Tag: The Concordian

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Arts

A day in the life of a patisserie chef

A busy day at Atelier Marjorie. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal

Cake decorating: A Photo Essay

Atelier Marjorie is a patisserie located on Saint-Laurent St. in Montreal. For owner Khadija Sow, opening this business “was a dream I didn’t know I could accomplish,” she said. Sow was raised in Senegal, West Africa and was all set to become an accountant, instead, she diverted career paths and opened Atelier Marjorie.  

When COVID-19 started, she had an epiphany that changed her perspective about success in life. She decided to follow her passion for baking and open a bakery. 

As an immigrant, she didn’t have a Canadian credit history or any financial backing, so she invested everything she owned from her pocket to this patisserie, and almost went broke. To save money, most of the decorations and items used in her patisserie are made from DIY methods. This is one way that she says she delivers creativity and art to her customers. 

Fortunately, once the patisserie started running, it became a massive hit as orders would get filled months in advance. 

Her advice to young women is to continue to do what they love even if it becomes terribly difficult, because she believes that if you’re doing what you love, you’re already successful.

The patisserie’s entrance on Saint-Laurent St. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Pastries on display at Atelier Marjorie. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Khadija Sow prepares the batter for a vanilla cake in the basement of Atelier Marjorie.  The Concordian // Radha Agarwal 
Khadija Sow ices a cake. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal 
Khadija Sow decorates a cake. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Khadija Sow bakes pastries in her pastry shop. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Khadija Sow adds the final touches on a cake. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal 
Khadija Sow finishes her cake decoration. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Khadija Sow prepares strawberry tarts. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Khadija Sow places a macaron on display. The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
Atelier Marjorie’s pink aesthetic is adored by customers.The Concordian // Radha Agarwal
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News

Youth Stars Foundation platforms West Island youth to express their visions for the future

Initiative to raise awareness on community challenges gathers West Island citizens at Pierrefonds Community High School to recognize racial, mental and physical minorities.

Pressing issues affecting minority voices in the West Island community were the main topics of discussion at the West Island United rally hosted by the Youth Stars Foundation on March 26. 

The event’s main goal was to ally West Island community members under “unity, inclusivity, diversity and equity amongst all cultures, including racialized and BIPOC communities,” according to their website.

Teenage students spoke about how inclusivity at school helped them to feel more confident in their lives. In an environment that affirms their identity, they can be accepted for their differences and avoid exclusion.

The annual rally was held at Pierrefonds Community High School. Representatives from the local community were invited to speak, or share a poem to the audience.

Among the speakers at the meeting was high school student Kate Zarbatany, who performed a nine-minute monologue on neurodiversity by labeling autism as a misunderstood diagnosis. 

“It is unbelievable to think that so many people go through their lives struggling because they are not diagnosed,” said Zarbatany. ‘It’s important to remember that there isn’t just one form of autism. It’s a spectrum. Our world is designed for the neurotypical.”

“This is why I’m asking you to be our allies and try to better understand us,”  

she added.

The event hosted various West Island organizations providing different services.

Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi de l’Ouest-de-l’Île, Action Jeunesse de l’Ouest-de-l’île, the West Island LGBTQ2+ Centre and Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Island each had their own booth.

SPVM agents were also present to provide community outreach.

However, Benoit Langevin, councilor of the City of Montreal for the Bois-de-Liesse district in the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, noticed that there was an absence of Indigenous voices at the meeting.

“I think that we have to make bigger efforts for the Indigenous population,” said Langevin. 

In the near future, Langevin’s team is seeking to develop a new set of activities with the local library in consultation with the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA). In February, the library hosted different shows to inform its residents on the roots of their Black community. Langevin plans to continue working closely with the association.

The event gave Pierrefonds Community High School students an opportunity to express themselves and their needs. “We’ve always talked about the importance of community, the importance of inclusion, the importance of belonging,” said Lester B. Pearson School director general, Cindy Linn. 

