R. Eric Thomas is a quirky, funny, self-deprecating guy who tells truths through storytelling

By Laura Reeve

R. Eric Thomas likes to talk about himself. Well, the version of himself who fails at relationships, never meets anyone, and eats too many cupcakes when he’s sad.

“The only story I ever tell is my own. I’m not a good journalist and I’m not a good actor because I can’t disappear into others things. Which maybe is because I’m a narcissist, or maybe it’s just how I’m built,” said Thomas, a Philadelphia storyteller and playwright, as he gestured with his hands, a move he makes when he tells his stories as if his hands will physically bring his audience closer to him.

Thomas, 30, originally from Baltimore, came to an interview directly from his job at a law firm in Center City. Despite his work attire, his black tie had a bit of shimmer in it and peeking out from under his slacks were a pair of black Converse sneakers.

Thomas writes fiction, but finds that through telling personal stories, he can comment more genuinely on the world around him. Now, Thomas is a frequent storyteller at First Person Arts StorySlams, bimonthly storytelling competitions at World Cafe Live and L’etage.

“I write a lot of fiction and I do find a lot of solace in that. I consider myself a playwright, so other people’s voices are interesting to me,” Thomas explained. “But when it comes to vocalization, when it comes to representing something concrete about humanity, I really am only able to draw from my own experience.”

Once Thomas began to tell personal stories, he realized how much truth he could share with his audience through storytelling — truths he found difficult to express in his fiction “It’s frustrating to me because when I started telling stories, telling true stories with an emotional heart, they were so much better than my plays,” Thomas said. “It’s like ripping opening a wound and either healing it up or sticking my finger in it.” Continue reading →

Nam Joo Hyun came to America looking for a better life.  He found it at a karaoke bar.

By Cho Park

“What would you want to do with a regular guy like me?”

Nam Joo Hyun looks up from wiping the counter, a quizzical look on his face. He seems genuinely surprised, all five-foot-six inches of him, that anyone would be interested in him. He hides behind the counter with an unassuming stance, seemingly already half-apologetic for daring to take up so much space.

The entrance to Rodeo, the karaoke-bar in Upper Darby that Nam owns, is small and unassuming like himself, and largely overshadowed by the flashy lights of the Korean grocery H-mart next door. Yet it is one of the most popular destinations for the

Nam Joo Hyun at Rodeo

Korean community, with many students choosing to end a night of drunken debauchery singing soulfully in one of Rodeo’s many rooms.

How Nam got to own one of the most popular nightspots, in spite of close competition from neighboring bars, is a question he often asks as well. 

Nam never dared to take up much space, in fear of being noticed in a world where it was much easier to live invisibly. Originally from Mapo-gu, Seoul, his father died when he was 18, just as Nam was heading towards mandatory military service that arose from the ongoing North and South Korea conflict.

“When I re-entered civilian life, my life was in the pits,” Nam recalled, his soft voice belying the dark, leathery look of his face. “My mother was selling cabbages at the local flea market, and there wasn’t enough money to send me to college, if I had even wanted that. I had to start working right away.”

He bounced from job to job, until he settled for assembling sewing machines at a nearby factory. Even then, life was difficult. He often worked from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., and earned only $80 a month.

“I was barely getting by… The other older workers kept telling me to get out as fast as I can; this work was dangerous, as their severed fingers and hands showed me,” he said. “But how could I when there were no other opportunities?”

He finally got his chance. When his sister married an American soldier and moved to New Jersey, she invited him to visit their home in the States. Nam decided to make the move permanent.

“This was the only opportunity that I could see… I saved up for months and finally earned enough to buy my plane ticket,” Nam said. “I’ve never been back since.” Continue reading →

Katya Mamadjanian posted her pictures for fun, then someone famous came knocking

By Bianca Heyward

Wearing a Metallica T-shirt with an oversized black knit sweater on top, burgundy jeans, and Chanel ballet flats, Katya Mamadjanian describes her style as “updated grunge”.

For this 19-year-old sophomore studying at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, her appreciation of fashion was not derived from the pages Vogue or Project Runway, but by looking through the lens of her Fuji Instax camera.

