Team PSSSST PSSSST
Linda Arnade’s first name is
apparently an adjective in Spanish, which is why she
absolutely loves to hear the phrase: !que linda!. She
thinks that we should all stop taking so many pills
in the US, which is why she studies public health and
infectious diseases with a specific focus in Latin America.
In her free time, Linda likes going to concerts,
dancing salsa, and enjoying life. She spends her
time with SOL, SOW, the Language dorm, doing research,
learning languages, and reading about popular science/medicine.
Just recently Linda developed a novel interest
in Cuban hip hop. She would like to say one important
thing: ¿Qué vola asere?
Kaitlyn Bailey, a junior from Cary,
NC, is a Public Policy-Biology double major with an
economics minor. She is a member of WOODS –
an outreach program that teaches Durham students about
the environment – as well as a varsity athlete.
On the 2004 SOW trip to Cuba, she pursued her
interest in public health by investigating maternity
homes and community-based health programs.
Meenakshi Chivukula enjoys watching
life in slow motion. This is how she became interested
in documentary work. On the 2004 SOW trip to Havana,
Cuba she was able to think more about community health,
human rights and sustainable development – subjects
that she thinks about both in the classroom and in her
spare time. She recommends mangos, ice cream,
café con leche, and 10 peso taxis when you find
yourself in Cuba one day.
Katie Cohen is a sophomore from Wellesley,
Massachusetts. She is considering a major in public
policy studies and a certificate in documentary studies,
although she also thinks it might be about time to take
some serious Spanish classes so that she can be a more
believable “cubana.” On the 2004 SOW
trip to Cuba, Katie pursued research regarding the Cuban
hip hop movement, as well as the concept of femininity
in Cuba. She also enjoyed interviewing men who
cat-called on the streets, and plans on incorporating
the sound “pssst pssst” into her everyday
life back at school.
Amelia Herbert is a senior from Rahway,
NJ. She is a history major and African American
Studies minor and is also working towards a Health Policy
certificate. She is co-president of On Tap and
a columnist for The Chronicle. Her interests include
writing, dance, poetry, politics, and issues of social
justice.
Margaux Joffe is a literature and political
science major at Duke who's interests do not include
writing about herself in third person. In the summer
of 2004 I shot a photo documentary through SOW on the
effects of migration on rural and urban communities
in Guanajuato, Mexico. Inspired by Professor Alim's
class in the fall of 2003, "The language of Hip
Hop culture," I took my love of hip hop from a
personal to an academic level in Havana, Cuba where
fellow sow members and I
documented the sexual and racial politics of the emerging
hip hop movement there. Prior to the trip, I co-taught
"Crossing cultural boundaries; documentary work
as agency for social change" with Seema Kakad.
Hasta la victoria siempre!
Nikki Jusu is
a senior from Atlanta, GA. She is a Literature
major with a certificate in Film and Video Studies.
Some of her interests include hip hop in regards
to mobilizing and sparking revolutionary movement as
a means to expose the voice of the marginalized, filmmaking,
and writing.
Seema Kakad is
a junior from Charlotte, NC. She is a public policy
studies major and a Spanish major, with a certificate
in Documentary Studies. Her interests include
photography, Student Action with Farmworkers, GANO –
a tutoring program to teach adults English, tennis,
and dancing. Seema was a member of the 2003 SOW
trip to Mexico, where she studied the effects of NAFTA
on rural communities of women in the state of Guanajuato.
This year, Seema co-instructed the 2004 house
course with Margaux in preparation for the Cuba trip.
While on the Cuba trip, she researched urban,
organic farms used to sustain communities, as well as
community-based health programs. Seema is excited about
her new interest in hip hop and stays devoted to the
SOW website (wooo wooo!)
Emily LaDue is a junior from Levittown,
NY, majoring in Literature with a certificate in Documentary
Studies with a film concentration. She is co-president
of the Center for Race Relations and Students of the
World, writes for and works on Thread, and is a DJ at
WXDU. She went to Mexico in 2003 with SOW and
focused on women’s community initiatives in rural
villages greatly affected by migration to the US. In
2004 she went to Havana, Cuba with SOW and is completing
projects about the Cuban hip hop movement as a “revolution
within a revolution” and how hip hop is used for
social justice and community empowerment.
Brian Wright is sophomore from High
Point, NC. He loves nothing more than to travel,
think about the world, and talk to everyone possible.
Documentary work seemed like a good excuse to do this,
and he likes the fact that it allows (or forces) him
to share what he is experiencing with the world is a
somewhat coherent manner. Cuba was Brian’s
first SOW trip, where he was thrilled to learn more
about Cuban hip hop than he knows about its American
cousin, to eat more peso ice cream than should be humanly
possible, to endlessly wander the streets of Havana
and to make up for his utterly absent Spanish skills
by never putting down his camera. If you can't
find him procrastinating on campus, odds are he’s
off in the mountains, where he loves to spend time as
president of Outing Club and staff of Project Wild.
[SOW
team 2003: Guanajuato, MEXICO]
[SOW
team 2002: PERU & INDIA]
[SOW
team 2001: Havana, CUBA]
[SOW
team 2000: RUSSIA]
