Everyone needs some bad advice now and then. by Kalvin Verner ’26 Ever wanted someone to give you brutally honest possibly unhinged advice? The stuff your therapist bites their tongue about? The thing your best friend knows they probably shouldn’t say? Well you have come to the right place! Ask anything (the more details, the…
Author: Contributing Writers
The Way Men Get Described vs The Way They Actually Are
Here at DOWN, we’ve noticed a terrible habit perpetuated on the daily of people putting men—-especially white men—on pedestals for doing the absolute bare minimum. Stop it. This is how it sounds: “He genuinely has so much respect for women.” → man who held door open one time “He actually has such a big heart.”…
Lessons from the Mother of Love
Why do Black people die early? Last year, the Marshall Project reported that Black Americans—at nearly every age—die at higher rates than their white counterparts. Lorraine Hansberry, 34. Martin Luther King Jr., 39. James Baldwin, 63. Google their names and so many of their pictures appear in black-and-white. Much of Blackness is prematurely historicized, but these…
Our College Years: Love as a tool for Survival
The images in this photo essay chronicle the spring semester of 2021, the first semester back in person since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Though we faced many challenges during that time as well as today navigating the stresses of the pandemic, through cultivating home away from home with each other, we were able…
Puppy Love
My first “I love you” filled the air when I was sixteen in the cold basement of a new model suburban home. The air emanating from the concrete walls was chilly because it was near Christmas or just past. I can’t quite remember now. I do remember the flush, the warmth shooting out from my…