Swarthmore College Bulletin Fall 2016
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FALL 2016 Periodical Postage THE MUSIC MAN p16 WITCH TRIAL p12 A NATURAL WOMAN p67 PAID Philadelphia, PA and Additional Mailing Offices ISSUE 500 College Ave. Swarthmore, PA 19081–1306 1 www.swarthmore.edu VOLUME CXIV SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN FALL 2016 BULLETIN FALL COLLEGE SWARTHMORE Politics, not as usual E. PLURIBUS UNUM p18 SEND IN THE CLOWNS p30 “So do Swatties,” she says. she Swatties,” do “So down the world may seem, clowns push through fear to find truth. truth. find to fear through push clowns seem, may world the down JOANNA WRIGHT ’08 knows all about fear. But no matter how upside upside how matter no But fear. about all knows ’08 WRIGHT JOANNA Facing an audience or a death-defying trapeze drop, aerial artist/clown artist/clown aerial drop, trapeze death-defying a or audience an Facing THERE IN HANG LAURENCE KESTERSON in this issue MOMENT IN TIME VOTES FOR WOMEN! Mohammed Lotif, assistant director of the Intercultural Center, and Hanan Ahmed ’19 welcome students to 40 Swarthmore on Move-In Day. I’m With Her...and Her... And Her...And Her Spotlighting women who ran for office before the 19th Amendment. by Elizabeth Slocum WENDY CHMIELEWSKI / HER HAT WAS IN THE RING WAS CHMIELEWSKI / HER HAT WENDY FEATURES DIALOGUE SPOKEN WORD 2 72T. Shá Duncan Smith Editor’s Column Letters Community Voices 18E. Pluribus Unum Joshua Ellow How—and why—Swarth- moreans of all stripes stay Rewind WEB politically active. Elizabeth Marsh Morrison ’66 EXCLUSIVES by Jonathan Riggs BULLETIN.SWARTHMORE.EDU Books Global Thinking MAESTRA, IF YOU PLEASE Thomas Hjelm ’81 Listen to a playlist of women composers who inspire Elizabeth Marsh Morrison ’66. COMMON GOOD GETTING INVOLVED Watch Tessa Chambers ’19 volunteer for Sean Barney ’98’s congressional campaign. THEIR HATS WERE IN THE RING Explore a wealth of women’s suffrage artifacts from the digital 26White House 9 humanities project. Stagecraft Swarthmore Stories Running for president is Learning Curve SCIENCE! our nation’s highest-stakes Ron Hurt ’67 Bookmark these biology must- production. reads, per L. Michael Romero Liberal Arts Lives ’88’s bookshelf. by Josh King ’87 Gabe Hutter ’88 Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara ’08 FLORAL NINJAS Scott Arboretum’s horticultural heroines share their secrets in a video and expanded feature. CLASS NOTES YOU ART WHAT YOU EAT View a gallery of Sharples trays as students’ art canvases. 43 ON THE COVER Alumni News and High-flying portraits of Joanna Wright ’08 38Class Is in Session Events by Laurence Kesterson He’s changing the world, one hip-hop hook at a time. Profiles Blood and Glitter Makeup Barry Yourgrau ’70 by Gina Myers Anna Hess ’00 FALL 2016 / Swarthmore College Bulletin 1 dialogue EDITOR’S COLUMN Fellows of Most Excellent Fancy SWARTHMORE COLLEGE BULLETIN Editor Jonathan Riggs Class Notes Editor Elizabeth Slocum Designer Phillip Stern ’84 Photographer Laurence Kesterson Administrative/Editorial Assistant Michelle Crumsho Editorial Assistant Cody McElhinny ’17 Editor Emerita Maralyn Orbison Gillespie ’49 bulletin.swarthmore.edu facebook.com/SwarthmoreBulletin instagram.com/SwarthmoreBulletin Email: [email protected] Telephone: 610-328-8435 LAURENCE KESTERSON We welcome letters on subjects covered in the magazine. We reserve the right to by IN TIMES LIKE THIS heated, vitriolic election edit letters for length, clarity, and style. cycle, it’s easy to despair. But look to your right, Views expressed in this magazine do not JONATHAN necessarily reflect the opinions of the to your left, and, of course, down at these pages editors or the official views or policies of and take heart—we’re all in this together. So, the College. RIGGS Swarthmoreans, let’s share a laugh as we leap for- Send letters and story ideas to Editor ward as one: unbowed and unbroken, better and [email protected] braver, red noses and all. Send address changes to [email protected] The Swarthmore College Bulletin (ISSN 0888-2126), of which this is volume CXIV, number I, is published in October, January, April, and July by Swarthmore Friends Forever College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390. Periodicals postage It’s always a tragedy when someone dies young, as Dave Myers ’93 did at paid at Philadelphia, PA and additional 46. We were close at Swarthmore but lost touch since graduating, so my mailing offices. Permit No. 0530-620. Postmaster: Send address changes to memories of him are frozen at college-age. Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Dave’s passion for music most defined him. He taught himself to play Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081-1390. guitar, bass, drums, saxophone, and piano and would sneak down to the Printed with agri-based inks. Willetts basement at night to record new songs. His music was even what Please recycle after reading. got him admitted—instead of an essay, he submitted an original song with lyrics about never abandoning your ideals. ©2016 Swarthmore College. Memories of a smiling, vivacious, and passionately driven Dave have Printed in USA. guided me ever since. After all, we still carry our years at Swarthmore and those old versions of the people who shaped us there into our current lives. Those versions still influence us, whether we’re in touch or not. I hope my daughter will share a campus with friends who engage and inspire her. Because those relationships, and the mark they leave on us, will—thankfully—never die. —CAITLIN GUTHEIL ’90, Portland, Maine + WRITE TO US: [email protected] 2 Swarthmore College Bulletin / FALL 2016 LETTERS Courage Under Fire I’M HAPPY JUST TO DANCE The Spanish Civil War (“One Gave All,” summer 2016) WITH YOU has interested me since my dad, born in 1920, men- tioned that he saw a recruiting poster for the Abra- ham Lincoln Brigade in Cleveland about the time Joe On a weekend in May 1954, I drove from Selligman ’37 volunteered. My dad never joined. Connecticut to New York City to visit a high No war makes sense, but some still say the Span- school friend. When I arrived, he told me that ish Civil War was the last-ever fight between well-de- his friends were going to an open house at fined good and evil. In his memoir Men in Battle, Sarah Lawrence College and I could tag along. Lincoln brigadier Alvah Bessie says that those Ameri- There, I met a Japanese student and we went cans who fought in this conflict were later ostracized to the Bronxville Inn, where we slow-danced, and persecuted as subversives and Communists af- YOU’RE ter World War II. The Soviets were the only ones will- twisted, and turned to the jukebox. She was fun WELCOME ing to support the duly elected Spanish Republic. The to dance with. Eventually, we noticed a room Nazis and Mussolini’s fascists openly supplied the where a band was playing. Inside, we saw peo- right-wing military uprising under Francisco Franco. I am delighted to ple sitting at long tables, so we found one with Despite brigade volunteers from all over the world, receive the Bulletin. two vacant seats. When we learned we were established democratic governments refused to act. Thank you. I was a crashing a junior-college class reunion, that While I don’t support militarism of any kind, the student from 1939–40 fact that a Swarthmorean felt strongly enough about didn’t stop us; we got up and danced. and am 102 years old. the darkening cloud of fascism to give his life im- As midnight approached, I walked her back —HUAI YAN CHIEN, pressed me. Thank you for printing his story, well-re- to her dorm. We sat together in the parlor for Taipei, Taiwan searched and written by Adam Hochschild. about a half-hour, then she ran across the room —ROGER KARNY ’76, Denver, Colo. and up the stairs. I never saw her again. Some years later, her name appeared in the news in connection with the Beatles. I went to I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT BUTTER(ED) my little black book and confirmed the name I’d written there: Yoko Ono. I enjoyed reading about campus pranks (“Gotcha!” summer 2016), and one —CLARK DEAN ’53, Glencoe, Ill. of them—buttering the railroad tracks, attributed to alumni from the early 1970s—brought back memories. I entered Swarthmore in summer 1944, and at that time there were 55 SAY SWAT? male civilian freshmen and 45 male civilian upperclassmen. Not all of the upperclassmen were good influences on the impressionable freshmen, Swarthmoreans before a certain period would nev- er be caught calling the College “Swat” or them- and I remember being regaled with stories of campus pranks, including selves “Swatties”—not just avoiding the appellation, the buttering of the railroad tracks, which had supposedly happened then struggling against it. Quaker roots and such. Never a in the very recent past. nickname synonymous with a blow. Sad to see pad- Thinking about it now, I suspect that this prank never took place, but dleboard hazing become common parlance. people liked to talk about it as a possibility. In the absence of an eyewit- Perhaps it’s a different era. :( ness, I think you better file this one under “Campus Mythology.” —CHRIS KING ’68, Sherborn, Mass. —IRVING DAYTON ’48, Corvallis, Ore. OVERHEARD ON OUR WEBSITE Donny Thomas, you are an absolute gift to the NATURE’S BEST Swarthmore community (“Cook, Confidant, Commu- “Hungry for Change” backyard by gardening Cornucopia Network of nity Leader,” summer 2016). I witness the care, (summer 2016) says would be safer. New Jersey to promote compassion, and service you provide to all students, remarkably little about Fresh, organic food local, organic food, and staff, and faculty at the College, and you truly play a home gardening.