the libertine

the whip sheet of the liberal party

issue seven / 03.03.2002

zero	a message from the secretary Sorry for this late, and short, issue. This week, at long last, is the Nostradamus debate. If you haven’t heard yet, the Discovery Channel is producing a program on the subject “Nostradamus: Fact or Fiction?”, or something. They needed a forum of debate, and they called up our very own Steven Prohaska, or something. So this Thursday, the YPU is bringing in two guests and a camera crew to mull over Our Lady’s legacy, and we’ll get to ask questions, or something. It’ll be marvelous, or something. By the way: want to know what it takes to be an Artist of the Left? Check out Anne Midgette’s featured article in today’s Times: “Responding to Crisis, Art Must Look Behind It.” Then create. –j.s.f.
one	goings on in the liberal party 04.03.2002 / Monday / 05.30 / Lib dinner Join us in Commons at the table under the portrait of George W. Bush. If you need extra incentive, I’ll be displaying a secret dessert concoction. 04.03.2002 / Monday / 07.30 / YPU debate The Yale Political Union’s guest tonight is Lynn Rivers, a Democratic representative from Michigan, who will speak in favor of the resolution “Social security should not be privatized.” Come to Davies Auditorium, which is much more attractive than you think it is. 06.03.2002 / Thursday / 07.30 / YPU Nostradamus debate At long last, you will have the chance to appear on basic cable. Join Jack Latona and Victor Baines, one of whom (I’m not sure which) believes in the prescience of Nostradamus and one who doesn’t. Come see Steven’s maiden television appearance in LC 102.
two	get your government to fund aids prevention programs Boris Volodarsky, one of the amazing Libfrosh, is leading a campaign to convince the United States Congress to contribute its fair share of funding to the United Nations’ AIDS prevention program. If you’d like to see America do its part to fight our generation’s epidemic, then join the movement and send two letters to your Connecticut legislators, Senator Dodd and Representative Delauro. I’ll send the two letters—one of which you can just sign, and one of which you are encouraged to write—in a separate e-mail.
three	artist of the left: tarsila do amaral, painter Brazil’s greatest painter of the twentieth century, Tarsila do Amaral, studied in Paris in the 1920s under Constantin Brancusi, André Lhote, and most markedly Fernand Léger. When she returned to her home in 1923, she gave birth to her nation’s first modern art movement, Pau Brasil; named after the wood that was the nation’s first export, it embraced a nationalistic view and a celebration of rural life. However, Tarsila (who is always referred to by her first name) disapproved of the universalist, anti-intellectual approach that Pau Brasil began to espouse, and she joined with Oswald de Andrade in support of his Manifesto Anthrópofago, which celebrated the human body and sympathized with continental Surrealists. While it was during this period that she produced some of her best paintings, including the absolutely stunning “Antropofagia” that is currently on display in New York, Tarsila soon left this behind as well. Her greatest achievement came afterwards: by taking the artistic style of Pau Brasil and combining it with the Marxist-Freudian ideals of Surrealism, Tarsila created paintings (such as “Operarios,” above) celebrating the worker that were visually arresting and yet free of propaganda. Her works of social realism helped to forge her legacy as the mother of Brazilian modern art: today, artists from Antonio Manuel to Vik Muniz cite her as a major influence.
four	a final thought In my view, the very existence of music is threatened by today’s society’s obsession with communication. —Arvo Pärt