#cleo hereford

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Showing Some Love for the Black Alumnae  of @Wellesley this Valentine’s Day in honor of #BlackHistoryMonth

In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth and Valentines Day, the editors here at Wellesley Underground want to show some love for the Black Alumnae of Wellesley College. Below are some of our favorite features, interviews, and pieces by Black Wellesley alums here on Wellesley Underground:  

Cleo Hereford ‘09

Our entire Self-Care series, curated and written by Cleo Hereford ‘09, along with Yael Sherman ‘00 and others. 

Crystal Fleming ‘04

Wellesley Writes It: Interview with Dr. Crystal M. Fleming ‘04 (@alwaystheself ) on her new book, HOW TO BE LESS STUPID ABOUT RACE

Ikhlas Saleem ‘11 and Makkah Ali ‘10

#FollowFriday: The Badass Women of Identity Politics

Patrice Caldwell ‘15

Wellesley Writes It: Interview with Patrice Caldwell, Founder of People of Color in Publishing

Taylor Stewart ‘15

Self-Care Chat with Taylor Stewart ‘15 on Spiritual Wellness

Martine Severin ‘01

Martine Severin ‘01 (@MartiniSev): Black Female Creatives Promote Diversity and Representation in Wedding Editorials

Paula Penn-Nabrit ‘76 and her friend Mr. Ringo

Wellesley Entrepreneurs: Paula Penn-Nabrit ‘76, Telos Training Inc and Penn-Nabrit & Associates

Diamond Sharp ‘11

Young, Gifted, and Mentally Ill by Diamond Sharp ‘11

Sequoia Taylor ‘08

I’m A Black Female Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley - And I Hate the Phrase “Beating the Odds” by Sequoia Taylor ‘08

Valeria Carole ‘02

March 2018 #WAOTM Valeria Carole ‘02

Nichole Burton ‘13

Wellesley in Tech: Nichole Burton ‘13 (@burtonnichole), Product Designer at Atlassian

Shayla Adams ‘08

#May2014 #YAOTM is Shayla Adams ‘08!

Dominique Hazzard ‘12

PART I. KORRYN GAINES, THE STATE’S SPECTER OF DEATH, AND THE SHAM OF AMERICAN POLICING by Dominique Hazzard ‘12 (@hazzardeuce)

PART II. KORRYN GAINES RECOGNIZED THAT THE POLICE STATE IS SOME BIZARRE SHIT by Dominique Hazzard ‘12 (@hazzardeuce)

Marseille Allen ‘01

Attempting to Silence the Oppressed Makes You the Oppressor by Marseille Allen (@MarseilleAllen)

Ali Barthwell ‘10

I’m Tired: A Black Woman’s Thoughts on Community by Ali Barthwell ‘10 (@wtflanksteak)

I am Sandra Bland by Portia Allen-Kyle ‘07

Allison Bland ‘09

Wellesley Underground 10 Year Anniversary Series: Allison Bland ‘09 (@alliebland)

[wellesleyunderground]

September 2019 #WAOTM is Cleo Hereford ‘09 (@cleo87), Editor of the Wellesley Underground #SelfCareSeries

Thanks to Shloka Ananthanarayanan ‘08 (@shlokes), Editor of the Wellesley Reviews, for this month’s submission! We love seeing the WU editor love!

Cleo is simply awesome. As the editor of Wellesley Underground’s Self-Care Series, she consistently produces articles brimming with excellent advice and tips and tricks that are invaluable to getting through your day. Recently, when a bunch of WU editors were discussing workplace struggles, she was able to point us to an article on how to take care of ourselves and not let a toxic work environment bring us down. As if consistently producing excellent articles for her own series wasn’t enough, Cleo never hesitates to help out her fellow editors with their series. She has cheerfully contributed to WU Reviews multiple times. 

Cleo embodies the best of Wellesley. Smart, kind, making time for self-care but still also going above and beyond to help others with her writing and advice. She may be a self-professed introvert, but through her work and kindness, Cleo helps more people than any extrovert I know. 

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WU Reviews: The Kitchen reviewed by Cleo Hereford '09 (@cleoc87)

Off from work for a four day-weekend/staycation, I headed to the movies in the middle of the day for a solo trip to the movies (my favorite form of self-care) to see The Kitchen. Set in the late 1970s, The Kitchen stars Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Tiffany Haddish as the wives of Irish mobsters. After their husbands are sent to prison and it becomes clear that they won’t be taken care of by the men who take charge of the criminal operation in their husbands’ place, they have to turn mobsters themselves. 

Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman compared the film to last summer’s Steve McQueen film Widows which starred Viola Davis. Having seen both films, I would agree with his assessment regarding the similarities in plot lines (wives with criminal husbands forced to pick up the pieces after the husbands go to prison/die). What was dissimilar, however, was the overall tone of each film. While Widows was a sort of dimly lit drama/heist film set against a backdrop of criminal activity and politics in Chicago, The Kitchen, set in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen during the late 1970s, was at times ‘serious’ (particularly in the case of Moss’s character, an abused wife, who is secretly happy that her husband is sent to prison) and other times slightly comedic even as the leads’ body count increased. Overall, it was hard to tell - was this not a drama? Were we supposed to laugh when Moss’s character is titillated at the prospect of dismembering a body? There were a few laughs in the theaters during one of the more gruesome murder scenes which was both natural given the way it was played but also slightly disturbing given what we were watching on the screen.  

