 Message from the President
Dear <<First Name>>,
Just Up Ahead
Let’s take a moment to consider the fall and the start of another exciting year for members of LLI. One cannot help but wonder what courses await us thanks to our amazing volunteers, the committee members that fulfill many administrative roles, the tech specialists, presenters and producers, and the many others that help make it all work. These folks give generously of their time and expertise. The course catalog will be released on August 15th, and registration will begin on September 1st. This year will feature Zoom and Hybrid classes and in-person classes on campus again.
The message today is about protecting ourselves and each other. We do not know what turn the pandemic will take this fall and beyond. Nonetheless, our top priority is the health and safety of our membership and guests.
LLI maintains contact with Bard’s COVID-19 Response Team and follows their recommendations to be allowed on campus. For more information, see the Bard College COVID-19 page. The page is updated frequently and includes the most recent information available. Bard currently requires all visitors to campus, including LLI members, to be fully vaccinated, including at least one booster.
LLI also monitors updates from the CDC. LLI strongly recommends that members refer to the CDC’s guidance on vaccinations and boosters specific to our age group. For more information, see the CDC site Stay Up to Date with Your COVID-19 Vaccines | CDC.
Effective September 1, 2022, out of an abundance of caution, LLI will require all members and guests to wear a mask at all times they are inside a building on campus. Presenters are not required to wear a mask while actively presenting a class.
Members will not be able to register on ProClass for any in-person class until they have presented proof of vaccination, including at least one booster. Vaccinations are not required for classes presented on Zoom only.
All new members: Please email your proof of vaccination, including at least one booster, to registration@lli.bard.edu by August 15. You may email us a photo of either your CDC Covid-19 Vaccination Card or digital NYS Excelsior Pass.
Returning members: If you have not already been verified by LLI when you attended an LLI event or an in-person class, please email proof of vaccination, including at least one booster, to registration@lli.bard.edu by August 15. You may email us a photo of either your CDC Covid-19 Vaccination Card or digital NYS Excelsior Pass.
LLI’s 2022-23 year is shaping up to be another very good one. In addition to LLI’s thought-provoking classes, our Membership Development folks are busy working on opportunities to attend Bard-sponsored events and our very own exciting social gatherings. If you have not had the chance to attend a party hosted by Robert Inglish yet, mark your calendars when the notice arrives. You don’t want to miss out.
Yours,
Robert Beaury
president@lli.bard.edu
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Looking Forward to Fall Classes
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by Deborah Lanser
As usual, the Curriculum Committee has developed so many rewarding fall courses that choosing among them will be difficult. Do you want to learn more about medicine, science, history, and current political issues or to explore novels, poetry, films, and plays? How about attending a workshop to improve your writing, dancing, or photography skills? Or are you interested in walking through some of the wonderful sights the Hudson Valley has to offer.
On August 25, with the release of the fall catalog, you can start planning your schedule. Zoom classes will be available on Thursdays, starting September 15, while in-person and hybrid courses will be held on Fridays, starting September 16. Courses will run through November 11, with breaks on October 13–14 and November 3–4. Registration in ProClass will go live on September 1, with enrollment on a first-come, first-served basis. Here’s a brief sample of the fall opportunities for you to consider.
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New Member Orientation and Tours
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by Robert Inglish
Fern Fleckman is leading the Member Services Team this year, and plans are underway to welcome new members.
For the first time, orientation will be “hybrid” in Weis Cinema as well as by Zoom. Thursday, September 8 is the date. Irene Esposito, the Hospitality Chair, is planning her usual fine array of pastries, coffee, and tea beginning at 9:00 a.m. The program follows at 10:00 a.m. Campus tours will be offered after the program.
Those new members who desire to tour the campus early may do so Thursday, September 1 at 10:00 a.m. We will begin the tour by meeting in the lobby of Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard.
Registration for the orientations and tours is by ProClass. After clicking on the link, you'll be prompted to login, and then you can select whether you want to attend the in-person or Zoom orientation on 9/8, or the tour on 9/1.
For the first time, new member materials will be available on our website.
New members will register online for parking hangtags. These will be available at either the early tour or at the in-person orientation.
Mentor volunteers are being solicited. Contact Robert at ringlish@lli.bard.edu. if you can participate in contacting new members in early August.
