CMCommonwealth School Magazine Spring 2012 In this issue: Defining Race: A student’s research into how science was manipulated to support slavery A Daring Move One Moment, Many Lives Imprisoned by Poverty WALTER CRUMP Why I Made It “ResuRRECTIon” By Anna Gruman ’14 ur life-drawing models aren’t traditional, polished fashion models; they are everyday people, beautiful to us because we can appreciate and understand their flaws in the Ocontext of their individual elegance. What I wished to portray in this painting was not only the model’s beauty but also her humanity and reality. I chose my palette accordingly, using colors like reds and yellows to give my figure warmth. On a large canvas, seven feet tall and four feet wide, I first set out painting with a brush, but hit a roadblock when I got to her face, which I couldn’t seem to render satisfactorily. She looked increasingly inanimate, less like the person I saw before me. Stepping back and observing my painting, I judged my brushstrokes too neat, too smooth. I decided to work on the face using a small trowel palette knife, thinking that maybe the more physical way of handling paint would help me get the features right. And I achieved exactly what I’d been trying to do with my brush, which was to make the texture rougher and the colors more vibrant. With the palette knife, I was able to give the image a three-dimensional solidity and movement I hadn’t been getting before. My result is a larger-than-life fiery figure on a cool green and black backdrop. I built my composition on an axis that runs through the model’s body but begins in the upper right. There, in the mirror behind her, I painted her reflection in the same warm colors, slightly less in focus and with an uneven touch. The effect lit my painting, like the doubling of a candle’s light when put next to a mirror. It brought the picture to life and put the figure into context. Paint and the palette knife allow me to become fully immersed in what I create in a process that is wholly physical. Sometimes I can work so intently on a passage that I don’t see the entire effect until I pull myself out of and away from my painting. But all this is pure joy to me. When I paint, I feel that I’m working without effort. Creation is a compulsion, and the result is happiness. “Resurrection” and other works of student art will be on display at Commonwealth from May 1 through June 8. CM 1 FROM THE EDITOR Launching a new magazine certainly was a thrill; thank you for all the comments. The challenge now is to make Issue 2 Spring 2012 each issue as inventive and fresh as its predecessor. This time around we decided on a cover story that gets at Headmaster Commonwealth a bit more obliquely, by exploring a topic William D. Wharton through the eyes of a student. Editor Last year, as a junior, Gabe Alvarez wrote a humdinger Tristan Davies ’83 [email protected] of a research paper in his U.S. History class. He considered (617) 716-0239 how elements of science (or at least what was defined as Associate Editor scientific at the time) became buttresses for the institution of Rebecca Folkman slavery in antebellum America. Gabe’s enthusiastic teacher, Design Melissa Glenn Haber ’87, sent me a copy of the paper last Jeanne Abboud spring. Soon afterwards, The Concord Review accepted it Contributing Writers for publication, the first time a Commonwealth student’s Melanie Abrams ’13 work has appeared there. Gabriel Alvarez ’12 George Boulukos ’86 This fall I tried, fruitlessly, to pull a short passage to Emily Bullitt ’03 publish in this magazine: the logical flow proved indivisible. Rebecca Folkman I used to be a scientist, and remain interested in things Ivan Krielkamp ’86 Steve Liss ’73 scientific, and I was drawn in, as I hope you will be, by this intersection of science and society. Gabe’s paper also offers www.commschool.org/cm www.facebook.com/commschoolalums a perfect example of how students at Commonwealth are encouraged to explore their (sometimes unusual) interests CM is published twice a year by Commonwealth School, 151 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA through original research. 