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Author: Martha J Bekink

Jack Ma to Deliver Commencement Address to the NYU Shanghai Class of 2020

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Jack MaPhilanthropist, entrepreneur, and teacher Jack Ma will deliver the keynote address to the Class of 2020 at NYU Shanghai’s Fourth Commencement on May 29.

Ma, the founder of the global technology company Alibaba Group and the Jack Ma Foundation, recorded his message to the Class of 2020 from his offices in Hangzhou. “It is a pleasure and honor, during this extraordinary time and through this unique way, to join this important moment for the graduates of NYU Shanghai,” Ma said.

Ma’s remarks will be delivered at NYU Shanghai’s virtual commencement ceremonies, which will be livestreamed beginning at 20:20 (8:20 p.m.) China Standard Time.

“Jack Ma’s words to this class will no doubt serve as inspiration to our graduates as they pursue their careers and dreams in the future,” said NYU Shanghai Chancellor Yu Lizhong.

For his innovative and inspiring achievements in business and philanthropy, particularly his recent leadership in helping communities and countries around the world fight COVID-19, Chancellor Yu Lizhong, Vice Chancellor Jeff Lehman, Provost Joanna Waley-Cohen and Associate Vice Chancellor Ding Shuzhe also presented Ma with the NYU Shanghai Chancellor’s Medal of Honor. 

“The Chancellor’s Medal recognizes Jack Ma’s cosmopolitan spirit and his sustained efforts in the domains of education, sustainability, and philanthropy. We are especially grateful for the support he has provided to New York during the pandemic crisis.” said Vice Chancellor Jeff Lehman.

In 1999, with 17 colleagues working in his Hangzhou apartment, Ma launched Alibaba.com, an English-language website to help Chinese small businesses reach the global marketplace. That single website grew into the Alibaba Group, a global leader in e-commerce, logistics, big data, cloud computing, and entertainment that is transforming the way people live and work.  

Ma stepped down as Alibaba’s Executive Chairman in 2019 to dedicate his time to philanthropic endeavors. He currently serves as a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum, president of the General Association of Zhejiang Entrepreneurs and chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club. He was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as co-chair of the UN High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation in 2018.  

Ma graduated from Hangzhou Normal University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English education and worked for six years as an English teacher before becoming an entrepreneur.  

NYU Buenos Aires Director Anna Kazumi Stahl on Coping with Uncertainty by Understanding Collectivist Cultures

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Anna Kazumi Stahl giving talkCan learning from other cultures inspire resilience in challenging times? NYU Buenos Aires Director Anna Kazumi Stahl believes so and recently gave a TEDx talk on Japanese cultural codes as appropriate inspiration for social distancing. She has now been asked by TED to participate in the main conference this year as one of the foreign language contributors. This year’s main event, on May 23, to be conducted entirely remotely, will feature Kazumi Stahl as one of its Spanish-speaking presenters.  

Kazumi Stahl’s original talk, How Collectivist Cultures React to the Pandemic, was organized by TEDxRiodelaPlata, a TEDx group in Buenos Aires that functions as a think tank which focuses on community engagement through their events. Her history with the group dates back to 2013, when she was asked to explore her own identity and her choice to write in a foreign language. A fiction writer and scholar of comparative literature, Kazumi Stahl, the daughter of a Japanese mother and a father of German descent father, is an American citizen who calls Buenos Aires home, and writes primarily in Spanish.

As Argentina began its program of isolation and social distancing in response to COVID-19, TEDxRiodelaPlata was invited by Argentine national public television to select eight speakers that could help people consider the positives of  the situation. 

Kazumi Stahl’s talk – which is available online with subtitles here – explores the ideas which inform collectivist cultures, and considers  how to interpret certain behaviors as gestures of respect or closeness. The aim of this talk was “to consider other cultures so as a way to offer encouragement or hope for those feeling overwhelmed or afraid.” 