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by Linda Still, Carmela Gersbeck and Deborah Lanser
Many of us know the urge to throw our computers out the window in frustration when a website won’t let us in or respond the way we think it should. For LLI members, that may sometimes be true when registering for classes in ProClass. Never fear! Tech help, in the persons of Linda Still and Carmela Gersbeck, is more than willing to provide helpful tips and, in the event of maximum frustration, get on the phone and talk you through to success. Here are the basics.
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by Deborah Lanser
When asked to evaluate their SummerFest courses, 82 LLI members had plenty to say about what they liked and what needed improvement. The good news is that most rated their course content, presenters, and overall satisfaction between 4 and 5, the top marks. But some provided ratings between 1 and 3, and a few indicated 0 (no rating). As usual, the comments were often insightful and specific. Here is a sampling of what the respondents thought about their SummerFest experience.
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by Deborah Lanser
Bard College offers the hungry locavore food for the body as well as the mind. Its 1.25-acre farm harvests more than 20,000 pounds of organic, sustainably grown produce every year. And that produce is sold to local consumers at their farm stand on Thursdays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The stand, which is located on Library Road near Gilson Place, is open during the growing season, from June through October.
What’s available? Fresh greens, from bok choy to kale to salad greens, are on offer most of the season, according to Rebecca Yoshino, who manages the farm. Otherwise, the selection depends on the season. In midsummer, look for herbs, green beans, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, turnips, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, or zucchini. Later in the summer, Rebecca promises tomatoes and corn. In the mood for a sweet treat? Try their honey or elderflower syrup. Or just treat yourself to a gorgeous bouquet with flowers brought in by local growers.
The produce that isn’t sold finds its way to the campus dining room, according to Rebecca. And every year, they donate thousands of pounds of produce to Red Hook Responds, which connects farms with local nonprofit organizations. Through these connections, the Bard students who work on the farm team learn about local, sustainable foods and production practices as well as the complex issues concerning historic and contemporary food culture. If you are interested in learning more about this improbable marriage between farming and academia, go to www.bardfarm.org.
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Come Join Us for Open Play Bocce!
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by Carmela Gersbeck
We are happy to announce that we will play bocce every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. until noon, weather permitting, at Robert E. Post Memorial Park at 570 Park Road in Kingston, NY. Come join us to learn, watch, cheer, and/or play! Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy socializing with other LLI members along the beautiful Hudson River.
We look forward to seeing you there!
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News Flash! Seniors-to-Seniors Scholarship Recipient Gets Special Mention in the
New Yorker Magazine
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by Susan Phillips
A spring outdoor performance of “Antigone” at Opus 40, created, realized, and directed by graduating Bard senior Francis Karagodins, was central to an article written by Mary Norris in a recent New Yorker entitled “My Last Visit with John Bennet.” Before Bennet, a longtime New Yorker editor, who lived in Saugerties, died on July 9 of this year of pancreatic cancer, Norris, and John’s wife, Dana, attended a May14th evening performance of “Antigone” at Opus 40. Norris describes the setting as “… evocative: birdsong and scudding clouds at twilight, with the mountains for a backdrop. It reminded me of the Propylaea, the ceremonial entrance to the Acropolis in Athens.”
John was adamant about seeing “Antigone” at Opus 40, even when the performance was initially postponed. He had studied the work by Sophocles in college and had prepared to see the play by listening to podcasts about the work and reading reviews. Norris’s article mentions the appearances of various characters and the music that began the play. “The show opened with the muffled sound of French horns from around the rocks.” There was much pondering about the choral odes incorporated into the play. “It was beautiful and sonorous, like something heard in church, but we had no idea what it meant. (The music turned out to be Georgian folk song.)”
Rain threatened to let loose on the production but didn’t. Norris writes, “Soon Antigone was peeking around a stone, waiting for her curtain call, and a huge collective feeling of relief rose, maybe for the human spirit, maybe for the miraculous completion of a young man’s senior project.”
Bard LLI is proud of all those Bard College seniors who have been awarded a Seniors-to Seniors Scholarship to support their senior projects. It is especially gratifying when one of these students receives additional, well-deserved recognition. Congratulations, Francis. You can read the entire article by Mary Norris in the July 15, 2022 issue of the New Yorker. You can read more about Francis Karagodins in the May 2022 LLI newsletter article, “Seniors-to Seniors Tea Was Inspiring.”
