Drexel University has long had a good name as an engineering and business school, and more recently became the largest private medical school in the country, but did you know that Drexel also offers degrees in the social sciences? The programs, none of which rank among the most popular majors, clearly need reform if they are to enjoy the same reputation. In particular, I feel there are several changes that could improve my own majors: history and political science.

The placement of both majors in the Department of History and Politics is questionable. They are broad topics in which many more degrees could be offered. For example, we have no program specifically in ancient history (unlike the University of Pennsylvania) or specifically American history or European history. Nor is a degree in international relations available. If more degrees were offered, two separate and more specialized departments could be formed.

A split in the Department of History and Politics is just the first step, though. Surely the social sciences are not exempt from Anthony J. Drexel’s mission of creating an institute for practical education. How can co-ops prepare students for professional life if co-ops for history and political science majors are typically not worth a paycheck? The University needs a professional expansion in addition to an academic one if it is to give students an education they can put to productive use. History majors can already get a useful accelerated master’s degree in library and information science, but for political science students I propose something bolder: the establishment of a School of Government.

Like similar institutions at other leading universities, the Drexel School of Government could be geared towards preparing students for work in public administration, corporate policy departments and nonprofit organizations. Not only that, it would serve as a feeder program for the School of Law and as a better-fitting home for existing majors like environmental policy. Drexel has an opportunity to stand out by giving majors with traditionally bleak job prospects a practical education that gives them equal chances of success in both professional life and academia.

Now, I can already hear the complaint that more courses and more professors inevitably mean more tuition. That is a perfectly reasonable sentiment, but keep in mind that each president seeks to grow the University’s endowment. Constantine Papadakis brought in $560 million. If the establishment of a School of Government is made a long-term goal, and President John A. Fry continues the pattern of growth Papadakis started, it can be realized even without a tuition hike or a wealthy benefactor to name the building after. A lack of funding in the present should not stop long-term strategic planning.

That said, there are some practical steps that can be taken right now at essentially no cost. History majors need 30 credits worth of unspecified 200+-level history courses and 41 free elective credits, while a political science degree takes 30 credits of 300+-level major courses and 40 free credits. That’s an awful lot of unspecified work. With optional concentrations, students could get a more structured experience that is recognized on their transcript. Potential future majors could be made concentrations right now — a history concentration in military history would include existing courses on America’s major wars, a political science concentration in pre-law would contain Philosophy of Law, Criminal Justice and the Constitutional Law sequence.

In the past few decades, the University has committed itself to a wide academic offering. That means it must go beyond its specialties and shore up those areas in which it is weaker. And each one of those degrees must give students the opportunity to serve society in a productive capacity — that’s what makes them worthy of the Drexel name.

Kim Post is a copy editor at The Triangle. He can be contacted at kim.post@thetriangle.org.

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Drexel University announced Dec. 16 that it is expanding its academics with the opening of the new, interdisciplinary A.J. Drexel Institute for Energy and the Environment.

The institute, to be abbreviated “IExE,” brings together faculty from nine Drexel subdivisions to study energy from scientific, economic and political perspectives. College of Engineering Dean Joseph B. Hughes has been named founding director.

The opening of the institute is an example of Drexel’s traditionally holistic approach to energy research. IExE faculty have been involved with projects from polymerized ionic liquids and plasma-assisted carbon dioxide sequestration to investigations of funding sources of the climate change countermovement. This all-of-the-above strategy was underscored by President John A. Fry when he spoke in favor of a partnership with the shale drilling sector at September’s Shale Insight 2013, but also warned against exploiting environmentally sensitive areas.

Source: University Communications

To keep the institute effective despite its broad mission, the faculty’s efforts are to be focused in six research areas: Energy, Environment & Society; Energy Scenarios; Energy-Effective Design; Energy Storage Technologies; Energy Systems, Analytics and Control; and Energy Sources.

Besides research findings, the institute’s work in these areas may result in the addition of new degree programs, such as energy systems engineering or energy informatics. A similar course of action was taken by the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, established in 2012; its faculty is currently developing an applied behavior analysis graduate program for the School of Education.

While the Drexel press release states that research will begin immediately, the fledgling institute is not yet fully operational. An immediate goal is to partner with relevant corporations, non-governmental organizations and individuals in an IExE alliance group that will advise the director with a yet-to-be-recruited Scientific Advisory Board.

