KRISTEN HEACOCK
Staff Writer

A new group has begun to rise on the FDU campus, a group that questions and analyzes not only the world around us, but the presence of a God as well. The group, Secular Student Alliance, is not just for atheists, but for agnostics, secular humanists “and anyone who believes in questioning the status quo,” said Nicole Aiello, its president.
According to the Secular Student Alliance Facebook page, the organization has a network of over 170 campus-based groups.
“The mission of the Secular Student Alliance is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human based ethics,” according to the secularstudent.org Web site.
Despite some of the group’s fliers being torn down, Aiello keeps a good attitude and hopes to affect the student body in a positive manner.
“I am hoping that people will realize that there are alternatives to religion and that a community of nonreligious people exists at FDU,” she said. “We want to dispel all of the misconceptions that people have about atheists, especially that we are immoral and nihilistic.”
Student Beth Blackman said “if there are clubs that are for those who are religious then why shouldn’t there be one for those who aren’t? Of course it might cause problems because people get upset when they hear that others don’t believe in God even though it has no effect on them.”
Secular Student Alliance meets every Thursday from 7 p.m. to 8p.m. in the Wroxton Room in the Student Center.
“People tend to have a lot of preconceived notions about what it is to be an atheist, most of which are not based in reality at all, and we are eager to discuss normally taboo issues in order to make ourselves understood. The fact is we have morals, most of which are very similar to the morals that the three big world religions espouse, and we care about the rest of humanity and the future of our world just as much as any believer, if not more,” said Aiello.

KRISTEN HEACOCK
Staff Writer

“We live in a world where there is limited originality,” Paul Ramirez Jonas said, at an Interrogating Boundaries event, titled “Artistic Bridges.”
Jonas, an artist who lives and works in New York, came to FDU on Nov. 4 to speak about his artwork and ideas. About 35 to 40 students attended.
“Why, as humans, do we keep doing what we do when it has been done? I don’t have the answer for that, but that’s what I’m interested in,” said Jonas, a professor of art at Hunter College.
One piece of art that reflects his ideals is the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” where jars of water are suspended so that if they hit the correct notes they would be able to play the song.
This event of Interrogating Boundaries, sponsored by Becton College, was one of many to come, according to Judy Nellis. All of the events have a theme.
“Originality. It’s hard to take that you can’t be original anymore,” said Jonas, as he continued to ask the question, “Why do we do it?”
He explained that we all get a thrill from flying a kite when we already knew from the start that the kite would fly. This led him to present another work of art called, “50 State Summits,” an album with a picture of himself in a number of different places, such as “the farthest place from home” or “the most distance from the center of the Earth,” he said. However, he has not yet finished this piece.
Jonas said his work began to change around the year 2005.
“I had to turn the work inside out,” he said, adding that the viewer of his art would start to become the performer of the work.
An example of this is a piece he did with a piano up against a wall with one single note missing. On the other side of the wall there was another piano with only one note on it. Jonas said that people could come in and play the piano on either side, which would either be playing a full piano with one missing note, or only playing that missing note.
Jonas used this as a metaphor for society. “Is that what it means to be a citizen? One note?” he said.
Other works of art by Jonas include, “Long Time,” a water wheel in the Hudson River, as well as “Paper Moon (I create as I speak).”
Jonas’ work is currently featured in the 53rd Venice Biennial and the Walker Art Center. Recent solo exhibitions include the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut; the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin; Ikon Gallery in the United Kingdom; and L.F.L. Gallery in New York.
Keith Viriffiths, who attended “Artistic Bridges,” commented on what he thought of Jonas.
“I respect what he does,” he said. “It’s very good art.”

KRISTEN HEACOCK
Staff Writer

FDU’s Words and Music Festival, also known as WAM Fest, is a celebration of music and poetry. According to David Daniel, FDU’s creative writing director and founder of the festival, this year will be bigger and better than ever.

“[There will be] bigger names, and it will be a little different because I’m pairing people up more. So we’re having Neil Gaiman [Graphic novelist] and Amanda Palmer [of the Dresden Dolls], and we’re having some of the most famous rock stars in the world and matching them up with some of the most famous poets in the world,” said Daniel. He said that this year would also incorporate film into the festival in addition to music, writing, and poetry.

Daniel predicted that this upcoming WAM Fest will attract more publicity, partly because of Rosanne Cash’s appearance last year.

“She’s a multi-Grammy winner, a huge deal. We’ve been able to get a lot more famous people to come here,” he said. “She loved her time at FDU and said it was one of her favorite events of the year, and when she tells other stars that WAM Fest is a great thing to do, to be a part of, it really helps. As more and more stars think of FDU as a center for unique and exciting arts events, the better for all of us.”
This year, the festival will separate into four different events due to the availability of performers. “It’s really about these small, intimate events. By publicizing them through film, articles, and so on will help other people along the way,” Daniel said.

The schedule, as well as all of the names of performing artists for this upcoming year of WAM Fest, has not yet been publicized.

