Jurple Daze

Last Wednesday evening the light was transcendent, finely filtered through a lifting mist, a Millet or Monet brushed to life. A surprising thunderstorm had passed lending a new quality to the atmosphere, charged yet caressing. The storm wind had shaken the fully blooming jacaranda leaving a dazzling blue purple carpet on my front lawn. Jurple, the name I’ve given to jacaranda’s brilliant, messy shedding, covered whole streets as if a royal tropical wedding had just passed.

For those who have never seen a jacaranda in its glory, the sight can be oddly jarring, great swaths of light bright purple amazingly consistent in color, at rooftop level, welcome but unexpected. Now that they’ve been blooming for two to three weeks I’ve grown re-accustomed to the shock of pastel, but that first week rounding a corner I’d still flinch from their sudden beauty.



In academia spring is also the time of year for re-acquaintance with joys almost forgotten in the press of work, a time to revel in student accomplishment. The year can grind down one’s bones and molars, sweet optimism and gentlest trust. In other words, three quarters of preface, start up, midterms and finals punctuated by outbursts of ego, drama, caviling and sniping is thrust to the background to focus on what matters most, the education we’re trying to provide to largely worthy, talented, and sympathetic individuals, our students.

A week ago Saturday I attended one of two Master’s recitals of one of our Arts and Letters students, the multi-talented Madelyn Washington. Ms. Washington lectured on Afro-Latin music and sang several works to illustrate her points. I enjoyed speaking with her mother, whom I’ve met at several of Madelyn’s performances including our French “Bonnet Day” concert in the Luckman where she sang a world premiere (November 2007), the Larry Harlow concert (November 2008, Professor Paul De Castro conducting) and performances of the Women’s Trio coached by Professor David Connors.

That particular Saturday I attended four events including the launch of Statement magazine. This past two weeks has been packed with many happy celebrations of student work, the Cinematic Visions student film festival, “Short Order,” the Cindy Bernard collaboration with Art students at the Luckman Gallery, student Weslie Brown’s composition recital, the Jazz Ensemble concert, the first world dance concert (and the first dance recital for many participants), and the Munitz lectures in English.

But in this whirl of events my thoughts return to Madelyn, and all the students who have completed their degrees and will be moving on. That’s the bittersweet note in this late spring jurple daze; our students always leave.

Living with a Skunk

If a recent well-known author learned a lot from his kindergarten experience I suppose that I’m learning equally from watching quietly my own backyard. Now that the light stays later I’ve been trying to rush home to find some contemplative moments (oxymoronic irony noted).

At dusk I’m often sitting or standing at the edge of my garden in a semi-meditative state reviewing the day’s events when a neighborhood skunk waddles by. Skunks, when non-rabid, seem largely oblivious, going about some unknown evening task, sometimes ambling under my outstretched legs unheeding of the much larger mammal that could pounce in an instant and wreck its twilight idyll. When finally the skunk sees me, she? he? (I couldn’t say) hides cautiously under the deck stairs, finally pokes its nose out, and then on unnaturally short legs scurries away. Even more curious, I’ve several times seen Ms. or Mr. Skunk slinking under the hedges towards my neighbor’s two black cats who don’t arch or hiss or growl but stroll idly by as the intruder shuffles into their territory. Three species watching, learning in mutual co-existence with no struggle, no threats, and no stinking mess at the end. There’s got to be a university metaphor here but I refuse to search for it.

Instead, I’ll turn to the last ten days of exciting events. The wrap-up of Reel Rasquache was a sensation. If only there had been an East LA Society Page present…Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, Lupe Ontiveros, Jesus Treviño y otros were present to pay tribute to Zoot Suit legend Luis Valdez. Earlier that day graduating vocal senior Josh Diener had given a rousing recital and in between I almost finished this year’s faculty reviews so my mood was grand. And luncheons, we had luncheons! Monday, the university scholarship donors and recipients, Tuesday high school and community college counselors. I say at Honor’s Convocation that “It takes a village to make the Dean’s List.” It also takes a village to get our students to the university and I’m very thankful that individual donors and hard-working staff support students at every step. This next week…on to the Scholar-Athletes’ banquet!

