hey

We are so excited to announce the winners of our fall photography contest! Our first winner is Nadia Abusoud. Below is her submission.

“This is a photo of a beautiful woman who put on her own makeup for a fun photoshoot we did in Forest Park. She created the headpiece herself! This was taken around the time of day of the dead.” -Nadia Abusoud

Our second winner is Lowella Elliott. Below is her submission.

“Miniature horse laying in hay at the St. Louis Renaissance Festival.”

Stay tuned for our next photo contest for a chance for your photography to be highlighted!

If you are looking for: social intimacy, thoughtful discourse and contemporary and local art.

The Luminary serves as both a physical space for gathering and experiencing art, as well as a social space for creating change. Exhibitions, residencies, performances, publications and gatherings coexist in this distinctive art space fostering creative exchanges between artists. Its engaging programs explore critical topics relating to race, gender and status, promoting art and dialogue as a catalyst for transformation. The Luminary is currently showcasing new works by 13 artists engaged with the institution at varying levels in its exhibition “To Pillar, To Platform,” on view until Dec. 2, 2023. Filmmaker and photographic artist Emma Bright plays with crystals and light refraction in her storytelling pieces that forge connections between storyteller and audience. Brian Lathan, a Luminary studio member and professor of Printmaking here at SLU, comments on narratives through print, digital illustration and sculpture.

Just next door, Monaco supports the Luminary’s dedication to artist-centric spaces as an alternative to rejecting the traditional gallery concepts. Traditional galleries are typically run by buyers whose goal in gallery work is to make a profit. Monaco, on the other hand, is artist-run and seeks to amplify artists’ voices. When artists are involved as essential stakeholders, viewers receive a more raw representation of their creative works. Monaco currently has two works on view: “SPORTS!,”an exploration of video performance and sculpture, and “Orator,” a series of slate drawings. Both exhibitions are on view until Nov. 19, 2023.

The Luminary provides a stipend and rent-free use of the space’s bar area to Black Coffee, a coffee shop dedicated to fostering collaboration within the creative community. Located on the culturally rich Cherokee Street, the Luminary has a raw-space feel with high ceilings, natural wood elements and blank walls with a capacity for custom transformation. While many gallery spaces are activated with framed pieces and block-style pedestals, exhibitions in the Luminary tend to take on a more immersive role. The space is transformed so that visitors experience art, frequently altering the interior landscape of the space with furniture and life-size installations. The Luminary and Monaco are free to the public.

If you are looking for: cultural relevance, contemporary and minimalist architecture, and historically-significant and contemporary art.

Just a three-minute walk from SLU’s campus, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation is located in the Grand Center Arts District. The Pulitzer’s architecture itself serves as a piece of art for visitors to walk into. Tadao Ando designed the building with natural elements like water and light in mind, complete with his signature use of concrete. Wide open spaces and natural lighting allow for visitors to have a more fluid experience with the art. An alcove in the building makes space for a long, reflective pool of water that visitors can access through the main gallery. Park-Like and Spring Church shape the Pulitzer experience and the spaces surrounding it. The Pulitzer offers a wide range of free public engagement programs, including workshops and musical events. Recent shows have explored relevant topics like family histories of Native persons, the culture of St. Louis, liberation, racism, feminism and misogyny.  If not including the building itself, the Pulitzer houses two pieces in its permanent collection: “Blue Black” by Ellsworth Kelly in the main gallery, and a sculpture by Serra Joe in the courtyard.

Originally built by Tadao Ando as a space to display Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer Jr.’s art collection, the Pulitzer soon evolved into a non-collecting art museum. Its exhibitions are largely contemporary, with some historic collections emphasizing cultural narratives. Because of the building’s unique architecture, some artists are invited to create site-specific installations. Currently on view, Sarah Crowner’s “Around Orange” responds to both Ando’s architecture and works by her longtime inspiration Ellsworth Kelly. On the lower level of the museum, “Urban Archaeology: Lost Building of St. Louis” showcases salvaged architectural elements from the National Building Arts Center. Both shows are on view until Feb. 4, 2024. Entry to the Pulitzer is free for all.   

A few steps through the Pulizter’s courtyard brings visitors to the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM). CAM, like the Pulitzer, relies on exhibitions rather than a permanent collection. CAM currently has six exhibitions on view, including an immersive solo exhibition by Hajra Waheed and a site-specific installation critiquing cultural stereotypes of what it means to be Latinoby Justin Favela. The lot of six exhibitions is on view until Feb. 11, 2024 with free entry.

