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Arts & Entertainment

MacMillan’s unseen images displayed in Arctic Museum

Through the exhibit “Colorful Arctic: Donald B. MacMillan’s Lantern Slides,” the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum showcases its collection of MacMillan’s hand-tinted glass slides. Lining the museum’s entrance are large photographs of snowy landscapes, rare portraiture of Northwest Inuits and behind the scenes photos of MacMillan’s adventures—among them, a near-shipwreck so dramatic that it seems like a painting upon first glance.

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Multiracial students showcase identities

“What are you?” For many members of the Multiracial Student Union (MRSU), this question is a frequent probe into their racial or ethnic makeup. In a portrait series project debuting today in the Lamarche Gallery, members of MRSU answer this question in their own terms.

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No Hate November

‘OUTLOUD’ photo exhibit showcases Asian student identities

“Representation.” “Identity.” “Pride.” The walls of the Blue Gallery tell a complicated story of solidarity and individuality—photographs of 15 Bowdoin students encircle the room, printed in color and black-and-white, pasted on red backgrounds. Quotes, taken from interviews with the students pictured, are printed in varying styles and colors directly on the photos, highlighting the diversity of individual experiences with Asian and Asian American identities.

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A discussion “for the earth, from the heart:”

A hand reached up to ring one of the bells strung from the ceiling of Gulf of Maine Books, quieting the electric murmur of the gathered town. “Alright, folks, keep it down. We’ve got the fire department right on the corner, you know,” Gary Lawless, owner of Gulf of Maine Books, said to the crowd crammed amongst the bookshelves.

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Dance

Ibarguen displays Peruvian cultures through dance

Literature, Peruvian art and dance: an unlikely combination unlike most artists typically hosted at Bowdoin. On Tuesday night, Vannia Ibarguen brought these disciplines together in her performance “Retablo Peruano” in Kresge Auditorium. “Retablo Peruano” translates roughly to “Peruvian altarpiece.” A retablo is a sculptural work created by indigenous Peruvian artists, depicting scenes of daily life or exceptional historical events.

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Brunswick

Eveningstar embraces new ownership

Before the age of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, before tens of thousands of movies were available for our viewing pleasure at the tapping of a couple of keys and even before the first Blockbuster opened its doors, the Eveningstar Cinema shone brightly in the Tontine Mall of Maine Street, delivering small-studio indie movies to Brunswick’s most discerning fans.

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Live Music

Cohen ’20 performs an intimate set with Them Airs

Them Airs, a band from New Haven County, Connecticut, played a set in Brunswick this week unlike any show I have attended during my time at Bowdoin. No combination of adjectives can properly summarize the band’s style—if one had the arduous task of assigning Them Airs a genre, a mix between art punk, shoegaze and math rock would be the best way of describing them.

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Multilingual Poetry Night showcases student talent

While differences in language may create communication barriers in everyday life, poetry has an ability to serve as a unifying force. In Thursday’s Multilingual Poetry Night, students’ performances attested to literature’s transcension of language, reciting poems in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Japanese and Korean.

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Speakers discuss artistic collaboration in a digitizing world

Deena Engel, clinical professor in the department of computer science at New York University, and Glenn Wharton, professor of art history and conservation of material culture at the University of California Los Angeles, addressed questions of preserving art, artistic media and artistic integrity in a digitizing world in their talk on Monday titled “The Artist Archives Initiative: The Digital Future of Preserving Artistic Practices.” The two visitors are co-directors of the David Wojnarowicz Knowledge Base—an online database of the works and life of the late artist.

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Dance

Dance troupe embraces K-pop

The Bowdoin dance group Reaction is entering its third year in operation and continues to be a fun space for students to learn, appreciate and practice K-pop performance. Group leader, Bethany Berhanu ’20, has danced in Reaction since its founding in 2017.

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Alumni

Reading ’16 advocates through art

Rather than depicting sweeping hillscapes in ornate frames, Mariah Reading ’16 uses trash as her canvas in the pop-up exhibit “Landscapes, Not Landfills,” which opened on Wednesday in the Edwards Center for Art and Dance. Reading’s art contributes to a growing genre of “eco art” that promotes sustainable art practices and nature preservation.

