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Announcing the Fall 2023 Writer-In-Residence Mark Doty

Save the Date! Reading and Conversation with Sam Pollard on April 20.

Apply for Fall 2023 Poetry Course with Mark Doty

Congratulations to the Winners of the Fall 2022 Creative Writing Contest

At the end of the semester, the Harman Program hosted a prize-giving ceremony at the Baruch Performing Arts Center to celebrate the winners of our Fall 2022 creative writing contest.

The evening was an intimate celebration of horror, mystery and suspense judged by Carmen Maria Machado. Despite this seemingly insular genre, we were blown away by the depth and breadth of the topics explored by our student writers. From richly grotesque sapphic erotica to the genre-blending of body horror and haunted houses, each submission was fantastically unique in voice and form. We are thrilled to note that all of the winners and the runner up were current and previous Harman students

1st Place: “Housed In The Flesh” by Adelina Nita

2nd Place: “Petal” by Brianna Jo Hobson

3rd Place: “A Good Rope is the Most Useful Tool in Your Kit” by Mia Mikki

Runner-Up: “The Blue Notebook” by Elisabeth Koyfman

Click here to read the winning pieces.

Looking Back on Baruch’s Tribute to Professor Grace Schulman

Photo by Glenda Hydler

On November 3, Baruch College celebrated Distinguished Professor Grace Schulman, who is retiring after fifty years teaching poetry. The event featured speeches from Weissman Dean Jessica Lang, Professors Tim Aubry, Mary McGlynn and Esther Allen, and three of Grace’s former students Pooka Paik, Sarah Chen, and Miguel Machado, who each read from their favorite works by Schulman. Grace gave a reading from her new collection, Again, The Dawn: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2022, and spoke about her process, her inspirations, and her experiences as both a teacher and an awarding-winning writer. Schulman, who is retiring at 87 years old, was asked how she has kept up her creative energy throughout her life. She poignantly replied, “Follow your bliss. If you’re doing what you love, there’s lots of energy in that.”

For the young poets out there looking to hone their craft, Grace recommends diving into the work of John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sappho, and the Chinese poets of the 8th century, especially Wang Wei and Li Po.

For those of you who missed the event and livestream, a recording of the event can be found here. [Speeches begin at 19:25]

Announcing the Spring 2023 Writer-In-Residence Sam Pollard

In Spring 2023, we are thrilled to welcome Emmy award-winning filmmaker Sam Pollard, who graduated from Baruch College in 1973 and returns to his alma mater exactly fifty years later, the very first Harman Writer to be a Baruch alum. With a career spanning over forty years, Pollard has worked extensively in film editing, directing, producing and screenwriting, and is lauded for his work in documentary films. Along with the aforementioned Emmys, he was been nominated for an Academy Award for the film 4 Little Girls with filmmaker Spike Lee, and has won a Career Achievement Award presented by the International Documentary Association and a Peabody Award for “chronicling the Black experience and illuminating complicated historical figures across film and television.” His most recent film, Citizen Ashe, was released last year.

Pollard will be teaching a class on screenwriting and documentary filmmaking. If you are interested in watching one of Pollard’s documentaries, MLK/FBI is available for Baruch students through the Newman Library.

Watch MLK/FBI

Reflections on Carmen Maria Machado’s Reading & Conversation

Photo by Glenda Hydler

Last month, the Harman Program held our Fall 2022 Reading & Conversation event with Writer-In-Residence Carmen Maria Machado. After an introduction by Prof. Debra Caplan of Baruch’s FPA Department, Machado read her recently published short story “The Tour”, which offered a sneak peak into her next book project. Profs. Rojo Robles and Salois of the podcast Latinx Visions interviewed Machado following her reading, discussing her stylistic choices, her inspirations and her identity as a queer Latinx writer. Central to the conversation was the importance of horror and suspense to Machado’s writing. She said, “it’s a genre that offers so much, brings me as a viewer and writer face to face with my own fear, the things that really cut me to the quick. It best encapsulates my project: the horror of being alive, the horror of having a body, the horror of being a woman, of just being in the world in various iterations”.

A recording of the event has been released on Latinx Visions as their newest episode. It can be accessed here.

Looking Back on And Then There Was Us

Presented by the Harman Program, Baruch’s first student-written show And Then There Was Us proved to be a huge success among faculty, students and friends of the university. Within a day of the tickets going public, the five-show run had sold out, which prompted the transformation of the dress rehearsal into a sixth performance to give more people a chance to partake. It was a welcome change for all involved after being kept off the stage for over a year and a half due to the pandemic.

The cast and crew had the pleasure of working with director and Baruch professor Christopher Scott as well as musical director Greg Kenna. Always moving and motivating everyone, Scott knew how to bring the production together and breathe life into each story by getting to know the actors and actresses he worked with. He fostered the connections between actor and character, and urged all of the performers not to act but to feel. Kenna pushed the group to achieve musical precision and own each moment of every song, and drummer Marlon Cherry was the cherry on top, providing a groove that got every performer moving. Baruch professor and vocalist Dominique Plaisant worked wonders as the show came together, helping amp up the voices of all of the singers and add conviction to their words.

Vignettes were written by former Harman students Kenneth Fremer, Sable Gravesandy, Inga Keselman and Brittany Williams, with a final song written and composed by Ursula Hansberry. While none of the writers came to this task with a cohesive show in mind, the struggle of youth and coming-of-age was exemplified by each through the lenses of wildly unique characters in and around New York City, all affected by the gravity of this place we as students call home.

Spring 2021 Harman writer Stew edited and composed music for the songs in the four vignettes. With repeating melodic motifs and driving, semi-unorthodox rhythms, his compositions further brought together the plot lines.

Read more about the show in The Ticker. 

A video recording of the event is available for all:

And Then There Was Us

Photo by Zeynep Akca

For More Information

Professor Esther Allen, Harman Director
Esther.Allen@baruch.cuny.edu

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