Alice B. Fogel '76 on How Antioch College Feeds the Soul
by Christian Feuerstein '94
In honor of National Poetry Month, this week's alumni profile is of Alice B. Fogel '76. Fogel is a poet, writer, and professor. She is author of
three poetry collections, most recently, Be That Empty (Harbor
Mountain Press, 2007). She is also author of Strange Terrain: A
Poetry Handbook for the Reluctant Reader (Hobblebush Books, 2009).
Her work has been published in literary journals and magazines including
Barrow Street, Beloit Poetry Journal, Boston Review, Green Mountains
Review, Iowa Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, and Yankee
Magazine, and in newspapers including The Boston Globe,
Christian Science Monitor, and The Washington Post and in
anthologies including The Best American Poetry 1993.
What made you choose Antioch College? When I was finishing [high school], I wasn't sure I
wanted to go to college if it meant "more of the same" or if it would
remove me from the things that mattered to me in the world. I wanted to
live where people remembered to feed their souls. I wanted to live and
work and study in the context of my time, and to have autonomy within a
community of politically, socially, and artistically like-minded
people - a sort of academic commune. I learned about Antioch solely by
way of the catalog I found at the guidance counselor's office, and was
amazed to know that there was such a place. We were a good fit.
While
I started in social work and criminology (which I still wonder if I
should have stuck with!) I ended up gravitating into a double major in
the areas I have always loved since I was a little kid - literature and
art/art history. The art history came in handy in the work I later did
for a while in theatrical costuming, and after I went back to school in
my 30s for a master's in literature/poetry, I've been able to teach
reading and writing since then. But a major at Antioch is really only
an element; it's the whole experience - the co-ops, the participation in
campus life and governance, the influence of its history and people,
its courses - that are "major" in what one takes away from the
experience.
What is your favorite memory of Antioch College? Recently I was thinking about my very first night at
Antioch. Wandering around campus, I heard music and came upon a bunch
of people folk dancing on what was called (I don't know if it still is)
Red Square, on the side of Antioch Hall near to North. (Editor's note: it's still called Red Square.) I
spent the rest of the evening having the utter time of my life,
dancing. I also went to every Wednesday and Saturday night dance pretty
much the whole rest of my time there. I don't know if I'd call any of
this my "favorite memory" of Antioch. I'm not sure if I could find one
thing like that. Walking in the Glen is right up there. What most
remains is the feeling of being in this place where I felt at home and
could be fully myself, and I still feel like that every time I've gone
back since.
Who were some of your favorite professors? Some of my literature professors were influential to me. They sent me
into multicultural and multinational worlds I hadn't known much, if
anything, about, and which continue to enthrall me today. Dianne
Sadoff was a true hero to me. She opened up vast new realms by
introducing me to contemporary women writers and teaching me the
importance of literary themes that incorporate real life voices that we
can then incorporate into our own. Others were Ira Sadoff, even though
I got the distinct feeling he wasn't all that impressed with my
writing; F. X. Shea, who introduced me to Yeats; and Nolan Miller, who
inspired me to get out of myself and think in characters. I was also
influenced by my peers, who were passionate about reading, the arts,
communication, justice.
Any words of wisdom on Antioch College's independence? I
live near the Keene, NH Antioch Graduate School, which focuses on
psychology, education, and environment, and which draws the same kinds
of rebels and creative thinkers that Antioch College prides itself on
hosting and fostering. I know many people connected with it and I know
that they too are Antiochians who feel strongly about the difference in
their training and community, which really do reflect the Antioch
ideal. But they have been amazingly ignorant of their school's roots
and of what has happened over the past few years. When the board met
there a couple of years ago, I talked with students and staff. I was
shocked that none of them seemed to have given any thought to their
relationship to that little college in Ohio, or to have any idea what
was about to happen to it. A pretty dismal scenario.
When Antioch College became Antioch University, I had a bad feeling
about it. It was an act of conglomeration, which we've seen countless
times in the past few decades, and we all know where that leads.
Expanding while looking for support from a corporate model risks loss
of the kinds of choices and ideals that defined the organization in the
first place, and even the kind of re-structuring that can annihilate
its very hub - which is exactly what happened to the college when it was
nearly swallowed up by the university system. I am so relieved that Antioch
got its independence back.
If you could bring one thing
to the future of Antioch College, what would it be? One
thing I'd like to see for Antioch is a foundation, figuratively and
literally. On a personal level, it's like family--part of who I am.
I'd like to know that it would survive and thrive in perpetuity. I
can't begin to feel qualified to answer the question of how to secure
that kind of promise. But I donate to Antioch because I feel strongly
that it must survive as
an alternative to more conventional colleges, for those students of
every generation who
want to participate in real world culture, politics, and thought, in
order to bring those elements of awareness into their working lives.
There will never be a time when both local and global communities won't
benefit from Antiochians.
On her current projects: Recently I've had two books published. One is my third poetry collection, Be That Empty, which was a poetry bestseller in 2008. ("Be that empty" is a phrase from a Rumi poem.) The other, Strange Terrain: A Poetry Handbook for the Reluctant Reader,
is a nonacademic guide to poetry for those who are uncomfortable with
it or who want to find a new way to enter it or--even better--let it
enter them. A kind of 8-step program, this book is for individuals,
reading groups, or teachers. Its premise is that readers only need a
little encouragement to get over their fear of not "getting" poetry,
and with some simple guidance and a reminder of the value of mystery,
they'll "get" how to be moved and not intimidated by poetry. I
regularly give professional development and other group workshops on
this theme that quickly relieve people's poem-traumatic stress
disorders, as well as teaching a variety of other writing and reading
courses privately, in colleges or communities, and at conferences. www.alicebfogel.com is my writing life website.
I recently finished a collection of persona poems, called Interval, based on the structure and tone of Bach's Goldberg Variations,
and am now starting work on a new endeavor--a sort of magical realist
series of poems about a house that seems to have some attitudes and
ideas about how its inhabitants ought to live, considering what's going
on in the world (which it hears about from that bluish box inside it)
and their own personal lives.
Aside from my writing, among my
other current endeavors is my sewing business, Lyric Couture. I do
custom work and specialize in "refashioning"--collaging new clothes out
of reprised goods. My creations have been featured in magazines and in
refashioning shows, and in 2009 I was awarded NH's "green bride"
prize. One of my favorite things to do is to lead both private parties
and public sewing workshops where people learn how to re-think
consumerism and become more aware of the dreadfully problematic
clothing industry, while having a blast swapping and re-making their
clothes right on the spot. On my website, www.lyriccouture.com,
among other things such as samples of what I make, you can find
information about fibers, pollution, waste, sweatshops, reuse, and who
is doing cool things in this field. You can also find a "Conscious
Consumption Contract" which I invite anyone to sign and follow, and to
reproduce to educate others.
