Goddard in the World

Goddard Alumni Council

Welcome to Season 2! I'm excited to share this conversation with the Goddard Alumni Council. If you're interested in joining us on the Council, please fill out the nomination form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIwqSqsmU0WetUY4uMU11-fwhM8fnmdfv2Wy38kUs_pO1bfg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2qMiX1-WzwmA6XeZYKLjrq8Sl4rmtTYxM_ZN4Bu7OVA9HNVFgk-ibiT1w

 

If you're not able to join us on Council this year, please keep up with our activities, volunteer through a task force, sign up for the newsletter at: https://goddardalumni.com/

 

 

Alumni Weekend with Kailina Mills

Welcome to a special summer episode about Goddard’s upcoming Alumni Weekend with Kailina Mills! We talk about summer blueberries in Maine, fall New England weather, and most importantly the Goddard Alumni Weekend which is taking place virtually and on campus in Plainfield, Vermont from October 8-11, 2021.

Kailina takes us through the four keynote workshops being put on by Goddard Alumni including:

• John Ollom, Internal Landscapes: Moving into Authentic Expressions (check out his Goddard in the World podcast interview where he describes his methodology: https://goddardalumni.com/alumni-spotlight-john-ollom/)
• Christina Gerard, CPTSD: Awareness, Rights, and Visibility
• Hillary Hawk, Random Harvest Market, Café, and Community Space: Creating a Worker-Owned, Anti-racist Business and Relational Food Economy in the Hudson Valley since 2019
• Rod Rylander, Creating Sustainable Communities: Homestead on a Budget

We also talk about other fun ways to participate in-person including Pecha Kucha presentations, Writers Salon, Cabaret, business tabling, bonfire hangs (with margaritas!), and nature walks.

The Alumni Association meeting will be open to anyone, whether or not you’re registered. Please make sure your email is updated with the college so you receive the link: https://www.goddard.edu/alumni/stay-connected/update/

This year the virtual option will include the four keynote workshops. The in-person option will include all of the above.

To register and for more information, please visit: http://www.Goddard.edu/alumniweekend

We hope to see you there!

 

For more information on Goddard in the World or to become a guest please visit: https://goddardalumni.com/podcast/

Sam Rebelein

Welcome to Goddard in the World’s Season One Finale! We are so excited to end the season with an incredible writer and guest Sam Rebelein.

 

Sam Rebelein is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Goddard College. His work has previously appeared in Bourbon Penn, Planet Scumm, Shimmer, Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, and elsewhere. He lives in Poughkeepsie, NY and will be starting a PhD at Texas Tech University in 2021 focusing in English Literature and Film, specifically Horror and Trauma Studies.

 

As an only child, Sam grew up playing by himself and making up stories. We talked to him about how his childhood homes from Minnesota to Ohio to the Hudson Valley influenced his storytelling interests, from landscapes where you can see the weather coming three days away, to woods which are full of power, mystery, and claustrophobia. Reflecting upon why interest in the horror genre demands an explanation, Sam talks about horror as a safe environment to experience fear and address it, and how horror reflects anxieties that are already present in the storytellers and audience, “Horror felt like the one area where stories would be honest about there being something out there or people being terrible…there’s something familiar and cozy about it if you already have it in your head.”

 

Sam started out writing comedy, sketch and theater at Vassar and then pivoted to horror, “both genres depend on catharsis, build up and tension…you’re geared up to have some kind of release whether it’s a laugh or startling.” At Goddard, Sam wrote a collection of short horror stories which is currently being represented and shopped around for publication. “Goddard helped me develop my taste and vibe, I found my voice.”

 

Sam will be starting a PhD program at Texas Tech University in fall 2021, where he hopes to study grief and trauma in horror, how it’s manifested and how it can be utilized. We talk about some movies that illustrate these concepts (spoiler warning for The Babadook!).

