Alumnae/i Community

Filmmaker Rene Alberta ’95 Presents Screenplay Reading

Filmmaker Rene Alberta’s company, A Mental Picture, will be staging a one night only screenplay reading of the Sundance Film Festival, award-winning, politically charged thriller, This Land.

Andre Royo of HBO’s seminal drama The Wire, produces in association with American Film Institute and American Motion Picture Society award-winning producer Daniel Sollinger (The Alphabet Killer, Day Zero, Rhyme & Reason). The cast includes Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield). Casting services provided by Sig De Miguel (The Good Shepherd, United 93, The Cooler, and Premium) and Stephen Vincent (The Insider, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor) of Palm Star Entertainment.

Wednesday August 27th at 8:00 P.M
Cherry Lane Theater
38 Commerce Street
Reception sponsored by RAYMOND HILL VINEYARDS and ILE de BASQUE Specialty Cheese purveyors

Reservations can be made via phone at (212) 340-1325 or by emailing kmfellows@socal.rr.com.

Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008

“Yoko Ono. Between the Sky and My Head” (’57) Exhibition Featured at Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Inside the Kunsthalle, visitors will experience three floors of sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, films, and sound installations. An interview with the artist, filmed in Bielefeld, will accompany the exhibition. One of the earliest works is Cough Piece, first written down in 1961; and Keep Coughing a Year, a sound installation featuring the artist’s cough and other sounds, will be heard in dark rooms. Laughing and coughing were important anchors in Ono’s work at the time she began creating conceptual art: they considerably expand the sense of time during a performance. In the entrance to the Kunsthalle is Play It by Trust, a chess game that has been set up several times in various places since 1966. Morning Beams, consisting of one hundred nylon threads running throughout all of the floors of the Kunsthalle, illuminates the twelve-meter-high staircase. Since the mid-1990s, Ono has been working with ink on paper, and the show will feature a drawing called Franklin Summer. Other pieces in the exhibition include a labyrinth made of Plexiglas, titled Amaze; the famous film Fly, showing a fly on a woman’s body in a six-part installation; and a participatory piece, My Mommy is Beautiful, in which visitors are invited to put photographs and other thoughts of their mothers onto the bare canvas of the work, or other feelings that they themselves write.

Yoko Ono. Between the Sky and My Head will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. To celebrate the re-opening of the sculpture park on September 27, 2008, at 6 p.m., the work Golden Ladder, made in Bielefeld at Ono’s behest, will be installed on a temporary basis.

Yoko Ono. Between the Sky and My Head will run until 16 November, 2008, and is sponsored by the Kulturstiftung Pro Bielefeld.

Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008

Maiysha Kai ’97 Profiled in Kimpods.com

Maiysha Kai (Born April 16, 1978) is a Progressive/ Soul/ R & B/ recording artists. Her first album “This Much is True” will be released August 26, 2008. Produced by Scott Jacoby, her first album features 12 all new tracks and a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”. The album also features a duet with Martin Luther who starred in 2007’s Across The Universe.

Originally from the mid-west, Maiysha went to Sarah Lawrence College where she studied vocal performance as well as creative writing and race and gender studies After graduating, Maisyha moved to New York City to teach a a private school in Manhattan. She also was signed to Ford Models.

“This Much is True” is the first release on the UFO/ Ryko-distributed Eusonia label. Maiysha’s first single off the album, “Wannabe,” was released to iTunes on June 24. The upcoming album is highly anticipated, and Maiysha has already been featured in USA Today, Newsweek, and TV Guide.

For the full profile, please see: http://kimpods.com/2008/08/25/maiysha-this-much-is-true/

Download Maiyasha's "This Much is True" at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CQRZ8S9H

For more on Maiysha, please see: http://www.maiysha.com/

Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008

Shirley Chesney ’52 Invites You to Participate in World Peace Day and the Obama Campaign

Established by a United Nations resolution in 1981, The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") is an opportunity for individuals, organizations, and nations to create practical acts of peace. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. In 2002, the UN General Assembly declared September 21 as the permanent date. Any alumnae/i interested in finding out more about Peace Day -- or presenting a creative event -- should contact Shirley Chesney, at chesneyshirley@yahoo.com

Shirley would also like to hear from alumnae/i interested in getting involved in the Obama Campaign by doing arts projects and/or entertaining in areas where people need to be reached by creative means, such as hosting parties for head start, single mothers, and people devastated by environmental and economics catastrophes. Shirley writes, “We need funds to equip mobile units near voting sites with entertainers and children play materials so families can vote. We also need jazz mobiles, country and folk musicians and bluesmen and women to sing the blues for a troubled country while we hope for a new beginning -- to reclaim a just and decent new start for this country and the world.”

Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008

Lisa Thaler's ’84 Book, Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin, Praised by Chicago Tribune

Lisa Thaler's book just received a glowing review in the Chicago Tribune. To read the full review, please see:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/chi-lisa-thaler-16aug16,0,3433494.story

Look Up is available on Amazon (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1877675687). Several customer reviews are posted, and your review is welcome there, too!

Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Agamemnon Otero ’01 Announces New Exhibition: ‘Color, Shape and Form’

From Agamemnon Otero: I am holding a solo show in Brunswick, Maine at the Bayview Gallery (58 Maine Street, Brunswick, Maine 04011 at http://www.bayviewgallery.com) from September 12th to October 4th, 2008. All are welcome at the exhibition's opening: 5pm - 8pm, Friday 12th September, which will coincide with Brunswick's Art Walk. Hope you can make it. Please feel free to pass this invitation on to anyone you think may be interested in attending.

STOP PRESS! My website has been rebuilt. Please click on the link to view:
http://www.agamemnonotero.com

Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tovah Feldshuh ’70 Announces New Play, Irena's Vow

From Tovah Feldshuh '70: I hope you can join me at this next wonderful play that I am doing in New York City.  IRENA'S VOW by Dan Gordon---traces the true story of  Polish Christian Rescuer IRENA GUT OPDYKE during WWII. It is a searing testament to the bravery of the righteous souls who chose to risk their lives to save the Jewish people from certain death under the 3rd Reich.  We open Sept 7 at the theatre where Spring Awakening began: the Nagelberg Theatre at Baruch Performing Arts Center,entrance on 24th Street between Lex and 3rd.... Theatermania.com is where you purchase tickets under the Off- Broadway listings.

http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/145334

The new drama will mark Ms. Feldshuh's first New York stage appearance since her triumphant (and Tony Award-nominated) turn in Golda's Balcony (Broadway's longest-running one-woman show). Michael Parva will direct. Irena's Vow, which is being presented by The Directors Company in association with Power Productions & The Polish Cultural Institute, is an Invictus Theatre Company World premiere. Opening night is set for Monday, September 22nd at 7 p.m. (The engagement continues through November 2nd.)

Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Rosellen Scaglione Otrakji ’81 Announces Two River Film Festival

Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Alexandra Avakian ’83 Documents 17 Years of Photographing Muslims Around the Globe

WASHINGTON (Aug. 15, 2008)In a riveting personal memoir illustrated with stunning images that she risked her life to capture, renowned photojournalist Alexandra Avakian shares the challenges, insights and rewards of nearly two decades of photographing the lives of Muslims around the world in a new book from National Geographic, WINDOWS OF THE SOUL: My Journeys in the Muslim World (National Geographic Focal Point; ISBN 978-1-4262-0320-6; Sept. 30, 2008; $40).

The book is the first title in National Geographic Books new Focal Point imprint, which draws on National Geographic's legendary photographic archive of more than 10 million images and the work of distinguished photographers around the world. The imprint will present the finest in documentary photography past and present, and monographs will celebrate individual photographers' unique style, vision and skill.