“We’re also realizing that in order to make those things happen, we need to involve everybody in the conversation,”

Linn Said.
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News

Results of the ASFA general elections

ASFA elections receive the highest voter turnout rates in the last decade

This past ASFA election saw the highest student engagement in the last decade, with a voter turnout rate of 14.8 per cent. Angelica Antonakopoulos, the academic coordinator for ASFA’s upcoming executive team, believes that the increased student engagement was fueled by transitioning into in-person instructions and the initiatives of those running.

“ASFA came out of the gate screaming right on social media,” said Antonakopoulos. “They also had a couple of really informative graphics, explaining what you were voting for. […] So I feel like that may have enticed students, because sometimes if you get ballots for something that you don’t understand, you kind of have a tendency to cast that aside.”

The results show that the executive team will be dominated by the new student slate Supportive Foundations. Supportive Foundations will be replacing the Radical Care student slate. Antonakopoulos said students can expect simplicity, transparency, and accountability from the new slate.

“If anyone has had a little bit of interaction with ASFA, as a structure, it’s complicated,”  said Antonakopoulos. “We’re really going to sit down now and try to find ways that we can educate freshmen and other students from the get go at the beginning of the academic year and try to explain to them, this is your member association, these executives are your direct representation.”

Supportive Foundations also hopes to reinstate the scientific academic journal, and to reopen the Loyola office to make the executive team more accessible to the student body. 

Antonakopoulos says students can expect a calmer year relative to the last ASFA slate Radical Care.

“We don’t feel the need to do a school-wide strike,” said Antonakopoulos.

“Radical Care really seemed to have a big focus on mental health. They kind of came in at a bit of a tumultuous time because they had to focus on the full heat transition into in-person school.”

Students also voted in favour of a fee levy increase for the Hive Free Lunch program. The fee levy will be used to implement a new breakfast program starting next semester.
Click here for a complete breakdown of the election results.

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News

Quebec’s 2023-2024 Budget from a students perspective

Economics analyst Moshe Lander shares his observations from the budget data

The new Quebec Budget for 2023-24, presented by Minister of Finance Eric Girard, lays out several supporting plans for taxation, the health-care system, youth, education, and business budgets. 

Educational spending has risen by six per cent this year, for a total of approximately $20 billion. In terms of higher education, the two biggest expenses are faculties and facilities. However, specific details as to where funding is going remains unclear at this time.

According to Moshe Lander, senior lecturer of economics at Concordia, “More money on education isn’t necessarily a good thing. It could be, but it depends. It’s merely a promise that this year we will spend this money on education, but stay tuned for the details.” 

In addition to increases in the educational budget, $888 million over five years has been allocated to business productivity and encouraging business innovation. This demonstrates the possibility that students entering the job market will find more employment opportunities when they graduate. People looking to start their own businesses would also receive more funding from the government.  

“The traditional industry that they might go into might not be as popular as when they graduated. Innovations might change the nature of those industries,” Lander said. 

Lander thinks the province’s aging population and voter turnout could influence budget spending. 

“Young people don’t get a lot of money from the government because they don’t vote,” said Lander. “But old people do.” 

As the highest-taxed province in Canada, Quebec’s government reduced taxes by one per cent in this year’s budget, which will result in $9.2 billion of lost revenue for the government.

Lander agrees with the government cutting, “It (tax cuts) is a good sign, it’s small, but it’s better than nothing,” he said. But at the same time, he is concerned about balancing the budget. 

“You’re going to dramatically cut spending and there’s a whole bunch of things that you have to stop spending more,” said Lander. 

This year’s budget will lay the foundation for the government’s initiatives over the next four years. Lander pointed out that it’s unclear whether we’re heading into a recession, or whether we’ll avoid one.

“With that type of uncertainty, they’ll kind of wait and see what happens to decide how much they need to spend, ”he said.

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News

Group hosts seminar about intersections between racialized communities and environmental justice

Racialized people fighting for a better system and developing a sustainable world

Brick by Brick, a non-profit organization for social change, hosted a seminar on racialized people and their engagement in environmental justice on March 30. Alexandra Pierre organized this event with the Concordia Office of Community Engagement. The seminar tackled the following question: How are racialized activists transforming environmental struggles?

Nadia Bunyan, the seminar’s moderator, highlighted that climate change is worsening because of the systems that were put in place. 

“If we don’t talk about how it [climate change] happened, how is it going to change?” she asked.

