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Arts & Entertainment

What's Worth Watching

Top four, Top-Tier Halloween Classics

It’s finally Halloween aka spooky season aka objectively the best holiday (okay that’s just my opinion but also, I’m right). There is simply nothing like watching horror movies that will haunt me for days on end, carving some of the ugliest jack-o’-lanterns out there, and putting more effort into crafting a costume than I put into most of my school assignments.

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Books

Michael Kolster discusses influence and inspiration at “Paris Park Photographs” book launch

Editor’s note 10/21/2022 at 3:13 p.m. EDT: A previous version of this article mistakenly identified Michelle Kuo as a curator. The article has been updated with Kuo’s proper titles as writer, lawyer and activist. Professor of Art and Chair of the Visual Arts Division of the Department of Art Michael Kolster presented photographs from his new book on Thursday in Hawthorne-Longfellow library.

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Theater

“Our Town” wows despite last-minute change

Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Our Town” depicts the lives of everyday people living in the fictional town of Grover’s Corner, N.H. at the beginning of the 20th century. This weekend, the Department of Theater and Dance is opening its own unique take of the American classic, directed by Professor of Theater Davis Robinson.

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House of the Rising Sun

House of the Rising Sun: The Animals, 1964

Let the arpeggiated A minor chord sound! We have arrived at the most recognizable iteration of the song in question. British pop-rock outfit The Animals sent “House of the Rising Sun,” our meager folk tune, to the top of the UK singles chart in 1964 with an arrangement that, in keeping with the folk idiom, was not their own handiwork.

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LASO

Gabby Rivera inspires in LASO-sponsored talk

On Wednesday evening, the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) hosted critically-acclaimed writer Gabby Rivera in the Kresge Auditorium as part of their celebration of Latinx Heritage Month. Rivera is the author of the young adult novel “Juliet Takes a Breath,” a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story with a queer Latin American woman as its protagonist.

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Lecture

Speaker Magali Armillas-Tiseyra discusses reverberations of Latin American literary boom

Students gathered in the Shannon Room on Wednesday afternoon to hear from Magali Armillas-Tiseyra on author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s modern literary influence. Armillas-Tiseyra is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University and the author of “The Dictator Novel: Writers and Politics in the Global South.” In her speech, “The Legacies of the Latin American ‘Boom,’” Armillas-Tiseyra discussed the legacy of Garcia Marquez’s 1967 “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which students in a Hispanic Studies seminar on Garcia Marquez are reading now.

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A Cappella

Miscellania celebrates 50th anniversary

Miscellania, Bowdoin’s first and only all-women’s a cappella group, celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend with the return of many of the group’s alumni. This will be students’ first chance in four years—the last time a reunion happened—to connect with Miscellania members of the past.

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Dance

“Voyage Sans Visa” mesmerizes Kresge crowd

On Wednesday evening, Senagalese storyteller Boubacar Ndiaye and musicians Baye Cheikh Mbaye and Pape N’diaye Paamath performed at the Kresge Auditorium. The performance, entitled “Voyage Sans Visa or Voyage Without a Visa,” explored experiences of African immigration through dance, music and storytelling.

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Lecture

Botnick discusses the creation of artist books

Professor of Art at Washington University in St. Louis and publication designer Ken Botnick spoke on the creative process and structure of artist books on Wednesday afternoon.  The talk was part of the “Bowdoin and the Book” lecture series in the new Special Collections Learning Lab in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.

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House of the Rising Sun

House of the Rising Sun: Clarence Ashley, 1933

The Beatles, Nina Simone, Tangerine Dream, Leadbelly, The Supremes, Tracy Chapman, Dolly Parton, Kult, Sinead O’Conner, Jimi Hendrix, Toto and Muse all have one thing in common: they’ve released a cover of the folk-blues tune “The House of the Rising Sun.” As one of the most covered songs of all time, the track serves as an exemplar of the folk tradition—music that is passed down through hearing and playing, not formal tablature.

