The Liberty Project, the modern revival of Liberty magazine, launched June 24 with three SMU graduates at the helm. Editorial director Christina Geyer ’10, editor Courtney Spalten ’14 and marketing manager Patrick Kobler ’10 have reimagined and reinvented the iconic lifestyle publication as a multimedia site tailored to the 21st-century reader. The Liberty Project’s inaugural issue offers more than 120 original works and personal accounts, including features by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar and author and fashion journalist Lauren Scruggs Kennedy.
In its heyday, Liberty published the musings of everyone who was anyone, from Albert Einstein to Shirley Temple. The weekly magazine folded in 1950, but its legacy of rich storytelling and thoughtful commentary inspire its online reincarnation.
“The Liberty Project is reclaiming the power of the first-person by publishing an array of carefully curated and thought-provoking stories,” says Geyer. “We’re creating an environment that celebrates the voice of the individual and fosters the sharing of relatable personal narratives to create a unique editorial experience that is meaningful to our contributors and our audience.”
Melding backgrounds in media, technology and marketing, the founding editorial triad infuses the storied brand with a fresh vision.
Both Geyer and Spalten majored in journalism in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and forged careers as editors.
As an SMU student, Geyer co-founded smustyle.com, a campus fashion blog that continues to this day and is managed by a team of student editors. Her keen observations of tastemakers and trends landed her as an editor at PaperCity magazine before she moved to FD, The Dallas Morning News’ style magazine, where she served as managing editor and launched its wedding magazine, FD Love.
Spalten minored in psychology and fashion media at SMU and acted as digital editor of FD before joining the new online venture.
“I feel incredibly fortunate for the opportunity to use the journalism skills I learned at SMU and put them toward relaunching an iconic publication as an innovative digital, multimedia content platform,” Spalten says.
Kobler’s résumé befits a political science major. He served as president of the SMU student body in his senior year and joined Teach for America after graduation. Kobler went on to become an author and program coordinator for the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Institute; headed external affairs and public outreach for Chui, a tech start-up founded by SMU alumni Shaun Moore ’10 and Nezare Chafni ’10; and, most recently, served as the managing director of regional communications, public affairs and engagement for Teach For America.
The three came together some months ago to start serious work on the reboot with CEO Amy Katzenberg and the rest of the team.
While the new iteration would likely be unrecognizable to anyone who had picked up the first copy of Liberty in 1926, some of the core characteristics that made the magazine a household name for a quarter-century remain. Much like the original, The Liberty Project provides a platform for writers, photographers, artists, celebrities and thinkers to share multiple perspectives.
The stable of contributors includes Kiflu Hussain, writing about human rights. He served as a refugee research assistant with the SMU Department of Anthropology’s Forced Migration Innovation Project and is now with The Hunter and Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity in SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering.
“The Liberty Project can help make Dallas an important national media hub. In doing so, SMU’s students, professors and alumni can have an additional opportunity to share their voices as world-changers,” says Kobler.
Unlike most publications of the time, the original magazine bought the rights to many works it published. The Liberty Library boasts original writings by such literary giants as F. Scott Fitzgerald, P. G. Wodehouse, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Agatha Christie. Among the notable stories published: “My Sex Life” by Mahatma Gandhi, “What Democracy Means to Me” by Clark Gable and “How It Feels to Be a Has-Been” by Babe Ruth.
Roughly 120 of the magazine’s literary properties have been adapted for popular media, including the movies Sergeant York (1941) and Double Indemnity (1944) and the TV series Mr. Ed (1958-66).
Plans are for The Liberty Project to showcase original content from the magazine’s archive through a contemporary lens.
The following story was first published in the Diamond M Club Newsletter, June 2015.
Among the many lasting Mustang Band traditions is a drum cadence that was written in the summer of 1972. “Proclamation” was composed by band member Randy Dodgen ’73 and, over 40 years later, it remains a part of pre-game today, helping get the band from the sidelines onto the field. Even if you don’t know it’s title, if you’ve ever seen the Mustang Band play at a football game over the last few decades, you’ve heard “Proclamation.”
