Carrie Shevitz, Staff Writer

October 11, 2024

In 1958, while Nicholas Ray was working under famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, he stated that architecture is the backbone of the arts. This principle would influence the many filmmakers that followed him — Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, and Wim Wenders, to name a few — but there may not be a director who understands this better than Francis Ford Coppola, a man who has repeatedly committed financial suicide to perfect the look of his films. Today, the now 85-year-old auteur gives us what...

Spencer Elkind, Staff Writer

October 4, 2024

Despite the notion that animated films are primarily for kids, they exist for everyone. Films such as WALL-E, Toy Story, and Ratatouille tell meaningful, emotional stories that appeal to a wide range of viewers, regardless of age. Today, I’m happy to report that Dreamworks’ new animated film, The Wild Robot, is among them. I would say this masterpiece is the best movie I have seen so far this year. Based on the book series by Peter Brown and directed by Dreamworks veteran Chris Sanders, The...

Carrie Shevitz, Staff Writer

September 27, 2024

The best horror filmmakers of the modern era understand that when you want to make a second hit, you have to do two things: you have to shake it up, and you have to go big. We saw this with Titane (2021) and Us (2019), and now French director Coralie Fargeat follows up her brutally simple Revenge (2017) with The Substance, a body horror satire coated in gloss and outwardly imposed self-loathing. Have you ever watched The Fly (1986) and thought: I wish it was even more over-the-top and disgusting?...

Isaiah Johnson, Opinions Editor

September 20, 2024

Last Sunday, I attended Students for a Free Palestine’s film screening of Resilient Smiles, made by third-year undergraduate student at Cleveland State University Khaled Askar with a one-person crew. The film tells the story of life in the Bourj el-Barajneh displacement camp in Lebanon. Askar highlights life for displaced Palestinian children, filming moments of learning and joy within various preschools there. The film is powerful. It juxtaposes scenes of destruction from airstrikes, dangerously...

Chloe Boccara, Staff Writer

September 13, 2024

From four new auditioners last semester to 24 this semester, CHOREO Dance Crew has shot up in popularity. The questions arise: How did CHOREO gain popularity so quickly? What lies ahead for this up-and-coming group? Interviews with CHOREO’s three directors — College third-year Annalise Curl, College fourth-year Evelyn Williamson, and College fourth-year Julia Stuart — lend insight into CHOREO’s history, present, and future.  CHOREO is a multi-genre dance group that draws considerable inspiration...

Sydney Collinger, Senior Staff Writer, Layout Editor

March 15, 2024

A plethora of exuberant “Yes Aunty!”s reverberated through the crowd at drag queen Dr. LaWhore Vagistan’s show “Lessons in Drag” at the Cat in the Cream Monday. The show included some lecture, some lip syncing, and some audience participation. The show sought to inform people on South Asian and South Asian-American issues through drag, and it successfully did just that. Dr. LaWhore Vagistan is the drag queen persona of Dr. Kareem Khubchandani, associate professor of Theatre, Dance, and...

Loie Schiller

November 10, 2023

On Friday, Nov. 3, I walked into Warner Main and sat down on the crowded mats in front of the bleachers. I was there to see Fall Forward, the annual performance put on by the Oberlin College Dance department. Before I walked into the show, one of my friends told me that there was a controversy about a half-hour senior dance piece that was part of the program for the night. It was about whether or not a piece that took up three dance slots in the show should have been allowed or whether it should...

Ava Cantlon, Staff Writer

April 7, 2023

For the first time since 2019, students gathered by the hundreds in Hales Gymnasium for the Dandelion Romp, an event put on by the Oberlin Contra Dance Club consisting of live music, dancing, and socializing with both old friends and new acquaintances. Contra dance is a form of American folk dance in which couples dance in line with others, often to fiddle music. The Dandelion Romp was canceled for the past few years due to COVID-19, and the reestablishment of the Romp created quite...

Dlisah Lapidus, Arts & Culture Editor

March 31, 2023

Al Evangelista is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, choreographer, and assistant professor of Dance. His work focuses on social justice, queer and Filipinx identity, and technology. He is currently choreographing a performance for this semester’s Spring Back event, exploring movement in spaces and working with audio about recent legislation restricting freedoms for transgender people. Evangelista recently contributed to the Dance Studies Association’s Chats issue and is on the...

Juju Gaspar, Arts & Culture Editor

October 28, 2022

There are over 17 student-led dance groups at Oberlin, including troupes like VIBE Dance Company, Kinetik Hip Hop Crew, AndWhat?!, Capoeira Angola, and more. That’s not to mention that Fall Forward and Student Showcase: Dance Umbrella are coming up. These groups offer a diverse spectrum of dance styles and many opportunities for those interested in dance to get involved.  Yet despite the large number of groups, there are far more students wanting to get involved in dance on campus than already...

