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Around the Green
AROUND THE GREEN
Kingswood Oxford’s CHOREOGRAPHER SHOWCASE:
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Poetry in Motion
Last year’s award-winning Choreographer Showcase at KO was performed in an empty Roberts Theater, but this year the school’s dancers captivated a live audience with their athleticism, dynamism, and storytelling in an hour-long show. The Wyverns workshopped with five local choreographers in hip hop, contemporary, and ballet in a tour de force collaboration that exemplified the partnership with local community resources, which is a key component in the school’s Strategic Vision.
Director of Theater Kyle Reynolds, the mastermind behind the showcase, said, “Local partnerships are important to KO and important to arts in general. Theater and dance are by far the most collaborative of all art forms. I have found that collaboration, partnerships, and authentic relationships have been the key to survival in the theater industry.”
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Over the course of the fall, Kingswood Oxford students practiced their technique and dance pieces with five exceptionally talented dancers from the Hartford area:
LILI ST. AMAND, a hip hop dancer, has participated in Breakdancing Shakespeare at Hartford Stage and was the assistant choreographer for the theater’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her latest accomplishment was receiving the Jumpstart Award this past March through the Connecticut Dance Alliance.
MEGHAN MCDERMOTT is a choreographer for Immix Dance, a contemporary dance company that collaborates with local artists to create new work and performance opportunities.
RACHAEL GNATOWSKI, originally from Frederick, Md., is co-artistic director of the New England Ballet Theater Company, which was founded in January, 2020, and serves the greater Hartford region. She has also danced
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professionally with Ballet Hartford and other notable companies.
RONNIE BOWMAN, who made his Broadway debut in The Music Man at the Winter Garden Theater last December, acquired his dancing skills through his studies at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and The Hartt School.
SAVANA JONES, a Hartford native, has studied jazz, tap, hip hop, modern, and social dancing. She is currently a company member of Dimensional Dance and has been a performer in the production of Night Fall since 2016.
The nine numbers in the showcase, each one unique and stunning in its own right, were performed by either the students themselves, the choreographer or local dance company, or a combination of the three. Running the gamut from formal to contemporary, the show opened with “Have I Mentioned Today,” a lovely romantic ballet piece about young love with two KO dancers that was choreographed by KO’s Director of Theater Kyle Reynolds. Shifting gears, this exquisite piece was followed by the quirky, jerky robotic hip hop “Groove with Me” performed by Lili St. Amand.
Then working with Immix Dance Partnership, the students danced to the music of Patsy Cline, and the troupe itself also performed to a medley of Cline’s hits. Savana Jones and accompanying dancer Chantal Jones delivered a powerful dance “Mo’ Wiser,” which was full of strong emotions highlighted with a dramatic red chiaroscuro lighting effect, which enhanced the dance’s impact.
The audience particularly relished the upbeat performance “Alone,” punctuated with freestyle movements, locking and popping, and fluid-style boogaloo. “Gray Scale,” moody and modern, saw eight KO dancers fluidly move across the stage while “Autumn,” choreographed by Rachael Gnatowski, was ballet at its finest with magnificent glissades, arabesques, and ciseaux. Lastly, “The Power of Human Connection,” with the accompanying music “Rise Up,” was a dance of renewal, especially after the experience of the pandemic lockdown.
SAVANA JONES and CHANTAL JONES in “Mo’ Wiser”
BAIRD JOURNALISM DINNER
At the 29th annual Baird Journalism dinner on April 7, Carolyn McCusker ’17 spoke to the KO News editors and faculty about her internship experiences as a podcast creator. A graduate of Amherst College, McCusker actively pursued and was offered opportunities with several organizations including Connecticut Public Radio, NewsHour EXTRA, lead audio producer for The Amherst Student, news assistant, and long-form narrative podcast intern for Invisibilia, Embedded and Rough Translation at NPR, and most recently an intern at WNYC’s Radiolab.
Editor-in-chief of the KO News Emma Levinbook ’22 introduced McCusker and described the explosive interest in podcasts during recent years. In 2006, only 22 percent of the population were aware of podcasts compared to 78 percent today. Levinbook explained that McCusker’s interest in podcasts started while she was a student at KO, and she took a Global Online Academy Course in creative nonfiction. In her final project for the course, she created a podcast about what it means to be a bystander. While at Amherst, she took more courses in podcasts, and for her English thesis project she took an unconventional approach, a hybrid piece using personal experience and research to explore the way we tell stories about illness in a lengthy podcast episode.
