Hoot A Great Hooting!

Editing. What’s new?

- Today was the last day of The Clothesline Project at Hampshire College this year. It makes me sentimental. For the last three years, the Clothesline has been the thing that signalled to me that spring is finally here and that the school year is almost over. Every year, the Counselor Advocates (the peer advocate group that I’ve been a part of since my second year at Hampshire) pick three days in late Spring to set up a circle of clotheslines around the Hampshire library lawn and hang up t-shirts decorated with the stories of victims and survivors of sexual and domestic violence, all of which come from one of the five colleges. It’s emotional work, obviously, and it’s physically demanding – there are over three hundred shirts that we hang every morning and take down every afternoon. At least one CA has to sit nearby at all times to answer questions and talk to people about their emotional reactions to the project. Still, we never get anything but positive responses from people interacting with the shirts, and there’s something about sitting outside on a beautiful, sunny day with a bunch of multicolored shirts fluttering in the wind…it always reminds me of prayer flags. For three years running, staffing the Clothesline table has given me my first sunburn of the year. And today I was so busy running around and editing and meeting and getting ready for the play that I didn’t get to touch a single shirt, or go to the last Sexual Violence Speakout of my Hampshire career. It made me a little sad. I’m ready to move on, but I do love this place…

But on to happier things! Take note: Señor Jeffrey Allen Fenstermaker, also known as “Joe” (long story) became the first of my friends to officially pass Division 3 this afternoon. His thesis, a 60 minute documentary on the Quaker peace testimony called A Film About Friends hasn’t gotten much press on this blog thus far, mostly because I’m horribly jealous about how hardworking and on top of things Joe is, and of course now he’s finished, landed an excellent internship with a professional filmmaker in New York, and even has his very own apartment in Brooklyn with windows and everything. Isn’t it disgusting?
As easy as it would be, though, we can’t hate Joe. For one, he gives us cheesecake. For another, he’s just such a nice guy and, really, who could hate the man who takes nightly gondola rides around the living room? Also, he kind of rocks at this documentary thing. A segment of the film can be seen here on YouTube, but anyone in the Amherst area should drop by the FPH Main Lecture Hall on April 24th at 7pm to see the whole thing on the big screen. Yeah Joe!

Finally – I know I keep hollering about it, but Bind Their Wombs opened tonight (finally), and it was magnificent. The music! The masks! Me!!!
Ha. But really, even playing such a little part in such a talented ensemble has really been a pleasure, and it’s Brennin, and it’s Euripides…I don’t know what else to say, it’s such a good time. Not the play, I mean. That’s sort of gut-wrenching. Just the being in the play is good. Yes.
I’m not allowed to see pictures of myself in mask until after the production (Note – Theater kids. Wicked superstitious.), but after that I’ll post pictures and give Brennin a shout-out like the one I just gave Joe. I don’t know how I ended up with such talented friends, but thank God for them anyway. Otherwise, what would I write in my blog?

Now I’m off to wash the gray out of my hair and keep on plugging. Fearless Deb reminded me today that I don’t have to stress, that’s she’s considered me done for two months and that I can keep turning in stuff until May 5th (the date of my reading with Elena, by the way…) if I want. I reminded her, in the nicest way possible, that THIS ISN’T HELPING! I need deadlines. I WILL have deadlines. That way, I’ll know when to start in on whatever it is you do when you finish Division 3…

…?