She was actually wearing an amazing pink velvet coat.

Did you know that Columbia has a building called the Lenfest Center for the Arts? Arts Editor Riva Weinstein feels like she probably should have, before she trekked all the way up to 129th St. to attend photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier’s talk, Art as Transformation: Using Photography for Social Change. Oh well.

LaToya Ruby Frazier speaks to us in many voices. One of them is Silvio, an elderly Sardinian man who worked for decades in the coal mine region of Belgium. Then there is his coworker, Emil; his boss, Antonio; and Jean-Claude, whose son died in a mining accident at the age of 9.

Over the course of her two-and-a-half-hour talk, many more voices enter the picture (or rather, emerge from it): the Cobb family, living with poisonous water in Flint, Michigan. Laborers at a collapsing steel company. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Gordon Parks and more offer their opinions on the place of art in society. “It’s not my glory,” says Frazier in reference to a successful exhibit. “I am a messenger.”

Frazier’s stark black-and-white photographs explore the public and private lives of America’s forgotten people: victims of social injustice, health care inequality, environmental degradation, and the all-destructive path of American industries. She aims to reflect real life, the truth that is so often silenced by mass media.

Who else was reflected in Frazier’s talk?

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Sports Editor Abby Rubel brings you the athletics events to keep your eye on this weekend.

Women’s Basketball: The Lions will take on Yale on Friday and Brown on Saturday. Both games will be held in Levien at 7:00 pm—Columbia’s first home games since losing to Cornell at the beginning of the Ivy season. Senior Camille Zimmerman has been dominating this season, leading the Ivy League in points per game, field goals made, and rebounds, to name a few. Unfortunately, the team has only won one Ivy game this season, but Zimmerman is always a pleasure to watch.

Fencing: Columbia’s fencing team will go to the Ivy League Championships on Saturday. Last year, the men placed first (as they’ve done for the last four years, although all have been shared titles) and the women came in second. This season, the men are 3-1 against Ivy opponents, losing only a tough match to Harvard. And after a disappointing loss against Princeton in last year’s championships, the women are looking to regain their place at the top. They’re also going into this weekend with three Ivy victories, neither of them against Princeton.

Women’s Swimming and Diving: The women’s swimming and diving championships will start on Valentine’s Day and run until next Saturday. After a decisive win over Dartmouth, the Lions will look to improve on an otherwise disappointing 2-5 Ivy season and improve over last year’s sixth place standings.

Camille Zimmerman, basketball god via gocolumbialions.com

The Paris Agreement – yay.

The fact that our Earth might suddenly burst into a ball of fire or something close to it has alarmed several nations. On Thursday night, Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy hosted a panel discussion about the future of sustainability in a developing world. Bwog Staffer Angelica Lagasca covers the event. 

Six pm on a Thursday found me, starving out of my wits, on a chair strategically placed in the back of a room in Faculty House. I had been saving my appetite, as the location of the event in the Faculty House seemed promising — one of the most well-kept buildings on Columbia’s billion dollar-endowed campus should be offering some sort of free delicacy, like maybe cheese or even a single cracker. This was not the case. Throughout the presentation, I had to satisfy myself with dust mites.

As the event began, my hunger began to subside in the way that chronic sensations eventually do. Jonathan Elkind, a Fellow and Senior Adjunct Research Scholar at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy, framed the event in its context: when Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, perspectives had to adjust. Now more than ever, we are urged to define the relationship between development objectives and environmental protection, between poverty alleviation and resource destruction.

How can we address energy demand without being our usual First World jerk self?

Valentine’s Day is but a mere five days away, and Bwog is here to help you find your new special someone, your cuddle buddy, your partner in crime, someone you can love as much as PrezBo loves, well, PrezBo. 

Do you spend every Monday night from eight to ten tuning in to ABC’s Bachelor and wishing that you had the opportunity to woo an Arie Luyendyk type of your own? Do you wish you had someone to play footsie with under your favorite table in Butler? Do you just want to prove to your parents that you’re not gonna be single forever? If so, Bwog can help. Personals are due tonight, so do us – and yourself – a favor and get them in as soon as possible.

Shoot us an email with your responses to these questions and a picture of yourself (perhaps your LinkedIn profile picture) by midnight tonight. You just might see yourself highlighted on this here website – and you just might find true love.

The Questions:

Name, Year, School, Major (grad students encouraged)
Preference (girl for girl, etc)
Hometown
Your nightmare date in seven words or fewer
What redeems you as a human being?
Library room of choice
Beverage of choice
Which dating apps have you been active on? (be honest)
Where can you usually be found on a Saturday night?
Historical Hottie

Personals are due tonight, Friday, February 9th, to tips@bwog.com by 11:59 PM EST.

White heterosexual romance via Pixabay.

Happening in the World: Sri Lanka, a nation whose political scheme has historically been dominated by men, recently announced a new quota stipulating that 25 percent of candidates in local elections be women. This marks an important turning point for the nation, where women currently hold only two percent of local gov

Pebbles?

ernment posts, though they make up over 51 percent of registered voters. (New York Times)

Happening in the US: Apparently, a few months ago a woman attempted to board a Spirit Airlines flight from Baltimore to Florida with her emotional support dwarf hamster, Pebbles. When the airline denied her request, rather than head home, she headed to the airport bathroom and flushed Pebbles down the toilet. (Miami Herald)

Happening in New York: Mayor de Blasio recently announced that three banks have donated a total of $40 million to city programs that offer loans to minority and women-owned businesses. (New York Daily News)
Happening on Campus: If you’re a first-year trying to figure out summer plans swing by the John Jay lounge from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm; the Center for Career Education is holding a session on summer planning for first-years.

Tinder Pickup Line of the Day: “Snap me if you wanna see something hot haha”

Image via Pixabay.

PrezBo?

He would probably stop eating Deantini. He also would fit in his Audi.

PrezBo via Bwog Archives