Bunyan explained her belief that racialized people are always the ones raising their hand in a room when it comes to environmental justice. In order to change the capitalist system, Bunyan asserted, privileged people need to take the time to speak up as well. 

“You have to be the one in the room, but for people who are not racialized, how does that work in the space when we are talking about allyship? It’s not necessarily something that we can answer on, because we are not the ones holding that strength,” she said. 

Duha Elmardi, another speaker, addressed the problem with the following statement: “Our interventions must be the ones that address and destroy the root causes: colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy.”

Andrea Claire McDonald, a speaker and Opwaaganasiniing First Nations representative, spoke about her deep connection to nature, especially with plants, which is very important in her community.

“I believe that when we build reciprocal relationships with the plants that surround us, we can gain accessible sustainable support for ourselves and for communities,” she said. “In my mind it is not a coincidence that many of the plants that thrive in our urban environment have very specific medicine for the challenges we face.”

During the conversation, access to nature was an important subject. A participant mentioned that if someone wants to have access to certain sites, they have to pay governments, or private entities. Such privatization makes resources inaccessible to Indigenous people — the people who initially settled in North America.

Lourdenie Jean, founder of the initiative L’Environnement, c’est intersectionnel (ECI), was another speaker at the event. 

“One of my main messages with the ECI is the verb repurpose,” she said.

“Social movements led by racialized communities are already environmentally intersectional.”

Based on the event’s subject, Jean stated this: “How mainstream environmental movements can become allies to the social grassroots movements and not how mainstream movements should be inclusive.”

The event speakers and moderator approached the subject of how individual initiatives, like recycling, are only the tip of the iceberg, whereas like Jean mentioned, it is harder to join community-led change.

In her speech, Bunyan addressed the following saying: “We have it so good in North America.”  She stressed the importance of recognizing the fact that people do not see all the microaggressions and trauma that happens in this country.

“It’s very easy for people to disappear, to fall below the poverty line and not have access to services, even though they exist. Whereas in smaller spaces, in a home, where you can have land and you can grow what you need, you can be connected to your community,” she said. “And it is very easy here [in Canada] to become disconnected to all of that.”

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Community

K-pop dance workshops help students with self-acceptance

Club member Sooah Kil (Left) Dancing with Amanda Beronilla, K-Pop Club Communications VP (Right) - Chantal Bellefeuille / The Concordian

Members of the Concordia K-pop Club gain the confidence to express themselves by dancing to their favourite K-pop choreographies

The crowd is excited, the stage is lit, and K-pop is blasting through the nightclub’s speakers. For first-year Concordia University student Lana Masselon, this memory makes her eyes sparkle with joy as she talks about K-pop events that she has attended around Montreal. 

Dancing to K-pop has given her the confidence to overcome her fear, go up on stage, and dance in front of a large audience. This is thanks to the Concordia K-pop Club, which holds several dance workshops throughout the fall and winter semesters. They invite members and non-members to learn choreographies from the community’s favourite K-pop groups and to be true to themselves through dance.

Club member Sooah Kil (Right) Dancing with Amanda Beronilla, K-Pop Club Communications VP (Left) – Chantal Bellefeuille / The Concordian

Masselon attends most of these dance workshops and sometimes even teaches them. She has a modern-jazz dance background but fell in love with K-pop when she learned choreography to the song ‘Kill This Love’ by Blackpink. This inspired her to take a K-pop dance class. 

However, since starting university, she has not had the time to keep up with weekly lessons. She said that the workshops sprinkled throughout the school year provide her the opportunity to get exercise and give her a sense of accomplishment. 

“If I’m active, I’m happy. I know I need to be active, and K-pop helps keep sports in my life,” Masselon said.

Club member Sooah Kil (Left) Dancing with Amanda Beronilla, K-Pop Club Communications VP (Right) – Chantal Bellefeuille / The Concordian

She said she has found her identity through being accepted by the K-pop community. It has allowed her to break free of society’s status quo. 

“Before K-pop, I felt like I didn’t have a style. I just followed what everyone else was doing, and I wasn’t really myself,” she said. 