A national search is being conducted for a successor to Hughes. Little news has been released regarding the search, but Drexel aims for the successful candidate to take over in July 2014. According to the press release, potential directors are to have, among other qualities, “an exceptional track record of innovative and visionary leadership on energy and environmental matters” and “a dedication to cultivating leadership in others,” the IExE website states.

The new director will oversee a remodeling of 3101 Market St., formerly owned by the Philadelphia Parking Authority, which will house the institute after the three-phase, multiyear development plan is complete. Boston architectural firm Payette, which has also worked for Duke and Harvard universities, will be converting the gray brick box at 3101 Market St. into a space for both academia and private enterprise.

The development fits in the ongoing implementation of Fry’s Strategic Plan for Drexel: an eventual 150,000 square feet will join his Innovation Neighborhood, intended to be a lasting source of growth and corporate partnerships. The strategic plan emphasizes redevelopment of the land north of Market Street as the key to creating an “attractive and exciting front door” to Drexel University.

All told, the new Institute of Energy and the Environment represents an expansion for Drexel that builds upon its current strengths and fits into the established master plan.

What’s the link between two tickets to the U.S. Open golf tournament, a tattoo designed by the artist behind the ambigrams that are central to the plot of “Angels and Demons” and backstage passes to a Boyz II Men concert? Each of those experiences was offered by Drexel University as part of a fundraising effort for the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.

As the conclusion of the “Dream It, Do It” fundraising campaign that was launched in November 2011, the “Dream It, Bid It, Buy It” auction was available to the general public via eBay Nov. 14-24 as well as to attendees of the Nov. 23 Anthony J. Drexel Society Gala. Twenty-two items were sold for a total of $51,733.33. The money raised will fund student scholarships and programs at the Westphal College.

This marks the first time that Drexel has used eBay as an auctioning platform. Notably, the auction was facilitated by ’91 Drexel alumna Richelle Parham, who became vice president and chief marketing officer at eBay in 2010. She earned dual degrees from Drexel, one in marketing and the other in design and merchandising.

“At eBay, we power a significant amount of nonprofit auctions, and we saw this as a great way to elevate Drexel’s fundraising through our platform,” Parham wrote in an email. “As an alum, I’m proud that eBay could support Drexel’s efforts.” She was particularly pleased with the auction’s cause: “I’m a huge fan of the media arts and design center, and I’m thrilled about the innovation that is happening from this group. As a design major myself, I’m always drawn to new innovations in design.”

The most hotly contested item at the auction, a brand-new Subaru Forester, went under the hammer for $28,600.04 after 39 bids. The winner took it home for about $1,300 under the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Another popular practical item was a one-year parking space in the Drexel parking garage, with a customized sign, which sold for $1,225. The U.S. Open tickets were the cheapest lot anyone walked away with, at $355.

Other notable lots included the chance to have lunch with “The Simpsons” writer Mike Reiss in Los Angeles, dinner for eight with President John A. Fry, and a private tour for four of the U.S. Capitol with a member of Congress.

Six items remained unsold: the tattoo by John Langdon (starting at $300), a signed photograph print by Andrea Modica ($800), a round of golf for three at Medalist Golf Course, Hobe Sound, Fla. ($2,500), naming rights to the Digital Media Screening Room in the URBN Center ($3,500), naming rights to the dean’s office in the URBN Center ($5,000), and five nights for six on a luxury yacht ($10,000).

Nevertheless, Parham was happy with the auction’s outcome. “It raised a lot of money for a great cause. There were several one-of-a-kind experiences and items, which in the end provided a win-win for both Drexel and the auction winners,” she wrote. “The Drexel team did a fantastic job in making it a success.”

The auction is a strong end to “Dream It. Do It. Drexel. A Campaign for the Future.” The campaign aimed to raise a total of $400 million to support Fry’s strategic initiatives for Drexel and reached that goal 13 months early. In the process, the University gained over 17,000 new donors. The online auction and gala were both supported by the Anthony J. Drexel Society, an association of alumni who regularly contribute to Drexel. “Dream It. Do It” was an initiative by Elizabeth Dale, senior vice president for Institutional Advancement.

Drexel University’s Co-op Theatre Co. and the Drexel Players performed “The Apple Tree,” a playful musical of three acts, Nov. 21-24. They did a wonderful job of transporting the award-winning 1966 piece by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Jerome Coopersmith from Broadway to The Mandell Theater. Like the rest of the Co-op Theatre’s season, the musical was selected in cooperation with students who received performing arts scholarships.

