5p, the first page is double sided page, the others are one sided pages, mimeograph on matte off white paper. Mentions that the 43-44 spring quarter will end on Sat June 17 at noon announces that Mary Brett, Nell Goldsmith, Bill McLaughlin, and Ruth Miller are approved to enter the senior division Paul Radin resigned. reports the number of students registered for the summer institute: Music Institute (26), Art (16), Regular BMC students (26) After making a mid-year audit of the college books, William Morso left Helen Lounsbury left the college. Eric Bentley will leave today to teach the summer session at Fisk University Josef Albers left for a short course in design in MA.
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE COMMUNITY BULLETIN
College Year 11 Bulletin 36
Monday, June 12, 1944
CALENDAR:
Tea will be served on the porch of North Lodge on Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 4:00 until 4:30 o’clock.
The Board of Fellows will meet this afternoon at 4:30 o’clock in Study 10.
Jascha Klein will conclude his series of three lectures on “The Beginnings of Scientific Astronomy” this evening at 8:15 o’clock in the Dining Hall. He will tell of the work of Kepler.
The Faculty will meet, without the Student Officers, on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at 4:30 o’clock in the Kocher Room to continue the discussion on the Spring Quarter academic work of the students and to evaluate the trial examination papers.
There will be a Community Meeting on Wednesday evening at 6:45 o’clock on the lawn in front of the Stone Cottage to outline suggestions for the 1944-45 session.
On Thursday evening at 8:00 o’clock in the Dining Hall there will be a Workshop Program (instead of the Chorus Rehearsal). Ruth Miller and Frederic Cohen will play Paul Hinemith’s Sonata for Piano, Four Hands; Mozart’s Concerto in E Flat Major for Two Pianos, then repeat the Hinemith Sonata.
The 1943-44 Spring Quarter will end on Saturday June 17 at noon.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Faculty announces that the following candidates have been admitted into the Senior Division: Mary Brett, Nell Goldsmith (subject to the approval of her Upper Division Plan), Bill McLaughlin and Ruth Miller.
Mrs. Annette Stone has taken over the task of assigning rooms to guest in as far as the College has space. Anyone expecting guests should consult her. Anyone wishing to visit the College in the two weeks between the Spring Quarter and the Summer Quarter should definitely be discouraged from doing so, unless there are very special reasons for the visit. During the Summer Institutes visitors cannot stay at the College, since there will be no room here for them.
Kenneth Kurtz spoke to the ward assistants at Highland Hospital on Tuesday evening of last week on “The Frontier in American Life and Letters.”
The Board of Fellows announces the resignation of Paul Radin from the Faculty of Black Mountain College.
REPORT ON THE MUSIC AND ART INSTITUTES
(as of June 10)
Students admitted:
Music Institute 26
Art Institute 16
Regular Black Mountain
College students staying on because of the Institutes 26
68
Patron contributions to the Scholarship Fund #3,085.00
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #36- Page Two
Added to the curriculum of the Music Institute:
Twenty public rehearsals of A. Schoenberg’s First String Quartet in D Minor, directed by Rudolf Kolisch, the leader of the Institute Quartet. Lorna Freedman, R. Kolisch’s Assistant, will play second violin, Marcel Dick, viola, and Nikolai Graudan, ‘cello.
Beginning July 8, there will be a series of ten Saturday evenings of chamber music from Bach to Schoenberg. Participants will be: The Institute Quartet (R. Kolisch, L. Freedman, M. Dick, and N. Graude, Yella Possl (harpsichord and piano) Lotto Leonard and her pupuls (Johanna Grauden and Edward Steurmann (piano). Ernest Krenek will join these artists in September with the performance of his newly composed piano sonata.
A list of all the Institute Members will be published at a later date.
The number of inquiries and applications for the Institutes is so high that the College is considering the renting of additional sleeping accommodations for guest and Institute members at Blue Ridge.
ARRIVALS:
Jascha Klein, a member of the faculty of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, arrived on Monday morning for a visit at Black Mountain College.
Kedric Lynch, Patsy’s brother, arrived on Tuesday for a week’s visit at Lake Eden.
Jack Lipsey arrived from Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday afternoon to make plans for his return in July to Lake Eden.
John Chen and Vladimar Hartman were visitors at Lake Eden on Thursday evening. Mr. Chen is a Methodist Minister from Nanking, China who has been studying for two years in the United States at Drew University. He plans to return soon to his family and his church in China. Mr. Hartman is a Baptist minister who is about to begin work in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee with the Home Missions Council on the Mountain Workers Conference.
