Latin American Music from Artists Who Aren't Justin Bieber

Here is an article showcasing Latin American music that isn’t about “Despacito.” Call it North American artists exploiting Latin American sounds in yet another industry or call it cultural exchange, but these questions undoubtedly surround incredibly important issues, and for that we recommend you read Remezcla’s “A Conversation About Despacito, Justin Bieber, and the Exploitation of Latinos in the Music Industry” or Popcast’s “Latin Pop Thrives, No Bieber Required.” To center artists from acros

A Writer with a Sincere Voice and Critical Eye

Writing the Writer It’s nerve-wracking to approach writing about Lolade (Lola) Fadulu. One of the most prolific yet modest writers at Amherst, she has played an invaluable role in articulating what she has faced as a black woman on this campus in her attentive, clear and deeply honest style. Her writing has particular qualities I love — a meta-textual attention to the materiality of note-taking and honoring writers who have come before her. Fittingly, she asserts at the end of our interview, “I

Fellowships and Scholarships of the Class of 2017

* Fulbright Scholarships Clarque Brown Clarque Brown will spend her year on the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in South Korea. Brown brings extensive language learning and teaching experience to her ETA. She speaks Spanish and French and is learning Korean and Chinese, and she has taught English in both China and France. Her previous work experience has enabled her to hone her teachings skills — she has practice crafting lesson plans with pedagogical research in mind, while

“Re-Imagining the Greeks” Conference: Cross-Cultural Adaptations of Universal Problems

Yagil Eliraz, stage director and professor of theatre and dance, facilitated the “Re-Imagining the Greeks” Conference. Q: How did this conference come together? Did you just come up with the idea and pull together resources at Amherst? A: We had a little extra budget this year, so Catherine [Epstein], our dean, asked if anyone had thoughts [on] what we could do with it. That immediately sparked an idea I’ve had for a long time, so I thought of people I’d like to bring, a budget and a detailed p

Street Style in Suburban Massachusetts: Follow These Leaders

Amherst Follows T-shirts are a subtle and wry comment on athletic culture at Amherst that also suggest how empty slogans are. You could go as far as to say it’s satirical pop art. Deemed offensive by some athletes and sported by others, you could say they’ve trumped the “Spring Carnival” shirts and started a miniature movement — making students from all walks of life reflect, with humor, on the contradictions of programs here at Amherst. This week, A&L is talking to the creators of Amherst Follo

Time and Space: Concert Featuring Milo Brings Rap to Marsh

On Tuesday, February 21st, WAMH and the Hip Hop Club co-hosted a concert in the Marsh Arts House featuring sophomore Isaiah Lewis, Mal the Oddity (Amal Buford ’19), ELUCID and Milo. The low turnout for a Tuesday night concert offered an initially awkward yet surprisingly effective cozy vibe for what has been vaguely characterized as experimental rap. It feels weird to attempt to categorize the performer’s ranging styles. Outside of the Amherst bubble, Milwaukee native Milo (Rory Ferreira) is mak

Contradictions and Solutions: Kissinger ’19 on Directing a One-Act

Ben Kissinger ’19 is directing a one-act play for his directing studio class with Ronald Bashford, who he worked under last year in his first production, “The Cherry Orchard.” Q: How did you come to directing and theater? Do you do other arts? A: I’ve loved musicals ever since I was in pre-school, when my grandmother showed me Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. I remember breaking sticks and pretending to conduct a band in the closing scene. Skip forward

After Abroad: Leaving, Returning and Staying Put

When I think about the sometimes-beautiful intersections between settling down and disappointment, Middlemarch by George Eliot comes to mind. It was the first book I read for an English class at Amherst, and it has so much to say about time because it spans many years of a life in a town. The narrator often makes observations about time and describes how the characters observe their own lives and their own time. “For a while she had been oppressed by the indefiniteness which hung in her mind, li

RC Corner: Arts’ Living with Marsh House’s Bryan Doniger ’18

Bryan Doniger, who you may have spotted on the first floor of Frost in a camo baseball cap and Wilco t-shirt, embraces his job as Marsh Art’s House Resident Counselor wholeheartedly. The deep love he has expressed for the house shines through his varied contributions over the past two years, first as a resident and then as a resident counselor. From the free jazz segment at Coffee Haus to setting up a system where residents can leave notes for each other in envelopes on the door, Bryan’s seeming

How Little, How Late? Take A Look At Yourself

When I started trying to write about how I processed the election, I found myself incoherently, guiltily stumbling over acknowledging my privileges in a way that centered them and sounded both self-righteous and oddly self-congratulatory. In this self-referential circling, I found that the undertaking of looking at ourselves, looking at who we are, where we are and who represents us are central to the issue. I’m not sure who I mean by “we” in this context. I could mean white women, college stu

Artist Spotlight: Nate Lane ’18 Combines Music, Visuals and Technology

Q: What arts are you involved in? A: I do visual art, digital design and drawing. My favorite media are ink and charcoal — really like the high contrast you can get. Q: Describe your current project. A: I’ve described my current project half-jokingly to my friends as mashing together music and visual art using my three favorite subjects: computer science, math and physics. It’s a computer program that generates visual patterns that change in response to sounds. The idea was that you can project

Lost In Translation: The Complicated World Of Texting

I am terrible at hellos. Even with my friends, I sometimes hesitate to say hi out loud. It wouldn’t even be that embarrassing if they didn’t hear me, but I still usually give this kind of weird big-eyed, teeth-gritting smile. I have a love-hate relationship with those ridiculous conversations, analyzing these interactions with acquaintances, thinking, “I said hi, but do they even remember me? Now I seem creepy” or “I just should’ve said hi, now I seem rude, but we, like, barely made eye contact.

Coeducation 40 Years Later

The idea of admitting women to Amherst once faced bitter opposition from alumni, sharply divided the Board of Trustees and caused heated debates among the faculty and the student body. The matter was settled 40 years ago when Amherst opened its doors to women. So now that we’re all here, is coeducation really superior to other alternatives? Prior to integration, Amherst was almost exclusively male with the exception of several women admitted as part of an exchange program in 1969. It is therefo

Columbia Student's Performance Art Takes On the (Literal) Weight of Sexual Assault

A 50-lb, 39×80-inch, navy blue rectangle is currently giving shape to the bulky conversations about rape that have been spreading across college campuses in recent years. It feels too obvious and literal to discuss “Carry that Weight/Mattress Performance” in terms of dimensions, gravity or language associated with bedding. It feels simplistic to simply celebrate the work in an op-ed, but its importance is tangible in the sense that it is actually tangible. With attempts at policy changes on coll