Editor's Note

Dearest Reader, In past issues, we’ve taken to filling this space with updates about the weather in Cambridge. Given the circumstances, though, that seems irrelevant and extraneous, perhaps even frivolous. But apparently there have been some sunny days this past week: Spring is on its way to Harvard Square, and we’ll treasure its arrival from afar. Wherever in the world you may be, we hope this issue of FM finds you healthy, safe, and adjusting to what seems to be the new normal — and please do pardon our frivolity. Much has changed quite fast. We, like so many others, were shocked by the University’s March 10 announcement moving classes online and ordering students to leave campus. As a magazine staffed entirely by undergraduates, FM’s operations, coverage, and production will inevitably have to change in these coming weeks. We pride ourselves on being not merely an outlet for some of the best journalism on Harvard’s campus but also a space where young writers can hone their voices amidst the guidance and encouragement of their peers and friends. Likewise, we know that many of our writers count on the income they receive for their work, especially now that so many campus jobs have disappeared. To uphold these standards, FM will continue its weekly production for the remainder of the semester, shifting our publication entirely online and expanding the scope of our coverage beyond Cambridge. We did not expect nor did we invite the challenge COVID-19 will pose to our magazine; nonetheless, we will try our hardest to keep doing what we do best in the face of it. Now perhaps more than ever, we believe it of particular importance to add a third dimension to our understanding of the news — to humanize the characters behind the facts and figures, to shed light on the threads neglected in daily coverage, to dive deep into the issues given superficial treatment in everyday discourse. With your support, we will continue to attempt to deliver this coverage — for the Harvard community and, now, for all of our communities. This week, SSL and MVE anchor our issue with a scrutiny on the history and future of Boston’s Chinatown. They report on how the physical space Chinatown occupies has become imbued with significance, allowing its influence to reach far beyond both its past and its physical borders. Gentrification threatens to uproot the foundations of the neighborhood — but longtime residents, business owners, and activists are fighting back. But that’s not all: GWO uncovers the unsavory history of the Harvard Law School Library’s Casperson Room, EDP profiles the first black woman to lead the Harvard Medical School’s student council, SSI explores the summer conference many high school students see as a path to Harvard College, and VEP makes her FM debut detailing the video game at the center of an international controversy now stored in a Harvard library. In the second installment of his column on gay male culture on and off campus, PGW writes an essay on violence and pornography, and AFRD closes out the issue with an endpaper on her experience living through a terrorist attack in Barcelona. Welcome, dear reader, to the Quarantine Edition of Fifteen Minutes Magazine. We hope you stick around for a while. Yours, Andrew W.D. Aoyama and Nina H. Pasquini Magazine Chairs of the 147th Guard Vivekae M. Kim Magazine Editor-at-Large of the 147th Guard Jane Z. Li, Maya H. McDougall, Malaika K. Tapper, Matteo N. Wong, Olivia G. Oldham, and Scott P. Mahon Associate Magazine Editors of the 147th Guard