Avakian's work has taken her to countries torn apart by poverty, repression and conflict, and she has captured some of the most important stories of our time. Brought up by a show business family in Manhattan, N.Y., and Malibu, Calif., she lived for two years in Gaza, often in Islamic dress, shot at by Israeli soldiers and beaten by Hamas. She faced down murderous militias with loaded guns in Somalia, where death can come at any time, over nothing at all. She traveled extensively with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who called her "troublemaker" and "dictator," yet gave her unprecedented access. She spent eight weeks gaining entry to the inner circles of Hezbollah, the highly secretive organization that maintains one of the world's most disciplined guerrilla armies. She pursued her Armenian roots in Iran and documented Muslim culture in the United States, discovering vibrant cultures where Middle Eastern and Middle American qualities blend. She admits feeling fear in some situations, but that paled against her desire to record the human struggle for freedom and the willingness of people to risk their lives to gain it.

Going beyond the brief news reports that most of us see, Avakian shares a richer, wider view of the Muslim world through her extraordinary storytelling and photographs, which will captivate, educate and linger with her readers.

A member of the prestigious Contact Press Images photo agency in New York, Avakian has been a top photojournalist since 1984. Her work has been published in National Geographic, Time, The New York Times Magazine and many other publications. She lives near Washington, D.C.

Posted: Monday, August 18, 2008

Denise J. Hart, MFA 1999 Announces New Positive Message Tee Company - Words to Live By Tees

Denise J. Hart, MFA theatre grad class of 1999, has created a unique positive message tee shirt company - Words to Live By "tees with a positive vibe embracing change!"  Hart, a 5 year breast cancer survivor founded the company afer her mother lost her life to the same breast cancer Denise had survived.  Moved to create something that reflects her mother's zest for life, Words to Live By was born. 

The tees are adorned with inspiring messages encouraging women to live life courageously and to always pursue their dreams.  Denise welcomes you to join the Words to Live By community at www.wordstolivebytees.com.

The net profits of Words to Live By are contributed to life changing efforts in the prevention of violence. In fall 2008 Denise will launch the "B. the Revolution Project" to help effect change in the world through eliminating Domestic Violence. During Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October) Words to Live By also donates its empowering affirmative tees to encourage women and children. In addition, 3% of the company’s annual profits are contributed to Domestic Violence prevention advocacy partners nationwide.

Posted: Monday, August 18, 2008

Justine Davies ’06 Featured in the Catholic Review for Participation in Operation TEACH

Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008

Leslie Morgenstein ’89 to participate TechCrunch50 Conference Panel

TechCrunch50 Panel will launch 50 new startups and products during its three day conference at the San Francisco Design Center on September 8-10, 2008. This year's event will feature a new panel entitled "Hollywood Goes Silicon Valley." In partnership with Creative Artists Agency, the panel will showcase the efforts of entertainment luminaries who are creating content exclusively for the Web, and embracing new technologies in all aspects of their production, marketing and distribution of commercial entertainment properties. The panel will include Leslie Morgenstein, president of Alloy Entertainment. Leslie Morgenstein has served as president of Alloy Entertainment and its predecessor, 17th Street Productions, Inc., since 1999, overseeing the company’s operations, strategy, and creative mission. He produces or executive produces Alloy Entertainment’s television and feature film projects, including The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants feature films and the CW series Gossip Girl.

Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2008

Phillis Levin ’76 Announces Book Publication

Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2008

Joan Barkhausen Grubin '67 Awarded a 2008 Fellowship in Painting by the New York Foundation of the Arts

Joan Barkhausen Grubin '67 has been awarded a 2008 Fellowship in Painting by the New York Foundation of the Arts. Fellows are selected by peer panels, which are assembled according to each artistic discipline. The state wide competition attracted more than 4,500 applicants this year in the fields of architecture, choreography, musical composition, fiction writing, painting, photography, playwriting/screenwriting and video artistry. One of Joan's most recent pieces, "Nine Square: Chicago", was commissioned by the Bluhm Legal Clinic of Northwestern Law School. Her work can be seen on her website www.joangrubin.com

Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2008

Kelly Braffett ’98 Reads from New Anthology of Superhero Stories on August 28th

Hear three of today’s best young writers — Owen King, Kelly Braffet, and David Yoo — read from a new anthology of superhero stories at Riverrun Bookstore on Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.

Also, dress up like your own original superhero for the reading & be eligible to win a fun prize!

Co-editor and contributor Owen King (also Stephen King’s son), and authors Kelly Braffet and David Yoo will be at RiverRun, 20 Congress St., Portsmouth, to read from the new anthology of original superhero stories, "Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories."

For a full article on this event, please see: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/ENTERTAIN/80811022&emailAFriend=1

Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Sanaa Hamri ’96 Directs The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2

Posted: Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Tamara Gayer ’93 Announces Memorial for Michael “Bo” Bowman ’93

Tamara Gayer announces a "celebration of life" in honor of Michael "Bo" Bowman '93.

Saturday, August 23
6:00 p.m. : COCKTAILS
6:30 p.m. : PROGRAM followed by a party in the garden

Tavern on the Green
Central Park at West 67th Street

Bring your partners, husbands, wives, and friends and dress informally formal, just as Bo would want you to.

RSVP
by Friday, August 15
to: andyisfantastic@mac.com

Michael (Bo) Bowman died suddenly on July 9, 2008 at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. The cause of death was necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as “the flesh-eating bacteria”, a virulent form of Group A Strep that produces toxins which destroy the soft tissue, fascia, and vital organs.  Because of the deadly rapidity with which this disease moves through the body, because group A strep bacteria are so common, and because they can enter the body through the smallest of openings, such as a paper cut, or through no apparent skin trauma, Bo’s family would like the Sarah Lawrence community to know that more information can be found at www.nnff.org, the website for the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation. 

Bo is survived by his beloved partner, Andy Wilcox; five siblings and his mother, Joan MFA ’05.  He will always be remembered for his dazzling smile, wacky sense of humor, unique interpretive dancing, ebullient writing and rampant creativity. His greatest gift was making everyone with whom he came into contact feel special. Bo was the kindest, most adorable, fun-loving, creative, loving man who has ever graced our lives. We have lost our spark.

Posted: Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Peter Davenport ’92 Performs in “All's Well That Ends Well”

Posted: Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Christin Ayers ’02, Award-Winning Journalist, Works for Fox 31 in Colorado

Before joining Fox 31, Christin was an anchor, reporter and executive producer at KECI-13 in Missoula, Montana. She received a number of awards and honors, including two regional Edward R. Murrows and several Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalist awards.

In 2007 she was named Broadcaster of the Year by the Montana Broadcaster’s Association. Christin says her most memorable interview was with Barack Obama before Montana’s 2008 presidential primary.

For a full profile on Christin, please see: http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7059844&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Posted: Monday, July 28, 2008

Joelle Wallach ’67 Currently Visiting Artist in Residence at Sweet Briar College

Joelle Wallach is currently Visiting Artist in Residence at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia. While there, Wallach is working on a collaboratively commissioned work for the James Piano Quartet, which is also currently in residence at Sweet Briar.

As part of the same September residency at Sweet Briar College, Wallach will be delivering several lectures on Modernism, Postmodernism and Neo-Romanticism in the Music of Today:

Tuesday, September 16 - 1:00 PM
Tuesday, September 16 - 4:30 PM
Wednesday, September 17 - 1:00 PM

All at Babcock Hall at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia. Admission free by prior arrangement: Contact (434) 381-612 or nross@sbc.edu for more information.

Wallach songs are being compiled and mastered for a projected CD. Five new songs were recorded this past December by soprano Janice Hall and pianist Eric Sedgwick.

For more information about composer Joelle Wallach, including bio, performances, list of CDs and much more, visit http://www.joellewallach.com .

