Adelphi University’s annual Fall Arts Festival is an opportunity for all members of the University community to collaborate and celebrate the arts while reflecting on and illuminating a particular theme. This year, the theme of the event will be Peace of Art: Fostering Dialogues through the Arts. Participating artists are responding to the concept of war and peace in a number of ways: global war and how current battles are impacting us all; the growing rift that exists nationally (politically, socially, and economically); and personal wars (struggles with mental wellbeing, identity, race, religion and gender).

The goal of the festival remains for the Adelphi community to come together using arts as a tool for social connection and dialogue through creative translation and collaboration.

In addition to the art installations, the festival will include a poetry reading by creative writing students and alumni, music and dance performances, a film screening, a zine-making workshop, and screen printing.

Adelphi alumni invited to create original pieces for this year’s Fall Arts Festival include:

• Ann Francis Ang ’19, Dance
• Kevin Lubin ’22, Music
• Shoshanah Tarkow ’06, Theatre
• Cara Lynch ’12, Visual Art
• Nicole Restrepo, MFA ’22, Creative Writing
• Berin Aptoula, MFA ’22, Creative Writing
• Virginia Maloney ’20, Communications, Digital Production and Cinema Studies

They will be creating pieces for live performances, some in collaboration.

Honoring Adelphi’s resilience in powering through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and reflecting on the issues of racial, gender, and identity injustice in the country. It showcased musical theater, dance, poetry, film screenings and visual art presentations by Adelphi faculty, students and alumni.

Striving to honor the resilience of our community in moving through the COVID-19 crisis and everything that was experienced around it, the festival reflected on the ongoing issues of racial, gender and identity injustice we continue to experience or witness, and seek to find a way to rebuild our connection as human beings living in tumultuous times. The goal was for the University to come together to use arts as a tool for social connection and change through creative translation and collaboration.

View the flyer designed by Olivia Sasso for the 2021 Fall Arts Festival events.

• Student Dance performance with Alumna, Choreographer, Hannah Franz
• Student Music performances with Alumna, Dori-Jo Gutierrez
• Creative Writing Event with Creative Writing Alumna, Gabrielle Deonath, untold: defining moments of the uprooted, including open mic readings
• Live outdoor theatre event performed by Adelphi students directed theatre Alumna Marlee Koenigsberg
• Interactive sculpture installations by current Adelphi students coordinated by Studio Art Alumna Samantha Dominik
• Film screenings of student work from the Communications Department
• Chalk Up, an interactive Chalk Drawing event across the campus walkways, with all students and Adelphi community invited to participate
• Large-scale interactive pin-hole camera coordinated by Professor Hannah Allen
• Large-scale outdoor installation of piñata sculptures by current Adelphi Art students coordinated by Professor Christopher Saucedo.
• Artivism Round-Table, coordinated by Art and Languages Department Alumna: Carolina Cambronero. A 90-minute round-table conversation with four artivist panelists, a moderator and audience members. Part of the Artvism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation initiative.
• Join the Center For Students and Community Engagement for a screening of A Ballerina’s Tale. 

Inspiration for creative translation exists in the words of creative writing alumna Gabrielle Deonath ‘18’s anthology: untold: defining moments of the uprooted. Other alumni invited to create original pieces for Fall Arts Festival included:

• Dori-Jo Guttierrez ’19, Music
• Marlee Koenigsberg, ’11, Theatre
• Samantha Dominik ’17, MFA, Visual Art
• Sol Esther Mejia ’19, Communications
• Akua Mireku-Baabu ’21, Communications
• Kait Estevez ’17, English
• Michelle Yakubov ’20, English
• Gabrielle Deonath ’18, English
• Hannah Franz ’18, Dance

Studio Art faculty Hannah Allen and Christopher Saucedo led students in collaborative art installations and experiences on campus. Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation hosted a roundtable discussion, coordinated by alumna Carolina Cambronero, and John Bunn presented his story, “Culture of Compassion: The Work of the Exonerated Mr. John Bunn.”

All students were invited to participate in Chalk Up, an interactive and communal art-making with chalk drawing throughout campus.

A series of virtual events, spanning more than a month, focused on voting and diversity and equality, ahead of the 2020 presidential election and during the continuing observance of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

• Allies Conversation: Taking a Stand with Transgender Rights Artist and Activist Imara Jones
• Constitution Day: A Century of Votes for Women with Christina Wolbrecht: online synchronous with Q&A
• Film Screening: Asian American Civil Rights Documentary ‘Beyond Activism: Four Decades of Social Justice
• International Student Forum
• International Perspectives on Advocacy and Activism
• International Perspectives on Social Movements and Social Action
• Keynote Speaker: Vanessa German
• Post-Election Analysis: with the Political Science Department
• Prep for the Election
• Presidential and Vice Presidential Debate Watch Parties
• Primetime at Adelphi
• Student Virtual Art Exhibit: Your Voice Matters Poster Drawing Contest
• Student Voices on Arts and Social Justice: art student panel discussion
• Suppressed 2020: The Fight to Vote: film screening
• Virtual Spoken Word with Joan ‘Lyric’ Leslie

Ongoing Interactive Experiences

• Art In Public Spaces
• Cast Your Vote Election Simulator
• Dance Film
• Diverse Voices Project: This past July, Adelphi students took quotes from primary sources written by persons of color about voting. Check out @engageadelphi’s Instagram story to hear from your peers.
• Raising Voices USA
• Sculpture Installation: The Piñata Project Addressing Issues of Voter Rights and Societal Rebirth During COVID-19