Category — Keyana

 
          Performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on November 19, 2008 was Les écailles de la mémoire (The Scales of Memory) by Brooklyn’s Urban Bush Women and the men of Compagnie Jant-Bi from Senegal.
          The dance opens with all fourteen dancers standing in two rows staring out at the audience expressionless. They then begin to move in excruciatingly slow motion. The audience is engaged, but soon becomes eager and restless after what seems almost ten minutes before they take their first step. The dancers begin speaking in their mother tongue, introducing themselves and their lineage. As suggested by the title, the dance attempts to convey the message of accepting the past in order to have fulfillment in the present. However, this moving message and storyline failed to translate through the dancing.

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           On November 25, 2008, renowned journalist and professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Samuel G. Freedman visited our IDC class to speak about his book Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life.

           After attending his aunt’s funeral, and consequently visiting his mother’s grave the first time in thirty years after her death, Freedman realized that his mother had become a “stranger” to him; “I knew who she became, but not how she became that.” Fascinated by her life as a young Jewish woman in the Bronx, Freedman went on a quest to recover her past, and return to his mother’s “stomping ground.” [Read more →]

           Currently on display at the Special Exhibitions Galleries on the 2^nd floor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the exhibition titled, “Art and Love in Renaissance Italy.” The Italian Renaissance was a time of incredibly high achievement. It is during this time that some of the greatest artists were discovered including Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. Italian Renaissance put intense focus and emphasis on love, marriage, and family, which they depicted through very monumental, clear, and beautiful images.  As written in the entrance of the exhibit, the works in this gallery take an “important detour from the path of marriage and family to explore Renaissance artists responses to the sensual aspects of love.” [Read more →]

One block, one park, many personalities

           Home to fashionistas, bookworms, figure skaters, weddings, or passionate moviegoers, Bryant Park is a melting plot attracting people of all ages, interests, nationalities, and countries. [Read more →]

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           The International Center of Photography, one of the world’s premier exhibitors of photographic art, currently contains works from renowned photographer Susan Meiselas. Best known for her coverage of political conflicts in Central America, Meseilas explored “issues of nationalism and identity.” Organized by Kristen Lubben, Susan Meiselas: In History includes three of her main projects: Carnival Strippers (1972-76); Nicaragua (1978-present); and Kurdistan (1991-present). Meiselas sets herself apart through her exceptional ability to encompass her photographs with “larger contexts and deeper histories.” Her desire to capture and reveal the truths of the world places her as a “leading voice in the debate on contemporary documentary practice.”

           Walking down the stairs, we are immediately struck by an array of vibrant and powerful colors in Meiselas’ images. Although each project has a beauty and meaning of its own, Nicaragua, is perhaps her most controversial, gruesome, and disturbing work. [Read more →]

            Before an intimate group at the Macaulay Honors College on the Upper West Side, Frances Richey read from The Warrior, her second poetry collection.

           Beginning with a career in the corporate world, Richey saw that she lacked fulfillment and satisfaction in her life. This led her to volunteer at a hospice, where her relationships with patients brought her closer to “the reality of her mortality.” Business writing is permeated with “proposals, reports…you’re always making a case and asking for something. However, with poetry, “I could do something I love.”

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            Amidst the clamor and flashing billboards in the heart of Times Square, The Duke on 42nd street sets the stage for Matt Sax’s explosive performance of one-man hip-hop musical, Clay.

            Behind the red velvet curtains draping the stage, a man who calls himself Sir John begins to rattle the crowd anticipating the arrival of acclaimed hip-hop superstar Clay. While the audience awaits the entrance of Clay, Sir John like a chameleon morphs into Clifford. Though Clifford’s face is hidden under the hood of his sweater, the audience’s eyes are curiously fixated on the blood smeared all over his face. This is just the start of the intoxicating performance where we are introduced to the protagonist Clifford, his obnoxious and callous father, emotionally distressed mother, his pedophilic stepmother, and hip-hop mentor Sir John. [Read more →]

            On November 4th, our IDC class had the pleasure of welcoming renowned street photographer, Jeff Mermelstein. It was evident from the start that Mermelstein had his unique style of doing things; while most photographers would’ve shown a powerpoint of their work, Mermelstein brought in the actual racks containing his images and projected them onto the overhead. Professor Bernstein had hinted that Jeff is a master of his field, but it was his passionate and down to earth demeanor that made his visit memorable, enriching, and most of all, entertaining. [Read more →]