The participants come from a variety of backgrounds. “We have a bunch of entertainment & arts management students always working with us, but we have engineers, we have scientists; … [t]hey come from all over campus,” director Bill Fennelly, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Performing Arts, said. “The arts shows are open to anyone on campus.” Even for students outside of the arts, the musical counts as a practicum and provides elective credit.

Opening night was the culmination of thousands of man-hours of work. The run time was shortened to add an extra week of rehearsal, and much was expected of the students. “They put in hundreds of hours on this. … I mean, it’s somewhere between 20 and 25 hours of rehearsal a week on top of their classes,” Fennelly said.

Senior design & merchandising major Danielle Brief testified to this: “We pretty much lived in the theater during tech week. Some actors even napped, showered and ate meals backstage. … The level of teamwork, trust and dedication that went into this show was so high because of the strong foundation we built during the intense rehearsal process,” she wrote in an email. This will likely be her last production. “It’s great to be a senior and lead the new members of our theater family and pass on traditions, but it’ll be really sad to leave this community in a few months.” She has several roles as a member of the ensemble, including cheerleader, news reporter and cigarette girl.

“‘The Apple Tree’ felt like it would be a fun project for us to work on,” Fennelly said about the initial choice to put it on the schedule. It did not disappoint.

Act I is the tale of humanity’s beginning in the Garden of Eden. It principally features three characters: Adam (Vince Giannone), Eve (Sophie Hirsch) and the Snake (Corey Fedorowich). Clocking in at about an hour, it is a slow-paced treatment of the development of Adam and Eve’s relationship based on a collection of stories by Mark Twain. It runs from the creation of Adam through the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and Eve’s eventual death — which is perhaps the most memorable scene of this act.

The writing is sweet and at times comedic. Though the jokes’ sexist tone betrays their origin in the ‘60s, the audience received them with laughter. The lighting and music work well together to set the epic scope of the first humans’ reluctant love story. This contrasts the rather simplistic costumes and decor, which take an effective no-more-than-necessary approach. Giannone and Hirsch perform and sing well and achieve a good dynamic with each other, though they are upstaged by Fedorowich’s dazzling performance in “Forbidden Fruit.”

After a 10-minute intermission, Fedorowich introduces the plot of Act II as the Balladeer. The reimagining of Frank R. Stockton’s “The Lady or the Tiger?” takes place in a barbaric kingdom, though you wouldn’t know it from the costumes; designer Lauren Perigard dresses the cast in elaborate high school-themed outfits. Princess Barbara (pronounced as “barbaric,” played by Georgie Manera) wears a prom dress, Captain Sanjar (Giannone) is captain of the football team, and King Arik (Dean Bloomingdale) wears a gorgeously tacky red-white-and-blue suit, complete with a 10-gallon hat and holstered dueling pistols. They are supported by a crowd of cheerleaders and football players who attempt a bold but slightly unsynchronized dance. Like the first act, this is a love story. The royal Barbara has a secret affair with commoner Sanjar, which, as Arik proclaims upon its discovery, is a “sin against the gods.”

Very different from Act I, this story is told at a merry pace and with a vaudevillian variety of music. There is the bombastic “Make Way,” the entrancing “Lady/Tiger Vignettes,” and the romantically dramatic “Forbidden Love” — the last of which is interrupted by a cheesy song about the beautiful life that Sanjar and Barbara plan to have together. The performance is certainly impressive, and the orchestra is able to meet the high requirements, but it does detract from the seriousness of the plot. However, the intense final scene more than makes up for this minor shortcoming. In a brightly lit arena, Barbara must decide Sanjar’s fate — will he be mauled by a tiger, or will he marry another woman? The act ends on that question from the Balladeer: “The lady or the tiger, which did she choose?”

Act III, connected to acts I and II by nothing more than its theme, brings us to the modern era. In this adaptation of Jules Feiffer’s “Passionella,” New York chimney sweep Ella (Hirsch) wants nothing more than, “Oh, To Be a Movie Star.” Hirsch, who beautifully makes Ella’s voice sound awful in the way that only real singers can, makes it clear that the girl is not cut out for the job. But the charming Narrator (Fedorowich) helps out, magically transforming her into the glamorous and outrageously buxom Passionella (Camilla Kronenwetter). She finds success as a Hollywood actress but can only be Passionella between the six o’clock news and the late-night show. Additionally, she is not content. Her only love interest, Flip the handsome and rebellious teen icon (Nikhil Sridhar), wants her to be “real.” After she is cast as a chimney sweep in her latest film, which is shot during the day, the two hook up and are revealed to both be the product of the Narrator’s magic. They become an adorable, entirely ordinary couple and live happily ever after.