As a taller person, Masselon hid behind clothes she hated, such as jeans, when she wanted to wear clothes like skirts and knee-high socks. One of her favourite K-pop idols, Kim Hongjoong from the group ATEEZ, inspired her to feel more comfortable in her skin. 

“I was uncomfortable and scared about what people would think of me,” Masselon said. “Hongjoong says you can wear anything, as long as you feel confident in it, so I don’t try to hide myself anymore.” 

She believes that dance brings the K-pop community together, allowing people to meet new friends and bond over common interests. 

Other club members feel the beneficial effects that the dance workshops have on their lives too. Concordia K-pop Club President Inas Fawzi strongly feels that the dance workshops have built her confidence more.

“After learning K-pop dances, I started liking my body. It gave me a love for my physical being. Before I was just floating, I wasn’t attached to it. Now I’m like, ‘Wow, I look cool,’” Fawzi said. 

Amanda Beronilla, the club’s vice president of communications, also teaches dance workshops. She says that dancing to K-pop is one of the main ways that she can express herself. 

“Ever since I was small, I have always loved dancing. I wanted to go into ballet, but I was never able to. With K-pop dance, it feels like I’m able to do something that I’ve always wanted to do,” Beronilla said.

The dance workshops are fun and inclusive. Unlike a K-pop dance crew with high standards, these dance workshops are very welcoming. There’s little pressure, and people are encouraged to come and join in, regardless of their dance skills.

Each two-hour dance workshop is held at Concordia University’s Sir George Williams Campus on the Hall Building’s seventh floor. 

You can follow the Concordia K-pop Club on Instagram to learn about upcoming events.

Categories
Arts Theatre

Théâtre du Nouveau Monde’s Abraham Lincoln va au théâtre makes a mockery of nuance

Courtesy Photo by Yves Renaud

This 2010 play by Larry Tremblay is a combination of meta plot lines and comedy

The Théâtre du Nouveau Monde production debuted on March 14, and follows the story of two actors who went viral in a buddy cop series. They are hired by a cunning director who puts on a play about John Wilkes Booth, the infamous actor known for Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. 

The fictional director, renowned Marc Killman, expresses the idea that American entertainment has always revolved around violence and finding ways to control the people. 

As rehearsals roll on, the tortured genius gets lost in a plethora of nuances that he bears down upon his actors, eventually completely losing track of the play’s theme. 

Writer Larry Tremblay was inspired by what he calls “America’s schizophrenia,” or the political polarity in the United States: the extremely poor versus the extremely rich, Republican versus Democrat, North versus South. 

“If I had to redefine my play today, in the era of post-truth in which we dove in, I would only choose one pair of antonyms: truth versus lie,” states Tremblay in the playbill. “And, with great pleasure, I would call my play Donald Trump goes to the Capitol.”

The playwright heavily twisted the presentation of the original theme by bringing layers of meta-fiction and absurdity, sending the audience in different directions. Each line had the audience questioning the direction in which the story was going. At times, it was even tough for the characters themselves to understand Killman’s ideas. 

“It’s a show where the first time you read it you say to yourself, ‘Oh boy, what are we getting into?’ But that’s what’s the best part about theatre,” exclaimed Bruno Marcil, who played Marc Killman in TNM’s production of the play. 

“We broke our necks for two months trying to understand what we were going to play, how we were going to play, and how we are going to approach it, and sometimes there were ideas that at the beginning held up the whole time, suddenly we said, ‘No that’s not it.’” 

According to Marcil, the only script in his career that was tougher to understand was Les Hardings, a play inspired by the Lac-Mégantic disaster that follows three men, each named Thomas Harding, from around the world who are thrust into each other’s lives by the disaster.

Actor Didier Lucien, who makes a later appearance in the plot of Abraham Lincoln va au théâtre, explained that “[the] script is never portrayed the same from one day to the next. Yes we rehearse, but each character is completely different. Just when we thought we’ve understood it, we realize that we’re way out in left field, and we have to restart. We were like detectives for this script.”

Courtesy Photo by Yves Renaud

According to Marcil, the team working on the play has fantastic chemistry, and it shows on stage. Luc Bourgeois and Mani Soleymanlou play protagonists Laurel and Hardy, and have been long-time friends.

