jay/day

I am teaching a creative writing "independent study" course with two earnest undergraduates from Duke University.

Meet Myra Hiott and Russelle Passino. They are in New York for the semester as part of a program from Duke called "Leadership in the Arts." Its premise: that the arts have much to teach us about ethics, judgment and personal choice.

The students spend virtually every evening seeing a play, musical, opera, concert, or dance; their days are spent visiting art galleries and museums, or in class, or working in independent study courses like mine.

(In 1999, I spent four months following 14 students in this same program as research for an article I wrote in Fast Company.)

I have no doubt that the words "by Myra Hiott and "by Russelle Passino" will be on a byline or a book cover one day.

P.S. It's Russelle's 20th birthday today ... and Myra's in two weeks!