 

Check out (and buy!) all of Sam’s current and forthcoming publications at: https://www.srebelein.com/work

 

Follow Sam on Twitter: @HillaryScruff

 

Recommendations:

Books:

R.L. Stine, Goosebumps series

Stephen King, Carrie

Bram Stoker, Dracula

Stephen King, On Writing

 

Movies:

Carrie, Brian De Palma (1976)

Murder Party, Jeremy Saulnier (2007)

The Babadook, Jennifer Kent (2014)

Hereditary, Ari Aster (2018)

Midsommar, Ari Aster (2019)

 

Music:

Florence + The Machine, “No Choir”

Max Shenk

Max Harrick Shenk (MFA, EDU) was born in Carlisle, PA in 1964. From as far back as he can remember, he says he enjoyed not only writing, but creating his own ‘zines and publishing his work. Max also has delved into the mystical teachings of Neville Goddard and has published two e-books of quotes pulled from Neville’s teachings.

We talk to Max about his interests in writing, radio, and teaching which came early to him and parallel his dad’s journey. “My dad was a PA announcer at the high school and local college…I always had a sense that you could do stuff with your voice and make it a job.” Post-undergrad he threw himself into music and songwriting, then writing fiction which eventually led him to Goddard’s MFA program. One of the most valuable things he learned from his advisers was just to keep writing, “The real work of writing is the work of revising and crafting a piece. Put the horrible stuff on paper, then you print it, then you revise it, then it gets a little better. You can’t revise a blank page.”

A few years after receiving his MFA, Max returned to Goddard to pursue an MA in the EDU program, writing a thesis in how nontraditionally trained musicians learn music. While Max has published his work in traditional formats (periodicals, books and e-books), he also experimented with drafting stories in his characters’ voices, first via email, and then later via multiple character pages on Facebook. Keep up with Max at the links below:

Website: https://maxshenkwrites.com/

Store: https://maxshenkwrites.selz.com/

FB & Instagram: @maxshenkwrites

Search #facebookflashfiction on Facebook

Welcome to Quaker Valley: https://www.facebook.com/groups/welcometoquakervalley

 

Recommendations:

Books

Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

Donald M. Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing

John Steinbeck, The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication

Groucho Marx, The Marx Brothers Scrapbook

Other Authors: Edward Abbey, Neville Goddard, Henry Miller

Film

Jerry Seinfeld: Comedian (documentary)

Jennifer Patterson

Jennifer Patterson is a grief worker who uses plants, breath, and words to explore survivorhood, body(ies) and healing. A queer and trans affirming and centering, trauma-experienced herbalist and breathwork facilitator, Jennifer offers sliding scale care as a practitioner through her private practice Corpus Ritual and is a member of The Breathe Network. A graduate of Goddard College’s MA program, Jennifer is finishing a book project focused on translating embodied traumatic experience through somatic practices and critical and creative nonfiction. 

 

We talked to Jennifer about growing up in a family of gardeners and how she got into herbalism, using herbs as a tool for healing. “I think herbalism is one of many tools to support our bodies….working with plants is an ongoing educational experience.” As a trauma survivor, Jennifer has used herbs and breathwork as a way to reconnect to her body and facilitate the healing process with others. We talk about Jennifer’s breathwork practices and what people might experience during the breathwork sessions, from expanding their state of awareness to disintegrating creative blocks and traumatic material.

Though Jennifer first became aware of Goddard through the MFA in Creative Writing program, she didn’t attend until later and straddled Transformative Language Arts and Embodiment Studies in the MA for Individualized Studies program. Like many of us who went through the same program, Jennifer discovered a lot about herself, through integrating critical writing, somatic practices, research and creative nonfiction about trauma, “Between the writing, and being at Goddard, and the psychedelic work I was doing, it shot me out far.”

During and after Goddard Jennifer created and ran writing workshops in a number of different spaces focused on healing and trauma. She finds value in writing from within the trauma, rather than the dominant way people think of writing about trauma, “A lot of what I heard in workshops was this idea of wanting people to be beyond the experience of trauma in order to write about it from a clearer head.  We’re counting on trauma being a single moment in time, where for a lot of people trauma is ongoing. Like racial violence, transphobia, homophobia, all of these things are ongoing forms of trauma and violence, and when are we going to be outside of that?”