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Alumni

Zach Burton ’14 makes his debut

Hoping to share his own mental health story and help destigmatize these issues in the public eye, Bowdoin alumnus Zach Burton ’14 ventured into the world of theater and debuted his first play, “The Manic Monologues,” in May.

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Mandel embraces artistic contradictions

Through the mechanized movement of light, projections and objects, artist and University of Massachusetts at Amherst Assistant Professor of Art Robin Mandel creates dynamic sculptures that explore the power of repetition. In a talk last Wednesday, “In Rotation: From Motion to Meaning,” Mandel explained how his videographic portrayals of contrasting objects can help viewers to better embrace opposing ideas.

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Music

A legendary tribute: musical remembers the life of Cole Porter

With a shimmering silver and gold beaded curtain framing the stage, audience members of all ages will be transported back in time to the glitz of Broadway in the roaring 20’s. The vehicle is the music of composer extraordinaire Cole Porter, performed by the students in the Musical Theater Performance class instructed by Professor of Theater Davis Robinson.

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Museum

Speakers highlight the historical significance of modernism exhibit

Over a century after its emergence, modern art is more relevant than ever. The movement often thought of in a strictly historical context is apparently less removed from our contemporary world than it appears. In a presentation entitled “The Transnational Framework of Modernism’s Many Emergences, 1900-1950,” author and collector Laurette McCarthy and former Executive Editor of MIT Press Roger Conover ’72 discussed the history and impact of the exhibition, which was curated by the museum’s co-director, Anne Goodyear.

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Portrait of an Artist

Portrait of an Artist: Dewey ’22 defies boundaries of dance

Produced, edited and filmed by Alexandra Lin ’23   Sophomore Emma Dewey used to think dancing was about perfect posture and technique. For her, improvisation used to take place in her bedroom only. Now, in her fourth dance class in three semesters and as a leader of the Bowdoin Modern Dance Collective, she’s begun exploring dance that makes her feel good—and lots of other feelings, too.

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‘The Bus’: a band built on flexibility and fun

After a year or two of playing in student bands, Musicians Danny Little ’22 and Nick Cattaneo ’21 came into this year with a vision. They wanted to establish a new model that would allow musicians to rotate in and out of bands based on availability, while ensuring that a core group remains.

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Lamarche Gallery exhibit highlights youth art and writing

Light and dark hues contrast with sharp yet soft strokes on the walls, filling Lamarche Gallery with emotions. Words and paintings are two of the media which young local artists use to channel their inner creativity in the Telling Room x ArtVan exhibit, which opened in the Lamarche Gallery today.

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Alumni

‘Art Purposes’ alumni panel emphasizes a need for inclusivity

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) welcomed distinguished alumni back to campus for a discussion on Wednesday in conjunction with its exhibit, “Art Purposes: Object Lessons for the Liberal Arts.” The three alumni, all prominent figures in the field of art, shared how their time at Bowdoin shaped their careers and set them on a path of artistic discovery.

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Students pursue funded internships in the arts

From Brunswick to San Francisco, Bowdoin students bring their summer internship experiences back to campus. This past summer, funding was awarded to 97 students to pursue internships in numerous fields such as marine science, healthcare, education, nonprofit and social services.

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Live Music

Thrasher reclaims Inuit identity through music

A guitar, harmonica and foot drum—somehow Willie Thrasher plays all three at once to produce lively and multilayered folk melodies. Last Wednesday, donning a cowboy hat and Rolling Stones T-shirt, Canadian Inuit musician Willie Thrasher performed in Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill for an audience of students and Brunswick locals.

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Museum of Art Curator departs for Harvard

This summer Joachim Homann, the curator of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), left the College to join the staff of Harvard Art Museums as the Maida and George Abrams Curator of Drawings. He was the head curator of the BCMA from 2010 until his departure.

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Photo exhibit highlights warning signs of dating violence

In the midst of frantic Bowdoin spring, a visitor to the Blue Gallery in David Saul Smith Union may be prompted to pause and reflect on the nature of relationships this week. “Focusing on Dating Violence,” currently on display in the gallery, is a photography exhibit created as the capstone project of the Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education’s (OGVPE) Leadership Institute, a training program led by Lisa Peterson, associate director of Gender Violence Prevention and Education.

