Justine Klineman put on a one-woman workshop (aka a work in progress) performance of solo show I’m An Asshole, and So Are You! April 3 on Zoom and it was great! In Justine’s words, the show “is about bringing our big human family together by liberating anger and conflict to access joy, connection, and accepting each other.” Jamie Heller and Kate Saunders Grove also attended. I talked to Justine and she talked about her path into acting, going back to doing a Meisner conservatory for two years and an apprentice program at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Justine is most proud of her first one-woman show, Dancing with My Father: Tales of A Late Bloomer, which Justine wrote and directed as a way to deal with family, loss, and self-acceptance.

Kathy Apruzzese Sherbrooke has a new book out, Leaving Coy’s Hill, based on the life of pioneering feminist and abolitionist Lucy Stone. I’ve read an advance copy and it’s great—interesting how Kathy delineates Lucy’s friendship and then distancing from Susan B. Anthony. Worth a read!

DAM featured the annual Pow Wow in the last issue, with paintings by our own Mateo Romero from the Dartmouth Pow Wow Suite he did for the Hood Museum years ago. This got me to asking classmates for their memories of the Pow Wow. Tito Basu says, “I remember feeling the drumming was so slow compared with back home in India. But then you get drawn into the slower rhythm and the spirit of it and the beautiful colors of fabric and feather and a feeling of something old and true.” Lenora Inez Brown says, “It was one of the few times I ventured to that area of Dartmouth’s property. I remember being in awe of so much.” Debra Roberson “I loved the Pow Wows and I still attend them today. We have Adai-Caddo Indians near where I live. I fell in love with fry bread and I embrace the Native culture, as my grandmother was Native Indian. I love the artwork that Mateo Romerodoes. I’m so glad I own some of his work.” Amala Devi says, “I attended a few times and always left feeling awestruck and also with a feeling of lacking of my own culture. The incredible depth of the experience—the intensity of energies, the potent concentration and absorption of the dancers, the sounds—I loved it. And I would feel ‘culture-less.’ I feel this way often here in Hawaii and also when I would attend dances on the pueblos of New Mexico.” Dave Heisterkamp says, “Two favorite memories are watching the dancers seek out the campus police officers and bring them into the dance circle freshman year at Occom Pond and watching Siobhan Wescott’s awesome dance moves in full regalia the year the Pow Wow was moved into Thompson Arena because of rain. The [May 14, 1988, Pow-Wow poster] has hung in my office for 27 years. Pow Wow is an attitude, not a physical location. It’s all about the interaction.” Dan Parish says, “I remember seeing Siobhan Wescott dance as well. My fondest Pow Wow memories came during my time in admissions when my colleagues Beth Paap ’87, John Sirois ’91, and Jarrid Whitney each danced or played a role in leading the dancers into the circle. The other great thing was that John Sirois successfully convinced the College to move the Pow Wow to the center of the Green—to the heart of the community—where it belonged!”

—Ned Ward, 2104 Graham Ave., #B, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; ned@nedorama.com