break up the gingersnaps slightly; put them in a food

processor and pulse until they are finely        ground. Add the
butter, flour and 1 tablespoon of the sugar.    Pulse a few times
to combine. Press the gingersnap mixture        evenly into the
bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan and bake   for 5 minutes.

Step 3

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk in the remaining ¾ cup
sugar and the pumpkin, half-and-half, cinnamon, ginger, salt,
nutmeg, allspice and cloves.

Step 4

Transfer the pumpkin mixture to the crust and bake at 350°F
until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out
clean, about 1 hour. (The center of the pie will not be
completely firm.)

Step 5

Cool thoroughly. Serve at room temperature or cover with foil
or plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to a day before
serving. You can store leftover pumpkin pie covered with foil
or plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to several days.

Black Bean Chili
Obuchi Adikema ’21, computer science and theatre and dance

This chili was part of the first meal that I cooked at Food
House. Our house coordinator, who had not spoken to me much
that semester, looked me in the face and told me, “This is
delicious.” I beamed with pride. This chili brings people
together.

Ingredients
Serves 8

½ cup olive oil

4 cups chopped onions

2 1/3 cups coarsely chopped red bell peppers (about 2 medium)

12 garlic cloves, chopped

4 tablespoons chili powder

4 teaspoons dried oregano

3 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

6 15- to 16-ounce cans black beans, drained, ½ cup liquid
reserved

2 16-ounce can tomato sauce

Grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation
Step 1

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.

Step 2

Add onions, bell peppers and garlic; sauté until onions
soften, about 10 minutes.

Step 3

Mix in chili powder, oregano, cumin and cayenne; stir for 2

minutes.

Step 4

Mix in beans, ½ cup reserved bean liquid and tomato sauce.

Step 5

Bring chili to boil, stirring occasionally. Taste and add any
other seasonings that you want.

Step 6

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until flavors blend and
chili thickens, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.

Step 7

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with grated cheese.

Bangladeshi Chicken Korma
Ahon Gooptu ’21, English and theatre and dance

This was originally my mother’s recipe, which I’ve adapted and
– I think – made better! It looks like a lot of work but if
you have the right spices, it’s really easy and really there
is more walking away and waiting than actual cooking! The
chicken korma is best served with rice, preferably basmati,
and perfect for a light, home-cooked, yummy meal that hits all
the right spots!

Ingredients

Ahon Gooptu ’21 has, at least in his opinion, improved his
mother’s chicken korma recipe. Photo contributed by Ahon
Gooptu.

6 to 8 chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoons oil (vegetable or canola is fine!)

6 to 8 cardamom pods (optional, you can also grind this into a
powder)

3 to 4 cloves

2 to 3 cinnamon sticks

4 bay leaves

1 large onion, finely chopped (you can also make this into a
paste)

¼ more onion to fry for garnish (optional)

2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste or, 6 garlic cloves, minced
and 1 tablespoon ginger powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 ½ teaspoons garam masala powder (don’t add too much so that
you get a lighter color)

4 green chillies, whole or 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

4 tablespoons plain yogurt (not Greek)

¼ cup milk

2 teaspoons salt, or to taste (this will depend on the
tartness of your yogurt)

1 to 2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste (also dependent on
tartness of yogurt used)

1 ½ to 2 teaspoons lime juice, as needed

2 tablespoons water, or as needed

1 ½ cup rice, preferably basmati

Preparation
Step 1

Place a pot or deep pan over medium-high heat and pour in oil
when the surface is sufficiently hot.

Step 2

If using the extra onions to fry for garnish, then add that

now and fry for some time until brown and crispy. Remove and
place aside on some tissue paper to soak the oil.

Step 3

Add some more oil if you fried the onions and then fry the
cardamom, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks for about a
minute to release the flavors. Be sure not to have the heat
too high up at this stage. If it starts burning, it’s not a
good sign!

Step 4

Add the onions and sauté until translucent and mostly cooked
through, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Step 5

Add the ginger-garlic paste (or ground ginger and minced
garlic), salt, cumin, coriander and garam masala and continue
cooking for a few minutes, adding a sprinkle of water every
now and then so that the mixture doesn’t get too dry or burn.

Step 6

When the oil has separated from the onion-spice mixture, add
the chicken pieces.