“I had the privilege of leading Squad 7 for three years while I pursued a B.B.A. and M.B.A. at SMU,” Dodgen says. “Bill Lively, who was Coach’s assistant director then, wanted something new for the squad’s entrance to the field, something that would make more of a ‘proclamation’ and could continue from there to immediately lead the band onto the field.”
We talked to Randy to find out more about the cadence’s origins.
So are you the one who came up with the name?
I really don’t remember. Let’s credit him [Bill Lively] with the first use of the word “Proclamation” that I just added to the manuscript. It was a very ‘Lively-esque’ word.
What was the drum line like back then?
At that prehistoric time, Squad 7 was comprised of 5 snares, 1 tenor drum, 1 pair of cymbals and 1 bass drum. Those were the days before the large drum and bugle corps lines had begun their impact on marching bands down here, so we didn’t march a multiple tenor/multi-cymbal/multi-bass drumline which could have added even more color to the cadence.
How did you write “Proclamation”?
It started in my head and moved to a piece of manuscript paper. I didn’t really know whether we had something that would work until we began to rehearse it with all components before Hell Week. I wanted a fast flowing/cascading cadence that would allow each of the elements in the drumline an opportunity to be showcased and also was a change up of the way we had done the band’s entry cadence in the past.
After working on it alone all summer, when you presented it to the other drummers, was there any revising or was what you wrote the finished product?
It was pretty much a finished product.
What was the band’s response the first time they heard it?
I don’t remember their responses. I was just focused on playing it!
Prior to “Proclamation,” how did the band get onto the field?
We used to enter from the sidelines along with the band for probably 1969 and 1970. Later, we entered from under the goal post with a silent march, first sticks from left shoulder to right hip to get into our 1st position. Then [drum major] Randy West ’70, ’74, ’77 would whistle everyone to attention, and the band would enter to our cadence.
What about the hand flashes and “hey” vocals from the band?
The band did the hand flashes in our era as well. It always looked sharp.
Do you have anything else to add?
The import of “Proclamation” was not in my writing it; it was in its being written in hopes of furthering the Mustang Band and its on-field performances. I’m nobody special. Notes on a piece of manuscript paper are of no value unless they are infused by the spirit and interpretation of them by a group of men sharing the camaraderie of the love of the music and of the spirit of the Mustang Band. Make that the “Proclamation”: This about them, not about me.
I wish nothing but the best for the current drumline and band as they grow under and Don and Tommy’s leadership and bask in each other’s friendships as they have the privilege of playing the old and new standards of Mustang jazz. Hubba!
Good job, Randy!
>View video of the SMU Alumni Band, Squad 7, performing “Proclamation”
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Trevor Weichmann ’06 works about 8,000 miles from the SMU campus, serving as the Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH) Epic ASAP Application coordinator in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. However, his heart is never far from the Hilltop. One of the first things he did when he moved into his new work space was spruce it up with an SMU pennant and a miniature Mustang football helmet.
“We have a tradition of Mustangs in my family. I think I’m the 13th member to graduate from SMU,” he says. “I feel like SMU has helped shape my life since the day I was born.”
Weichmann started on the two-year project in Saudi Arabia in May. Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare is a first-of-its-kind health care joint venture between Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned energy company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The partnership provides health care to about 350,000 beneficiaries associated with the world’s largest oil and gas company.
“I knew that the chance to work for the Johns Hopkins Health Network-Saudi Aramco collaboration was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t turn down,” he says.
As a consultant with Epic Systems, a Wisconsin-based company that is a leading provider of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software, his focus is on EMR for the emergency room as part of Epic’s ASAP Application team.
“My role is to help implement the project from start to finish,” he says. “We meet with physicians and stakeholders to explain possible functionality, validate workflows, build the system and test the software against required metrics, train end-users and assist in ongoing efforts to assure long-term excellence.”
At SMU Weichmann majored in management science in the Lyle School of Engineering. He credits SMU professors who “challenged me to see technical problems as games that needed solving” and “opened my eyes to different cultures and experiences” with paving the way for a career that can take him anywhere.
“SMU provided so much more than a education that can be given grades,” he says. “I received an education in life.”
Follow Weichmann’s adventures in Saudi Arabia on his blog, CT Scans the World.