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June Vail: the unsung heroine of Bowdoin dance

What were the first dance classes offered at Bowdoin? The answer, according to Professor of Dance Emerita June Vail, included technique, repertoire, choreography and a senior seminar that took place in Coles Tower. Though her name may not be familiar, Vail remains the unsung heroine behind the founding of Bowdoin’s dance program.

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The Aux Cord

‘Titanic Rising’ is a masterpiece of mood and space

“Titanic Rising” by Weyes Blood should not have surprised me. Weyes Blood is a well established musician within the indie scene, and “Titanic Rising” is her fourth album. Artists in 2019 seem to come out of thin air, having been lurking in some corner of Soundcloud or Bandcamp, waiting for their big break into the general consciousness of those who have r/indieheads or Pitchfork as favorites on their internet browser.

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Books

Rachlin ’08 investigates cracks in criminal justice system

When Benjamin Rachlin ’08 was studying English at Bowdoin, he wanted to be a rich short-story writer despite the paradox. But when he returned on Tuesday, it was to discuss a work of nonfiction, Rachlin’s first book, titled “Ghost of the Innocent Man: A True Story of Trial and Redemption.” The book follows the true tale of a man who lived a life unimaginable to most Bowdoin students and delves into the ugly and overlooked cracks of America’s criminal justice system.

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Theater

‘Too Much Light’ brings Neo-Futurism to the stage

Even before the show begins, shouts from the audience and screams of “Curtain!” set the stage for the vivacious and fast-paced production “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.” Tonight and Saturday, an intimate cast will take the audience through a whirlwind of 30 plays—a series of emotional, hilarious and thought-provoking storylines—in just 60 minutes.

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Arts In These Parts

A look into the art museums of the Maine Big Three

With May 1 approaching quickly, College Confidential has blown up with mothers of high school seniors who are desperately searching for the ultimate answer to the Colby vs. Bates vs. Bowdoin (CBB) debate. These moms converse as if they’re trading secrets, whispering about the diameters of the campus pond (Bowdoin’s can be found between Moulton and Hyde when it rains) and the width of their tour guides’ smiles.

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Books

Creating change through ‘Power of Literature’

As contemporary interests drift away from physical books in favor of online media, people are beginning to doubt the power of literature. Yet, Wednesday night in the Beam Classroom, Dr. Alaa Al Aswany, world-renowned author and Egyptian reformer, reclaimed the agency of the written word in his lecture titled “Power of Literature.” Currently a visiting professor in Middle Eastern studies at Dartmouth College, Al Aswany is best known for his 2002 work, “The Yacoubian Building,” which offers a poignant dissection of modern Egyptian society under the facade of fiction.

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Museum

The Building of the Future, 100 years later: Bowdoin College Museum of Art celebrates lasting legacy of the Bauhaus

Bowdoin students need look no further than Coles Tower or the VAC fishbowl to see examples of Bauhaus architecture. This year, Bauhaus’ hundredth anniversary will bring this legacy to the fore on Bowdoin’s campus. Founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany by architect Walter Gropius, the revolutionary modernist art school proclaimed its aim “to create a new building of the future that will unite every discipline … as a clear symbol of the new belief to come.” What followed was a movement that forever changed definitions of art, design and architecture, stretching across the world and across the century.

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Exhibition highlights new dimensions in Inuit music

What sounds and rhythms come to mind when one thinks of the Arctic? The latest exhibition at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, “A Resounding Beat: Music in the Inuit World,” which opened Tuesday, offers a taste of Inuit music both rooted in tradition and charged with originality.

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Theater

‘Sweat’ stages working-class anguish with empathy

Once audiences are confronted with the human cost of the American Dream, economics and politics will never look the same. On Friday night at Pickard Theater, tales of American workers take center stage as the Department of Theater debuts the Maine premiere of the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage.

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The Aux Cord

2019 release radar: the good, the bad and the average

Chris Ritter ’21 picks:  Zacari – “Don’t Trip” You might not know Zacari’s name, but you’ve definitely heard his voice. It probably caught you on Kendrick Lamar’s “LOVE,” where it soars in a falsetto riff adapted from his own song, “Lovely.” Or maybe you heard him on “Redemption,” a dancey afrobeat highlight from the star-studded “Black Panther” album.