Step 7

Cook the chicken on medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for
about 5 to 8 minutes, or until it changes color and starts to
release some water.

Step 8

Add the yogurt, milk, green chilies and sugar, to taste. Cook
for several minutes until the liquids start to boil, about 6
to 10 minutes.

Step 9

Turn the heat down and simmer with the lid on for 10 to 15
minutes, or until the chicken looks tender and is cooked
through.

Step 10

Remove lid and cook another few minutes to thicken the korma
as desired. Add the lime juice.

Step 11

Taste and adjust seasonings as needed at this point, adding
more salt, sugar and/or lime juice to balance out the flavors
before removing from heat.

Step 12

Garnish with fried onions, if using, and serve hot with some
rice.

Grinnell’s Low Income Lending
Library is still providing
textbooks    for   students,
despite their location
By Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

The Low-Income Lending Library (LILL) is still providing
Grinnell students with textbooks, but their practices have
adapted to the socially distant semester by shifting to a
mail-based delivery system.

The Lending Library was founded in 2016 by Deanna Shorb, the
dean of religious life, and students Tim Burnette ’19 and Ally
Leicht ’19 with the mission to provide first-generation and
low-income students with access to their courses’ required
textbooks without paying an exorbitant price for new books.

Located in the basement of the Center for Religion,
Spirituality, and Social Justice (CRSSJ) at 913 Eighth Ave,
the Lending Library has largely been maintained and managed by
student workers in the past. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and
classes moving online, none of the former staff members
currently live in Grinnell. That means Shorb is left to run
the Library alone.

“This job basically required us to be on campus because of the
physical nature of it,” said Cát Đằng Tôn ’22. Tôn’s job as
student supervisor had included organizing the Library’s
collection, keeping track of which books were loaned to whom
and updating the catalog of available books according to new
course listings and recent donations.

To continue providing books for students in F1, Shorb enlisted
the help of her son to manage the distribution of books to
students on campus as well as those living outside of
Grinnell. To permanently fill this position, two students
living in Grinnell are being hired and trained virtually by
previous student workers – like Tôn – to sort, locate and ship
books to students for the spring semester.

“The goal right now is to have everybody who asked get at
least one class worth of books,” said Shorb.

Not all classes are as easy to supply books for as others, and
the disparity is especially apparent between science and

humanities classes. While the curriculum in humanities classes
may stay relatively consistent from year to year, science
textbooks often rely on the most recent information. “I just
did a call to someone [who] left with six, I think, books for
his Shakespeare course. Whereas I may or may not have had the
one science book that another person needed,” Shorb said.

Rafael Monteforte ’21 and his brother Felipe Monteforte ’21
both requested books from the Lending Library for their F1
classes. As the brothers are currently living in Grinnell,
they could arrange a time to pick up their books from the
CRSSJ. The book Rafael requested was not listed in the Lending
Library’s catalogue, so he ended up receiving a new book that,
once returned, will remain in the catalogue for future
students.

Even though Gaen McCan ’22 is living in Arizona, they had no
problem receiving the book they requested for their F1 class.
“They got me my books before they had said they were supposed
to be here. Like they got here a day or two before they had
said, so it was very pleasant to actually have that before
classes began.”

 The goal right now is to have everybody who asked get at
 least one class worth of books. -Dean of religious life,
 Deanna Shorb

Shorb said that one of the main challenges facing the LILL is
figuring out a way to get the books back from students
currently living outside of Grinnell once their courses have
ended. Originally, Shorb planned on sending pre-paid shipping
labels to students and asking them to mail their books back to
Grinnell. However, the price for shipping varies depending on
the weight of the package, so there’s no way for Shorb to
prepay a media-mail shipping label without knowing how much
the books weigh. “It’s starting to hurt a little bit,” said
Shorb, as the Spring 2020 semester will have courses requiring

the same textbooks that were lent out in Spring 2019 and are
still in the possession of Grinnellians across the country.

Despite the logistical challenges, McCan is only supportive of
the program and its goals. “I adore the Lending Library,” they
said. “It’s very rough to get textbooks these days and the
Lending Library relieves that pressure and stress.”

Monteforte agrees, “It’s definitely something that’s made my
experience in college much easier, so I’m really, really, glad
that Grinnell offers this opportunity for us and yeah, I just
love it so much.”

