The Riffin' Griffin

Helen Stafford memorial

Posted on August 18, 2011 by

by Lea Shapiro

Helen A. Stafford, emerita professor of plant physiology (1954-1987), died recently at the age of 88. Her friends and family invite you for an informal gathering at her house, not far from Reed College.

What was Dr. Stafford like as a teacher? Do you ever wonder what happened to her after she retired? How did Alzheimer’s change her life? Come chat with her family, friends, and caregivers to share your memories and to celebrate and learn more about this exceptional person.

Saturday, August 27, 2-4 p.m.

5426 SE 45th Ave., Portland

There is no need to RSVP, just drop in if you are so inclined.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged biology, stafford | Comments Off

“Woodstock without the rain”

Posted on August 2, 2011 by

“It was Reed’s version of Woodstock without the rain. A pivotal moment.”

–John Sheehy ’82

Centennial Reunions 2011 was a momentous occasion. Some of you were there, some of you have just heard the tall tales and viewed the photos. Everyone can live vicariously via this terrific video montage (video compiled by Jinyoung Park ’11, with music by Davis Rogan ’90). Enjoy and share with friends, then make plans to help wrap up the celebration of Reed’s centennial year at Reunions 2012, May 30-June 3!

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Voices of Reed in Oregon Historical Quarterly

Posted on July 19, 2011 by

by John Sheehy ’82

This fall, Oregon State University Press will publish a book drawn from the Reed Oral History Project entitled Comrades of the Quest: An Oral History of Reed College. The following excerpt from the book features the voices of students and academics who found their way to Reed in the 1920s and 1930s. It offers a sense of the socio-economic and cultural diversity of students at the time–many of them first-generation college students from small towns and farms–and also highlights some of the qualities of Reed College that attracted them.

You may order the full article in the summer issue of Oregon Historical Quarterly online.

Excerpt:

REED COLLEGE’S character–and its aspiration to be among the most intellectually demanding schools in the country–was already well established by its launch in 1911. William Trufant Foster, Reed’s first president, sought to make critical thinking the holy grail of the educational experience. He believed that if Reed was to be relevant in an educational landscape dominated by specialized research universities, it would be essential to impart to students the most rigorous possible set of intellectual skills and attitudes for informing every area of inquiry. In doing so, he worked to establish a new kind of college, one that would give renewed vitality to the liberal arts while preparing its graduates for the ever-widening dimensions of the modern world.

To insure the highest standards of intellectual rigor, Foster imposed a number of curricular hurdles, including a senior thesis and orals exam. To instill self-discipline and discourage students from working for grades instead of for learning, after 1915, professors gave no grades except on request after graduation. To stress democracy and inclusiveness, Foster banned fraternities and sororities as well as the sideshow amusements of intercollegiate sports. To ensure small, intimate classes, he adopted a ten-to-one student-to-faculty ratio and directed professors to focus on teaching, not research. Finally, to promote intellectual freedom and better capture students’ enthusiasm, Foster established a free electives curriculum.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged centennial, Comrades of the Quest, oregon historical quarterly, sheehy | Comments Off

Reflecting on Homer

Posted on July 12, 2011 by

Contribute words and images in celebration of Reed’s centennial year! This is a call to send Sarah Dougher ’90 your reflections about reading Homer at Reed in 15 words or fewer. Your words and images will be incorporated into a performance at the celebration of the centennial on September 23, 2011.

Please take a picture of yourself with your copy of the Iliad or the Odyssey, then email or text your submission to sarahdougher@gmail.com or 503/715-6731. The deadline is August 15.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged centennial, Homer, Iliad, Odyssey | Comments Off

A great crop of Reunions ’11 coverage

Posted on June 30, 2011 by

Our colleagues over at Sallyportal, the blog of Reed magazine, threw themselves into the deep waters of Centennial Reunions to cover several of the most distinctive events; check out the collected highlights there (you can leave comments too!). Of course we couldn’t cover all of the more than 230 activities that were going on, and it is impossible to summarize a week of such intense programming (not to mention intense nostalgia!), so if you’d like to send us a recap of any that we missed, we’d be glad to share it. Please send a paragraph or two, and any photos, to alumni@reed.edu for consideration.

