By Talia Kliot
As music and art festival lineups begin to flood our timelines, it is easy to wish ourselves away from all the essays and cue cards and instead imagine being in the presence of the the magic of Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Osheaga.
With the Dawson ALC festival coming up from April 29th to May 14th, students can be immersed in the talent that our school has to offer without needing to go far or break the bank. While the festival isn’t a massive outdoor concert, it has many exciting events, all of which the students in the ALC program have been tirelessly preparing.
Leanne D’Antoni, the English and Humanities professor organizing this incredible initiative, describes it as “a celebration and exhibition of student work from its six profiles: Arts and Culture, Cinema-Communications, Interactive Media Arts, Languages, Literature, and Studio Arts.” She explains that the festival will take place over two and a half weeks and will be comprised of 27 different events, as well as recurring exhibits.
The ALC festival not only showcases the work of the students, but also that of teachers and members of the Dawson community. In fact, one eagerly awaited community event is the Montreal premiere of All the Wild Horses, a movie that merited 17 awards at film festivals worldwide. Other interesting gatherings include performances by a professional flamenco dancer and her guitarist, a discussion with the filmmaker Arshad Kahn about his film Abu, the newest play by the Dawson Theatre Collective, a live performance by the band Old Time Honey, and a play written by Philosophy students. Naturally, there will also be art exhibitions, poetry readings, and launches for the Dawson English Journal and the Dawson Creations Journal.
This year, there will be a new alluring addition to spice things up a bit: the Dawscars. The Dawscars are awards that will be given to a member of each class in their final term of the ALC program for exceptional work on their Integrative Activity. Rachel Echenberg’s Studio Projects’ class designed and created these awards as one of their projects this semester. They are individually crafted to suit all the disciplines and involve both an object and a quote. These works of art will be displayed in the case in the corridor on the way to the metro prior to being awarded to the winning students.
If all this isn’t enough incentive to join in on the festivities, some teachers will even be offering a bonus assignment for those who attend an event. All you have to do is write 100 words describing what you saw and relate it to the themes of your course. Just double check with your teacher to see if they are partaking in this assignment!
In order to see the complete events of the ALC festival, you certainly won’t have to search far. A link to the website will appear on the front page of the Dawson website and is also set to be posted on the Dawson’s Facebook page. So, instead of crying over wild celebrity Snapchat stories, appreciate the immense talent of our own community by attending some events at the ALC festival!
You can find the link to the festival at https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/alc-festival.
