In Praise of Goodness

Goddard faculty member Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg was recently interviewed by Diane Silver, a writer who keeps up the blog, "In Search of Goodness," a 365-day quest to answer an impossible question. Here's an excerpt from Mirriam-Goldberg's interview:

DIANE: What about poetry and goodness?

CARYN: Poetry and poetic language – which I would extend to memoir, novels and short stories, spoken word and song writing, just everything we can do with language — it’s all about, at its best, taking life and encapsulating it, and passing it on to us in a way that we can see more who we are and how we live. Even speculative fiction shows you a lot about how you live or about how people could live or what people could become. I think the arts serve as a mirror of where we are, but also of a larger vision of where we could be and also historically where we have been. For people trying to cultivate goodness in their lives I don’t think they can do better than to turn to the arts because you’re going to see things there. You can hear it in song, you can see it in painting, you can listen to it in a spoken word performance.

DIANE: It’s a matter of looking at it, but also maybe participating in it? I know that writing has taught me a lot about myself.

CARYN: Creating it, looking at it, doing it. You can see in all these things — what’s the word I want? — you can see your reflection. You can also see where you might be limiting yourself, where you might go instead, through the use of writing, through imagery and rhythm. Imagery speaks to our five senses: smell, taste, touch and so on. Rhythm — just the sounds words make when they’re put together — kind of jars us out of that thick layer of stories and myths that I talked about earlier. We can kind of lift it up and look underneath it. You can use that as pathway to connect to who you are.

Pictures: Above: Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg; below: Diane Silver

Helping Teens Empower Themselves Wherever She Lands: Heather Davis

When Heather Davis was in the Individualized MA program (Transformative Language Arts concentration), she focused on how spoken word performance and writing could help at-risk teens find their feet and walk toward better lives. She didn't realize at the time that she would be aiming her own two feet around the country, starting up projects for teens to empower themselves.

While she did her practicum in New York City, she soon moved to Austin, Texas, where she co-founded an affiliate of 826, a non-profit focused on empowerment through literary. The Austin Bat Cave now has several staff people, vibrant community support, and offers after-school, in-school and other programs such as music writing, gender identity exploration, filmmaking, hip-hop poetry, college essay writing and making literary journals.

About three years, pregnant with her first child, Heather and her husband decided to move to Portland, ME to be closer to their families. Once she arrived, she discovered the Telling Room, which was modeled after the 826 program, and she showed up on their doorstep. "They needed someone with my skills, so I started coordinating volunteers and grantwriting, and now I work on fundraising, grantwriting and future program development." She's currently raising funds to launch an after-school program for refugee and immigrant teens from the war-torn, impoverished countries of Sudan, Somalia, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan who have settled in the Portland area. "Schools have a limited ability to serve these kids because of budget cuts," she explains, and furthermore, the kids have just come through horrendous losses as well as dislocation. "Some of them had their parents killed and all kinds of things. We help them tell their stories and also find emotional support, and the academic and literacy component they really need."

Looking back at Goddard, which she graduated from in 2005, she says, "I went there knowing I wanted to do something in the education world and writing world, and it all clicked. Before I came to Goddard, I wasn't really part of any serious discussion about how to do the kind of work I wanted to do. The emphasis on right livelihood helped me move beyond the 9-5 capitalist worker bee mentality. The freedom of the individualized program let me design exactly what I wanted to do."

In addition to living out her own right livelihood in Portland, she's also joined a writing group with several TLA graduates, and she's taking writing workshops to work on a book about the six months she lived in a teepee in the desert, another place her feet took her.

International Sustainability: Camille Mata is Recognized for Thesis!

Camille Mata, an IMA graduate who specialized in international sustainability and community building, won an honorarium and potential book project with the University of Minnesota Press through its Quadrant Fellowship. The honorarium includes a stipend and all-expense paid trip to the University of Minnesota where Camille will give a lecture on her thesis, and a workshop focused on a chapter of her thesis. She also plans to head to the Third World for a six-month or longer project involving

According to her faculty advisor, Ralph Lutts, "Camille Mata did an excellent research project examining the possibility of providing a sustainable system of providing healthful (organic) foods (community food security) to lower income folks in Oakland, California.This began with a study of the history of community supported agriculture, urban agriculture, etc. This was her third masters thesis, so she knew how to do a good job when she arrived at Goddard."

Quadrant is a program that promotes interdisciplinary publication and research, and strives to be a new model for Press-University partnerships that bring humanities scholars into dialogue with those in the sciences and professional schools

Intercultural Understanding, Overcoming Racism and Young Adult Fiction: Cynthia Curley Obrero

Cynthia Curley Obrero (IMA ’09) has worked in Theatre and the Music Industry since receiving her Bachelor’s in 1989. Throughout that time she believed theatre was, and still is, able to present to the public different ideologies, lifestyles, cultures, and ways of thinking about common ideas. Through the Performing Arts she felt she could help break down some of the barriers that stand between people of differing backgrounds. “I saw, and still do see, theatre as a tool for teaching and starting conversations about those concerns that affect us on a global scale. By placing very important yet shunned or ignored topics before individuals, I was hoping to create conversations, new ideas, or a different perspective that could cause positive change within those issues that seem easier to avoid: such as genocide, AIDs, domestic and child abuse, gender identity, prejudice, and politics - just to name a few.”