The set and costumes do a wonderful job of portraying both glitzy Hollywood and Ella’s depressing life as a chimneysweep, but there is a thematic inconsistency. Chimneysweep Ella would not be out of place in “Mary Poppins,” while Hollywood seems to live in the ‘40s or ‘50s. The lighting crew does a better job, making good use of spotlights and creatively simulating photography flashes. In contrast to Act II, the orchestra is not too memorable. Act III does feature some of the best acting of the play, with the Narrator, Passionella and dark-horse talent Flip all trying to steal the show.

On the whole, “The Apple Tree” was very enjoyable. The acts were tied together only loosely, but each was enjoyable in its own right. The cast, orchestra and production team have made something to be proud of.

“I have to say, this is the best run-through that we’ve had,” Fennelly said to his cast after the dress rehearsal. On opening night, he must have repeated himself.

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Former NASA astronaut and Drexel University alumnus Jim P. Bagian visited Philadelphia Nov. 19 to lecture at Drexel’s College of Medicine.

Bagian, who graduated from Drexel as a mechanical engineer but obtained a doctor of medicine degree from Thomas Jefferson University, spoke on the medical aspects of spaceflight. His presence was part of the Henry Rosenberg, M.D., Endowed Lectureship in Anesthesiology, which was established in 2007.

“It’s a little out of the ordinary and probably of general interest that you normally wouldn’t stumble across,” Bagian said. “There actually is a very good research base behind [certain medical practices], which when I was in anesthesia nobody ever talked about and maybe didn’t even know, but it actually came from aerospace medicine.”

His experience on the subject stems from two space shuttle flights, STS-29 and STS-40, in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Over the course of his NASA career, Bagian had over 337 hours of spaceflight. He also held a position as the first director of the Veterans Affairs National Center for Patient Safety and was the first chief patient safety officer for the VA.

For current students hoping to become astronauts, he offered a few words of wisdom.

“You should be following what you have a passion for,” Bagian said. “If you look at the background of most of the astronauts, especially if they’re not pilots, they weren’t pilots, the backgrounds tend to be quite varied. Of the ones with [doctoral] degrees, the single biggest percentage are physicians. Among the males, they usually had a hard-science undergraduate degree, so usually engineering or physics or something like that.”

That was the route Bagian took, though he did not initially plan it that way.

“I still look at myself as an engineer who’s a physician, not the other way around,” Bagian said.

Dr. Jay Horrow, anesthesiologist in the College of Medicine, introduced the lecture audience to Bagian. He and Bagian met while in their medical residency at the University of Pennsylvania, but as they realized, they had also been part of the same class at Central High School in Philadelphia.

Bagian began the lecture by defining the scope of his talk.

“I’m just going to talk about the [medical aspects of spaceflight] that are operationally significant,” Bagian said. As an aid to his narrative, he showed a video of STS-29 on the space shuttle Discovery.

“You weigh twice as much as you did a couple thousandths of a second before,” Bagian said about the launch, adding that launch and ascent required such finesse that they were a matter of checklists and cue cards.

The crew used their time in orbit to release a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and to conduct several experiments. Among others, they measured the effect of zero gravity on crystal formation, fluid pressure in the eye, and the development of chicken embryos. In the latter test, chicken eggs that had been fertilized the day before failed to develop further, unlike those fertilized a week earlier.

Bagian and crew also took detailed video images of Earth, providing about 75 percent of the orbital footage for the 1990 IMAX film “Blue Planet.” He discussed some of the benefits of orbital observation with the audience.

“We can see about a thousand miles in any direction,” Bagian said. “What ancient mariners figured out, … we can see very clearly from orbit,” he said regarding the tendency of clouds to form over land. The then-recent eruption of Pacaya in Guatemala gave insight into plate tectonics. “You can see fault lines that nobody knew were there.”

During their five-day mission, the crew did have time for recreation. Dry tortillas zoomed around the cabin, unencumbered by gravity, and they played with floating drinks.

“Virtually anything that has any kind of moisture to it will stick together,” Bagian said as he told personal anecdotes of the mission. Their exercise on a treadmill was visibly difficult. “It doesn’t feel like running, it feels like pushing a cart.”

Having given an overview of the conditions astronauts faced, Bagian turned to his core topic of medicine.

“When you’re pulling 3 G’s, a lot of people have trouble breathing,” he said of launch. “Your sense of balance is degraded. … The problem is, we train in 1 G.” He explained that intensive and repetitive practice with the shuttle’s complex control systems counteracted this disorientation.

