Dear Alumni/ae, 

Happy Leap Day! I hope you are making the most of the extra day, sort of feels like it should be a holiday, doesn't it?

Today it gives me great pleasure to announce the recipients of the 2024 Bard College Awards. (Just to recap: Bard College Awards, given on the Friday before Commencement, showcase alumni/ae and friends for their achievements in the fields of science, art, public service and human rights, and their commitment to the College.)

The Bard Medal will be presented to Sandy Zane '80; the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science to Daniel O'Neill '79 and Andrew Zwicker '86; the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters to Adam Conover '04 and James Fuentes '98; the John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service to Paul Thompson '93 and Erin Law '93; the László Z. Bitó Award for Humanitarian Service to Golden McCarthy '05, Adam Khalil '11 and Zack Khalil '14. Congratulations to everyone, and if these folks are your friends and were too humble to tell you they were getting awards this year, come back to support them. 

The Bard College Awards Cocktail Party and Ceremony is a hidden gem and it is arguably one of the best Bard events you can attend during Reunion weekend. Start it off right with the glamorous, sunset cocktail party on the Fisher Center patio, after which everyone is invited to come inside the beautiful Sosnoff Theater to learn the stories of your fellow alumni/ae—the amazing activists, artists, scientists and leaders that are part of our community. I promise you will leave feeling good about being a Bardian. You can also sign up for the dinner afterwards, hosted inside the Fisher Center, with the awardees, fellow alumni/ae, classmates, faculty and staff.

I hope I will see you there. 

In the meantime, next month is BardWorks DC. If you live in DC, please save the date for the Networking reception on Thursday, March 21st to meet the students in the program. Many are from our displaced student cohort from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Russia, as well as others who are excited to learn about working in DC. It is a three-day event featuring site visits, tours, and networking. 

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Fernberger & Fuentes Gallery tour in LA last week, and especially to our hosts Emma Fernberger '11, James Fuentes '98, Adam Ferrucci '20 and Ana Vejzovic Sharp CCS '03. California Bardians, we will be back with Leon to San Francisco and LA in April and hosting more events. Stay tuned. 

Leon is in Buffalo conducting with the Buffalo Philharmonic on Friday, March 15th and Saturday, March 16th and we are planning a gathering with alumni/ae on Thursday, March 14th. Watch your email real upstate Bardians.

I'm taking a class again this semester, with the first professor I ever met at Bard, Myra Young Armstead. She was new at Bard then, too. Now I believe I am in the last class she will be teaching at Bard. Myra is retiring in May and, along with her colleagues Joel Perlmann and Tom Wolf, she will receive the Bardian award at the Bard College Awards Ceremony—even more reason to come out on Friday. I love being in a Bard classroom again. I'm trying not to talk too much but it's hard!

Reunion registration is opening soon. This is my year so I'm counting on you, my fellow 89'ers. Thank you to everyone who has already made a gift. It's not too late to meet the match!

If you are in the area this Friday through Wednesday, please feel free to stop by RKC to see the Tibetan Buddhist monks generating a sand mandala dedicated to the aspiration for world peace. This event is designed to give everyone a moment of reflection and inner peace while they recognize the transient nature of our life and world. You can learn more on the Bard website here.

That's it from me. 

Be seeing you,
Jane

P.S. Shout out to the BardWrites Affinity group and its leader Maya Gottfried '95 for some great meet ups and sessions recently. BardWrites is always looking to connect Bardian writers with students and with each other. So many terrific Bardian writers out there. I just pre-ordered the new memoir by Nikkya Hargrove ’05, Mama: A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found, which I am looking forward to reading. Typecast by Andrea Stein '92 has been getting great reviews—perfect for a windy and cold March couch, I ordered that, too.

Xaviera Simmons ’05 Is One of Six Artists to Reflect on the Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance for the New York Times

“The Harlem Renaissance has been a part of my lexicon since birth,” said Bard alumna Xaviera Simmons ’05 to the New York Times. Simmons, along with five other artists, were invited by the Times to reflect on the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. Simmons’s work They’re All Afraid, All of Them, That’s It! They’re All Southern! The Whole United States Is Southern! elevates and recontextualizes the work done by the artist Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence’s wife, who cowrote the labels that accompany Lawrence’s famous Migration Series.

Blind Injustice, an Opera about Wrongful Imprisonment by Librettist David Cote ’92, Profiled in the New York Times

Produced in conjunction with the Ohio Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, the opera Blind Injustice explores the impact of wrongful convictions on the incarcerated and their families. Blind Injustice is based on interviews with exonerees conducted by librettist and Bard alumnus David Cote ’92, who found it a challenge to give the proper attention to each real-life account. “Any one of these cases would have been a full-length opera,” Cote told the New York Times.

Listening to Music Is Better When It’s a Conversation Among Friends, Writes Professor Tim Davis ’91 for the New York Times Magazine

Listening to music, often a solitary activity, takes on new dimensions among a group of friends who have been meeting for 15 years to encounter songs together. Associate Professor of Photography Tim Davis ’91 writes about the Golden Ears and their weekly meetups in Tivoli, New York, and the particular pleasure of gathering to share music. “By now we’re used to listening to music for one another, in a way that privileges adventure over taste,” he writes. “Having a listening group as a sounding board of directors turns the sprawl of music history into a rolling conversation with friends, a renewable resource, an endless delight.”

JSTOR Is Now Available in 1,000 Prisons, Thanks to the Work of Stacy Burnett ’20 MBA ’23

JSTOR, the online resource that gives access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources, is now available in 1,000 prisons spread across four continents. Led by Stacy Burnett ’20 MBA ’23, alumna of the Bard MBA in Sustainability Program and the Bard Prison Initiative, the JSTOR Access in Prison Initiative now connects more than 500,000 incarcerated people to the digital equivalent of a college library.

Bard College Hosts Discussion Between President Leon Botstein and ACLU Deputy Legal Director Yasmin Cader on March 11

Bard College is hosting a discussion between College President Leon Botstein and Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Yasmin Cader on Monday, March 11, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm in Olin Auditorium in the Olin Humanities Building. Botstein and Cader will discuss the topic of civil liberties. This discussion is free and open to the public.