Photo by Melissa Osborn ’13

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged centennial, magazine, reunions, sallyportal | Comments Off

Dr. Demento deconstructs Zappa

Posted on June 21, 2011 by

By Travis Greenwood ’01

Sated by the luxe, campuswide feast on the Friday night of Centennial Reunions, an overflow audience settled into Vollum Lounge at 9 p.m. to hear Barry Hansen ’63, aka Dr. Demento, speak about the musical and cultural legacy of the late Frank Zappa and his prolific troupe of art-rock jesters, The Mothers of Invention. The Doctor opened his remarks with high praise for his subject, explaining that Zappa was one of the “half dozen most important artists” of his lifetime, a suggestion that visibly resonated with many in the audience, including the other elder statesmen in the room. In particular, Hansen cited Zappa’s adventurous blend of superb musicianship and subversive style, suggesting that both were original and enduring influences on the radio program he has hosted for more than 30 years now.

Alternating between archival video, excerpted recordings and most interestingly, snippets of interviews he had conducted with Zappa himself over a three-decade period, Hansen traced a biographical sketch that was informed by the deeper minutia that only a true musicologist would seek out. That said, Demento’s lecture was also richly personal: listening to his exchange with Zappa about the importance of music as an agent of change in society (and its apparent exclusion from political discourse!), one gets the feeling that the duo shared a genuine and conspiratorial connection. Ever the entertainer (and DJ knob twiddler), Hansen closed with one last Zappa track, “Stevie’s Spanking,” a rich mess of psychedelic guitar and (highly) satirical asides.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged barry hansen, centennial, dr. demento, frank zappa, reunions | Comments Off

Riot grrrl reunion

Posted on June 10, 2011 by

The recent New York Times article on the continuing influence of riot grrrl (“the 1990s feminist indie-rock movement is being reexamined by academics”) got me thinking back to some of the Reed connections to this music and message. Johanna Fateman ’96, of the electro-pop band Le Tigre, is one of the tribe (and was a roommate of Kathleen Hanna, of Bikini Kill, right here in Portland), as is Jody Bleyle ’92. In the early to mid 1990s, any number of riot-grrrl bands played on campus, including Jody’s bands Hazel and Team Dresch.

Not only did these ladies rock in a way that galvanized the artistic and political expression young women at the time, the culture that they created has had a lasting impact; “riot grrrl, with its snarky cut-and-paste zines and carefully built micro-communities, prefigures a lot of youth culture today.”

If you’re feeling fierce, or just fiercely nostalgic for this sound, come to Centennial Reunions on Saturday night, 9 p.m. to midnight in the Commons café, as Jody and friends get their Reed bands back together:

EggDog/Lovebutt, 10 p.m.

Seminal feminist-punk bands return to rock you. Copies of the EggDog Tactical Map and the Lovebutt tape “Emilechrist” will be available. Christine Denkewalter ’92, Jody Bleyle ’92, Alicia Cohen ’93, Hannah Demerritt ’92, Rachel Hanes ’93, Val Risk ’92, Ellen Crofts ’93, John “Krack” Peterson ’93, and special guest Cynthia Star.

Also on Friday night’s bill are two other alumni bands of the 1990s:

HollowDog, 9 p.m.

Stuart Margolis ’93 and his friends perform a tasty take on good old

rock-n-roll. Those who like to kick back and listen or those who get the

urge to dance will enjoy this Portland-area band.

Atomic Swerve, 11 p.m.

Come witness the triumphant, albeit brief, return of the Atomic Swerve! For one night only, this intrepid duo of faux-intellectual college rawkers (Dan Hill ’99 & Brett Rogers ’99) will leave you wondering both what you were doing in the late ’90s and why the hell you ever left.

Finally, for a slightly different spin, come see Sarah Dougher ’90 (former riot grrrl, composer, and teacher) and her “hootenanny” band, the Stumptown Family Ramblers, on Saturday at 1 p.m. on the Commons patio.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bands, centennial, reunions, riot grrrl | Comments Off

Cinema sampling at Centennial Reunions

Posted on June 9, 2011 by

There are filmmakers, film geeks, and other fans of the silver screen amongst us here at Centennial Reunions! All showings are in the psychology auditorium.

Dirt: The Movie with executive producer Laurie Benenson ’71

Join Los Angelino writer and film producer Laurie Benenson ’71 and author William Byrant Logan for a screening of the Sundance film Dirt: The Movie. Inspired by Logan’s book DIRT: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth and narrated by their friend Jamie Lee Curtis, Dirt is an exploration of the many of the earth’s most under appreciated source of fertility.

Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

Bad Video Board curated by Jemiah Jefferson ’94 & Celeste Ramsay ’94

Join Jemiah Jefferson ’94 and Celeste Ramsay ’94 for the return of Bad Video Board! This ’90s weekend staple brought some truly terrible movies to the Saturday-night Reedie masses, and the movie ladies are back to dazzle your minds and break your brains with some seriously misguided cinema. Join the Facebook group and read more about the specific movies: The Apple, House, and Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill.

Thursday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

A “sneak preview” of Leaving Home with Bob Richter ’51 & Mike Mahar ’52

This film tells the powerful women’s rights story of a teen-age girl’s coming of age in a rural village in India, with unique footage of women frankly discussing their roles in marriage and sex. In a way it is the universal story of many young people caught between the traditions of their family’s expectations and the attractions of the big city. In Leaving Home we follow Renu, caught between her dreams of going to Delhi and her village’s traditional culture of arranged marriages, dowries, and the caste system. Present at the screening will be the three-time Oscar nominee producer Bob Richter ’51 and the anthropologist Mike Mahar ’52, with whom Bob collaborated.

Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged centennial, cinema, film, reunions, video | Comments Off

Mary Barnard ’32: found in translation

Posted on June 8, 2011 by

Sweep the mind

clean

like a field of dry stubble

when the constellations

of daisies have been mown

–Mary Barnard

Mary Barnard ’32 is arguably Reed’s most prominent creative artist. Her original poetry and translations of classic poetry influenced generations, including the Beat poets who followed her by one generation. Her 100th birthday was celebrated in 2009, so it is appropriate that the Reed Centennial honor her with a full day of lectures about her life, her work, and her influence (see “Alumni College: Letters 100: Experiencing Mary Barnard ’32” on Thursday, June 9).

It is also fitting that pre-eminent Barnard scholar, our own Sarah Barnsley ’95, should return to lead this seminar. Sarah was an exchange student from University of East Anglia for one year, and she now teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her other research interests include American literature, poetry and poetics, modernism, gender and queer theory. Following her tenure as H.D. Fellow in American Literature at the Beinecke Library, Yale University, Sarah has completed a book manuscript, “‘A bright, particular excellence’: Mary Barnard, American Imagist.” She is also a poet in her own right.

Mary Barnard ’32 was born in Vancouver, Washington, and attended Reed College, where she discovered modernist poetry and Ezra Pound; she later initiated a long-distance correspondence with Pound that was to last nearly 40 years.

As noted by the Beinecke Library, “With Pound’s encouragement, Barnard began translating Sappho’s poetry from the Greek. Her translation, published in 1958, has never been out of print. Barnard’s own poems won her Poetry magazine’s Levinson Award when she was only 26 years old. Her shorter fiction was published in Harper’s Bazaar, The Yale Review, and The Kenyon Review. She later composed a book-length essay in verse entitled Time and the White Tigress and researched and published her own genealogy and various essays on mythology.”

The delightful and spirited memoir of her school days, Erato agonistes: Writing a creative thesis at Reed College in “The Golden Age”, is available in the bookstore.

Other speakers in the seminar will include Professor Anita Helle, Oregon State University, on Mary Barnard’s original poetry, and Professor Ellen K. Stauder, dean of the faculty and David Eddings Professor of English & Humanities, on Mary Barnard’s Sappho, in the morning sessions. Afternoon conference leaders will include, in addition, Elizabeth J. Bell ’87 MALS, Mary Barnard’s literary executor; and Anita Bigelow ’67, illustrator of Mary Barnard’s work.

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Selections from the Reunions smorgasbord

Posted on June 7, 2011 by

Centennial Reunions is upon us, and trying to take advantage of all the splendid offerings is like making selections from an extravagant smorgasbord! If I were footloose and fancy free to attend the festivities as a layperson, here’s what my schedule highlights would be. Hopefully I’ll make it to a few of these events, hopefully I’ll see some of you there. Which activities are at the top of your list for this week?

Tuesday:

3-4:30 p.m.

Alumni College: Social Justice 100

Panel discussion with Xeno Acharya ’09, Peter Bergel ’65, Sunny Daly ’03, Sue Hagmeier ’75, Kristiana Hansen ’96, and Craig Mosbaek ’83; moderated by A’Nova Ettien ’01.

