Month: December 2014

  • A Gift of Gordon Parks

    Last month, I received a five-volume boxed set of the collected works of Gordon Parks. It came out of the blue—as a gift from the publisher, Gerhard Steidl, and Dr. Thomas Schwarz, the president of SUNY/Purchase, which is where the Gordon Parks Foundation is housed. It is a magnificent collection—one that reflects the arc of…

  • Season’s Greet-inks!

    With the opening last night of FIT’s second annual holiday pop-up shop, I believe that the college has established a new tradition. And given that we are also celebrating FIT’s 70th anniversary this year, this is a particularly lovely and appropriate tradition to establish. It brings together students, staff, faculty—a great curricular challenge—and philanthropy, all…

  • Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Competition

    The Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Competition celebrated its 25th anniversary here at FIT this year in two days of recitations in November. In a way, its longevity is a surprise—it is counter-intuitive. Who would expect, after all, that a college like FIT, whose entire raison d’etre is to promote career education, would so enthusiastically support…