Cite-Black-Barnard-Faculty-Cite-a-Thon

In past years, Hewitt Dining Hall has served as a vibrant and cozy space filled with natural light and much conversation among students and professors. Events such as Big Sub and Midnight Breakfast brought the student body together to celebrate and enjoy food. However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures in place, Barnard Dining has been forced to adapt as students returned to campus this spring.

Explore our Black History Month Edition.

The small black box is swaddled in thin drapes, streaked with watercolor branches. The fabric winds its way toward the ceiling, where it hangs like acoustic panels for an orchestra or a Milky Way made out of linen.

Ever since the ninth grade, Alondra Carmona had dreamed of attending Barnard College. When she first heard that Columbia had a sister school right across the street, she looked into Barnard’s campus and programs and immediately fell in love. Nearly four years later, she was elated to read the word “Congratulations” when she checked her application status. However, her celebrations were soon tempered by doubts about being able to afford her tuition.

“Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let’s go into this with a powerful collective intention.” Alexandra Watson, a First-Year Writing lecturer at Barnard, said as she led a Zoom call in a breathing exercise. With its participants newly focused, the Cite Black Barnard Faculty Cite-a-Thon began.

Athletes have a platform that historically they have used to further social and political movements. Look into the history of athlete activism with Frank Guridy, associate professor of history and African American studies at Columbia.

It only takes a stroll through the neighborhood to understand film’s place in Harlem’s history. The Jets of 1961′s “West Side Story” patrolled 110th Street, Denzel Washington’s titular character hung out at the—now-defunct—Lenox Lounge in 1992′s “Malcolm X,” and the quirky Tenenbaum family resided at a house on the corner of 144th Street and Covenant Avenue in “The Royal Tenenbaums.” A walk around the 125th Street area holds both the grand past of Harlem film and present-day big-name cinema with the remains of the Loew’s Victoria Theater and the current AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9.

“The play was about breath before we all started losing ours.”

Despite COVID-19 restrictions that have isolated dance students across the globe, Barnard dance classes are in full swing. In their Zoom rectangles, dancers listen to their lectures and clear spaces in their homes for technique classes in disciplines like ballet and modern. In 2018, Barnard still offered tap classes such as Tap Ensemble and Tap as an American Art Form, which were classes that taught beyond the introductory levels of these dance styles. However, tap classes and lectures have disappeared from the Barnard dance course offerings despite still being listed on the Barnard dance department website.