{"id":1625,"date":"2019-05-26T19:49:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T19:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=1625"},"modified":"2019-11-05T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T17:16:09","slug":"the-olivetree-review-celebrates-its-65th-edition-eighties-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2019\/05\/the-olivetree-review-celebrates-its-65th-edition-eighties-style\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olivetree Review celebrates its 65th edition, ’80s style"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The members of the <\/span><\/span>Olivetree<\/span><\/span> Review saluted the attire and the spirit of the \u201870s and \u201880s for their last open mic night of the school year, wearing the side high <\/span><\/span>pony<\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>electric blue eyeshadow to celebrate the 65th edition of the club\u2019<\/span><\/span>s signature event.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span><\/span> student-run literary journal<\/span><\/span>, which<\/span><\/span> featur<\/span><\/span>es<\/span><\/span> s<\/span><\/span>tudent writing and<\/span><\/span> art<\/span><\/span>work, <\/span><\/span>has been a tradition at Hunter College since 1983.<\/span><\/span> It <\/span><\/span>receives anywhere between 300 and 600 submissions<\/span><\/span>\u00a0each semester\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>chooses <\/span><\/span>about 10 percent <\/span><\/span>to publish<\/span><\/span> across all categories; poetry, drama and prose. After the selection process is finalized<\/span><\/span> for literature, students <\/span><\/span>can <\/span><\/span>submit their photography for a chance to be featured on the cover. This semester\u2019s edition features Robert <\/span><\/span>Matejcek<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s <\/span><\/span>photograph<\/span><\/span>, “<\/span><\/span>Tableaux Automatique Pink <\/span><\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/span> Semigloss<\/span><\/span>.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span><\/span>club\u2019s secretary,<\/span><\/span> Meghan <\/span><\/span>Elberti<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> says th<\/span><\/span>e<\/span><\/span> staff <\/span><\/span>creates a very entertaining and spirited environment. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“I was worried about fitting in right away because I’m from Long Island, not from the city,\u201d <\/span><\/span>Elberti<\/span><\/span> said. <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>So<\/span><\/span> it was just a different culture and I was kind of worried about that, bu<\/span><\/span>t with one day of being in the office I just immediately synced in. They’re like family but we work really well together.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The idea behind hosting the open-mic night every semester is to show the Hunter community the wide range of student talent. The acts<\/span><\/span> are mainly speech<\/span><\/span>es,<\/span><\/span> but open mic night is open to all d<\/span><\/span>i<\/span><\/span>f<\/span><\/span>f<\/span><\/span>e<\/span><\/span>r<\/span><\/span>ent expression<\/span><\/span>s of creativity <\/span><\/span>(<\/span><\/span>within reason<\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/span>. Members of the club encourage attendees to get up to the mic and show the audience what art means to them. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey truly show us how much a community<\/span><\/span> we really are and how much <\/span><\/span>Olive<\/span><\/span>t<\/span><\/span>ree<\/span><\/span> has inspired them,\u201d said <\/span><\/span>Srinidhi\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Rao, one of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>journal<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s publicists.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The event, hosted in the glass cafeteria, was considerably crowded for a Wednesday at 7 p.m. The seats continued to fill as the night w<\/span><\/span>ent on. From the start of the event, students were lined up to present their work. The ones willing to go first twiddled their thumbs and wore nervous smiles.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be reading poetry tonight. I started in high <\/span><\/span>school<\/span><\/span> but I’ve always been the creat<\/span><\/span>ive type. I like to write mostly about fantasy things. I\u2019ve come to a couple of open mics and the first times I came alone and didn’t really present,\u201d<\/span><\/span> said<\/span><\/span> Nicol Tannhauser, who plans to double major in media and gender media studies. \u201c<\/span><\/span>First<\/span><\/span> I watched, then I c<\/span><\/span>ame alone and presented once, and now here I’m back again. It was a gradual experience but it’s great to have the opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Many students presenting shared their poetry and songs. The audience <\/span><\/span>listened carefully even though the o<\/span><\/span>utside commotion from the hallways and food table was booming. The staff <\/span><\/span>made an effort<\/span><\/span> to keep everything organized and they worked as a guide for each newcomer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There were ivy leaves hung on the doorways and club members wore olive branch crowns. As <\/span><\/span>the evening went on<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span>ivy leaves were <\/span><\/span>wound<\/span><\/span> in attendees<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span> hair and balloons were tossed around. People became more comfortable as the line for presentation<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span> grew longer. Aside from poetry, many students performed songs. The audience turned their cellphone flashlights<\/span><\/span> on and waved them in the air to melodies being played. The music and vibe <\/span><\/span>was<\/span><\/span> captivating and the room\u2019<\/span><\/span>s excitement<\/span><\/span> rose as the time ticked on.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was planning to present poetry but now I think I’m going to do something a little out of the box. I\u2019ll do p<\/span><\/span>oetry and a song,\u201d said<\/span><\/span> Cat Meza<\/span><\/span> before she took the stage.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span><\/span>Olivetree<\/span><\/span> Review also hosts <\/span><\/span>popular <\/span><\/span>weekly workshops<\/span><\/span> \u2013 run by members of the club — in the arts, including<\/span><\/span> poetry, short story writing, <\/span><\/span>visual <\/span><\/span>art and drama. <\/span><\/span>Emily Molina<\/span><\/span>, who read her poetry that night, <\/span><\/span>said she attends as many\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workshops as she can, and they have helped her become a better writer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/span>I realized you don’t need to only write for school, you can write things for yourself,” <\/span><\/span>said <\/span><\/span>Molina<\/span><\/span>, who started writing in <\/span><\/span>high school. “Poetry doesn’t need to be a sonnet or have to rhyme every line. Once I realized poetry can be fluid, I started writing to express my feelings. A lot of my poems are not dark but not light-hearted, they’re just about my life.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The student-run literary journal has been a tradition at Hunter College since 1983 and receives between 300 and 600 submissions\u00a0each semester\u00a0and chooses about 10 percent to publish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-1625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-olivetree-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1642,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}