McCusker shared advice with the students that she wished she had known when she was a high school student. “You’re in high school, about to graduate high school so this is the perfect time to become a full human being and develop your interests outside of your career and professional goals,” she said. “The best journalists are people who have important things in their life outside of their identity as a journalist.” McCusker ardently believes that having non-journalist passions develops a more interesting and innovative journalist. For instance, in the summer after graduation from KO, she worked on a crisis hotline, and although the experience was not career-related, it became an intrinsic part of her life. Many of the people she has met in her career have not majored in journalism, but in architecture, geology, or poetry, which impacts how these individuals approach journalism.
“I believe this is where the future of podcasts is headed – people innovating by borrowing from other disciplines and bringing it to their work as journalists,” she said.
Her other advice was not to be discouraged by rejection. She said it’s necessary to give yourself time to be sad and understand why you’re disappointed, but then pursue other places where you can gain more skills. Lastly, she told the students to embrace their passion projects and not to postpone the things they want to do.
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Kingswood Oxford was named Civics First Mock Trial State Champions on Wed. April 6 after competing at the Connecticut Supreme Court against Ridgefield High School. Pat Schwab ’22 was named Best Lawyer. This is the first time that the students competed in person for two years after Covid restrictions forced the students to conduct their court cases over Zoom.
The hypothetical case involved a serious injury: A minor had sustained a concussion while she was competing in a college showcase soccer tournament for an under-17 premier soccer team. As a result of the concussion, the youth continued to suffer from significant mental and physical impairment. Therefore, she filed a lawsuit against her club’s soccer coach, the director of the program, and the club itself arguing that they were negligent in returning her to play too soon after an earlier concussion and were liable for the damages that she sustained.
The Wyverns maintained their composure as they presented their case with well-pointed arguments, conferring with one another respectfully as the case progressed. Faculty advisor Lynne Levine, who has worked with KO’s Mock Trial team for many years, was impressed with the team’s arguments and their collaborative spirit. (In 2020 KO’s Mock Trial team was declared co-state champions along with Weston High School, a first for our school.) The seniors who competed in the event were the same four who were on KO’s Middle School team four years ago when KO’s team came in second.
“The entire team, including alternates, got us here, but the competing team of Pat Schwab, Jordan DiMauro ’23, Manu Narasimhan ’23, Charlie Simons ’24, Caroline Boardman ’22, and Tess Chapman ’23 completed the sweep of five victories for us this year,” Levine said. “In addition, Pat was named Best Lawyer of the trial! Melinda Rose P ’21 has done an excellent job as our only lawyer who helped coach the team. It has been a fantastic year, and we are so proud of this team.”
According to the Civics First website, this year more than 600 students from schools across Connecticut participated in Mock Trials hosted by Civics First. Forty-six schools with 57 teams competed in state and federal courtrooms with dozens of volunteers who served as judges.
From left: TESS CHAPMAN, JORDAN DIMAURO, MANU NARASIMHAN, PAT SCHWAB, CAROLINE BOARDMAN, and CHARLIE SIMONS.
STUDENT-RUN BUSINESS ACCELERATES
When we spoke to Ben Safalow ’22 in the spring of 2021 about his new start-up, Incognito Tints, a business that specializes in automotive tinting, vinyl, and detailing, he had learned early on one of the first rules of business which is to build a better mousetrap. Judging from the meteoric success of his business, we can safely say that the savvy Safalow has constructed himself a bear trap instead.
Initially, a tinting job would take Safalow approximately four to six hours to complete, and the business was run out of his parent’s home garage in West Hartford. But, with some pressure from the Town of West Hartford to relocate, Safalow has taken his business to the next level and opened a new location on Waterville Road in Avon with four garage bays and a waiting room with couches, wi-fi, a tv, and sophisticated point of sale system.
“So much has happened since I started last May,” he said. “Throughout the summer I was tinting by myself and that was going well, but starting in September I ran an ad to find someone who would work for me. I hired an experienced tinter from Hartford who does this work full-time for me, about 10 to 12 hours a day. That’s been going really well.”