John Swietzer, a member of a C.P.S. Unit in Greensboro, was a week-end visitor at Lake Eden. Mr. Sweitzer is a mechanical engineer on a special research project for Duke University for designing a machine to test motion sickness.
Miss Ruth Platt, a candidate of the secretarial vacancies in the College Office, will arrive this afternoon for a few days visit at Lake Eden.
DEPARTURES:
Sam Brown left on Tuesday afternoon for his home in Wilton, Connecticut and for an appointment with his physician in Boston. He will return to Lake Eden for the Summer Music Institute. Sam was accompanied part of the way to Boston by his brother, Pfc. Dick Brown, who had spent a few days of his furlough at Lake Eden.
John Campbell left on Wednesday for the C.P.S. Camp in Grottoes, Virginia.
After making a mid-year audit of the College books, Mr. William Morse Cole left on Thursday for his home in Concord, Massachusetts.
Mary Brett left on Friday afternoon for New York City to attend the marriage of her sister, Betty to Will Hamlin on Sunday afternoon.
Jack Gifford left on Friday afternoon for summer work in the Cape May New Jersey Playhouse.
Mrs. Helen Lousbury left on Friday morning for her summer home at Highlands, North Carolina
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #36- Page Three
Eric Bentley will leave today for Nashville, Tennessee to begin, in a few days, his summer appointment, to teach history and English literature at Fisk University.
Josef Albers will leave on Wednesday afternoon for Groton Massachusetts where, at the Lowthorpe School, he will return to Lake Eden on July 16 to direct the Summer Art Institute
EVENTS OF LAST WEEK:
Radios were kept on all day Tuesday for the Invasion news.
There was a Community meeting in the Lobby of North Lodge on Wednesday evening. Kenneth Kurtz, College Secretary, read an account of the decisions of the students for the same period. Erwin Straus gave a report on the activities of the Admissions Committee to date. Ted Dreier outlined the Community Work to be done before the beginning of the Summer Quarter.
Jascha Klein, a member of the Faculty of St. John’s College, gave the first of a series of three lectures on “The Beginnings of Scientific Astronomy” in the College Dining Hall on Wednesday evening. He gave his second lecture on Sunday evening.
At dinner on Thursday Egbert Swackhamer announced the marriage, in Asheville during the afternoon, of Private Bob Marden and Helen Wright
There was a farewell party for Mrs. Helen Lounsbury in Bob Wunsch’s study on Thursday evening.
At lunch on Saturday Bob Wunsch announced the receipt in the morning mail of a check for four thousand dollars, a gift to the College from Stephen Forbes, a former student. Stephen wrote: “This is given out of sympathy for the loss of the servants building and in the hope that they may again have adequate quarters. Actually, however, the gift is unrestricted and the College need not spend more than it deems wise on the servants quarters, either now or later.”
The students had a meeting on Saturday evening and another meeting on Sunday afternoon to evaluate the College year and to draw up recommendations for the 1944-45 session.
The Saturday evening concert was the Victor recording of Brucinar’s Symphony Number 9 in D Minor, played by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Before the Concert Heinrich Jalowetz spoke informally on Bruckner as a man and as a musician.
WITH FORMER STUDENTS:
News Items:
Betty Brett and Will Hamlin were married at the Church of the Epiphany in New York City yesterday afternoon at 4:00 o’clock.
Karl Freeman, who was for a year in Washington with the American Red Cross is now back in Charlottesville, Virginia where he is doing work for the University in connection with the Navy Unit.
Middleton Freeman, who enlisted in the marines in April 1942, has been on sea duty for over fifteen months. He has been around the world several times, and is at present somewhere in the Pacific. He is Assistant Ship’s Photographer but has managed to do “some sketching in far away places and has sent home some interesting water colors.”
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #36- Page Four
New Addresses:
Leonard Billing
St. Croix Friends Service Project
P.O. Box 222
Christianated, St. Croix
Virgin Islands
Lieut. John V. Deaver, A.S.N. 0-718496
215th Combat Training Section
P.G. 6-8
P.O. Box 3111 A.A.B.
Pueblo, Colorado
Mrs. Richard Wright, Jr.
(formerly Nannette Wright)
Box 33,
Sergeant Bluff, Iowa
John H. Campbell
C.P.S. Camp
Grottoes, Virginia
Connie Spencer
5273 Nebraska Avenue, N.W.
Washington 15, D.C.
