COMMUNITY CALENDAR A PUBLICATION OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 VOL. 6.12
KISS ME 2012 COLLEGE MUSICAL
KATE
Friday, December 7 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 8 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, December 9 3 p.m.
In this Issue: Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series, Concerts, Theatre
What’s past is prologue. — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DEAN’S LECTURE AND CONCERT SERIES Please join us for the continuation of fall 2012 Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series. All lectures are free and open to the public. See below for times and locations.
What is Truth? William Blake and the Metaphysics of Poetic Genius David Carl, director, Graduate Institute, St. John’s College, Santa Fe Friday, November 2, 7:30 p.m. Worrell Lecture Great Hall, Peterson Student Center What is Truth? Philosophy criticizes Poetry for being removed from the truth and for offering us images and illusions in place of reality. How does Poetry respond to this critique? Through an examination of the metaphysical foundations of the poetry of William Blake, along with some help from Erwin Schrödinger, Percy Bysshe Shelley, God, and a stuffed tiger, Mr. Carl will attempt to defend the poet’s claim that without the imagination there would be no reality, and that Truth is more a poetic construct than it is a philosophic concept. David Carl earned his bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Pomona College in 1990, a master of arts in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School in 1991, and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of California at Davis in 2000. Before joining the faculty of St. John’s College in 2000, he held various academic positions, including at California State University, San Bernardino, Diablo Valley College, and the University of California at Davis as well as in Wupertal, Germany. From 1993 to 1995, he was poet in residence at the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore in Paris. Mr. Carl was assistant dean at St. John’s College from 2008 to 2010 and assumed his current position in the spring of 2012.
Bodies of Knowledge: Personifications of the Liberal Arts in Medieval and Renaissance Art Geoffrey Shamos, advanced doctoral candidate, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania Friday, November 9, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center In antiquity, the Liberal Arts were considered essential areas of study for free men and helped distinguish them from slaves. The core curriculum of ancient Greece and Rome — comprising grammar, rhetoric, and logic — was expanded in later centuries to include mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. Together, these disciplines constituted the trivium and quadrivium taught at medieval universities. Personifications of the seven liberal arts, described by Martianus Capella in the fifth century, appeared frequently in the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, helping to shape contemporary attitudes regarding education and knowledge.
As an undergraduate, Geoffrey Shamos studied literature at Yale University. He is currently an advanced doctoral candidate in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, where he specializes in Northern European Renaissance art. His dissertation focuses on the use of personification in sixteenth-century prints from Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. He has presented his work in numerous venues, including lectures at Yale University, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Bristol University in England, and the National Library of Denmark.
Beginnings Samuel Kutler, tutor emeritus, St. John’s College, Annapolis Friday, November 16, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center In this lecture, Mr. Kutler will give special meaning to what it means to really begin something, with examples from poetry, the bible, mathematics, philosophy, the United States, and from St. John’s College itself. Samuel Kutler earned his bachelor of arts degree from St. John’s College, Annapolis, in 1954 and did graduate work at American University. Before joining the faculty of St. John’s College, Annapolis, in 1961, he held various positions as mathematician at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and also was an instructor at A.U. Mr. Kutler served as dean in Annapolis from 1982 to 1984.
Wine Abe Schoener, founder and winemaker, Scholium Project Friday, November 30, 3:15 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Philosophy PhD–turned-winemaker Abe Schoener will speak primarily about the relation between wine and storytelling. This lecture will proceed along several paths; perhaps the least expected is from the perspective of marketing wine. A story is essential to sell wine, but somewhat more interesting is the notion that people not only buy stories, they drink them. Mr. Schoener will discuss the relation between wine and the preservation of moments, which one might call history. This, in turn, is tied to wine in its relation to spoilage and preservation in the realm of food and potable water. The Odyssey hovers in the background for most of these reflections and will rise to the forefront once or twice. A 1982 graduate of St. John’s College, Annapolis, Mr. Schoener became a tutor there in 1989; he earned his doctorate in ancient Greek philosophy in 1992 from the University of Toronto. During a sabbatical year in 1998, he interned at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Four years later, he was winemaker at Luna Vineyards. In 2004, he left to concentrate on the Scholium Project, centered in Napa Valley. Of the aims of his project, Schoener has written: “The wines should be so distinctly wine and not fruit that one can sense both the yeast and the bacteria, on the one hand, and the passage of time, on the other hand, that transformed the unspoiled fruit into a new substance. The wines must capture and preserve decay and age. The wines should make you happy that you are drinking them.”
Dear Friends of St. John’s College,
Beginning in 2013, the St. John’s College Community Calendar will move exclusively to an online format, and will not be printed and distributed. The online format provides a great opportunity to keep you better informed with expanded content accessible from most computers, smart phones, and tablets. The Community Calendar will publish on our website six times a year. The online format will continue to offer in-depth calendar listings plus interactive and multi-media content for you to enjoy. There will also be a PDF file available for download. We will send an email announcement when each Community Calendar is posted. We hope that you will join us through this transition by registering your email address on our website. You can also keep up to date on St. John’s through our Facebook and Twitter accounts, which you can join through our homepage, www.stjohnscollege.edu. If you have any questions or concerns, I can be reached at (505) 984-6102 and ggomez@sjcsf.edu. Thank you for supporting St. John’s College.
Warmest Regards, Gabe Gomez Director of Communications St. John’s College, Santa Fe
LUNCHTIME CONCERTS Waltzes and Polonaises: Berg, Chopin, and Schoenberg Peter Pesic, piano Friday, December 7, 12:15-1:10 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center There is no charge for admission. Musician-in-residence and tutor Peter Pesic continues his exploration of Chopin’s waltzes and polonaises with a program featuring the waltzes CT 221, opp. 64/2 and 34/1, and the polonaises Kk 4A/1, opp. 26/2 and 40/2, along with Berg’s Sonata, op. 1, and Schoenberg’s Three Little Pieces, op. 19. Peter Pesic is a tutor and musician in residence at St. John’s College, Santa Fe. He attended Harvard and obtained a doctorate in physics from Stanford. He has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Mr. Pesic is also a visiting scholar at Harvard University.
Kiss Me, Kate Friday, December 7, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 8, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday, December 9, 3 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center $5 at the door general admission; free to the St. John’s College community. Kiss Me, Kate, the 1948 Tony Award-winning musical, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off stage between Fred Graham, the show’s director, producer, and star, and his leading lady — his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. Artist-in-residence Roy Rogosin directs St. John’s College students, faculty, and staff in this stage classic.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: “in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of god.” — BOBBY KENNEDY, Indianapolis (4 April 1968)