Spring break is back! After not having a break last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pipe Dream’s Arts & Culture staff is reminiscing on what they did, this year and in the years before.

Lakhsmi Chatterjee, Arts & Culture Editor

“This year I went to New Orleans with a group of my closest friends. This was only my second time flying and traveling with friends, so it was an exciting experience through and through. We went out to Bourbon Street, saw live music in the French Quarter, rode swan-shaped paddle boats on Big Lake, ate gumbo and much more. The streetcar conductors made fun of us because we were so obviously tourists. We also went to a The Regrettes concert which was amazing because I was able to mosh my way to the front of the stage. The whole trip was a dream until Delta Air Lines canceled our flight back to New York and rescheduled us to a new one 18 hours later. But I was with friends the whole time, so I was OK at the end.”

Jaclyn Ciaramella, Arts & Culture Intern

“My favorite spring break memory this year was going to a New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden. While the odds were not in the team’s favor, the Rangers played an energetic game and were able to catch a win in overtime, beating the Anaheim Ducks. It was an exciting game to watch and even better when accompanied by family and an overpriced beer.”

Debra Perlmutter, Arts & Culture Writer

“One of my favorite spring break memories happened in April of 2019. I had been asking my parents if we could see a Broadway show for a while, and they finally gave in. My dad brought our whole family to the city for the day and said what we were doing was a ‘surprise’ even though my whole family knew what it must be. We got to see ‘Frozen’ at the St. James Theatre; it was an amazing show, and we had a great time.”

Jamie H. Nguyen, Arts & Culture Intern

“I don’t have one big thing this spring break, but I got to hang out with some friends who I haven’t seen since last year. I went to a bar-restaurant in Downtown Binghamton for the first time after turning 21 and went to the theater again since before the pandemic. (The new ‘Batman’ movie is emo culture actually <3). Otherwise, I just spent a lot of time with my pet and enjoying an empty campus.” Makoto Toyoda, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

“This spring break, I went to visit my best friend who now lives and works in Washington, D.C. We got caught in a bomb cyclone on my first day there, which was ironic considering everyone else was probably relaxing on a beach somewhere. I took the metro with my friend to Alexandria, Virginia and saw The Pentagon for the first time from the train window, which was honestly pretty anticlimactic — I never realized it was so flat. I also went to a vegetarian restaurant called Dirt Candy on the Lower East Side for my birthday, which was a major highlight.”

Krishna Patel, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

“I happened to be the one person who went somewhere colder for spring break. I visited a childhood friend who lives in Chicago now. I spent a lot of time getting to catch glimpses of her daily life. She took me to the lab that she works in. I enjoyed walking around the city and getting to experience its unique architecture.”

Doris Turkel, Assistant Opinions Editor

“During this spring break, I was able to experience life as a spider. At The Shed, an art center in Hudson Yards, Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno’s exhibit titled ‘Particular Matter(s)’ features an interactive experience, ‘Free the Air: How to hear the universe in a spider/web.’ After climbing up stories of makeshift stairs, visitors stepped onto a faux spiderweb made of wire suspended 40 feet above the ground. We were recommended to starfish, and in the next 10 minutes the room completely darkened and audio from spiders producing webs and spiderweb vibrations sent currents through our ‘web’ to emulate the physical experience of being a spider. It was one of the most relaxing and unique experiences I have had. The exhibit is Saraceno’s call to replace our current Capitalocene and Anthropocene era with an ‘Aerocene’ era (the name of Saraceno’s artistic community) in which humans and other species are in cooperation and communication.”