Tim Hunt '14

Portrait of an artist: Esther Nunoo '17

At the first Open Mic Night of the year, Esther Nunoo ’17 took the stage and silenced the audience with the words from her slam poetry piece, “Shalom.” Other than being “super nervous,” what she remembers most about the experience is what people commented on afterwards: her lack of shoes.
“I don’t like to perform with shoes on,” explained Nunoo, “I feel like spitting—that’s what I call [speaking my poetry]—is very therapeutic. It’s kind of ritualistic. One artist put it perfectly, he said, ‘Performing poetry is kind of like performing open heart surgery, in front of an audience, with no anesthesia.’ That’s how I feel.”
Nunoo has been performing her poetry for several years now. In eighth grade Nunoo starting doing rap battles with a friend, but it wasn’t until he introduced her to the Writer’s Collective in ninth grade that she truly began to take to slam poetry. The Writer’s Collective is a group of young people from New York City who gather on a weekly basis and write about social justice issues.

Portrait of an artist: Lucy Walker '14

It’s not every day you see a student and her professor lowering a 14-foot painting out of a third-story window, but that’s exactly what Lucy Walker ’14 and Mark Wethli, professor of art, did this summer with an oil paint mural of the Brunswick Town Green—the product of Walker’s years here at Bowdoin. It will be unveiled on November 16 in the waiting room of the Brunswick Mid Coast Primary Care and Walk-In Clinic.
“I came up with it the spring of my first year in a course called Public Art, and I was contacted that following summer asking if I wanted to actually make it,” said Walker.
“The Brunswick Downtown Association came to our class...and said that we could choose to work with any space in town. They were soliciting our ideas,” she added.

Portrait of an artist

October 25, 2013

In first grade, Tim Hunt ’14 joined a boys’ choir, telling his mom, who was concerned over his supposed tone-deafness, “I am going to do this and you are not going to stop me!” Ever since that defiant act, music has been a huge part of Hunt’s life. At Bowdoin, Hunt is co-musical director of BOKA—one of the two co-ed a capella groups—as well as a trombonist in the Jazz Combo.

Hunt, a neuroscience and French double major from Oakland, Calif., has been constantly expanding his musical interests and talents. Hunt’s early experience in the boys’ choir was formative in his passion for music and was heavily influenced by the choir instructor. Hunt said his teacher was “really talented at instructing and he had a great knowledge of the male voice.”

In fourth grade, Hunt decided to pick up the trombone, “partially because it looked like a lot of fun and it made a lot of noise and I liked the idea of moving around,” he said.

“There was also a girl that I kind of had a crush on in fourth grade who was playing trombone, so that might or might not have influenced my decision,” he added. A few years later, he began to explore jazz as well.

Hunt did not participate in musical extra-curricular activities his first year at Bowdoin, and he felt that absence in his life. He soon realized his need for “creative outlets,” which propelled him to audition for a cappella and the Jazz Combo his sophomore year.

Music has been both an educational and a social experience for Hunt. He took Introduction to Music Theory, which has helped him grow as a singer and trombonist, and was useful when doing arrangements for BOKA—which he said involves a lot of trial-and-error. Hunt is also a “You-Tube taught” guitarist who has been experimenting with folk music.

Hunt said BOKA has been “a great group socially. It’s really become a core group of friends for me.

“Musical collaboration is a great way to build friendships. Working with people towards the same goal in that kind of context really promotes group cohesion,” he said.

There are five seniors in BOKA this year, and Hunt describes it as both fun and challenging to “have to figure out how to lead rehearsals and direct the group,” with the responsibility on them as seniors.

Looking toward the future, Hunt hopes to “find a group of people to sing with or some sort of band who wouldn’t mind incorporating a trombone.” In fact, he’s been experimenting alongside the banjo stylings of John Swords ’15 and recently jammed on his trombone with Bowdoin student band, the NARPs.

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