Commune Memoirist and Vassar Alumna to Discuss New Book

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Vassar alumna Roberta Price, who dropped out of graduate school in 1969 to live on the New Mexico commune she had been studying, will discuss her recent book Huerfano: Life in the Sixties Counterculture, on October 4, 2005 at 6:00 p.m., in Sanders Auditorium. Her talk is free and open to the public.

Price's book chronicles her seven years on the Huerfano ("Orphan") Valley commune, whose upwards of 300 residents found subsistence growing their own food, selling hand-crafted goods, or working as day laborers. Her memoir captures the sense of affirmation members of the commune felt, and ties their story to larger social struggles of the times for women's rights and the anti-war movement. On her journey, she encountered notable leaders of the counterculture movement, including Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Gary Snyder, Abbie Hoffman, Steward Brand, and Baba Ram Dass.

Roberta Price graduated from Vassar in 1968 with an English degree, and is now a freelance writer and intellectual property attorney in Albuquerque. She will sign copies of her book after her talk, which is sponsored by the departments of English and history, and the programs in American Culture and Environmental Studies.

For more information, please call Jean Kane, associate professor of English, at (845) 437-5945. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Cathy Jennings in the Office of Campus Activities, at (845) 437-5370.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

This article was posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2005.