Ivy Li

OPINION 3/4/25 10:56pm

Condemn DEI censorship, protect campus research

By Ivy Li

The Office of the Provost announced that Rice’s DEI office will be renamed to the Office of Access and Institutional Excellence on Feb. 28. As a graduate student, I am not privy to the reasons for this rebranding. I hope that, in light of recent federal and state directives and ongoing censorship, it is obvious why I am wary, even if the office claims to continue to promote values of diversity, equity and inclusion while removing these words from its website.

A&E 3/21/23 10:11pm

The environment meets multimedia theatrical performances in EcoStudio

By Ivy Li

Inside the Shepherd School’s Wortham Theater, environmental issues are regularly brought to life in the form of multimedia works. Wortham Theater is the stage for ENST 422: EcoStudio, a space transformed into a multimedia classroom by Kurt D. Stallmann, Director of the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs. Stallmann and his co-instructor Joseph A. Campana, Rice English professor and poet, spent months discussing how to get students to collaborate and engage with environmental issues. The idea for the course was born from these discussions.

A&E 11/29/22 11:25pm

Poets explore intersectional identities

By Ivy Li

On Nov. 18, The Department of Modern and Classical Studies hosted a poetry reading with two award-winning writers: multi-genre writer Leslie Contreras Schwartz (’02) and poet Benjamin Garcia. Having known Schwartz when she was a student at Rice, Aranda invited her, and then she invited her colleague Garcia.

A&E 11/8/22 11:58pm

Review: ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ is hilariously bizarre

By Ivy Li

Eric Appel’s 2010 movie trailer spoof from Funny or Die has expanded into a full-length film “biopic” about and co-written with Al Yankovic. Starring Daniel Radcliffe in a curly wig and colorful Hawaiian shirts, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is hilarious, dramatic and, most importantly, almost entirely fictional.

A&E 10/4/22 11:35pm

Pre-Broadway premiere of ‘Miss Maude’ is changing the status quo

By Ivy Li

Playwright Martin Casella first discovered photojournalist W. Eugene Smith’s photographs of nurse-midwife Maude Callen in a museum. Incredibly moved by her story, Casella wrote the play “Miss Maude” to dramatize the meeting of Smith and Callen. Performed by the A.D. Players at the George Theater through Oct. 23, “Miss Maude” should reach Broadway by spring 2023 through the play’s projected funding, according to producer Bruce D. Long.

A&E 9/27/22 11:48pm

Rice professor’s film explores environmental crises in Bellandur Lake

By Ivy Li

Environmental crises are not typically portrayed as slow in the media, but Sindhu Thirumalaisamy’s award-winning 2019 documentary film, “Kere mattu Kere,” or “The Lake and The Lake,” stands as a counterpoint to the standard environmental activist narrative.