Salsa at Warren Wilson

In the mountains surrounding Warren Wilson, the sounds of bluegrass and banjos are the most common. As a new student this was very frustrating to me, as I’m an avid fan of all music apart from country and bluegrass. For a few weeks I indulged in contra dancing which is a very entertaining, very southern dance. However, even with me contra dancing every Thursday, I longed for a dance with a little more flavor.

A month or so into my first semester I was ecstatic to see a poster about salsa lessons starting at Warren Wilson. In my home in Orlando, Fla., I was a keen student of salsa and other Latin dances. Ever since I first saw that posted, Monday nights have been dedicated to salsa. Two Warren Wilson graduates run the salsa lessons and everyone has a great time.

Recently the salsa enthusiasts like myself were invited to perform at the Multicultural Dinner, the international students were hosting. For a week our little salsa community put together a routine complete with spins, dips and turns. Every day we worked on our routine to perfect our moves. We were all extremely happy when our last day of practice came. We were ready to show the entire Warren Wilson community our love of salsa. Unfortunately, our salsa performance at the multicultural dinner was canceled at the last minute because of a change of location, but our love of salsa has not diminished.

Warren Wilson is a unique community with many unique clubs such as step team, fire twirlers, belly dancing and more. Salsa is a nice addition to our unique community and our diverse tastes. Don’t be fooled by the bluegrass and country music; I promise you there is diverse and exciting culture here at Warren Wilson full of all different kinds of music and dance.

Grace Hatton ’14

A Night of Lounges

Currently I am working on two research papers simultaneously. My paper for Grassroots Politics of the 20th Century is based on the primary source of an interview with Harvey Gantt. Gantt was the first African American mayor of Charlotte, NC and I am focusing on his activism within the greater Civil Rights Movement. My second paper is more or less comparing the penal systems in the U.S. and Sweden. My thesis reflects how well each system prepares prisoners to reenter society and rehabilitates them once they have served their time. I have been spending every night working on both these papers in between my regular homework.

When I am not working on homework I am at the theatre working on props for the upcoming production of The Cherry Orchard. I am in charge of finding, making, buying, etc all the props for the productions. Tech week starts Saturday and opening night is April 21st. So I am putting in extra hours at the theater to make sure all of my props are ready to go.

However, last night I took a night off from long hours in the library and theatre to celebrate a friend’s birthday. A group of seven of us put on our ‘night on the town’ clothes and headed to Asheville. Our first stop was the Champagne Lounge. This is a bookstore and champagne bar. There are bookcases upon bookcases in this two story lounge all for perusing, and purchasing if you found you need to finish the book at home. It has the perfect lighting and the warm colors of dark wood tables and bookcases, and comfy couches and chairs that you melt into. We found a cluster of couches and chairs in one cozy nook. Considering it was Lindsay’s birthday they gave us a complimentary bottle of pink sparkling wine. Being under 21 myself, I enjoyed an amazing glass of raspberry Italian Soda. I would go back just to have another glass of that delightful drink. After an hour or so of laughing and snacking on chocolates we left for our next stop.

We then walked over to the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Here we all ordered warm sipping chocolates, liquid truffles, mint brownies, and cheesecakes.

Break Trip!

I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a Break Trip every year I’ve attended Warren Wilson—first to Pine Ridge Reservation to look at hunger issues and cultural preservation my first year, then a local trip in Asheville working with arts organizations when I was a sophomore.

This year, I applied to travel to Detroit to work with organizations that grow food in the city’s urban and economic context. It seems that a lot of non-Detroiters see the city as a sort of lost cause—that Detroit is somehow so abandoned or crime-ridden or jobless that it’s a throwaway place. Our group’s experience, though, was one of vibrant, thriving community—not a blank slate city, not a forsaken urban skeleton.

Working with several organizations through the course of the week began to illuminate the network of individuals and organizations partnering to strengthen the proud and growing city. Greening Detroit is reforesting a city that used to be famous for its trees. Emily at Hostel Detroit, where we stayed, is working to open a space for visitors and volunteers. The Jeanne Wiley House continues to establish intentional community in a neighborhood with a historic Catholic Worker presence. Earthworks distributes seedlings and seeds to community and family gardeners. Catherine Ferguson Academy, a public high school for pregnant and parenting teenagers, teaches science through experiential learning on a farm connected to the school that sells its own produce.