Posted: Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Dr. Laura Manuelidis ’63 Announces Poetry Reading and Publication

Dr. Laura Manuelidis will give a poetry reading at Wellfleet Library (in Welfleet, Mass) on August 4th, at 8p.m. Those in the area are welcome to attend. Manuelidis's publications include scientific (on dementias and CJD), including NIH grant awards for continuing work. She has also published some new poems in online journals and readings at other venues.

You can find more details in links at: http://info.med.yale.edu/neurosci/faculty/manuelidis_main.html

Dr. Manuelidis is professor and head of neuropathology at the Yale School of Medicine. She is best known for work on "Mad-Cow" and other neurodegenerative diseases. She also teaches undergraduates on the interface of poetry and science.  Her work has appeared in the Nation. Her husband, the late Dr. Elias Manuelidis, was also a neurosurgeon.

Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008

David Netto ’92 Profiled in Washington Post

To view a video conversation with alum David Netto, please see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2008/07/07/VI2008070701114.html?referrer=emaillink

David Netto, Founding Partner and Creative Director, Netto Collection, explains the process of making a business idea a reality.

Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008

Jenna Esposito ’00 Sings at West Point on July 27th

The West Point Concert Band under the direction of several members of the band will present a free concert on Sunday, July 27th at 7:30 p.m. in the Trophy Point Amphitheater. “The Jenna Esposito Show” will open the concert with a cabaret performance at 6:30 p.m. Performing in the Esposito Show will be West Point Band member Brian Broelmann, as well as several of his family members.

"With her charming personality and endearingly cheery stage presence [Jenna Esposito] exudes joy and all things positive, so one may not be surprised to see that she delivers up-tempo and big numbers with verve and assurance. What one might not expect though are the tenderness and sensitivity she brings to ballads – what a lovely revelation!" – Roy Sander. Ms. Esposito will be performing with Staff Sergeant Brian Broelmann on tenor saxophone, Sergeant Broelmann’s brother Rob on electric bass and Rob’s wife Kelly Esposito-Broelmann also singing. Ms. Esposito will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The main concert will be conducted by several members of the Concert Band. Lieutenant Colonel Timothy J. Holtan will begin the concert with the music of John Williams. Sergeant First Class Christopher Rettie, usually a saxophonist with the band will conduct John Adams’ thrilling work, Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Principal euphoniumist Sergeant First Class Barry Morrison will conduct Norman Dello Joio’s wonderful work, Scenes from the Louvre. The band’s principal trumpet, Staff Sergeant Derek Lance will conduct the music of Charles Ives, Jack Stamp and Arthur Pryor.

Please allow extra travel time for the 100% vehicle and photo I.D. inspection at Stony Lonesome and Thayer gates. Due to changing security requirements at West Point, call the Academy Band’s hotline at 845-938-2617, or check www.westpoint.edu/special before leaving for the concert.

For concert information, cancellations and updates, call the Academy Band’s 24-hour hotline at (845) 938-2617.

Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008

Dave Riggins ’95 (“TRUE”) Launches Vacation Rentals in Brooklyn Brownstone

Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008

Dr. Laurie Nadel ’69 announces “The Sixth Sense” Radio Show

Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008

Penny Gill ’76 Announces Book Publication

Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Ann Cefola MFA 1997 Announces Poetry Reading

Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Barbara Kolsun ’71 Announces Exciting New Job

Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Jason Irwin MFA 2004 Announces Publication of First Book of Poetry

Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Columnist Brian J. O'Connor ’82 Wins 2nd Humor Prize

For the second year in a row, one of the funniest columnists in the country hails from The Detroit News.

Detroit News Personal Finance Editor Brian J. O'Connor won third place for humor columns in large newspapers at the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Saturday in New Orleans.

O'Connor, whose column runs Saturdays and Tuesdays, was honored for three pieces, including one that somehow related personal finance to a series of events involving his wife's Swedish relatives, her auto registration, Cinco de Mayo and a New York attic filled with bat guano.

You can read those columns here or on the Columnists page of the Opinion section at www.detnews.com.
 
The judge was Ruth Butler, an editor at the Grand Rapids Press who wrote that O'Connor, "makes finance fun. You're smiling and before you know it a potentially dry subject has become informative and entertaining."

O'Connor has been penning his column since May 2005. He is a 1978 graduate of the Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills and holds a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College. O'Connor also earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University as a 2001 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business.

Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008

MFA Alumnae Launch the Second Issue of Storyscape Literary Journal

Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008

Gail Dottin ’89 Receives Fulbright Award

Gail Dottin of At-large, New York has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student scholarship to Panama in Creative Writing, the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently. Dottin is one of over 1,450 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2008-2009 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

Gail Dottin will be going to Panama in September to complete research on her first book, an historical memoir about her Barbadian grandfather's work on the construction of the Panama Canal during the early 1900s. 

Posted: Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Jeannine Jones ’98 Announces Reading of The Breezeway from Dora Mae Productions

Dora Mae Productions announces the next reading of The Breezeway. The Breezeway centers on four sisters, their families and what happens to all of them one fateful New Year's Eve.  An exciting cast will read this remarkable play which will surely make you laugh and cry as you see the Cahills test the bonds of family.

The Breezeway was written by Debbie Jones and this reading features Kent Adams, Michael Birch, Kathleen Cullen, Alexis, Cullen-Baker, Jennifer Dawson, Bobby Funaro, Samantha Jones, Lori Ann Kee, Linda Larson, and Benjamin Weaver. Stage directions will be read by T.J. Mannix

Performance will take place Monday, July 14th at 7:30pm sharp at Shetler Studios Annex, 939 8th Avenue, Suite 204, between 55th and 56th street. RSVP is required; reply to info@doramae.com.

Posted: Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Monique Lukens MFA ’97 Returns to Radio with Dancing Under the Influence of Electronica

Unique Monique returns to radio with the Dancing Under the Influence of Electronica with a new engineer & co-host named "Starving Jesus!"  Fix "your appetite" for electronica & intelligent talk Sundays on: 

www.WLFR.fm OR www.ShoutCast.com (Type WLFR into the search bar & click "Tune In")

Also, if in the Beverly Hills, CA area, join Moo-nique in the Beverly Hills Courthouse, 3rd Floor, Rm. 3, Tues. 8:30am, 7/1 as she battles the forces of ignorance & ego to save animals!  For details of what happen, log onto: www.MySpace.com/MoniqueMarissaAKAUniqueMoniqueMusic and hear Moo-nique speak out for her rights & the rights of those without a voice (just a moo!)

Posted: Monday, June 30, 2008

Elissaveta Iordanova MFA ’00 Announces Call for Dancers

CALL FOR DANCERS

WHEN: Sunday, June 28, 2008, 5-7 PM
WHERE: City Center, VI Floor, 130 W. 56th ST
WHAT: Male and Female Dancers
WHY: Ethno-Contemporary Dance Project

Details: Looking for candidates with experience in folk and contemporary dance.

Rehearsals: July 1 - August 15th, twice a week, and resuming on Sept. 15th.
Commitment is required for all dates on the schedule, given on June 29th.
Paid performances, projected for 2008-09 season.

Send resume, pix optional, and phone number to: eleadance@yahoo.com

Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Erin K. Orr Announces Return of Musical Puppet Circus and Free Puppet Workshop

From Erin K. Orr: I am pleased to announce the return of Its a Bee, Honey!, a musical puppet circus for all ages based on the real life drama of honey bees. I will be joined by the legendary composer Baby Dee and her accordian, harp and giant tricycle, the amazing and beautiful Rima Fand as the violin playing princess bee, the multi-talented Silvi Wool who will astound you with her spinning poi ball bee wings and a chorus of children (with puppets that they made themselves) as the worker bees.  There will also be large bee puppets and a puppet theater made from a real bee hive. IT'S FREE AND IT'S REALLY GOOD!

June 29th at 3PM
The Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement (in the scuplture garden)
466 grand street

BUT WAIT! THERE IS MORE! I am also offering a puppet making workshop at Henry Street on June 28th for children and their adults from 10-12. The kids will make worker bee puppets and be invited to be a part of the show the next day.  This is also free!