For me, a significant issue with the film was Haddish’s role in it. Part of the problem in trying to discern the film’s tone lies in the fact that Haddish is a comedian and at times her facial expressions (slightly exaggerated) were indicative of that background. This approach to some of the scenes in light of the film’s subject matter was either completely misplaced or didn’t go far enough; I think Haddish should have been directed to either play this character in a way that was noticeably different from her previous roles or she should have been allowed to do what she does - be funny, a comedic foil to McCarthy’s concerned mother/wife and Moss’s abused wife. 

In the end, there was a lot of killing but no clear sense of what the motivation was apart from the initial need to take care of themselves/their children in the wake of their husbands’ prison sentences. Once they get on solid footing and their husbands are released from prison, the operation continues without a clear sense of why (did they enjoy it? was this a case of women building something for themselves so they wouldn’t have to rely on a spouse?). The film takes place over a few years and it would have been helpful to have a clear development of the characters’ evolution from women in a tough spot to #GirlBosses (highly desensitized to violence, of course) if that was the intention. Gleiberman concluded that The Kitchen “was just like Widows but not as good” and I would have to agree. This was my first movie outing in quite a while; I wanted to like the film given the cast but unfortunately, it was a miss for me. 

If you haven’t seen Widows, I would highly recommend it. 

[Editor’s Note: I heartily second Cleo’s recommendation. I wrote a review of Widows on my blog last year, so bonus content available here for any curious WU readers!]

[wellesleyunderground]

WU Reviews: The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond (@michellerichmon) reviewed by Cleo Hereford '09 (@cleoc87)

Despite being released in July 2017, it took over four months this year for me to get off the waitlist to borrow Michelle Richmond’s The Marriage Pact from the Boston Public Library. A psychological thriller that drew me in in its initial chapter, the novel tells the story of a newly married California couple in their mid-to-late thirties (Jake, a therapist, and Alice, a lawyer) who are invited to join an exclusive, members-only marriage club called the Pact. The rules of the Pact, created in the early 1990s in Northern Ireland by an enigmatic figure named Orla, are derived from the fundamental goal of maintaining strong marriages “forever” and include directives like “always pick up the phone when your spouse calls” and “plan a getaway at least once quarterly.” The Pact, though mysterious, is alluring to Jake and Alice who find the club’s goals noble. But they both also appear to have insecurities related to their marriage bubbling just below the surface and want to make their relationship work. As a result, they sign an actual contract to join the Pact and its framework of accountability for following the specified marriage guidelines.

The allure of the Pact, however, quickly fades as it becomes clear that the club is more akin to a cult in that breaking the rules, all listed in the Pact’s manual (and deemed either “misdemeanors” or “felonies”), results in consequences. Without giving too much away, one consequence for failing to be attentive to one’s marriage could include having to wear a metal collar which holds the head and neck fully in place for the purposes of “refocusing” for an unspecified length of time. Those with more serious infractions end up in a former Nevada prison turned Pact center called Fernley. Alice and Jake quickly realize that they have signed on for more than they had envisioned and attempt to get out of the Pact, but leaving is of course not as simple as canceling one’s membership. Even more ominous for Jake and Alice? Never knowing if they are being watched or reported on and by whom given the Pact’s global membership.

While the concept was intriguing and the beginning chapters interesting, there came a certain point where the novel began to lose that initial draw. Unfortunately, despite being over 400 pages, Jake and Alice are both described very superficially which makes it hard to understand some of their actions or motivations. For example, when his wife is taken away involuntarily by two Pact employees to an unknown location (later identified as Fernley) for “re-education,” Jake is able to eat cereal and clean the house, slightly worried but mostly thrilled that Alice would make such a “sacrifice” for their marriage, something that makes no sense if we’re to believe that he is a rational human being. When he is later also taken away, Jake mostly wonders if Alice misses him. Further, Jake, who narrates the novel, interjects psychological information and studies about marriage and relationships throughout the story but does not appear to have any discernible qualities or interests outside of being a therapist who is married to Alice and no real relationships outside of his marriage (save for those with his patients). Alice, on the other hand, is slightly more fleshed out and is described as a former musician turned lawyer who has experienced considerable loss and is closed off as a result. Due to the somewhat weak characterizations of the two lead characters, what could have been a really stellar novel started to becomes less believable toward the end as there was a mismatch between the degree of the “consequences” or what was uncovered about the Pact and the reaction of the protagonists with no foundation for really understanding why Jake and Alice acted in the manner they did.

I do want to add that I mostly enjoyed the novel and did want to know how it ended through the final chapters as there was a suspenseful build up to the climax; there was just something missing in terms of my ability to connect to and understand the main characters, their world, and most importantly, their relationship. Perhaps if Richmond had provided more backstory for her characters or given the reader the sense that Jake was an unreliable narrator (similar to Deb Caletti’s characterization of her protagonist in He’s Gone) that would, in all likelihood, provide some nuance to the story, and some context or complexity to the novel. After finishing the novel, I walked away unsure of who Jake and Alice really were and how to assess them. With 20th Century Fox having acquired film rights to The Marriage Pact last year, I am interested to see how this story is portrayed cinematically given the source material. Overall, I would recommend the novel with an asterisk. 3.5/5