One of the other challenges that astronauts face is decompression sickness, a risk that develops as they go from the environment of the shuttle to a spacesuit and back. Pre-breathing high-oxygen air before extravehicular activity is an option but is not a very desirable one, nor is pressurizing suits to nine pounds per square inch. Even the commonly used four pounds per square inch makes work difficult.

“Your most valuable commodity on-orbit is your time,” Bagian said. “When you’re in the suit, it’s like a big balloon. … The ideal physique would be like Popeye. You want to have huge forearms.”

Formerly, space adaptation syndrome was astronauts’ big worry. Similar to motion sickness, astronauts might become nauseous and disoriented once in space, limiting the work they could do. The condition affected as many as 75 percent of first-time astronauts and 45 percent of veterans. Using an aircraft flying in a parabolic arc to simulate zero G, NASA tested a variety of methods to prevent SAS.

“Some things would actually prevent you from getting sick on this, [but] they never worked on orbit,” Bagian said.

Bagian played a crucial role in making SAS a thing of the past.

“On my first flight, we tried doing something that had not been done in space before; it’s a drug that had been used on Earth before but never in space,” Bagian said. “It’s no longer an issue anymore.”

According to Bagian’s lecture, when NASA wanted to try a new drug after this, it couldn’t find any volunteers — the astronauts felt that the old drug was working fine.

“Sometimes academic curiosity takes a backseat to what makes sense,” Bagian said.

Another medical problem Bagian tackled in detail was that of blood vessels’ hydrostatic pressure.

“When you’re on orbit, it doesn’t matter, you don’t need hydrostatic pressure,” he said. But upon landing, a lack of hydrostatic pressure can cause fainting, especially because the shuttle crew is in an upright position. Special suits and harnesses protect the shuttle crew from this problem.

“The Russians are lying on their backs, so it’s no big deal,” Bagian said.

Research is ongoing in some long-term effects of space travel. A loss of strength and endurance, calcium loss in the bones, and vitamin D deficiency can plague astronauts, though this is mitigated with exercise and dietary supplements. The bones remineralize over time upon return to Earth, but some effects remain.

“There’s some evidence that’s suggestive [of the fact] that the way the bone is laid down is not as high-quality as before,” Bagian said in response to an audience question.

In conclusion, he pointed to interplanetary radiation as the biggest worry for a manned mission to Mars. Around Earth, in contrast, the Van Allen Belt shields astronauts from sustained high radiation doses.

Bagian attended a dinner after the lecture and gave a Grand Rounds lecture to medical students and faculty the following day.

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These past two months, it cannot have escaped your notice that Drexel has celebrated Columbus Day, Halloween and Veterans Day. Nor is it any secret that students and the University are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is, of course, most displeasing, for the celebration of American holidays excludes our non-American student body and is not at all mindful of the cultural diversity that exists across the world. Therefore, I humbly propose that we observe at least one new festivity this holiday season. In particular, one from my country of birth, the Dutch celebration of St. Nicholas Eve.

“Sinterklaas,” as it is known across the pond, is celebrated Dec. 5, the day before the Feast of St. Nicholas. The saint goes by the houses of children across the Netherlands to deliver gifts they have been looking forward to all year. American students will be pleased to note the holiday’s cultural and historical connections to Christmas, though there are a few differences.

The most obvious difference lies in St. Nick’s apparel and mode of transportation. In the Netherlands, his colors are red and gold, and he wears a bishop’s robe and miter. Rather than flying through the night on a sleigh held aloft by the Christmas Spirit, he brings his gifts to Holland in a steamboat and rides a gray horse on his deliveries. This may seem awfully mundane, but of course, he has just one country to deliver to rather than the entire world.

Sinterklaas’ steamboat departs not from a workshop at the North Pole but from a castle in Spain, which is an altogether more practical choice. I do not understand why Santa Claus would prefer the grim North over the Costa del Sol. It must certainly be easier to deliver gifts from a more central location.

Dutch Santa’s practical nature also shines through in his choice of labor force. American Santa makes use of elves, a notoriously elusive race, for his menial labor needs. Sinterklaas, on the other hand, uses black people. The Moors live throughout his native Spain, and he can take them all on the ship to Holland, though presumably they have to cram together.

Children enjoy the flamboyantly dressed Black Petes as much as Sinterklaas himself, for the Petes produce the gifts throughout the year and carry the gift-laden burlap sacks for the good saint. They also distribute candy. Santa does not pay them, but they live on his property and get reams of vocational experience. They are, in this respect, a lot like interns.