“I like fashion photography, and then also, like, little snapshots from my life. Just, you know, capturing little everyday stuff,” says Mamadjanian casually.

Until recently, Mamadjanian did not think a career in photography was in the cards. She plans on majoring in mathematics, but will still continue taking photography classes in hopes that her dream career will take off.

Valentine's Day

In 2008, Mamadjanian created a Flickr account, where she has been posting her photographs online ever since. (Flickr is a website where users can upload and share their own personal photographs with the online community. As of June 2011, it had a total of 51 million registered members and 80 million unique visitors, according to Yahoo.)

She had no idea how closely she was being watched until Urban Outfitters, a clothing store known for selling both hip and kitschy apparel, contacted her.

“They (Urban Outfitters) told me that they had had their eye on me,” she said. “It was a total surprise. It was about two weeks ago. They said we’ve been looking at your Flickr account.”

And what exactly has she been uploading since she created her Flickr account three years ago? “Just hurried shots of everyday life that are very much from my perspective and my point of view,” says Mamadjanian. “Whether it be, I don’t know, anything from a bar of soap in my bathroom.”

Her photographs are eclectic, to say the least. They range from black and white, to polaroids, then collages and cut-outs. These images are taken from many different perspectives, and play with light and color in a daring way. They capture her travels, her room, her friends, and herself. She includes a Polaroid photo of her, taken by her mother, where she had written on the bottom in red pen “nice face”. In the picture she is standing, appearing to have her hands on her hips, wearing a grey long sleeved shirt and glasses. Her long brown hair hangs loosely past the shoulders, her eyes closed, and mouth smiling. Continue reading →

The Bryn Mawr teacher is the author of Swamplandia! inspired by her native Florida

By Rebecca Shaw

At 17, Karen Russell wanted to travel the world.

To do so, she decided to work for Putney Student Travel, a summer program that organizes high school tours to places such as Cuba, Australia, and Spain.

“I am the least athletic person, but ended up on the trips where you’d propel down a waterfall or sail the Great Barrier Reef,” said Russell with a laugh, her brown eyes sparkling. “I’m grateful that if I write a really bad story or sentence, the stakes are so much different than the Putney job, where I just wanted everyone to ski down a glacier alive.”

Karen Russell

For Russell, 30, geographical settings have a way of sneaking into her fiction. During Putney Student Travel, she visited a site of a shipwreck in Cuba. As part of her 2006 short story collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girl’s Raised By Wolves, Russell wrote “Haunting Olivia,” a story about two brothers snorkeling off a shipwreck in Cuba.

This semester, Russell is teaching Short Fiction II as a distinguished visiting professor through Bryn Mawr College’s Creative Writing Program. Russell described the experience as “a lucky blessing—an Oprah miracle.”

“There’s always the cliché that if you teach undergrad writing, you’ll get thinly veiled autobiographical stories about fraternity parties,” said Russell. “I have encountered none of that. I’m amazed about the amount of vision and voice in the students’ writing.

Russell’s journey to Bryn Mawr College began in Fall 2010, when she traveled to Ireland to participate in a story festival. In Ireland, she met Robin Black, a previous Bryn Mawr Creative Writing professor.

“We spent many days buying shamrock merchandise,” recalled Russell with a smile. “Robin told me how much she enjoyed teaching at Bryn Mawr. Some behind-the-scenes magic happened with Robin and Dan Torday, the Bryn Mawr Creative Writing Program Director. I really wanted to go to Philly, and I was ready to leave New York, so the timing worked perfectly.”

Russell moved to New York while pursuing a MFA, a graduate degree in creative writing, from Columbia University. She graduated in 2006. During her last year at Columbia University, Russell started generating the pages of her first novel, Swamplandia!.

Russell began to write stories from a young age; as soon as she could hold a pencil.

Continue reading →

By Erin Seglem

Even on a crowded track, it’s easy to pick out Annick Lamar. In a slightly pixilated video taken at the New Balance Boston Twilight meet last June, the Haverford College graduate is immediately recognizable. Her blazing red hair and long legs set her apart from the rest of the field.

