Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
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QView #115 | November 23, 2021
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Queens College people met and mingled on November 16 at the welcome reception for new faculty members. |
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President Frank H. Wu spoke at the reception in the Student Union; last year's event was conducted virtually. |
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Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Hendrey; Interim Associate Dean and Chief Librarian Simone Yearwood; Electronic Resources Librarian and Assistant Professor Sonali Sugrim; Web and Digital Services Librarian and Assistant Professor Robin Naughton.
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If you weren’t in attendance when the Thomas Chen Family/Crystal Windows Endowment was announced on November 10, the entire event—with moving commentary by Steven Chen, President Frank H. Wu, local politicians, and QC student Simmi So, who is majoring in studio art and psychology—is available online. The $1,105,000 endowment, the first major gift to help establish QC’s new School of the Arts, will support Asian contemporary art at the college through exhibitions, student scholarships, and a visiting artist program.
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Putting Stock in the Campus Food Pantry |
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Queens College is making its Knights Table Food Pantry the focus of its Giving Tuesday efforts. Giving Tuesday, which will take place this year on November 30, a week from today, is celebrated annually as a day when people are encouraged to do good in ways that range from performing acts of kindness to making charitable contributions.
“At a time when about 15 percent of CUNY students report that they sometimes go hungry, the Knights Table Food Pantry plays a critical role in reducing their food insecurity,” says Queens College President Frank Wu. “The food pantry serves an average of 60 students per month; many of them come from households earning less than $30,000 a year. With support from Giving Tuesday, the Knights Table will be able to help more students and their families.” From October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021, nearly 2500 individuals/families benefited from Knights Table services.
Queens College established the Knights Table Food Pantry in 2018 to address food insecurity—lack of consistent access to food for an active, healthy life—among the college’s matriculated students. Since the pandemic, the Knights Table extended services to matriculated students at any CUNY campus. In December 2020, the pantry launched a mobile food distribution program, Turning the Table on Hunger, that makes stops in different Queens neighborhoods, handing out packages to students who register in advance. Additional pantry initiatives have included placing “grab and go” bags and vacuum-packed containers of milk and juice on library shelves for students to take as needed, and mailing supermarket gift cards and coupons directly to students who reported food insecurity on surveys.
Students who may be experiencing food insecurity can email KnightsTable@qc.cuny.edu or call 718-997-0393 for quick access to the pantry.
The Knights Table Food Pantry depends on community support. No contribution is too small. To make a gift, donate nonperishable food items, or volunteer your time, please contact the pantry at the same email address or telephone number.
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HAP Show Commemorates Greek War of Independence
With the new online exhibition, 1821-2021 Memories of Liberation Μνημεσ Απελευθερωσησ: Artworks by Ioanna-Maria Giakoumaki and Foteini Panagiotopoulou, QC’s Hellenic American Project (HAP) continues its year-long series of events reflecting on the Greek War of Independence (1821 to 1829). Curated by HAP Director Nicholas Alexiou (Sociology), Memories of Liberation incorporates historical texts, with a second component based on the memoirs of one of the revolution’s leaders. The exhibition seeks to symbolize the revolution as both a complex international event and a multifaceted story of freedom—the freedom of enslaved people and territories, as well as the freedom of spirit and thought.
Giakoumaki and Panagiotopoulou—co-founders of the Greek Myths Monemvasia group, which explores elements of Greek cultural inheritance—used objects, heirlooms, costumes, and passages from the Greek Declaration of Independence to create mixed-media pieces. (The declaration was formally drafted in 1822 by Filiki Eteria, a secret society founded with the aim of liberating Greece.) The foundation of the items in the show is pages from 70- to 80-year-old Greek municipal registers that were originally meant to be recycled. The artists turned the thin, fragile sheets into shapes with embossed or perforated designs, creating fixed forms. In some of the works, iron and canvas-gauze in combination with powders, and sheets of gold and silver, evoke the pieces’ invaluable essence.
Another component of the exhibition offers a new way to perceive and read Visions and Miracles, the 200-year-old memoir by Greek merchant, military officer, politician, and author Yannis Makriyannis, who was pivotal in helping to win the revolution. Using the blackout technique—in which a document is redacted, leaving artistically isolated words or phrases—writer Akrivi Griva created poetry from Makriyannis‘ prose.
HAP, based in the Department of Sociology, documents the Hellenic American presence in the United States from the first wave of mass immigration in 1900 to the present. The only program of its kind in New York City, it operates as a research facility, archive, Greek American library, museum, and event space. Among HAP’s initiatives are recording generational oral histories, analyzing population data, curating and digitizing digital cultural artifacts and publications, and organizing academic symposia and cultural events.
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Dominican Studies Institute Commemorates First African Slave Revolt in the Americas
The first African slave revolt in the history of the Americas took place on the second day of Christmas in 1521 in Santo Domingo—then a European settlement, now the capital of the Dominican Republic. To mark the quincentennial of this event, the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute will host an international virtual conference, the Struggle for Freedom in Española, on December 2-3. Presenters will include Jorge Chinea (Wayne State University), Raymundo González (Archivo General de la Nación, Dominican Republic), Consuelo Naranjo Orovio (Centros de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Spain), José Antonio Piqueras (Universitat Jaume-I, Spain), Doris Sommer (Harvard University), and David Wheat (Michigan State University). To attend, register here.
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Representatives from Investors Foundation and Investors Bank presented a $5,000 check to Queens College on Wednesday, November 17, to support students' internship stipends and professional development. Seen here from left are Zavi Gunn, director of the Center for Career Engagement and Internships; Jennifer Smith, Investors community development officer; Athanasios Barakakis, Investors AVP and branch manager; Nathalia Holtzman, interim associate provost of Student Success and Innovation; and Maria Odysseos, Investors vice president and retail district manager. |
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QC President Frank H. Wu poses with Latin jazz piano powerhouse Eddie Palmieri at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts last Saturday night. In-person concerts and other events are back at QC! |
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Experience music live and in person at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts in December. Black Violin, the classically trained, Grammy nominated duo of Kev Marcus and Wil Baptiste, will perform at KCA for the first time on December 3 at 8 pm. This concert is presented in partnership with the Queens College Student Association and the Office of Student Development and Leadership.
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Heard Around the Virtual Campus |
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