Newsmakers

“Give it back.” These are the first words seen by visitors to The World’s UnFair, the newest multimedia work by New Red Order (NRO), a “public secret society” cofounded by brothers and Bard alumni Adam Khalil ’11 and Zack Khalil ’14. World’s Fairs “have historically presented a theory of progress, technological advancement, imperial advancement,” Jackson Polys, who cocreated NRO with the Khalil brothers, told the New York Times. The World’s UnFair, by contrast, subverts expectations with an animatronic beaver who speaks about private land ownership and satirical real estate ads featuring “comically small” portions of land given back to Native groups. The exhibition, curated by Bard alumna Diya Vij ’08, is meant to be provocative, asking questions about not only Native sovereignty, but also performances of Indigeneity and art’s place (or lack thereof) in the pursuit of decolonization. The World’s UnFair is on view now through October 15 in Long Island City, Queens.

Read More in the New York Times

Further Reading:

• NPR: “An 'anti-World's Fair' makes its case: give land back to Native Americans”
• Smithosian magazine: "‘The World’s UnFair,’ a New Exhibition Calling for the Return of Indigenous Land, Comes to Queens."
• Artnet: “A New Kind of World’s Fair Is Coming to Queens. Its Message? Give Back All Indigenous Land”
• Hyperallergic: “The World’s UnFair in Queens Echoes Calls to Give Native Land Back”

Bon Appétit has just published its picks for the best 24 new restaurants of 2023. The restaurant scene is currently bursting with creativity so this year’s list is more than double than it has been in the past. Breaking with industry tradition, the food magazine let every restaurant on its list know they had been selected before the publication was released. “Running a restaurant is already challenging enough, and we want this to really be net positive,” said Bon Appétit Restaurant Editor Elazar Sontag ’20. “We want the restaurants to be able to not just celebrate it, but actually grow from it, and grow their businesses. When business changes overnight, the way it does after you’re on BA’s list, you need time to adjust. You need more staff.” The list spotlights new restaurants across the country, from Bainbridge Island in Washington State to Savannah, Georgia, to Philadelphia, as well as including a handful of select recipes like one for Bolo Bao (Pineapple Buns) from Rubato, a Hong Kong–style café in Quincy, Massachusetts.

“If you’d met Edris Tajik at Bard College earlier this summer, his life might have seemed like that of a typical college student,” writes the Chronicle of Higher Education. What led Edris Tajik ’23 to this moment of seeming normalcy was far from typical, however. The Chronicle profiles Tajik’s educational career, beginning at Herat University, where his studies were interrupted by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. After fleeing Afghanistan for Germany, Tajik found his way to the United States—and to Bard.

Tajik was a natural fit for Bard, with a background in activism and civic engagement. He’d worked as a program officer for Hope for Education and Leadership in Afghanistan, “where he trained 240 students for Model United Nations, helping them develop their leadership abilities,” writes the Chronicle. “His background was very compelling, with all the civil-society work he’d done,” says Jennifer Murray, dean of international studies. At Bard, Tajik dove into his studies, feeling “a seriousness of purpose” that guided his time in Annandale. “Everything was new to me — the teaching style, the class discussion,” Tajik said. “It was exciting.”

Now, post-Bard, Tajik plans to complete two one-year master’s programs, with the ultimate goal of working in Washington, DC. “Whatever Tajik does, he’ll bring a valuable perspective, not only as a young person who’s already amassed professional experience in his field,” writes the Chronicle, “but also as someone whose life has been shaped—directly and dramatically—by foreign-policy choices and lack of access to education.”

Unions and their supporters have recently seen some progress thanks to tight labor markets, pandemic-era fiscal policy, and the $15 minimum wage movement, yet working Americans still face a generations-long crisis, writes David Rolf ’92, Bard alumnus and founder and president emeritus of SEIU 775, a labor union representing long-term care sector workers, in an opinion piece for Newsweek. “Our broken labor laws, designed for the economy of the 1930s, have functionally stopped enabling collective bargaining and have become a tool to prevent it,” he says. Support for unions is at historic highs, particularly amongst young Americans, yet unions represent only six percent of eligible private sector workers because most companies are incentivized to avoid or bust unions and to minimize their bargaining gains. Yet research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and by David Madland, Center for American Progress scholar, show that “when more workers are covered by union contracts, things get better for workers, employers, and national economies.” Rolf continues, “Centralized and broad-based labor law systems are predictive of economies with high employment, high productivity, high wages, adequate leisure time for the working class, positive trade balances, and lower levels of inequality.”

The Dallas Opera recently announced that Micah Gleason GCP ’21 VAP ’22, who graduated from the Bard College Conservatory's Graduate Conducting Program in 2021 and Vocal Arts Program in 2022, is one of four talented musicians selected to participate in the 2023–24 Hart Institute for Women Conductors Showcase. Gleason (US), Maria Benyumova (Germany), Shira Samuels-Shragg (US), and Jingqi Zhu (China) were chosen from a worldwide applicant pool of more than 75 conductors hailing from 27 countries on five continents.

Launched in 2015, the Hart Institute for Women Conductors Showcase is the only program of its kind in the world and seeks to address the extreme gender imbalance of leadership on the podium as well as in administration in opera companies. Now in its 7th year, more than 500 women conductors from 40 nations have applied to be trained, advised, and supported by this extraordinary initiative.

The annual Institute begins in November (November 13-17) with a week of daily virtual sessions, many of which are livestreamed and open for the public to view at no cost on The Dallas Opera’s You Tube channel. During an intensive ten-day residency in Dallas (January 19-28, 2024), participants will work with esteemed faculty and mentors in group and one-on-one sessions, as well as in rehearsals for the annual Showcase Concert on Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. The performance will feature each Institute conductor leading the Dallas Opera Orchestra and guest singers in selections of opera excerpts featuring overtures, solo arias, and ensemble pieces from across the centuries of the canon.