According to Shorb, a substantial portion of the student body
qualifies financially for the Lending Library but does not
access its resources. “I’m hoping a couple hundred people who
are out there who just haven’t read that email that comes from
Financial Aid telling them that they’re eligible send in their
paperwork to become a member,” she said.

If you are on campus and wish to return your Lending Library
materials or donate other books, you can drop those off with
Campus Safety located at 1432 East St or email
shorb@grinnell.edu to set up a time to deliver them directly
to the CRSSJ. Besides the Lending Library, the student food
pantry located in the CRSSJ is also open to Grinnell students.
To access that resource, send an email to shorb@grinnell.edu.

Kids these days!
Nadia Langley
langelyn@grinnell.edu

Although they’ve never lived on Grinnell’s campus, first-year
students have found a way to virtually gather and form a
supportive community using Discord, an online platform where
users can easily share messages, images and voice recordings
on a server housing a range of channels curated to specific

topics.

The Discord server for the class of ’24 was started in early
2020, when COVID-19 outbreaks had not yet led to the closure
of campus and the need for socially distant classes. At this
point, prospective first years used the platform to seek out
other students eager to begin their first year on campus in
the Fall of 2020. Many in this initial group of students used
the Discord server to set up Dungeons & Dragons campaigns,
forming small groups of dedicated players who met regularly to
play the popular role-playing game online.

When the news arrived that classes would not be held on campus
in the Fall, the Discord server became a refuge for first
years seeking a way to connect and form the community now
unavailable to them in person. “We kind of stumbled into
creating this community online,” Alicia Levine ’24 said, a
member of one of the original D&D campaigns.

Alicia Levine ’24 says that as a group moderator, she relies

on established rules to keep the chats friendly. Photo
contributed by Alicia Levine.

Quickly, channels began to pop up on the server reflecting a
myriad of topics and interests. Some channels are academic
based; one is dedicated to students sending their essays for
editing tips and another for students studying French. There’s
a channel for international students and another for members
of the LGBT+ community. Other channels are focused on cooking,
astrology, anime or sports. One channel doesn’t have a
specific topic, but instead is a place for people to just chat
about whatever is on their minds.

While some channels exist to foster discussion or share memes,
others host virtual events. In one channel dedicated to D-list
horror movies, students discuss and then stream these
awkwardly bad films as a group.

“It’s most fun to watch those kinds of movies with other
people so you can react to them,” said Sarah Bryan ’24.

This desire for a feeling of closeness, even the virtual
proximity manufactured over the internet, is shared by many
students active on Discord. Levine shared that she needed a
way to communicate with fellow first years to feel less
lonely.

“I had several other first years and myself kind of say … ‘I
don’t know where I would be without this Discord,’” she said.

For Levine, Discord not only brought her closer to fellow
Grinnellians socially but actually led to her renting a house
with friends she met through her D&D campaign. Levine moved
into a house in Oglesby, Illinois with fellow first years Lup
Johnston, Finn Dierks-Brown and Phil Tyne. Though none of them
are originally from Oglesby, hailing instead from Chicago,
Maine and Iowa, respectively, together they found a piece of
Grinnell in Northern Illinois.

Another important aspect of the class of ’24 Discord group is
that students can help each other navigate the unfamiliar
college experience. When someone has a question about
registering for classes, they can quickly send a message to a
general information chat and receive a relatable response.
“They might be nervous to talk to the advisor,” Bryan said,
but with Discord, “they can ask questions of their peers
first.”

 I had several other first years and myself kind of say … ‘I
 don’t know where I would be without this Discord.’ – Alicia
 Levine ’24

Even though the server is only accessible to first years,
except for a few members of the class of ’25 currently on a
gap year, an emphasis is placed on creating and maintaining a
safe and secure online environment. Several students act as
moderators and watch the channels to mediate discussions
before they become arguments and insure anything that needs a
trigger warning has one.

“We don’t want anyone to feel excluded or to feel like they
are in an environment that’s not going to be welcoming to
them,” said Levine, one of the server’s moderators. One
channel, titled “ground-rules”, highlights the purpose of the
server as creating community. One post reminds users that
everyone on the server is a student of Grinnell and even links
to the 2020-21 student handbook, encouraging everyone to read
and abide by its guidelines.

