Amherst makes a promise to its students: that it is small enough to treat us as humans rather than statistics or human capital. Like many students, my time at Amherst has been colored in shades of pain. In my most vulnerable moments, the school did not provide adequate support. Today, I conceive of Amherst quite differently from how I did as a starry-eyed first-year. With that said, I still love Amherst to its core. I have to believe that Amherst can live up to its narrative about itself. I am writing today because I haven’t given up on this school — I want it to come into its own.

Pumpkins, lizards, mice and a tattered dress are the main ingredients to a magical night with a prince — with the help of a fairy godmother, that is. The classic European folktale “Cinderella” has been told, written and filmed for ages. Perhaps the most iconic adaptation of them all is the 1950 Disney animated film “Cinderella.” Since the release of the Disney classic, the company has spent the past 65 years adapting 11 other folktales to create a Disney Princess franchise.

The Russian avant-garde emerged as the revolution dissolved the nation-state and made chaos an everyday reality. The past burned as the present moment magnified to harbor the uncertain future. In the project of drawing the future from the present, these artists unilaterally rejected received forms: they considered their culture’s bourgeois past to be tainted by toxic ideology. The avant-garde chose to service the revolution by creating new forms to sculpt utopian subjectivity — to shape the minds of citizens into the image of their dream.