Throughout the week, we had a lot of discussions about what it means for us to work in a community that is not our own. What does our vision of community development count for in spaces where it isn’t our place to lead, but to listen? How do questions of class and race and education play out? Is gentrification ever altered by good intention, or does it always yield the same negative result? None of the questions have simple answers—addressing power and privilege requires constant vigilance—but we did come up with some steps when thinking about equity. Listening and humility were two qualities essential to being in community in an appropriate way. Conscious and responsible tourism was another answer for us as visitors to another city.

At the end of the week, we visited the Detroit Institute of Art. It’s a lovely, large museum, and its prime claim to fame is a room of fresco murals painted by Diego Rivera in 1932 and 1933. The museum was a grounding way to end the week, to be surrounded by larger-than-life depictions of the automobile industry. The museum pulled it together for me. The marbled, echoing, colorful room that holds the murals is a space that invites reflection.

I realized there that the biggest significance the trip held for me was the way it made me reconsider my own place in community development. I was born and lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin until coming to Warren Wilson three years ago. The fact that Detroit had that uniquely urban Midwestern quality of a presence both unassuming and grand reminded me of own my home city, a place with which my relationship is ambivalent but loyal. The Break Trip was an opportunity for many of us to reach that reflection, a chance to go to another locale to consider our own.

I'm a Little Surprised

I didn’t intend to want to be a fundraiser. I transferred to Warren Wilson to become a writer. I knew I would almost definitely need a day job to support that passion (let’s just say the novel hasn’t been sold, by dint of it not yet existing), but fundraising was one of the furthest things from my mind.

So, in retrospect, I’m a little surprised to say that not only did I attend the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Western North Carolina chapter’s monthly luncheon for March, but that I was excited to do so and am excited at the possibility of getting to go again next month.

See, my parents own and operate a consulting firm for nonprofits organizations back home in Rhode Island. Basically, they get paid to offer various nonprofits constructive criticism about how they might improve. There’s more to it than that, obviously, but that’s what it boils down to.

For a long time, I avoided learning as much as I possibly could about the “family business.” My parents work long hours from their home office, and the topic of work frequently invaded our dinner table conversations, alienating us children. The last thing I imagined doing with my life was what my parents do. I suspect most children experience this desire, at some point in their lives. I imagine some of them even manage to avoid following in their parents’ footsteps.

Then I came to Warren Wilson College and started working in the Advancement Office, which handles fundraising and relations for the college. Advancement is the college version of my parents’ area of expertise. My crew supervisor assures me he had no idea that was the case when I was selected for the crew. He’s an honest man, so I believe him (mostly).

Of course, once in Advancement, all that jargon like “development,” “donor appeals,” “grant writing,” and “strategic planning” that had bandied around our home came rushing back. And I realized that not only did I remember hearing the words, but that I remembered what they meant and how to put them to use. And, to my initial quiet horror, that I liked it. I’ve since come to accept that which I cannot change about myself. I guess I was just raised this way. It might even be in my blood.

In fact, when Miranda Hipple, our Annual Fund Director, suggested that I attend the AFP luncheon a while back, I started thinking about how to make the time. And the past Wednesday during spring break, while working full-time for Advancement, I pulled on a pair of khakis, some nice shoes, and a dress shirt my parents gave me for Christmas, and rubbed elbows with Western North Carolina’s fundraising community. I was nervous and shy, although I realize now that I shouldn’t have been. These are fundraisers, after all, they don’t bite; it wouldn’t get them anywhere. There was a guest speaker: an events consultant who certainly gave me a crash course in planning a successful event, and had some tips and tricks for managing even little things to maximize success (such as what day to mail invitations so guests would receive them on a day when they had time to process the request).

I’m about to graduate, and if my life takes me where I’m hoping it will, I’ll become an AFP member and attend a lot more of these luncheons, especially those in Western North Carolina. I’m always delighted to find that Warren Wilson doesn’t just teach me new things, but teaches me to revisit my past and use it to make what I want of my future.

Alex