“The four of us plus our director together were in stitches the whole time, but at the same time we can have fun and when it’s time to put our heads down we make things work.”

Director Catherine Vidal did a fabulous job turning this complex and dark subject into something understandable and intriguing for the audience. She was also able to bring humour and satire in at the perfect moments. 

“The atmosphere during rehearsals was absolutely joyous because of our designers, engineers, and actors. Together, we were able to get through this cathedral script,” said Vidal.

I was at the edge of my seat trying to guess how much further the play within the play would be twisted, and what the next turn would be. This play was captivating, and brought me to unexpected audible laughs. I highly recommend you see it before the closing day on April 8.

Categories
Arts

Concordia’s EPIC Used Book Fair returns for the first time since 2019

Photo by Catherine Reynolds

Concordia’s annual book fair aimed to beat their goal of raising $30,000 for student scholarships through volunteer events

Concordia’s annual EPIC Used Book Fair made its grand return with over 1000 books to sell. The event took place in the EV building atrium on March 28-29. The fair aims to raise funds for student scholarships and give a second life to used books. 

This year, the fair received 30 pallets, with each pallet containing over 20 boxes of books. The books were donated by faculty members, alumni, students and people from the community. Event coordinator Luke Quin said they were accepting donations year-round. 

The book fair’s purpose is to raise funds for students. It is a charity event where all proceeds go towards student scholarships.

“Some of us are also passionate about used books and giving a second home to used books, so that’s an added incentive to running this fair,” said Quin, who would rather see a book go home with a new friend than see it end up in a landfill.

Students and members of the public can find books of all types, from science and math textbooks to books on performing arts. 

Giordano Imola is a student in the performance creation program of Concordia’s theatre department who stumbled upon the book fair. “I came looking for plays […] and I found a bunch that I’m just looking forward to reading. I’m just deciding what to keep now,” said Imola.

The pricing was one of the main selling points of the book fair. Book prices began at $3 and went up to $10. In previous years, the book fair had made up to $30,000 dollars. This year they hoped to raise more. 

The fair was entirely volunteer-run. The Concordian spoke with volunteer Ginette Leduc, who said that by 2 p.m. on the first day, her cash register alone had made around 150 sales, and she estimated that her partners had made similar sales.

It was Leduc’s first time working the cash register, which she found quite stressful albeit enjoyable. “People understand, there’s big lineups sometimes, but it’s for a good cause so that’s OK,” she said.

The book fair has been running for 20 years. Before Quin took over in 2016, it was run by Susan Hawke and a small core group of volunteers. Since then, they’ve been able to recruit new volunteers, accept electronic payment and get more book donations. Quin says they’ve had some support from Concordia’s University Advancement community and fundraising program to promote the book fair on social media, and a ton of support from the services and sustainability sector of the university.

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HERstory Lesson Opinions

HERstory Lesson: Julia Butterfly Hill

Carleen Loney/THE CONCORDIAN @shloneys

From saving forests one tree at a time, to redirecting taxes

Julia Lorraine Hill is an American activist and environmentalist, known for living in a tree for over two years as a protest against deforestation.

Hill adopted the nickname “Butterfly” from the age of 7, when a butterfly landed on her finger during a hike and stayed there for the duration of the walk.

At age 22, she survived a major car crash involving a drunk driver who hit her car from behind, which resulted in the steering wheel penetrating her skull. Her injuries required to re-learn how to walk and talk.

“As I recovered, I realized that my whole life had been out of balance… I had graduated high school at 16, and had been working nonstop since then, first as a waitress, then as a restaurant manager. I had been obsessed by my career, success, and material things. The crash woke me up to the importance of the moment, and doing whatever I could to make a positive impact on the future,” she said in a biography.

This is what made Hill embark on a spiritual journey that made her more aware of the environmental crisis, specifically the deforestation of redwood forests in Stafford, California. 

She told the Washington Post in 2004 that “the steering wheel in my head, both figuratively and literally, steered me in a new direction in my life.”

Shortly after recovering from her accident, Hill attended a fundraiser in Humboldt County, California to save the forests.