Although “Communism, Atheism, Free Love” makes a great sound bite, Reedies have always considered social justice as the grounding of any sloganeering. Moreover, they’ve walked the walk as well as talking the talk. Here, we provide a panel discussion that looks back on Reedie social activism over the past half century and looks forward to where we should be going.

Wednesday:

9-10 a.m.

Alumni College: It’s Greek to Me 100

Wally Englert, Omar & Althea Hoskins Professor of Classical Studies & Humanities, will reprise his Humanities 110 opening lecture on the Greeks, Homer, and Greek epic. Come prepared to chant the opening lines of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

3:15-5 p.m.

Alumni College and Tour: Reed Architecture 100 with Charles Rhyne, professor emeritus of art history, meet at the flagpole and please wear comfortable footwear.

Professor Rhyne will discuss the ways in which the design of the campus has evolved over the years. In addition to describing recent changes in buildings and spaces, he hopes those participating can share their memories of the campus and their impressions of the “new” campus.

Thursday:

9 a.m.-4:15 p.m.

Alumni College: Letters 100: Experiencing Mary Barnard ’32

Mary Barnard ’32 is arguably Reed’s most prominent creative artist. Her original poetry and translations of classic poetry influenced generations, including the beat poets who followed her by one generation. Her 100th birthday was celebrated in 2009, so it is appropriate that the Reed Centennial honor her with a full day of lectures and conferences about her life, her work, and her influence.

8:30-11 p.m.

Bad Video Board

Friday:

10 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Gray Fund is looking to record your story. In preparation for the Centennial Gray Fund Celebration, we are hoping to collect recordings of alumni speaking on what Gray Fund meant to them during their time at Reed. Have a story to share? Please stop by the Student Center (formerly the health & counseling center/the infirmary).

5-6 p.m.

Centennial fanfare

This sixth-annual keynote event features poet Gary Snyder ’51

9 p.m.-midnight

Bands of the 1990s

–HollowDog, 9 p.m.

Stuart Margolis ’93 and his friends perform a tasty take on good old

rock-n-roll. Those who like to kick back and listen or those who get the

urge to dance will enjoy this Portland-area band.

–EggDog/Love Butt, 10 p.m.

Seminal feminist punk bands return to rock you. Copies of the Egg Dog Tactical Map and the Lovebutt tape “Emilechrist” will be available. Christine Denkewalter ’92, Jody Bleyle ’92, Alicia Cohen ’93, Hannah Demerritt ’92, Rachel Hanes ’93, Val Risk ’92, Ellen Crofts ’93, John “Krack” Peterson ’93, and special guest Cynthia Star.

–Atomic Swerve, 11 p.m.

Brett Rogers ’99 and his buddies reunite to perform tunes that resonate

with those mid-1990s alumni.

Saturday:

10 a.m.-noon

Alumni College: Leadership 100: The Three Tenures, with presentations and a president’s panel with President Colin Diver and former presidents Paul Bragdon and Steven S. Koblik

2-4 p.m.

Tying Up Loose Threads

Travis Greenwood ’01 and Josh Elliott ’98 want your (Olde) Reed tees for a digital photo archive. Bring what you have to the SU, and we’ll photo them on the spot. All classes, years welcome.

3-5 p.m.

Alumni food showcase

Sample the amazing treats and libations of fellow alumni: Steve McCarthy ’66, Andy McLain ’93, Jehnee Rains ’93, Bear Wilner-Nugent ’95, Siiri Sampson ’04, Clayton Szczech ’00, and Diane Vireday ’89.

6-8 p.m.

All-class dinner

Sit with classmates by vintage and enjoy a scrumptious barbecue spread based on Steve Raichlen ’75 recipes and Sweet Baboo, with Phil Bakeman of Pink Martini on bass, Portland jazz phenom Lee Wuthenow on tenor sax, Scott Foster ’77 of Swingfish on guitar and vocals, and James Mason of Swing Papillon on violin.

9:45-10 p.m.

Fireworks

Enjoy the grand finale of Reunions ’11.

10 p.m.-1 a.m.

Davis Rogan ’90 and the Allstar New Orleans Rhythm and Blues Revue

Davis and his playing buddies rocked the SU three years ago. Now the inspiration for a character on Treme, he returns to the scene of the crime (as it were).

For the full schedule, look online or consult the printed booklet that you receive upon arriving.

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