02116, and distributed without charge to alumni/ae, Despite space constraints, we have managed to give current and former parents, and other members of the Commonwealth community. Opinions expressed you extended excerpts; but I urge you to go to www. in CM are those of the authors and subjects, and do commschool.org/cm where you can download the entire not necessarily represent the views of the school or article as it appeared in the Review. its faculty and students. As always, I invite your opinions on what you see and We welcome your comments and news at read in CM. [email protected]. Letters may be edited for style, length, clarity, and grammar. Tristan Davies ’83 Director of Communications, Editor [email protected] Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle. 2 CM CMCommonwealth School Magazine Spring 2012 Contents Why I Made It 1 “Resurrection,” by Anna Gruman ’14 7 Your Letters 4 News 5 A quartet of retirements Debating alone Intel science honors 9 A Daring Move: Loren Crary ’03 8 Time in Africa whets an appetite for social entrepreneurship 10 Historical Perspective: Audrey Budding 9 When summer reading includes the Russian Revolution Defining Race 10 A Commonwealth student examines how antebellum science was used to justify slavery. Student Fiction: “The Life That You May Live” 18 “She threw her wig into the ocean. I’ve always wondered why she did it—who she was, and what made her decide.” 20 History of a Friendship 20 Parallel lives from punk to professorships Overheard 24 Words and art from the halls and classrooms of Commonwealth The Alumni/ae Association 25 News and events for alumni/ae Class Notes 26 Cover: “Contraband of War,” an engraving depicting a slave who crossed the battle lines during the Civil Alumni/ae Perspective: Steve Liss ’73 36 War in search of freedom (c.1862, from the Picture “We take pictures to remind people that there are faces Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, behind issues of poverty and injustice.” and Tilden Foundations). See the story on page 10 for a student’s research into how phrenology and evolution became tools of anti-abolitionists. CM 3 Your Letters ’13 ISS LEX CURT A It was a pleasure to receive the new I just read the excellent article about Ms. Siporin is even more beautiful than Commonwealth School magazine this English at Commonwealth, and I loved she was when I was there! The English week. I especially enjoyed reading Melissa it. It pleased my children and me greatly program article was very enjoyable, and Glenn Haber’s piece on the intellectual that Anne’s part in establishing the it really took me back. underpinnings of the Commonwealth English at Commonwealth enterprise English curriculum. I have fond memories was acknowledged in the article. Carrie Marotta ’94 of Beginning with Poems—the anthology Lincoln, MA edited by Reuben Brower, Anne Ferry, David Ferry P’78 P’85 and David Kalstone that is also featured Brookline, MA I just wanted to write and say how on the magazine’s cover—but I had never much I enjoyed your article on George before understood the close connection and Laverne. When I was flipping between the Commonwealth English I was glad to see that Beginning With through the magazine the other night, curriculum and Brower’s famous emphasis Poems is still used almost 40 years later [daughter] Emily saw me and told me on “reading in slow motion” in his Hum 6 but I also hope that some diversity of to stop and read that story. I did, and curriculum at Harvard. As a student, I voices has been worked in; recently I marveled at the portrayal of a deep and was not even aware that there was any have enjoyed teaching Eavan Boland, abiding friendship. Rusty’s photo was unified vision of curriculum, but I do think Patricia Smith, Marie Howe, and the perfect complement. You did a great I learned an enormous amount about how Stephen Dunn. job with it, and it made me wish to read carefully during those years. for more. Becky Moore ’75 Curtis Perry ’83 Exeter, NH Taylor McNeil P’12 Urbana, IL Arlington, MA 4 CM CommoNWEAlth ’83 S E I TAN DAV TAN IS News R T Outgoing Come September, a number of very familiar faces will dith Walker has been many things in her ten years at have retired from Commonwealth’s classrooms, offices, Commonwealth: math teacher, AP test coordinator, class and hallways. Escheduler, and soprano in the chorus, for starters. She also taught the City of Boston class for a number of years with the insight of a native Bostonian who has a keen interest in the city’s social and cultural history. ’87 S I look forward to having more time to travel, to work with the Museum of African American History on organizing their M KATE TO collection, and to complete a family history project. But I will miss my time in the classroom. ebecca Folkman has taught French, fiction writing, and film with élan since 1983 while also producing and R editing nearly all of Commonwealth’s publications for fter 35 years in Commonwealth’s front office, many of those years.