Bard-ing in Berlin

All through school my dad would reassure me that I was a “college person,” meaning that while maybe high school wasn’t the best, I would find whatever I was looking for in college. When I walked onto the ECLA of Bard campus, nearly empty—since I was a day early—I finally understood that he was right.

Read More

Playing Democracy

Willy Brandt, Germany’s first – malicious tongues might say only – left wing post-war chancellor was born in 1913. One hundred years later, the Deutsches Theater in Berlin showed the play “Democracy,” in which Michael Frayn tells of the rise and fall of one of Germany’s most important political figures of the 20th century. The

Read More

Steinbeck and Spinoza

When I last went back home, I experienced something quite unique. My parents, having grown older, are now looking forward to an altogether different period in their lives. All my siblings, having settled in different parts of the world, have left the house rather empty. It was once a house where the five of us

Read More