For directions, visit www.sbronsartscenter.org or call 212-589-0400.

Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Sloane Miller ’93 Announces Worry-Free Dinners at Blue Smoke

You are invited to join us for the next Worry-Free Dinners event at Blue Smoke, NYC.

The menu will be: Gluten-Free, Peanut-Free, Tree-nut Free & Fish-Free. Dairy-Free upon request. 

If you haven't already done so, please send in your application or send an email to worryfreedinners@gmail.com, as you MUST be a member to join us.
**********************************************************

INVITATION:
WHERE: Blue Smoke
116 East 27th Street
New York, NY 10016
(212) 447-7733

WHO: Anyone on a diet that is FREE OF: gluten/wheat, peanut, tree-nut, fish and/or dairy.
WHEN: MONDAY, JULY 28th, 2008 6:00PM-8:00PM
WHAT YOU'LL GET: Coaching around issues of food allergies/food intolerances by Allergic Girl, Sloane Miller, MFA, MSW, LMSW (BA, SLC, 1993), group discussion tailored to your concerns, networking with people who understand your issues, chat time with a representative from Blue Smoke, a delicious Worry-Free Dinner at a great NYC restaurant, terrific goody bag filled with allergen-friendly foods and products.

FEE: $95, includes tax, tip but not beverages.

Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Derek B. Miller ’92 Has Just Published Report for United Nations Institute for Disarmament

Posted: Monday, June 23, 2008

Bob Lamm ’68 Announces Improv Class and Political Novels Class

Posted: Monday, June 23, 2008

Erin K. Orr ’96 Currently Puppeteering in Hamlet in Shakespeare in the Park

From Erin K. Orr: I am currently puppeteering in Hamlet at the Delacourt Theater in Central Park.  It’s a fantastic production directed by Oskar Eustis and performed by amazing actors.  The play within the play is a puppet show with life sized Marionettes designed by Basil Twist and built by the The Puppet Kitchen (Emily DeCola, Michael Schupbach and Eric Wright).  My part is small, but so much fun!

Shakespeare in the Park is free!  To get tickets you can line up the morning of the day that you want to go at the Delacourt (81st street entrance to the park on the west side). The show is at 8PM. I encourage you to come, especially if you have never done it.  Shakespeare in the Park is one of the best things about New York City in the summer (even without the puppets!)

HAMLET
By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Directed by OSKAR EUSTIS

May 27 - June 29 (*Added performance June 16 and June 23, no performance June 18 and June 24, performance on June 19 starts at 8:30PM. Limited ticket distribution on: June 4, June 23, No distribution/Stand-by line only on: June 17)

With Lauren Ambrose, Christopher Bonewitz, Andre Braugher, Bruce Cannon, Matt Carlson, Kevin Carroll, Margaret Colin, W. Tré Davis, Emily DeCola, David Harbour, Stephen James King, Hoon Lee, Dana Lyn, Piter Marek, Greg McFadden, Julio Monge, Paul O’Brien, Erin Orr, Gilbert Owuor, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Schupbach, Miriam Silverman, Michael Stuhlbarg and Sam Waterston.

Scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting design by Michael Chybowski, and sound design by Acme Sound Partners.

Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Nina Freedlander Gibans ’54 Receives Grant to Co-Edit History of Poetry in Cleveland

Nina Freedlander Gibans credits Sarah Lawrence College and, in particular, professors William Rubin, Joseph Campbell, Horace Gregory and Alastair Reid for nurturing her lifelong interests in aesthetic, integrated cultural and civic affairs.  A student during the McCarthy era, she concentrated on studies in art, music and literature and was the editor of the campus newspaper.

Poetry has been Nina's art form since childhood.  She published, wrote and read in San Francisco during the Beat Era, once on the same stage as Allen Ginsberg.  Nina is a founding member of the Poets' and Writers' League of Greater Cleveland and has given many readings in Cleveland at museums, bookstores, libraries, galleries, taverns and at City hall. She taught creative writing at the Cleveland Museum of Art and in the program offered by four colleges and universities called Education for Aesthetic Awareness. She received an Ohio Arts Council Artists Project award as a poet which resulted in a publication 18 Gardens and their Gardeners. Other books are The Community Arts Council Movement (Praeger 1982), Bridges to Understanding Children's Museums (Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Case Western Reserve University, 1999) and Creative Essence: Cleveland's Sense of Place (Kent State University Press, 2005), examining the region's creative essence through 22 hours of public discussion resulted in the video, books and a website for use in teaching about the region’s art (www.clevelandartandhistory.org), history, and architecture (www.architectureofcleveland.com). 

Nina has spearheaded poetry projects such as “Silver Apples of the Moon” on poetry and art and the naming of West 2nd Street “Daniel’s Way” in memory of county poet-laureate Daniel Thompson. She co-edited the history of poetry in Cleveland, Cleveland Poetry Scenes, and developed a related website www.clevelandpoetryarchive.com which is being piloted in schools and the community under a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.
 
For more information, visit www.ninagibans.com

Posted: Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Claire Yaffa ’57 Announces New Book of Photography and New Exhibit at the Leica Gallery

Claire Yaffa is an esteemed independent photojournalist, critically-acclaimed fine art photographer, and internationally-famous portraitist. As a photojournalist, Yaffa devoted her career to social issues - documenting the plight of the ill, homeless and disadvantaged, especially children and the elderly. This work has been published in four collections: child abuse and rehabilitation (Reaching Out, 1987); children with AIDS (A Dying Child is Born, 1992); the homeless (Homeless in Westchester County, 1988); and the work of The New York Foundling Hospital (The Foundling: The Story of The New York Foundling Hospital, 2001).

Yaffa's four fine art monographs – the first three prefaced by the late Gordon Parks - include Light and Shadow (1998), a personal meditation on the subtleties of the photographic vision, of which Gordon Parks writes: “Whatever appears seems to have been carved from grace". Her most recent book, Divertissement (2008), will be published both as an individual edition and as part of a three-book slip-cased compilation of her fine-art work.

Claire Yaffa’s photographs have been published in The New York Times as well as in a wide range of Condé Nast and Gannett papers and periodicals. Her photographs portraying the social issues of our times have appeared as part of television documentaries on NBC, ABC and PBS. She is the recipient of the 1995 Westchester Arts Council Award and her work has been exhibited in such public institutions as the International Center of Photography, Hudson River Museum, the Sarah Lawrence College, the White Plains Museum Gallery and the Neuberger Museum of Art.

The Leica Gallery will exhibit her work from June 27 to August 9. Reception and book-signing will take place on Thursday, June 26th, from 6 - 8 p.m. The Leica Gallery is located at 670 Broadway, New York City 10012.

Posted: Monday, June 16, 2008

Bree Coven Brown ’97 Publishes Second Book on Travel

Bree Coven Brown ’97 just published her second book, "Weird and Wacky Washington Places," from Blue Bike Books.

Home to the world's first UFO sighting, Space Needle, and Science Fiction Museum, Washington state is truly out of this world. "Weird and Wacky Washington Places" is an irreverent love letter to the eccentricities of the Evergreen State, where Bigfoot is an officially government-protected species, locals worship at the Church of God-Zillah, small-town folks elect an annual Grouch, and city dwellers cheer as naked bicyclists zoom past a Volkswagon-eating troll in what they call the Center of the Universe.