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Music

New band, same duo: Adams ’24 and Semjen ’24 take the semester off

Editor’s Note, September 9, 2022 at 12 p.m.: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the band. The correct spelling is Night Hawk, not Nighthawk. While most Bowdoin students returned to a campus marked by pre-pandemic normalcy this fall, Colter Adams ’24 and Peyton Semjen ’24 took the semester off to explore their musical passions with their new band, Night Hawk.

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BCMA

BCMA unveils long-awaited Maine art exhibition

On June 25, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) opened its new exhibition “At First Light: Two Centuries of Artists in Maine.” The exhibition, curated by the BCMA Co-Directors Anne and Frank Goodyear, features over 100 pieces by more than 70 different artists.

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Orchestra

Chamberfest leaves audience impressed

Early on Monday evening the Department of Music held Chamberfest, a performance featuring groups of musicians and soloists that spanned across many different genres, traditions and eras of music. Listeners heard everything from a cello solo to a classical guitar duet to a trombone ensemble in Studzinski Recital Hall.

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BCMA

Pastel artist Wendy Edwards speaks on her art and the BCMA

Pastel artist Wendy Edwards visited the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) on Wednesday afternoon to speak on the exhibit “Powdered Pigments: Three Centuries of Pastel Drawings” currently on display. The exhibit features more than 30 pieces from the Museum’s collection, showcasing over 300 years of the innovative use of oil pastels.

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Six hours of song at Ivies Main Quad Day

While this year’s Ivies celebration differedfrom those of past years in many ways, live music remained an integral part of the festivities. This past Saturday, the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) organized six hours of band performances held on the Museum steps.

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Clothesline Project reflects on experiences with sexual violence

The Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education (OGVPE) facilitated student participation in the Clothesline Project these past two weeks as part of its Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming. The Clothesline Project, founded in 1990, is a nationwide awareness-raising movement in which participants represent their experience with gender violence on a t-shirt.

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Visual Arts

Five students selected for the twenty-third Delta Sigma-Delta Upsilon art competition

The twenty-third annual Delta Sigma-Delta Upsilon Art Show opened in Lamarche Gallery on Monday, showcasing a diverse range of artwork from Bowdoin students who participated in the competition hosted by The Delta Sigma Alumni Corporation. The five winners were Khalil Kilani ’25, Ereny Morcos ’24, Jilly Sher ’23, Aadhya Ramineni ’23 and Cheng Xing ’23.

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BCMA

The BCMA’s 3000-year-old connections

On Friday, April 1, around 600 students in their evening best walked down the steps of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) to experience its content in a night intended just for them. “It feels like a really special occasion where you have a sense of community and of campus coming together to enjoy a moment of celebration,” Post-Baccalaureate Curatorial Assistant Sabrina Lin ’21 said.

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Music

Student bands vie for opening spot at the Spring Concert

On the night of April 2, Jack Magee’s Pub hosted four student musical groups in the annual Battle of the Bands to decide the opener for Bowdoin Spring Concert headliner, rapper IDK. In the contest’s first running after three years, The Irish step dance performing group BEYONCE (Bowdoin Éireann [Ireland] Ye Olde Neo-Celtic Ensemble), and punk/emo outfit Moosecat won first and second place, respectively, both earning an opening spot at the concert.

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concert

Melt brings New York indie-soul tunes to campus

What’s the best remedy for the Sunday scaries? While some swear by ibuprofen and water, Melt, a New York-based band, offered Bowdoin’s campus a unique Sunday remedy this past weekend: high energy, indie-funk pop songs about falling in and out of love, the memories we do (and don’t) keep and growing up in New York City.

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The Nickelodeon

A tale of “The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful”

In Yang Ya-che’s 2017 masterpiece “The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful” there is an impulse for meticulous perfection rarely seen in the industry. Presenting an elaborate labyrinth of a storyline sometimes just as captivating as it is enigmatic, the film’s Chinese title is more telling of its ruthlessness: “The Bloody Bodhisattva.” Unlike other films in the crime drama genre, “The Bold” eschews the ubiquitous themes of guns, exile and intimidating masculinity for a far more understated, yet just as potent, evil, presented with an appetizing elegance and style.

