Inside the
Summer Issue:
Harry Chapin’s
“Ripple” of Influence
Grows Every Day
Jen Chapin Leads Us
On A Lushly-Written
Journey Into Her Life
In “Ready”
WHY Takes Holistic
Approach to Fight
Hunger & Poverty
DMC’s New Disc
Strikes Many Chords
Hard Rock Café
Serves Up Benefit CD
to Fight Hunger
When Howie Met Harry:
Catching Up With
Drummer Howard Fields
Performing Artist
Inspires Audiences
Through Prose
Celestial Cross-Pollination
Yields a Harry Chapin-
Dante Anthology of
Student Essays
Amish Farmers’ Co-op
Finds Innovation in
Simpler Ways
Still Wild About Harry
Behind the CD “Cause”
Do Something!
Click below
to read previous
issues of Circle!
Celestial Cross-Pollination Yields a
Harry Chapin-Dante Anthology
of Student Essays
 |
| All My Life’s A Circle...A Harry Chapin & Dante Alighieri Anthology includes two essays for each of four of HarryÕs songs, along with the lyrics for the songs, and a CD of the studio versions of the songs. Each book sells for $15 plus $3 postage, with the net proceeds to be split between The Harry Chapin Foundation and The Dante Society of America. |
by Linda McCarty
Taking ideas and putting them into action is a specialty of Baltimore, Maryland, English teacher Dan Christian. In his quarter century of teaching at The Gilman School, Christian has successfully merged his two passions, the music of Harry Chapin and the teaching of Dante’s poem The Divine Comedy. The result is a thought-provoking and insightful spiral-bound book of student essays called All My Life’s A Circle...A Harry Chapin & Dante Alighieri Anthology.
Until this year, Christian’s in-class efforts had been informal, with references to Harry being made as ideas arose while teaching. Recalling a concept that emerged from a 1990 seminar for teachers of Dante’s work, this year Christian formally put “celestial cross-pollination”–the intersection of art and literature–into place. Christian notes, “I asked my students to answer the question: Why and in what ways could a character in Dante’s poem have benefited from or been enriched by listening to this particular song?”
Once every three weeks or so, students would check out of the school library CDs Christian made containing one of four Harry Chapin songs: A Better Place To Be, Mr. Tanner, Tangled Up Puppet, and There Only Was One Choice.
According to Christian, not only did his students embrace the assignment but also they became fans of Harry’s music in the process. There Only Was One Choice was the most passionate hit with the kids. They were in the Senior Room listening to it over and over. It was a delight for them to respond this way,” Christian said.
Some of the students’ comments, recorded by Christian in spontaneous reaction to hearing the music, are included in the book’s preface, Impressions from the Senior Room. Here is a sampling of their thoughts on There Only Was One Choice: was he harry as a kid?...i love ‘creased and wrinkled dreams’…so idealistic as a kid…maybe harry is wishing he could go back in time and tell himself what he should have done.
The book includes two essays for each of Harry’s songs, the lyrics for the songs, and includes a CD of the four songs. The cover, pictured on this page, reproduces paintings of Dante and Harry done by Christian’s students.
Each book sells for $15 plus $3 postage, with the net proceeds to be split between The Harry Chapin Foundation and The Dante Society of America in gratitude for what both men and organizations have done for Christian. To order send a check for $18 made out to Daniel Christian and send it to him at 3811 Canterbury Rd., Apt. 812, Baltimore, MD. For more information, contact him at dchristian@gilman.edu.
Watch for the Next Issue of Circle! on September 7