Among the Japanese cultural codes that Kazumi Stahl considers are:

Hedatari Distance “Rather than a coldness, this gesture conveys acknowledgement of the other as not to be invaded or imposed upon, as if saying, ‘I see you.’ Japanese culture doesn´t call for an immediate physical intimacy like handshaking […]; instead things begin with a conscientious giving of space, respectfully interacting, and then over time and with the right conditions closeness may arise.”
Wa Harmony “[A]cross cultures we experience ways of connecting ourselves to larger entities we are a part of, such as the bonds signalled by a Mets cap, a national team jersey at the Olympics, or even the NYU torch. In Japan this concept of ‘wa’ extends to a societal level. And individuals are deeply motivated to help maintain the broader harmony.”
Amae Dependency “This is the idea of relying personally on the interconnectedness of individuals, so it is a deeply rooted notion in a collectivist culture. It leads to the expectation, indeed the confidence and trust, that other people will take of me and that I will take care of them.”

“One of the things that emerges from working across lines of cultural differences,” she explains, “is that you become more embracing of not knowing.” Kazumi Stahl believes that not knowing  is among what is most challenging now and that this is also true of working interdisciplinarily. “It requires you to have respect for other disciplines,” according to Kazumi Stahl, “because without it, your work will become superficial.” 

When she is not teaching, Kazumi Stahl dedicates most of her time to creative writing, and notes that her background in working at the intersection of disciplines and cultures has proven to be very helpful during this global health crisis. 

“There is a very key aspect of the creative process that may be deeply impacted by a crisis like this, but that also provides a space where you can process it,” Kazumi Stahl says. “Writing and art is a means for allowing emotions to emerge and take shape. There is a great deal of resilience in the imaginative forces of literature and the other arts that we can rely on again as a place to imagine possible futures.”

 
 
 
 

NYU Washington DC Student Tracey Lan Shares her COVID-19 Experiences

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Tracey LanStudying abroad can be a time of great transition and growth, perhaps all the more so when plans are interrupted. For one student, focusing on recording the details of her COVID-19 experiences has become a way to not only document this time for herself, but also to connect with and encourage others. Tracey Lan, a Global China Studies sophomore from NYU Shanghai planning to minor in Business and Social Science, is studying away in NYU Washington, DC this semester. She returned home to China because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been vlogging (video blogging) about her departure from DC, quarantine,and her mental health.

Tracey initially chose to study in Washington DC “for all its wonderful museums, its cherry blossoms, its livable environment (which is all shown in my NYU DC vlogs!).” She was also keen to learn more about American politics in the nation’s capital, to explore career interests through the internship program, and to learn to lead through the Global Leadership Program. 

Tracey started vlogging last year in NYU Shanghai to record her experiences. “I wanted to vlog so that I can always go back to those days in the future, even when I am very very old — I love the idea of nostalgia,” says Tracey. The positive feedback and comments from friends and followers further inspired her to develop content that may be encouraging or informative for others, she adds. For her COVID-19 vlogs specifically, Tracey says she had a “sense of a mission to communicate” because she noticed a great deal of misunderstanding and a lack of information about what was happening in China. She wanted to show “the real life of a Chinese student impacted by COVID-19 in order to have a better sense of China during the pandemic,” and says she hopes that her vlogs will “inform, inspire people, and cheer them up.”

Tracey also feels as though she has been relatively fortunate. Despite a turbulent journey home, she believes she missed the worst of the pandemic in both China and in the US. Tracey also said she feels very fortunate for the support she received from NYU Washington, DC. Tracey’s time in mandatory quarantine was especially brightened when she received the news that she was a recipient of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellowship.

These experiences have strengthened Tracey’s belief that everyone has the right to global education. Reflecting on what people think and say about COVID-19 pandemic which she has experienced in both the Chinese and US settings, Tracey has a sense of purpose. She wishes to engage actively in global education in the COVID-19 situation, that enlightens people to pursue knowledge and approach global issues from a less self-centered, more respectful and sympathetic perspective. 

Watch Life Talks (You Tube)

Rich History of Australian Distance Learning Prepares NYU Sydney for New Modes of Education

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Australia

It had already been a most unusual summer in Sydney with once-in-a-generation bushfires grabbing global headlines. But as the fires began to subside, Australia faced a new challenge — the arrival of the COVID-19 virus.