In the Mail:
Leonard Billing writes from the Virgin Islands: “We’ve been in the Caribbean three weeks now. The first week we spent just going around to a few of the projects of CPS #43- a couple on Puerto Rico, one on St. Thomas- and then, of course, seeing the sights. Such as the University of Puerto Rico, which has a beautiful campus and a lot of beautiful Spanish girls. There is a picturesque old stone wall around San Juan with forts and everything in it. In fact, each of these ocean cities has a fort overlooking the harbor, but San Juan’s wall is really an interesting, massive structure. But perhaps the most impressive thing about these islands, the thing that lingers…is the people. And the way they stroll along in the street. And the large number of little kids. And the squalor- although there is a degree of cleanliness in the streets of St. Croix, despite the surface drainage ditches which is their only sewage system. There are too many people. In Puerto Rico that is especially true, and the birth rate is increasing. I was talking with one of the men- the lab technician for the country clinic which is run by one of the units over there. He is rather discouraged- says that what the people need is not medical treatment (the few people who come in there for treatment each day are not unusually sick), but more and better food. They are all under-nourished and the land cannot raise enough to feed all of them. Nor are there jobs for them all, so the economic opportunities for them to have a decent life just aren’t there…. The unit has started two milk feeding centers which prepare and serve the children one fairly nutritious hot meal a day. Tex Sanders in his recreational program is trying to educate the kids and grown-ups on better health and diet. He has a dart board which is divided in sections with the picture and name of some good vegetable and each section, the higher scores being the more nutritious and usually less commonly eaten vegetable such as soy beans. He also has made puppets that extols all of the virtues of that food- and it seems to be going over big. That has a long range educative value. They are also trying to impress birth control on the natives…The customs here are not the Spanish customs which linger in Puerto Rico, and for that I am rather glad. One of the difficulties in getting recreation going over there they have found to be the customs of the separation of boys and girls and the strict chaperonage of girls. Folk dancing is even with younger kids. Here a greater amount of freedom exists in that regard….and I hope that by the time I go back- in a couple of years, maybe- some of the less pleasant differences from this worry too much about what can be done for the people. I’m only supposed to cook for the rest of the group, who are supposed to be trained to do the special work in health, education, recreation. So far there are only two of us- Bill and I. Bill is the recreational man. Two of the other very excellent men whom the administration wanted down here very much, were refused by Selective Service. Selective Service didn’t even deign to give a reason. So we are waiting, hoping that four more will be coming sometime soon.”
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #36- Page Five
Liutenant Danny Deaver writes from Pueblo, Colorado: “Our group has been kept occupied with various routines which seem to get us nowhere, and do us little good. Our schedule is neither exciting nor restful. There Is an atmosphere of impatient discomfort, partly because we want to hurry up and get to combat, partly because that is all we have to look forward to….The Army always seems to contradict our nature. We want to believe, and will believe that our next step will be a surer one, a better one, that will take us further; yet the Army, unless it is trying to direct a choice inevitably makes each metamorphosis appear the toughest yet, and our present status is rosy round of glamour. In all fairness, the Army is usually right in retrospect, but they have little to hope for in the future… Our last hopes of getting a furlough were shattered last week with a letter from some office high up in the chain of command stating in effect that our group would not be granted leaves at this base. The chances of getting one after we leave here are nil, so there is little left but the common expedient of griping- and it is used extravagantly… on the less morbid side of the ledger is the Office Club. It is a modernistic piece of work, done, no doubt, by some exponent of the ‘let’s-see-how-much-leather-aluminum-and-groovey-chandeliers-we-can-put-in-place- school; but in spite of the architects, it seems to want to be comfortable, and it is restful. On occasion it produces soft music, beer and a substantial number of rather eager women. There is a writing room, a reading room, a bar, and a place to dance. I haven’t used these facilities very often, preferring some of the clubs in town; but it is there, and it is clean…none of us are particularly fond of Pueblo, but it is off the post and some place we don’t have a chance to visit often. It was probably at one time a peaceful, retiring little town, with nothing but its juvenile set of steel mills and an occasional dust storm to make things unpleasant; but now it is an army town, and as such, has accepted the worst the army has to offer and taken none of the best. Even the air seems filled with G.I. dust. It is too small to attract any plays on the road or even an occasional concert,”
Private Isaac Nakata writes from Italy on May 27: “We seem to have become aggressive and bold once again, and the situation here has improved materially. There is, however, an unusual quiet on the front, a quiet broken now and then by short bursts from our howitzers and by the droning of our planes. The jerries have silently withdrawn. Italy is pretty at this moment. The meadows of this coastal plain are verdant with long grasser grain, spotted here and there with patches of yellow daisies and bright red poppies. Two-story white farmhouses dot the countryside. Here and there on the mountainside are villages, often built somewhat inaccessibly on ridges… I guess those towns and villages called communes, are holdovers from medieval times…The mountain growth hereabouts is much like that in New Mexico…Summer is really here. We can loll in the sun almost naked during the day, but the air gets extremely chilly from three to five o’clock when the dampness of the night descends and soaks the earth. It begins to get dark at about 8:00 PM. A shorter night means a shorter watch for us…Eventually we may have to fight during the day when we get the enemy really on the run.. then we’ll have to take cat-naps between watches or whenever we can.
