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ABQ Artwalk flourishes as pandemic slows

On April 2, dozens of artists, creators and crafters lined the sidewalks of Central Avenue for the Albuquerque Artwalk, an independently-run showcase event designed to help artists to show off and sell their work to the public.  According to ABQ Artwalk’s website, the walk “aims to support local artists, micro-businesses and local brick and mortar establishments by organizing cultural enrichment events, art place-making and an online platform for emerging artists.” ABQ Artwalk typically takes place every first Friday of the month, but the event was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to the ABQ Artwalk Instagram, the event was cancelled in April and May 2020 and had a one-time curbside-only Artwalk in June. July 2020 was the first month that the Artwalk resumed regular in-person activities.

OPINION: Top 5 photo books in UNM’s fine art library

There’s nothing quite as remarkable as holding a photo book in your hands; the feel of the gloss on the pages, the rich tones in each image and the knowledge that each photo was chosen carefully and arranged intentionally by the artist for the limited number of pages available to them.  In the digital age of photography, it seems we’ve become accustomed to online portfolios and Instagram profiles. While on-screen displays have their place in the photographic landscape, nothing on a computer can truly compare to holding an artist’s finished work in your hands. Luckily for students at the University of New Mexico, the Fine Arts and Design Library has a large collection of these masterpieces available to be checked out at this very moment. As a photographer who has drawn an enormous amount of inspiration from photo books, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most awe-inspiring books the library has to offer.

April 5, 2021 Comic

Westside shelter continues vaccination efforts for the unhoused

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues in Albuquerque, the unhoused and those experiencing homelessness are now eligible to receive the vaccine. Homelessness has been steadily increasing in Albuquerque for years — from 2013 to 2019, the number of unhoused persons in the city jumped from 144 to 567, according to an article from NM Political Report.   As the number of people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque continues to grow, medical personnel are tasked with ensuring they receive their COVID vaccinations too.

LETTER: Aaron Cowan is the experienced choice for GPSA president

Dear Daily Lobo Editor, I am writing because I believe we have a very critical choice to make between two different candidates for GPSA president. Aaron Cowan is the experienced choice, as he has been involved in student government for years at UNM.

March 31, 2021 Comics

Yes we cannabis!

SANTA FE — On March 31, the New Mexico State Legislature legalized recreational cannabis after a contentious vote of 23-19 in the Senate, after decades of failed attempts. House Bill 2 (HB 2) passed on the Senate floor around 8 p.m. during a special session prompted by the Governor after legalization efforts failed during the Regular Session. The bill advanced after Legislators killed its competing bill, Senate Bill 3 (SB 3), in committee. New Mexico will soon be the 18th state to legalize recreational cannabis, following New York which passed a legalization bill earlier this week.  The bill is now at Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law.

UNM to hold in-person graduation ceremony for spring class of 2021

On Wednesday afternoon, University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes announced via her Twitter account that the University will be holding an in-person spring 2021 commencement ceremony at University Stadium on May 15 at 9 a.m.  The announcement comes as the city of Albuquerque has seen its lowest average COVID-19 case numbers since September 2020.  “I want to say that I am thrilled to give you the exciting news that we are going to be offering an in-person commencement for our spring 2021 graduates,” Stokes said in a video on Twitter.

'The Vault’ opens new doors for horror movie director Jaume Balagueró

Released Friday, March 26, “The Vault” is an action packed bank heist thriller expected to catch the interest of people from all over the world. With such a wide variety of bank heist movies, it’s hard to find one that actually stands out, but “The Vault” is a healthy combination of intellectual strategy and suspenseful close calls that keep the audience at the edge of their seat. Directed by Jaume Balagueró, “The Vault” has a wide range of talented actors including Freddie Highmore and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham.

CAPS sees increase in virtual tutoring during pandemic

The Center for Academic Program Support (CAPS) at the University of New Mexico, which has been operating mostly online for over a year, has seen a drastic increase in virtual tutoring visits from last year. CAPS is a learning assistance center where students can get help with UNM coursework, with resources including drop-in tutoring, individual appointments, workshops, conversation groups, supplemental instruction (SI), online learning and faculty office hours. “(We have) lots of different (services), so we really do have something for everyone,” Megan Rivera, a student manager for the SI team, said.

LETTER: UNM grad workers pushed to their limit while undergrads suffer

Two years after faculty unionization, UNM has yet to bargain a fair contract and has stalled recognition for the graduate union. UNM says that we are primarily students, not workers. However, many of us teach courses that tenured faculty teach at other institutions, often the same course-load per semester. If the school saves money this way, our loss of irreplaceable faculty and grad workers every year detracts from the overhead. Faulty attrition in the midst of hiring freezes adds more labor for grad workers, simultaneously undermining our studies. Many Ph.D students have been forced to change research paths multiple times as faculty leave.