This year’s first mainstage
production an experiment in
distance and technology
Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

In a semester filled with new and unusual firsts, Grinnell
College’s first mainstage production of the 2020-21 school
year was no exception. Instead of collecting a ticket at the
Bucksbaum box office and filing into seats in Roberts Theatre,
eager audience members logged onto YouTube for the live-
streamed production of “INFINITY,” starring Isidro Mendizabal
’23, Lilith Hafner ’23, Reese Hill ’24, Kelly Banfield ’24 and
Mira Berkson ’20.

The student performers are all enrolled in THD 195 – Online
Performance, taught by Craig Quintero, marking the first time
a mainstage production has counted as a full four-credit
course. After Grinnell switched to remote learning for F1, the
Theatre and Dance Department needed to rethink how they could
bring theatre to the main stage in the new world of social
distancing.

“Instead of trying to back away or resist the challenges of
online performance, it was like, ‘Well how do we embrace this
medium?’” said Quintero, who was slotted to direct the first
mainstage production of the 2020-21 school year.

Rather than start with a script, as a more traditional theatre
production would, Quintero relied instead on the creativity of
his students to develop the performance in a collaborative
setting. Due to the nature of the remote course, each student
was more than just an actor; they adjusted lighting, painted
sets and operated the camera from the stages they created in
their homes. While the students took on many roles
traditionally held by a tech crew, they were aided throughout
the process by technical director Erik Sanning, assistant
technical director Kate Baumgartner ’15 and costume designer
Erin Howell-Gritsch.

Many of the scenes performed in the final production were
experimental pieces developed by students throughout the
course.

“I made a scene,” said Mendizabal, “[for] one of the classes,
in which I was just in my bed and there was some noise that I
couldn’t understand where it came from. And you could just
barely see my feet, and then the camera slowly moved down, and
there was something below my bed.”

This eerie scene was recreated in “INFINITY” using a camera
positioned under a desk looking out at a darkened room lit
only by a flickering TV. With the camera capturing
Mendizabal’s silent form as he moves across the room unaware
of his audience, viewers are left with the dawning impression
that they could be the very monster under the bed Mendizabal
described.

Mendizabal is living on campus, so he was able to record his
scene on stage in the Roberts Theatre, but for other students
living off campus, it was a bit trickier to create that
theatrical space.

Reese Hill ’24, who is currently living in Iowa City,
performed her scenes in her bedroom using props she had on
hand and at one point, in a scene where red flower petals fell
from above onto her hands below, with        the   off-screen
assistance of her younger brother.

The production’s scenes shifted smoothly from one to the
other, often signaled by the camera’s movement through a wall
or in one case through the floor and several inches of dirt.
To achieve these transitions, Baumgartner and Sanning
developed a pulley system that the actors then copied. The
system utilized a cart where each actor could attach their
camera phone and pull it down a trolley track to record the
vertical or horizontal movement. In one instance, in order to
be both in front of and behind the camera, Berkson worked the
pulley with her foot.

In order to vary camera angles and filming techniques,
technical director Erik Sanning and Assitant technical
director Kate Baumgartner ’15 invented a pulley system for the
camera. Photo contributed by Craig Quintero.

While the socially distanced production was forced to go
digital, the essence of live action so unique to theatre was
maintained in that all but a few scenes were performed in real
time. As Mendizabal’s scene was staged in Roberts Theatre and
required Baumgartner to operate the camera, it was one of the
few scenes pre-recorded for the production.

The other recorded scene was devised by Lilith Hafner ’23, a
gripping sequence of layered videos shifting from a stricken
face to a dark earthen hole shot from above with disembodied
hands mixing dirt into mud, a process which takes up enough
time to become uncomfortable, forcing the audience to question
whether the mud itself is a story being told. But before a

satisfactory answer is given, another layer is added and the
hands begin to play in space with a program’s control panel,
alluding to a manipulation of the natural and digital worlds.
The scene required some technically tricky screen recording
that unfortunately was too much for Hafner’s internet
connection and could not feasibly be streamed live.

In order to broadcast the live performances, Sanning used a
program called Wirecast. Intended originally for use in a TV
studio, Sanning and Baumgartner were able to tweak the
software to operate the live streams from multiple phone and
computer cameras capturing performances from each of the
actor’s locations across the country. During the live
production, Sanning manned Wirecast from campus while
Baumgartner managed the actors using a sequence of visual cues
to notify them when their cameras were live.

