Peggy Seeger was a special guest at Swarthmore's 2009 Alumni Weekend. She gave a talk titled "Scalpels or Sledgehammers? Music as a Tool for Activism." Her visit was organized by Swarthmore Folk, a group of alumni interested in carrying forward the tradition of folk music on the campus.

At the inaugural event of the Kathryn Morgan Spring Poetry Festival, faculty members, administrators, alumni, and students read selected works from Envisions, Morgan's 2003 volume of poems.

Morgan, Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot Professor Emerita of History, was the first African American professor at the College, and the first African American woman to be granted tenure. She is the author of Children of Strangers, the first work of African American family folklore by a folklorist.

Longtime collaborators Nat Anderson, professor of English literature and librettist, and Tom Whitman '82, associate professor of music and composer, discuss their new opera, A Scandal in Bohemia. Based on a Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, it is their fourth collaboration.

Orchestra 2001 will honor President Al Bloom at the world premiere, taking place Fri., Feb. 6, at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. A second performance will take place in Lang Concert Hall on Sun., Feb. 8.

Vice President of Community and College Relations Maurice Eldridge '61 describes how his efforts to help Associate Professor of Music John Alston expand upon the successful model of the Chester Children's Chorus culminated this fall with the opening of the Chester Upland School of the Arts. For Eldridge, a lifelong educator and patron of the arts, the project represents community building at its best. “We keep making believers of each other,” he says. “It excites us."

Upon its centenary in 1964, the College published Swarthmore Remembered, a collection of essays by alumni, including James A. Michener '29. In honor of what would have been his 100th birthday, the College returned the favor and hosted best-selling author Frank Delaney, whose talk, "The Michener Phenomenon," celebrated the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist's life and legacy. Introducing Delaney is Dan Menaker '63, longtime New Yorker editor and former executive editor-in-chief of Random House.