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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 […]

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 […]

A truly phenomenal woman

A Truly Phenomenal Woman BFS Dance Concert 1989 With Maya Angelou’s passing last week, let’s go back 25 years to 1989, the year which saw the creation and first performance of “A Truly Phenomenal Woman” at the BFS Dance Concert. This short dance was set to Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman.” Choreographed by Monique N. […]

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 […]

Mysteries from the Video Archives

Dance Concert Rehearsal, probably 1998 Digitizing much of the BFS dance department’s video collection for the BFS Archives video collection yielded unidentified rehearsal videos and one music concert video. Most of these videos seem to have been created after 2000. One dance concert rehearsal video seems to be from 1992 or 1998: that video was […]

A shy princess from BFS’s Once Upon A Mattress, 1988

1988 Once Upon A Mattress – Shy From the 1988 BFS musical production of Once Upon A Mattress comes the song “Shy” in which Princess Winnifred the Woebegone expresses her true nature as she tries to find Prince Dauntless the Drab for the very first time. And this after she swam the moat to get […]

Feeling your Blue Pride? Make that Indigo

It’s a throwback this fine Thursday to the “Mood Indigo” scene from the 1989 BFS original musical A Small Cabaret. A Small Cabaret was a departure from the traditional BFS musical: this ensemble production featured standards like Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” yet it also […]

A bolt from the blue, it’s true, it’s you…

1987 Dames At Sea Take two minutes to enjoy a charming duet in the BFS Middle School’s 1987 production of Dames at Sea, capturing the moment when our romantic leads Dick and Ruby first meet, she swoons into his arms and they both know it’s true love. You might also get a kick out of […]

Canned Heat, with a brief history of Ceramics at BFS

Again, my colleague, director of media services Andy Cohen, comes through with a nice find as he transfers his own VHS collection. BFS has a long history in ceramics education and this short film by BFS students is about the Japanese pottery technique, Raku, as taught by BFS ceramics teacher Ellen Kahan during the Minimester […]