This evening, Thursday, Sept. 12, Stony Brook’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) posted on its social media accounts that the university’s annual fall semester concert had been canceled yet again.
This past Thursday, the lights went down in the Island Federal Credit Union Arena and students were treated to the musical styling of 3LAU and Lupe Fiasco for the “Back to the Brook” fall concert .
When Ardit Piroli walked onto Stony Brook campus for the first time last year, he almost immediately started looking for others who shared his passion for producing music.
Kameron Myers and Tzvia Pinkhasov are two graduating pre-med students at Stony Brook whose musical talents gave them the opportunity to perform as an opening act for this year’s Stony Brook Brookfest.
“Gambino! Gambino! Gambino!” It was 6:56 in the evening, the show had not even started and yet the crowd was chanting Childish Gambino’s name over and over. As the night went on, the crowd’s energy level only intensified.
While the overall tone from the Stony Brook community was excitement when it was announced that Childish Gambino and Diplo would be the artists coming to the Brookfest Spring Concert on April 23, I noticed more than a few naysayers around campus critical of USG’s selection of musical artists.
Last year’s spring concert—newly renamed Brookfest—promised performances by Kendrick Lamar and Steve Aoki. However, both artists failed security checks by the Campus Police, who were worried about “slam dancing.” The resulting fallout from the artist change led to a vote of no confidence and near impeachment of then Undergraduate Student Government President Anna Lubitz.
