Mafeesa Monroe ’99, who has opened for the singer Jewel and will be performing with Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry this week, returned to Wesleyan last Monday to lead the first event of Black History Month Convocation. A spoken word artist, her speech on multi-racial identity and race relations on campus received an enthusiastic response from those who attended the event.
Middletown may soon be home to operas, if President Bennet and Middletown Mayor Dominique Thornton are able to convince Goodspeed Opera House to relocate from East Haddam. Goodspeed, which is in its 41st season of producing Broadway-caliber musicals, is in need of more stage and seating space due to its usually sold-out performances, according to Dan McMahon, a member of the Goodspeed staff.
"I want to talk about Virginia Woolf, and a little about me," said author Michael Cunningham on Tuesday, visiting campus to give the annual Annie Sonnenblick lecture. The rest of the evening Cunningham spent weaving together those two seemingly disparate subjects, until their interrelatedness became apparent.
As Democratic presidential hopefuls crisscrossed New Hampshire in preparation for the state's Jan. 27 primary, members of Wesleyan's Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) chapter had a chance to meet with the candidates.
Robert Stratton, the editor and co-founder of "High Times Magazine", spoke to students Tuesday night about the magazine's history and his own personal experiences. Stratton integrated the politics of marijuana legalization with his biographical information and anecdotes on drug trafficking.
After spending a year studying at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, Elaine Hensle '05 decided to bring an international movement to back with her to Wesleyan. Beginning this semester, via e-mail and posters, Hensle has been urging members of the University community to wear black on Thursdays to protest rape and violence against women and other marginalized groups.
To start off a series of interviews with people in the Middletown area, I decided to stay close to campus and interview Rob, who works at the Red and Black Café. His favorite sandwich is the tomato panini. He is also a huge fan of The Furors, a band that is playing live at the Café on Saturday Feb. 14.
Erin Reding '06, an RA in Butt C, thought she saw a protest in the Butterfield courtyard, but from where she stood, something seemed different. "They were fighting each other," she said. "Some were hurling tin cans, some were beating drums, while others ran around in circles screaming for a medic."
Along with some 146 million other viewers around the country, many University students spent Sunday night caught up in the excitement of the 38th annual Super Bowl, professional football's most anticipated competition. Gathering for parties in spaces from the MPR in the campus center to the Butterfield C lounge, students put aside their work and tuned in across campus to catch the game.
Partway through Sunday's Super Bowl Halftime Show, families and friends across America turned to each other and said "was that her boob?" The split second flash of skin and metal was, in fact, Janet Jackson's right breast, revealed when fellow pop-star Justin Timberlake clawed boldly at her bustier.
When women's ice hockey was still a club sport at small colleges and the number of fans in attendance rarely reached double-digits, some ambitious students turned it into a legend at Wesleyan. Members of the class of '97 began a tradition of extreme cheering and heckling at women's ice hockey games in 1994 that lasted until their graduation—and whose anniversary they will return to celebrate at the Wesleyan-Williams game this Saturday.
A wave of new diet plans, including Zone Perfect, the South Beach Diet and the Atkins Diet, is flooding the country. In addition to these relatively new programs, Slim Fast and Weight Watchers have become household names due to their popular longevity. Despite the enormous attention nationally, on campus, dieting appears to be a social taboo.
Justin Costa '06 and John Golbe '06 were on to something when they had the "random idea" to create an online forum for students to sell their used textbooks and other unwanted items to other students around campus. WESmart, which Costa and Golbe describe as "Wesleyan's premiere virtual trading post," has only been running for a few weeks, but already boasts 60 - 70 items for sale.
The recent opening of the Inn at Middletown and increasing prestige of Middletown restaurants have added to the town's status as a culturally flourishing area. Now, Mayor Dominique Thornton has taken another significant step toward this cultural expansion by inviting Goodspeed Operahouse to join the Middletown community.
For kicks on certain boring Friday nights in high school, my friends used to asphyxiate each other. It was easy. All you had to do was take ten deep breathes and on the final exhale pin yourself against a wall while a friend put his hands around your neck. Slowly everything around you would dim, and the next thing you knew reality surrendered to a few moments of vague bliss.
On Saturday, Students for a Free Palestine (SFP) will host the Middle East activism conference, "Activism 102." The goal of the conference is to teach students and non-students how to be effective activists concerning Middle Eastern politics. "Activism 102" assumes a ’pro-Palestinian’ stance; while it is not intended to tackle political issues, the conference will undoubtedly touch on them.
Dear Doug, All day I was hoping we had it wrong--that this "program" for Saturday is a mistake, another Wesleyan, another time. Now, we are faced with a great sullying of our collective mission as a community of learning. What is scheduled is nothing less than naked hatred of Jews and misinformation about Israel.
