Eight months ago, Siena Giacoma PZ ‘27 got some shocking advice — “You don’t matter.” In her final edition of Office Hours for the Soul, Giacoma reflects on her series of professor interviews from this year, discussing how they taught her to write like no one is watching.
Arts & Culture
Noise from the Underground: Flea fuses rock and jazz in ‘Honora’
Flea, the founding and long-lasting member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, just released his first solo album ‘Honora’. Andrea Miloshevska PO’ 28 discusses the unexpected and refined jazz soundscapes, the bassist’s rediscovery of his childhood love for be-bop and the trumpet, and the heartfelt meaning of self-knowledge and discovery, at the heart of the record.
Stories Retold: What makes stories stick? Five authors take on fiction
What is it about great stories that compels us to tell them over and over again? Ava Chambers PO ’28 examines five essential elements of compelling stories from five fiction authors: Donna Tartt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov and Chinua Achebe.
The Claremont Orientalist: White men at the 5Cs who only pursue women of color
“Ugh, look who just passed by.” “Who?” “The guy with the Asian fetish.” “Which one?” I wish this weren’t a real exchange I had with my friends. Unfortunately, there are too many white men on campus who share a reputation for exclusively pursuing women of color. I decided to interview
OBSA’s Black Visionary Fund uplifts student creativity at DAWN fashion show
On Friday Apr. 10, the Office of Black Student Affairs, in collaboration with the Benton Museum of Art, hosted DAWN: Blaremont Fashion Show. The show was co-designed by Biruk Gizaw PO ’26 and La’Nae Fernandes SC ’28.
City limits: No, Claremont’s $2.50 Uber rides haven’t gone away — yet.
The era of students piling into city subsidized Ubers for under three dollars might be coming to a close. The program, Claremont Dial-a-Ride, which has provided waivers within Uber is facing challenges and cuts from the Pomona Valley Transportation Authority and Claremont City council due to ballooning costs from rampant student use.
Laura K. Field sheds light on belief systems within MAGA
On April 8, Laura K. Field — author of “Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right” — took to the podium to share her experiences with intellectual conservatism and the emergence of extremism.
Poem of ecstasy: Sakaguchi Ango and ‘Discourse on Decadence’
How does the individual interact with their culture’s moral decrees, and what happens when they decide to tear themselves loose from it? Leslie Tong PO ‘29 discusses Sakaguchi Ango’s Discourse on Decadence and how it relates to the historical context in which it was written.
The Daily Palette: The lasting effects of ‘Atomic Dragons’
Exploring the Cold War and its effects now, Meiya Rollins PO ’29 reflects on the exhibition “Atomic Dragons” at the Pitzer Art Galleries. From her previous readings in her curation class, she was instantly tethered to Judtih Dancoff’s work. Judith Dancoff narrates her own experiences of her father working on the Manhattan Project with Oppenheimer. Rollins describes the letters between Dancoff’s father and Oppenheimer in the piece, “The Dancoff Factor,” where they are a “window into their relationship with each other and their work. It was work that slowly killed them, but quickly destroyed the lives of so many.”
PACIFIC’s 2026 conference explores the future of U.S.-China relations
The Pomona America China Initiative for International Cooperation (PACIFIC) held its 2026 conference on April 4, inviting professors from colleges in both the United States and China to discuss the current state and future of U.S.-China relations.