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Arts In These Parts

Portland Museum of Art might just surprise you

“Claustrophobic.” “Elitist.” “Boring.” Worse has been said about museums. Maybe you’re imagining pairs of women in patterned scarves and narrow red glasses with beaded straps gliding through cramped hallways spitting nonsensical art jargon. Staring at yet another oil portrait of Jesus and some other guys that looks like every other painting in the hall, you can’t help but feel that museums are only a place for art historians and pretentious hipster wannabes.

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Books

Author Hannah Tinti talks fiction and storytelling

The audience snapped their fingers in unison on Tuesday as Hannah Tinti began singing. The author of three critically-acclaimed novels, Tinti knows how to captivate an audience. Singing, she says, does just that. Tinti, who was at Bowdoin as part of the Alpha Delta Phi Society Visiting Writers Series, read from her most recent best-selling novel, “The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley.” It’s not Tinti’s first time receiving critical acclaim.

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Museum

Museum of Art celebrates 125 years

The bronze figures of Sophocles and Demosthenes, set in niches on the facade of the Walker Art Building, are turning 125-years-old. As the Bowdoin College Museum of Art celebrates the quasquicentennial anniversary of its iconic home, students, faculty and community members gathered on Tuesday evening to celebrate the legacy of art and visual culture at the College.

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The Aux Cord

Maggie Rogers triumphs on ‘Heard It In A Past Life’

I should leave out the story about Maggie Rogers’ rise to fame through a viral video with Pharrell because it is clear by now that she deserves it. It is true that the Maryland singer/songwriter was a student at NYU just two years ago, making eclectic songs that fused her folky roots with Eurohouse influences acquired from a semester abroad, and that one day Pharrell showed up to class, instantly raved about Rogers’ work, and abruptly sent Rogers and her song “Alaska” into a firestorm of attention via YouTube.

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Music

Singer Andy Shauf brings ‘The Party’ to Portland

You can see the glow of yellow light and the shadows of passing figures through the windows. You leap up a few steps and pull open the front door to be greeted by a rap song from Spotify’s Top 50 hits playing over someone’s parents’ speakers and, subsequently, you inhale an odd fog of beer, body odor and half-assed Febreze.

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Museum

Intersections of Art and the Environment

Enter the latest exhibition at Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), and it may not be what you expect. In ‘Material Resources: Intersections of Art and the Environment,’ notions of what environmental art ought to look like are challenged within moments of arrival.

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Music

West African Ensemble electrifies with eclectic beats

Hip-Hop, rhythm and blues, jazz, reggae—many kinds of popular music have roots in Africa. Last night, the West African Music Ensemble brought to life the connection between drumming, dancing and singing during their performance “The Path and the River.” Distinct at Bowdoin in its non-Western approach to music, the ensemble is directed by Adjunct Lecturer in Music Jordan Benissan—a master drummer of Ewe people of West Africa, esteemed for complex cross-rhythms.

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Miscellania shines on stage at Radio City Music Hall

While the majority of students spent their Friday evening hanging out with friends or procrastinating on finishing work, one particular group of Polar Bears embarked on a road trip. Bowdoin’s all-female a cappella group, Miscellania, was on its way to perform at the glamorous Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

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‘Unsilenced:’ confronting the weight of language

In order to fully understand a person, you need to dig—a theme that Arah Kang ’19 explores, in the exhibition “Unsilenced,” located in Lamarche Gallery in David Saul Smith Union. The show visually explores the complexities of personhood by juxtaposing the weight of biased phrases with pictures of students expressing what makes them whole and happy.

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Books

Sergio Chejfec comments on social unrest through postcards

Alternating between English and Spanish, past and present, reality and fiction, Sergio Chejfec came to Bowdoin on Monday to read and discuss his essay “The Revenge of the Idyllic.” A Guggenheim Fellow and distinguished writer in residence at NYU’s MFA in Spanish program, Chejfec has published a number of short stories, essays and books which have since been translated into various languages.

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