For my first ever article with The Cavalier Daily, I covered the 94th Academy Awards. I had never written anything outside of essays for school before, and I was eager to get my name on the website. At the time, the awards show had arguably not produced a buzz-generating moment since the 2017 Best Picture slip-up, and it was looking like that year’s show would be uneventful like the previous few. I figured the ceremony, which had lost some of its past intrigue and luster, would offer an easy and manageable introduction to event coverage so that I could soon move on to loftier pieces.
When the ceremony came around, I sat in my first-year dorm room, half-watching my laptop screen and lazily taking notes on the poorly-streamed ceremony. Awards were announced and songs were performed, but I just could not get myself excited enough to pay attention. Scrolling on my phone as the program dragged on, I wondered if I would be able to conjure up any worthy commentary about the award show at all.
Then, something monumental happened — Best Actor nominee and soon-to-be winner Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage. I began taking furious notes, trying to capture every beat of the unexpected moment. Suddenly, what was shaping up to be a forgettable night became one of the most memorable moments in Oscars history — and I had the chance to comment on it in a published article.
Tucked away in the Arts & Entertainment section of the website, my article represented my contribution to a significant cultural moment. No matter how seemingly insignificant, I was given the chance to engage with an international conversation about the film industry to an audience, a kind of mantle I had never taken up before.
The hardest part of writing was coming up with a way to make what I was writing feel relevant. However, the stand-out controversy of the night gave me an entrance point into a greater question that I had been struggling to formulate in the earlier moments of the night — why did the Oscars feel so boring lately? Why did it seem like the Academy was struggling to reach audiences? Figuring out how to write about the 94th Academy Awards — how to formulate my thoughts and organize them in a way that not only made sense, but also added to the global conversation — became a way for me to consider larger questions about what I was consuming.
If I had not claimed the pitch for the Oscars, I may not have watched the ceremony at all, and more importantly, I would not have gained enough context on the broadcast to conjure an informed opinion on the controversy. This much is true of each and every article I have written — not only for reviews or national commentary, but also local features. Each pitch or assignment has allowed me to look closely at the art I consume, offering it the attention and care it deserves, but increasingly does not receive.
We live in a world in which we are encouraged, if not forced, to constantly consume content — voraciously, yes, but also passively. Art and literature are rapidly being reduced to small, bite-sized bits of entertainment that become increasingly harder to parse out. It feels as if the more TV I watch, the more music I listen to or the more films I log on Letterboxd, the harder it is to find something valuable to say about any of it.
Writing for Arts & Entertainment has offered the best remedy for the disconnection from the media I consume that I often feel. Crafting reviews for major film releases like “Asteroid City” and “Saturday Night” has allowed me to think deeply and critically about film. It has forced me to ask, what is it that I like or dislike about this movie, and why? Creating playlists for our On Repeat column made me listen more actively to the music I know and love, allowing me to explore its elements and themes more consciously.
In one of my favorite articles, I covered the premiere of Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” at the Virginia Film Festival, in which I made connections between DuVernay’s political commentary and Charlottesville’s fraught history. I grew up right outside of Charlottesville in Fluvanna County, which has given me a lifelong appreciation for the Charlottesville community and made putting the city’s history in conversation with art feel incredibly fulfilling.
In addition to exploring the role of the arts in Charlottesville’s history, covering the Charlottesville community has also allowed me to spotlight smaller creators. By writing local articles — which make up the bulk of my contributions to the paper — I have turned my attention to smaller artists and organizations, often those artists that create for the sake of creation. Local and student artists deserve recognition, and their work often constitutes a defiant act in a media landscape that turns art into content.
Often, online conversations about media do not allow space for dialogue, often prizing isolated blurbs and morsels of hot takes over interpersonal exchanges. During my more recent stint as A&E Editor, I prized the opportunity to engage with fellow writers and their perspectives. In meetings and conversations as well as through their writing, A&E staffers have exposed me to a host of artists, films, performances, and perspectives that have transformed the way I engage with arts and entertainment. The thoughtfulness through which they approach their subjects is inspiring, and their work gives me hope that arts journalism can continue to flourish at The Cavalier Daily.
Arts criticism — both in a journalistic sense and an academic sense — is often treated as frivolous. However, as a writer, an editor and a reader, I have seen firsthand how art and arts journalism positively impacts both art and the way that viewers interact with it. Even among people who value the arts, carving out space for critical engagement with — rather than just passive consumption of — art has been an endeavor I have treasured.
Over the last four years, I have been so grateful to the Cavalier Daily, my former editors, my co-editor Delores Cyrus and all of our A&E writers for investing in a space that gives art the attention it so deserves. The more we pay close attention to the art around us, the more possible it becomes to foster an artistic landscape at the University, in Charlottesville and across the world — arts criticism begets art itself.
Delaney Hammond was a senior writer for the arts and entertainment desk before becoming an arts & entertainment Editor for The Cavalier Daily’s 135th term.
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