Vive la Fête: A Revolutionary Blacker Interhouse

Photos courtesy of Maverick McKown, Sylvia Wang, and Maxwell Montemayor.

Last Saturday, the delicious scent of crème brûlée and chocolate croissants wafted through the alleys of Blacker Hovse. Moles hurried around the Hovse, tidying up their courtyard and dining hall for their annual Interhovse. The theme? The French Revolution. After months of preparation—with input from what felt like the entire Hovse—a production worthy of that era’s dynamism and ingenuity came together marvelously, complete with a panoply of renegade constructions and toothsome dishes.

That the engineering at this Blacker event was so impressive is no surprise. A team headed by Jade Millan (ME ‘25) constructed a mock guillotine. The builder of last year’s crack shack, Ahaan Shetty (Phys ‘27), made an even bigger shack, functioning as a Revolutionary hideout complete with a dartboard of the bourgeoisie. To go along with the edible 3-tiered cake, Emily Nikas (Chem ‘27) constructed a 6-tiered cake of spackle frosting and foam. And the centerpiece, no doubt, was the Arc de Triomphe (a 1:10 scale model!), which towered above the courtyard and platform, nearly reaching the South Hovse roofs.

We spoke to last year’s workfrosh, Neev Mangal (ChemE ‘27), now our illustrious gdbpresident, about the event. “This year’s Blacker Interhouse is genuinely the most impressive Interhouse I’ve seen. We put a ton of time into it, and it definitely shows,” he said. “We brought back the idea of having huge building projects alongside our platform and, although it was rocky at the beginning to get work off the ground, we really pulled it together at the end. I’m really proud of everything we accomplished and I’m really happy with how it turned out.”

An apocalyptic but elegant mural of the Tuileries Palace in flames designed by art frosh Chloe Wang (EE ‘ 28), was hung in the lounge. French delicacies like quiche and croquembouche lined the elaborately decorated dining hall. Beautifully executed by Sylvia Wang (EE ‘25) and Andrea Torres (CNS ‘25), mylar mirrors and marble wallpaper reflected the long tables of fresh flowers interspersed with French food, from homemade chicken crêpes to a tower of macarons and an enormous croquembouche. Bakers had begun preparing macaron shells weeks in advance. For the exquisite representation of French cuisine, we can thank Gracy Wah (ChemE ‘28), who served as Food Frosh—not to mention Amelia Saffron (BioE ‘28), Money Frosh.

Despite some worries of low attendance due to the beach trip, the event was a riotous flurry of activity. This was thanks, in no small part, to the extraordinary collaboration that made it all happen.

Albert Huang (CNS ‘27), who spearheaded the creation of the Arc, explained how the Hovse attitude changed as things gradually came together. “I really enjoyed building the Arc with everyone. We started by thinking like ‘There’s no way this is going to happen,’ but with a glimmer of hope that it could, and slowly the project took shape and started coming together. We really came together as a Hovse to put it together, from using ~1/4 of the Interho[v]se budget, to everyone who contributed pieces that really leveled it up.”

Albert shared a heartening interaction with some attending alumni: “One of my favorite moments was when an alumni couple from ‘92 was visiting, and I was talking about how we probably didn’t build as crazy stuff as they could back in the day—as we generally do.” They then asked,

‘How big is it gonna be?’

‘16 feet tall.’

‘Wow, I don’t know if we’ve ever done anything like that.’

They had been part of the class that built the whale in Millikan Pond. We often think of ourselves as having fallen off from the ‘good old days’, but this was a ‘we’re so back’ moment.”

“Most importantly, I think we really came together as a Hovse this year to build Interho[v]se,” Albert continued. “It was a huge undertaking and stressful all around at some points, but it’s amazing to see what we can do as a team (especially in that last week). I only saw one part of it (the Arc/construction side), but I know people also worked super hard and came together with mural, lounge, food, everything.”

Unfortunately, Albert couldn’t attend the interhouse. Hearteningly, the rest of the Moles got together after the party to record a short thank-you video for him.

The workfrosh occupies an especially demanding position, as Neev told us. “Last year [when Neev was a workfrosh], I really only thought about building the platform, and that seemed like a lot of work in itself.” Our current workfrosh, Sami Panyam (MatSci ‘28), Jiahui Xie (Phys ’28) and Luis Serrano (ME ’28), seem to agree. “Being workfrosh is like having a minimum of 30 additional units of work in a week,” says Serrano.

Now, was it worth it? \

“It was pretty sick seeing everything come together. The food was a hit, and I thought the set list was solid overall,” Luis said, beaming.

In the spirit of Interhovse culture and support, particularly when there are now rare moments to get all the Houses together, there was a point of frustration a few weeks before when it turned out that half of the eight Houses would be off-campus during this weekend. Thankfully, Techers of all Houses came together to give the party the vivacity it deserved. Ava Barbano (CNS ‘26) from Ricketts Hovse concurs: “The food was amazing and the decor came together so well! The giant cake was iconic. I had a great time dancing and embracing my inner emo.”

“It was sucky that the turnout of people was low because people thought it would be a good idea to have their beach trip on another House’s interhouse. Regardless, the people that came carried the energy to ensure we had a great time,” Luis said. “Especially towards the end, where it became chaotic and people moshed.”

The last hour was unlike any interhovse in recent memory: the songs consisted of nearly all alternative music, with some Caltech classics sprinkled in. Mr. Brightside and Killing in the Name were played alongside Death Grips and Prince. There was non-stop moshing and some attendees used the cardboard prop barrels from the lounge, as armor in the pit. The energy was so high, people somehow moshed to Kids by MGMT. Many mole seniors were happy that this culture was conserved.

Reflecting, Neev emphasized the grandeur of the endeavor. “This year I had to think about every aspect of Interho[v]se, and it dawned on me how big of an undertaking Interho[v]se is,” he said. “I genuinely think that we would never be able to pull this sort of event off if it weren’t for the fact that Blacker has so many passionate people who will take on projects and find other people to see them through with.” We could never list every individual who contributed their time and talent, but it’s exactly that spirit of collaboration—and the genuine care each Mole pours into Blacker—that made this event shine. It’s the process of building together that unites us more deeply than any single celebration. To all our frosh and upperclassmen: Blacker sends its heartfelt thanks and affection.

Indeed, this revolution left everyone prouder of the Hovse they call home. “At the end of the day, I was just immensely happy to see everyone having a good time at our Interho[v]se,” Neev added. “I can’t ask for anything more.”