Through a Reimagined Senior Thesis, an Identity Found on the Hilltop

I remember the wrinkles in her face and the wise, ancient blue of her eyes. I was sitting downtown, interviewing a woman living in a homeless shelter for my senior thesis.

She said, “I think Dorothy had it right, when she clicked those red heels of hers. There’s just no place like home. Whatever that is for you.”

For the past year, I have been involved in a senior thesis project located at the intersection of the performing arts, sociology, anthropology and the pursuit of social justice. The process, which involved Georgetown student-led community based research, service and outreach, and collaborative theater-making, culminated in a play about D.C.’s homeless community, “Address: Unknown,” which sought to ask critical questions about mobility, identity, the American dream and the concept of home.

When one spends a significant amount of time engaging in thought and dialogue about homelessness, one cannot help but reflect on what home means in one’s own life. And for me, I have now realized that home is — and always will be — Georgetown.

Home has been, in my life, a new performing arts center, where everyone knows everyone else’s name (and personal business); where theater is made and students are shaped and molded and encouraged to dream big and think critically; where we are taught to question and to create and empowered to find and raise our voice.

Home is a social justice hub filled with the energy of collaboration between students and faculty; of clubs and courses; of lectures, research, service and learning; of the cooperation and dialogue of a community coming together to work to build a better and more just world for us to live in.

Home is the smell of freshly cut Healy grass on that first day of spring — warm enough for students to flood the lawn with picnics and sunscreen.

Home is the sound of chattering voices and the sight of empathetic faces in a crowded, energized coffee shop in the back of a library.

Home is the soaring notes of harmonized gospel music raising the rafters of the chapel and floating out into the warm, still Georgetown air; or the drifting sounds of performance and bursts of applause from Gaston Hall or the Gonda Theatre.

Home is in the warm embrace of roommates who are family; of shared pitchers and buffalo chicken sandwiches; of all-nighters in classrooms and libraries and theaters; of raging parties and judgment-free mornings after.

Home is the community of people created by an understanding of and solidarity in our shared experiences and hopes, in our most difficult struggles and most perfect joys.

The woman I interviewed that day followed her comment about Dorothy and home by asserting that, in her life, home has most importantly been the cup of hot coffee that she doesn’t have to leave her bed to drink. That home is a little patch of comfort and warmth, no matter where it might be or what it might look like. Yes, home comes with a key and a roof, but more importantly, it comes with the freedom to dream and to be.

As I come closer and closer to walking out those Healy gates — taking my final bow on a Georgetown stage, leaving the comfort and security and warmth of my roommates, friends and theater family, and preparing for the uncertainty of new communities to meet and build and live in — I can’t help but think what an extraordinary blessing and gift we have had over these last four years — one we will have for the rest of our lives — to call Georgetown University home. That it means not only the privilege of a roof over our heads and warm food on the table, but a space to explore and understand to its fullest potential who we are and what we can be.

I hope and know that we will each take this understanding with us — to every house we live in, every stage we stand on and every classroom in which we seek knowledge. Home is, and always will be, Georgetown. My home. Your home. Our home.

Kevyn Bowles is a senior in the College and a former vice chair of the Performing Arts Advisory Council. He has written, directed and performed with Nomadic Theatre, Black Theatre Ensemble, Mask and Bauble, and the Theater and Performance Studies program.

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