So well, in fact, that this November, Incognito Tints worked on 97 cars!
Safalow admits that being a fulltime student at KO and a member of the football team, as well as a titan of industry, is a balancing act. In fact, his cell phone was pinging with customers throughout the interview. One day, Safalow ended his classes at 1:00 p.m., headed to his business, worked until 7:00 p.m., and ran home to finish his homework. Client service is key to Incognito Tint’s rapid gains. At first, Safalow would respond to potential clients after school hours, but he learned quickly that customers would find another business to attend to their needs. Now, Safalow handles online quotes, Facebook messages, and spreadsheets while his mom books the appointments.
Another ingredient to his business’s success is digital advertising which Safalow had also managed at first. However, with the growth of the business, Safalow hired a marketer who runs the company’s Google Adword campaigns as well as Facebook and Instagram advertising. Next, Safalow plans on expanding the services of Incognito Tints and is learning how to wrap cars through a workshop this December. Currently, his car is the guinea pig with a partial purple wrap on the doors.
“I had this kind of vision for the company in the summer, but it picked up faster than I thought,” a humble Safalow said. “I’ll just see where it goes and continue to do what I do. I guess my dream would be to turn it into multiple locations or sell it completely. I’ll figure it out in the next year.”
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KO STUDENTS MASTER THE ART OF PERSUASION
Debate partners TEDDY SCHWARTZ ’22 (left) and SAM MERKATZ ’22 (right).
Teddy Schwartz ’22 qualified for the International Debate Tournament by winning Top Speaker with a score of 95 at Choate School’s annual debate tournament, one of the most competitive of the year. Held virtually on Jan. 9, the tournament was attended by over 100 students from area preparatory schools including Choate, St. Paul’s, Loomis, Roxbury, Boston Latin, Windsor, Hopkins, Brunswick, Groton, Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols, Governors, Hotchkiss, and Deerfield.
Schwartz competed in parliamentary debate with his long-time debate partner Sam Merkatz ’22. This formidable team won the bestadvanced team in the tournament. Parliamentary debate is a formal contest featuring critical analysis and rhetorical skill. Participants represent the advocates for and against a motion for debate. The teams have 10 minutes of preparation time from the announcement of the motion to prepare for each debate. The three resolutions Schwarz and Merkatz debated were: Whether or
Teddy Schwartz ’22
not a country should pull out of sporting events due to a nation’s human rights violations; Should preferential treatment and hospital beds be given to those patients who have received a Covid vaccine over those who haven’t; Should the availability of abortion be determined at the federal or state level. Whether or not the teams are for or against a topic is determined by a coin toss. “You don’t always get to support the position that you truly believe in,” Schwartz said.
To prepare for each argument, Schwartz and Merkatz wrote down the three points they wanted to articulate and decided which one of them would argue each one. Additionally, they delineated three sub-points for each of the main points. Schwartz wrote a “crux” of what the debate boils down to, time permitting. Schwartz reads The New York Times on occasion to familiarize himself with events and major topics because the teams are not permitted to research or Google during the prep time. “It’s all about ethos, logos, pathos,” Schwartz said. “How do you make an appeal? I have a better emotional and moral appeal. That’s what I like to do, that’s my style. And Sam takes a very logical approach, so as a team we can cover all of the bases.”
With his assuredness, it’s hard to imagine that Schwartz ever gets a case of nerves, but he admitted to some edginess, especially as a novice. Schwartz explained how he controls his emotions. “If you can get into the right headspace for me it works,” he said. “I start really getting into it and animated. It’s like a performance almost. Your mind works really fast. I like speaking. I reframe it in my mind. I’m not nervous. I’m excited. I want to destroy it.”
Schwartz participated in Model U.N. in KO’s Middle School and decided to give Forensic Union a shot in his freshman year due to the enticement of free pizza at the meetings. After watching the senior officers in the club debate and play games, he was hooked. Forensic Union coach Michelle Caswell said that Schwartz is a tremendous collaborator and a wonderful role model to his younger teammates.
