Category / Arts / National

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  • “X” Marks The Diverging Tales of Post-Katrina New Orleans

    After Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans on August 28, 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) organized, albeit belatedly, search and rescue efforts. Responders spray painted each damaged building they searched with an X-code, a large “X” that within its four quadrants conveyed information about the findings of the search, from body counts…

  • ISIS’ Destruction of Art As A Function Of State Building

    Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has proclaimed itself the next worldwide Muslim caliphate, acquiring territory in northern Iraq and Syria to secure its legitimacy. Aside from carrying out gruesome physical attacks, ISIS has engaged in the destruction of antiquities and ancient sites. For example, in August, ISIS destroyed “the pearl of Palmyra”: the…

  • Music Making, Making Change

    For most of modern Western society, music is entertainment, a commercialized product that we consume every time we hit play on Spotify. For some, music is also a class. It’s an extracurricular, a skill that is taught and evaluated through instrument lessons or school ensembles. To another, smaller cohort of supposedly forward-thinking individuals, music is…

  • Politically Correct Art: An Oxymoron?

    Last year, Emma Sulkowicz, then a senior at Columbia University, made national headlines with her endurance performance art piece “Carry That Weight.” Her story is likely one you’ve heard before: Sulkowicz avowed to carry a 50-lb extra-long twin mattress—similar to the Columbia dorm mattress—until the student she alleged had raped her during her sophomore year…

  • Art Repatriation: An Ethical Obligation

    With deep brown and perfectly symmetrical eyes, Ka-Nefer-Nefer, as depicted on her funerary mask, stares intently forward, prepared for her entrance into the afterlife. In accordance with ancient Egyptian belief, the funerary mask is intended to provide a means for the ba, or the spirit of the deceased, to recognize and return to its mummified…

  • Being Like Che: The Popularity of Ernesto Guevara’s Image

    “The revolutionary struggle of the cherries was squashed as they were trapped between two layers of chocolate. May their memory live on in your mouth,” reads the wrapper on the Magnum-brand “Cherry Guevara”-flavored ice cream bar. After eating away the layers of chocolate, cherry sauce and ice cream, one finds a wooden stick emblazoned with…