Although Sydney was one of the last of NYU’s global sites to be closed, the spread of COVID-19 meant an inevitable movement to new modes of learning. According to the Times Higher Education, higher education is “pivotal” to Australia’s economy, contributing an estimated $66 billion to it each year. Thus the shift to moving to distance model in response to COVID-19 was hugely consequential not just for NYU Sydney, but all higher education institutions in Australia.

Australia actually has a long history of distance learning. “The School of the Air,” a generic term for teachers catering to children in remote and regional Australia has been in operation since June 8, 1951. In the early years of delivery, lessons were originally sent via the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Alice Springs, with classes later conducted via shortwave radio. The modernised service now sees students typically receiving one hour of face-to-face learning from teachers before spending the remainder of the day working through problems and content with family members. The service is sometimes affectionately called “the biggest school in the world” considering “classrooms” consist of roughly only 120 students spread over 1.3 million square kilometers. “The Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has also utilised distance learning to service its Indigenous students,” notes Petronella Vaarzon-Morel, an anthropologist who teaches at NYU Sydney.

Petronella Vaarzon-MorelVaarzon-Morel was in the Northern Territory for field work at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, and was able to smoothly transition to delivering lectures online. Vaarzon-Morel notes that she has made the most of her situation of continuing classes remotely from the Northern Territory. She is planning a socially-distant, in-person Q and A at Charles Darwin University with anthropologist Dr. Lisa Stefannoff, an NYU alum, and NYU students via Zoom. Stefannoff has worked on Indigenous screen production, broadcasting, and community arts in Alice Springs for the last 15 years. Vaarzon-Morel also recently recorded an interview with senior lawyer David Avery from the Central Land Council, an Indigenous community organization that represents the Indigrous people in land issues. 

Fran Molloy, an NYU Sydney instructor for Environmental Journalism has been pre-recording one-on-one interviews with local experts to supplement her lecture material. 

“I have been fortunate that two journalists who wrote articles I had assigned as readings, were willing to speak to me on Zoom about how they wrote the story, what their challenges were, and even offer some tips for students who have feature articles coming up,” she says.

“Both writers live in distant parts of Australia so it would normally be tricky to get them into a classroom. It feels like the virtual classroom (despite its many disadvantages) has given us the opportunity to break down the distance barrier.”

The class also had the opportunity to speak to leading water scientist Bradley Moggridge, whose work combining the traditional knowledge of his Aboriginal ancestors with western science has been groundbreaking in Australia.

San Souci Community GardemNYU Sydney has also hosted online field trips, with one class having a virtual tour of traditional aboriginal fish traps. Molloy recently organised a socially-distant personal video tour of a local community garden, tailored for NYU Sydney students by the founder. A portion of Fran Molloy’s virtual field trip to the San Souci Community Garden can be viewed via NYU Stream here.

Marcus Neeld, Assistant Director of Student Life at NYU Sydney has also worked at continuing to maintain community beyond the classroom. “Strong relationships between staff and students have been the hallmark of the NYU Sydney experience,” he says. 

“Our team has been challenged to maintain these relationships with students across multiple time zones. As we transitioned to remote learning, our team has been available to provide consistent individualized support. More broadly, we have moved our programming online, replacing previously familiar in-person meeting places with virtual meeting rooms and online hangout spaces. We have introduced relaxation programming and we regularly host friendly virtual competitions and opportunities for students to share with us their homes, pets, hobbies, and study spaces. NYU Sydney’s Wellness Counsellor, Dr. Lauren Stahl continues to support students on an individual basis, and student leaders are encouraged to continue making their valuable contributions.”

NYU Berlin Lecturer Colin Self on Making Distanced Experimental Music

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Colin SelfNYU Berlin Lecturer Colin Self was on a ten-day trip in Mexico when the COVID-19 crisis broke. His ten-day trip has become a multi-month journey, though the composer and choreographer continues to teach his NYU Berlin course, Experiments in the Future of Performing and Producing, from Mexico City.

Self, who teaches in the Clive Davis Institute program in Berlin, explores themes related to expanding consciousness, troubling binaries, and boundaries of perception and communication, and his teaching is focused on the “exchange of energies” in the classroom. His class has a virtual live performance coming up on May 15. Details are in the flyer below.

1 – What inspired you to teach at NYU Berlin? How have you found the experience?

