ARTS & CULTURE Artistic Alumni to Know

NAME: James De La Vega

GRADUATED: B.F.A. 1994

WHAT TO KNOW: This widely-revered, New York-based street artist deals primarily in chalk, creating thought-provoking, aphoristic works that have garnered acclaim not only in the States, but also in Italy and Japan as well. De La Vega has, like any worthy artist, been at the center of controversy. Since, legally, his works qualify as graffiti, he has been taken to court and sentenced on vandalism charges. De La Vega, when not working on his next mural, tours the country as a motivational speaker, talking about freedom of expression, art and working in the face of adversity.

NAME: Robert Trent Jones

GRADUATED: 1931

WHAT TO KNOW: While at Cornell, Jones took such disparate courses like landscape architecture, public speaking, agronomy, economics, surveying and hydraulics, to pursue a career as a golf course designer. Jones’ work on over 500 golf courses, including Montauk Downs, Augusta National and Cornell’s own Robert Trent Jones Golf Course, earned him a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Jones’ courses have had an indelible effect on the modern game, encouraging risky play and emphasizing tasteful, original aesthetics.

NAME: E.B. White

GRADUATED: B.A. 1921

WHAT TO KNOW: White was as dynamic a writer as you could get. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker, White was also responsible for two classic children’s books, Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little The former Sun editor in chief co-authored one of the definitive guides to English grammar, syntax and style, The Elements of Style, with William Strunk Ph.D. ’96.

NAME: Junot Diaz

GRADUATED: M.F.A. 1995

WHAT TO KNOW: Diaz is a renown writer best known for his short stories. His most famed book titled “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is now a creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

NAME: Nicola Yoon

GRADUATED: B.S. 1994

WHAT TO KNOW: Yoon is a famous Jamaican-American writer best known for her modern books, which have been the subject of many well-known movies, including “The Sun is Also a Star” and “Everything, Everything.” Yoon got her great writing skills right here at Cornell.

NAME: Peter Eisenmann

GRADUATED: B.Arch. 1955

WHAT TO KNOW: Incoming architecture students are sure to be aware of Eisenmann’s significant contributions to architecture. As one of the leaders of the deconstructivist movement, Eisenmann incited his fellow architects to liberate the form of their works from external references. His works range from convention centers (The Greater Columbus Convention Center) to memorials (The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) and football stadiums (University of Phoenix Stadium).

NAME: Harry Chapin

GRADUATED: Dropped out in 1964

WHAT TO KNOW: Chapin is a renown for his work as an American singer and songwriter. The performer was best known for his career in filmmaking, and his group that he was part of with his brother, called the Chapin Brothers. Chapin was also active in many charitable causes. While he never graduated from Cornell, he walked the same steps as all of you will.

NAME: Steve Reich

GRADUATED: B.A. 1957

WHAT TO KNOW: Reich’s work as a composer is highly influential across many genres — artists like Sonic Youth, Brian Eno and Sufjan Stevens cite Reich as an influence. Reich’s usage of tape loops, minimalist instrumentation and repetition put him in an elite category of modern composers. Reich was awarded with the Pulitzer Prize for his Double Sextet in 2009.

NAME: Huey Lewis

GRADUATED: Dropped out in 1969

WHAT TO KNOW: A strong rock vocalis and a talented harmonica player, Huey Lewis, the frontman of Huey Lewis and the News, dominated 1980’s radio with his band’s third album, Sports. Lewis also made appearances backing up Elvis Costello on My Aim Is True and playing harmonica on the legendary Thin Lizzy live album, Live and Dangerous

LAURENS HAMMOND 1916

After receiving his B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1916, Hammond would go on to create the electric Hammond organ, which proved to be an important milestone in electronic music’s evolution and influential to the genres of jazz and progressive rock.

THOMAS

Honing his literary chops under the likes of Vladimir Nabokov at Cornell, Pynchon would go on to define the postmodernist tradition, winning the National Book Award for 1973’s Gravity’s Rainbow

Buck used the skills she honed at Cornell to craft some of the 1930s’ best-selling and most acclaimed historical fiction. She would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth in 1932 and a Nobel Prize in 1938.

Years after leaving Ithaca with a degree in English, Seidler took the stage to accept the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The King’s Speech in 2011.

Laurents penned and directed a number of seminal Broadway musicals, including West Side Story, Hallelujah, Baby! and La Cage Aux Folles, in addition to writing a number of well-received films.

TONI MORRISON M.A. ’55

The acclaimed author has won a Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her prolific, vivid novels, including Beloved

Prior to leaving Cornell to fight in the second World War, Vonnegut pursued a degree in chemistry and served as the associate editor of The Sun. Throughout the 60s and beyond, he established himself as one of counterculture’s most notable novelists with the satirical black humor of books like Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle

KURT