At the time, the Pacific Lumber Company was clear-cutting the redwood forest, a forestry practice which results in most (if not all) trees in a forest to be cut down. On New Year’s Eve 1996, their practices left the community of Stafford buried in mud and tree debris after it had fallen down due to a landslide.

This is when the community demanded action and asked for a volunteer to tree-sit for a week in protest of the clear-cutting. According to Hill, she was the only one willing to do so.

She ascended the 200-foot tall and 1,000-year- old tree, later nicknamed Luna, on December 10, 1997. The week-long protest turned into a 738-day one, where Hill lived on a small platform. A support crew would often come to provide her with food, medicine and necessary survival gear.

During her time in the air, she endured the harsh weather conditions with only a sleeping bag to keep her warm and was harassed and intimidated by the Pacific Lumber Company.

Hill and the Pacific Lumber Company came to an agreement in 1999 for them to not cut down Luna and preserve all other trees within a 200-meter radius, in exchange for Hill to evacuate the tree. As part of the agreement, the $50,000 that was collected by the environmental groups supporting Hill’s tree-sit were also donated to Humboldt State University to support research into sustainable forestry.

Luna is now protected under the non-profit Sanctuary Forest and a team of experts is constantly looking after her.

Hill’s history of civil disobedience does not stop there. In 2003, she started redirecting her taxes to places she believed “our tax money should be going.”

Tax redirection is a form of direct action that takes place through refusal to pay taxes, and in Hill’s case, redirecting that money to different causes. She gave $150,000 to different environmental and social programs that work to provide solutions such as alternatives to incarceration.

After years of dedication to various social causes, Hill seems to have retired her activism career, as her website reads she is “no longer available for anything at all relating to me being Julia Butterfly Hill.” She still leaves behind a legacy of important and concrete actions.

As our world is in an ever-growing climate crisis and younger generations seem more discouraged than ever, Hill’s story is a perfect example of the overworked environmental activist burnout.
“People forgot there was only one of me and tens upon tens of thousands of everyone wanting, needing, asking, hoping, and demanding,” she said.

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News

Recap of the fourth annual Concordia Model UN

Delegates from all over the world visited Montreal for the CONMUN conference

The fourth edition of the Concordia Model United Nations (CONMUN) conference took place last week. The annual conference hosted by Concordia, was held this year at the hotel DoubleTree by Hilton. Representatives from delegations across the world  arrived in professional attire to compete in the event.

“Concordia has recently risen in the Model UN rankings, we’re fairly in the top 25 schools and our image is growing,” elaborated Rowen Tanguay, a Concordia staff member for Model UN. “More schools and better delegates are being attracted to our conference each year.” 

The aim of the conference is to simulate an United Nations conference as accurately as possible. During a simulation, delegates gather around tables to debate one another. The delegates raised a placard, on which the country or the person they represented was written. The Chair and the Vice Chair of the simulation will moderate the discussion. 

Danisha Decius, who is part of the Concordia secretary team for Model UN, explained that there are committees made up of general assemblies, specialized agencies, and crisis committees. 

CONMUN has been ranked as a Best Delegate conference since 2019.

“It is a great way to bring people not only from Canada, but also from the United States and abroad to see how great Concordia is and the city of Montreal,” said Liam Quraeshi, an assistant crisis director with Concordia’s Model UN team.

The main theme of this year’s conference was climate change, but conferences can focus on any subject that affects the international community, like artificial intelligence. 

Quraeshi said that in a typical CONMUN conference, 40 to 50 delegates represent countries or political actors. The countries selected tend to be the most influential like the U.S. and China. But sometimes, smaller countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya are chosen depending on the debate theme of each conference.

Tanguay finds the Model UN environment fantastic. He thinks that the simulations are theatrical, but he loves them because he considers himself a theatrical person as well.

He is interested in politics. “Roleplaying as a political agent is a particularly appealing concept,” said Tanguay.

He appreciates how Model UN skills are applicable in everyday life. “I think it is a good program at the very least in terms of extracurricular activities,” he added. “It is a phenomenal activity for sharpening your social skills and forming lasting connections with incredible people.” 

Quraeshi said he particularly loves when the conference is held in Montreal because he prefers the experience here a lot more. 