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Art on Campus: Sidewalk Art
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by Dona McLaughlin
A zig-zag of letters pave the way into the Hessel Museum at the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies. These letters present a poem, an art installation, or, as CCS director Tom Eccles suggests, a metaphor for the art of curating.
The poem is composed of a stainless steel alphabet embedded in the broad concrete sidewalk leading up to and entering the building, providing visual continuity between the interior and exterior. At the moment, on the inside, the letters are half-covered by rubber matting.
This site-specific floor sculpture, created by Lawrence Weiner, was commissioned by the Marieluise Hessel Foundation in 2006. Weiner is regarded as a founding figure of postminimalist conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often takes the form of typographic texts.
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by Deborah Lanser
The following topics were discussed at the July meeting:
- There will be a campus tour for new members on September 1. Orientation plus a campus tour will be held on September 8.
- Members will need to submit proof of vaccination to be allowed to register for in-person classes. No proof is required for Zoom classes.
- Membership Development will set up two tours of the exhibit titled “Black Melancholia” at the Hessel Museum this October.
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With sorrow, we learned of the death of Mary Margaret Russo. Midge was a very early member of LLI who served on the newsletter committee and on the Curriculum Committee.
She was truly a person who was a “lifetime learner.” You can read more about her remarkable life here.
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Highlights of the Bard Calendar
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by Felice Gelman
August will see the Bard Music Festival (August 6-14) in full swing, this year examining the music and milieu of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The evening concerts at the Fisher Center can be seen either in person or livestreamed, with tickets of varying prices. Remember, if you call the Fisher Center box office (open Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) to reserve, ask for a 20% discount as an LLI member.
Friday, August 12, at 2 p.m., the Music Festival will screen David Lean’s Brief Encounter, a 1945 film scored by Rachmaninoff. Reserve free tickets here.
Friday, August 12 at 4:00 p.m., the Music Festival screens Shine, a 1996 film following the mental breakdown of a pianist struggling to play Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Reserve free tickets here.
Every Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., you can buy fresh produce at the Bard Farm Stand on Library Road (or, on rainy days, in the Campus Center). And, a reminder—on one of these hot summer days, step into the airy coolness of the Bard Hessel Museum and visit their three outstanding exhibits: Black Melancholia, which highlights the work of twenty-eight artists of African descent; Martine Syms: Grio College, a multimedia exhibit that explores blackness and its representation in our culture; and Dara Birnbaum: Reaction, a retrospective of the artist’s groundbreaking work in video. The Hessel Museum is open every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from noon to 6:00 p.m. Reserve your entry time here.
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Important Dates for LLI Members
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August 9: Curriculum Committee meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Curriculum meeting should email Anne Brueckner at abrueckner@lli.bard.edu.
August 10: Membership Development meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Membership Development meeting should email Kim Sears at ksears@lli.bard.edu.
August 25: Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Council meeting should email Mary McClellan at mmcclellan@lli.bard.edu.
August 25: Fall semester catalog is available on the website and in ProClass.
September 1: Campus tour for new members.
September 1: Registration for fall classes begins.
September 8: New member orientation and campus tours.
September 13: Curriculum Committee meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Curriculum meeting should email Anne Brueckner at abrueckner@lli.bard.edu.
September 14: Membership Development Committee meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Membership Development meeting should email Kim Sears at ksears@lli.bard.edu.
September 15 - November 11: Fall semester begins.
September 20: Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Council meeting should email Mary McClellan at mmcclellan@lli.bard.edu.
September 24: Last day to add a course.
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This newsletter is a publication of Bard LLI Council. Communications Team Chair: Cathy Reinis. Writers and editors: Susan Christoffersen, Felice Gelman, Carmela Gersbeck, Deborah Lanser, Jill Lundquist, Dona McLaughlin, Kathy OConnor, Susan Phillips, Linda Scherr, Margaret Shuhala. Photographers: Gary Miller, Chair, Carmela Gersbeck, Kathy OConnor
The opinions and views expressed in the LLI Newsletter are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of LLI or its members. In addition, any link to a website or content belonging to or originating from third parties are not investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability or completeness by LLI, nor does LLI accept any responsibility for such content.
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