On My Nightstand
BY SIU CHALLONS-LIPTON
My love for reading was ignited through stories my father told, navigating us through time and place, both real and imaginary. As we traveled the world for my father's work, from the South Pacific to Africa, the stories and adventures became more real. Recently, I have revisited some of these experiences through books and letters on my nightstand. "Kon-Tiki" (1948) is a book by Tor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer who, in 1947 – with Swedish anthropologist, Bengt Danielsson, a friend of my mother's – courageously sailed on a raft from Peru to Polynesia, risking all on a belief. Tis spirit of discovery
is rekindled in David McCullough's "Te Greater Journey: Americans in Paris" (2011), a story of adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, and politicians who set off for Paris in the 19th century, never having experienced a different culture and with no guarantee of success. I'm also reading archival
letters from Black Mountain College of North Carolina (1933-1957), a liberal arts college that was a refuge for artists, scientists, and writers — escaping Nazism in Europe, McCarthyism in the U.S., and Jim Crow laws in the south — to build a more
Remember When CHRISTMAS AT QUEENS 1985
Photo courtesy of Adelaide Davis
The students, faculty, and staff were "up" for Christmas at Queens in 1985. The weather was chilly, buildings were decorated, and intermingled with all the festivities was a mood of reverence for seniors who would attend their last Boar’s Head Banquet, Moravian Love Feast, and Yule Log Ceremony. Most visible to alumni and the Charlotte
creative and inclusive society. Tese "nightstand books"
inspire me to pass on to my students a thirst for curiosity, the importance of risk and a drive for discovery.
Siu Challons- Lipton is the Carolyn G. and Sam H. McMahon Professor of Art History, and executive director of the Department
of Art, Design and Music. She joined Queens in 2005 and was named Noble Faculty Fellow in 2015. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from McGill University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University.
community was the annual Christmas at Queens greenery sale where alumni sold poinsettias, wreaths, garlands, Norfolk pines, hand-crocheted snowflakes, Williamsburg apple cones and plum pudding. Created by the alumni office and the alumni director Adelaide Anderson Davis ’61, the event was chaired by Sally O’Rourke Morris. The sale netted $3,000 to be used for campus beautification. The immediate project was to cover two chairs and put up draperies in the parlors of Burwell Hall (now Queens Hall). Mary Jane Hunter Wingo ’71 helped coordinate
the event, and Carol Neithhardt ’58 was in charge of visual arrangements and displays. Carol Rickenbaker ’84 scheduled volunteers for work shifts and Fran Mathay ’67 designed the flier/ order blank sent to alumni. Beth Lowdermilk Armstrong Whitfield ’56, Frances James Whitney ’65, Grace Anderson Nichols ’66 and 3,000 Myers Park homeowners helped with the overall event. Frances DeAmon Evans ’59, her husband, Don, and daughter, Ashley, designed and built the sign used to announce this and future greenery sales. Lynn Faulk Murray ’67 provided inside signs to designate sales areas. Meeting and greeting attendees were Queens
University Alumni Association past presidents: Sarah Locke Blythe ’25, Beverly Altman Allen ’68, Sallie Moore Lowrance ’70, Mildred Lubbock Howerton ’25, Pauline Owen ’26, Willie "Bill" Choate Hampton ’16, and Eleanor Hayes Barnhardt ’35.
—Adelaide Davis ’61 Winter 2023 3
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