Bardian SPRING 2011

seeing the newer buildings, especially the Fisher Center. He regaled those he
met with stories of his years here, including his work on campus—serving in
the commissary, maintaining the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and even
walking Warden B. I. Bell’s dogs. At the chapel, he exchanged stories with
Bard Chaplain Bruce Chilton ’71, and met with Bard archivist Helene Tieger ’85,
who brought along his yearbook and other documents and photographs so
that Father Mears could identify his friends and reminisce.
Dawn Upshaw Sings Works by Tower, Alumni/ae
Dawn Upshaw, acclaimed soprano and artistic director of the Graduate Vocal
Arts Program at the Bard Conservatory, joined singers from the VAP in a
special concert at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City on March
17. The performance featured the first piece written for voice by Joan Tower,
Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts, and works composed by current
students and recent alumni/ae, including Yiwen Shen ’10, Stefan Weisman ’92,
and Matt Schickele ’92. The event received a glowing New York Times review.
Rare Film Prints Strengthen Collection
Bard is now home to 60 rare English-subtitled film prints that constitute a
microhistory of Taiwanese cinema from the 1950s to the 1990s. “The
Taiwanese cinema of the 1980s and ’90s was one of the strongest in the
world. This collection reflects the range and sophistication of filmmaking in
Taiwan both before and during that period,” said Richard Suchenski, assistant
professor of film and electronic arts, who coordinated the acquisition from
the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office and supervises the collection.
Up-to-the-Minute Scores Now on Athletics Website
The Bard College Department of Recreation and Athletics has launched
www.bardathletics.com, a website with information about varsity sports
teams, club and intramural sports, gym and exercise class schedules, and
community membership information, as well as photo galleries, video, social
networking, and “Live Stats,” providing real-time play-by-play of varsity
contests.
Lecture Explores Urban Geography of New Orleans
Richard Campanella, associate academic director of Bard’s Urban Studies
in New Orleans Program, presented “Urban Geographies of New Orleans:
Connecting Nature, Culture, and Economy” during a February 14 visit to
Bard. He is associate director and research professor at the Center for
Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane University in New Orleans and author of
Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm (2006).
Procedural Elegies / Western Civ Cont’d/
by Joan Retallack, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of
Humanities
roof books
Chosen by Artforum as one of the best books of 2010, this collection
of poet Joan Retallack’s selected works from the 1970s to date
presents an exhilaratingly lyric, exquisitely elegiac, and intelligently
humorous homage to poetic experimentation, civilization, and
procedure.
Town
by Kate Schapira ’01
factory school
In this innovative book of poems, Schapira creates an intricate portrait
of a made-up town built upon single facts—sometimes contradictory
but always true—contributed by fellow writers, friends, and
family. The result is a poetic vision stratified by the infrastructure,
protocol, and scruples of a very real America.
Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic
Identity in the Progressive Era
by Ezra Shales BGC ’07
rivergate books
This volume traces the innovative history of the Newark Public
Library’s experimental art exhibitions and the founding of the
Newark Museum Association, which intertwined art, culture, literacy,
civics, and consumption in a tumultuous industrial city at the turn of
the 20th century.
My Hollywood
by Mona Simpson, Sadie Samuelson Levy Professor in Languages
and Literature
alfred a. knopf
Simpson’s provocative novel alternates between the voices of composer
and new mother Claire, recently transplanted from New York
to L.A. by her husband’s television writing career, and her nanny
Lola, whose caregiver job in America supports her husband and five
children in the Philippines, and delves into the delicate balance of
disparate yet interdependent social worlds.
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long
Con That Is Breaking America
by Matt Taibbi ’92
spiegel & grau
At turns hilarious and horrifying, this trailblazing book by Rolling
Stone contributing editor Taibbi traces the roots and untangles the
web of the elite “grifter class,” the network of political and economic
power grabbers who are at the helm of this country.
Legal Tender: Love and Legitimacy in the East German
Cultural Imagination
by John Griffith Urang ’97
signale
In this original and unconventional study, Urang analyzes a textured
selection of East German films and novels to show how romance and
love stories played an intricate cultural role in Stalinist-influenced
East Germany between 1949 and 1989.
Richard Campanella. Photo: Pete Mauney ’93, MFA ’00
on and off campus 33