Pittsburgh's Saxifrage School is an experiment in higher education, rethinking the concept of college to emphasize purposeful learning and meaningful work. Founding Director Tim Cook's reading reflects that mission:
William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems
A Sort of a Song
Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait,
sleepless.
-- through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones.
Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!
Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.
Lev Grossman, The Magicians
Haboring secret preoccupations with a magical land he read about in a childhood fantasy series, Quentin Coldwater is unexpectedly admitted into an exclusive college of magic and rigorously educated in modern sorcery.
-NPR
Lewis Hyde, The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World
By now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities. Widely available again after twenty-five years, this book is even more necessary today than when it first appeared. An illuminating and transformative book, and completely original in its view of the world, The Gift is cherished by artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers. It is in itself a gift to all who discover the classic wisdom found in its pages.
-Random House
[Lewis Hyde will speak at Carnegie Mellon University on Monday, February 18, 2013]
