The Words, November 2015

English FYC Students See it All

By Josh Weiner ’16

In addition to top-notch classroom instruction, students in Professor Daylanne English’s First Year Course – Ecstasy and Apocalypse: Literature of the Extreme –  have had superb opportunities for some experiential education. On October 1st the students attended a punk show at First Avenue in Minneapolis; less than a week later, they headed out to Macalester’s Ordway Nature Center for a morning of quiet contemplation and writing.

Celeste Robinson ‘16, an English major and writing assistant for the course, got the idea for a punk show field trip after reading Greil Marcus’ book Lipstick Traces. “The class is called Ecstasy and Apocalypse,” she says, “and punk tries to embody this apocalyptic sense of emotion, of reality.” She explains how Marcus posits that the punk movement emerged as a natural response to certain conditions of Western culture. “To me the connection was obvious,” Robinson says, “so I had them do the reading and they were all really excited.” When asked about leading a group of first-year students to a punk show, she responds enthusiastically, “it was so much fun! At first everyone was very shy, sitting around the edges. By the end everyone was up at the stage, only a foot away.” The class saw performances by Hyperslob, Diver Dress, and B Arthur. Robinson was particularly impressed by how the students wove connections between punk music and recent course readings, including Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and the poetry of Mary Oliver.

Only a few days later, on October 6th, Professor English and the class bussed out to Ordway on a cool but pleasant morning. The Katherine Ordway Natural History Study Area is a Macalester-owned 300-acre parcel outside of St Paul. The Area was established in 1967 and has been a teaching and research tool for Macalester faculty and students ever since. The wide range of natural habitats and abundant flora and fauna has provided rich opportunities for students in the sciences, while the tranquil and pristine refuge has served as a “creative jumpstart” for students in the English and Theater & Dance Departments. “As part of our course, we’re doing a unit on nature,” Robinson explains. The class has been reading Rachel Carson’s 1962 environmental classic Silent Spring as well as the poetry of Mary Oliver and Emily Dickinson. Professor English wanted to plan a trip to help supplement students’ intellectual experience with a “tactile” one. For help, she reached out to her colleagues: “I consulted with Environmental Studies faculty and explained the course to them. Several of them suggested the Ordway.” The class wandered the grounds, and each student was given time individually to reflect, observe, and write. Robinson says she thinks the trip was very rewarding for students.

Ecstasy and Apocalypse students have more to look forward to. “In December, we’re going to the garbage incinerator in Minneapolis,” Robinson says, “because it’s a site of natural apocalypse.” Professor English considered several such sites, but settled on the incinerator (formally the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center) at the suggestion of Environmental Studies Professor Christie Manning. She wants an urban site of decay, and thinks the incinerator fits the bill perfectly. “This is a highly enriched experience,” she tells The Words, “that exposes students not only to other disciplines but gets them out into the community.”