I was really fortunate to have met Jason King, Associate Professor and the founding faculty member of The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music who developed the international study abroad program Clive Davis Institute x Berlin. After some initial conversations, he invited me to submit a performance syllabus. With some dialogue, Jason generously approved and I jumped right into teaching. It immediately felt like I was on the right path, in the right place. Performance is my life and getting to build and share ideas about what it is and what it can be is an ongoing practice. The experience has been incredibly inspiring, from the first class into the current class. One of the best things about teaching is the perpetual learning experience that occurs in all directions, with dialogue unfolding into new territory every term. Perceiving and experiencing the world of music and performance through the eyes of artists who are 20 and 21 years old folds back into my own learning of what the future of music and performance will be.

2 – Prior to the COVID-19 crisis did you have any experience with remote learning / teaching?

No, this is all fairly new to me.

3 – How have you found the transition? How do the classes work?

flyerIt was certainly a challenge at first try to think about performance as something that we could be in dialogue about over distance. So much of the class is about this kind of vis-à-vis energetic exchange between all of us in the laboratory of watching and responding to performance. As a perfmonance-maker that is really something that I cherish about performance pedagogy. The IRL [in real life] experience. It has required a great amount of re-imagining with a lot of care being put into presenting alternatives; asking questions about how the psychological and emotional conditions of this experience also affects art-making and performance.

It took a couple of weeks to get into the flow of things, but actually turned out to be a wonderful bonding experience for the group. So often this class is about connectivity and creating mutually supportive relationships students have with each other and each other’s art-making.

4 – I noticed that you developed a new syllabus for a Zoom course and specifically pivoted to “explore the canon of experimental art made during pandemics, global crises, and how individual and collective limitations can activate opportunities to experiment and grow as artists.” Can you comment about that? Can and will great art come of this?

One of the most fruitful things that happened as COVID was unfolding was engaging with others about what it might mean to make art in this time. It started with a letter by California College of the Arts Dean of Fine Arts Allison Smith about art being made during crises and the role artists have to heal and process our collective experiences. I was then in conversation with Jason King about the AIDS crisis and trench art and the really deep emotional history we have on this planet of artists making work under challenging circumstances. Quite often history shows us that some of the most grave circumstances brought forth some of the most inspiring and evolutionary art-making. Now that we are seeing the amplification of care as a priority, and the distribution of resources to people who do not have as much, the creative landscape is changing. 

5 – Have you or the students learned anything – whether academically or personally – that you might not have done in a classroom?

Colin SelfOne of the biggest lessons for me and so many others I’ve been in communication with has been the vitality of live performance and public assembly, and what a source of inspiration and energy that is to us both individually and collectively. Performance has always been a real life process of dreaming a better, different world into reality. Without that energetic interaction, I’ve realized what a treasure those experiences are and how there is really no replacing that over digital experiences.

6 – Anything else you would like to share?

I could say how deeply grateful I am for the interdependence and care that has appeared among colleagues both at NYU and other schools, to be in conversation with the present day circumstances, working together to re-imagine both our pedagogy and how to move forward together in a way that acknowledges and incorporates our collective condition. The problem-solving together, especially in regards to something like performance, continues to be one of the most inspiring experiences I’ve had at NYU – seeing across distance and difference, everyone working together to nurture our shared process of teaching.

NYU Prague Professor Leads Music Education Students in Engaging Locally

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Klara with instrumentsKlára Boudalová is a teaching and performing artist, scriptwriter, and concert presenter. She teaches Foundations of Music Education at NYU Prague, a course with a syllabus she describes as “practical” and which involves community engagement because she always wants “her students to make a difference.” This year, she had planned for the students in her course to work with children in Prague on a musical project.

Klára’s focus on connecting students with the Prague community through music is consistent with her own work. She is an accomplished musician and music educator. For the past twelve years, she has worked for The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra as a creative author of education and outreach programs, working mostly with school groups and families (chamber and orchestral concerts, workshop series), young aspiring artists (masterclasses and discussions) and music teachers (leading a professional development project Music for Schools).

As an educator, Klára has designed outreach programs for many professional and student orchestras. She has also written a series of twelve audiobooks entitled “Don’t be Afraid of the Classics” which became a best-selling, award-winning, nationwide classroom music teaching tool in the Czech Republic. An early music soprano and a lover of swing and Irish folk music, at NYU Prague Klára helps students find their own passions for and styles within the field of music education.

