Category Archives: History

The Wesleying Dark Ages are Over….

Friends, families, lovers and more…..

For 16 long, dark, and cold (like actually so cold why is this November so brutal???) days, there was darkness in the Wesleying world. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Wesleying’s site went down, and absolute chaos in the world ensued. It was like the purge. It was a bloodbath. We will never be the same.

JK, but the site did go down and after two weeks of your favorite editors tirelessly working to identify the issue and solve it, we are back and better than ever! So please, go calculate how you can stretch your remaining 5 points over the remaining three weeks, and stay tuned for procrastination destination, food reviews, and more to come.

We hope you missed us. We certainly missed you.

Xoxo <3

FEATURED
Michael Roth, Protest, and Free Speech (Part 2 of 2)

This is Part 2 of a two-part article. Read the first part here.

Activism is used by Wesleyan as a means of advertisement, made into a commodity

Spring 2019 – Police Reports

Police reports from April 11th

According to Middletown Police reports, Public Safety called the police on April 11th not once, but twice, once at 9:17 AM, and again at 2:16 PM, with no actual presence from the police occurring for the first call.

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FEATURED
Michael Roth, Protest, and Free Speech (Part 1 of 2)

 

Many students, myself included, feel that Roth’s advocacy and authority on free speech and campus protest do not line up in reality given his record of activity concerning these topics at Wesleyan, using his perceived advocacy to both profit himself (such as the release of a book that addresses his advocacy for his brand of free speech), as well as Wesleyan itself. Let’s take a look at his and Wesleyan’s record in recent times.

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EVENT
Julius Lester’s Day of Tears Performance

Gabriela De Golia ’13 writes in:

First Church of Christ in Middletown will present a riveting performance of Julius Lester’s Day of Tears, a novel centered on the largest slave auction in American history told from the perspective of the husbands, wives, and lovers on the auction block. Witness their stories as they desperately cling to one last hope of staying together.

Written and directed by Laurie Maria Cabral and produced by Tom Raines, this performance is offered with the permission of Julius Lester and his family. It will take place at First Church of Christ, located at 190 Court Street in Middletown, CT, on Saturday, May 18th at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM.

First Church of Christ, a pro-racial justice and Open & Affirming congregational church in the United Church of Christ, is proud to bring Day of Tears into its space for the first time and raise awareness about an important event in American history. Through a conversation with the actors, director, and producer after the performance, audience members will learn more about how racism continues to manifest in the present-day and how individuals and communities can address systemic oppression.

“We at First Church are committed to healing the wounds of racial injustice and furthering social equity. Offering this play to the community free of charge is one of the many ways we are living into those commitments,” shared Gabriela De Golia ’13, a Deacon at First Church of Christ.

This performance is a free community event, open to all. Please be advised that strong language and allusions to violence are present in the production and may not be suitable for certain audiences, including young children.

Date: Saturday, May 18
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: First Church of Christ, 190 Court Street, Middletown, CT

FEATURED
Round-Up: A Look at Spring Flings Past

Fare thee well, O kegs!

As this year’s Spring Fling fast approaches, I found myself looking back at old Wesleying posts about Spring Flings past. It all started with this absurdity, which I stumbled upon earlier this year. With little else to do now that my thesis is turned in, I decided to dig deeper and see what other fun/ny stuff I could find!

Here is the resulting round-up of interesting/notable Spring Fling-related posts. (Zach already did a deep dive into past performers, so I’ll stick to silly/snarky/spends-too-much-time-on-the-internet content I dug up on the blog.) Read on after the jump to find out what’s going on in the picture above and more!

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FEATURED
ASK WESLEYING: Nude in the NESCAC

Welcome to the seventh installment of Ask Wesleying, an advice column about any and all things Wes! Have a question about life at Wes? Submit it to get it answered in Ask Wesleying! You can find all of the Ask Wesleying columns here.

It’s been a loooooong hiatus, what with thesis, winter break, thesis, spring break, more thesis (you get the point). But fear not, I haven’t forgotten about all you questioning souls haunting campus, awaiting answers to put your spirits to rest.

This week’s question is about one of those things that gets mentioned on your admissions tour and then never arises again, nudity:

Dear Wesleying,

I’ve been trying to find information about how to apply as a nude model for art classes next semester, but have emerged unsuccessful. Do you have any info about who to contact, any requirements, etc? Also, any tips on how to locate the nude scene at Wes (if there is one?) would be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Nude in the NESCAC

You can read the answer to this week’s question below the jump!

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FEATURED
2018: A Very Wesleying Year in Review

To say it’s been a wild year would be an insult to things that deserve the title “wild.” But, here we are, a month into reflecting and trying to understand what even happened in 2018, publishing this article to try to find some sense. And what other than to write about a year at an institution that makes no sense during any given year?!

Yes, friends, I am going to try to review this very confusing year––and bonus: I wasn’t even on campus for half of it! Because I am perpetually on the Internet, I have been filled in on the ~happenings~ last semester and will try my best to give 2018 the little justice it deserves.

Disclaimer: this is a subjective process, and things change at Wesleyan sometimes very quickly, but also sometimes veeeeery slowly. If I’ve missed something, let us know at staff[at]wesleying[dot]org. Send us your funny moments, your important moments…just all the moments.

Because this year was just…a lot…I’m going to do my best to organize this information as effectively as possible.

If you want to procrastinate because it’s been a week of classes, here’s some old content: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.

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FEATURED
Cracking Open a Pecan

This fall, I taught a student forum through the American Studies department called “Critical Perspectives on Texas.” Historically Texas has served as a site of settler colonialism, racial domination, strict reification of gender roles and repressive sexuality, and economic importance with its oil and agricultural industries.

To name a few topics, the class examined: Texas’s modern-day electoral politics in sociohistorical context; intersectional feminist border studies and the Drug War; health care disparities, race, and climate change in Houston; gentrification and segregation in Austin; the legacy of plantation slavery in the influential Texas prison system; cowboy culture and the myth of the frontier; and indigenous resistance to the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

I grew up in Austin, Texas, and as an American Studies major, a growing activist, and someone who has become obsessed with regionalism since coming to Wesleyan, teaching this forum was a way for me to better understand my home and to help other students learn about the state through a critical lens. I wrote this piece, “Cracking Open a Pecan,” as a final project for our last day of class:

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FEATURED
Westrospective: MoCon (McConaughy Hall)

I was scrolling through our Wesleyan University Google Alerts email recently when I came upon a surprising link–someone is selling the old MoCon sign. My first thought upon seeing this was Who on earth would pay $695 for an old sign??? quickly followed by Some student probably stole this when they demolished MoCon in 2010 and is trying to turn a profit almost a decade later. As baffled as I was by this listing on Housatonic Trading Co. (which “offer[s] a curated collection of antique, vintage and modern items including antiquities, jewelry, furnishings, art and decor”), it also seemed like an invitation to dive deeper into the history of MoCon.

Some of you current students (and recent alums) may be wondering, What on earth is MoCon?  Worry not, Wesleying is here to dig up some WesHistory for you and teach you about a beloved and sorely missed Wesleyan institution!

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