FIRST FUSION
Welcome to FUSION: A Magazine of Literature, Music, and Ideas. FUSION is a college-wide initiative that fuses the many creative energies of our community: fiction, poetry, drama, film, performance art, the visual and multi-media arts, and, of course, music.
The idea of FUSION grew out of work in the Writing Across the Curriculum Program, including our efforts to foster a “culture of writing” at Berklee. A year ago, it occurred to me that a magazine, both online and in hard copy, would be the most compelling way to stimulate an interest in writing and the related arts. Instead of only talking about writing, I wanted to give our students and colleagues a place to showcase their own ideas and creativity.
FUSION will be a nexus of our culture of writing. We will present work of the highest quality by the Berklee community, including visiting artists. In addition to literary pieces, we will publish artwork, essays on music and ideas, and features with accompanying video and music files. While writing will always be at the core of the magazine, our vision is of an interdisciplinary and multi-media venture.
What better way to inspire students to write creatively than to give them space alongside artists such as the Sri Lankan poet, and recent Berklee Major Resident, Pireeni Sundaralingam, the innovative translator of Chinese literature, David Hinton, and distinguished visitors, such as Cornell West?
FUSION will host interdisciplinary approaches to writing and the other arts, including multi-media presentations, and links to other college constituencies, such as birn, Berklee’s internet radio network. We will host a number of events throughout the year and publish the words, pictures, and music of these events. For example, the Slam Poetry club could perform at a FUSION hosted event, then see and hear their work on FUSION Online. We will also present world music and diverse literary events, including a competition for students to set poems and other texts to music.
We will develop several regular columns, including “Global FUSION“: work by international students, faculty, and others, as well as pieces by those who travel abroad for the college. Another column, “FUSION Field Work,” will collect oral histories and develop features in ethnomusicology.
FUSION will appear online and in an annual hard copy edition. The first hard copy edition will appear in Spring 2009. In this first online issue, you will find works by Berklee students, faculty, chairs, alumni, and visiting artists.
In the beginning, I invited Julie Rold, our Web Editor and Fiction Editor, to join me in making FUSION a reality. Along with faculty editors Victor Wallis, Stephanie Reich, and Deborah Bennett, and our student editors, I hope you enjoy this first edition of FUSION Online.
Students on our editorial board have given their time and ideas to help shape the vision of the magazine. Active student participation in FUSION is central to our mission.
We would like to thank Liberal Arts Chair, Camille Colatosti, and Professional Education Dean, Darla Hanley, for their faith in the project and their ongoing support of FUSION. We would also like to thank Communications Department Director Matt Skelly, Web Developers Dave Belson and Kerry Malloy Aglugub, and Graphic Designer Kevin Levesque for sharing generously with us their time and creative talents.
FUSION Online will be updated on a regular basis, so we hope you will turn to us again as we feature new writing and expand our interdisciplinary offerings. We look forward to collaborating with the Berklee community on these new artistic initiatives.
Best wishes,
Joseph Coroniti, Editor-in-Chief; Drama Editor