Approximately 200 community members gathered in Cook Auditorium this weekend to pay tribute to Grace Paley at the Jewish Studies Department's conference, "Of Poetry and Women and the World."
A number of Paley's friends and admirers came to celebrate the author, among them the famous author Jamaica Kincaid and the award-winning playwright Tony Kushner.
The weekend, sponsored by the Brownstone Family Fund, was intended to celebrate the author, her work, and her political activism.
"She is like a prophet who says 'thou shalt change the world' and loving it will try and change it," said Kushner, whose play "Angels in America" won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award.
Certainly Paley, a Brownstone visiting professor of Judaic culture at Dartmouth, has tried to change the world through her work and through the example of her own life.
She has been actively involved in anti-war and feminist movements, and has demonstrated a repeated commitment to peace and social justice.
"She lives among us, she is a neighbor, she is a friend," history professor Leo Spitzer said. "Let's celebrate Grace and her presence among us."
"It is not hard to speak about Grace -- what a wonderful person she is in the world, a brave person ... none of us take stances or go to jail anymore -- except Grace," Kincaid said of her colleague.
Indeed, Kincaid is not the first to recognize Paley's work. Paley has been honored repeatedly for her work; she received the 1994 Jewish Cultural Achievement Award for Literary Arts, the 1993 Vermont Award for Excellence in the Arts, the 1992 REA Award for Short Stories and the 1989 Edith Wharton Award. In 1989 she was also honored by New York Governor Mario Cuomo who declared her the first official New York State Writer.
"The world is neither just nor sane, so Grace walks among us spared deification," Kushner said.
Kincaid began the Saturday evening session saying "It is a great honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Grace. I do love her so."
Kincaid has received numerous awards and honors, including the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for "At the Bottom of the River," and a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund writer's award.
Yet on Saturday night, the Antiguan author began by reading Paley's poem "Goldenrod." Kincaid continued by reading a selection of one of her own novels, although she told the audience she did this with reluctance -- she would much rather have stayed and read her friend's work all evening.
Other events included in the symposium were musical performances by Kui Dong and Christian Wolff, both professors of music at Dartmouth, readings by Alicia Ostriker, Paule Marshall, Esther Broner and Gish Jen as well as a panel discussion on Paley's peace activism and presentations by several literary critics on interpreting her work.