The book is available at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.com

Posted: Friday, June 13, 2008

Gigi Guthrie ’80 Announces Publication of “Chronic Lyme Disease - Ways to Outsmart a Smart Disease”

Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2008

Omega Okello MA 2004 Profiled on beeafrican.com

Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Diana Finnegan ’86 Selected as Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow for 2008

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has announced the selection of 29 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for 2008.  Among them is Sarah Lawrence alumna Diana Finnegan, now a Languages and Cultures of Asia Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Funded by the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey, the Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship is the nation’s largest and most prestigious award for Ph.D. students addressing ethical and religious questions in the humanities and social sciences.  Since its inception in 1981, the Newcombe Fellowship has supported more than 1,000 doctoral candidates, many of whom are now noted faculty at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad.  For more information, visit http://www.woodrow.org/newcombe.
 
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops the best minds for the nation’s most important challenges. In these areas of challenge, the Foundation awards fellowships to enrich human resources, works to improve public policy, and assists organizations and institutions in enhancing practice in the U.S. and abroad.

Posted: Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Lisa Thaler ’84 Lectures on Just-Published “Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin”

Lisa Thaler has just published Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin. Look Up is the biography of the Paris-born and Vienna-trained artist Sacha Kolin (1911-1981), who studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule and exhibited at the Secession and several Paris Salons in the 1930s. She was the youngest to be elected Societaire, a full member, of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

In 1998, family historian Lisa Thaler saw and was captivated by Sacha's abstract painting Departure. Intending only to do a brief look-up, Lisa became immersed in a ten-year global effort to recover Sacha's daring and optimistic life story. And then Lisa discovered that the Kolins' and the Thalers' path had already crossed. The recently published Look Up received a starred review, in the current issue of Booklist, the journal of the American Library Association.

Lisa has two upcoming NYC-based lectures:

Tuesday, June 17, 7 pm  / Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin—A Visual Conversation. Upon the publication of Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin, the Austrian Cultural Forum will host an illustrated presentation by Lisa Thaler, the author, and a conversation between her and Renata Stein, the Curator of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York and a mixed media artist. Thaler and Stein will explore the themes of departure and return in Kolin's art and life, and illuminate the New York scene of mid-20th century émigré artists. Reception and book-signing to follow. (Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52, NYC, 212-319-5300, www.acfny.org. Reservations required.)

Wednesday, June 18, 6 pm / Look Up: The Life and Art of Sacha Kolin—Reclamation of the Forgotten Artist. Lisa Thaler, the author of Look Up, will take us through her ‘resurrection’ of the artist Sacha Kolin. This Viennese émigré modernist exhibited in the United States from her arrival in late 1936. Sacha, as with most artists, had fallen into obscurity by the time of her death. Ms. Thaler, captivated by a Kolin painting she purchased in 1998, which had been exhibited at the NAC in 1954, has spent a decade ‘reclaiming’ Sacha and her turbulent life for posterity. How this was done provides a fascinating lesson for art historians, collectors, and artists. Book-signing to follow. (National Arts Club, Marquis Room, 15 Gramercy Park S, 212-475-3424, www.nationalartsclub.org. Limited seating. Reservations suggested.)

Posted: Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Ann Lanzillotto ’90 Presents A New Show, “THE FLAT EARTH...”

Once named one of "200 Essential New Yorkers," (NY Times/Smithsonian Folklife Festival), and now one of the thousands of NYC's evicted, Annie Lanzillotto leads the hunt for a spiritual New York, taking the Dixon Place audience on a journey down the block and around the corner to Prince and Elizabeth Streets, where, sitting atop the corner blue mailbox, her narrative weaves a palimpsest of the geology of Manhattan and how it supports the current condo construction on that corner over where the old mozzarella maker used to be.  Just how far down is the Manhattan Schist we stand and build upon?  Her narrative creates a relic of a "real New Yorker." Is New York for New Yorkers anymore?  Where can a New Yorker go?  How can a New Yorker stay?  Were New Yorkers asking themselves these same questions a hundred years ago? 

Lanzillotto overlays the questions of era's past trying to find her own New York, easily shifting between descriptions of tectonic plates and Manhattan Schist, statistics of accidents between horses and cars in 1950, and today's numbers of evicted.   Surreal visions deconstructing urban planning, offer a Fellini-esque look at old New York, and posit creative solutions for the future to where the evicted, "whose expulsion from the urban Eden" just might go and what they might create, citing the history of the creation of Venice by a bunch of refugees on the run from the Barbarians.

Ann Lanzillotto's show, THE FLAT EARTH: WheredaFFFhuck Did New York Go? takes place Thursday, Friday and Saturday June 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28* and July 3, 4**, 5 at 8:00pm. (June 28th includes a special post Dyke March "How to Mount a Mailbox" contest! July 4th includes a pre-show pizza bask at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm!)

Dixon Place is located on 258 Bowery, 2nd Floor, between Houston and Prince Streets;  Gen. Admission: $15, student/senior $12; Advance tickets & more info: http://www.dixonplace.org (212)219-0736 ext.112

Posted: Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Haven Tyler ’89 Joins Altitude's Program Development Team

Haven Tyler, Jamaica Plain resident and alumni of Sarah Lawrence College, recently joined Altitude, Inc. as the newest member of the cutting edge innovation firm. With an extensive background in the product development arena, Ms. Tyler was recently appointed as the Vice President of Program Development.

“Haven Tyler’s unique combination of skills and vast network will provide Altitude with a well-rounded foundation for building strong business relationships,” explains Brian Matt, Founder & CEO of Altitude, Inc.

Prior to joining Altitude, Ms. Tyler was the Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at IDEO Product Development, as well as the Director of Client Services at Design Continuum. While on hiatus from the design world to raise her family, Ms. Tyler opened Moth. With two locations in Boston, the retail store was awarded Best of Boston in 2004/2005.  She is a member of the Museum of Fine Arts Fashion Council and has an extensive background in fashion design. As Vice President of Program Development, Ms. Tyler plans to build strong and valuable business relationships.  She looks forward to helping the Altitude, Inc. team grow as they continue to meet their clients’ needs. Ms. Tyler currently resides in Jamaica Plain with her children Finn, Isabel and Robyn.

Posted: Monday, June 2, 2008

Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00 Announces Next Playwrights Workshop

Posted: Monday, June 2, 2008

Composer Joelle Wallach ’67 Featured on June 2 on CKWR Radio in Ontario, Canada

The music of American composer Joelle Wallach will be featured in two programs on Canada’s CKWR radio FM 98.5 on Monday, June 2 from 7:30 to 8:30 Eastern Time on Monday Night with The Arts, Mary-Lou Schagena, host and also from 9:00 to 11:00 Eastern Time on Monday Evening Concert with host Tom Quick.

Ms. Wallach will also be interviewed on Monday Night with the Arts and will discuss her compositions and composing career.

CKWR radio, based in Waterloo, Ontario, can be heard at FM 98.5 or through online streaming at http://www.ckwr.com/section/view/?fnode=11.

Visit the station online at http://www.ckwr.com/.

Joelle Wallach composes music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voices and choruses. Her String Quartet 1995 was the American Composers Alliance nominee for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in Music. The New York Philharmonic Ensembles premiered her octet, From the Forest of Chimneys, written to celebrate their 10th anniversary; and the New York Choral Society commissioned her secular oratorio, Toward a Time of Renewal, for 200 voices and orchestra to commemorate their 35th Anniversary Season in Carnegie Hall.

Wallach’s early training in piano, voice, theory, bassoon and violin included study at the Juilliard Preparatory Division. In 1984 the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with John Corigliano, granted her its first doctorate in composition. Read The Dream of Now, Wallach’s newsletter at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/feb08/JW_nws_020808.htm. More about her at http://www.joellewallach.com/.

Posted: Friday, May 30, 2008

Barbara Liotta in “Multiplicitocracy”

Sculpture by Barbara Liotta will be on exhibit at the Katzen at American University Museum College of Arts and Sciences at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW from May 31 - July 27. Her artwork will be shown as part of the exhibition Multiplicitocracy.

Barbara's work with stone, granite, marble, and lift cord is in private and public collections worldwide. She lives and works in Washington D.C.

