The Reporter's Notebook

Need a Break?

If an ambitious freshman gets her way--and it looks like she will--Yardlings soon will have a place worthy of Paris' Left Bank to go to for study breaks.

Last week, Yardling Camille L. Landau '90 received a grant of nearly $500 from the Harvard-Radcliffe Arts Council to open a late-night art gallery of student works in either the Freshman Union or the Yard.

Landau says the gallery will be open between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. three nights a week and after brunch on Sundays. She says that she hopes to staff the gallery with student volunteers and that the exhibit room will feature student art, jazz and chamber music, poetry readings and food.

Landau says she has been planning such a gallery for more than two years.

"After my junior prom, I realized everything closed around 9:30 to 10," Landau says.

"I needed something to do after that last cup of coffee or last party," she says. "Something exciting."

She came to college, she says, with the idea of starting up a gallery that would be open "at the bizarre hour of three or four in the morning when you're finishing your paper."

Landau adds that she eventually wants to open a combination diner and art gallery that would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

More to Read

A freshman who thinks there are not enough outlets for Black literary expression on campus is doing something about it.

Norris H. Chase '90 decided during Freshman Week to revive Diaspora Magazine, a Black literary journal which ceased publishing four years ago. The result will be a new 50-page publication, replete with essays, poetry, short stories and commentary.

"Besides what BSA [the Black Students Association] publishes, this could be a sort of supplement to bring the student body to an awareness that Black people are out there and we do have something to contribute," says Edward O. Griffin '90, who will serve as financial officer for the publication.

The magazine has already received about 15 submissions and a $100 grant from the Harvard Foundation. The publishers plans to publish one issue this year and hope to get it out by February, which is Black History month. Two thousand free copies of Diaspora will be distributed at the Freshman Union and through the BSA.

BU's Excited

Students and faculty at Boston University are up in arms over the school's decision to award an honorary law degree today to the Zulu Chief, Mangosuthu Garsha Buthelezi, who many South African Black leaders have condemned as an obstacle to the effort to end apartheid.

At least 18 student groups, led by Umoja, which is an African word for "unity", are calling for a "walk-out" of classes today, according to Narenda Nadoe, managing editor of BU's Daily Free Press.

Eric V. Puchala, president of the BU Political Forum, says that because the South African government appointed Buthelezi to lead the 6 million Zulus--and that the Zulus must align themselves with the Zulu party--Buthelezi actually "suppresses" opposition to apartheid.

However, some on the campus are thrilled by the selection.

"Chief Buthelezi is one of the main Black spokesmen for the moderate point of view in South Africa," says Ronald Goldman, an associate dean at BU.

Goldman says Buthelezi assumed responsibility for leading the Zulu people in order to prevent their homeland from becoming a "so-called independent Bantustan." Goldman cites the chief's role in efforts to form a South African legislature made up of both Black and whites as another reason for honoring him with a degree.

The Boss

Bruce Springsteen fans came out in full force last week and jammed record stores around Cambridge to buy the Boss's latest recording, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band--Live/1975-85.

A bit of comparison shopping revealed that the Coop had the best prices, with the album or tape going for $22.95, and the compact disc selling for $38.95. Price runner-up Strawberries sold the album for $22.99 and the compact disc for $39.99. Newbury Street had the highest prices with $23 being asked for the album and $45 for the compact disc.

Apparently, Cambridge's Bruce fans were not fanatical enough to ignore a good buy. The Coop drowned out its competition with a record sale of 1200 copies. Assistant Buyer Bobby Hall says that the Coop had not had that kind of one-day record sale since the release of Springsteen's album "The River" in 1980. "With everybody out of school, it was a real zoo in here," said Hall.