chanda's school has been having events for parents this week and into the weekend. this afternoon i attended a talk about the history of the new school (with teachers julia foulkes and mark larrimore) which first opened in 1919 by a group of disgruntled columbia university teachers. they felt that columbia had become too didactic and regimented. for years they offered classes focusing on the joy of learning and didn't become accredited until 1934 when they took in many professors fleeing europe who needed to be working for an accredited college in order to remain in the country.
they had us form six different groups with each group discussing a photograph presenting an artifact from the past. my group had a schedule of courses from the spring of 1958 showing the emphasis on communication, personal growth, and broadening one's mind and horizons via group discussion and attendance at the neighborhood's local theatres.
one group focused on the public art work poem that wraps around the cafe where we were sitting (the words in purple in the photo above) and how different phrases may present themselves to us depending on the mood we are in.
this bottom phrase running along the wall touched my heart today and then i knew i was reading the words of walt whitman.
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in the midst of the discussion, a student activist dressed in face paint and halloween costume came by to pull off a top poster displaying this bottom poster calling out for the college to divest. i also had received a flyer saying the same thing when entering the school. i thought it was very clever of the students and i was happy to see that the protests were continuing in subtle ways. (i've also been keeping up with my phone calls and letter writing with jewish voice for peace and the american friends' service committee.)
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after my workshop i met greg on 12th street for the reception in the student hub building.
i ran into a mom i knew from ellen's dance classes. i hadn't seen her in at least five years. her daughter was also in her fourth year studying costume design with parsons. she was always at the sewing machine her mom said.
the new president of the school gave a talk. he has only been on the job for two months and was a teacher for twenty years with the art program. i thought he seemed caring and open minded . . i hope that doesn't change! they had a very delicious buffet catered by pig and butter, a local catering service.
taking a photo with the new school mascot, gnarls narwhal . . (there's a story that goes with gnarls and you can read about it here).
chanda joined us after her environmental studies talk (it was with the author of the nutmeg's curse, amitav ghosh) in time to have some of the delicious food and then we walked home together.
