Dream-a-Little-Dream

After a cancelled 2020 festival, the Low Steps were replaced by the virtual world of Virbela for this year’s Bacchanal. Students chatted with each other over Zoom or wandered around as Virbela online personas. Attendees were welcomed by flashing DJ lights and 1920s-themed decor at the coveted Columbia event.

In an apartment full of cinnamon candles and pill organizers, dementia carves a wide gulf between a mother and her daughter. In a shoeshine shop in 1944, an army volunteer stakes his life on an empty promise. Together, they tell a story of personal and historical erasure, 75 years apart.

With the world keenly focused on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s easy to forget other pressing issues at hand that need to be addressed. A Zoom webinar held by the Center on Global Energy Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs with Bill Gates on Feb. 23 brings our attention back to the climate crisis that is still ever-present.

The work of a historian takes at least some imagination, which is why I fell in love with the subject long before I came to Columbia. You have the amazing task of piecing together the sources you find and filling in the details of what could have been. As you go back in time and have access to fewer and fewer historical records, you must adjust your interpretation of humanity to fit a world only familiar to people who are long gone.

“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.

“We all are roses. I think we’re all these beautiful plants waiting to emerge from the soil,” Mamadou Yattassaye, CC ’21, said when asked about the rose imagery in his debut album, “To Stitch a Rose.”

As the spring term begins, thousands of Columbia students have returned to campus. Despite facing economic challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, many local galleries and art-related businesses continue to offer a diverse array of artistic experiences for Columbia students, ranging from exhibitions confronting the pressing issues of race and gender inequalities to craft and pottery workshops that provide an opportunity to step away from the screen and into the studio.

Despite being scattered across the globe, student videographers bridged the gap between dancers in the Columbia University Ballet Ensemble, using digital effects to stitch together a magical forest for the group’s rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” CUBE presented its ballet version of Shakespeare’s play on Dec. 5, featuring befuddled lovers and mischievous fairies dancing across the screen.

Content Warning: This episode of The Ear discusses sexual violence and rape.