We’re looking forward to having Jennifer back when she publishes her next book! In the meantime, please check out Jennifer’s amazing work:

Corpus Ritual: https://corpusritual.com/

Give Less Shits tincture: https://corpusritual.com/shop/give-less-shits-elixir

Virtual Breathwork Groups: https://corpusritual.com/virtual-breathwork-groups

The Power of Breathwork: https://bookshop.org/books/the-power-of-breathwork-simple-practices-to-promote-wellbeing/9781592339372

 

Queering Sexual Violence Anthology: https://bookshop.org/books/queering-sexual-violence-radical-voices-from-within-the-anti-violencemovement-9781626012738/9781626012738 

 

Recommendations

 

The Breathe Network: http://www.thebreathenetwork.org/

Terra Sylva: https://terrasylvaschool.com/

Bhanu Kapil: https://www.goddard.edu/people/bhanu-kapil/

Louise DeSalvo, Writing as a Way of Healing: https://bookshop.org/books/writing-as-a-way-of-healing-how-telling-our-stories-transforms-our-lives/9780807072431

Welcome Hill Studios: http://welcomehillstudios.org/

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/

Quire: http://quirepress.org/ojs/index.php/quire/index 

John Ollom

John Ollom (MFA-IA ’14) has been the Artistic Director of Ollom Art/Prismatic Productions Inc since its inception in 2003. John is the creator of Internal Landscapes methodology which he refined during his time at Goddard. His methodology speaks to helping people find their most authentic expressions via drawing and writing and movement exploration. John will be bringing his methodology back to Goddard this year as the Creative Workshop keynote speaker during the 2021 Goddard Alumni weekend, presenting his workshop “Internal Landscapes: Moving Into Authentic Expressions.”

We talked to John in-depth about dance, trauma, darkness, and how he journeys with his clients to move through and out of the shadow places. He works deeply with archetypes, imagery and nature, “When someone has trauma, words don’t really connote the experience.” John currently teaches private sessions using the Internal Landscapes methodology on Zoom. Book now or buy his book Internal Landscapes at: www.johnollom.com.

John is also deeply committed to creating community and lifting up artists, which he does through the Haus of Ollom. The Haus of Ollom is a multidisciplinary online gallery and community showcasing art, cooking recipes, poetry, workshops, Tarot instruction and memorial for those who have died of Covid. From John, “It came out of the house tradition in Harlem which was in the 80s when a lot of gay people were being kicked out of families for being gay or trans or bi or queer. And a lot of gay people would make these balls and dress up and have events. And they would have mother in the Haus and the mother would take care of them and kind of support them because they didn’t have mothers. And I think out of my own pain from own family of origin I created my own family of choice. I had someone sent to me from North Dakota…we call him Madame Jay because working with me came out as a drag queen, and he kept calling me mother. And it stuck because I was giving them a house, I was giving them a home.” To view John’s new video book Dark Matter and other rooms in the Haus of Ollom visit www.ollomart.com.

 

Recommendations:

Books:

Sylvia Brinton Perera:

• Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women.
• The Scapegoat Complex: Toward a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt.
• Celtic Queen Maeve and Addiction. An Archetypal Perspective.

Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet versus the Goddess

Casey Caronna

This week Amanda interviews Casey Caronna, the co-host of Goddard in the World podcast. Casey graduated from the EDU program in 2011 with his Master of Arts in Education degree with his degree focusing on the re-conceptualization of the status and purpose of Community Education. His passion for life-long learning, holistic education and democratic education is firmly based in all work he does in his surrounding community, both on a professional level and in a volunteer capacity.

 

We discuss Casey’s formative journey in Australia and discovering from aboriginal communities how learning can be boundaryless; that is, learning can occur anywhere, not just in the classroom. Casey is concerned with traditional structures of learning such as the school day and how it fits with the current economy, “a large part of schooling exists as a babysitter program for capitalist workers in society.” While he recognizes that most Western educational philosophers didn’t do much teaching, he wonders “how do we be brave enough to make systematic changes on a huge conscious basis on how learning should occur.” 

 

Recommendations: 

 

John Dewey: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dewey

Sir Ken Robinson, TED Talks: https://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson

International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC): https://www.idenetwork.org/index.php/conferences

Sudbury School: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school

Rachel Economy

Rachel Economy is a poet-performer, ecological educator, design-thinking strategist, and gardener. She is the owner of Index For The Next World, an online hub of story-publication, skills-education, and human-centered design consulting for those seeking to build a world that thrives. Rachel holds a master’s degree in Social Innovation and Sustainability from Goddard Graduate Institute (GGI), with a concentration in Transformative Language Arts and a master’s thesis exploring narrative re-design as a part of social change and ecological justice. She teaches gardening, needs-based design, systems thinking, writing & performance, permaculture, group facilitation, maker & homesteader crafts, and embodied nature connection skills to all ages, in rural and urban settings.