This Saturday, a "Students for a Free Palestine"-sponsored conference entitled "Activism 102: a day of skills workshops for Middle East activism" will take place at Wesleyan. We write this letter out of fear and concern that this event will promote hatred, ignorance, and anti-Semitism on a campus that greatly values tolerance and equality.
In the "real world" outside Wesleyan, which admittedly often seems distant, I'd be willing to bet that about 75 percent of its occupants (at least in our time zone) are thinking what I'm thinking—it's time for dinner, they would like dinner, they're incredibly hungry, where can I eat dinner, etc. etc.
Many students have voiced their concern with Aramark's decision to close the Vegan Café for weeknight dinners. As a member of the WSA and CLAW (Compassionate Living and Animal Awareness at Wesleyan), I would now like to do so. This past Sunday Tim Reiss, the Director of Dining Services on campus, came to address the WSA concerning the recent dining changes.
Last night, when walking down the path in front of North College I slipped on the ice covering the sidewalk and fell, cutting my hand, and narrowly avoided reinjuring my post-op knee. The dangerous ice covered condition of the sidewalks was exacerbated by the lack of adequate lighting, so that frequent patches of ice were nearly invisible.
Dear Senior Class Officers and Dean Brown: Of the 32 first-semester seniors, approximately 15 of us want to go to senior cocktails. Apparently that is 15 too many. Our senior class officers were unavailable for comment; however, according to Dean Brown, the reason that current first-semester seniors cannot attend senior cocktails is because all affordable venues cannot accommodate more than 600 people.
The Women’s Squash team came away from the weekend’s Smith/Mt.Holyoke Invitational with its first win on the season as the ladies blanked Haverford College, 9-0. Coupled with a win over the Conn. College Camels, 6-3, in the friendly halls of Fayerweather Gymnasium on Wednesday night, the exhilarated women are riding a two match winning streak.
Another seemingly effortless victory went to the Cardinals this past Saturday when they trampled the Connecticut College Camels, 62-37, at home. After losing their past two games on the road to Bowdoin and rival Williams, the Wesleyan women’s basketball team was ready to come up with a big win at home.
The wrestling squad traveled to Providence last weekend to take on host Johnson & Wales as well as Southern Maine in dual matches. The team fell to Johnson & Wales by a final of 24-16, but managed to narrowly defeat the team from Southern Maine in a dramatic one-point victory. The exciting win was secured by heavyweight Matt Moran '04 when he came up victorious with a technical fall over his opponent from Southern Maine.
The men's hockey team went 0-1-1 this past weekend with a tough loss to the Bowdoin Polar Bears, while they came away with a tie against the Colby Mules. The Cardinals' record dropped to 7-7-4 overall (5-5-3 ECAC NESCAC/East Division) after the weekend's activities. The team is currently ranked seventh in NESCAC standings and is looking to take home ice advantage into the playoffs.
In the Westco Café Friday night, the crowd of fans clapped and cheered as the enthusiastic team ran up and took their places. The audience had come not to see your average sports team, but the comedic and witty improv troupe, New Teen Force (NTF).
The first installation of the Center for the Humanities Monday lecture series, "Moving Images," kicked off at Russell House, and offered the audience slightly more than the average lecture. Susan Foster, professor of World Arts and Cultures at the University of California at Los Angeles, did not just read her lecture-- she also danced it.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many people I know think today's music sucks. If we're to believe the opinions of most of our acquaintances (not to mention scads of American rock critics in the year-end roundups), every single year since 1997 has been, without a doubt, the absolute worst year in popular music history.
And how was your week? I talked to a lot of people who saw "Capturing The Friedmans" last weekend, and so many of them were just completely depressed, or weirded out. I saw it Friday night, and, truth be told, it got me a little down. And I had seen it before. Why see a movie that makes you feel bad twice, you ask? Well, I wanted to see if it would have the same effect on me the second time through.
Recently, a friend lent me Mahler's Symphony no. six, "Tragic." He told me it was the most tragic symphony ever written. A few days later I spoke to my dad, a classical music connoisseur. I asked him which symphony he would consider the most tragic. He replied that while there are several extraordinarily sad symphonies, particularly those written by Tchaikovsky, he would have to say that the most tragic symphony ever written is Mahler's sixth.
Jordan, a soon-to-be film major whose non-arts interests include beer pong and board games, recently won the Independent Student Film Production Company's screenwriting contest. Other interests in the arts include: starring in the occasional senior thesis film, NOT drawing, writing film reviews (in fact he's angling to be the new film reviewer for Argus Arts), dancing "a little shimmy" ("like a white-Jewish-boy-urban-dance"), and choosing films for the CFA film series.