Arts Beat Blog reports Wendell Berry Takes Back Papers. Article HERE.
For decades the Kentucky poet, critic, and farmer Wendell Berry has advocated personal activism on behalf of the environment. There should not be a “split between what we think and what we do,” he has written. “Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live.”
Mr. Berry is living up to his own standards. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported on Wednesday that Mr. Berry decided in December to withdraw personal papers he had donated to the University of Kentucky, where he spent time as both a student and teacher. According to a letter obtained by the Lexington paper, Mr. Berry objected to a decision to name a basketball-players’ dormitory the Wildcat Coal Lodge.
“The University’s president and board have solemnized an alliance with the coal industry, in return for a large monetary ‘gift,’ granting to the benefactors, in effect, a co-sponsorship of the University’s basketball team,” he wrote. “That — added to the ‘Top 20’ project and the president’s exclusive ‘focus’ on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — puts an end to my willingness to be associated in any way officially with the University.”
The university’s Board of Trustees approved the new $7 million Wildcat Coal Lodge in October. Joe Craft, head of Alliance Coal, proposed the name and helped to raise the money for it, according to the Herald-Leader.
Mr. Berry intends to transfer his papers to the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort. A statement released by a university spokesman expressed disappointment with his decision.
For decades the Kentucky poet, critic, and farmer Wendell Berry has advocated personal activism on behalf of the environment. There should not be a “split between what we think and what we do,” he has written. “Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live.”
Mr. Berry is living up to his own standards. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported on Wednesday that Mr. Berry decided in December to withdraw personal papers he had donated to the University of Kentucky, where he spent time as both a student and teacher. According to a letter obtained by the Lexington paper, Mr. Berry objected to a decision to name a basketball-players’ dormitory the Wildcat Coal Lodge.
“The University’s president and board have solemnized an alliance with the coal industry, in return for a large monetary ‘gift,’ granting to the benefactors, in effect, a co-sponsorship of the University’s basketball team,” he wrote. “That — added to the ‘Top 20’ project and the president’s exclusive ‘focus’ on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — puts an end to my willingness to be associated in any way officially with the University.”
The university’s Board of Trustees approved the new $7 million Wildcat Coal Lodge in October. Joe Craft, head of Alliance Coal, proposed the name and helped to raise the money for it, according to the Herald-Leader.
Mr. Berry intends to transfer his papers to the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort. A statement released by a university spokesman expressed disappointment with his decision.
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