The Literary Life of BFS, Part Two

Delighted to follow up last week's post about the BFS Literary Magazine Collection by adding the years 1961 to 1974. Literary magazines of this period evidence an enormous change in BFS history: the late 1960s to early 1970s, when BFS shifted from a traditional college preparatory model to an incredibly progressive school. While many things led to this institutional shift at BFS, a few of the most pertinent were direction from the New York Monthly Meeting Schools Committee, Middle States Association's accreditations of BFS and general interest in cutting-edge progressive education.

This collection also contains a lesser-known student publication. Surviving in the BFS Archives are four editions of the 1974 BFS Upper School underground publication Friends Anonymous and its successor Friends Uncensored in which contributors revealed their identities. The Life (newspaper) was being published in 1974 and some might say it had a counter-culture feel, but Friends Anonymous/Uncensored took things to a very different level. Print has faded in sections, but issues remain readable overall. One Lower School Junior Level Magazine from 1973-1974 also survives in the Literary Magazine Collection in the BFS Archives.

BFS literary magazines have gone through many titles since at least 1971. Today our literary magazines are annual publications which include Wordflirt for the Upper School, Scribe for the Middle School, and Write Now for the Lower School and Preschool. Hopefully looking forward to publishing the rest of the BFS literary magazine collection next year. 

Please remember that the BFS Archives are incomplete: if you have copies of any BFS publications or class photos, please share them with the school here or by directly contacting me, Susan Price '86, BFS historian. 

The Literary Life of BFS, Part One (1926-1960)

All good things are worth waiting for, and our literary magazines are no exception. At this time, the surviving BFS literary magazines from 1926 to 1960 are available in the Literary Magazine Collection of the BFS Digital Archives, along with the 2003 edition of Wordflirt, the present Upper School literary magazine. 1961 to 1974 literary magazines will be added next week, but still later BFS literary magazines will become available as they are digitized. Quite a few BFS alumni have gone on to notable careers in the arts and publishing, worlds they often first entered at BFS, as shown in many BFS alumni profiles.

The literary magazines in this earliest part of the collection are titled Friends School Life. Originally published from 1919 to 1931, Friends School Life contained school news and literary submissions and was published quarterly in magazine format, with the final edition for Commencement (the BFS yearbook of the time). In October, 1931, Friends School Life became a traditional newspaper titled The Life, published 10 times per year and included occasional literary submissions. There was no dedicated literary magazine until the Fall of 1935 when student interest resulted in the biannual literary publication also titled The Life, a magazine similar to the earlier one, yet devoted to entirely to literary endeavors, and it replaced two editions of its newspaper sibling. 

A lesser known student publication, Junior Life, is also part of our literary magazine collection. Only the second edition of the Junior Life, from May, 1930 is known to survive: published biannually from 1930 to at least 1942, Junior Life gives insight into Lower School curriculum and activities of the time and was published by our our oldest Lower Schoolers, the 6th grade (the BFS Middle School was born with the 1968-1969 school year). The Class of 1936, as 6th graders, saw the possibility of a publication for the younger students of BFS and made it happen and they are the very same class that wanted and published our first true literary magazine as mentioned above, The Life in 1935 - only the second edition from its first year of publication survives.

Please remember that the BFS Archives are incomplete: if you have copies of any BFS publications or class photos, please share them with the school here or by directly contacting Susan Price '86, BFS historian. 

BFS school-year beginnings, today and yesterday

Brooklyn Friends School began its 148th school year this month with its traditional convocation. Our opening assembly for older students, held at the Brooklyn Meeting House on Schermerhorn Street, came to be known as convocation in the early 1990s, yet this year's largest-ever student body required separate convocations for the middle and upper school divisions. Quite similar to years past, as one can see on this page from the 1916 Brooklyn Friends School catalog.

1916: Principal John L. Carver addresses the entire
BFS student body at a Thursday assembly

98 years ago,  each division, then called departments, held separate opening exercises just as we did this year. The photo above was taken at one of the bi-monthly assemblies of the entire school, in the exact same meeting room at the Brooklyn Meeting House. Since 1916, the meeting room has changed slightly and our entire student body has grown by perhaps 300 percent, but BFS and its historic home of the Brooklyn Meeting House remain beloved by students as one can see in this video of the upper school convocation, featuring the upper school student body singing our school song of today "Simple Gifts."

Simple Gifts 2014-15 from Brooklyn Friends School on Vimeo.

Join us for Alumni Day, June 7

Dick Begelman, 1968

BFS Alumni Day is June 7 and it will be a fabulous event as always. Our annual Alumni Day is for all alumni, faculty and friends. Alumni of all graduating years are welcome, yet Alumni Day is also the day for alumni class reunions. BFS often recognizes faculty at Alumni Day and this year we are delighted to honor Dick Begelman, English and Drama teacher from 1967 to 1988. Mr. Begelman will be there and we hope you will be too.  For more information, please contact Director of Alumni Lekeia Varlack, lvarlack@brooklynfriends.org. 