And speaking of villages…this week I also visited Urinetown. Several faculty, staff, former staff, students, and former students told me that they were THRILLED at the production, the quality of student performance, and the audience, the Audience, and the AUDIENCE. Hey kids, we put on a SHOW! After a long hiatus of musicals, Cal State LA is coming back strong. Look for next year’s schedule soon.


On Memorial Day, after thinking of all the flags I have planted as a Boy Scout at Punchbowl National Cemetery (Oahu), I met the Fulbright staff and future fellow Fulbrighters in a Koreatown restaurant before the opening of the NAFSA international Educators Association conference. That’s right, this June immediately following commencement I’m off on a plane to Seoul to participate in the US-Korea International Education Administrators Program fulfilling a lifetime dream to become a Fulbright Scholar and proudly joining Arts and Letters Professors. Mohammed Auwal (Qatar) and Susan Mason (Japan) who will be returning from their respective Fulbright experiences this summer. Over a Korean BBQ lunch at So Hyang restaurant we mapped out our upcoming visit and the all-important gift giving strategy. I have the right shoes for the trip (for rain, dancing, the DMZ) but mustn’t forget the umbrella.

This report ends with an uplifting event having nothing to do with skunks or Urinetown. Muhammad Yunus , economist, professor, businessman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate served as NAFSA’s opening plenary speaker. Many of the Dancing Dean’s readers may not know that I was an Economics-Political Science undergrad before turning to literary studies and I idolize Dr. Yunus’s creativity in creating microlending programs that have raised millions out of poverty. Dr. Yunus was perhaps an indirect inspiration for the Quinceañera Project that I created several years ago to give scholarships to young Latinas to steer them towards university education before marriage. I was misty-eyed during Yunus’s uplifting talk, feeling that I was in the presence of a Mahatma, a great soul, one who has written that: “All human beings have the inner capacity not only to care for themselves but also to contribute to increasing the well-being of the world as a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential to some degree, but many others never get any opportunity, during their lifetime, to unwrap the wonderful gift they were born with.” (Creating a World Without Poverty, 247).

Unless you’re a skunk, please unwrap your gift now!

A Garden Party?

The Good News:
It’s been a busy few weeks, dear readers, and I’m just catching my breath (and icing my back) to write about one of the many arts and letters events that has me dancing, if stiffly, towards the academic year end deadline.

On Saturday May 2, I hosted a book party for Josefina López. To date, Ms. López is known for her screenplay, Real Women Have Curves, which became the 2002 film that introduced many of us to America Ferrera, the star of Ugly Betty. Now, Ms. López may become equally known for her saucy novel, Hungry Woman in Paris.

When publicist Steve Rohr learned that another potential book-party house had fallen through, he and friend, Chris Freeman (Love, West Hollywood), asked if I would open my house and garden in Pasadena for the gathering of literati. It was a great chance to meet Josefina and also have her meet some of the faculty from Cal State LA and USC, where Professor Freeman teaches. Better yet, I didn’t have to cook or rearrange the furniture; Steve was going to take care of that! The only task I assigned myself was to dress up my garden a little with some spring planting… more later on the follies of gardening.

One interesting fact I had not known about Josefina López—she attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, right on the Cal State LA campus.

The afternoon culminated in a moving reading by Ms. López, who described herself as an actress as well as author. Her reading of the different voices—of the mother and the father of the narrator, for example—demonstrated the power of voice and ear for conversation that also made Real Women Have Curves a delight. In short, a beautiful afternoon in Pasadena.

The Bad News: Three Important Rules
1) Never garden without warming-up
2) Bags of potting soil weigh more than you think
3) Add two days of recovery for each decade when you don’t follow Rules 1-2

Into my 10th day of recovery, my friends, I remain your wincing but still dancing dean!

Spring is in the Arts

Too long since my last blog and so many highlights since spring quarter began.

On the academic quarter system it seems that we obsess about enrollment for about half of each quarter. Arts and Letters is having a record spring and this is likely very good news for our bumper crop of new freshmen. Our first year students seem to be staying—and taking their courses in an appropriate sequence meaning that more should make it through the first year. Excellent work by staff, faculty, and administration!

