October 2013 Achievements

Students and Alumni Sarah Cedeno (MFAW ’14) was interviewed for The Missouri Review’s Working Writers Series. Emily Scott (MFAW ’12) had three of her poems published in the October 1, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 3 of Spilt Infinitive, a digital literary magazine.  Trisha Winn (MFAW ’14) is a Finalist in Hippocampus Magazine’s Remember in November 2013… Continue reading October 2013 Achievements

Goddard College’s Clockhouse Writers’ Conference Launches National Literary Magazine

Plainfield, Vt. – Goddard College announced today that it has partnered with the Clockhouse Writers’ Conference – an annual, alumni-run conference and retreat for graduates of Goddard’s MFA in Creative Writing Program – to launch CLOCKHOUSE, a new, annual, literary magazine featuring short stories, interviews, essays, plays and poems by both award-winning writers and exciting,… Continue reading Goddard College’s Clockhouse Writers’ Conference Launches National Literary Magazine

Deborah Brevoort: The Radical Power of Art

Lewis Hyde, in a terrific book called The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, compares the radical power of art to gift giving.  All over the world, gift-giving rituals work in invisible ways to create community, strengthen bonds between people, and create obligations.   In Southeast Alaskan native cultures, for example, anyone who… Continue reading Deborah Brevoort: The Radical Power of Art

On the Birth of CLOCKHOUSE

On November 1st, a new national literary journal was born.  Clockhouse was the dream of two of my master’s degree candidates in the MFA in Creative Writing program my very first semester teaching at Goddard.  Led by a group of alumni, editorially-independent, the journal they imagined was nevertheless essentially of Goddard, for Goddard; you could even… Continue reading On the Birth of CLOCKHOUSE

“Not Knowing (or everything you always already knew about grad school but were afraid to be)”

The following was delivered as a graduation speech on September 22, 2013 for the Fall 2013 semester commencement ceremony of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program in Port Townsend, Washington: From 2000 to 2007, after studying dance and contemporary performance for many years, I became a practicing artist. I created solo and ensemble works, performed… Continue reading “Not Knowing (or everything you always already knew about grad school but were afraid to be)”

Performance Art at the Fall 2013 Expressive Arts Opening

One of my favorite parts of the Expressive Arts Opening of the Psychology and Counseling Program is the student artists’ presentation of their own work as “Performance Art”. At our opening during Fall 2013 Residency, Nicole Grubman read from her book, “I Left My Sole in Vermont: A Walker’s Journey and Guide through Central Vermont… Continue reading Performance Art at the Fall 2013 Expressive Arts Opening

Victoria Nelson’s Commencement Address, Fall 2013

Commencement July 14, 2013 Welcome graduates and families and friends, welcome students, welcome everybody to the Goddard MFA in Creative Writing graduation ceremony here at Port Townsend. And congratulations, graduates, for successfully completing a rigorous and life-changing two years of study and writing. You have been honing your creative writing skills in the protected environment… Continue reading Victoria Nelson’s Commencement Address, Fall 2013

Fall 2013 Expressive Arts Opening

I have returned to Goddard for fall residency and am immediately inspired. Students have shared their work at our Psychology and Counseling Expressive Arts Opening and the principles of Expressive Arts Therapy are embodied by the works created as well as by the creators. Students have engaged with varied mediums including clay, photography, written narrative,… Continue reading Fall 2013 Expressive Arts Opening

Goddard College to Honor Olympian and Alumnus Tommie Smith

Plainfield, VT) – Goddard College today announced that 1968 Olympic gold medalist Tommie Smith will be presented with the 2013 Presidential Award for Activism at Goddard’s October 6 commencement ceremony in Plainfield. Smith’s iconic “Black Power” salute (seen at right on the cover of his autobiography) as he stood on the Olympic podium at the… Continue reading Goddard College to Honor Olympian and Alumnus Tommie Smith

Residency Highlights: Art Crawl, July 2013

John Borstel, “Painting My Face: A Daily Practice” Residencies are an intense opportunity to immerse in graduate study away from many of the distractions of daily life.  Not only is the residency a time to set the groundwork for the semester’s work–writing your study plan and developing a relationship with your advisor and advising group–but… Continue reading Residency Highlights: Art Crawl, July 2013

Critical Composition: Think, Make, Write

As part of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts (MFAIA) Vermont Fall 2013 curricular offerings, I am facilitating a group study, Critical Composition: Think, Make, Write. It’s inspired by the teaching and writing of my friend Anne West, whose book—Mapping: The Intelligence of Artistic Work—travels with me as both inspiration and teacher. As I’ve written before,… Continue reading Critical Composition: Think, Make, Write

Goddard College Makes HaSTE

Plainfield, Vt.— Part of the University of Southern California (USC) dramatic arts program is coming to Goddard College’s Haybarn Theatre for the summer. Goddard is partnering with actor and teacher David Warshofsky [pictured left] of the School of Dramatic Arts at USC to bring artists-in-residence to the Plainfield campus for the new Haybarn Summer Theatre… Continue reading Goddard College Makes HaSTE

Talk Radio Pioneer Thom Hartmann to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Goddard College

Port Townsend, Wash. – Goddard College will grant an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to award-winning author and internationally recognized progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann during its September 22 commencement ceremony, the first for the college’s undergraduate program at Fort Worden, President Barbara Vacarr announced. “As we celebrate our 150th year, Goddard is… Continue reading Talk Radio Pioneer Thom Hartmann to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Goddard College

August 2013 Achievements

Students and Alumni Charlie Bondhus’s (MFAW ’05) second poetry book, All the Heat We Could Carry, winner of the 2013 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, is now available for preorder. Tony Mena (MFAW) had an essay posted online by The New York Times.   Natalie Raymond (MFAW ’15) was interviewed by new online feminist… Continue reading August 2013 Achievements

"To White Folks: The Collective Lament of Trayvon Martin is Not Your Anti-Racist Political Platform”

by student Suzahn Ebrahimian A founding member of the OCCUPY movement, Suzahn is a prolific writer and identifies herself as Iranian-American and social agitator. In her moving, critically astute essay in response to the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman trial and verdict, she argues that “passion and fury,” alongside issues of race privilege, must be acknowledged and… Continue reading "To White Folks: The Collective Lament of Trayvon Martin is Not Your Anti-Racist Political Platform”

Poem Written by a Student in Tribute to David Frisby

  Something, Sometimes         by Diana Abath Something told me to move towards you A camaraderie of the skin—yet not that simple A connection of the heart, the mind No—for I knew neither about yours or mine in that moment Something told me to move towards you A message—in your stance, your sitting, your comfort… Continue reading Poem Written by a Student in Tribute to David Frisby

Summer Reports from the Field: Conversations on Race, Place & Refueling

Between our challenging spaces of academic “doing” over the summer months, there is also the need for periods of renewal, that allow us to experience the season’s measured plodding and time to contemplate how our studies, practices and social commitments might be deepened and refueled. One of the events that I expect to participate in… Continue reading Summer Reports from the Field: Conversations on Race, Place & Refueling