Newsmakers

“Since the spring of 2022, New York City has received some 165,000 migrants and asylum seekers,” writes Chris Crowley for GrubStreet. But who is helping to feed them? Beatrice Ajaero ’12 MBA ’17, who runs the takeout restaurant Nneji in Astoria, is among those who have stepped up. Ajaero told GrubStreet that, beyond meeting the need for nutritional meals, she hoped to tailor the food to reduce the stressors experienced by migrants and asylum seekers. “When we are able to make meals that are highly nutritious, we also get to help mitigate the stress people are experiencing from having traveled so far from home,” Ajaero said. “What better than a nourishing plate of food, where they have ingredients that can remind them of a positive experience? We hope to lift some spirits and also the nutrition of what people consume.”

“Every year since 2009, a handful of artists, engineers, musicians, and hobbyists from around the world arrive in Atlanta, Georgia, with one-of-a-kind instruments in tow,” writes Andrew Paul for Popular Science. Among them is Pippa Kelmenson ’17, inventor of the Bone Conductive Instrument, or BCI. Popular Science named the BCI, which “emits sound signals to vibrate individual body resonant frequencies to aid hard-of-hearing users,” as one of 2023’s most innovative musical inventions. According to Kelmenson, the BCI “calls for an inclusive and innovative way for users across the hearing spectrum to interact with sound.”

Bard College faculty members and alums will be among the 71 artists and collectives selected to participate in this year’s Whitney Biennial, the 81st installment of the landmark exhibition series. Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing opens on March 20. Works by Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Sarah Hennies; Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies, Distinguished Artist in Residence in Studio Arts, and Bard MFA Faculty in Music/Sound Kite MFA ’18; and Bard MFA Faculty in Sculpture Lotus Laurie Kang MFA ’15 will be featured alongside those by alums Diane Severin Nguyen MFA ’20, Carolyn Lazard ’10, and Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio ’12. The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College graduate Min Sun Jeon CCS ’22 helped to organize the exhibition.

The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles (Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator) and Meg Onli (Curator at Large), with Min Sun Jeon CCS ’22 and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker.

“After finalizing the list of artists last summer, we have built a thematic Biennial that focuses on the ideas of ‘the real,’” write the curators. “Society is at an inflection point around this notion, in part brought on by artificial intelligence challenging what we consider to be real, as well as critical discussions about identity. Many of the artists presenting works—including via robust performance and film programs—explore the fluidity of identity and form, historical and current land stewardship, and concepts of embodiment, among other urgent throughlines, and we are inspired by the work they are creating and sharing.”

Two Bard faculty members and two alumni/ae are recipients of MacDowell Fellowships. Carl Elsaesser, visiting artist in residence at Bard College in Film and Electronic Arts, has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship to MacDowell's Residency Program in the Film/Video Artists category for fall/winter 2023. Elsaesser’s residency will support the completion of his project, Coastlines, a feature-length film that intertwines the ethnographic intricacies of Maine’s coastline with the intimate video diaries of a Portland family, inviting a reevaluation of evolving identities and artistic representation within the private and public spheres. Drawing from queer phenomenology and traditional historical narratives, the film challenges perceptions and redefines the boundaries of storytelling, revealing Maine’s dual role as a backdrop and active participant in shaping inhabitants’ sense of self.

Daaimah Mubashshir, playwright in residence at Bard, received a MacDowell Fellowship in MacDowell’s Artist Residency Program for fall 2023 in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in support of their work on a new play about their great grandmother, Begonia Williams Tate, who defied all odds in Mobile, Alabama, in the late 19th century. Chaya Czernowin, a composer and Bard MFA ’88 in Music, and Bard alumna Hannah Beerman ’15, are also 2023 MacDowell Fellowship recipients. The MacDowell Fellowships are distributed by seven discipline-specific admissions panels who make their selections based on applicants’ vision and talent as reflected by work samples and a project description. Once at MacDowell, selected Fellows are provided a private studio, three meals a day, and accommodations for a period of up to six weeks. 

Listening to a demo of Stephen Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind” is a very different experience from the final product available on the original cast recording of the musical Follies. “What happened? The short answer: Jonathan Tunick,” writes Darryn King for the New York Times. In a profile of the career of Bard alumnus Jonathan Tunick ’58, King asked many experts what, exactly, an orchestrator does. For his part, Tunick refers to his work as “lighting for the ears.” “[Tunick] often confers with a show’s lighting designer to determine which colors and shadings will be used onstage,” King writes. “The orchestra, [Tunick] said, has the ability ‘to provide its own shadings of light, darkness, warmth, and texture to the music and lyrics.’” Orchestration “can hint at unspoken secrets,” Tunick says, enhancing character alongside harmony: “Things that the characters don’t say, or don’t want to say, or don’t even know.”

Confronted with an ugly sweater this holiday season? Bard alumnus Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn ’04, artist and professor of digital media at Loyola University Maryland, is here to help. Nguyễn created a helpful cartoon for the New Yorker titled “How to Disappear Your Partner’s Ugly Sweater.” When subtle suggestions don’t do the trick, it’s time to escalate to novel solutions like “Capitalism” or “Self-Reflection.” Nguyễn’s multidisciplinary work has been featured in McSweeney’s and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. He has won a Rubys Artist Grant and an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Pete Wells, restaurant critic for the New York Times, says he “can’t find more than six layers on this seven-layer cake” available at Gertrude’s, a restaurant owned by Bard alumna Rachel Jackson ’11. Regardless, that didn’t stop Wells from naming Getrude’s Black-and-White Seven-Layer Cake as one of the top eight New York City dishes of 2023. “Gertrude’s monumental version, almost as dense and moist as pudding cake, alternates chocolate and yellow layers like piano keys,” Wells writes.