To Daniel, it’s not only about having performers come to share their art, but also to truly speak to the students that attend. In addition to performing songs and poetry, performers also talk about how their education influenced their career, and how they got to where they are now. Students will be able to walk away from the festival with a deeper understanding of the people behind the art.

“The whole thing is a giant educational project,” Daniel said, “and I really want WAM Fest to help change the way arts education takes place, not just in our school, but in all schools at every level.”

“Racehorses” by Myndi Smithers. Photo by Kristen Heacock.

KRISTEN HEACOCK
Staff Writer

A watercolor painter and ceramicist, Myndi Smithers is a graduate student at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She has obtained a bachelor’s degree and is pursuing an education degree.

With a charming personality and amazing art pieces, this determined artist plans for art to be her future, as well as the future of others.

After completing her degree, she wishes to teach art to students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, as well as display some of her own art at galleries and studios. The Metro sat down with this up-and-coming artist for an interview:

The Metro: What made you get involved in art?
Smithers: “I’ve always been interested in art. My grandmother was an artist; she probably started me in the dark ages. And when I retired from my first business I was bound and determined to take art classes.”

The Metro: What inspires you to create art?
Smithers: “I’m an extremely visual person so I’m very comfortable in my own skin while doing art … I love being involved with people who love art. I like talking about art. I like going to museums and galleries. So I’m just inspired by the whole lifestyle. … I just like the whole thing. I like being in it.”

The Metro: Are there any artists that you look up to?
Smithers: “My earliest, big inspiration was Rembrandt because I love doing portrait type work and I wouldn’t paint like him. I wouldn’t paint that dark; it wasn’t my look. The main thing that gets me working on a piece, and I’m just driven by the piece, is when I’m doing a portraiture.”

The Metro: What kind of atmosphere do you need while painting?
Smithers: “I love being in a studio! If there [are] a lot of people around I’m very social so I get distracted, like when I’m in class I’m not very productive. … So, it’s got to be quiet. I love music, classical music. I love studios, big windows and natural light and I’m happy as a clam.”

The Metro: What would you say is your best work and why?
Smithers: “I’m doing watercolor of race horses. I love horses and I feel I have a lot of experience with it. I feel like when I do it, I don’t struggle. I feel like I have a lot of freedom with the drawing. I feel very comfortable with watercolors.”

The Metro: Have you had any publicity with your art?
Smithers: “I have many of my paintings in a local studio, where I live in Somerset. I haven’t won anything yet so I don’t know. I had a little sale at the end of school. I wanted to accomplish several things; I sold a lot of stuff.”

The Metro: Where do you imagine your painting career in ten years?
Smithers: “Galleries in New York! I would like to be in a gallery, absolutely, and I would like to be teaching anybody – kids and adults. I’d like to have my own studio.”

The Metro: How would you sum up your style in art?
Smithers: “Naturalistic. I’m more abstract when I do ceramics. When I do abstract with painting, you look at it and say, that’s not quite you. But when I do abstract with ceramics I get some stuff that people go ‘wow.’ I don’t know, I don’t understand it, but I don’t do it in painting. I’m very naturalistic in painting.”

The Metro: Do you find that painting helps people cope with things better?
Smithers: “Absolutely. When you really get going with a piece of art work you lose track of everything that’s bothering you; it absorbs you. Your mind goes to a different place and you become really relaxed and focused and I feel that has a real strong feeling component to it when your mind is just there and your quiet and your focused and this creative element is coming out of you and I think that it’s just very healing.”

KRISTEN HEACOCK
Staff Writer

Fairleigh Dickinson University has added a M.A. program in creative writing and literature for educators.
Martin Donoff, director of this new program, said that the M.A. is geared “specifically for high school teachers” to get their master’s degrees to study and teach literature and creative writing. Donoff also directs FDU’s existing M.F.A. in creative writing program.

The new degree consists of a low residency program in which students will spend three days living on campus. They will then complete coursework online. This allows students to maintain their current jobs.
The new program will begin in June 2010, pending New Jersey state approval, according to its Web site.
Students must complete seven courses. These consist of four writing/critiquing workshops, two literature courses and a foundation course, “Reading Like a Writer.” Specific courses include Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, Contemporary World Litertature and Young-Adult Literature, among others.

Applicants must submit three copies of a personal statement about their ideas on teaching and writing, as well as any relevant work background. Writing samples and recommendations are optional.

“The primary aims of the program are to enhance the understanding of writerly and readerly issues and practices and the connections between the two,” according to the Web site. “In so doing, the program will enhance graduates’ abilities to teach both creative writing and literature.”

Students will receive critiques and feedback from not only readers but other writers as well. They also will receive feedback through their online courses.

Sixteen faculty members are going to be involved in the program, according to the Web site. All of them already teach at FDU at the undergraduate level and/or the M.F.A. program.

According to the Web site, the program costs $9,000 per year in the case of four courses and the one required residency.