In discussion with The S&B after the opening performance on
Thursday, Hill shared how this performance was similar to the
traditional theatre productions she was a part of in high
school. “Before opening performance today, I was really
nervous, like the same feeling backstage of ‘Oh what if I pop
out of the wings too early?’ Or ‘What if something goes wrong
and they see something that they’re not supposed to?’ ‘What if
I mess up my lines?’ even though I don’t say anything on stage
in the show.”

Hill noted that these anxieties, however, are the only
similarity between her current and past performances.
“INFINITY” is an abstract work, not meant to have a plot in
the way of traditional scripts. To Mendizabal, “INFINITY” is
unique to every person who watches it and calls for an
emotional response rather than an intellectual one. “Grinnell,
because it’s an academic place, treats anything related to art
as just trying to analyze it, [asking] ‘what does it mean?’
and trying to make an intellectual conversation around it.”

Quintero shared a similar sentiment, saying “Theatre has this

ability to serve as a reflective medium to see oneself, to
know oneself. And so, in the performance … it’s more about
creating this series of moving images or living sculptures,
where it becomes this reflective surface or this meditative
space where the audience, through seeing this, somehow taps
into their more subconscious feelings and emotions.”

A recording of the production can be found on YouTube.

New testing site for Grinnell
College students, staff and
faculty opens
By Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

College-affiliated Grinnell residents have a new option for
COVID-19 testing: a TestIowa Higher Education site, formed in
partnership with the College, UnityPoint and Poweshiek County
Public Health that opened on Oct. 8 at the Grinnell Regional
Medical Center.

The site will provide free tests only to those with a direct
connection to Grinnell College, including faculty, staff,
students and members of their immediate households. College
President Anne Harris wrote in an email to The S&B that the
site was established when the State of Iowa put out a call to
colleges and university inquiring as to whether or not they
would want to be a TestIowa Higher Education site. “We
answered that we would,” she wrote.

TestIowa is an initiative to bring more COVID-19 testing sites
to towns throughout Iowa. As described on its website, “Our
goal is to dramatically increase the rate of COVID-19 testing
so Iowans can have better access to testing and help stem the
spread of COVID-19 to get us back to normal as quickly as
possible.”

Grinnell students currently enrolled in the Grinnell College
testing program should remain in the program and continue
getting regularly tested in the Natatorium, Harris said.
However, there are some students who fall into a special
category: unenrolled for the semester, but still living in
Grinnell. Members of this group who were being tested by the
College have been asked to switch to the new TestIowa site.

“I think this past week was my last [Natatorium] testing
appointment, because I’m not enrolled for the semester,” said
Kaylin Kuhn ’21, one such student.

Though Kuhn is not taking any classes at the College this
semester, she is living off campus in a house with other
students who are enrolled in classes. Although their house is
unapproved for off-campus living by the College, Kuhn and her

housemates were all able to access testing through the
Grinnell College program in early September when the program
was opened to include unapproved off-campus students.

Erin Ritter ’22 is in a similar situation. “I’m not enrolled
in classes right now … so, I was emailed that I will have to
start getting tested at the TestIowa site,” she said. “Which
is fine, because it’s not like they kicked me off Grinnell
testing right away – they are letting me get tested with the
College until the TestIowa site is, like, finally
established.”

On the subject of why enrolled unapproved off-campus students
would continue to have access to the Natatorium testing site
while unenrolled students would not, Harris wrote that
“enrolled students are paying tuition and fees that contribute
to those benefits, and students who are not enrolled are not.”

Everyone intending to get tested at the new site is asked to
fill out an online TestIowa assessment and schedule an
appointment during the site’s open hours: Monday and Thursday,
from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Campaign begins to replace
trees lost in derecho
Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

Imagine Grinnell recently launched its 1000+ Trees Grinnell
Initiative, a project that aims to restore the trees lost in
Poweshiek and neighboring counties as a result of August’s
derecho.

Imagine Grinnell is a partner program of the Claude W. and
Dolly Ahrens Foundation with the mission to “turn imagination
into action to create a more vibrant, sustainable and healthy
Grinnell.” After viewing a GoFundMe page set up by a Grinnell
faculty member to raise money to help plant 500 trees in
Grinnell, leaders at Imagine Grinnell recognized the need for
their newest initiative.

