Prose

Sharing the Darkness

Carolyn Forché

I wake with a start at midnight. A nightbird striking the window? A bat in the eaves? Maybe someone in the theater of my sleep gave me a nudge—someone I don’t know in waking life. It is cloudy and warm this night, so the waning moon isn’t visible through the window beside me, nor the bright star Antares to the right of it. There is no wind. There have been no sharp knocks on the door as I seem to hear sometimes, and no imaginary bell. A stillness has descended on everything: the pile of books on the bedside table, the water glass lit from within, and across the room, a gallery of people looking out from their photographs as if through windows in the past. Nothing moves. Something has happened, is what the darkness says. It had to do …

Kata, a novel excerpt

Stacy Mattingly

Using Galaxy Clusters to Search for the Most Distant Objects in the Observable Universe

Dr. Felipe Andrade-Santos

Caramel and Chocolate Can Both Have Sea Salt

Gabrielle Honore

Willemien’s Promise

Paula Srur Carcar

Well, What Would Lincoln Do?

John Burt

Refugee Stories from Odesa, Ukraine

Translated by Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky

Two Short Stories

Naomi Leites

Student Book Reviews from Prof Beth Denisch’s class: Music, Gender and Society

Music

Berklee Alumni Column #3: John Keyes

Joely Cromack-Kluko

This month, I had the opportunity to speak with LA-based professional drummer John Keyes. John’s passion for music began at age two and has thrived since, with no end in sight. His consistent drive throughout middle and high school led him to a transformative education at Berklee, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in drum performance. After graduating in 2022, John continues on an inspiring journey as a performer, musician, and educator, filled with networking, tours, sessions, and a constant drive to learn from new experiences. His earliest musical memories took place in his childhood home in Southbridge, Massachusetts. While barely a toddler, he adored playing his beginner drum kit and watching famous drummers appear on Sesame Street. Taking after his four cousins, he began taking drum lessons at the age of twelve, which became his favorite part of every …

Berklee Alumni Column #2: Angie Polizzi

Joely Cromack-Kluko

Berklee Alumni Column #1: Nicole Domagala

Joely Cromack-Kluko

Berklee’s “Music of Women Composers” Course: 8 Essays

On the Formation of Clouds

Brian Turner

Escape Velocity

Joel Peckham

Tuning in to Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony

Katherine Dacey

Two Essays on the Body—Love, Broken, Beauty.

by Brian Turner

Kinds of Blues: 3 Songs & 3 Poems

Cornelius Eady

Poetry

The Breaking Pointe

Faith Alhadeff

The art of dance is the most
Intricate of them all.
It reveals truths we never
Planned on facing.
Blistering feet,
Hidden by a smooth silk shoe.
A simple leisure;
Turned to restraint.
Judging eyes daggering
Her painted on smile.
Stage lights beating down
Upon her skin.
Her body racing to keep up
With her mind.
She is the most vulnerable
Of artists.
Two tiny wooden boxes;
Holding the weight of years
Of struggle.
Beautiful lace leotards …

Berklee Slam Poetry Fire

featuring the poetic stylings of the Spoken Word and Slam Poetry classes, Professor Michael Heyman, chief stylist

Selected Poems: Ferida Duraković and Selma Asotić

Pachysandra & Two Other Poems

Kimiko Hahn

The Ceasefire and 3 Other Poems

Paula Srur Carcar

FUSION Presents a Raucous Night of Performed Poetry: Berklee’s Spoken Word & Slam Poetry classes and The Garden

Camelot Vampires Unleashed: 12 Poems in Traditional Forms from Pat Pattison’s Poetry Workshop

4 Poems from Wayne Wild’s Liberating Aesthetics Course

Vajra (Water song)

Kevin O’Keefe

Film

GUADAGNINO – <em>CINÉASTE DE AUTRE TEMPS, or the death of the auteur and rebirth of the artisan</em>

GUADAGNINO – CINÉASTE DE AUTRE TEMPS, or the death of the auteur and rebirth of the artisan

Sean Brennan

Though Luca Guadagnino has of late become one of the cinema’s premier aesthetes, his demeanor when speaking about his work resembles a producer rather than a director of his renown. In interviews, he is just as inclined to spend ample time delving into minutiae of production design in his works as he is to rhapsodize the influence of aesthetes such as Bertolucci on his cinematic education. Indeed, many of his recent projects as director have spawned from him ‘reluctantly’ taking the reins when no one else would, moving easily from the producer’s chair to the director’s. And yet his body of work br¬¬eathes with a joy and a love for the cinema which, like all great cinéastes, has the potential to penetrate the material work of craftsmanship, always striving to access something deeper. A self-described “stalker of master filmmakers”, Guadagnino’s …

Contemporary Television Series and Literature: An Intense, Transformative Embrace

Anna De Biasio

What Big Teeth You Have

Raven Baksh

Stuck Between Stations: Reflections on The Eclipse & In Bruges

Sean Brennan

Berklee Student Screenplays

Art

Bathtub Series

Eva Redamonti

When planning the general ideas for my artwork, I like to choose venues in which my imaginary themes can move and flow. I think in movement, structure, symmetry, and detail. I always try to incorporate the elements of imagination and fantasy.