Morton Steainua writes from Palmyra, New Jersey: “Our house here is a kind of a house kids can live in with freedom…It has lots of closets, a big attic, a basement, a laundry porch, and six rooms. We don’t have an inch too much room, however….we have done quite a bit of painting, sanded the floors of Joan’s and Pete’s rooms, partitioned off part of the basement and made a carpentry and painting shop, planted a 10’ and 20’ garden… Palmyra is a small town, about 5,000 people. You find the same ease and neighborliness and common sense you find in Black Mountain, or in any small town, for that matter. We know far more people here after six weeks than we know in Philadelphia after fifteen months. And more friendliness, thoughtfulness and good will than we would have found there in a thousand years. We thought we would like it here very much. We are now sure.”
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #36- Page Six
WITH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF:
Sergeant John Evarts writes from “Somewhere in England”: “The warmth of spring there and the memory of the dogwood and other trees make me really a bit homesick. If the North Carolina spring has seemed shy, I don’t know how you’d describe the English spring. The flowers and other greenery seem to have liked it fine and come out boldly. But for the people or the land it has seemed to be pretty steadily chilly…We are doing a small entertainment next week for the company here. Four of our own small group are doing a slapstick skit, making fun of life withing the company. One of the boys is going to sing two or three popular songs. Another is going to sing the ‘Nature’ song (from the Evarts-McCleery ‘Let Me Have Air’). And I’ve got hold of a couple of Kentucky mountain boys in the company who play guitars and I’m teaching them Mike Ross’s “Tennessee Valley” ballad. I hope that this one will work out well. Remember the time we did It with Lisa’s pictures on slides and Derek Bovingdon singing it? I’ll be doing ‘Elmer’ and a few other things perhaps…Had a nice note from Bill McCleery a couple of days ago. He has not only finished his play but has also sold it, and it is scheduled for production in the fall.”
WORK CREW REPORTS:
Construction: in order to consolidate more or less its strength during last days of the Spring Quarter the Construction Crew last week divided itself into two groups for the remaining time. One group assigned to itself the Dining Hall tables in order finish as many of them as possible before the Quarter ends. (Two completed tables are not being used on the Dining Hall porch). The other group took over the job of completing the second music cubicle so that it will be usable for the Summer Institute. Last week the flooring in this cubicle was laid, the ceiling was blocked in, and a door frame was made.
Nell Goldsmith
Farm: Three tons of hay were taken to the Farm from the Bottoms Field. On the job casualties and resultant tetanus shots became numerous. Dr. Bell of Swannanoa has begun to recognize Black Mountain College students by the brand of the pitchfork on them, and the members of the Black Mountain Lions’ Club have begun to talk about Black Mountain College belligerence.
Three acres of soybeans were sowed at Bennett’s, seven acres at Mor
Three acres of field corn were plowed and hoed at Bennett’s six acres at Morris’s.
Ross Penley spent two days under the Hough Leader identifying the clutch.
The vegetarians set out one thousand plants and planted four rows of soya beans. They hoed the peas, carrots and cabbage and dusted the beans.
Penny of Belmont View produced a bull calf, Toots Penley drove the tracter, and Frances de Graaff and Mary Kriger distributed fourteen tons of lime on the Morris Fields.
Molly Gregory
Hauling: In addition to attending to its regular duties of removing trash from the campus the Hauling Crew finished clearing debris from under the Studies Building during the first half of the week. Then the haulers, aided by numerous volunteers, concentrated upon supplying creek rock to be used as full under the Studies Building.
Bill McLaughlin
Maintenance: During the week the window screens of the Lodges were washed, the Studies Building stair tower painting job was finished, and one member of the crew was married.
Ginger Osbourne.
