Culture

Culture

UNM visiting artist uplifts BIPOC, queer stories

Detroit Kallunki | May 1

  Each spring the painting and drawing department hosts an “Open Studio” event where the public can enter the campus studio and observe the work that a UNM visiting artist has created over the spring, according to Amanda Curreri, an associate professor in the UNM department of fine arts.  This visiting artist program began six years ago, Curreri said, and this year’s artist is Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. “My work is rooted in storytelling and telling stories about survival — primarily of black, brown, Indigenous, queer, trans, gender-nonconforming and two-spirit folks. It’s rooted in how we amplify and tell stories of marginalized bodies in different ways,” Branfman-Verissimo said.

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Culture

UNM graduate inspires new photographers

Addison Key | May 1

 University of New Mexico graduate student and photographer Emma Ressel spent her childhood in Bar Harbor, Maine searching for reptiles and amphibians. Her dad, a biology professor, would create his own photos of the animals he taught about in class. Her childhood was filled with lots of holding lizards and salamanders and staging them for her father’s photography. Ressel’s love for photography started with her trips into “the field” with her father but grew as she learned more about the process itself. “In high school I took a workshop over the summer … where I learned how to shoot black-and-white film and be in the dark room. I really fell in love with the dark room. I was kind of obsessed after that,” Ressel said.

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Culture

Nizhoni Days Powwow celebrates 64th year of community-making

Mackenzie Schwartz | May 1

  The Kiva Club hosted the Nizhoni Days Powwow on Sunday, April 30. It is the oldest Powwow in New Mexico, according to Demetrius Johnson (Diné) a former Kiva Club president from 2015 to 2017.  “It does heal the community, and I think during COVID this Powwow was really missed,” Johnson said. “But the other purpose of this Powwow is to show that there is a powwow out there that is for the community, and it is free, and it is by Native people, for Native people.”

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Culture

EDITORIAL: On the Cherry Reel review

The Daily Lobo Editorial Board | May 1

  Recently, the Daily Lobo ran an unjustly harsh review of the Cherry Reel Film Festival.  Implicit bias was shown in the review, and while not intentional, ultimately the majority of the films we labeled as “disappointments” were made by students of color. This is meant to serve as an explanation of what happened, why it was wrong and how we are working to prevent this from happening again. The film industry is a white-dominated field. In 2019, only 14.4% of the directors of theatrical films were people of color and 91% of studio heads were white, according to Variety. The University of New Mexico and the film and digital arts program are both majority-minority and Cherry Reel is predominantly run by white students. 

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Culture

Swing Night is back

Gillian Barkhurst | April 24

 While the third anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdowns has come and gone, many communities are still searching for ways to reconnect. Some Burqueños are reconnecting through their love of swing dance.  Swing Night, originally held at the Heights Community Center, was once an Albuquerque staple, but in 2020 COVID-19 put an end to its 30-year-long history. Now, organizers at Duke City Swing are reviving the event with a weekly dance at the Alley Kats Tap Studio.  Founder and president of Duke City Swing Christin Oberman, said she stepped up because she “was just getting tired of not having dances around.” 

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Culture

Adobe Theater retells French Revolution with feminist flair

Gabriel Garcia | April 24

 A recurring question asked throughout the Adobe Theater’s production of “The Revolutionists” is, “Who are we without a story?” By way of an answer, the play-within-a-play, now playing through Sunday, May 7, remixes and adapts stories about four different women during the French Revolution. Stacy Hasselbacher, who plays Marie Antoinette, said that this encourages audiences to look at people and issues from a new perspective. “The play explores different ways to address issues: Are you going to take extreme action, or are you going to work behind the scenes? Or are you going to create some kind of protest art about it? There are different ways to try to enact change, and I think this play really gets into that,” Hasselbacher said.

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Culture

OPINION: It’s time to give reboots the boot

John Scott | April 24

If you thought television was a safe space from the reboot/remake/sequel bug of blockbuster filmmaking right now, you might want to check again. On Wednesday, April 12, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that a new Harry Potter television series is in development for the also newly announced combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service, Max. Exactly a week later on Wednesday, April 19, Lionsgate TV announced that a new Twilight TV series is also in development for an unannounced network/streaming service.

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Culture

You’ve got a friend in seeds

Addison Key | April 24

 “A friend with seeds is a good friend indeed” was the theme of a storytelling event hosted at the Lobo Gardens. On Friday, April 21, participants were asked to exchange stories and gardening knowledge with their friends. The event was to encourage community engagement through storytelling and interaction with nature, according to Amara Szrom, the Lobo Gardens coordinator. “The event today is about building community and enjoying nature — taking a break from our computers and balancing the academic, very heady life with having our hands in the earth. And giving back to our life support systems like soil, water and plants,” Szrom said.

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Culture

UNM film student shares thrill of cinema through work

Zara Roy | April 17

Ari Williams first decided he wanted to become a screenwriter after watching “The Wind Rises,” written and directed by Hayou Miyazaki, in fifth grade. He said he “would do anything to go back to that moment.” Now, as a film student at the University of New Mexico, Williams has worked to recreate the thrill of cinema through his own works. “I always wanted to be a storyteller or a writer,” Williams said. “The first thing I said I wanted to be was a poet … I didn’t really wanna learn how to read and write, but I remember asking my grandmother if she could write down the words I said aloud and then I would draw the pictures and add stickers, and I used to do a lot of books like that.”

