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Interview with Gabe Walker '19

JustArts: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your experience directing?

After rally, University offers new Librarians’ Union contract

After eight months of negotiations, the Brandeis Librarians’ Union voted to ratify their contract with the University on Monday, according to Brandeis Labor Coalition coordinator Alina Sipp-Alpers ’21 in a Monday email to the Justice. The vote came just days after the BLU and BLC held a rally outside of the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Building last Tuesday to advocate for a fair contract. The BLU is represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 888 and has been negotiating with the University since June 2018. 

Hold Thy Peace ushers in the holidays

William Shakespeare wrote “Twelfth Night” for the Christmas season. So, even though Hold Thy Peace normally produces a show in October, it only made sense to put on a performance in early December to entertain students before they drown in papers and finals. In HTP’s abridged “Twelfth Night,” twins Viola and Sebastian are separated during a shipwreck. Believing that her brother has perished, Viola arrives in the foreign town of Illyria takes on the identity of a pageboy named Cesario to work for the duke Orsino, who is in love with a countess Olivia. However, Olivia does not return these feelings and finds herself attracted to Cesario. The majority of the play is about the love triangle between Viola/Cesario, Olivia and Orsino.

Judges continue to foil their opponents this season

This season, the fencing team has had many fierce competitors, and the Judges have held their own against them all. So far, the team has been to the Northeast All-Collegiate Invitational in Northampton, Massachusetts, the Northeast Conference Meet in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Brandeis Invitational. The team has led a successful season and conquered many of their opponents.

Special election called to fill open positions

The Student Union announced that Vice President Benedikt Reynolds ’19 and Treasurer Jerry Miller ’18 will resign at the end of the semester. Their seats will be filled in a special election to be held on Dec. 10. 

Interview with Claudia Davis ’19 and Perry Letourneau ’20

This week, justArts spoke with Claudia Davis ’19 and Perry Letourneau ’20, co-Presidents of sketch comedy troupe, Boris’ Kitchen.  

Documentary Sings to Your Soul

Earlier this month, the Introduction to Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation class  hosted a screening at the Wasserman Cinematheque in place of a lecture. The Nov. 6 class screened “Because of the War,” a documentary about four female singers who immigrated to the United States to escape the civil war occuring in their homeland, Liberia. The war caused a mass migration of refugees toward the neighboring countries of Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. The four women, Tokay, Zaye, Marie and Fatu, all found themselves in Pittsburgh’s Liberian community. Anthropologist Toni Shapiro-Phim, who attended the screening, documented their individual stories as director of the feature.

Model Student

Ira Bornstein ’22 doesn’t have a clear memory of when his passion for fashion started. But his love for clothing has earned him­— @yvngiraa — nearly 2,500 Instagram followers. At Brandeis, Bornstein is interested in studying business with an emphasis on fashion. His love of fashion and interest in business is exemplified by his hobby of reselling clothes.

Stan Lee's long legacy extends even to the economic world

Judges look to foil their opponents

The Brandeis women’s fencing team has participated in two meets so far in their 2018-19  season. Their first meet took place in Northampton, Massachusetts and occurred on Oct. 25. The Judges’ second meet was this past Saturday at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The next stop for the women is the Brandeis Invitational on Dec.2.

Small cast, gigantic emotional impact

Pitch darkness is suddenly interrupted by fluorescent lights, illuminating five people lying on the floor. This is the opening of the Theatre Arts department’s “Circle Mirror Transformation,” a play outlining the relationships of five people as they take an adult drama class together at the Shirley, Vermont, Community Center. The set felt very natural in its asymmetry and the costumes were incredibly detailed — every shoe and t-shirt was reflective of the character wearing it. While captioning live theater is difficult, this production seemingly did it with ease. The dimly projected captions on either side of the stage never distract from the show for those who don’t need it, and are incredibly accurate and well-timed for those who do. The production quality overall is incredible, as expected from a department show.

‘Queen’ biopic exceeds expectations

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a film that celebrates Queen’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, and his personal evolution through the music and the cultural impact he made with Queen. It is easy to depict Mercury’s larger-than-life stage persona, but director Bryan Singer went for more of a personal-tribute approach. At the film’s heart is the relationship between Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) and his longtime best friend Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), a relationship which encompasses Mercury’s love of music and his search for his own identity. It was Austin who gave Mercury the first opportunity to explore feminine clothing, supporting his genderbent stage persona. Austin and Mercury were engaged until Mercury accepted that although she was the “love of his life,” Freddie yearned for more. Freddie Mercury, much like Oscar Wilde, was a proto-pansexual. He never came out publicly as “queer” but lived a lifestyle unencumbered by heterosexual norms. 

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BRIEFLY IN LOVE: Theresa and Schultz (Peirce Robinson ’22) share an intimate moment during their fleeting romance.

In the wake of tragic wildfire, how will Malibu rebuild itself?

What price do you pay to pursue what you are passionate about?

Walden’s Still Got It

It’s been over 150 years since Henry David Thoreau walked the shores of Walden Pond.  Today, Thoreau’s old stomping ground is largely as it was back then, but with more visitors and a parking lot a few hundred yards from the shore. The natural beauty of the space and its seclusion from civilization attracted the young transcendentalist whose two-year experiment living in a cabin on the grounds led to the creation of his best-known book, “Walden; or Life in the Wood.” Today, it’s unclear if the visitors at Walden Pond pull off the road in Concord searching for similar revelations about the capacity for inner growth in solitude. Either way, Walden Pond continues to offer its visitors an escape.

Author reflects on Lauryn Hill’s ‘Miseducation’

Journalist and feminist author Joan Morgan explored the relationship between hip-hop, feminism and musician Lauryn Hill — an American singer, rapper and songwriter — in a Wednesday event sponsored by the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, the Creativity, Arts, and Social Transformation program, the Music department and the Dean of Students. The event, titled “20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill: A Conversation with Joan Morgan,” began with Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS) introducing Morgan, author of “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down” and “She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” 

Interview with Rachel Moore ’19 and Akshiti Todi ’19

This week, justArts spoke with Rachel Moore ’19 and Akshiti Todi ’19, co-presidents of the Adagio Dance Company.

Community celebrates 9th Kindness Day

Brandeis celebrated its ninth annual Kindness Day on Thursday, bringing together University faculty, staff and students in a campus-wide effort in the spirit of passing along kindness. 

Brandeis Confessions: anonymous honestly at a price