Visitors can grab a coffee at the cafe inside, sit outside in the courtyard or shop in the gift shop when they are not viewing the art. Built a couple years after the Pulitzer by Brad Cloepfil, CAM’s architecture responds to the Pulitzer’s and creates versatility for the artists it serves. “In making space for contemporary art, the architect must first serve the artist; not by attempting to render a ‘background’ for art, but by providing the artist with a specific spatial presence, an intentional vacancy that achieves meaning through the art itself,” said Cloepfil. Cloepfil’s vision comes to fruition in CAM’s concrete, wide-open spaces with options for both enclosed and open galleries.

If you are looking for: classic, diverse, ancient to contemporary art

The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) boasts a renowned permanent collection as well as rotating special exhibitions. The 36,000 object-collection spans five millennia and across cultures from six continents. Highlights include extensive Native artworks, paintings by renowned Black contemporary artists Kehinde Wiley and Kerry James Marshall, a diverse ceramic and object collection, as well as paintings from European classics like Monet, van Gogh, Beckman and Picasso. With the exception of some special exhibitions, SLAM is free and open to the public. 

SLAM has three special exhibitions on view currently: “The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century,” “Aso Oko: Prestige Cloth from Nigeria,” and “Ellsworth Kelly.” 

“‘The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century’ presents a sweeping art history of hip hop culture and its myriad expressions across the globe,” says SLAM. The multimedia exhibition showcases contributions to hip hop culture like music, visual and performing arts, fashion and technology. Artworks from icons like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Virgil Abloh, as well as several St. Louis and Missouri artists are included. “The Culture” is on view until Jan. 1, 2024 and tickets are $10 for students. 

“Aso Oke: Prestige Cloth from Nigeria” displays a variety of textile examples of aso oke (ah-shō ōkay): hand-woven cloths made by Yoruba weavers in southwestern Nigeria from the early 19th to the late 20th centuries. Undied, magenta and indigo silk transform into cloths for celebratory and ceremonial clothing. “Aso Oke” is on view until March 10, 2024, and the exhibition is free. 

“Ellsworth Kelly” celebrates Ellsworth Kelly’s would-be 100th birthday with a range of paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. Kelly is best known for his use of form and color in the abstract art movement. The exhibition is on view until April 7, 2024, and is free. 

SLAM’s physical structure, which sits in Forest Park,  is made up of two parts: the east building and the main building. The main building was built for the 1904 World’s Fair as a structure intended to outlast the Fair. The building’s Beaux-Arts style features ornate sculptural details and a grand facade with massive Corinthian columns. The east building, designed by David Chipperfield in 2013, connects to the main building and stretches around it. Its floor-to-ceiling windows give visitors prime viewing of SLAM’s grounds and sculpture gardens. 

SLAM is sprawling, making maps a must-have when visiting. The grandeur and architectural beauty of the building make for a classic museum experience unlike the Luminary or CAM. 

The run-up to the 2024 presidential election is well underway, and SLU political organizations are busy preparing themselves for an anticipated tumultuous election cycle.

Halfway through the first GOP debate on Aug. 23, moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, both long-standing Fox News pundits, invited Alexander Diaz, a student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C, to present a question to the candidates.

Diaz asked the candidates how they plan to calm fears that the Republican Party does not care about the threat of climate change and was, in quick succession, rephrased by the moderators and almost unilaterally ignored and avoided by the candidates.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a right-wing upstart who jettisoned his closest horses (Doug Burgum and Tim Scott) with a flurry of jabs and sentiment-loaded statements during the debate, did answer, however, and provided an outright refusal of the merit of these fears. This almost certainly constituted an appeal to the larger Republican base, but it raises an important question for politically-minded college students on both sides of the aisle.

What role will students play in the 2024 elections?

While this singular question may not provide any real insight into the campaign strategies of these candidates, its significance lies in the fact that college students and recent graduates possess major potential for vote-activation.

According to The Washington Post, college students voted at record rates in the 2020 election. Yet, this time around, Democrats are struggling to rally excitement around an incumbent nicknamed Sleepy, and Republicans have entrenched themselves in increasingly unpopular issues, especially among the younger demographic.

Alexandra Leung, the President of the SLU College Republicans, was in attendance at the GOP debate in Milwaukee. She was impressed by the rhetoric of candidates such as Ramaswamy and  Nikki Haley, but she feels as though many of the primary candidates are currently lacking a strategy for engaging young voters.