There is one aspect of the quintessential Dutch Sinterklaas that cannot be celebrated at Drexel, however. Santa Claus typically drops coal into the stockings of those children who have been naughty. Sinterklaas takes a somewhat more traditional pedagogic approach — he sends his Black Petes to the houses of naughty children not to give gifts but to beat them with a bundle of twigs. For the worst children, he instructs the Petes to descend down the chimney and kidnap them. Stuffed in a burlap sack, they are taken back to Spain (the holiday is Roman Catholic in origin).

I can think of only one objection to the celebration of this fascinating Dutch holiday, namely that participation would mostly be limited to African-American students or to Drexel staff. The Dutch, a people traditionally pale in complexion, devised a solution: White people can participate as Petes by donning a curly wig, red lipstick and blackface makeup. Of course, we live in the 21st century now, and students of color who want to be Sinterklaas are welcome to wear whiteface.

Sinterklaas is just one example of a unique holiday from my country of birth. It could be seen as a stepping stone to recognizing other cultural practices from around the world. Recognizing and participating in a wide variety of holidays is sure to enrich all Drexel students. For this reason, I hope the Intercultural Center and the Office of Equality and Diversity take note of this modest proposal.

Kim Post is a copy editor at The Triangle. He can be contacted at kim.post@thetriangle.org

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Drexel’s Main Auditorium hosted three renowned poets and authors Nov. 6. In “Conversation and Song: Walking the Laureate Road,” Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Toni Morrison, U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, and Pew Fellow in the Arts Sonia Sanchez discussed their works and lives in front of an eager audience. They were joined by vocalist and composer Ruth Naomi Floyd; the mezzo-soprano performed between segments. The evening was organized by First Person Arts and held in partnership with Drexel’s Department of Africana Studies, Dance Africa Philadelphia, and the office of City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell.

 The poets received an extensive introduction befitting of their artistic stature. It required several people, including College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Alexander Friedlander, just to list a summary of the accolades that each artist has received. Blackwell extended the list, presenting Liberty Bell replicas that Dove and Morrison accepted, but Sanchez gracefully declined, saying that she had thought “not another.” Floyd was also honored for her work. After the awards, Floyd sang a haunting, mournful song, including the repeated lyric, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child a long way from home.” This was a fitting opening to the discussion of Dove’s, Sanchez’s and Morrison’s works, most of which prominently feature themes of racism and sexism. What followed might best be described as a highbrow episode of “The View.” The three poets sat on the stage in comfortable chairs, and the atmosphere was jovial. Sanchez jokingly pointed out that her short stature did not allow her feet to reach the ground, which was met with laughter from the audience. This did not detract from the seriousness of the night, however, as the authors soon began asking probing questions regarding each other’s work. While responding to a question from Sanchez, Morrison got on the topic of politics. She made a poignant statement about the way politics are conducted today: “The language is, in itself, a lie. … Rhetoric used to be substance with art.” The audience nodded and hummed approvingly. She recalled talking to a friend, to whom she said that the political situation “paralyzed” her. Her friend replied that “this is precisely the moment when artists go to work.” Though she and Sanchez were prominent in the Black Arts movement during the ‘60s and ‘70s, Morrison cautioned against focusing on racial pride in response to the discrimination that African Americans faced during that era. “There are no races. … [Races are] just socially constructed power plays.” Notably, Dove described her experience in college and her connection to Morrison’s work. “I couldn’t say I was born poor and in the South,” she said, describing her childhood in Ohio and her search for identity as an African American. She did not feel confirmed until, as a student at the University of Iowa, she happened upon “The Bluest Eye.” This novel, written by Morrison, describes a black girl’s troubled life in Lorain, Ohio — Morrison’s hometown. After a discussion of rape, a theme in “The Bluest Eye” that is also common throughout the literary trio’s works, Sanchez posed an interesting question: “Is it more difficult as a female to write in a male or a female voice?” There was some discussion on this topic, but Dove concluded that “writing from a male point of view is like a shield: it feels safer.” At the conclusion of the authors’ discussion, the audience was invited to ask questions. The evening provided a deep and engaging look into African-American literature at the highest level. If any literary novices in attendance felt the need to lengthen their required reading list, the event provided ample material. Most memorable, perhaps, was an anecdote by Morrison. She talked about a letter she received, which drew laughter and cheers from the audience. “The Texas prison system banned ‘Paradise’ … because it might start a revolution!”

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