As she continued to work in the entertainment industry she found herself craving a larger role in creating change for better understanding between individuals and groups of differing backgrounds. After two years of “mind numbing brainstorming” she decided the best avenue to take would be to learn more about intercultural issues through the study of Anthropology. Goddard’s IMA program appealed to her for several reasons. “Since receiving my Bachelor’s degree I had learned that linear thinking does not include all or many of the aspects of an idea, ideology or theory and thereby does not allow for full or multi-dimensional understanding. In order to create systemic understanding more than one ideology needs to be analyzed, criticized and either incorporated or rejected in order to discover the answers to any question. I not only wanted to study the many facets of Anthropology, but Philosophy, Psychology, and whatever else might organically grow from my studies.” In her search for solutions to prejudice her studies eventually took her into Semiotics, Social Constructionism, Conflict Resolution, Cosmopolitanism, and Group and Individual Identities.

In the process of her Master’s she discovered a way to combine her creative side with the theoretical. She decided to write a young adult’s novel. The novel is action-adventure based yet it introduces the reader to new cultures – their histories, folktales, beliefs, languages, surrounding environments, etc. - in a way that allows for learning positive interaction with cultural and ethnic groups rather than labeling them, which so often leads to prejudice. The novel is the first in a series, which will take its characters and readers around the world. “I had the idea floating in my head before entering Goddard. Early on in my studies I discovered the book actually solidified my academic and creative backgrounds into something I could give to the public. Something that is educational, fun, creative, and may help to prevent prejudice.”

She went on to say, “I am very excited about it, but in the beginning I felt otherwise. I had never written anything before and was extremely nervous by the prospect of putting details and dialogue, especially dialogue, down on paper, let alone writing enough of it to fill a book. The more I wrote the more I became absolutely surprised by how much I enjoy writing. It still amazes and delights me that I achieved such a large task. I do believe my background has helped me far more than I knew or expected it would. I’m an introvert, which means I have usually sat on the fringes and watched people - their gestures, postures, speech, and interactions. This helped me a great deal when envisioning the characters and their personalities. My theatre background gave me an understanding of staging and intentions. And reading books and watching movies gave me a sense of suspense and pace.”

Since her book takes place in several countries Cynthia has done research online, through documentaries, books, and conversation through emails. This past year she traveled to Iceland to further enhance her understanding of the country and to better describe it in her book. “I had never been there. I had done plenty of research, but I felt I needed to actually see it and experience it myself in order to represent it appropriately. Quite honestly, Iceland had never been on my list of places to go. I am very grateful my book took me there. Iceland has an amazing history, literary and folk heritage, environment, and wonderful people. By traversing the locations I describe in my book and interacting with Icelanders I learned some of the nuances of the country and of some of its individuals that I would not have known otherwise. I would never have known about the colors, textures, scents, sounds, the Icelanders’ strong sense of connection with their history and their visions for the future, the pride in who they are, their generosity, their incredibly good English, and a magnificently diverse environment that seems to lend a beauty and a resolve to many who live there. It was a wonderful trip. My aim is to incorporate that experience and knowledge into my book.”

Cynthia is presently editing her book and hoping to have it ready for publication by the end of the year. “Goddard gave me the direction and freedom to think organically, logically, linearly, critically, and creatively. I was given threads of connection and foundation to my whirlwind of thoughts, ideas, images, and imaginings. From my academic studies of Intercultural Interaction and Prejudice Prevention I became a writer with direction and passion. Now I hope to use what I have learned from my life and my studies to plant a seed of understanding between peoples.”

Photos from Cynthia's trip to Iceland

Katt Lissard: Watch The Contamination Waltz - a new 7 minute video about HIV/AIDS and theatre for social change in Lesotho, southern Africa.

( Click text above for video.) The Contamination Waltz highlights the creative process of the Winter/Summer Institute (WSI). Since its launch in 2006, WSI has been bringing performers and directors, students and teachers, together from three continents to create collaborative theatre in Lesotho. IMA faculty member, Katt Lissard, is WSI's artistic director.

Deena Chappell: Voices of the Archetypes

Deena Chappell, a IMA graduation who specialized in consciousness studies, came to Goddard as an accomplished musician who has performed widely for years. Listen to an interview with Deena on the Carl Jung Gateway radio show on Blog radio. Her new album, "Voices of the Archetypes," was the central part of her thesis, bringing together Jungian studies, spiritual exploration, and her astonishing and provocative voice and instrumentation. You can also see more about Deena at her website.

Born into a family of musicians, Deena has been performing bluegrass, rock, folk, swing and jazz since she was 14. A well-known bass player, she also plays mandolin, sings in a popular swing/jazz duo with Nathan Knowles, and plays in a bluegrass trio, Dirty Old Strings. She's worked with the Vermont Arts Exchange for six years, offering music therapy sessions with vets, songwriting workshops for children throughout Bennington County, and other workshops throughout the area.

