Awakenings

Natural settings and poses, raw, and honest.  These are some of the qualities of Walker Evans’ photographs.  Known today as one of America’s best documentary photographer,  Evans was born on November 3, 1903 in Saint Louis, Missouri.  In his early adolescent years, he had wanted to be a writer but his talent in photography and with the encouragement of other photographers, Evans changed his career choice.  He focused on street photography and has the ability to take ordinary, sometimes ugly, features and depict them in a beautiful way.  (more…)

I don’t know which was more inspiring, the production of Aida itself or the Metropolitan Opera theatre. You hear about the Mets all the time and you wonder what’s so special about it? I don’t know if words are enough to describe the theater or the production of Aida, but I will certainly try.
As you walk up and down the fifth avenue, window-shopping, you can’t help but wonder for which occasions are these glamorous thousand dollar dresses for. And you are an average person, you will not get your answer unless you walk in one of those expiring opera productions, such as Aida. Red carpets everywhere, women in these unbelievable dresses, who look like they spent hours in the beauty shop before coming to the production. Men in their taxidos holding champagne glasses. Everything is just so elite, that it left me breathless for a while. However, the most inspiring part about the Mets is the theater itself. Flawless, humongous stage with thousands of seats.
After the Mets theater itself, my expectations of the production of Aida were very high and the performance did not fall below my expectations. People in the audience were dressed in those fancy dresses, but they were nothing in comparison to what the performers wore on stage. Egyptian dresses, costumes, everything was just as you would imagine if you think of the Great Empire of Egypt in the BC. What is even more inspiring is to what degree of accuracy they were able to imitate the scenario of Egypt in an enclosed area. Ranging from slaves, to horses, to thrones, the production of Aida was able to recreate Egypt in front of our eyes, right here at the Mets in NYC.

There is no other city in the world that is as alive as NYC. There is nothing New York doesn’t have. It has every culture, every store, most unbelievable architecture, basically anything you can think of, NYC has. Because it has so much to offer, coming up with an original theme was a little harder than I anticipated. However one mundane morning on the way to school I had an epiphany. I noticed the form of art, which I have never paid much attention to before, the art in NYC subway, which depicts something in New York. (more…)

The first two pages of the book automatically raise a question in the reader’s mind: How can anyone, who had a mother present in his or her childhood, not even bother to visit her gravesite in twenty-six years since her death. Someone with a moral conscience might find it extremely difficult to answer this question. However, many children are detached from their parents, but unlike Samuel G. Freedman, some might never even bother to pick up the pieces.
Throughout the book, there was this great sense of remorse radiated from Samuel G. Freedman’s tone. Perhaps he was ashamed or felt guilty because he never knew who his mother really was. However to care so little about his mother’s life, made me as a reader wonder what aroused the epiphany in Samuel G. Freedman to write a book about who his mother was. What was even more surprising is how far he has gone to find out every possible detail about Eleanor Freedman. He was able to dig up everything, starting with her youth going as far back as when she was fourteen, her first years in high school to her very intimate moments with the many boyfriends she had in her life. Sometimes guilt can be such a powerful force, that it can compel one to go to the extremes if there is a chance to expiate it.
Asking someone for forgiveness while the person is alive can be difficult enough however when the person is long dead it is much more difficult to seek redemption. There are many ways to apologize. At times a simple sorry will do it. Sometimes, depending on the situation a dozen of red roses or a nice deed will be enough. However when the person is long gone these simple gestures are no longer an option. By writing this book, Samuel Freedman found his way of apologizing for not being the son he thought he should have been.
After finishing Who She Was, it was not clear to me what all of a sudden inspired his epiphany to go back in time to find out more about his mother. However meeting him in person made everything immediately clear. Having him speak before us made me realize how genuine his feelings of remorse are. There was a bit of sorrow and residual guilt in his voice when his mother was mentioned. Samuel G. Freedman, has a happy family of his own, is a brilliant and a very successful man. An award winning writer, a columnist and a professor at Columbia University of a class that every future writer is dying to get in. One can only envy his success and wish to achieve everything Samuel G. Freedman did. However what everyone does not know is that there was always something bothering, emptiness, a ghost that didn’t leave him at peace no matter how successful he was in everything else. He neither knew what the missing peace was nor where it was coming from. In 2000, in his mid forties by mere chance he finally realized what was bothering him all along, his distance from his mother.
Even though “Who She Was” is not the best selling book of the year, it might not even be the most successful book he wrote, but it certainly will be the most important one for the rest of his life. Completion of this book is the last missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle of his life.