 

We talked to Rachel about early moments in gardening, and her participatory relationship with the land and plants. Rachel’s way of doing design thinking and systems thinking includes thinking about a whole ecology, whether she’s working with organizations or gardens: whose land are we on and what repair needs to be made with the original inhabitants; and asking and receiving permission from plants and people. She says, “Goddard let me pay attention to story and ecological systems at the same time.”

 

Rachel’s poetry chapbook, "The Origins of Streams," was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2021. On poetry Rachel says, “Poetry is an inherently sensory form, and therefore an ecological form.” You can find that chapbook, the Index for the Next World issues, and more of Rachel's writing and work at www.indexforthenextworld.com.

 

Recommendations: 

 

Books and Authors:

Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer

Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good

 

Organizations:

Queer Nature: https://www.queernature.org/

BONUS: Viewing the Atlanta Shootings through an Antiracist Lens with Kailina Mills

Amanda sits down with Kailina Mills (IBA ’18) to talk about the Atlanta shootings at three Asian-owned businesses in March 2021 through an antiracist lens.

 

At Goddard Kailina studied social justice education with a focus in antiracism. Together, Kailina and Amanda co-created and co-facilitate a series of Antiracism Learning Circles for Goddard alumni or anyone connected to Goddard.

 

Looking at history through an antiracist lens means that we’re looking at this event in terms of the historical and systems context. Specifically related to this crime, we talk about:

• cultural myths around Asian women, especially ideas of sexuality and submissiveness;
• the police response and how it differs with suspects who are white versus suspects who are people of color;
• the white norm and individualization, and how it affects how stories are covered in the media.

 

We also explore and ask questions about what comes next: how do we encourage people to seek out knowledge about other cultures; how do we normalize cultures that do not have Western European roots; and how do we interrupt racism when we see it?

 

We don’t consider ourselves experts on these subjects. As Goddard alumni we are both engaged in a lifelong learning process. This episode is only one discussion and we hope is a jumping off point for more learning.

 

Recommendations:

Books:

How to be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi

The Making of Asian America: A History, Erika Lee

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, Cathy Park Hong

 My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, Resmaa Menakem

 

Online:

@AngryAsianMan on Twitter, Facebook

Asian Americans, 5-part documentary, PBS: https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/

Asian Americans Advancing Justice: https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/

Stop AAPI Hate: https://stopaapihate.org/

Anti-Racism Resources for Asian Americans: https://tiny.cc/AntiRacistAsAmResources

Lindsey Desrochers

Lindsey was born and raised in Vermont. She worked in the field of early childhood education for over 17 years. During that time she worked as an Afterschool Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Lead Classroom Teacher, and spent her final three years in education as the Head of School at a progressive and holistic education school in Williston, Vermont. Lindsey left the field of education in the fall of 2020 to pursue a career in the holistic wellness field. Currently she is taking time to rest and decompress while exploring and developing new skills to work towards building a holistic wellness practice. Lindsey enjoys all things outdoors including hiking, gardening, and backcountry skiing.   We talked to Lindsey about her experience with holistic and progressive education, from her post-college job as an after-school teacher at the Bellwether School in Williston to eventually becoming Head of School at Bellwether, post-Goddard. Lindsey quickly fell in love with holistic and progressive education when she started at Bellwether, “Holistic education…[focuses] on all different aspects of child’s experience…Everything is interconnected, you can’t reference any one part of a system without referencing the whole.”   When she decided that she wanted to get a teaching license, Lindsey turned to Goddard, which had trained some of the teachers she looked up to. Lindsey describes her feeling as she came to Goddard: “Mind blowing. Synchronicity. Meta. Goddard is the first place where I experienced community, where I felt like I had a role in the community.” Lindsey was thrilled to be experiencing the same kind of education that she hoped to bring out into the world.   Lindsey is currently developing a practice in holistic wellness and hopes to open up a wellness center that is accessible to anyone who wants it, and/or take the practices into schools. As she navigates her current transition, she has said, “Goddard set me on a path of self-discovery that I don’t see any end to.”   Recommendations: Ron Miller, founder of Bellwether School and author of numerous books on holistic education.