Sophomore Student Makes Effort to Bridge Sports and the Arts
Sarah Lawrence College is a Division III school with a total of 16 men’s, women’s, and co-ed teams. Just about 12% of the student body participate in athletics, but in recent years, attendance at sporting events has been far less than a packed house. In an attempt to bridge the gap between student-athletes and the Sarah Lawrence community, sophomore Bismillah Ba’th has organized a series of artistic halftime performances in hopes of drawing in larger crowds.
“We don’t have to be like other schools. We can make sports and the arts actually mix. That’s what Sarah Lawrence is all about,” said Ba’th.
As someone who is a member of the women’s basketball team and has several other interests such as theater, dance, music, writing and psychology, Ba’th began to see a distinct divide between athletes and students of the arts. She felt that it did not have to be this way and that the student body had more in common than it seemed.
“A combination of interests is an essential part of being a Sarah Lawrence student, and an essential part of what makes up our community,” stated Ba’th.
She decided that the first step towards this goal would be to boost attendance at sporting events. To do so, Ba’th created a dialogue with the sports coordinator, and soon was given free rein of organizing halftime performances for men’s and women’s basketball games.
Ba’th then launched the opportunity for students to bring their talents to the court by taking to the class Facebook groups. An additional form of outreach of her’s was simply approaching groups of people at the Barbara Walters Campus Center. Ba’th said that she met so many people with such interesting gifts and talents, and it was not hard to find people willing to perform. She also noted that many of the students wanting to showcase their creative outlets were not necessarily studying them, but saw them as hobbies or passion projects.
Previews of shows, interactive activities, and even stage combat are just a few examples of the upcoming halftime entertainment for this sports season. Ba’th also organized an array of students to sing the national anthem before basketball games to showcase the many unique voices of SLC.
Ba’th encourages every member of the Gryphon community to venture into a sporting event to show support for not only the athletes but now the arts as well. After all, a wide spectrum of people and cross-disciplinary interests is what the Sarah Lawrence community is made of.
Below is a schedule of games and their coordinating national anthem performers and halftime performances.
December 1st (2 p.m.): Men’s Basketball Game- The National Anthem will be performed by Sarah DeCaro-Rincon. During halftime, stage combat will perform as well as SLC Treble.
December 5th (TBD): Women’s Basketball Game- The National Anthem will be performed by Mina Hillman. The Dance Team will be performing at halftime, as well as an additional stand up show.
December 7th (12 p.m.): Men’s Basketball Game- The National Anthem will be sung by Sarah DeCaro-Rincon. SLC Treble will be performing as well as a stand up show during halftime.
The second semester athletic halftime performances and National Anthem singers are TBD.
Zoe Kuhlkin, ‘23