Schwartz is not entirely green, though, when it comes to the art of debate. Both his parents are lawyers, and conversation is encouraged at the dinner table. “I am generally the kid who goes against the grain,” he said. “I’ve not been afraid of debate or arguing with people, and my parents always encouraged it.”
Schwartz feels that his debate prowess has helped him articulate his own positions on various issues. “Debating has made me actually have a stronger position,” he said. “Debating both sides of an issue helps me think through the topic. It allows me to have empathy for how other people feel. People aren’t crazy. It helps me understand why they think that.”
Merkatz also qualified in subsequent debate events for the International Debate Tournament. In the tournament, held on Apr. 15, Schwartz placed second and Merkatz placed third.
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Lunch and Lead with
DROPKICK MURPHYS TIM BRENNAN ’00
Tim Brennan ’00, infamous Dropkick Murphys’ lead guitarist, spoke at a Lunch & Lead on campus to share his story about becoming a band member, touring for over 20 years, and how his experience and the teachers at Kingswood Oxford were formative to his success.
Brennan’s personality was genuine, down-to-earth, and captured the audience from the start. “It is probably rare that you get to hear about someone being in the music industry, but I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have been in the Dropkick Murphys band for the last 20 years had I not come to Kingswood,” said Brennan. “It sounds like hyperbole but it is not.” Brennan started at KO in the sixth grade, and his father was also a teacher and a coach at KO.
Brennan shared he had always had a love for music, a passion that started when he was nine years old. After joining a local band, the first show Brennan played with them was in what is now the Leadership Center on campus. “It was the first place I played in front of people,” he said. “To say that KO played a major part in my musical career, although strange, is an absolutely true fact.” He grew up in a family that listened to music, and a grandfather who had an affinity for traditional Irish music. As a teenager, Brennan jumped feet first into the genre. When he was a sophomore, Mike Marsh ’93, was hired to help fill a gap for an English teacher on maternity leave. Like Brennan, Marsh had a passion for music, specifically Irish music. “He knew I was into it so one day showed up with a tape from The Pogues, which was an Irish band that really turned it up,” Brennan said.
Not long after, Marsh showed up with an album Do or Die by the Dropkick Murphys, their first release. Brennan
was enthralled with their sound. Marsh was only at KO for a year, but the impression he left on Brennan was everlasting.
KO teachers’ support and encouragement were ever-present. Brennan laughed that he would come in with his band’s CDs and entice long-time faculty members Mr. Garcia and Mr. Jones to buy them for five dollars… which they always did. “It can’t be understated how important Kingswood was in terms of becoming a professional musician,” said Brennan.
After graduation, he matriculated to Assumption College where he befriended another musician who, at 18, had been asked to join the Dropkick Murphys – the very same band that had inspired Brennan to jump into the Irish music genre. His friend hadn’t forgotten that Brennan played a wide range of Irish instruments, and he told the band about Brennan’s talent. The Dropkicks asked Brennan to go on the road for three months to sell t-shirts and play accordion on stage.
While those few months on the road were invaluable, at the end of the summer Brennan thanked the band for the opportunity but decided to head back to school. T-shirts weren’t his goal; music was. As fate would have it, he was only back at school for three weeks during his senior year, and the Dropkick Murphys asked if Brennan would join as a full-time band member.
Despite his obvious excitement about their offer, Brennan admitted it wasn’t an easy decision on all fronts. “I had to make the decision to leave school my senior year, knowing what a great opportunity it was,” he said. “It was quite the gamble to take because, especially from my parent’s perspective, this was not a normal thing for their son to do.”
Eventually, he said, the band became famous across the world, with albums like Signed and Sealed in Blood and 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory topping the Billboard charts, and hits like “Shipping Up to Boston” and “The Boys Are Back” which is frequently played at the Boston Garden and Fenway Park. “Shipping Up to Boston” was featured in the 2006 film The Departed and went on to become a platinum-selling single.
“It’s been quite the journey,” said Brennan humbly. “I always wanted to be a musician and I have KO to thank for a lot of that – for supporting me in what I want to do, being excited for me, and asking me to come back for things like this means the world to me.”
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KO CUM LAUDE
SOCIETY
On April 26, 20 members of the Class of 2022 were inducted into KO’s chapter of the Cum Laude society. Head of School Tom Dillow gave the opening remarks and shared what a nice change it was to be able to have the event in person and shake hands with everyone after a few years of holding the evening via Zoom because of the Covid pandemic.