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Culture

UNM student earns Truman Scholarship

Annya Loya and Maddie Pukite | April 17

 Six associate degrees in high school from Central New Mexico Community College, an anticipated graduation with two bachelor's degrees next year and a planned master's in history in the spring 2024: University of New Mexico student Andrew Schumann can now also add the Truman Scholarship to this already impressive resume. The Truman Scholarship awards juniors in college with $30,000 for post-graduate education, counseling and employment opportunities. The committee selects 200 finalists from applicants. Finalists are then interviewed at a regional conference, with one candidate chosen from each state, according to the scholarship’s website. 

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Culture

UNM Nonfiction Review releases newest edition

Jordyn Bachmann | April 17

 On Saturday, April 15, Limina: UNM Nonfiction Review released its 35th edition, which features nonfiction work from 13 different UNM students. The Limina staff welcomed their newest edition with a ceremony that placed a heavy emphasis and importance on the magazine’s contributors and their stories. Approximately 40 people were in attendance Saturday night, with the event consisting of opening and closing remarks from Editor-in-Chief Zara Roy as well as recognition of each contributor and their featured piece. Contributors in attendance gave brief descriptions of their work before engaging in Q&As with rotating members of Limina’s staff. 

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Culture

UNM student celebrates body, identity in thesis exhibition

Jordyn Bachmann | April 17

 In Latin, “Mea Culpa” is an expression used to accept the responsibility of guilt or wrongdoing. The phrase is used most often in religious contexts to confess and atone for sin, and is ironically the title of senior Lucien V. Sebastian’s bachelor of fine arts thesis exhibition. “Mea Culpa!,” which is currently displayed in the John Sommers Gallery, explores living as oneself unapologetically and without guilt while existing in cisgender, heteronormative spaces as a transgender man. Sebastian’s thesis is a personal story of queerness, transgenderism, human intervention and the complexities of emotion.

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Culture

Onset aims to connect creatives

John Scott | April 17

 “A LinkedIn for creatives,” is how the Onset app was described in an email to the Daily Lobo from the app’s founder Inès Bensalem. Bensalem, a French film producer in fiction and documentary work, started the app to take an industry that operates largely on word-of-mouth and put it into a more social media-like platform.

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Culture

REVIEW: New “Mario” film a magical journey through the sewers

Addison Key | April 14

  Don’t bet against success. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” brings adorable adaptations of the Mario characters to the silver screen for all audiences alike — from children and families to the most devoted Mushroom Kingdom gamers. Illumination’s animation style captures highly detailed depictions of the characters and the Mario universe, giving the audience background into the gaming environments that defined many of our childhoods. But if you think this movie is an attempt to encourage viewers to play more Mario games through nostalgia, you’re right.

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Culture

Students get down for donations at LoboTHON

Zacaria Adonicam | April 10

  LoboTHON, a student-run philanthropy effort, raised $47,288.90 for the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital, this past Saturday, April 8. The event centers around a 10-hour dance marathon that has been held on campus for the past nine years and has raised over $400,000 combined from past years, according to their website. The UNM Children’s Hospital is a part of the Children’s Miracle Network, which helps fundraise for hospitals to cover costs for the children being treated there, according to CMN. Kasey Lenning, the executive director of LoboTHON, has worked fundraising for the past two years 

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Culture

UNM performs ‘auto-bio-choreo-graphy’ of prolific, controversial artist

Spenser Willden | April 10

  There’s a line in “Jérôme Bel,” presented over the weekend by the University of New Mexico Department of Theatre and Dance, that says, “The most beautiful thing a performer can bring to their audience is their vulnerability.”  The piece, titled “Jérôme Bel” after the author, French contemporary choreographer, is directed by professor Dominika Laster and reenacted by UNM assistant professor of theater Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez. In the piece, Rodriguez (as Bel) presents a performance-lecture on groundbreaking works from the artist’s history of unique choreography.

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Culture

REVIEW: ‘Journey West’ offers an experienced perspective on an old trope

Henry Hammel | April 10

  Albuquerque Museum’s exhibition “Journey West: Danny Lyon” features 175 masterworks of photography, film and montage from celebrated American photographer Danny Lyon. His work on display spans a 60-year career and encompasses a wide range of topics. The exhibit draws from his series on the Civil Rights Movement, the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club, the Texas prison system, various protests, and some of his more recent work on fires, drought and climate change in New Mexico.

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Culture

Students and faculty tackle climate change with art

Maddie Pukite | April 10

  “Hope is hard.” So will read the new linen banners in the Honors College, which depict silhouettes of students with found poems. To showcase community response to climate change at the University of New Mexico, two professors in the Honors College selected two students to work collectively on a cyanogram art display. They designed the banners and wrote the poems based on responses to a survey where students could submit their thoughts, hopes and fears surrounding the climate crisis.

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Culture

Quintessence fools Beliebers, engages community

Zara Roy and Addison Key | April 10

  Matthew Greer, the artistic director of “Quintessence: a community of singers,” has addressed questions about the piece they will be performing for their annual Summer Choir Festival in a letter posted on Saturday, April 1. “We have commissioned a new piece, from one of the most popular and controversial musical artists of the last two decades,” Greer wrote. “Justin Bieber.” The letter redirected readers to the choir’s website, which said that the group will prepare a performance of Johannes Brahms’ “German Requiem,” the other JB. Registration to sing at the festival will open on April 20.

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Culture

REVIEW: ‘Air’ is certainly a movie with a plot, but not much else

John Scott | April 10

  If I had to pick an up-and-coming film trend bound to dominate both theaters and streaming platforms for the next couple of years, it would have to be the “nostalgia-ridden biopic featuring varyingly successful creative choices that feel subversive and fun for a subgenre largely dedicated to recounting real life stories.” This could describe a number of films released in recent years (2022’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” 2023’s “Tetris” and “Paint”). This list certainly includes “Air,” a film that is, if not anything else, moderately entertaining.