This Course First Ran in Fall 2018

Maybe you still reread that tattered book of fairy tales from your childhood, even though you know all the words by heart. Maybe that Arthur Rackam illustration in your feed makes your breath catch. Maybe you came to fairy tales long after school, long after you had permission to dwell in “stories for kids,” but something about Cinderella’s slipper or Baba Yaga’s hut is so familiar that you’d swear you’ve danced on glass and personally terrorized (or personally saved) a forest.

You feel this because there is magic in these stories. And you feel it because these stories are yours. 

The world doesn’t often make space for fairy tales and for finding your place inside them. The press of dishes, laundry, and bills doesn’t exactly lend itself to whimsy and reflection. And feeling alone in your quest for magic, or just kind of weird for loving fairy tales, doesn’t help either.

Welcome to Carterhaugh, where we’re all a little weird and we all believe in fairy tales.

For us, real magic - gritty, sink-your-teeth-into-it, beautiful magic - is in story, is in art, is in folklore. It’s in an ancient charm for protection against storms, and in the crafting of a poem that captures its power. It’s in your painting inspired by the Greek myth of Ariadne, in the garden you keep, in the fairy tales you still remember, and tell again and again, because you need to.

But how does a simple story become an act of magic? How does cooking dinner from an old recipe create enchantment? How might you apply a fairy tale to your own (tax-paying, grocery-shopping) (beautiful) life?

At its heart, this course is about enchantment and connection. For us, enchantment exists at the crossroads of knowledge and wonder – it's a deep dive into fairy tales in all their multiplicities, and the imagination and courage to see them reflect and refract onto your own life story.