You have to listen to "Água Viva" on headphones — it's the intended experience. The textures on this album are sonorous and immaculate, and Greek sound artist Daphne X weaves them into a membrane that fully encloses the listener's auditory space. In doing so, she offers a welcome escape into a world that facilitates the spatial and environmental awareness so often missing from our lives in quarantine.
“Detroit 2” is a feature filled homage to Big Sean’s hometown of Detroit, enlivened through spoken word stories and evocative lyricism. Although Sean had originally planned to announce the project on March 13 to coincide with “313 Day,” a celebration of Detroit, the announcement was postponed to later that month due to the COVID pandemic. Following months of anticipation, Big Sean’s passionate ode to his home dropped on the promised date of Sept. 4 along with a capsule of merchandise.
From filmmaking to sculpture, faculty and students in the visual and dramatic arts department are discovering what it means to create art when COVID-19 restrictions include room capacity limits and social distancing measures throughout campus. For those who are engaging remotely this semester, finding space to work on art at home can be a challenge.
The Shepherd School of Music has conducted classes this semester both in-person and remote despite challenges regarding proximity, airflow, and, in the case of wind instruments, the spread of saliva particles. Consistent and exhaustive COVID-19 precautionary measures, specifically designed to restrict the spread of particles while playing instruments, have been enacted to make in-person music classes possible, according to Rice’s Director of Bands Chuck Throckmorton.
Aparna Shewakramani was a freshman at Lovett College when she signed up for an introduction to Hindi class at Rice. She couldn’t have predicted what the class would lead to — that she’d meet one of her two closest friends in the class, and that eighteen years later, the two would briefly appear on Netflix’s reality TV show “Indian Matchmaking” to support her. Or that, during the show, Shewakramani would use her Hindi to communicate with a matchmaker.
Rice received $3.4 million in funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act this past summer and completed the first phase of payments in June, while the second phase of payments has not occurred yet.
Rice’s Reckling Park will be the on-campus polling location for both early voting and election day this year, according to Lila Greiner, the media relations director of Rice Young Democrats. Harris County officials moved Rice’s polling location off-campus in February due to accessibility concerns for non-Rice voters.
Isabel Wiatt resigned from the role of external vice president of the Student Association, setting the stage for a special election for SA EVP to happen sometime near the end of September, according to SA President Anna Margaret Clyburn.
While teaching about projectile motion in PHYS 125 this semester over Zoom, physics Professor Jason Hafner gave students a hypothetical scenario: A hunter is trying to shoot a monkey sitting in a tree. At the sound of the shot, the monkey falls from the tree — will the bullet hit the monkey? When teaching the scenario this semester, Hafner gave it a twist: Instead of teaching completely theoretically, he decided to make it real.
The Welch Foundation announced that it will donate $100 million to establish the Welch Institute for Advanced Materials at Rice University, the largest single gift that Rice University has ever received and the largest in the Welch Foundation’s 65-year history.
Political engagement is now both more important and more difficult than ever. The stakes always seem higher in a presidential election year but now — with the pandemic, the protests and everything in between — the stakes feel like they were tied to a rocketship and are currently somewhere orbiting Jupiter.
Voting may be a constitutionally guaranteed right for most American citizens over the age of 18, but that right is infringed upon year after year by voter suppression tactics employed by legislators across the country. This November, that infringement is poised to be only more severe due to the ongoing pandemic and President Donald Trump’s consistent undermining of the United States Postal Service. Although the grim reality is that most voter suppression tactics are out of an individual voter’s control, there are some steps you can take to protect your vote.
More than 100 players from the Rice football team marched silently from Rice Stadium to the Aacademic Quad to protest racial injustice on Friday afternoon. While roll was not taken, head coach Mike Bloomgren said he believes that every member of the team and the coaching staff was present. Players spoke in the quad about the importance of effecting positive change, before the march concluded with a moment of silence to honor those killed as a result of racial discrimination.
In my angsty high school grief in 2017, I explored the nooks and crannies of my city that embodied the state of limbo I felt in my soul. The eclectic spoke to me as I acted without regard for imaginary futures and instead felt grounded in the odd flux between a rich but ultimately irrelevant past and an electrifying present. As I find myself facing a similar sense of instability this semester, I return to the curiosities of Houston, Texas and share them with others currently bursting with wanderlust.
This week, the Thresher sat down with Chabrielle Allen (Hanszen College ’20), an alumna who earned her Bachelor of Arts in religion with a focus on culture and society in August. Currently living in her hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, Allen spoke about her artistic journey during her time at Rice, the intersection of technology and art and the importance of diverse representation in the art world.
