SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2022
VOLUME CLVII, ISSUE 72
METRO
Recreational marijuana sales open in RI Ocean State becomes 19th state to legalize sale, use of recreational marijuana
METRO
RISD Project Open Door offers hands-on art education Program helps overcome barriers, fills gaps in public art education
BY HALEY SANDLOW SENIOR STAFF WRITER On Thursday morning, 96-year-old Joe Maraia became the first person to legally purchase marijuana for recreational use in Rhode Island at the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center. The World War II Veteran had never tried cannabis before and walked away from the dispensary with marijuana-infused macaroons and chocolate chip cookies. As of Dec. 1, licensed dispensaries in the Ocean State can legally sell recreational marijuana to individuals 21 years and older. Rhode Island is now the 19th state to have legalized the sale and use of recreational cannabis. Gov. Dan McKee signed the Cannabis Act in May, legalizing recreational use and possession alongside the existing sale of medical marijuana, The Herald previously reported. The act also created a Cannabis Control Commission, which is composed of three members
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who are appointed by the governor and oversee the regulation, licensing and control of use of marijuana. Following the act, five compassion centers — licensed medical marijuana dispensaries — in Rhode Island were approved to sell recreational marijuana, including the Slater Center in Providence, according to a Nov. 22 press release. The other four dispensaries are located in Central Falls, Pawtucket, Portsmouth and Warwick. According to
the act, up to 33 total hybrid dispensaries may be approved in the state. The energy on Thursday was “great,” said Chris Reilly, spokesperson for the Slater Center. Upon walking into the dispensary, individuals are asked to either show their ID or medical marijuana card. The facility inside is split for recreational and medical use, with kiosks to order products and a separate line
SEE MARIJUANA PAGE 5
Lyza Baum, Rhode Island School of Design textiles faculty, fondly remembers spending her Saturdays as a Cranston High School East student attending art workshops in the morning and sneaking into nude figure-drawing sessions at RISD in the afternoon. Through RISD Project Open Door, Baum and other local high schoolers were able to access long-term, high-quality, free art programming to supplement their high school curriculums. Founded in 2005, POD evolved out of what was intended to be a one-semester art class for high schoolers that program founder Paul Sproll taught in a basement studio at RISD. “Towards the end of the semester, a group of teenagers found me out and said, ‘Hey, mister, we hear
there's an art club going on. Can we join?’ I turned to one of my graduate students, and I said, ‘Would you take this on?’ She took it on, and that really was the beginning of Project Open Door,” Sproll said. The program has grown since its founding and has expanded to include Saturday workshops, after-school programs with four Rhode Island high schools and summer classes. “We hope that by participating in POD programs, teens will learn valuable technical artistic skills and have the opportunity to strengthen their creative voice and confidence within an inclusive and supportive community,” POD Interim Director Lauren Allen wrote in an email to The Herald. POD fills a vital gap in public arts education, which is becoming increasingly undervalued, Allen wrote in an email to The Herald. High school students lack access to “adequate visual arts learning opportunities, and many do not have the opportunity to receive art instruction during the school day,”
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UNIVERSITY NEWS
Linguistic scholars talk resistance, language preservation Roundtable discussion hosted by CSREA, Cogut explores language in relation to race BY NEIL MEHTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER Four linguistic scholars discussed race, ethnicity, language and resistance at a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities Thursday
evening. The event, titled “Liberatory Letters: Language as Resistance,” explored “the confluence of race, ethnicity, linguistics and culture in order to better understand the acts of expression and resistance that characterize the practice and preservation of language,” according to the event description. Invited speakers shared remarks regarding Haitian Creole, Indigenous languages, Asian American linguistic experiences and Black American Sign Language. Jacques Pierre, lecturing fellow of
SEE LANGUAGE PAGE 2
In this week’s episode of the Bruno Brief, the team looks at hookup culture on campus, concluding our series on sexual politics.
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The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities hosted the discussion Thursday.
METRO
City Council postpones ProvPort deal extension Deal would extend ProvPort lease, tax exemption program to 2052 BY SAM LEVINE SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Providence City Council decided to postpone a final vote on two resolutions
that would extend ProvPort’s lease and tax exemption program at the Port of Providence Thursday evening, citing plans to further engage the community in the decision-making process. ProvPort is a non-profit organization that manages a section of the Port of Providence sold to them by the city in 1994, according to WPRI. ProvPort’s tenants include chemical manufacturer and distributor Univar, propane storage and distribution company SEA-3 Providence and several cement and road salt
distributors, according to its website. “We felt that it was necessary to talk about (the deal) and to give ourselves time” to listen to the community, Ward 10 Councilman Pedro Espinal said at a press conference before the council meeting. The council came to the decision after engaging in meetings with representatives for ProvPort earlier in the day, Espinal added. The proposed agreement would extend ProvPort’s lease and tax exemption program to 2052. Currently, ProvPort
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Arts & Culture
Professor of Computer Science Sorin Istrail receives research award Page 2
Riley Flores '22.5 wins best research presentation at engineering convention Page 5
Review: Netflix’s “The Noel Diary” is another forgettable holiday film Page 12
We speak with Elysee Barakett, senior staff writer and Bruno Brief producer, about her reporting on the sex lives of Brown students. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or listen via the RSS feed. Hear the full report on this week's Bruno Brief.
pays around 5% of its revenue to the city instead of paying property taxes — the new deal would increase this figure to 9%, according to WPRI. The resolutions extending ProvPort’s lease and tax exemption program were passed in a contentious meeting of the council’s Finance Committee Monday evening, in which community activists and residents objected to the deal during a public comment
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