On Saturday, March 24th at 8:15pm in the Northlight building at Penland School, Appalachian State University professor, novelist, and poet Joseph Bathanti will show Fully Awake, the award-winning documentary on Black Mountain College, and lead a discussion on Black Mountain College following the film. Professor Bathanti, along with 17 of his students, will be spending 3 days at Penland for the on-site immersive component of Black Mountain College, the core class in ASU’s new Writing in the Field program, a creative writing initiative modeled on Black Mountain College’s interdisciplinary, collaborative philosophy and pedagogy.

About the Film
Tucked away in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Black Mountain College (1933-1957) has emerged as one of the most influencial experiments in education. Though short-lived, Black Mountain College’s unique model inspired and shaped 20th century American modern art. Fully Awake: Black Mountain College is a documentary film exploring “education in a democracy,” and highlights the College’s belief that the creative arts and practical responsibilities are equally important to intellectual development. Life skills are developed through democratic governance, art exploration, manual labor, and community living. Fully Awake reflects on the unique educational style and long-term significance of the school using archive photography, interviews with students, teachers, historians, and current artists, and narration. While popularly known as the location for such events as Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, John Cage’s first ‘happening’ and the publishing of the Black Mountain Review, the film focuses on the unique educational approach of Black Mountain College to balance academics, art, manual labor and communal living to educate the whole person–head, hand, and heart.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Click here to learn more about Fully Awake: Black Mountain College.