“It is closer to where I live, I am very in touch with the city, in terms of best places to eat, the public transport, and just showing people around having a good time,”

he said.
Categories
Features

The Heart of Auschwitz: The beauty of human devotion

The Heart of Auschwitz on display at the Montreal Holocaust Museum, Emily Pasquarelli/ THE CONCORDIAN

The story of a heart-shaped birthday card that’s become an eternal symbol of resilience among Jewish women Holocaust survivors

At eight years old, Sandy Fainer played pretend as Kathy Gregory, one of her favourite characters from the 1950s American sitcom, Leave it to Beaver. One day, after watching an episode involving Kathy’s suspicions of being adopted, Sandy snooped around her house for clues to crack a similar “mystery,” as she noticed having no photographs of her with extended family. Little did she know, she would discover a piece of history hidden in her mother’s underwear drawer — and it wasn’t adoption papers.

In the palm of her hands was a heart-shaped birthday card that her mother, Fania Fainer, received for her 20th birthday on Dec. 12, 1944, when she was imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau, working at the Union Werke munitions factory.

The birthday card, known as The Heart of Auschwitz, has been displayed at the Montreal Holocaust Museum since 1988. A facsimile has also made its way to The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

The artifact’s story has been featured in various forms of media around the world: the documentary The Heart of Auschwitz by Carl Leblanc, and the award-winning novel Paper Hearts, written by Meg Wiviott. 

This was no ordinary gift.

“It was the only material object that she survived [the Holocaust] with,” said Sandy. “She didn’t think it was of any interest to anybody else. But to her, it was very precious.… She kept it with her most intimate things.”

As a child, Sandy remembered being admonished for fooling around with it. “Just get your little hands off that, it’s not a toy!” she recalled her mother exclaiming. 

But for Sandy, the heart-shaped birthday card’s preservation is the most astonishing part of its journey — a “miracle,” as she put it. It’s a representation of women Holocaust victims’ solidarity and her mother’s reminder of hopefulness when she felt anguished. 

Before World War II, Fania was living in Białystok, Poland. On Sept. 1, 1939, her life changed drastically, as the Nazi regime occupied her town. 

She became a target for her ethnic identity, being labeled as the “Jew” with a yellow star badge; a dehumanizing Nazi tactic used to segregate, stigmatize, and potentially deport the Jewish population of Europe to death camps. 

One day, Fania went out in public without wearing her badge and was identified by a boy. She was  arrested by a group of German soldiers and stripped from her family for life. 

She was initially sent to the Stutthof forced labor camp, but was later deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she worked in the Union Werke munitions factory.

During her time at the factory, she befriended other young women workers, such as Zlatka Pitluk.

According to the Montreal Holocaust Museum, Pitluk was born in Pruzhany, Poland in 1924. In January of 1943, the 19 year old found herself imprisoned in Auschwitz, and later transferred to work in the munitions factory. 

When Fania’s birthday came around, Pitluk planned to make her a card and a cake out of material and food found in the factory, along with the help of 19 other women workers.

The women stole materials at night for Pitluk and kept it protected— a life-threatening act of resistance they took to honour Fania’s special day, despite many not even knowing her.

The card was signed with various hopeful wishes in Polish, Hebrew, German and French.

“Freedom, freedom, freedom, wishing on the day of your birthday,” is one of many heartwarming messages written on the card and was signed by a girl named Mania.

“Zlatka risked her life to make this tiny, amazing object. Everything from the paper to the fabric, to the stitching, to the bread that she didn’t eat so she can mix it with water to make glue to stick it together …all of that was illegal,” said Sarah Fogg, a staff member at the Montreal Holocaust Museum. 

She stole orange rope to embroider the letter ‘F’ for Fania and cut a piece of her purple blouse that she wore illegally under her uniform, to fabricate the covers of the booklet.

This was yet another heroic sacrifice Pitluk made.

One day, during an inspection at the factory, she was caught and confronted for wearing the blouse under her uniform by a kapo, a woman prostitute monitoring the work line.

The teen was brutally beaten nearly to death and fell unconscious. She was woken up after being drenched with a pail of water by the prisoner functionary. 

