Diamond Walker ’17

Portrait of an artist: Jarred Kennedy-Loving ’15

Jarred Kennedy-Loving ’15 was not always encouraged to embrace his body. It was only after he took his first dance class with former Visiting Professor Nya McCarthy-Brown his sophomore year that he felt inspired about dancing. Now a senior, he is a gender and women’s studies major and dance minor who is completing an independent study in dance that explores identity, reflection and perception—thanks to and in spite of any and all of obstacles that stood in his way.
Coming from a lower socioeconomic background, dance wasn’t on his radar when he was growing up. When one of his foster families put him in a church production as an angel, the pastor approached him and told him boys shouldn’t wear tight clothing like his. After that experience he became self-conscious and discouraged not only about his body, but how he moved it.
“I didn’t dance that much,” said Kennedy-Loving. “But I always knew that I could.”
At Bowdoin, working with McCarthy-Brown was a turning point for him.
“She changed my life; she believed in me,” he said. “She taught me how to isolate my rib cage—I could move it like Shakira.”
In class, Kennedy-Loving liked observing how different people move and figuring out how they did it.
“I got to the class and it was like food for me,” he said. “It’s so good to see what people are coming up with.”
From these experiences, Kennedy-Loving started to think about the questions that would evolve into his independent study: How do others view us in our space? How do we interact?
But before his independent study was completely underway, Kennedy-Loving had a setback.
On February 7, he started the day breaking records with the track and field team at the Maine State Track Meet, including his personal record of 23 seconds in the 200-meter dash. He ended the day, however, in the emergency in Lewiston, Maine. While running the 400 meter race, he suffered a compound fracture in his leg.
“It was an emotional time for me,” he said. “I was in my hospital room thinking, how am I going to finish my minor?”
For Kennedy-Loving, being an athlete and a dancer work together because both demand his attention and awareness of his body in space.
“I listen to my body,” he said. “It’s more important than the beat itself.”
In addition to his experiences on the dance floor and the track, Kennedy-Loving brings another level to his personal journey with identity, reflection and perception. While he has been supported at Bowdoin, he still finds it difficult to navigate his identity as a gay black man.
“Whatever you may be, you have to find that creative truth,” said Kennedy-Loving.
For his independent study, Kennedy-Loving is choreographing a piece based on his favorite poem, “And Yea...This is a Love Poem,” by Nikki Giovanni. He emphasizes that a lot of his work is about making choices and accepting them.When choosing dancers it was important for him to emphasize that no dance experience was necessary.
“It’s ludicrous to say only certain people can move in space,” he said. Teresa Liu ’15, Adaiah Hudgins-Lopez ’18 and Christabel Fosu-Asare ’18 are dancing in this project.
When it comes to the actual choreography, Kennedy-Loving said he sees it as a collaborative effort. Throughout the process, Kennedy-Loving said he has felt inspired by his dancers and their energy.
“I have to watch these three [people] move in space to work through the choreography,” he explained.
His piece is comprised of angular movements and fluid motions that focus on the upper body as a representation of the constrained identity.
“Am I an artist? I don’t know if I’m an artist. I love movement and patterns and space and expression,” he said. “But I struggle to call myself a dancer, so I just call myself Jarred.”