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For the Record

After the mic drop: Phil Elverum reckons with his musical past

Islands of black-clad fans congregated outside the steps of Portland’s First Parish Church on a Sunday evening in early March. The cool aura of cigarette smoke and septum piercings couldn’t hide their earnest anticipation. To the random passersby, the crowd might have provoked pause, as if Portland’s bygone punk scene had been shaken out of hibernation by the unseasonably warm night.

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Culture

Avant-Garb’s return celebrates campus style

Curious about the history of Doc Martens? Wondering what constitutes a “gem tone?” For answers, Avant-Garb (AVG), Bowdoin’s student-run fashion and culture publication, is returning online this week to bring awareness to contemporary fashion, film, food and more.

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The Nickelodeon

The explosive satire of ‘The Good Fight’

When Donald Trump ascended to the White House in 2017, the creators of CBS’s “The Good Fight” found themselves unable to continue its feel-good vision of an “optimistic” second season. “The current administration was infecting so much of the culture, it felt like people were tired of it,” creators Robert and Michelle King told Variety.

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The Nickelodeon

In ‘Dear Ex,’ a tortured, extraordinary tenderness

“‘A million years’ means: When he wants to be ‘normal’ one day and leaves you—after that day, every day is a million years.” — Chieh. It is almost callous to describe the central tension in “Dear Ex,” the 2018 Taiwanese film, as a “premise.” Titled (more aptly, in my opinion) in Chinese as “Who Loved Him First,” the story, unfolding in the unassuming streets of Taipei adorned with folk temples and vendors of fried chicken chop, is told with such passion and humanity that its otherwise politically-charged theme of gay romance drew widespread critical acclaim on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

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Books

H-L staff reflect on popular reads over academic year

In 1965, the College’s library moved into the space students now know as the Hawthorne-Longfellow (H-L) Library. Today, the library houses nearly one million books in its 71,000 square-foot space, ranging from contemporary best-sellers, to academic reserves, to a collection series curated by students of color at the College.

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For the Record

Dawn Richard, a master of multiple genres

“King Creole” was the name of a mythic Cajun guitarist known for his command of various styles of rock and roll, made famous by the 1958 film named after him starring Elvis Presley. It is also the name of the bouncing intro track from Dawn Richard’s encyclopedic 2021 album, “Second Line.” Like the original “King Creole,” “Second Line” boasts Richard’s mastery of multiple genres.

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arts

Weaving together identities

Native American Students’ Association (NASA) welcomed artist, activist and model Geo Soctomah Neptune to campus in conjunction with the opening of the Wabanaki basket-making exhibit at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA). Shandiin Largo ’23, a NASA leader and student curator, sees the exhibit as a display of Native American voices on campus, with special consideration to the historical relationship between Native people and museums.

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RISE

RISE: Working together to represent the female experience

With auditions for RISE, the performance of Bowdoin women’s stories, coming to a close, the leadership team looks forward to an in-person production they hope will make campus culture safer for women. Khue Anh Tran ’25, a member of the RISE leadership team, was responsible for facilitating auditions with the rest of the RISE team on Sunday.

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The Nickelodeon

‘Euphoria’ delivers glitter, but not much beyond

Content warning: The following contains discussions of sex, nudity and addiction; as well as spoilers for the season two premiere of “Euphoria.”  The premiere of the second season of “Euphoria” finally hit television over winter break, at a similarly unhinged juncture in real life—quickly depleting stocks, COVID tests, soaring case loads and declining public trust.

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For the Record

The little things

Every now and then, you’ll hear a song that feels like it’s been composed especially for you—its rhythm calibrated to your pulse, lyrics drawn from the marrow of your memory. A few months ago, I came across such a song.