“The Republican party, they have to try to connect to us [students] more, because there’s a large gap… While the Democrats do a great job at dominating social media platforms and relating to younger audiences, the Republican Party does not at all,” Leung said.

While it may seem that there is little ground to be gained for Republicans in the college-aged demographic, the recent “Monitoring the Future” study, a survey on the political alignment of young people conducted since the ‘70s, found that 12th grade boys are now almost twice as likely to identify themselves as conservative-leaning. 

Furthermore, the SLU College Republicans’ membership doubled with the induction of the Class of 2027, Leung said. Although she was initially surprised by the turnout, she began asking what had brought them into the organization.

“What they told me is that they came to St. Louis University looking for a Catholic, Jesuit education, and a lot of conservative Republican values follow…Roman Catholic values.”

On the other hand, the SLU College Democrats briefly went defunct during the last academic year. While Leung attributes the Republicans’ increase in attendance to an alignment of interest with incoming students from Catholic high schools, the Vice President of the College Democrats, Charles Preiss, explains it differently. 

As a multi-year observer of the two organizations, Priess has seen sharp decreases in engagement through the pandemic and believes the disparity between the organizations’ rebounding periods comes down to a matter of function.

“The College Republicans do better than us because they primarily function as a social club for conservatives on campus to talk about politics without being ostracized,” Preiss said. “So they just sort of provide that outlet.” 

Whatever the underlying reason is, the tides of direct partisan involvement on campus have been shifting, and, with the looming election, these phenomena could possibly serve as indicators of a larger shift in the politics of the college-aged demographic.

Both organizations have events in the works to increase membership and voter engagement. 

Gavin Bena, Secretary of the College Democrats, has been actively communicating with politicians for potential events. He described the College Democrats’ focus on political action.

“There’s a signature gathering for abortion [policies] going around right now. The main way any sort of progressive policy gets passed through Missouri… it’s not through the legislature. So [we’re] just supporting the party in its efforts to stop the extreme rightward tilt in Missouri that’s been happening for the past decade.”

Alexandra Leung, on the College Republicans’ future plans, said, “Coming up, we have watch parties for the election where we’re going to watch the debate, and then talk about it afterwards. And then during our meetings, we also talk about… presidential candidates, what we think of them, how they’re doing so far, [etc.]”

Additionally, the College Democrats have plans to canvas possible swing districts within St. Louis, with a focus on West County, while the College Republicans plan to continue their weekly meetings with a focus on discussing the happenings of the primary.

Preiss, when prompted to envision an ideal SLU political ecosystem, said he hopes for more productive political conversations.

“I want more dialogue between the College Dems and Republicans… I just want more discussion between us that’s not vitriol,” Priess said.

“I wanted to start my own business in Afghanistan but now I can’t anymore because of the state of the country for women,” shared Sahar Hussaini at an Atlas Week event about Afghanistan.

Atlas Week at Saint Louis University was held from April 16 to April 23. During the week, students, faculty and staff from across the University organized events that highlighted global cultures and various issues people face across the world.

Hussaini, a freshman studying marketing, gave a keynote address on her journey coming to the United States as a refugee and the current situation of Afghani women. The talk, titled “What is happening to Afghan women”, was delivered in the Busch Student Center room 254 on April 18, 2023. 

The room was dark with the only light coming from the screen showing the first slide of Hussaini’s presentation. Over 26 people came to hear her account. Hussaini started by going over the history of women’s rights in Afghanistan from 1964 to the 1990s and the changes because of the Taliban regime. Then, she discussed the state of women in Afghanistan today. 

“Honor killings have been rampant since the 1990s and they are still prevalent in Afghanistan… From 2003- 2004, girls could go to school but they were not allowed to join sports or take leadership roles. However, today, girls are sent home by using force and by beating them. 1 in 3 women is forced to get married before they are 18 and no one can speak about it either. The Hazara people are targeted every second,” Hussaini said at the event.

Hussaini said she witnessed her classmates and friends getting shot in the school she used to go to. She saw her teacher, the person who used to encourage the students to dream, cease to exist. Now as a student in the United States, during the summer Hussani would hear people making traveling plans and when asked about hers, she would reply that she has to get the girls from Afghanistan connected to organizations and schools in other countries like Bangladesh so that they can receive the education they deserve.

Shandana Safari, a close friend of Hussaini, volunteered at the session to support her. A junior studying at SLU, Safari reflected on the different experiences that she and Hussaini had even though they both come from the Hazara community of Afghanistan. Safari’s family escaped to Pakistan and came to the United States in 2003. Their arrival was delayed due to 9/11 since they were supposed to come in 2001. She opened up about the Hazara genocide.