Jennifer Cogley, an AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to
America (VISTA) member working with Imagine Grinnell, provided
an overview of the plan. The 1000+ Trees Grinnell Initiative
is a three-year project with a goal to raise 50,000 dollars to
replenish the trees lost in the derecho. Funding for the
project will be covered by community donations and grants.
Imagine Grinnell has already applied for two grants, one from
the Clif Bar Foundation and the other from Aliant Energy.

The scope for the project focuses on residential trees — those
in yards, private parks and the rights-of-way between sidewalk
and street. The city will handle planting in city parks and
public spaces. There is currently a moratorium placed by the
city of Grinnell on planting trees in the rights-of-way which
will end in 2021, allowing Imagine Grinnell to start planting
in the Spring.

The initiative is still in its beginning stages. “First, we’re
going to be doing a survey through the chamber offices and
through an Imagine Grinnell social media push to kind of
establish who would be interested in a tree, who’s lost trees,
how many trees were lost,” Cogley said.

Look out for that survey in the next few days on the Imagine
Grinnell website and Facebook page.

Imagine Grinnell formed a steering committee of community
members, Imagine Grinnell board members, a representative from
the city government and an arborist who will provide advice on
what types of trees to introduce into Grinnell’s environment.

Committees dedicated to outreach for the project and education
about tree care and maintenance have also been formed and are
looking for more members from the community. If you are
interested in joining, reach out to Cogley at
vista@imaginegrinnell.org or 641-236-5518 extension 109.

To kick off the project, Imagine Grinnell is hosting an event
on Oct. 24. All community members are invited. The plan is to

plant several trees around town in a range of private
locations such as Ahrens Park, which is utilized by the public
but privately owned. For more information on the event and
future updates on the project, check out the Imagine Grinnell
website and Facebook page.

Volunteers will also be needed to help plant trees starting in
the spring, but until then Imagine Grinnell is encouraging
community members to donate to help reach their goal of 50,000
dollars. You can donate by going online to the Claude W. and
Dolly Ahrens Foundation website and selecting “Imagine
Grinnell” in the drop-down menu when asked to select a fund.

A brief history of 1008 High
St.
Nadia Langley
langleyn@grinnell.edu

A picturesque snowy nature scene with a deer and a dog in the
foreground, the dog with flames erupting from its mouth – all
while an alien spaceship hovers over the landscape – this is
the painting discovered in a closet of 1008 High St. by its
current occupants: Rose Caplan, Evan Hurst, Clara Dingle and
Jacob Molho, all class of ’21, as well as their summer tenant
Fiona George who will be replaced by James Coffey ’21 starting
in F2. Besides being an interesting piece of wall art, the
painting tracks the history of the house, as it is tradition
for the student residents of 1008 to add to the painted scene
each year.

For the housemates, living in 1008 was always the plan. While
it isn’t unusual for students to plan their off-campus housing
a year in advance, the housemates at 1008 went the extra mile
by signing their lease in the spring of their second year. “We
had to act really early because, obviously, there were
multiple people trying to get the house,” Hurst said.

“I knew the house had wood floors and was very nice. So, I was
like yeah, we should go for 1008,” said Molho.

“I’d think it was the cutest house on the street,” Hurst said,
thinking back to walking down High St. as a second year.

“We also knew that it was like the nicest [house] because the
pipes burst a few years back and everything got redone,” added
Caplan.

This painting, discovered in a closet by the current
inhabitants of 1008 High St., serves as a visual history of
all Grinnell students that have lived in the house. Photo
contributed by Rose Caplan.

The shiny floors and new plumbing were not the house’s only
draw. Molho was also friends with the fourth years who lived
in 1008 two years ago. When he and the others moved in, they
found the legacy of Grinnell students past manifested in a
plethora of furniture, posters, fireworks and other seemingly
random junk left behind by past inhabitants. Out of this
assortment, the housemates discovered their new kitchenware
and some quirky wall decorations, as well as nightly
entertainment in the form of two beer die tables inscribed
with the names of past students who have, at some point,
passed through 1008.

“I think this was actually after the derecho hit,” Caplan