REYES + DAVIS Independent Exhibitions will be featuring new work from Barbara at her solo exhibition in September 2008.

Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2008

Erin K. Orr ’96 Announces Toy Theater Festival

Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2008

Sara Vargas and Maya Haynes ’99 Announces “Brown Girls Burlesque presents: Shockadelica! Celebrating 50 Years of His Royal Badness”

Shockadelica! will feature the following six SLC alums (from the class of 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2007):$$$Royale, Miss SOuthern COmfort, Hot-Ti, Miss AuroraBoobRealis, Sara Vargas, and Maya Haynes. The show will be hosted by Hosted by Jacquetta Szathmari, Class of 1998 and produced by Madame Chuli Chulin & Shimmy Shimmy Ya, Class of 1999.

The BGB Sexy Dancers are going crazy to fete His Royal Badness on his 50th birthday. The sexiest and fiercest Artist to ever grace the stage in stilettos while ripping crazy guitar solos.

In Shockadelica!, BGB will drive you Delirious, Playing in the Sunshine and the Purple Rain, Raving In2 the Joy Fantastic and siring a Powerfully Fantastic Purple Parade fit for a: 0(+>

Two Nites Only! Come dressed in your princely best.

June 6th / June 7th, 2008
11:00 p.m.
at the famed and fabulous
The Zipper Factory
336 W. 37th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)
New York, NY 10018
 
Tickets on sale now!
$25 General (Tricky, Yes!)
$40 Royal Court (Money Don't Matter 2 Night!)
Get yours before they sell out.

For tickets, please go to www.thezipperfactory.com or call 212.352.3101.
For dinner reservations at The Zipper Factory Tavern, please call 212.695.4600.

Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2008

Christy McGillivray ’04 Promoted to Michigan Campaigns Director for Clean Water Action

From Christy McGillivray:

I started working with Clean Water Action in 2004 as a Field Canvasser. I worked as a Field Manager for about a year and a half, and then was offered a position as a full-time organizer in 2005. I recently received the good news that I've been promoted, and I'm now working as the Michigan Campaigns Director for Clean Water Action.

I'll be supervising our Michigan organizing staff of 7, overseeing our legislative campaigns, overseeing our electoral accountability work, and implementing an integrated communications plan. Our legislative work during my time at Clean Water Action has been focused on stopping the privatization of Great Lakes water, stopping the importation of out-of-state and Canadian trash, addressing the root causes of rising cancer rates through a collaborative environmental health perspective, and working towards statewide and federal clean energy policies.

During electoral cycles I've worked to turn out pro-environment voters in key State Legislative races in Michigan, and I will be overseeing all of Michigan Clean Water Action's accountability work with elected officials in 2008.

Clean Water Action is a national, statewide, and local non-profit organization. For more information: www.cleanwateraction.org.

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008

Best-selling Author Marisa de los Santos MFA 1990 Profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer profiled alum and best-selling author, Marisa de los Santos. The article discusses her transition from poet to New York Times best-selling author of "Love Walked In". Washington Post critic Susan Adams said of the novel, "you want to hunker down on a chilly day in a comfy chair and read straight through 'til dark." Her second novel, Belong to Me, is receiving similar praise. In April, Barnes & Nobles chose the book as a selection in its Recommended series, signifying that the chain recommends the book "unconditionally" and believes it "is 'unputdownable'."

Read the full profile at: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/20080511_Poet-turned-novelist_settles_into_spotlight.html

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008

W. Ian Lipkin ’74 Profiled in National Institute of Health Web Site

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases profiled alum, Ian Lipkin, M.D., extensively in NIAID Discovery News, in an article titled, "A Microbe Hunter On Call to the World". Dr. Lipkin, a Columbia University professor and research director, is among the notable infectious diseases investigators in a "remarkable generation of discovery". Lipkin led the study that identified the West Nile virus in 1999 and developed a rapid diagnostic test for SARS. Colleagues claim him a "modern microbe hunter".

Read the full profile at:  http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/NIAIDdiscoveryNews/Articles/lipkinArticle.htm

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008

Mira Spektor ’50 Announces The Aviva Players in their 33rd Season

The Aviva Players will perform on Wednesday, May 28th at 8 p.m. at the Goethe House, at 1014 Fifth Avenue in NYC. Mira J. Spektor '50 is the producing Artistic Director. Maeve Hoglund will perform Soprano, Darcy Dunn will perform Mezzo-Soprano, and Mimi Stern Wolfe will perform on the piano. Program includes Songs & Duets on Goethe Poems by Fanny Mendelssohn, Mary Howe and Mira J. Spektor, two new folk songs by Carolyn Balducci, and also Chamber Music of the 19th - 21st Centuries.

Admission is $20; Reception takes place after the concert. For reservations and information, call 212-988-9051 or e-mail mirajspektor@earthlink.net

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008

Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00, Production Manager of New Play, Offers Ticket Discounts for SLC Alums

What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends: An Antisocial Comedy by Larry Kunofsky will premiere off-Broadway at The Lion Theater at Theater Row, in the heart of the NYC Theatre District. Director: Jacob Krueger. Producer: Elizabeth Dembrowsky. Production Manager: Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard.

What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends is a play about impossible people trying to make impossible friendships possible.

Matt is a guy who hates all his friends. Celia is a woman at the center of The Friends, a secret group that has perfected friendship through specific rules and a rigid ranking system. Matt falls for Celia, but Celia has been burnt in relationships too many times, and so insists that she and Matt remain "just Friends."

Can a guy who hates all his friends and a woman who needs friendship to go by-the-book figure out a way to spend time together without going mental?

Set in a world of secret hottub parties, craigslist hookups, and the myriad of ways people try to control intimacy by keeping it away, this edgy and witty comedy looks at how romance and friendship works - or doesn't work - in the way we live now.

For the July 21st, performance, if you use the discount code "SLCA", alums will get $5 off tickets. (The tickets are normally $18 and so with the discount will be $13.) Alums can contact ticket central at www.ticketcentral.com or the show website at www.hateallyourfriends.com.

The performances will take place at The Lion @ Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues), New York, NY.

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008

Kristen Alvanson Presents Exhibition “Nonad” in Azad Gallery, Tehran

Azad Gallery is pleased to present nonad (of nines and nomads), a solo exhibition by the Iran-based American artist Kristen Alvanson, opening Friday, May 23. In Alvanson's first Tehran exhibition, a western artist reanimates her artistic experiments with an entirely new arsenal of conceptual and material resources.

Since leaving New York, Alvanson has explored the threefold of textiles, women, and the Middle East in all its formations, anomalies, enigmas, political speculations, and aesthetic conjectures. Her new work includes nomadic fabric chador (Persian veil) sculptures, abjad-9 drawings, and an animation from her Cosmic Drapery Project.

For the exhibition, Azad Gallery is transformed into a garden of hanging folds. Nine colorful chadors are hung throughout the gallery. As viewers weave through and interact with the installation, they discover implicit sociopolitical structures of these nomadic fabric sculptures as well as their nomadic persuasions in regard to art and creativity. At 350 cm x 190 cm, each chador contains nine panels, six made of different nomadic fabrics. The rest contain black fabric, the same fabric used for traditional back chadors.

On surrounding walls, the Abjad-9 drawings suggest collective shapes vaguely reminiscent of the patterns of traditional Islamic art. Drawn in Persian ink and calligraphic pen, the drawings reveal the affect space between women in veil or chador, and the forces, folds and movements between them. These elaborately nested structures include half-elliptical shapes, the shape of a Persian veil when fully spread out. These shapes represent women in chador as seen from above.

The animation ninefold is a further visualization of these complex, subterranean relationships and spaces. Like the chadors and the Abjad-9 drawings, it is structured by the number 9, standing for the occluded relations between textiles, women, and the Middle East. In the Middle Eastern occult, nine is the number of unceasing collectivity - worlds created through the hidden bonds of spells and collective tides.