BFS Alumni Day Schedule, Saturday, June 7, 2014
1:00 pm - Alumni Basketball Game, 375 Pearl Street Gymnasium
2:00 pm - Tour of School Buildings at Pearl and Willoughby
3:00 pm - Meeting for Worship, 375 Pearl Street Meetinghouse
4:00 pm - Celebration of former Upper School teacher Dick Begelman
4:30 pm to 7:00 pm - Cocktail Party toasting Alumni, Special reunion classes, and Faculty

Thought it might be fun to take a look back at when Mr. Begelman first came to BFS. We are fortunate to have several issues of The Life from his first year at BFS, 1967-1968. Of course, Mr. Begelman had numerous mentions in The Life over the years, but readers can discover them and much more on their own in the Newspapers Section of the BFS Digital Archives. 

Mr. Begelman was first mentioned in the October 10, 1967 edition of The Life article, "Varied Backgrounds Distinguish Faculty" on page 1. Mr. Begelman was first hired as a reading specialist for the Upper School. At the time, the Upper School consisted of grades 7-12 and the Lower School, grades K-6; our Middle School was created a few years later. 

A terrific feature about Mr. Begelman, "Versatile Teacher Instructs in Reading; Experienced in Dramatics, Film-Making," is on page 2 of the March 26, 1968 issue of The Life, and it was written by Alexandra Levitt '71, author of the highly acclaimed, Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites. On Alumni Day, perhaps we will learn if Mr. Begelman's favorite book is still "the dictionary." 

Hope you can join us for BFS Alumni Day on June 7!

Let Your Films Speak: The Bridge Film Festival,15 Years Young

"Know your history, ask questions and follow your heart." 

Garrett Bradley, BFS '03, Bridge Film Festival alumna

It's Spring Break, but it's also time to reserve your tickets for the 15th annual Bridge Film Festival on Thursday, April 10 at BFS. The festival was established in 1999 at BFS by Andy Cohen, BFS director of media services, and it celebrates Quaker ideals in action via short films created by students in grades 5 through 12 from Friends schools and Friends meetings around the world. Judges are members of the film industry and related fields, and selecting finalists is always difficult. Festival director Andy Cohen was interviewed in 2009 on the origins of the Bridge Film Festival. In its short history, the Bridge Film Festival has become an important way for young artists to connect and collaborate while creating purposeful, values-based films which spring from their common background in Quakerism. The founder of Quakerism George Fox once famously stated "Let your life speak," so the Bridge Film Festival encourages young filmmakers to "Let your films speak."

100 Years Ago at BFS

BFS Commencement and Important Announcements
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 6, 1914

This week, your friendly historian decided to time-travel back one hundred years to the 1913-1914 school year at BFS. Turning once again to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle at one of my favorite sites, fultonhistory.com, I found this page containing the article, "Friends School to Have Annex," which gave an overview of our school's Commencement exercises of June 5, 1914. The article also included two special announcements from Chairman of the School's Board of Trustees Will Walter Jackson:  Ella Woodward's appointment as Head of our school's Lower Division and, more importantly, the school's September, 1914 expansion into the adjacent brownstone at 116 Schermerhorn, what would later be known at BFS as the Phebe Anna Thorne High School building, named after the noted Quaker philanthropist whose estate purchased 116 Schermerhorn for BFS. Mr. Jackson also mentioned that "plans have been drawn for a new gymnasium building, and that through the generosity of some friends of the school we may soon have that much-needed addition to our plant." Despite those plans and ready donors, the gymnasium would not materialize until 1917 (I understand that is a heated story, so we'll save it for another day).

A rare find, 19th Century student remembers his BFS days

Found tucked away in the archives several years ago is this item written by Henry Morris Haviland, recalling his student days at BFS from 1872 to 1876.  Such items are quite a find for our school, especially since Mr. Haviland explained the locations of the classrooms in the lower level of the Brooklyn Meeting House. Our school was smaller in those early days and the entire school was conducted in the Brooklyn Meeting House, of course. I love his nickname "Hash," but I think I love even more the phrase once heard regularly in our school, "Go to the Social Union room." 

Henry M. Haviland's Reminiscences of Friends School

From the kitchens of BFS

Teachers' Treats Cookbook, published 1984-85

Some of us will remember the BFS cookbooks produced by members of our community, most often our teachers and parents of the PAT.

Found: New Class Photos!

1924-25, Class of 1927, 10th grade

A recent excursion in the unsorted BFS photo archives uncovered a few class photos that were not previously included in the albums in the digital class photo collection. Found were 26 additional class photos from all decades, including two class photos taken before 1949, the most poorly represented period in the BFS archives. Our pre-1949 class photos either did not survive or copies were not given to the school in the first place, something which unfortunately occurred in later years as well. These new photos have been added to both our Picasa albums and to the BFS Alumni Facebook Group's photo albums.