Klara Boudalová with childrenFor her class this year, instead of being able to work together with children in Prague on a project, NYU Prague students are now designing their own projects. According to Klára, “Each student was asked to connect with their local community – find kids who are bored at home or reach out to former teachers – to find something beneficial that can be done through music.” In redesigning the course, she realised that there are currently many people who could benefit from support and so she asked students to design projects relevant to the COVID-19 situation in which children must stay home. The students were encouraged to use their creativity when designing their projects.

 The Foundations of Music class is meeting twice a week at 9:00 – 10:30 pm local time for Klára, which works only because Prague’s cultural institutions are closed so she is not performing in concerts. But with students now joining from China, Alaska, and everywhere in between, this was the best time. Teaching remotely to a global cohort means that “the students have a lot more academic responsibility now,” according to Klára. “Originally they would have developed their projects with me present, guiding them in their lessons, but now they have to respond on their own. I have one-on-one mentoring sessions with them to track their process.” She has been impressed with how well the students are doing on their own.

iPad showing piano keys and maskThe students are also actively sharing with one another and with Klára in the class meetings and are creatively approaching their local musical engagement. Students began by exploring tools to facilitate virtual music education, such as online learning apps and videos. They are also generating their own ideas. For example, teaching children how to make homemade instruments out of pots or other materials they would find at home and then composing music with their home-made instruments. Klára is pleased with the interactive aspect of the class, despite not being able to meet in person. “We are all tracking each others’ research and progress through a shared google drive folder with videos that the students are making. Everyone is recording videos and reacting.” Klára and her students are creatively making the most of a challenging time.

The results have shown that Klára and her students are all doing what they can “to make this better.” Students have recorded cute videos for family singing and home dancing. Others have started a home disco project or are teaching vocal warm up techniques to singers so the do not loose their sound quality during lockdown. One student, Valesca Gongora, a Steinhart sophomore majoring in Music Education, created an online choir and together they recorded a song video dedicated to health care workers. The choir recorded “Shed a Little Light” by James Taylor, which Klára calls “amazing, touching, emotional and incredibly inspiring.” You can have a listen here.

Valesca “immediately knew” that she wanted to organise a virtual choir when the class shifted to remote learned and the students had to develop projects. “During quarantine,” says Valesca, “I’ve seen people turn to the arts for support and comfort. As a music education major, that was such a beautiful thing to me. My goal was to put together a meaningful project that had the power to take our minds off of the craziness of the world for a few minutes. Music truly brings people together and can make us feel connected while we are social distancing.” She also feels that it is important for people to have a creative outlet during this time of uncertainty and fear and that music can provide a sense of normalcy. “It makes us all feel connected,” Valesca emphasises. “Working on this project has taught me that communities can still unite during this time of social distance, we just have to make adjustments and be creative.”

Klára has also been making the most of this time outside the classroom and music. She is currently staying with her parents in South Bohemia and making homemade masks for local medical facilities. She has sewn over 150 of them so far and has become quite good at it.

NYU Berlin Offers Virtual Tour of Humboldt Forum

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view out the window of Humboldt Forum

NYU Berlin recently sought to foster community by giving students a unique opportunity to stay connected to Berlin through a virtual tour of the Humboldt Forum. The Humboldt Forum has not yet opened to the public, but NYU alum, NYU Berlin lecturer, architect and art historian Tarek Ibrahim was able to lead the tour.

For those unfamiliar, the Humboldt Forum is the largest cultural project under construction in Germany. In its own words: The Humboldt Forum opens in phases beginning in September 2020 as a unique place of experience, learning and encounter in the heart of Berlin. Discover the world and immerse yourself in the exhibits, marvel at the remarkable fusion of Baroque and contemporary architecture, visit restaurants and cafes, gaze out from the rooftop terrace over the panorama that stretches to the Brandenburg Gate, find inspiration in concerts, readings and discussions, and dive into Berlin’s multifaceted present and past.

