LIVE STORYTELLING
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First lines from Thread
true bennington stories Thread—an event that was founded, coordinated, and hosted by The Bennington Radio Project three years ago—is Bennington’s version of public radio’s popular “Moth Radio Hour,” where true stories are told live without notes. And in the last few years it has become one of the most popular campus events—one that engages the entire Bennington community from students to faculty to staff. Since it began, The Bennington Radio Project has invited the Bennington community to tell stories in response to themes from “This isn’t what I expected,” to “Why me,” to the recent theme, “Everyone you need is here at Bennington. Stories of your bright and shiny people.” It was this theme that drew a crowd of more than 200 people to the DownCaf on a very cold Wednesday night in March. The stories began this way:
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So the first thing anyone ever said to me in a Bennington classroom was ‘You can touch it, it smells like pepper…’ —Ally Reith ’13
“On the eve of Gender Bender last fall, I was in Woolley appropriately attired for the evening in Bryan Markhardt’s boxer shorts and a Bennington Sustainable Food Project T-shirt…” —Anna Rogavoy ’13 “…Somehow I have a feeling I’ve been missing the more interesting things that go on at Bennington. You know, I’ve been here a while now… No one has ever streaked near my office, even when it was 75 degrees. So I was thinking, maybe it’s time to come back here the way you guys have come here.” —Liz Coleman, President “My parents had a habit of nicknaming their fetuses. Their first son they nicknamed ‘Nugget,’ because he was their golden nugget. Their next: ‘Sue Bob,’ because they didn’t know if it was a boy or girl. Next was ‘Boots’ because it kicked a lot. And then in November 1990, they conceived for the fourth time and they nicknamed it ‘Oops’” —Hilary Whitney ’14
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16 • B E N N I N G T O N M A G A Z I N E