Theresa Vu and Tyra Jefferson, 2023 Nagelberg Fellows, Arts Administration graduate students, and organizers of Baruch's presentation of "ENOUGH!" Behind, quilts by Faces Not Forgotten, a social justice visual art project that portrays the number of children, eight per day, disproportionately black, who are killed by gun violence in America.

Tonight, Monday, November 6, the Baruch Performing Arts Center (BPAC) will illuminate its stage as an ensemble of young voices lend dramatic life to one of the most critical issues of our time — gun violence. The production of "ENOUGH!: Plays to End Gun Violence,” a nationwide project presented in collaboration with CAT Youth Theatre, a program of the Creative Arts Team at CUNY, features plays penned and performed by high school students, offering a powerful indictment of the culture of civilian shootings in the United States.

Like much in American politics, the talking points surrounding this issue are well-worn, but this presentation promises to offer audiences a unique point of view. “Despite some preconceptions, teens are very aware and very engaged,” said BPAC Managing Director and career-long high school theatre advocate Howard Sherman. “No one should expect children's plays here. Young playwrights and performers of this age are emotionally connected to the world in a very particular way, and I think that unique perspective, especially on a topic like this one, is informative and valuable.”

“ENOUGH!” brings to the stage a collection of original short plays each lasting around 10 minutes. Out of nearly 250 nationwide submissions, six plays were selected for performance by a prestigious panel of judges, including Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan. Monday’s staging at Baruch is one of approximately 50 simultaneous presentations occurring across time zones, emphasizing the exigency and national scope of the issue.

Tyra Jefferson and Theresa Vu, both 2023 Nagelberg Fellows and current Weissman graduate students in the Arts Administration MA program, played crucial roles in organizing this presentation of "ENOUGH!," exploring the intersection of academic theory and practical application in their work at Baruch. “This is exactly the kind of work I’ve always wanted to do,” said Vu. “Taking art that examines identity — examines uncommon points of view — and finding practical ways to get it made.”

"I think the topic is a very sensitive one,” said Jefferson, “and it was important to us to make sure that when we were talking about it, promoting it, and organizing it, that we were able to be very inclusive of all the different viewpoints out there. This kind of thinking is the at the very core of the work we do in our Arts Admin classes.”

The plays promise just such a mix of diverse perspectives and styles but all are united by their sense of gravity and urgency. Particularly because this year, most of the plays feature adults as main characters, offering a seldom seen vantage point. “What the people who join us will see is how teens perceive adults are handling this situation. This is in contrast to what we normally get hearing only from adult politicians and adult advocates.” Sherman said.

This event is “pay-what-you-wish.” All proceeds received will go to support the Save Our Streets program.

Reserve Tickets Now: on the BPAC website, https://bpac.baruch.cuny.edu, or the Enough! ordering page, https://ci.ovationtix.com/36688/production/1182664. 

Prof. John Maciuika's Lithuanian Architects

By Raven Brookes

Between 1940 and 1990, Lithuania joined the other 14 constituent republics subsumed by the Soviet Union and became an autocratic state. The control of the Communist Party extended to all aspects of life, including the economy, media, education, and architecture. Under these extreme conditions, what was it like to plan, design and build Lithuania’s modern cityscapes? John V. Maciuika, a Baruch Weissman Professor of Art and Architectural History, digs into the foundations of this underexplored world with his second book: Lithuanian Architects Assess the Soviet Era (2020) — bringing together architectural, political, and social history, along with cultural geography, and his perspective as a Lithuanian-American.

Lithuanian Architects is Maciuika’s second contribution to this field of study. His first book, Before the Bauhaus (2005), explored the political, architectural, and artistic cultures of pre–World War I Germany. And in the early 90s, with a DAAD grant under belt, he turned his attention toward postwar Soviet era Lithuania, after being fortunate enough to show up at Lithuania's verified archive just as Lithuanian independence — and, along with it, freedom of speech — were being restored. This set him on a haphazard journey through Lithuania, to meet the four legendary architects responsible for modern Vilinus, Lithuania’s capital — a journey to fulfil his desire to link architecture and agenda.

“My academic interest has always been this crossroads of studying the built environment as a historical lens, to see who’s trying to realize some kind of philosophy or political agenda or propaganda agenda — through what they build, or plan to build. Whether it's museum architecture on Berlin's Museum Island or Hitler's plan for Berlin to turn it into the capital of 1000 Year Reich. And similarly with these gentlemen: what were they trying to say with what they built in Vilinus?”

Now deceased, the four men were Algimantas Nasvytis, Vytautas Edmunas Čekanauskas, Vytautas Brėdikis and Gediminas Baravykas. Lithuanian Architects marks the last interviews with each and offers them a final opportunity to tell their candid stories.

“It comes out in the interviews: these were professionals working under soviet rule, and they recognized that under the Soviet five year plan there would be very little room to maneuver, but the best that they could do was serve as a kind of a buffer between the state and the people, and how this made them design buildings that were qualitatively better for the people who would use them.”

This fully illustrated — and genuinely beautiful — book is as unique as the oral histories it contains. It is fully bilingual, with each page – from the front cover to the index — containing word-for-word English and Lithuanian translations on opposing pages. This contrast reflects on the content itself, partly due to the rarity of the information and imagery, much of it never heard or seen before, but mostly due to the book’s framing by two polarizing architectural history essays. One by Maciuika himself, and one by his Vilnius University counterpart Professor Marija Dremaitė.

It’s in these contrasting essays that this text finds its true originality: one view is distinctly Lithuanian Soviet — from someone who grew up in that place and time — and the other displaying contemporary American influence. As Maciuika remembers,

“When it was released in Lithuania, it stirred up a lot of interest and a lot of debate because the American author is saying one thing, and the Lithuanian author is saying another.”

This is a book that should appeal to history buffs and architecture nerds alike, or anyone who finds any curiosity in the lesser-told. It was called the Iron Curtain for a reason, and this is a unique opportunity to peer behind it.

Buy:Lithuanian Architects Assess the Soviet Era: The 1992 Oral History Tapes here.