Messages: Kevin Young
Kevin Young’s lyrical poems draw on themes of birth, death, food, heritage, New England and the South. The award-winning poet, this fall’s Bingham Visiting Writer, read a selection of new and old work to students. He read poems from his collections about the death of his father, the birth of his son, and his student/teacher relationship with poet Seamus Heaney. Mr. Young earned his A.B. in English and American literature from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Brown University. He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English at Emory University in...
Read MoreMessages: Chris Messinger
Where do stereotypes come from? Chris Messinger discussed some of the answers with students. Mr. Messinger is the executive director of Boston Mobilization, a youth-serving nonprofit that works with hundreds of teens each year. Mr. Messinger spent three years after college as a community organizer and then three years as a classroom teacher in Boston. He is the co-author of Speak Up!, an anthology of personal stories being used by independent and public schools around the country. “We all hold conscious and unconscious stereotypes. However, there are ways to break stereotypes. It is...
Read MoreMessages: Jim Cullen
This year’s Henry R. Heyburn ’39 Speaker, Jim Cullen told students their “inheritance” is today’s America of prosperity and political stability, true since the end of World War II. Mr. Cullen, chair of the history department at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, yet warned that this “overstretched empire is starting to contract.” Mr. Cullen earned his B.A. in English from Tufts University, and his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in American civilization from Brown University. He is the author of many books, including The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That...
Read MoreMessages: Tectonic Theater Project
Students performed The Laramie Project this winter, a play in which actors portray various members of the Laramie community, the Wyoming town where college student Matthew Shepard was beaten and killed by two local men in 1998. This year’s Melissa Gold Visiting Artists, two members of the Tectonic Theater Project, the show’s creators, visited campus. Actor Andy Paris and director Leigh Fondakowski spoke with students about Matthew Shepard, the creative theater process, and the role performance can play in national conversation. “In the media, Laramie was portrayed as a redneck, ‘Wild...
Read MoreMessages: Irene Monroe
Reverend Irene Monroe talked with students about the rewards and challenges of developing a diverse community as the 2014 Martin Luther King speaker. Rev. Monroe is a pastor and syndicated religion columnist. Her writing focuses on how religious intolerance and fundamentalism perpetuate other forms of oppression, like racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism. A Brooklyn native, Rev. Monroe graduated from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University. She served as a pastor at an African-American church before attending Harvard Divinity School as a Ford Fellow for...
Read MoreIn Sight, Spring 2014
“Nicky” and “Rod,” brought to life by Shaheen Bharwani ’15, Mack Makishima ’16 and Charlie Barrett ’15. Milton actors became puppeteers for the first time in this fall’s production of Avenue Q: School Edition, which meant puppet boot camp for...
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