Off the track, she is the assistant coach for the Haverford College Women’s Cross-country team. Those who know Lamar would describe her as funny and energetic, bringing a necessary positive spirit to practice. As she pushes back a lock of red hair, she laughs, “This is my eighth season of cross country and I couldn’t be happier.”

Lamar graduated from Haverford in 2008. Despite of health struggles during her freshman year, Lamar went on to set school records. With guidance from Haverford’s head coach Fran Rizzo, she earned All-American status in cross country as well as in track, twice in the 800-meter run and once in the mile. After college, she raced at the

Annick Lamar

USA Track and Field National Championships as well as for Team USA at the Pan-American games. Now, Lamar is looking to next summer’s Olympic trials. Reaching this level is rare for athletes whose careers flourished in Division III rather than Division I.

For Haverford and Bryn Mawr students familiarity sometimes breeds contempt

By Hannah Turner

The relationship between Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges is advertised as “close”, “remarkable”, and “special” by both institutions.
Students can attend classes, eat, and socialize on both campuses, simultaneously getting a small college experience with the resources of a larger school. The liberal arts schools on Philadelphia’s Main Line are only two miles apart and have shared their “Bi-Co” relationship for decades.
Sounds wonderful, until you ask students at both schools what they think of each other.
Students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford readily admit that they have strong-and often negative-stereotypes about the students at the other school.
In a series of interviews conducted on both campuses last fall, students used words such as awkward, weird, exclusive, crazy, and judgmental to describe students from the other campus. Clearly, there was some tension beneath the surface.
To test these attitudes, a survey was devised to measure what students at both schools thought of students on their own campus and the one two miles away. The email survey was sent in November. In all, 412 Bryn Mawr students and 133 Haverford students replied, a sizeable sample when taken together. Bryn Mawr is a Women’s College, so the majority of respondents were female.
The questions asked were identical on both surveys. Respondents were given a list of 10 attributes and asked to pick the ones that best described students at their campus and the other. The list, based on attributes mention most frequently in the earlier campus interviews, included: approachable, awkward, hardworking, eccentric, outspoken, partyer, shy, smart, snobby and strange. Respondents could also pick “Other” and room was given to type in additional comments..
The survey results revealed that students had strong and distinct opinions about each student body. To give the top responses, Haverford students saw themselves as smart (92 %), hard-working (85%) and awkward (83%), yet approachable (70%).
Bryn Mawr students saw themselves as hardworking (91%) and smart (87%), but added eccentric (67%) to the mix. However, as one Bryn Mawr respondent added, “This is a good thing!!”
In other words, students at both schools generally had high opinions of their brain power and work ethic. Next, the survey asked: “How would you describe students at the other school?” This is where the picture went negative.
Bryn Mawr respondents saw Haverford students as snobby (47%) but otherwise described their counterparts as Fords saw themselves-awkward (69%), smart (64%), and hardworking (50%).
Haverford students were not as kind, calling Bryn Mawr students strange (86%), eccentric (83%), awkward (74%), and outspoken (68%). Only 41 percent identified Bryn Mawr students as smart.
Here are explanations – taken from interviews with Bryn Mawr and Haverford students — about why they chose the attributes they did for themselves and for students at the other campus.

“Haver-awk”
Haverford students’ awkwardness came through in descriptions from both Bryn Mawr students and the Fords themselves. Bryn Mawr senior Sadie Marlow said Haverford students were “too smart and well educated that they’re not capable of being in a normal social setting.” It may sound harsh, but Haverford students actually agree.
Continue reading →

Bryn Mawr students describe themselves as hardworking,  smart — and a little strange