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Museum

BCMA facilitates more diverse, welcoming community

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) opened its doors to the public for the first time in over a year this semester, and the staff has many plans to rekindle engagement  in the spring. There are two main initiatives set to roll out early next semester: an anti-racism strategic plan and the museum ambassador program.

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Moments in Paint

Together on the steps

Mom wasn’t moving as fast as she should’ve on the Friday morning of Family Weekend. The asphalt before us now seemed an insurmountable journey and her speed the only barrier between us and the water. For how many times I had to wait for her on the pavement, it didn’t seem she was that excited.

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band

Non-Prophets debut at Reed House’s Fall Fest

This past Saturday, The Non-Prophets established themselves in the Bowdoin student band scene with a debut performance at Reed House’s Fall Fest. The night also included performances by En Jamb and Mistaken for Strangers. The Non-Prophets’ formation comes on the heels of a campus-wide return to in-person, creative pursuits.

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birds

‘The Birds of America’ page-turning celebrates an artistic rarity

Nestled amidst the rows of books at Hawthorne-Longfellow Library is the Special Collections and Archives wing, which houses the rare collection of “The Birds of America” books by John James Audubon. Since 2016, Bowdoin Special Collections Education and Engagement Librarian Marieke Van Der Steenhoven and Bowdoin Director of Special Cllections and Archives Kat Stefko have hosted monthly page-turnings of the life-sized book.

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Moments in Paint

Magic in the water

It was the last night of my O-trip where I found myself on Merritt Island’s shore, gazing at the sky and absentmindedly tracing jewels of land and pine out of the horizon. The ocean in front of me certainly felt my presence; the galloping horse within my chest and the breath of ice at the small of my back.

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A Cappella

Recent a cappella concert marks the College’s first large indoor arts gathering since prior to the pandemic

After a twenty-month long hiatus, Bowdoin’s six a cappella groups reconvened last Friday at Kresge Auditorium for their annual recruitment concert, one of the College’s first large indoor gatherings since prior to the pandemic. “It felt amazing to finally be back in an auditorium, watching groups perform,” said Henry Jodka ’24.

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band

‘Mistaken for Strangers’ brings down the house at MacMillan

While pandemic restrictions at the College have limited the number of in-person gatherings on campus, Bowdoin’s tradition of live student bands has continued performing into the fall semester. Last Friday, student-run band Mistaken for Strangers performed for the first time in front of a live audience at MacMillan House and plans to continue performing on campus.

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Exhibitions

‘There is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art’ opens at the BCMA

The newest exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), ‘There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women In Art,” opened on Thursday. Elizabeth Humphrey ’14, the exhibition’s curator, and former BCMA Curatorial Assistant and Manager of Student Programs, was inspired to create the exhibition due to a lack of representation of Black women in the Museum’s collection.

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performance

Bowdoin theater department to hold two main-stage productions this fall

After more than a year of performing over Zoom, Masque & Gown, Bowdoin’s student-run theater company, will hold in-person auditions for its fall production next week, while the Bowdoin Theater Department will continue its rehearsals for “The Wolves.” Masque & Gown Board Member Sinclaire Ledahl ’23 is working with the group’s other board members to select a show for their fall production and to begin rehearsals in the coming weeks.

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arts

Bowdoin dance returns to motion on campus

Dancers at Bowdoin are getting back on their feet, in person, after a year of virtual rehearsals and Zoom classes. Along with classes and programming within the dance department, 12 student dance groups are beginning to meet in-person this semester.

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choir

Bowdoin Chamber Choir Returns After Year-Long Hiatus

After a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic, the Bowdoin Chamber Choir will resume rehearsals and performances for the 2021-2022 academic year. Lecturer in Music Jeffrey Christmas will serve as the group’s new faculty organizer following the retirement of previous organizer Professor of Music Emeritus Robert Greenlee.

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Dance

Students prepare for annual spring dance concert

On May 22, the Department of Theater and Dance will stream its annual spring dance concert, which will feature student performances from four Bowdoin dance classes. While the concert will be presented as a film, the performers have had the opportunity to dance together for the first time in over a year to record the performance.

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