The evening also featured KO alum and guest speaker Bridie Clark Loverro ’95. Loverro attended Harvard University, graduating with honors in English in 1999. She is a novelist and editor, beginning her career at Vanity Fair magazine, and then moving on to New York magazine. She has also worked at Simon and Schuster and as an editor at Harper Collins. Her first novel, Because She Can, was published in 2008 and her second novel, The Overnight Socialite, was released in 2010. Loverro also is the founder of QuadJobs, an online platform/app that helps college and graduate students connect to jobs around their campus and remotely. She currently works at Zibby Books.
Loverro voiced her gratitude towards Kingswood Oxford and acknowledged Ron Monroe and the impact he made on her as a student and athlete. “He managed to challenge us and pushed us by still radiating kindness,” said Loverro.
She shared three life lessons with the students, encouraging the inductees as they embarked on the next chapter of their lives to be mindful of the long list of wants versus needs, and focus on what is really important.
The second lesson Loverro shared was to notice what is working. “Don’t focus too much on those moments of perceived failure or shortcoming” she said. “Our minds are wired to scan for what could be improved. Make sure you stay equally attuned to your wins. When you train your eye on what’s working it is a much happier, and I think, more productive, way to live.”
Bridie Clark Loverro ’95
Her third and final lesson was to: Ask for help. Give thanks. Give help to others. Repeat. “What has become clear to me in pretty much every area of my life is we are wired for connection,” said Loverro. “And one of the most powerful ways this connection gets expressed is by helping one another. Without a doubt, the most important, mature, confident, life-changing thing a person can do is to ask for help when they need it.” Following that, the most important, mature, confident, life-changing thing a person can do is thank the person who has given them help. You really can’t do this too much or too often.”
The following students were inducted: William Berckemeyer, son of Ricardo and Courtenay Berckemeyer; Caroline Boardman, daughter of William and Mary Boardman; Mackenzie Caruso, daughter of David and Alison Caruso; Zeno Chen, son of Yan Chen and Fulin Shi; Edward Crowther, son of Matthew and Meredith Crowther; Macy Isenberg, daughter of Gary Isenberg and Jackie Rubin; Minseo Kim, daughter of Kim Leal and Joo Kung; Emma Levinbook, daughter of Howard and Wendy Levinbook; Megan Murphy, daughter of Tim and Janet Murphy; Shrinaath Narasimhan, son of Varshini Aravamudhan and Lakshminarasimhan Madrassudarsan; Amrita Natarajan, daughter of Venkata Natarajan and Lalita Ramesh; Olivia Reynolds, daughter of Frank and Wendy Reynolds; Justin Rios, son of Richard and Judy Rios; Stella Risinger, daughter of Randall and Tara Risinger; Aliza Sadiq, daughter of Immad Sadiq and Muniba Masood; Patrick Schwab, son of Jim and Jenny Schwab; David Shi, son of Li and Kimberly Shi; Marrich Somridhivej, son of Kongfaah Somridhivej and Lulu Khoosanguanchai; Nathaniel Welsh, son of John and Natalie Welsh; Qiaorui “Charles” Zhao, son of Qiao Huang and Feng Zhao
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9 to 5: The Musical WINS BEST HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
KO’s thespians got down to work and sent off a blistering performance of 9 to 5: The Musical on Feb. 26 and 27. Based on the triumphant classic 1980s film featuring the troika of Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda, the story centers around these women overcoming their odious, misogynist boss, Mr. Hart. For its performance, KO was awarded the Halo Award for Best High School Musical in Connecticut as well as Best Choreography. Several students were awarded the Dance Molinari Scholarship which gives students the opportunity to workshop with Broadway dancers. This is the second win for KO’s musical in the past two years; the first was for Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2020!
Once again, the KO Theater Department, spearheaded by Director of Theater Kyle Reynolds, tackled the thorny issue of sexual harassment and used the material as a learning experience for the students. Concerned that Mr. Hart’s overthe-top behavior would appear as an endorsement because his character is played for laughs, prior to the performance the students attended a Zoom meeting with Broadway stars to discuss performing the work.