Tarek graduated from NYU in 2000, before NYU Berlin existed. He came to the German capital in 2008 and worked for four years as practicing architect at Sauerbruch Hutton, one of Europe’s most innovative firms. In 2012, he decided to obtain a second master’s degree in Art and Architectural History at Humboldt University of Berlin. During this time, he became involved with NYU Berlin. Shortly after submitting his thesis, he began work as a research associate for the founding directors of the Humboldt Forum, where he continues to this day. In addition to his full-time work at the Forum, he is pursuing his PhD.

Hallway at Humboldt ForumTarek first began teaching at NYU Berlin as an assistant lecturer in an architecture course with emphasis on “graphics, the basics of design, text and image.” After joining the Humboldt Forum team, Tarek stepped back from the course, but remained affiliated with NYU Berlin, taking the lead in organizing learning journeys for students, excursions, and teaching J-term courses in Berlin, Hamburg, and Potsdam.

In his Berlin learning journeys, Tarek strives “to contrast the classic and contemporary official representations of Berlin since reunification – the museums, cultural and historical institutions, opera houses, universities and libraries  – with what modern Berlin is really known for – decadence, its rough edge, and vibrant nightlife.” The move from curated architecture and representation to the more intense underbelly of Berlin can sometimes be jarring for students, but it is always illuminating. “There are two sides of the city” according to Tarek, “and one cannot be understood without the other.” Berlin needs its darker side, a descendant of the city’s well-known hedonism during the 1920s and later its Cold War division, as much as it needs the curated “official” representation. Tarek was leading excursions through mid-March before COVID-19 prompted the cancellation of his Potsdam and Dresden trips and the transition to online learning.

statutes being placed in Humboldt ForumTarek feels it is important to remind students that they will again have the chance to see iconic places in Berlin and beyond. “The opportunity and ability to discover are not lost, but merely on hold. Nothing lasts forever.” This is partially why he was glad to offer students an exclusive glimpse inside the Humboldt Forum. Currently under construction, there is no access to the building for anyone not directly involved in the process. After obtaining the requisite permissions, Tarek was able to offer an insider tour.

The tour also demonstrated that learning and exploration continues at NYU Berlin. We have all adapted our behaviors because of the pandemic, but we will go on. Shot on an iPhone which provided an ad hoc, gritty feel, Tarek offered a slightly unpolished but all the more exclusive look into the world of the Humboldt Forum by leading viewers through the building. He selected a sequence of rooms, sometimes needing one of the countless keys to gain access to off-limits spaces. Covering all the key features of the building, he shared some of the projects he is personally working on and showed views from particular windows or points in the building. He concluded the tour on the roof which offers – hands down – the best view over the city, from the Soviet-style apartment blocks of the former East to the illustrious neoclassical buildings on the Museum Island and Unter den Linden, and as far as the abandoned US spy station on the “Devil’s Mountain.” in the West. This concluding image conveyed to the students that “Berlin is still here and it will all be here for you when you come back.”

Berlin skylineTarek hopes to remind students that Berlin and all it has to offer will not disappear. It will all be there when and if students take the opportunity to return whether through study, internships, or travel. By then the Humboldt Forum should be open. Although this has been a challenging time, even in the face of adversity, we endure. Tarek also hopes that we all might find some perspective in this pause. Recalling Douglas Adams, he noted “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

We do not yet know where life after COVID-19 will take us or how it may change us, but finding ways to reflect, stay connected with one another, and continuing to explore may help us be open to possibilities. NYU Berlin’s virtual tour is a lovely example of just that.

NYU London, Tisch, and RADA Modernize Shakespeare in a Virtual Performance

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students actingNYU London’s intensive Shakespeare in Performance course involves sixteen actors who audition for their places and who train at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The course, part of a long-standing partnership between NYU London, Tisch, and RADA, always concludes with the performance of a Shakespeare play. When COVID-19 necessitated the move to distance learning, both students and instructors were determined that the show must go on.

In a normal semester, the students train at RADA for full days on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays throughout the term. The training culminates in two full-time weeks of rehearsals and a final performance of the Shakespeare play. This final performance is always organised such that students share roles so that each actor has approximately the same number of lines and stage time. It is usually an intense and intimate experience.