Jonah Barber, At Large Senior Staff Writer

September 20, 2024

“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days.” Revelation 2:10 South London producer Fred Gibson has released a fourth studio album titled ten days, yet another sonic boxcar in a long train of albums put out in recent years. Under the alias Fred Again, stylized as Fred again.., Gibson has earned a reputable position in the modern electronic scene while...

Sadie Howard, Staff Writer

October 11, 2024

When you walk through the alleyway between The Feve and Blue Rooster Bakehouse, it is impossible to miss the new, brightly colored graffiti mural painted on the bakery’s side. This past week, Assistant Professor of Studio Art and Africana Studies Michael Roman’s Studio Art class — Intro Aesthetics of Hip Hop: Graffiti from Boxcar to Basel — finished creating this mural. Made in collaboration with Firelands Association for the Visual Arts and world-renowned graffiti and tattoo artist Dayz...

Chloe Ko, Arts & Culture Editor

October 4, 2024

On Saturday, Oct. 5, Drew Matott, co-director of Peace Paper Project and master papermaker, will lead a demonstration of papermaking in the Mudd Center Contemplation Garden. Students will be able to turn articles of clothing into paper, expressing their creativity and sentiments through art. Matott will provide clothing from Ukrainian refugees and U.S. military uniforms, but students are encouraged to bring their own clothing to transform into meaningful art. In his last semester of studying printmaking...

Sadie Howard and Sydney Collinger

September 27, 2024

What if walls could talk? This is the question that Professor of Studio Art Sarah Schuster’s retrospective exhibition in the Richard D. Baron ’64 Art Gallery — titled “If Walls Could Talk” — aims to answer.  “I thought, ever since I came here, I could almost hear the faculty and the students over hundreds of years in the walls,” Schuster said. “A gallery is pretty blank and empty until there’s work on the walls. What you’re really trying to do by bringing people in is to develop...

Eloise Rich, Arts & Culture Editor

September 13, 2024

In the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s collection of 16,000 works, only 35 are moving images or video works. Since 1984 — when Bill Olander, former director and curator of the AMAM, left for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City — the AMAM’s collection has lacked an effort to showcase video artwork, with the exception of some isolated exhibitions. This year, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Sam Adams and College third-year Arts Administration and Curatorial Studies student...

Ariel Papas, Staff Writer

October 11, 2024

On Oct. 8, Carissa Chappell gave a talk titled “Leaving No Trace: Reading the Asexual Possibility in an Ancient Greek Novel” which discussed their award-winning paper on sexuality in ancient Greek novels. They deconstructed the notion of the boy-meets-girl trope in The Adventures of Leucippe and Cleitophon, a notable (debunked) erotic ancient Greek text. Chappell noted the importance of viewing ancient texts from new angles. “Of course [boy and girl] would be together, but they can’t,”...

Ariel Papas

October 4, 2024

Pray tell, do your ears share what others hear? Or are they hollow? Harvested with a collection of nests and frayed willow bark.   If you could pray, tell me what language you speak? I have many inquiries left untouched… perhaps your phone disconnects when a call is heard, mayhaps you can only listen to so much.   Don’t forget to check your inbox. I sent you a letter with metallic green-yellow butterflies   (just like the ones you have in the mountains of New Guinea that...

Holly Yelton, Illustrator

April 22, 2022

Holly Yelton, Illustrator

March 25, 2022

Holly Yelton, Illustrator

March 5, 2022

January 7, 2022

Sydney Collinger, Senior Staff Writer, Layout Editor

October 11, 2024

Andria Derstine has spent 18 years at the Allen Memorial Art Museum as both a curator and the John G.W. Cowles director. During this time, she has imparted a lasting influence...

Chloe Boccara, Staff Writer

October 4, 2024

Nathan A. Greenberg Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand specializes in researching sexuality in the ancient world, archaic Greek poetry, Sophocles, Euripides, Lucan, and the...

Chloe Ko, Arts & Culture Editor

September 27, 2024

Executive Director Zachary Thomas co-founded Writers in Residence in 2017, an organization dedicated to empowering youths in juvenile justice systems by teaching creative...

Grace Connell, Staff Writer

September 20, 2024

Margaret Kamitsuka is the Francis W. and Lydia L. Davis Professor Emeritus of Religion at Oberlin College. She taught Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and Religion...

Travis O'Daniel, Managing Editor

September 13, 2024

Chair and Professor of Theater Matthew Wright is a recipient of the 2023–2024 Excellence in Teaching award. He fell in love with theater growing up in rural Florida and...

Sadie Howard, Staff Writer

September 6, 2024

Matthew Rarey is an associate professor of African and Black Atlantic Art History, as well as the chair of the Art History department. His book, Insignificant Things: Amulets...