City University Film Festival screens 10 Occupy related shorts Maria Hernandez Contributing Writer On Feb. 3 the City University Film Festival at Macaulay kicked off with a screening of 10 short documentaries on the Occupy movement. Drawing from the work of students across CUNY, the festival brings together student filmmakers, professors and the public to watch and discuss some of the most fascinating work emerging from the City University. Nick Shimkin, the artistic director of CUFF, organized the event,...

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New art exhibit focuses on Italian industrialization Peter Dunifon, Associate Arts and Entertainment Editor Ryoko Sakai, Contributing Writer In the Hunter West lobby’s Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, a new exhibition opened on February 2 with artworks featured from twenty-one Italian photographers. Spanning from the 1950s to the present day, the images offer a perspective of Italy that often goes unseen. Professor Maria Antonella Pelizzari of the Hunter College Art Department, and a native of Italy, curated the exhibit. With...

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Thomas Hunter Project exhibit takes on the internet  Julian Rivas Arts and Entertainment Editor Continuing to display work quietly in the basement, Thomas Hunter Projects installed a massive new piece by Matthew Garrison at the start of the semester titled “Be Right Back.” With a name inspired from the internet acronym, “BRB,” the installation attempts to visualize and embody the internet. The work covers an entire wall of the Thomas Hunter Project room with 837 webcam shots of empty...

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Post-confessional writer Nick Flynn gives a reading at Hunter Peter Dunifon Staff Writer  Near the end of last semester, the post-confessional poet and writer Nick Flynn came to Hunter College to give a multimedia presentation and reading in the school’s faculty lounge. Equipped with a Macbook loaded with photos and a projector next to the podium, Flynn cued a meditative introduction to his reading with an abstract black and white video of tree branches focusing in and out of clarity...

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Mm.. Food?  Julian Rivas Associate Arts and Features Editor I first heard MF Doom’s Mm.. Food? in 2006, two years after its release. Doom, a rapper who wears a metal mask and is inspired by comic book villain Doctor Doom, had finally slowed down after releasing a long string of solo albums starting in 1999. At this point in time, a couple of friends and I were obsessed with rap and spent much of our time trading burned CDs....

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The Rubin Museum is an exotic escape  Peter Dunifon Staff Writer On July 1, 2011, Hunter College formed a partnership with the Rubin Museum of Art, embarking on a collaborative program that allows all Hunter students, faculty and staff to visit the museum for free with the presentation of a valid ID. This allows students to see old Himalayan paintings and sculptures in all their subtle beauty. The Buddhas, goddesses and historical events so carefully depicted are now accessible...

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Hunter’s adaptation of Antigone has highs and lows Allison Smith Staff Writer In the beginning of December, Hunter’s Theater Department performed Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy Antigone, directed by Tea Alagic. For those who are unfamiliar, Antigone tells the story of a tragic hero who watches her family get split up during war, becomes a traitor herself and is eventually condemned to death because she wants to secure a respectable burial for her dead brother. Like most tragedies, the play...

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Envoy arts editors’ top picks Alex Niemetz Julian Rivas 1. Girls—Father, Son, Holy Ghost If Christopher Owens, the front man of the critically acclaimed San Francisco rock band Girls, is anything, he’s sin-cere. The band’s sappy lyrics and genre-hopping may seem derivative and almost taboo, but the sincerity behind the words helps to communicate a devotion not only to the music but also to the listener. Owens’ eclectic upbringing (he was raised overseas in the Children of God cult)...

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Music Helps to Create Solidarity for the Occupy Wall Street Movement ALEXANDRA NIEMETZ Arts and Entertainment Editor Music can be the greatest form of protest. The Occupy Wall Street movement fostered a home for a variety of political- minded musicians. Reminiscent of the 1960s Civil Rights and Vietnam War protests, musicians of varying levels of fame have gathered to fight against economic inequality in the United States. Zuccotti Park had transformed into a concert hall and become somewhat of...

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Art Exhibit Reflects Change in the World JULIAN RIVAS Associate Arts and Entertainment Editor With Occupy Wall Street’s rise to global recognition, politically charged art has been growing throughout the world in the form of elaborate signs, clothing, and pictures on the Internet. The quaint Lower East Side gallery, onetwentyeight, has taken notice and is currently hosting a more traditional exhibition titled Waves… The Tides of Time. While the Occupy Wall Street theme is immediately spotted upon entering the...

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Filmmakers shoot documentary shorts on Occupy Movement ALDEN BURKE Staff Writer Martyna Starosta and Iva Radivojevic, first got involved with the Occupy movement down at Wall Street. The two filmmakers set out to make a short film documenting the historic event. Using two days of footage and a long ten-hour editing session, the filmmakers created an eight- minute video that has received more than 200,000 hits on YouTube, and translated into Spanish, Danish, Russian, German, and Japanese. The success...

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A poetess shines a light on the Twin Cities Peter Dunifon—Staff Writer Acclaimed poet Carol Muske-Dukes came to Hunter College on October 20th for a reading from her new book Twin Cities. Just after sunset, about 60 people gathered in the faculty lounge on the eighth floor of Hunter West. A mixture of Hunter students, faculty and even some distinguished poets including Howard Altman, Grace Schulman and Meena Alexander came out for the MFA Creative Writing Program’s Distinguished Writers...

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  Critic John Simon visits Hunter Alden Burke—Staff Writer It is easy to assume that a celebrated critic like John Simon, a man who has granted some fame and others great misfortune, would consider English his native tongue. Born in Yugoslavia in 1925, Simon speaks a multitude of languages, with English being one of the languages that he learned as a young child. With his love for language and his Ph.D. from Harvard, Simon is one of the most...

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Hunter’s hidden sweet spot Irina Lotarevich—Contributing Writer The quaint and carefully gated entrance to the basement that is the Artist’s Institute is instantly unusual for its appearance. In a sea of storefront Lower East Side gallery spaces with glass facades, the demure black wrought-iron fence protecting the Institute’s door is an early indication that whatever is inside will also be quite different. Founded in 2010, the Artist’s Institute is a Hunter College-owned space that was started by curator and...

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  Patti Smith at the Kaye Playhouse Alden Burke Staff Writer Sporting a loosely fitted pair of black suit pants, an oversized blazer, and black lace up boots, Patti Smith conjured the image of a French symbolist poet as she took the stage at the Kaye Playhouse on Tuesday, October 11th. Geoffrey Burleson, a music professor at Hunter, introduced Smith and her band. Smith walked on stage with a smile on her face, partly hidden by her long hair....

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