Fogg said that Pitluk wore the purple blouse due to her allergy to the uniform’s fabric.

When Pitluk walked back to the factory line gasping for air, the women workers were crying in devastation after almost losing their dearest friend. 

“I don’t know where I got the courage because I risked my life with every single word,” said Pitluk, sobbing hysterically recalling this horrifying memory in her testimony with the Montreal Holocaust Museum in 1998. 

Pitluk’s sacrificial efforts were never forgotten and acted as a symbol of hope for Fania.

Sandy said her mother kept the booklet safely hidden for months at the camp, until she was liberated.

During a Death March, “she remembers that she kept it under her arm, in her armpit,” said Sandy.

“There were hundreds of miles and war transports and everything but, she absolutely kept it… that to me, is the most extraordinary part of the story.”

The Heart of Auschwitz has been viewed by thousands of visitors and holds a special place at the museum. Many have shared their admiration for the way it speaks to the human spirit.

“It was her friend’s birthday and she wanted to give her a gift. And I think that’s so powerful, when you think about the suffering and the persecution and the death and loss they were experiencing. Her gesture is one of such solidarity in humanity. I mean, there’s something so simple in that,” said Fogg.

Fogg referred to the countless unique stories that are attached to the card; the women who signed it, who protected it, and who made it. “This object is larger than all of us,” she added.

“You can’t take the human being out of that, you know? I mean, you can kill them physically but, spiritually, it’s harder,” said Sandy. 

And Sandy can’t thank her inner Kathy Gregory enough. 

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Ar(t)chives Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: 10,000 gecs – 100 gecs

100 gecs returns with an album that’s pure fun

It doesn’t take long to see why 10,000 gecs, the newest project from experimental pop visionaries Dylan Brady and Laura Les, is one of the most thrilling releases of the year. The duo’s 2019 debut album 1000 gecs was a landmark in helping to define the relatively new genre known as hyperpop, with singles such as “money machine” making waves over social media. Coming four years later, it’s safe to say there’s been anticipation for a new record, and luckily this album does not disappoint.

Within the span of a single minute, the opener “Dumbest Girl Alive” begins with the signature THX Deep Note theme, transitions into an overblown guitar solo, and follows that up with a beat reminiscent of Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.” It is wonderfully bizarre and sets up a 10-track run that only gets stranger as it progresses. The album triumphs as an exercise in throwing so many ideas at the wall that the wall crumbles down.

If there’s one constant running through the entire twenty-seven minute record, it’s silly fun. 10,000 gecs feels like an album extracted from a late night Discord call — a bit too much caffeine in everyone’s system, each person trying to one up the other with jokes. It’s an experience that you laugh with, not at.

Take the song “757,” for example. Its intensely processed vocals emit such high energy that at a certain point they just start muttering gibberish and it still works. Later, the song takes a turn, and the lines “I smoke the trees when I’m in Colorado / Interior gas station McDonalds” play over a methodical, distorted snare and kick drum combo. Do these lyrics make sense? Not particularly. Does it go hard? Very much so.

Going from track to track is akin to playing musical roulette. From a violent encounter sparked by two friends with an equally violent instrumental (“Billie Knows Jamie”), to a ska song recounting the painful aftermath of a trip to the dentist (“I Got My Tooth Removed”), to relaxed verses explaining one’s questionable life choices (“The Most Wanted Person In The United States”), 10,000 gecs runs the gamut of genres and topics. 

The philosophy of short-but-impactful material is applied to most of the songs on the album, as they all fall within the two-to-three minute range. This is not an issue on its own, but it’s hard not to want a few extra tracks to flesh out the record a little more. Singles “Hollywood Baby,” “mememe” and “Doritos & Fritos” are clear standouts, and the album would’ve benefitted with one more banger along those lines (though it is telling how good a project is when the only issue is that you want more).

10,000 gecs is the kind of album that gets you excited about music. There is so much bursting at the seams in this collection of tunes. It overflows with creativity and is a testament to the power of friendship, comradery, and cranking the volume up to eleven. It also happens to have a song titled “Frog On The Floor.”

Trial Track: “Hollywood Baby”

8/10

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