A Second Look

    Following our last issue of Bennington, I heard from many readers the three words editors love more than any others: cover to cover. Of course that is our aim, to make all of the stories worth your attention—from the stories you share in class notes, to those we find tucked away in books, to those we feature. And at Bennington there are so many. Yet the stories I appreciate the most are those that invite you to respond, to transform a story into a conversation. After reading last issue’s article on the Dimensional Application, Marilyn Kropf Kurtz ’58, PhD and Chris Gage P’18 did just that, sharing memories of their own application—Marilyn as a student, Chris as a parent remembering his child’s first view of Bennington (below). Rob Faucette ’96 responded to another story in this issue. He completed the assignment given by Allen Shawn to compose a piece for Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral in My Brain.” Uploaded to Bennington’s SoundCloud channel, the piece inspired this from Shawn: “nice urgency... makes you hear/feel the poem.” We hope you’ll listen and be inspired, too.

    In putting this issue together, I had the wisdoms of commencement speeches past and present to inspire me: Gloria Steinem and faculty member Sherry Kramer. Each speech should be read (or watched) in the fullness with which it was delivered, but for the purpose of this issue I am, forgive me, putting their ducks in a row. Ducks, which have come to mean for me a way of being and seeing. This issue of Bennington is threaded with stories about being and seeing—from a cacophonous social telling of Bennington’s 24 Hour Plays to the stories about new ways to start political and social revolutions (p. 22 and p. 25) as well as the little heard stories of women in history (p. 16) and those of the scarcely seen in war zones (p. 38) that would go untold if not for award-winning alumni writers Megan Mayhew Bergman MFA ’10 and Luke Mogelson ’05.

    Of course, there are two stories very dear to us at Bennington—those that trace the work of retired faculty members Becky Godwin and Andy Spence, emblems of what it is to be in a perpetual making and re-making of work, looking and re-looking, in the sweet spot of being and seeing that gives you a way to find what is new again.

Sincerely,
Briee Della Rocca
Editor