Many people who become celebrities quickly forget their home, their old lifestyle and are blinded by all the luxury and money that they were never exposed to before. They become pretentious and this is exactly what I expected from someone as famous as Angela Brown. However I couldn’t have been more wrong. Angela Brown reminds me of Opera in a way that even though she might seem elite, she is for the regular people. Still the same down to earth woman from Indiana Minneapolis who loves her church, her family and who is just very happy because she is finally doing now what she was born to do.
Angela Brown comes from an average family. Even though she doesn’t have any children of her own, she is an aunt to her brother’s two children. Growing up, Angela Brown always loved to sing. Whether it was singing with her mom in the kitchen, or singing in the shower, she just had to sing. Even though she loves singling more than anything, especially Gospel music, when it came to singing classical music she wasn’t too excited about it. She simply did not want to do it, because it’s work rather than just singling freestyle for fun and the love of it. However, she went to a black liberal arts school, and despite her reluctance to sing classical music she received a BA in music and art, which required anyone who graduates to sing classical music as well.
As I mentioned earlier, Angela Brown is a simple woman, but there was nothing simple about her as she walked in one of our classrooms in Baruch. With her warmth and positive spirit as soon as she walked in you could feel life in the room. She was so positive and full of energy that the entire room lit. Everything she said, we listened to with our mouths open. Everything about her was so inspiring, friendly and wonderful. I believe Angela Brown can give hope to anyone who has a vision, but is very pessimistic about living up to it, because she is a perfect example of how someone from an average family can “Catch up with the vision.”
There area lots of hindrances in everyone’s life, however, as Angela Brown so wonderfully phrased, “The biggest opposition is that faced within oneself.” Many of us think that our dreams can never be accomplished, however after meeting Angela Brown, anyone will understand that even though there are not many examples of people like her, there is no reason to give up on a dream, because when it’s your time, you will shine.

Growing up as an only child, I had a tendency to believe that the entire world revolves around me. When it came to a birthday cake, anyone’s birthday in fact, I wanted the centre piece and I always got it, because I was the only child and in my mind I was the only important person in the world. Sharing a room with someone? Well that’s just not an option for someone who never had siblings. It wasn’t until I came to the United States, when I realized that in reality, an individual such as myself has to share this planet with over six billion other people. As the result of my awakening, I slowly began to understand that sometimes in life I had to make a compromise whether or not it pleased me. (more…)

We all battle with the forces of good and evil. Sometimes, it is difficult to see which actions are deemed harmful and which are deemed positive. I believe that this is ultimately up to the person. In order to bring happiness and harmony to one’s life, a balance needs to be achieved between the two. In my collage project, I attempted to portray the struggling forces and a balance between the two extremes. All pictures and objects were set into the frame of a yin-yang, which symbolizes balance and universal unity. (more…)

There are many reasons why the Metropolitan Opera has good reviews, and Aida is one of them.

Known for its “over the top” set and extravagant designs, the MET did not disappoint with its production of Aida.  From the golden curtain to the dozen hanging crystal chandeliers, the monumental set, and live horses, the spectators were in for a grand show.

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Coney Island          Bridging the Connection Between Generations

One of the best and worst things about street photography is the element of surprise.

What happens in the street, what you see on the street, and what people do on the street can’t be controlled. This can both work in favor of the photographer, or against the photographer.

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The attention span of most Americans is only twenty-seven minutes long; to imagine what the attention span of a New York teen is would be laughable. For many, Aida was rather an interesting experience, perhaps a little too long. Act II and III were dazzling with great excitement, beautiful dancing, and magnificent stage works. In a time and place where time is of the essence, Act IV rather dragged on and much of the magic had worn off. (more…)