Portrait of an artist: Anna Hall ’15

Anna Hall ’15 has been drawing for as long as she can remember. When most kids her age had already put down their pencils and paper, Hall stayed with art and has continued to pursue that passion throughout her impressive career at Bowdoin.
Hall is a student of many talents, not all of which are limited to the arts. She is an earth and oceanographic science and visual arts double major who is involved in the Bowdoin Outing Club, the Bowdoin Food Co-op and the Orient.
Hall is currently experimenting with different mediums of art, particularly watercolor and photography.
“I always have a roll of film going,” she said. “I love the physical process where you’re taking a picture and you can’t look at it right away. It’s always a surprise to develop the film, to watch what comes out and remember what you photographed.”
Hall’s most recent project, for her Senior Studio, has been with watercolors and is now on display at the Robert H. and Blythe Bickel Edwards Center for Art and Dance.
“I just finished up Senior Studio,” said Hall. “That was a figure painting watercolor project. You dive into a subject more so than in other classes and really work on developing the concepts throughout the semester. That’s a lot of fun because it requires a lot of trying something out and then if it doesn’t work, trying it again.”
Hall wanted to experiment with line drawings and the human form for her Senior Studio project.
“I hung up two paintings that are a little bit more literal and then some line drawing-style paintings where I was trying to minimize form and reduce the human body to a couple of lines,” she said. “I wanted to see how far I could push and have the image still be recognizable.”
Hall also finds the time to provide illustrations for Orient articles. Working for the Orient was her first time experimenting with illustrations, and said that it has been a fun way for her to work on art outside of Bowdoin art classes, which often fill up quickly.
“For me, working for the Orient has been a great way to do art in a social setting,” she said.Hall also uses art to relieve the stress from the heavy workload and busy life of a typical Bowdoin student.
“At Bowdoin, art is my sanity time,” said Hall. “It’s something that feels less academic and a lot more creative, which has definitely helped my stress levels.”
Drawing inspiration from the world around her, Hall is often excited by the random things she finds when she is outside.
“In Photo I, I was out taking pictures in the woods and I found a vacuum cleaner,” she said. “I really liked that, and ever since then I like to notice the random things that I find every time I’m walking. I love just seeing something interesting and asking myself why it’s interesting, and then exploring that through drawing or painting.”
Although Hall is sure that she will continue with her art after graduation, she is not entirely sure what the future holds.
“I don’t know if I’m going to make a career out of art. That would be great, to maybe do something like graphic design. However, I’m definitely excited to have more time to really pursue art for a while,” she said.

Portrait of an artist

April 10, 2015

Jessica Gluck

**HIP ‘N’ HOPPIN’:** Walker ’17 practices in the dance studio. She is a choreographer and leader of Obvious, the hip-hop group, and looks forward to incorporating dance into a future career.

Diamond Walker ’17 tried out for an Irish dancing team though a program at her elementary school at age eight. She was accepted into the program, which turned out to be the beginning of a lifelong love of dance. Now a sophomore involved in many projects on campus, Walker still finds the time to pursue her passion.

Though Walker was an Irish dancer in her childhood, she switched to hip-hop when she was 15. Walker took dance classes as a first year, and has continued to be involved in dance through her choreography and leadership of Obvious Dance Crew.

Walker’s current project has been choreographing a piece for the Asian Students Association (ASA) Fashion Show, which is coming up in two weeks. However, she plans to do a more personal piece for the student show in May.

“Usually my dances are more fun and I usually do my dances for other people,” said Walker. “I really want to do a dance that’s about identity and about race with all the events that have been happening this year, like Ferguson.”

Walker said her family inspired her to become a dancer.

“Dancing in my family is normal. My mom played music in the mornings while cooking or cleaning and music is always on in the house,” said Walker.

“We would always be moving which was something that I loved. I love to move. It was a way that I enjoyed expressing myself and it was comfortable for me,” she added.

Walker recalls times when she would choreograph dances for her cousins to perform.
“My male cousin was always the footstool. He hated it,” said Walker.

One of Walker’s sources of inspiration is Nappytabs, a husband and wife dance duo from the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance.”

“They do the craziest isolations and choreography,” said Walker. “To this day I still watch some of my favorite pieces of theirs to get inspired in my own work.”

Walker also finds inspiration in music of all kinds.

“I love listening to classical music when I’m doing my homework,” she said. “I’ll be sitting there and I’ll start dancing to a classical beat which is very unheard of.”

Walker is involved with many clubs and organizations outside of dance. She is currently a member of Residential Life, serving as a proctor in Osher, and is a student director for the Women’s Resource Center. Walker is also a staff member at the McKeen Center for the Common Good. She recently co-facilitated a four-week group discussion series about identity at Bowdoin for Undiscussed, a student group dedicated to discussing difficult issues.

In her spare time, Walker loves to learn about the science of hair and how to take care of it. She is passionate about social activism and loves to discuss issues surrounding race and diversity at Bowdoin. Walker wants to bring her love of dance into everything that she does and plans to incorporate her passion into whatever career path she chooses to go down. She uses dance as a method of expressing herself.

“I love to be big when I’m dancing. I’m a small person, so in my dancing I like to do big expressive movements to show the big person I am on the inside,” she said.

To suggest an artist for Portrait of an Artist, email Arts & Entertainment Editor Emily Weyrauch at eweyrauc@bowdoin.edu.

Comments are permanently closed.