Course Director Geoff Bullen, in collaboration with his RADA colleagues, has chosen to see this forced change of approach as an opportunity to experiment. This year, RADA’s Gary Lagden, whom Geoff calls  “an exceptional teacher / director,” with whom only half of the students had a chance to work with before NYU London closed, will direct an abridged Coriolanus, tailored to video. According to Geoff, “The plan is to take advantage of the format (and its inevitable unevenness) and have the play be devised as a kind of samizdat, an underground or revolutionary kind of action, but still with a keen focus on language, imagery, and delivery. It could be ideal for editing into a showcase.” The virtual performance will be delivered via NYU Zoom.

Instead of two weeks rehearsing together in person, the students will put the performance together over four days of intensive rehearsals. Director Gary Lagden is “really excited about this production.” Having never directed an online Shakespeare play before, he is enthusiastic about the challenge and looking forward to working with the students, saying “my mind has been wonderfully active with ideas.” The challenge, according to Gary, is to in four days create a performance of Coriolanus that “uses the voice as the tool of communication” with the actors “using their own vocality to create scene, mood and character.” He believes it will be both demanding and fun.

Meanwhile, before the rehearsals commence, the training classes that provide the foundation for this final performance are underway. Students in this course are taking on Shakespeare together from around the world. RADA tutor Adrienne Thomas has been very impressed with how constructively the students are working, saying, “I’ve been happily reminded of what a delightful group they are, supportive, bright and imaginative with a real commitment to the work.” She has also seen improvements in their work as they develop their connection to language through breath, body and voice. Although not anticipated, she and others are finding the virtual learning a meaningful experience. “I’m very moved at our ability to communicate over these great distances and at this difficult time. Long may we continue to explore what we share as human beings and what unites us, through the medium of Shakespeare’s wonderful language.”

Marie Kallis, a Tisch junior majoring in Drama, has found the transition to remote learning “fairly smooth” and also inspiring. Marie had known she wanted to study at RADA since she was a freshman because she “adores Shakespeare” and was “really eager to study his worth with the RADA faculty.” Having been looking forward to the experience for so long, Marie was disappointed when she had to leave London but has found the NYU London and RADA teams “have done an excellent job putting together a course for us online and my classmates have continued to stay motivated and engaged, which is such a positive energy and outlook to have.” Although “studying acting is super challenging over Zoom because it primarily relies on being present with your partner(s)”, there have been some opportunities presented by remote learning. Marie appreciates the many individual tutorials, which she finds “immensely beneficial.”In addition, they have found ways to continue some classes that would seem impossible over Zoom, including a Physical Performance class.

Zoom classMarie feels that remote learning has provided some unique learning opportunities: I have definitely acquired some tools and techniques that I’ll carry throughout my work. For example, in our physical performance class, it’s been so freeing to not be able to see my classmates or myself on the screen. I feel the freedom to move without ever worrying about if what I’m doing is “incorrect” based on what other people in the class are doing.”And, during our presentations, Zoom made it possible for me to feel like my scene partner and I were the only two in the room, as we couldn’t see the rest of the faculty. And, that’s how it should always feel – feeling present in the moment with who is on stage with you and having an awareness that the audience is there, but throwing all the judgement and the feeling like you’re being “watched” out the window. 

All are optimistic that the course work will pay off. As the training continues and preparations for the final performance commence, Director Gary Lagden is hoping to explore theatrical truth through the screen. “The glory of this new digital restriction being mined and exploited to create a creative constraint that can achieve a true synthesis of performer and sound. This production will be in close up. It will be necessarily low tech and edgy. It will aim for truth and transformation. The wonderful work that the actors have undertaken with the RADA tutors now being the foundation of this performance.”

Marie is similarly enthusiastic about the online production. The final show is something all the students look forward to, so she was “thrilled” to learn it would go forward and finds it “really thoughtful of our faculty to make this possible for us.” Although it has “definitely been an adjustment to perform via the camera and work out all the technical kinks that come with an online production,” Marie is grateful to work with “an amazing director” who is Gary Lagden, who we were all so excited to work with again. He is “really making this process worthwhile.”

Understanding the challenges of an online performance, Geoff and Gary and the students have chosen to embrace the challenge and not aim for perfection in this unique, shared event. They will celebrate the happy accidents in performance and technical blips. Gary’s vision is that, “We will work together to tell this tale; we will challenge ourselves to be present and heroic in action.”

