‘Long Live’ (Anna and Allison’s Version)
AM: “Long live all the mountains we moved.” ASP: “I’ve had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.”
We, the Arts Chairs of the 151st Guard of The Harvard Crimson, write to you from our impending dinohood, reflecting back on our time at this infamous red-brick building.
Though we didn’t know each other yet, we both had a calling to spend our Monday evenings at 14 Plympton Street during our freshman year. While neither of us had previous journalistic experience, Sofia Andrade, Arts Chair and Comp Director emeritus, took us under her wing and enticed us to comp with tales of glamorous film festivals and selfies with Timothée Chalamet.
Arts pitch meetings introduced us to the exciting world of arts criticism and gave us an outlet to write about anything from music reviews, like TWICE or Radiohead’s newest single, to the resurgence of in-person theater or What The Hell Happened with West Elm Caleb.
Yet, what we truly fell in love with was the community here at Crimson Arts. Kalos K. Chu’s “Frozen”-themed birthday pitch meeting and the space cowboy-themed Fringe Prom showed us that Crimson Arts shows up for lovers of the arts — musicians, dancers, readers, film and TV connoisseurs, and, of course, the musical theatre kids.
Then came Grand Elections: a rite of passage, especially for members of the Arts board. We scavenged. We roasted. We toasted. We consumed what little pizza there was. And most importantly, we became the newest staff writers of the Arts board. We also, coincidentally, ended up right next to each other in our board photo, almost like it was meant to be.
Motivated by our love for “Dancing with the Stars” and Taylor Swift’s “evermore,” we decided to shoot for comp director and Arts executive positions — eventually, we found ourselves spending Mondays and Wednesdays at 14P. Comp directing was a chance to connect with new writers and pass on wisdom, an opportunity to make Crimson Arts a welcoming home to compers and watch them fall in love with a space that’s been so good to us. Our Arts Chairs, Anya L. Henry and Alisa S. Regassa, guided us through exec-dom, from pitching and editing to liaising with press reps.
The Music section enjoyed a prosperous time, publishing a wide range of festival coverage like Boston Calling and Re:SET Boston alongside thinkpieces, reviews, and profiles of musicians from a variety of genres. The Campus Arts section also reached new horizons with the addition of Metro Arts, giving voice and visibility to all the talented local artists in Boston and Cambridge.
In the second half of our exec term, all of the Arts board huddled together on the rooftop, mesmerized by “Twilight.” There, Jen A. Hughes, a prolific music writer and K-pop fan, taught us the intricacies of the Twilight love triangle and inspired a fervent love for the film among the board.
Once we stepped into chairdom, our first act in our new roles was lifting the infamous ban on Taylor Swift’s music at production nights, playing “Red (Taylor’s Version)” for the entire newsroom to hear. While we encountered a slew of unexpected challenges early in our time as chairs, we leaned on each other and came “back stronger than a ’90s trend.”
From the Flower Power social and the space opera-themed Fringe Prom, to endless production nights, we spent almost every waking moment surrounded by the vibrant Arts community — and occasionally with friends from other boards, including Design, Fifteen Minutes, Flyby, Multimedia, and Tech.
Despite our hectic schedule full of Arts Chair responsibilities, we managed to find moments of joy and continued to write for our beloved board. Our boundless creativity manifested in album and concert reviews, live performance reviews, and even some co-written vignettes. Together, we talked about music for Women’s History Month, candy from our childhood, and music we’re thankful for. Writing is, of course, central to our board and has been a way for us to reconnect with our Arts origins.
For our final production night of the year — in true Arts fashion — we blasted the new “Wicked” soundtrack, with a few brave souls singing their hearts out across the newsroom. We even considered replacing our beloved Arts mascot Timothée Chalamet with the internet’s latest obsession: Jonathan Bailey.
As we near the end of our tenure, we want to thank all of the people who have shaped Crimson Arts into what it is today. Thank you to our compers, who dominate the Top 5 Most Read, and thank you to our staff writers, who express their passion for the arts through journalism and provide no shortage of content for us to proof. Thank you to the Managing Editor for your guidance. And last but not least, thank you to our unprecedentedly large exec and E.A.L. team. Production nights can’t happen without you and we appreciate your dedication to your sections.
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AM: “Long live all the mountains we moved.”
ASP: “I’ve had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.”
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Arts love,
Anna Moiseieva and Allison S. Park
Arts Chairs of the 151st Guard of The Harvard Crimson
—Outgoing Arts Chair Anna Moiseieva can be reached at anna.moiseieva@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @AMoiseieva.
—Outgoing Arts Chair Allison S. Park can be reached at allison.park@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @allisonskypark.