With the goal of opening up the dialogue, Reynolds brought in an impressive line-up of Broadway actors and actresses to the 9 to 5 student cast via Zoom; all these professionals had first-hand knowledge of tackling difficult material on stage, specifically surrounding the 9 to 5 show itself. These included Janelle Robinson (Mary Poppins, Showboat, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Ioana Alfanso (9 to 5, Wicked, American Son), Jessica Lea Patty (9 to 5, Evita, Bandstand), and Michael Mindlin (9 to 5, Hamilton, Aladdin). Additionally, two female members of the KO community shared their own accounts of what they faced as young women in college and transitioning into the workforce during the time
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period from the 1970s through the 1980s. Their accounts provided first-hand examples of how despite the galvanizing women’s movement in the 1960s, discrimination and sexual harassment were ever-present.
Broadway star Robinson encouraged the actors and actresses to seize the conflict at hand and turn it into something positive for the school and the community at large by showcasing the problems of that time. “If it is a show that is written well and has a good script,” she said, “it will have controversy and conflict. Otherwise, there is nothing to fight for in the storyline.” She encouraged the performers to keep open minds and use the performance to inform, enlighten, and open the story that this piece tells. “Yes, it is an important conversation, and it is also important to remember why we do theater and that standing up on stage and portraying characters gives us the freedom to have these hard conversations and have things that speak to all of us,” she said.
Despite the challenging topic, 9 to 5 is chock full of fantastic dancing and musical numbers, opening with the rousing and energizing ensemble number 9 to 5. The beautiful and powerful song of resilience and hope, “I Just Might”, which blended the harmonies of the three female leads, was a highlight, as was the down-home hootenanny “Cowgirl’s Revenge”. The staging of “Hart to Heart”, a scene that occurs in the women’s bathroom with singers and dancers wearing the same red business suit and frizzy, badly permed wig of the main singer Roz emerging from a row of bathroom stalls drew several hoots and hollers from the crowd. To the delight of the audience, when the women overcome Mr. Hart’s abuse, he is carted off on a rope suspended from the ceiling.
This vibrant production proved that 40 years after the movie’s premiere the themes of 9 to 5 are as socially relevant as they ever were. PRODUCTION STAFF Director and Choreographer: Kyle Reynolds Music Director: Steve Mitchell Costume Design: Darby Newsome Technical Director: Michael J. Bane Stage Managers: Kaitlyn Finnerty and Kodilichi Ezegbo Sound and Light Board Operator: Chayse Shamleffer/Cloud Que Stage Crew/ Set Construction: Esther Arimoro, Jada Asapokhai, Joella Asapokhai, Paul Gilberto, Maia Killory, Francesca Lamattina, Els Morris, Alisa Ruban, Julia Sohn, Amy Wang. Projections: Cameron Hart Musicians: Elizabeth Smith, John Mastroianni, Tucker Barney, Jeff Sirois, Joe Campolieta, Kevin Huhn, Elliot Wallace, Susan Carroll, Marc Sokolson, Morgan Brown, Nick Zavaglia, David Edricks, Kate Swanson, Traci Keen, Matt Weisher
CAST LIST Violet Newstead: McKenzie Campbell Understudy: Kyleace Hunter Doralee Rhodes: Serafina Squatrito Understudy: McKenzie Campbell Judy Bernly: Avery Schiff Understudy: Alice McClure Mr. Franklin Hart: Ricardo Croes-Ball Roz: Faith Potter Understudy: Danielle James Joe: Justin Rios Understudy: Frank Pu Dick/Dwayne: Luke Roen Maria: Kyleace Hunter Understudy: Alex Segal Kathy: Sattah Phouthakoun Understudy: Lily Temkin Missy: Alice McClure Understudy: Samhita Kashyap Margaret: Morgan Siegel Understudy: Jolie Flash Bob Enright/Security: Johnny Kung Josh: Sam Merkatz Tinsworthy: Frank Pu Featured Roles: Candy Striper: Lily Temkin Detective: Zaire Ramiz New Employee: Samhita Kashyap Hart to Heart Dancers: Alex Segal, Alice McClure, Azul Montiel, Lily Temkin, Sattah Phouthakoun, Anna Tippner Ensemble: Kyleace Hunter, Alice McClure, Lily Temkin, Samhita Kashyap, Luke Roen, Sattah Phouthakoun, Zaire Ramiz, Justin Rios, Sam Merkatz, Alex Segal, Johnny Kung, Anna Tippner, Abbie Schiff, Frank Pu, Keysy Lopez-Diaz, Azul Montiel, Danielle James, Audrey Karasik, Jolie Flash, Morgan Siegel Dance Captains: Lily Temkin and Frank Pu
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Having a Pultizer Prize-winning U.S. Poet Laureate read her visually evocative poems aloud in a rich, honeyed tone is an experience that few could imagine. And yet, students at KO were treated to this sensory experience when the school’s 39th Baird English Symposium author, Tracy K. Smith, led a seminar for the senior Symposium class this past Feb. 7-8 and recited a number of poems from her collection during an assembly.