While spring break came and went my arts agenda remained active. I experienced the ominously dark Achim Freyer version of Die Walküre at LA Opera with it’s ticky tack, tumble down bicycle horses and creaking turnwheel sets. Okay, I’m not a fan. The singers and orchestra were resplendent, though, providing magnificent uplift despite the “through a scrim darkly” set. Placido Domingo is 68! I didn’t agree with LA Times critic, Mark Swed (where was HE sitting?) when he wrote that Domingo could only sing at full voice or not at all. I was amazed at his flexibility, force, and gravity—despite being painted half black and bald, half blue and crazy wigged.

I said my own farewell last week to Esa-Pekka Salonen who once glanced at me at opera opening night as if I might be somebody he should know. Last Thursday I was glancing from the Terrace level where I often have a fascinating view of a soloist’s back. Ligeti’s “Clocks and Clouds,” Salonen’s own world premiere violin concerto, and Beethoven’s 5th provided the aural delight, Disney Hall the usual visual lift.

Last week’s highlights also included the annual Jean Burden poetry reading with Victor Hernández Cruz. The poet took a fascinating perspective on the role of Arab culture, history, and language in the Spanish colonial world, placing himself as a subject in constant conversation with English, Spanish, and Arabic legacies.

A brief holiday weekend in Palm Springs capped the week. Yes, I know it was White Party Weekend, but this dancing dean didn’t dance the night away to deafening techno. Quiet dinners with my brother and friends, quality pool time, and reducing my pile of New Yorkers by three, those were my goals set and achieved.

April is the Cruelest Month

Now that spring is here the azaleas are ablaze. This year in my neighborhood and on and near campus the pre-blossoming jacaranda are thick with goldenrod sprouts exuding a mesmerizing sweetness (to be followed in May by an azure musk).

Stepping out my front door is like walking into a florist’s shop during prom week. If only I could linger, even briefly, to join in the intoxication… In academia spring’s first burst sometimes relaxes guards. This week, our break between quarters, some profs were caught lunching and laughing with an administrator (not me) in the spring sunshine. Reports of revelry reached even into my office suite. But I am not allowed to tarry…

for this is my hell week, 20+ tubs of retention, tenure and promotion files to read carefully, thoughtfully, judiciously, with careers at stake. If only I could retrieve the hour and fifteen minutes I spent in the dentist’s office waiting today; I could have read another file! Of course file review also has its joys. For example, I love tracing the intersections of faculty members’ scholarly and creative paths and storing this away for later use, linking one faculty member to another who may not know of her or his interest. E.M. Forster: “Only connect!” I also like the parts of letters to faculty when I get to say, “I commend,” “I appreciate,” or “I applaud.” When I meet with post-tenure faculty who have been reviewed and thank them, sadly many say that they have never been thanked. I know we can do better than that…

Which leads me back to a silly Facebook quiz which determined, based on seven forced choice questions, that my “power animal” is "hummingbird."




Apparently I “dart lightly through the world spreading a message of positivity”! How fine! But as I’m darting, weaving, and spreading joy, where is that sweet elixir to keep me humming? I think I’ll write another haiku!

HIRING SEASON

You know those weeks when the most exciting things that happen are exactly the things that you can’t tell? That’s the way it goes sometimes with Deans.

Now that our brief two weeks of winter rains have dissipated, it’s hiring season! It’s hard to believe that in this budget parched climate our state university is allowed to hire. But with so many retirements and some growing programs, I’m spending over half of some days meeting with candidates. Last Tuesday at the University Club was particularly delightful as Arts and Letters filled the restaurant with four candidates and committees. There are early reports that we will have an abundant crop of new faculty come harvest time next fall.

Last week ended with a flurry. A meeting Thursday at Cal State Long Beach about the CSU’s Strategic Language Initiative and our role in continuing Korean language and cultural studies at Cal State L.A. followed by a concert at Disney Hall. Friday I stayed late to catch our Winter Dance Concert at the State Playhouse. Saturday night was the debut of Achim Freyer’s oversized puppetry take on Das Rheingold (musically strong but what was with the giant flying jacket?). Not exhausted enough, apparently, I was completely reinvigorated by our Friends of Music scholarship concert on Sunday afternoon. From outstanding classical vocals to flute, trumpet, and jazz trio, Cal State LA music students swung! Hainu Tan introduced a recording of her prize-winning composition and Ben Caron and Femke Weidema both played guitar to accompany their original songs.