Alvanson's nomadic fabric chadors explore the interactions between black and nomadic fabrics. These include the differences and compatibilities between patterns, textures, and weight; explicit folding lines; and the distribution of sequins. The potentials inherent in each fabric emerge as islands of alliance or as folds of opposition between state and nomadic art in the Middle East.

Kristen Alvanson (born in 1969 in Minneapolis) lives and works in Shiraz, Iran. She attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and holds a degree from Sarah Lawrence College. Alvanson has exhibited in shows in both the United States and the Middle East. She will be participating in the upcoming International Roaming Biennial of Tehran. Her writing and artworks have been published in Collapse: Journal of Philosophical Research and Development, New Humanist, Frozen Tears III and will be included in an upcoming issue of Cabinet magazine.

For more information visit Alvanson's website at www.kristenalvanson.com or email Mohsen Nabizadeh of Azad Gallery at azadgallery@yahoo.com.

Posted: Monday, May 12, 2008

Sloane Miller ’93 Presents Worry-Free Dinners at Craftbar

Finally, dining out with food allergies doesn't have to come with a side of miscommunication and an after-dinner trip to the emergency room. Membership in Worry-Free Dinners enables guests to dine without dismay.  It is a dining club created for allergy-plagued foodies who find restaurant dining to be a harrowing experience. Worry-Free Dinners offers an intimate and safe environment in which to dine with similarly restricted diners at a pre-screened restaurant.

Sloane Miller, President, Allergic Girl Resources, Inc.,  created the niche-dining concept based on her love of food and regrets that, as a diner with severe fish and tree-nut allergies, dining out has been challenging at best. After much trial and error, Ms. Miller found restaurants and chefs that were only too happy to create safe meals for food allergic diners. Ms. Miller, who counsels people with allergies and is a health expert at ww.HealthCentral.com, is dedicated to finding ways to make life easier for food-allergic people.

Special menus with a range of choices for each Worry-Free Dinnersâ„¢ event are carefully planned in advance by the chef with valuable input from Ms. Miller.  Meals are open to a small group of 8-12 diners whose allergies are manageable and match the planned menu (e.g. wheat allergic diners would sign up for a wheat-free meal).  The camaraderie of dining with like-minded patrons is a key factor in the design of WFD. Ms. Miller gives tips on successfully replicating a positive dining experience and provides language to dialogue with chefs and restaurant management so that other restaurant doors open to allergic diners.

For more information about Worry-Free Dinners, please contact Sloane Miller: allergicgirl@gmail.com or at http://worryfreedinners.blogspot.com/

Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2008

Elena Karina Byrne’s ’82 New Book of Poems, “Masque” Released

Elena Karina Byrne has released a new book of poems, called "Masque". The book is available to bookstores through Consortium: www.cbsd.com

Here are some reviews of the book:

In verse simmering with sensuality, Elena Karina Byrne eloquently reveals, then carefully slices away, layer after layer of the masks we wear until our most secret selves are exposed. With imagery at once exotic and electric,
individual pretense dissolves in the service of revelation, and we find ourselves irresistibly drawn into an internal dialogue that is unabashedly intimate. Find here a voice that is like no other we know. ----- Tupelo Press

Each of Byrne’s poems begins with an epigraph, from sources as diverse as Sylvia Plath, Oscar Wilde and the Bible. These help direct readers as Byrne seeks to mine the heavy ore of identity and cart it out on the masks we wear at different times. Perhaps most intriguing is the close relationship of the body to the self; no Cartesian dichotomies for her. For example, “Invisible Blessing Mask: Night,” with its invocation of marriage as a means of addressing the desire to differentiate one’s self from the beloved while at the same time abandoning our identity in union: “It has dissolved on the skin / where you’d rather not / say the words for conjugation, / separate the verb from the tense / nor ever harness what happened to you / when night put the lights out / on the tongue. -- Sacramento News and Review. Read the full review: http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=654350

Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2008

Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00 Announces Next Playwrights Workshop

Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Joseph Caputo ’07 Wins $10,000 Grant in First Annual Entrepreneurial Media Studies Competition

Joseph Caputo, a 22-year-old Boston University College of Communication (COM) graduate student majoring in Science Journalism, won a $10,000 grant in the first annual Harold G. Buchbinder Entrepreneurial Media Studies Competition with the creation of a new Web site, www.sciencemetropolis.com.  

Out of four competing individuals/teams, Caputo’s web site was selected as the winner in March.  The site is a blog that supports visitor interaction – both in the digital and physical world. ScienceMetropolis.com aims to be an online community for “science hobbyists” in the Boston and Cambridge area.

Posted: Monday, May 5, 2008

David Lindsay-Abaire ’92 Wins 18th Annual Kleban for “Shrek” Book and Lyrics

New Dramatists has announced that Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire has received the 18th Annual Kleban Award for most promising musical theater lyricist for his work on SHREK THE MUSICAL, for which he is the book and lyric writer. He will be presented with the award at a private reception on Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

SHREK THE MUSICAL will open at the Broadway Theatre on Sunday, December 14, 2008. Preview performances for groups begin on November 10, 2008.

Posted: Monday, May 5, 2008

Laura Zeilinger ’95 Named Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services

Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Karla DiBenedetto ’02 Premieres New Film, “Trophy”

Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kay Chernush ’66 Announces Photographic Exhibit, In the Eyes of a Woman

As part of the series of exhibitions about the plight of victimized women across the globe, the World Bank Art Program is honored to invite you to the opening of the photographic exhibition, In the Eyes of A Woman by American Photographer Kay Chernush.

The exhibition explores the drama and complexity of human trafficking and sex labor and offers a rare glimpse into the lives of victimized women and children in Ghana, India, Italy and Thailand.  It is the third in a series featuring photographs of women and children by ten women photographers selected from artists who live, work, or were born in one of the World Bank's client countries, and whose work reflects the Art Program's goal of giving a face to the Bank's work in development. 

This installment of In the Eyes of a Woman is part of an overarching exhibition Borderless Captivity: Exploitation and Human Trafficking.

The opening date for the exhibition is Wednesday, May 7th, 2008, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Preston Auditorium exhibitions are on view from May 7th - May 30th, 2008 in the Preston, Main Complex Atrium and Main Complex Front Lobby, The World Bank Main Complex, 1818 H. Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

RSVP for opening is required for external guests by April 30, 2008 via artprogram@worldbank.org or (202)458-0333. For additional information, please call (202)458-0333.

Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Columbia Professor Lisa Anderson ’72 Named Provost of the American University of Cairo

The American University in Cairo (AUC) today announced the appointment of Columbia University Professor Lisa Anderson, a specialist on politics in the Middle East and North Africa, as its next provost.  Dr. Anderson succeeds Dr. Earl (Tim) Sullivan who has been AUC provost since 1998 and professor of political science at AUC since 1973.
 
As AUC's chief academic officer, Anderson will be responsible for shaping and implementing AUC’s academic vision and continuing to build the size and quality of its faculty.  As the region’s premier liberal arts institution, AUC enrolls more than 5000 students and has a full time faculty of 400. The university will be moving to a new $400 million campus this year.  
 
AUC President David D. Arnold said that the appointment of an academic leader of Anderson's stature is a reflection of AUC's increasing prestige internationally as an institution of higher education.  "Professor Anderson has been a leader in higher education in the United States for the past several decades," Arnold said, "AUC is fortunate to have attracted a respected academic and experienced administrator of her caliber as we prepare to embark on a second century of leadership in higher education in Egypt and the Arab Region."
 
"I am delighted to be joining AUC at a pivotal time for the university and for higher education in Egypt and the Arab world,” Anderson said.  “Thanks to its history of distinguished and far-sighted leadership, AUC is uniquely positioned to play a vital role in the development of higher education for the twenty-first century, not only in the region but globally.  I am privileged be a part of this venture."
 