LETTER: Oregon State University has a grad worker union, and UNM should too

I am writing from Oregon State University, where our 1,800 graduate researchers and teaching assistants collectively formed a union 20 years ago. Our union, Coalition of Graduate Employees, has tirelessly fought for our basic living conditions year after year against an administration dead set on paying us as little as possible and with little accountability. Through hard work we now have incredible healthcare, protections for international students and LGBTQ+ workers, tuition remission and a livable wage. It has taken us 20 years to get to where we are now but it really changes lives. Graduate employees are parents, family members and loved ones, and we deserve to be treated fairly. Although administrations fight us, we continue to push forth, and will always show up for our peers.

Daily Lobo strives to win College Media Madness competition

The Daily Lobo is currently participating in the inaugural year of the fundraising competition College Media Madness, hosted by the Daily Orange, the independent student newspaper from Syracuse University. “In an effort to try to capture like the competitive spirit of March Madness, we thought, ‘Well, what if we made it some sort of challenge with other student newsrooms?’” Haley Robertson, the fundraising coordinator from the Daily Orange, said.  The money raised for the Lobo will be put into the University of New Mexico Foundation Jim Fisher Fund, named after Jim Fisher, a former business manager for the Daily Lobo until 2016 and advocate for student publications. All money will go towards the support of all endeavors at the Daily Lobo. 

March 29, 2021 Comics

NM nuclear fallout victims await federal compensation

Bernice Gutierrez was eight days old when she experienced what many people believed was the end of the world.  At 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, a plutonium based bomb detonated at the southern New Mexico Trinity test site, radiating more heat and light than the sun. The resulting fireball shot up more than seven miles high, and radioactive ash rained down for miles across the soil, water, animals and people.  “We never knew what was happening,” Gutierrez said. “When my doctor asked me if I had been exposed to radiation, I had no clue.” 

Maxwell Museum sees virtual boost in attendance with new online exhibits

The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, located at the University of New Mexico, has seen a boost in attendance after switching to a solely online presence during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Three new virtual exhibits have been drawing in visitors: “COVID-19: Concepts of Sickness and Wellness,” “Iconoclasm: Questions of Veneration, Destruction, and Power” and “What We Do at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Part I: Curator Dr. Carmen Mosley.” Carla Sinopoli, the director of the Maxwell Museum, said the COVID-19 exhibit was the biggest and most ambitious one. The exhibit explores the history of how humans deal with pandemics, with themes of sickness, wellness and healing.

Dozens gather downtown to protest Atlanta spa shootings, anti-Asian sentiments

In the early evening hours of March 28, around 40 protestors, organizers and speakers gathered in downtown Albuquerque near the Bernalillo County Courthouse. Standing beneath the “View From Gold Mountain”, a large sculpture commemorating a landmark case in Chinese-Americans’ civil rights history, they came together to decry the recent string of murders in the Atlanta area.  On March 16, six women of Asian descent were killed in multiple shooting sprees, carried out by a single white male at Atlanta spas and massage parlors. Though the suspect told police he was motivated by an addiction to sex, the shootings have nonetheless sparked widespread denouncement as anti-Asian and misogynistic hate crimes. 

REVIEW: ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League:’ Bigger, badder and a whole lot better

Following the theatrical release of “Justice League” in 2017, the movie was met with mixed reviews as well as fan backlash over the extensive reshoots that seemed to greatly alter Zack Snyder’s original vision for the film. After years of rumors and rumblings of a reported director’s cut, we now have the apparent definitive version of the DC film: “Zack Snyder’s Justice League.”  The film opens with a very Snyder-esque slow motion shot of Superman being killed by Doomsday, an event which took place at the end of Snyder’s previous film, “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” We follow Superman’s dying scream to different locations, all of which introduce us to the characters we can expect to see in the film. It’s a much more dramatic and grand opening compared to the original, which could be said of the entirety of the movie. 

REVIEW: ‘It’s a Sin’ approaches HIV/AIDS crisis with compassion, humanity and love

Captivating, charming and tragic are the best words to describe the U.K. mini-series “It’s a Sin,” created by Russell T. Davies, which spotlights the lives of several gay men as they live through stigmas, homophobia and the spread of HIV in the 1980s. I heard about the show through social media various times, and though there are many shows that I mean to watch but never get around to doing so, something compelled me to start watching it during a particularly busy and trying time in my life. I was not disappointed.  As I started watching the first episode, I knew I was on a journey that I wanted the entire UNM community to take with me, because I want to see an increased conversation among my student peers surrounding stigmas that the LGBTQ+ community and people with HIV face. 

March 24, 2021 Comics