NYU Florence Joins Florentine Cultural Institutions in Going Virtual

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artNYU Florence’s Villa La Pietra has remarkable collections of art, music, books, and a beautiful garden. It will now be sharing these treasures virtually, having joined the local  #museichiusimuseiaperti campaign, which involves Florentine museums and cultural institutions, with the hashtag #ActonsGoingVirtual. A new story or insights from the NYU Florence collection will appear regularly on the Villa La Pietra website and on the Instagram account. 

At this time of forced isolation, the campaign allows Villa La Pietra to be open and available virtually as a site of learning, exchange, discussion and meaning. Francesca Baldry, Acton Collection Manager at Villa La Pietra believes this “befits” the Villa, which has been welcoming visitors, both foreign and local, since the Renaissance. Villa La Pietra was bequest to NYU by the Acton family. According to Francesca, “the Actons were masters at welcoming guests from all over the world and always had great stories.” While welcoming guests to Villa La Pietra, the Actions fostered a sense of intellectual community and shared their passion for culture and ideas at the heart of their vision for NYU Florence.

room from VillaVirtually opening the doors of Villa La Pietra and sharing the collection in this way is a continuation of a tradition started by the Actons and continued by NYU Florence. The stories will feature Acton family members, events that have happened at Villa La Pietra, objects from the collection, books, photographs, or rooms in the Villa or locations in the garden. This will also be an interactive initiative, with readers and viewers having an opportunity to share their own stories. Francesca is excited about this aspect of the initiative, saying, “Culture doesn’t stop, stay with us, and tell us your novella!” She adds that “the series will also remain on our website as a memory of our resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when we have used culture and our imagination to feel vital despite forced physical isolation.”

NYU’s Shanghai Community Sends Supplies to Help NYC’s Fight Against COVID-19

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

masks being shippedAs New York City’s hospitals fill with coronavirus patients and medical staff struggle with shortages of personal protective equipment, NYU’s Shanghai community has pulled together to support New Yorker’s  in their fight against the pandemic, sending some 17,000 masks to NYU New York.

Last week, a group of NYU New York parents who are based in Shanghai purchased some 10,000 N95 masks to help protect medical workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 at NYU Langone Medical Center. NYU Shanghai, with the help of a school donor who paid shipping costs, arranged for those masks to be delivered to New York City. NYU Shanghai also shipped separately some 4,000 N95 masks from its own stockpile to colleagues in New York.     

“Even if we are thousands of miles away, we still feel anxious and want to do something to help,” said one of the parent donors, who wished to remain anonymous. “As members of the NYU family, we hope that New York University will be alright, New York will be alright, and America will be alright.”

Vice Chancellor Lehman said he was moved by the parents’ generosity. “The bonds of affection between China and the US can produce tremendous benefits for the world,” he said. “We are proud of and grateful to these devoted members of the NYU community for stepping forward to help NYU Langone’s healthcare workers in this hour of need.” 

masks arriving in NYC

10,000 N95 masks donated by Shanghai-based parents of NYU New York students arrives at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City on April 7.

Tuesday’s delivery was the latest in a series of protective equipment donations that has streamed across the Pacific from Shanghai. As the “hot zones” of the coronavirus pandemic have shifted away from China to New York and elsewhere, NYU Shanghai has drawn from its own resources to help fellow NYU Global Network members in Washington Square.

 Over the past several weeks, in addition to the N95 masks, NYU Shanghai staff in Student Health, Finance, Public Safety, and the office of the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor have sent a combined total of 3,000 medical and disposable masks to colleagues at NYU New York. 

NYU Shanghai is paying forward the generosity that flowed to the campus during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. The university received 850 disposable masks from NYU New York in early February, in addition to several hundred pairs of gloves, 20 protective suits, and thermometers. Corporate donors and NYU Shanghai faculty members also donated another 21,000 masks and other monitoring and protective equipment to the campus throughout February and March.  The community also came together quickly in the Light a Lantern project in February to raise more than U$50,000 to assist the people of Wuhan in their fight against the virus. 

 

This post comes to us from NYU Shanghai. You can find the original here.