Book: The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope, and Basketball, By Alejandro Danois ’88
The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope, and Basketball By Alejandro Danois ’88 The Boys of Dunbar is the true story of a high school basketball team that, during the drug and crime epidemic in 1980s Baltimore, brought forth four NBA players and gave hope to a city. Dunbar High School’s basketball program was one of the most successful in the country, and the early 1980s Dunbar Poets were arguably the best high school team of all time. Four starting players—Muggsy Bogues, Reggie Williams, David Wingate, and Reggie Lewis—would eventually play in the NBA. Alejandro Danois takes his...
Read MoreMusic: Sélébéyone, By Steve Lehman ’96
Sélébéyone By Steve Lehman ’96 Steve Lehman’s album Sélébéyone was selected as a Top 10 CD of 2016 by NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times Popcast. The ensemble Sélébéyone—“intersection” in Senegal’s Wolof language—includes two emcees from different continents, two composer-saxophonists, and three supporting players with strong jazz pedigrees in a jazz-rap collaboration. As a Pitchfork review describes, “What they come up with feels both legitimately new and surprisingly approachable.” Described as “a state-of-the-art musical thinker” by the New...
Read MoreMusic: The Chief, By Jidenna Mobbison ’03
The Chief Jidenna Mobbison ’03 After his 2015 hit single “Classic Man,” Jidenna follows up the Grammy Award-nominated track with a debut album titled The Chief. Unleashing powerful lyrics and visuals with tracks “Long Live the Chief” and “Chief Don’t Run,” Jidenna says the debut album is a nod to his roots. “This story is from the point of view of a first-generation Nigerian-American in different cities, places and communities, that has ever been told in this way,” he has said. The album blends a unique and enticing combination of world-influenced and mainstream...
Read MoreBook: About the House, By Jenny Slate ’00
About the House By Jenny Slate ’00 Jenny Slate, acclaimed comedienne and actress, joined her writer-poet father Ron Slate to create About the House—a collection of essays revolving around their family home in the Town of Milton. The rooms and corners of a rambling Colonial built in 1898, and purchased by the Slates in 1980, set the stage for Ron and Jenny, in alternating chapters, to share memories attached to the spaces, weaving an intimate and compelling family memoir. Jenny and Ron chose Concord Free Press as their publisher, an enterprise founded by Stona and Ann Fitch. The press...
Read MoreArt: Timekeeper, by Sarah Sze ’87
Timekeeper Sarah Sze ’87 Sarah Sze’s latest work, Timekeeper, is an experiential piece whose projections chase one another around the walls of the Foster Gallery at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum. Video footage that includes digital clocks, running cheetahs, splashing liquids, and buildings being demolished is projected from dozens of whirring devices situated on a structure created from an unexpected and inspired collection of objects and elements. Timekeeper addresses how we measure time, countering actual clocks with more capricious measures. One reviewer writes, “Timekeeper...
Read MoreFilm: 72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story? By Raafi Rivero ’95
72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story? Raafi Rivero ’95 Based on a short film by Bilal Ndongo, Raafi Rivero’s 72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story? follows 18-year-old Caesar Winslow, a restless, ambitious and charismatic Brooklynite facing the decision to leave his neighborhood for a full scholarship at a prestigious university. Told over the three days before he’s scheduled to leave, the film chronicles events and choices that unravel his confidence and force him to question everything: His girlfriend breaks up with him and the “woman of his dreams” won’t give him the time of day. His...
Read More