Oberlin Alumni Magazine
Meet Joe Smith
January 24, 2023
Oberlin Alumni Magazine Staff
Joe Smith ’86 learned to meet people through his love of photography. As an Oberlin student in the 1980s, he took hundreds of images that capture—through mostly straight-ahead portraits—the look of an era, and sometimes more.
![Self portrait in a mirror using a 35 mm camera (black & white).](https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/styles/fp_w360_h270/public/content/news/image/joe-smith.jpg?itok=NhaB0qOK)
On the Record with Rhiannon Giddens ’00
January 24, 2023
Oberlin Alumni Magazine
Rhiannon Giddens began 2022 with a starring role in Porgy and Bess, the iconic Gershwin opera often criticized for its derogatory depictions of Black characters. The widely hailed production...
![Seated in comfortable chairs, Rhiannon and a writer speak. The writer is taking notes.](https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/styles/fp_w360_h270/public/content/news/image/rhiannon-interview_y-gulenko.jpg?itok=2L4H-eG5)
Rhiannon Giddens’ American Tunes
January 24, 2023
Jeff Hagan ’86
A 2000 graduate of Oberlin, Giddens was trained as an opera singer under Marlene Rosen, and so the opera part is easy to understand. But it was after she returned home to North Carolina that she took...
![Giddens sings emotively.](https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/styles/fp_w360_h270/public/content/news/image/rhiannon-giddens_finney-concert_y-gulenko.jpg?itok=w9oV9h5-)
Still Hot, Still Cool
January 24, 2023
Erich Burnett
To some, jazz signaled a decadent departure from the European masters who had inspired the work of conservatory faculty and students for more than a century. But there were also students smitten by...
![Neumann holds an LP, Dizzy in Greece. Behind him is an endless shelf filled to the ceiling with labelled boxes.](https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/styles/fp_w360_h270/public/content/news/image/neumann_with_collection.jpg?itok=V0mhxeCx)