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The World’s UnFair: Public Exhibition by New Red Order, Cofounded by Alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14, Profiled in the New York Times

“Give it back.” These are the first words seen by visitors to The World’s UnFair, the newest multimedia work by New Red Order (NRO), a “public secret society” cofounded by brothers and Bard alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14. World’s Fairs “have historically presented a theory of progress, technological advancement, imperial advancement,” Jackson Polys, who cocreated NRO with the Khalil brothers, told the New York Times. The World’s UnFair, by contrast, subverts expectations with an animatronic beaver who speaks about private land ownership and satirical real estate ads featuring “comically small” portions of land given back to Native groups. The exhibition, curated by Bard alumna Diya Vij ’08, is meant to be provocative, asking questions about not only Native sovereignty, but also performances of Indigeneity and art’s place (or lack thereof) in the pursuit of decolonization. The World’s UnFair is on view now through October 15 in Long Island City, Queens.

Read More in the New York Times

Further Reading:

• Smithosian magazine: "‘The World’s UnFair,’ a New Exhibition Calling for the Return of Indigenous Land, Comes to Queens."
• Artnet: “A New Kind of World’s Fair Is Coming to Queens. Its Message? Give Back All Indigenous Land”
• Hyperallergic: “The World’s UnFair in Queens Echoes Calls to Give Native Land Back”

Post Date: 09-26-2023

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Bard Alum and Bon Appétit Restaurant Editor Elazar Sontag ’20 Discusses the Best New Restaurants of 2023 on CBS Morning Show

Bon Appétit has just published its picks for the best 24 new restaurants of 2023. The restaurant scene is currently bursting with creativity so this year’s list is more than double than it has been in the past. Breaking with industry tradition, the food magazine let every restaurant on its list know they had been selected before the publication was released. “Running a restaurant is already challenging enough, and we want this to really be net positive,” said Bon Appétit Restaurant Editor Elazar Sontag ’20. “We want the restaurants to be able to not just celebrate it, but actually grow from it, and grow their businesses. When business changes overnight, the way it does after you’re on BA’s list, you need time to adjust. You need more staff.” The list spotlights new restaurants across the country, from Bainbridge Island in Washington State to Savannah, Georgia, to Philadelphia, as well as including a handful of select recipes like one for Bolo Bao (Pineapple Buns) from Rubato, a Hong Kong–style café in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Post Date: 09-19-2023

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Bard Alumnus David Rolf ’92 Writes about Union Representation for Newsweek 

Unions and their supporters have recently seen some progress thanks to tight labor markets, pandemic-era fiscal policy, and the $15 minimum wage movement, yet working Americans still face a generations-long crisis, writes David Rolf ’92, Bard alumnus and founder and president emeritus of SEIU 775, a labor union representing long-term care sector workers, in an opinion piece for Newsweek. “Our broken labor laws, designed for the economy of the 1930s, have functionally stopped enabling collective bargaining and have become a tool to prevent it,” he says. Support for unions is at historic highs, particularly amongst young Americans, yet unions represent only six percent of eligible private sector workers because most companies are incentivized to avoid or bust unions and to minimize their bargaining gains. Yet research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and by David Madland, Center for American Progress scholar, show that “when more workers are covered by union contracts, things get better for workers, employers, and national economies.” Rolf continues, “Centralized and broad-based labor law systems are predictive of economies with high employment, high productivity, high wages, adequate leisure time for the working class, positive trade balances, and lower levels of inequality.”

Post Date: 09-05-2023