Until next time, I’m your Dancing Dean!

ART—For the Price of a Stamp

This past Saturday evening another extraordinary educational event occurred in Cal State LA’s College of Arts and Letters. Over 600 people turned out to discuss a pressing topic. Not the financial meltdown, the war in Iraq, or Sunday’s Super Bowl. Students, faculty, artists, civil servants, and the community came in great numbers to discuss public art in Los Angeles.
The occasion? Under the direction of Dr. Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, students of the Department of Art at Cal State L.A. have mounted an exhibition “Walls of Passion: Murals of Los Angeles,” the beginning of a multi-year project to document approximately 500 large scale murals on public view in the vast Los Angeles region. Students of the Art History Society worked to describe the history of the murals, interviewing artists whenever possible, and assessing the social and aesthetic contexts as well as the contribution of the work to the surrounding communities. Students engaged in this project lived up to its title becoming passionately involved in cataloging and even preserving the murals.

The result? A wonderful photo and slide exhibition featuring a variety of LA murals and a lively public debate especially about tagging and graffiti as pubic art or vandalism. Several prominent Los Angeles artists (e.g., Cal State LA alum Kent Twitchell, Paul Botello, Man One) as well as professors, students, and arts administrators led the discussion. They want to provide young people with art education and the tools to create public and individual artistic expression perhaps mitigating the kind of vandalism that erupts when no other means of self-expression seems possible.

The “take away” from an evening of art and debate? Cal State LA ‘s College of Arts and Letters stands reinforced in its vision to support the communities we serve through production, exhibition, and discussion of art. Art students photographed and documented murals working directly with the public, and it looks like “Walls of Passion” may become a traveling exhibit. Students in Art Education prepared lesson plans for school teachers about the murals and perhaps many more young people will have a chance to reflect on the public art that surrounds them. We even created an online map of the murals documented to date so exhibition viewers can find their favorite pieces.

http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/publicat/today/archives/winter2009/mural.php


Finally, we found that art matters to Angelenos but it’s not always clear what we can do to support them, particularly in the case of public art created by community artists. Here’s a brief list of efforts suggested by the discussion:

• Act at the national level: Perhaps you’ve noticed that the federal stimulus package includes $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and that this has raised cries of outrage from some? Perhaps you haven’t calculated that $50 million equals 16 cents per person in the U.S. or a little more than 1/3 of a postage stamp. Why not call your Congressional and Senate offices asking for $150 million instead of $50 million? Can’t we afford, one average, one postage stamp for art?
• Act locally: LA permits billboards (or they go up illegally) where pubic art might flourish. Can we engage youth in public, travelling art on garbage cans and trucks? How can we train artists and fund more public arts while encouraging more private as well as public commissions? Contact your city and county representatives with your ideas; locate and support your neighborhood arts council; encourage businesses to commission both small and large art projects.
• Fund arts education: School districts suffer from lack of funding and too often cancel arts education in favor of standardized testing. As Dean of Arts and Letters at Cal State LA, I’ve worked with faculty and staff to ensure that our programs are accessible to K-12 schools but too often schools don’t have money to bus students to campus even to free events. Contact your schools to insist that art matters. When you can donate to the arts at the K-12 or college level and foster partnerships in arts education.
• Join an arts organization: From MOCA to molaa, museums make art accessible. So do symphonies, operas, dance and theatre companies. Now more than ever membership is critical to keep the arts alive.
• Become our audience: New Yorker magazine just published an article on low-cost and free performances; the writer attended 10 events in 7 days for $81. Free or low-cost art is also possible in Los Angeles. In addition to viewing murals you can visit free or low-cost museums and performances at Cal State LA and other local colleges, at museums, churches, and local government halls.

As last Saturday’s exhibition and discussion demonstrates public art can serve as markers of history, identity, and community pride. Let’s work to create more art that serves greater Los Angeles.