The Mind’s Eye

Photo by John Rosenthal If you’re having a conversation with Elizabeth Spencer, MA’43, the first thing you’ll notice is her accent. It’s one that is increasingly–and sadly–rare these days. To say that it’s Southern is merely scratching the surface. It is old-fashioned, to be sure. Sophisticated. Educated. And… Read More

Photo by John Russell To many musicians the piano accompanist is the equivalent of a second-string player, a backup to the real star. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Accompanying provides the definitive service to musicianship. It is an art form unto itself. Daphne Nicar… Read More

Rehearsing and performing with the José Limón Dance Company was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Vanderbilt Dance Program students. Photo by Steve Green For a university that doesn’t offer a dance major or minor, Vanderbilt attracts its fair share of dancers. In fact, more than 800 dancers from the Vanderbilt… Read More

There was a time in the not-toodistant past when educators viewed pencils with erasers as crutches for lazy students. In the following years, other advancements like calculators and spellcheck raised similar concerns. Now a new trend has found its way from the Web into the classroom. Call it “webspeak”or… Read More

It’s easy to imagine that crossword puzzles have existed for centuries–that they were an amusing diversion for crusading knights or monks killing time between illuminating manuscripts. But they’ve been around for less than a century, having first appeared in the New York World in 1913.What started as a fad… Read More

Richard Hull, BA’92, is executive producer of the film Daddy Day Camp, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. The film was released Aug. 8. Hull’s previous films include the teen hit She’s All That. Patrick Alexander, BS’00, has won the 2007 Student Academy Award given by the Academy of Motion Picture… Read More

The 1968 Democratic National Convention was an iconic event in American history. Young Vietnam War protestors clashed with Chicago police while millions witnessed their battles on live television. Eight protestors were tried for conspiracy in a circus-like atmosphere. A new film about the event, associate produced by… Read More

Musical explorers the Kronos Quartet will take the stage at Ingram Hall on March 14, 2008, at 8 p.m. as part of Vanderbilt’s Great Performances series to perform Sun Rings, an evening-length, multimedia work in 10 movements that will feature choirs from the Blair School of Music. The piece,… Read More

During a three-hour session on the changing relationships between audiences and the arts, approximately 700 attendees of the American Symphony Orchestra League’s conference in Nashville in June were encouraged to blog–right then and there–about what they were hearing. Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper, director and associate director, respectively, of the… Read More

Visual Arts At first glance, the basement of Sylvia Hyman’s home looks much like any other clay artist’s studio. A shelf running along the wall holds jar after jar of oxides, silicates, fluxes and other materials used in the preparation of ceramic glazes. A large kiln sits in one… Read More

Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches(Pilgrim Press) by Horace L.Griffin, MA’93, PhD’95. “Their Own Receive Them Not cuts through the Gordian knot of homophobia in the Black Church with compelling, substantive arguments,” comments Sylvia Rhue, director of religious affairs and… Read More

In hip-hop music and videos, young black women are consistently portrayed as sexually insatiable vixens willing to debase themselves for the privilege of even the shortest ride on the music industry party train. Despite the lack of respect, young black women play an enthusiastic part in hiphop culture, as… Read More