Poems of
RECONCILIATION AND HOPE
Wise and warm, profound yet with a pop-culture sensibility, Smith told the students she believes that “poems can speak to a moment in life that is impossible to fully capture on your own.” As former Upper School English and Symposium teacher Mela Frye said, “Her poems urgently call us into a space where we must make room for other lives, one word, one line at a time. We can find the tools to open, to shift, to heal.”
During the assembly, Smith explained how her work not only plumbs her own inner self to understand and process the world around her but also seeks to connect with the lives and voices of others, creating a deeply empathic circle. “I’ve written poems to try and listen better to myself, to the many perplexing and difficult feelings that I live with,” she said. “I bring surprising and even counterintuitive language to the things we are feeling so we can see them better and understand them from another vantage point. You need the courage to write more honestly about yourself. One way that gave me that courage was to imagine the lives of other people, people that I knew, read about, observed.”
Many of Smith’s poems confront the dark heart of America’s racism and play with historic and imagined voices. While listening and experiencing the hidden and overt traumas, she finds new ways to express intense emotions. During the summer of 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Smith sought a means to process her unbearable grief. “I tried to come up with a new vocabulary of what we are living through which is scary sometimes – its violence, its distance, between some people and others that is man-made and unnecessary and seemingly impermeable,” she said. “So much of this conflict comes from sources of difference – class, gender, geography, beliefs, and race in America. A lot has happened, and a lot has been damaged.”
Smith creates most of her poetry at home, writing by a window. If her writing process stalls, she looks at the trees, she said, “to see if they can help me think through the human realm in a different way.” She found solace in the beauty, calm, and predictability of nature during the instability of the dual pandemic of Covid and racism. To jumpstart the writing process, Smith relies on the formal structures of a poem, for instance, a villanelle, a 19-line poem with a specific rhyming pattern, which, she said, “helps coax me forward because a form is like a road map and there are certain things you have to do, and there’s a certain
path that you have to rhyme or repeat so your thoughts follow and sometimes it makes it easy to get started.”
Smith regarded her time as a Poet Laureate, which she served from 2017 to 2019 as a revelatory one in which she encountered untrammeled parts of America on the back roads. While visiting community centers, rehab facilities, and detention centers, Smith spoke to the various unexpected folks about poetry, which, she said, elicited “these really deep, honest, and powerful conversations about life through the poems we read together, and it reminded me why I love poetry.”
During the second evening of her visit to KO, Smith read more of her works to the English teachers from KO and surrounding schools, including “Bright,” “The United States Welcomes You,” “Found Poem” and others whose thread weaved around the theme of race and injustice. Before reading “An Old Story” she charged the group to develop “new mythology for our nation to understand itself and its purpose and its destiny….What would it mean to write a new mythology for a new future that we would like to welcome?” she asked.
Art teacher Scott McDonald presented Smith with her portrait that he and his students created. The portrait was composed in nine sections, each section a repetitive rendering of one word from a line in her poem “ my god, it’s full of stars.” The line reads: “And the great black distance they – we – flicker in, reflecting on the immensity of the universe and our human connection within it.”
“I have gotten an amazing window into these incredibly gifted students,” Smith said of her visit to KO. “I feel illuminated by what you do here and what you do to make literature real and vital and necessary for your students, and I’m so grateful to be a part of this program.”
