Category: Thinking, Making, Writing

In Memory of Carol Dine: Floating Lanterns

Floating Lanterns (Toshi Makuri)

Professor Carol Dine received the Editor’s Choice Award for her poem,”Floating Lanterns” which appeared in the literary journal, Ekphrasis. Her poem was inspired by the art of Toshi Maruki which depicts the orange lanterns placed yearly in the Hiroshima rivers in remembrance.

In addition, her memoir Places in the Bone (Rutgers University Press, 2005) will be discussed in a chapter of an upcoming book, Still Here: Memoirs of Trauma, Illness and Loss  (Rutledge Press, 2019).  Carol’s memoir will be released as an e-book in January by Lincoln Square Books, NYC.

“Dear Sir or Wheat Thin…”

Writes Professor Albert Lafarge:

Here’s a MadLib composed of lines from a prior Thinking, Making, Writing assignment in which students were to write a letter of complaint. (Each sentence is from a different student letter.) I whipped this up for fun, and I love reading them, and for some reason this one, filled out by Hannah Whritenour, is impish. The salutation reads “Dear Sir or Wheat Thin,” and it goes on ludicrously from there.

All-Community Book Reading Experience: Thi Bui Presents “The Best We Could Do…”

In case you missed them, read Professor Jeanette Eberhardy’s introductory words for Thi Bui and her book The Best We Could Do.

My name is Jeanette Eberhardy. I serve as MassArt Program Coordinator for the 1st year writing where we explore the relationship between thinking, making, and writing that is needed for artists’ growth. I am also the curator for our annual show Why I Write. Why I Create. that offers intimate portrayals on learning to deliver truths through art.

Tonight is a night to celebrate our shared respect for the craft of storytelling—in all the wondrous ways that we explore stories through art, writing, and design.

Last year when I was feeling overwhelmed by the news around us, I found an elegant graphic essay by Thi Bui titled “Precious Time” published after the U.S. presidential elections by PEN, the International Writers Forum. I recognized myself in that essay—feeling small in the large universe, but still remembering that my actions matter. The essay “Precious Time” was my first introduction to tonight’s guest speaker Thi Bui. The moment I encountered that essay, I understood that Thi Bui has important things to teach me about empathy—the gateway into our genuine connection with each other. Continue reading →

Writing Is Kinetic Sculpture: Crafting the Essay in Liberal Arts

 

dragon286

Writes Professor Carol Dine:

Studio work and expository writing in Liberal Arts classes potentiate each another. The Thinking, Making, Writing, research essay  that  Chongsheng (Howard) Zhao wrote to describe  “Labrador Dragon,” his kinetic sculpture, demonstrates the synergy.

For a metals class, Howard selected and sketched three animal figures in the Harvard Museum of Natural History. As a sculptor, he planned to devise an imaginary animal, incorporating parts of the creatures he observed at the museum. As an essayist, he planned to describe his imaginary animal in sentences recounting how he created it. In brass, he struggled while he abutted  edges; in words, he puzzled as he connected ideas. His sculpture evolved through trial and error,  as his essay did.

Through library research, a requirement for his Thinking, Making, Writing essay, Howard learned that Eastern metal artists traditionally represent animals as static. In the end, though, he riveted together the parts of his dragon, imbuing the sculpture with a capacity to move.

“Though this process was tiring,” he concluded his essay, I still enjoyed it,” Howard Zhao reports. Read his statement here .