Anderson is currently the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at Columbia University and is the former dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia.  Prior to being dean, she was the chair of the political science department at the university. She also served as the director of Columbia’s Middle East Institute. Before joining Columbia, she was assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University from 1981 to 1986. Anderson is the author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Columbia University Press, 2003), The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980 (Princeton University Press, 1986), editor of Transitions to Democracy (Columbia University Press, 1999) and coeditor of The Origins of Arab Nationalism (Columbia 1991).

Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008

Porochista Khakpour, ’00, Wins “First Fiction” Prize in the 77th Annual California Book Award

Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008

Jee Leong Koh MFA ’05 Announces New Poetry Workshop: “Liberating Forms”

Structure gives freedom. In this class we will play with traditional forms: sonnet, triolet, villanelle, and sestina, to free our memory and imagination to discover personal material and poetic resources. We will read the classics and contemporary re-workings of these valuable structures, and through them find our own voice and vision. This class will stimulate writers who are already familiar with these forms and welcome those who do not know an iamb from a trochee.

The workshop meets 5 times on Tuesdays, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM, May 20 - Jun 24 (except for June 10th). The cost is $175.00 for Members of the Jewish Community Center (JCC), $200 for Non-Members. Workshop will take place at The JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. For more information, or to register, please call 646-505-5708. You may also register online on the JCC website at: http://www.jccmanhattan.org/

Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008

Bernardo Ruiz ’95 Announces PBS Documentary Premiere

From Bernardo Ruiz: We are very pleased to announce the premiere of our first production, Roberto Clemente, for PBS’s award-winning history series, American Experience.
 
Roberto Clemente was not the first Latino to play in the majors, but he was the first Latino star to have a clear and lasting impact on the game of baseball. As an outspoken and at times controversial player, he helped to shatter stereotypes about Latinos and paved the way for the next generation of Latin American and Caribbean ballplayers.
 
In an era before players had handlers and press agents, Clemente was a bona fide humanitarian and activist. “If you have the chance to make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t,” he famously said, “You are wasting your time on earth.”
 
Please join us for the broadcast premiere on Monday April 21st at 9:00pm ET, after which a Spanish-language version will be available for free viewing online at
http://pbs.org/americanexperience.
 
Roberto Clemente features interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors David Maraniss (Clemente) and George F. Will (Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball) as well as journalist and author Juan Gonzalez (Harvest of Empire), Vera Clemente, Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, and former teammates. Golden Globe Award-winning actor Jimmy Smits (The West Wing, NYPD Blue) narrates. Written, Directed and Produced by Bernardo Ruiz.

Posted: Monday, April 14, 2008

New Worlds Theatre Project, Ellen Perecman ’75, Executive Producer, Presents “With the Current” by Sholem Asch May 1st - 18th at Center Stage, NY

New Worlds Theatre Project (Ellen Perecman '75, Executive Producing Director) Presents "With the Current" by Sholem Asch. As the ice begins to thaw, an uncontrollable river of passion and desire sweeps everyone up with the current. The production is directed by Marc Geller. It is also a World Premier English translation by Mark Altman & Ellen Perecman's adaptation by Mark Altman, Ellen Perecman & Clay McLeod Chapman ('00). Performers include: Alice Cannon*, Chandler Frantz, Jesse Liebman, David Little*, & Sarah Stockton*. Scenic Design by Aaron P. Mastin. Lighting by Stephen Arnold. Music by Topu Lyo.  Performances May 1 - 18, Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm;  Sundays at 3pm  At Center Stage, NY  48 W.21st Street, 4th Fl. (accessible by elevator). (* Member Actors' Equity Association and An Equity Approved Showcase, ** Member Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers)

TICKETS: $18 ($15 seniors and students with valid ID). Purchase tickets at www.newworldsproject.org or call SmartTix at (212) 868-4444. For more information on New Worlds Theatre Project, call 917.513-7620   

Posted: Monday, April 14, 2008

Rena Rosenwasser ’71 Reading at Tribute to Barbara Guest

Posted: Monday, April 14, 2008

Joanna FitzPatrick-Payne ’01 Announces Tribeca Rental, May - Sept

From Joanna FitzPatrick-Payne ’01: We are going to France!

Newly renovated 800 sq ft. Tribeca loft.
Elevator bldg. Warren St. Near City Hall park.
$4500/mo.

Photos available.  For more information, please contact Joanna at jpayne@funkydrummer.com or James Payne at fitz@westnet.com

Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008

Rachel Stolzman Publishes New Novel, “The Sign for Drowning”

Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008

Andrew Boscardin Presents Series of Musical Works, “Brass and Nickel”

Posted: Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Marian Hyun ’77 Announces New York Jazz Choreography Project

Posted: Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Matthew Schwartz ’99 Publishes and Promotes New Book of Poems

Matthew Schwartz '99 is doing an appearance at Barnes and Noble April 8th at 7:30 in Park Slope (267 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215) to promote his new book of poems.

For more information, check out: http://storelocator.barnesandnoble.com/eventdetail.do;jsessionid=F81ADA47AEA4C443F2458620BC7C5D44.worker2?store=2876&event=22706841

Posted: Monday, April 7, 2008

American Photo Best Books of 2007 Selects Linda Peterson ’69 Book

Posted: Monday, April 7, 2008

Thea Goodman ’91 Announces Pushcart Nomination

Posted: Monday, April 7, 2008

James Jack ’01 Receives Crown Prince Akihito Fellowship

Posted: Monday, April 7, 2008

Madeline Silber ’83 Exhibits Painting in New York Museum

Madeline Silber's painting, Sway, will be included in the 61st Exhibition of Central New York Artists at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute Museum of Art.

Juried by Thomas Piche Jr. and Marion Wilson

Exhibition Dates: April 5th - July 13th, 2008
Public Reception: Saturday, April 5th, 5 - 7p.m.

For more information on the exhibit, visit:
http://www.mwpai.org/museum/events/61exhibitionofcentralnewyorkartists/

For more information on Madeline Silber, visit: www.madelinesilber.com

Posted: Thursday, April 3, 2008

“Elvis & Olive”, first novel of Stephanie Watson ’01, published by Scholastic

Elvis & Olive (Scholastic Press), a middle-grade novel, is the first in a series for 9 to 12-year-olds.

Ten-year-old Natalie Wallis is a shy bookish perfectionist. Annie Beckett (age 9) is a wild tomboy liar. Why do these two very different girls become friends? Because they've got some serious spying to do.

Even the most dull-looking people do all kinds of weird, interesting things when they think no one's watching, Annie says. With this in mind, the girls form a secret spying club and start snooping on their neighbors under the code names Elvis & Olive.

By the end of their summer together, Elvis & Olive have uncovered a number of strange secrets about their neighbors. Eaten far too many freeze pops. And formed a friendship like no other.

Learn more at www.stephanie-watson.com

Posted: Thursday, April 3, 2008

Benjamin Blackburn ’86 Profiled in Sports Collectors Daily

Benjamin Blackburn '86 was recently profiled in Sports Collector Daily for his beautiful baseball sculptures. As the article states, Blackburn's works "are customized with an artist's creativity and a baseball fan's knowledge, intricate sculptures of the game's iconic players and other unique pieces stunning in quality and depth."

You can read the full profile of Benjamin, "Artist Sculpts Wooden Baseball Magic" at: http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/latest/artist-sculpts-wooden-baseball-magic.html

Samples of Blackburn's work can be viewed at his web site, Wonderboy Studios

Posted: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Jenna Esposito ’00 Nominated for MAC Award and Announces Two Upcoming Performances

Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008

Erin K. Orr ’96 Will Perform in “Perushka” at Lincoln Center

This April in Lincoln Center, Erin K. Orr will perform in "Petrushka