Francis Charet: Graduation Talk on Ganesha

Graduation talk delivered by Francis Charet, IMA faculty and coordinator of Consciousness Studies, at the Individualized MA graduation ceremony on Feb. 14, 2010.

Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Goddard community, families and friends. I am honored to have been invited to say a few words at this commencement. When I received the email from Jaes asking me, on behalf of the graduates, to be the commencement speaker I was sitting at my desk at home in Montreal. I began to remember my own graduate studies and all the things I was interested in and pursued, my ambitions, hopes and dreams and what I had attained in the years in which I studied. As I thought about all of this, I looked up over my computer and starred as I often do at a wooden image that sits on a shelf. It is a small statue of the Indian deity and mythological elephant headed figure, Ganesha. It found its way there, like other objects I have accumulated, because of my interest in the cultures and religions of the planet and of India in particular. In fact, it was really my encounter with Indian culture that first awakened in me a sense of the largeness of the world, how small and western I was, and how much we all have to learn from each other and yet we often miss the opportunity to do so.

As I thought about all of this it occurred to me that the figure of Ganesha represents a combination of the things that might be of value to try to briefly speak about to our graduates. Lost in work and other things I thought I would pick up on these ideas sometime later. As fate would have it, when I arrived at Goddard with as yet not entirely worked out thoughts, I ran into Sowbel, acting director of the HAS program, who said she wanted to show me something. This turned out to be this statue of Ganesha sitting on a figure with three elephant heads. Bemused, I took this as a sign that, indeed, my brief talk should be about the qualities that Ganesha embodies and clearly, to fit the symbolism of the three heads, there had to be three of them namely strength, wisdom, and responsibility, all qualities that are attributed to Ganesha.

Now Ganesha is one of those remarkable combinations of human and non human elements that India has characteristically produced in great abundance, flourish and wonderful variation. He has a human body, usually with a nice rounded and very full pot belly, and his torso is crowned with an oversized elephant head. In the earlier fateful encounter of East and West, he ran afoul of the colonizing Europeans and their aesthetic ideals and entered the list of what one contemporary historian of Indian art has called “much maligned monsters”.

Yet, since medieval times, Ganesha has attained an audience in India that surpasses them all. This elephant headed figure is found in greater numbers in statue, relief, painting and poster form than the rest. There are now monographs written on this figure and various stories to explain his emergence and I won’t detain us by looking at these as interesting and entertaining as they might be. Instead, I simply want to acknowledge that this figure has become an object of interest and popularity and now even migrated to the west and it might also have something to say to us and to our graduates in particular. In order to do this I would like to focus on the three things that I mentioned, namely strength, wisdom and responsibility.

Let me add that one of the interesting parallels between the figure of Ganesha and Goddard is that we, like the figure, combine together things that often are not combined elsewhere and in that sense we, too, are unusual and maybe even a bit exotic. In Indian myth and culture Ganesha is an archetypal auspicious figure who is known by his chief attributes as the remover of obstacles, patron of scholars and protector of the community. Obstacles Ganesha, the great and powerful elephant headed god, is often displayed as using his strength to move seemingly immovable objects and does so with considerable determination and patience. He is especially venerated for this attribute for the obvious reason that life is chock full of obstacles, big ones and small ones, some easily overcome others not. Graduates, I know that all of you have faced such obstacles in your lives but here, at Goddard, we also know that not infrequently, the greatest obstacles are those we ourselves have created. Getting out of our own way is a challenge and requires similar resources such as strength of character, determination of will, patience and kindness. Learning this has been an important part of your experience here at Goddard.

Knowledge Ganesha is the patron of scholars. This attribute implies that knowledge is one of the most desired and vital resources in order to understand, move through the world and make it a better place. Graduates, you have all acquired considerable knowledge in a variety of subjects and disciplines but I would venture that the most important acquisition has been knowledge of yourselves, who you are, what interests you, and what you want to take out into the world. This, too, has been an important part of your experience at Goddard.

Responsibility Ganesha is the lord of hosts and protector of the community. Knowledge of the world and oneself is both a valuable accomplishment and an indication of success that is commendable and is a shared goal of many educational institutions. Yet at Goddard you have learned something more and that is that knowledge becomes much more enriched when it can be applied in the world to make it a better place for all beings. This, too, has been an important part of your learning at Goddard. In India, invoking the presence of Ganesha and what he stands for –remover of obstacles, bearer of knowledge and wisdom, protector of the community - is common at the beginning of rituals, scripture reading, engaging in any contractual arrangements, and even in the breaking of ground for new buildings and other seemingly non religious events. Goddard graduates you are not at the end of your journey but at the beginning.

This is Ganesha time. Take the attributes associated with Ganesha, the strength you have acquired to remove obstacles, what you have learned and apply it wisely, your sense of responsibility for others and be contributors to and caretakers of the world. I should add that there is another attribute of Ganesha I have not mentioned: he is also the god of good luck.

Oṃ Gaṇeśāya Namaḥ

Pictures include Ganesha as statue and painting, Francis Charet with graduate Erica Pierce, and a graduation-Valentine's Day-Chinese New Year cake to celebrate graduation.