“Hazaras are going through an ongoing genocide as we speak. They’re the most targeted by the Taliban and have been fleeing the country since the 1900s. The Taliban has killed more than 70% of the population since the rule of Abdur Rahaman Khan,” Safari said.

Shubhi Ahluwalia, a senior studying finance, also came to the session to support Hussaini. She reflected that it is important for people to step out of their comfort zone to understand the issues that do not pertain to their immediate surroundings. Once you do that, she said, you get to learn things that move you. She also advised the SLU community to come to

support talks and meetings of similar nature.

“I would say come to events like this one and talk about it with your friends. I talked to my friends about this session because Sahar opened my eyes to her and other women’s stories,” Ahluwalia said.

“If you talk to your roommate about an event, they will talk to someone else. That’s how we can spread the word.” 

Katrina Churchill, a freshman studying international business and economics, knew Sahar from shared classes. She said that she always wants to support her friends so that they know their stories are heard and accepted, especially when the stories are integral to them as individuals.

“It’s good to be aware of things outside of the bubble of school. It’s good to be aware of how people live in different parts of the world. You can also learn how to support people by hearing first-hand accounts of those who have lived in those parts of the world,” Churchill said.

Safari also reflected on the ways students specifically and Americans in general can help the Hazaras.

“I believe that people can help the Hazaras by listening to them, giving them a platform and spreading as much awareness for it as possible,” Safari said.

“They [the United States of America officials] could sponsor Hazara families to come to the US. They could donate to the Hazara Foundation that builds schools and helps families of the victims in the attack.”

A city with a sizable and ever increasing Afghani population, there are various resources that work to support Afghani newcomers. Hussaini is an intern with the Afghan support program at the International Institute of St. Louis. Her work is dedicated to getting support back home in the form of educational opportunity funds, finding safe locations for refugees and immigrants and connecting people to the Afghan cause.

“Within the Afghan support program at the international institute, we have the Afghan Chamber of Commerce, the Afghan community center, and many other programs to help Afghan immigrants here at St. Louis,” she said.

She also gave recommendations on the small things the SLU community can do to spread the word about the Afghani situation.

“They [the SLU community] can support by raising awareness through social media, doing class projects, conducting research related to the topic, educating the students and implementing it in their education. Community service and volunteering for the organization that supports immigrants here can be another way. I also want them to support Afghan students at SLU to help create an Afghan students association,” Hussaini said.

She is working with other students to launch an Afghan students association in fall 2023 at SLU. This will be a big move, she said, towards raising awareness on the campus grounds and getting public support to help Afghani immigrants and those who dream of a life outside of shackles.

Hussaini’s presentation ended with a poignant question for the audience. “What makes you see the injustice that is happening to Afghan women and ignore it? What makes you see a post about Afghanistan on social media and just scroll through it without taking any action toward spreading awareness about it?” Hussaini said.

The post Supporting Afghani Women Should be a Priority for All, Student Says in Atlas Week Event appeared first on The University News.

On Sunday March 26th, Saint Louis University hosted a concert of completely improvised music by some of St. Louis’ most well-known experimental musicians. The concert hosted two Trios. Trio One consisted of Greg Mills, Fred Tompkins, and Glen “Papa” Wright Jr. Mills is trained in classic piano performance and studied at The St. Louis Institute of Music. Tompkins is a jazz musician and composer, who performed on flute.  Wright Jr. is formally a teacher at the St. Louis Conservatory andSchools for the Arts and performed on percussion. Trio Two consisted of Alex Cunningham, Damon Smith, and Joshua Weinstein. Cunningham is a improviser and visual artist based in St. Louis. He is pictured on violin. Smith is a bassist, improvisor and a teacher currently residing in St. Louis [pictured left on double bass]. Weinstein is a bassist, [pictured right on double bass].

“The University News is an independent student newspaper that strives to represent the SLU community by reporting valuable, truthful and relevant information.”

On the afternoon of Nov. 5, the Hindu Students Community hosted a Diwali Lakshmi Puja celebration in the Busch Student Center; the event featured dinner, bright lights and performances. The Lakshmi Puja is day three of the five day Diwali celebration. While Diwali represents different things in certain cultures, its origins lead back to northern India as the celebration of King Rama’s return to Ayodha. The bright lights are meant to represent inner light as a source of protection from spiritual darkness.