By Amanda Kennedy

Bryn Mawr College students are like diamonds. They have many facets.
Each student stands out in different ways, but many share qualities that define the student body at the women’s school on the Main Line in suburban Philadelphia.
Sophomore Kendra Kelly has noticed a radiance about her peers, a “certain something” that brings everyone together.
“It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what it is, and I definitely noticed it,” she said. “And I think for me that’s why it’s been so easy…to make friends here because there’s so many people that have a certain something that makes it really easy to click with them, even if we have completely different interests…”
To get a better picture of how Bryn Mawr students characterize themselves, the English House Gazette composed an online survey that listed various attributes that Bryn Mawr students could pick from to best define their student body. About one-third of the student body-412 out of 1,293 students-replied.
The survey was devised by conducting a series of campus interviews with students, asking them to name the one- or two-word attributes than best defined Bryn Mawr students. The top responses were then put into survey form and sent to the student body in November. The 10 attributes they were asked to consider were: approachable, awkward, eccentric, hardworking, outspoken, partyer, shy, smart, snobby and strange.
The results give telling insights into the essence of Bryn Mawr students, about how they see themselves collectively. The top five attributes students chose to describe themselves were hardworking (chosen by 91 percent of respondents), smart (87 percent), eccentric (67percent),  outspoken (60 percent) and approachable (also 60%).  See chart below for a complete listing.
At the other end of the scale, only 9 percent of the students described themselves as ‘partyers’; 15 percent said snobby and 25 percent picked shy.

Loveable but Strange
On her way to dinner at Haffner Dining Hall on a recent December evening, Kelly found a wand.
It was really just a stick lying in the middle of the road, but Kelly immediately picked it up, thinking it was the “perfect” size for a wand, much like the ones used in the Harry Potter series. Excited about Bryn Mawr’s upcoming Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry End of Term Feast on December 9, she took her newfound treasure back to her dorm room and began shaving off the outer layer of bark to transform it into her wand.
Her roommate, sophomore Sarah Henkind, was inspired by Kelly’s “wand” and found one of her own. The pair “played Harry Potter” in the hallway of the Rhoads South dorm, Kelly said, and had a duel, shouting spells at each other and pointing their wands at each other with flicks of the wrists. Kelly recalled Henkind yelling “Expelliarmus!” a spell from author J.K. Rowling’s series, which is meant to disarm one’s opponent. A mint shot out of Kelly’s mouth. It was, she said, “hilarious.”
Continue reading →

A survey shows that music is an integral part of studying for most Bryn Mawr students.

By Vanessa Ide

Whenever Lillie Catlin goes to her college library to study, her Audio-Technica ATH-M30 headphones are always with her.
Catlin, a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College, who lives in the Pembroke East Dorm, usually visits Rhys Carpenter library on weekends, where she studies while listening to music on her computer.
“They’re really good headphones,” Catlin said. “Which I think makes a difference because for a while I didn’t have my good headphones and I was using these little head buds and I hated how they felt and they didn’t make the music sound good.”
Lately, Catlin, a devoted music fan with 3,333 songs on her iTunes library, has been listening to a lot of Christmas music, Disney songs and Arcade Fire. She mainly studies social sciences and listens to music whenever she does her readings.
“I do think it kind of distracts me though,” she said. “I mean, I think I’d be distracted if I didn’t listen to it but also sometimes when I need to focus on something I’ll turn it down or turn it off and read a section and then I’ll get back to it [the music].”
Catlin’s habits are the same as large number of Bryn Mawr students. A recent survey found that nearly 62 percent of Bryn Mawr students found it helpful to listen to music while studying. The remainder of the respondents said it hurt studying.
The “Music & Studying” survey was conducted during the week of Dec. 4-10. It was sent via e-mail to all 1,293 Bryn Mawr undergraduates; 27 percent responded to the five questions asking about music studying habits and music preferences.
The survey makes clear that music is integral part of studying for most students.
To begin with, 13 percent said they always listened to music when studying; 31 percent said they listened frequently; another 47 percent said they listened sometimes. Only eight percent said they never listened to music while studying.
Not all subjects are created equal when it comes to studying and music.

Turn it off

When asked what subject they would turn off the music while studying students said language (50 percent) and humanities readings (63 percent respectively). In comparison, the music usually goes on when it comes to math and science. With math, 36 percent of the students said they listened, for science is was 27 percent who listened..
As one student noted on the “Music & Studying” survey: “[It’s] not a definite process: where the ideas keep switching (when I’m writing) I usually stop listening to music or I turn the music down. In general, if I have to use the right side of my brain – the music usually stops.”
(The survey was blind and the names of students who responded were not recorded.)
In an interview, junior Lee Wacker said that when she was a freshman her music listening habits depending on the subject. Continue reading →