On Saturday, Apr. 13, Hamilton’s Vibes Club co-hosted Funktion 4: Funk4U with WHCL, the Student Performing Arts Club (SPAC,) and the Delta Phi fraternity in the Annex.
The event serves as a platform for members of the community to take the stage and give live performances as a unique addition to the night life of campus. With a diverse range of artistic expressions and productions, the atmosphere of Funktion is always electrifying.
Funk4U was the final Funktion for a number of seniors, including Ricardo Millen, the event’s founder. Millien, stage name Suave the Gent, is the president of Vibes, Written and Spoken and a brother of Delta Phi. He has given his heart, talent, and energy to the organization and its events.
After founding Vibes during his first semester at Hamilton, Millien hit the ground running, working extensively to establish a safe space to cultivate creativity and artistic engagement with the student body. He quickly involved classmates, with each individual adding their own unique contributions to the group. In structuring Vibes as student performance platform, Millien saw the group as an opportunity for expression, but says he never understood the true impact that his work would come to have on its members and audiences.
For the members of Vibes, the red couches on the third floor of Sadove became a home, a cozy safe haven to escape the stress of academia, social issues, and other sources of stress. Millien says as students became more involved with the group, their creativity and expression increased too. One member, Graham Burton ’19, whose tragic loss was felt by the entire campus in the fall of 2016, is remembered for his heartfelt contributions to and love for the Vibes community. After his passing, his family not only reached out to the organization to express how much he had cared for them, but also donated to the club in his name.
After a year of struggling with the loss and recovering with their campus family, Millien and Matthew Lebowitz ’18 began organizing the Funktion in the fall of 2017. The Funktion served as a way to get the campus involved in the meaning, recovery, and complete creativity that Vibes offers through their productions. Joining forces with WHCL, SPAC, and Delta Phi, they began to sponsor campus-wide events in which on-campus bands could perform live and enjoy a fun, well-attended venue. Saturday’s Funk4U was the fourth Funktion since that 2017 fall.
On Saturday, as a testament to the seniors involved in the sponsoring organizations, Funk4U featured WHCL and Delta Phi member Jack Confrey ’19 painting live in the background of the stage while the other acts performed in the front. Working on a yellow canvas, Confrey began painting two structures side by side, adding in details as each performance began.
“For the painting, I depicted a big wood burl that I had found in the glen on one side of the canvas, and a bouquet of early spring flowers on the other,” said Confrey. “I was hoping to show two sides of nature, one traditionally considered beautiful and the other seen as somewhat grotesque. I wanted to depict the two together to show both on equal footing, and to challenge the assumption that one is more beautiful than the other.”
This engaging twist on Funktion created a vibrant, colorful atmosphere to celebrate the creative strengths of the seniors and also established the energy of their legacy that looks carry on in the years to come. It also was the final Funktion for other senior performers, including Casey Tobin ’19 (Yonic Youth), Josh Biltekoff ’19 (Uptown Booty), Chris Hart ’19 (Juice), and Millien himself (Suave the Gent).
While these artists gave their hearts out on the stage for their final Funktion, they have also influenced Hamilton’s community in their own ways. Tobin and her band Yonic Youth are a groundbreaking performance group as the first all-female Hamilton band.
Biltekoff, a member of the Buffers, Uptown Booty, and Hamilton’s mathletics team, has shown audiences his beautiful voice at concerts and won while winning with his intellect as part of the Mathletes team.
Hart has served the community with his fellow Delta Phi brothers and has sung and played the guitar on campus with his band Juice.
And Millien, as Suave the Gent, has written original raps, worked with Janelle Monae’s vocal coach, and will be performing in this semester’s mainstage production, West Side Story.
The legacy these seniors leave behind, along with the contributions from all of Vibes’ graduating members, have cemented the foundation of meaningful group on our campus.
Vibes’ impressive underclassmen, many of whom performed at Funk4U, look to continue this legacy of community contribution through creating and performing. Vibes members Madeleine Cavallino ’21, Kayley Boddy ’22, Addie Amadeck ’22, and Ian Nderi ’22 have already contributed numerous pieces as part of the club.
