Acknowledgments
We want to thank the many collaborators and contributors to this volume that was slow and steady in the making during a pandemic that has been slow and steady in progression. We are grateful to Adarian, Brianna, Grace, Leanna, Liat, Olivia, Sarah, and Whitney who wrote beautiful submissions and stuck with the project through writing circles, editing sessions, and delay after delay that we all became accustomed to in a Covid-riddled world. I, Ann, want to especially thank two contributors: Katherine, whose original idea grew into this beautiful community and whose leadership turned an impulse into a sustained experience, and Mary, who started this as a student and concluded it as a staff member and editor who took on tremendous logistical and emotional labor that somehow resulted in a beautiful and seemingly effortless creative performance. These two dancers have clearly been well trained in ways that will carry through all their endeavors. We also want to thank Hannah Lafferrandre for her creative, logistical, and personal support in the earliest days of the Covid shutdown.
We are grateful to Library Partners Press for their enthusiastic partnership, Felix Mooneeram for the striking cover photo, and the John Templeton Foundation and Lilly Endowment, Inc. for their financial support of the Program for Leadership and Character generally, and our work in character and the arts specifically. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Inc., or Wake Forest University.
We also want to thank the Wake the Arts movement, our incredible team at the Program for Leadership and Character for making this work so meaningful and enjoyable, the Wake Forest administrators, faculty and staff who have inspired and mentored these students and in performance and writing and whose impact pervades these pages, and supporters of the Program for Leadership and Character whose partnership has made this creative work possible. We are grateful to be at a university that makes both character and the arts central to what it means to be “for humanity.”
Finally, we thank Christina Soriano and Michael Lamb for their writing, editing, and administrative support and encouragement, and April Stace for her love of words and people that allows them both to come to life on the page. Her vulnerable example, care for students, and creative brilliance have shaped every part of this project, and her ongoing friendship has tremendous impacts beyond this project. We are beyond thankful for all these contributors whose empathy, authenticity, honesty, humor, and brilliance lent meaning to an otherwise confounding year and illuminated the beauty and goodness in the world. Now as much as ever: gratitude abounds.
