2007 - 2008 News and Announcements from Alums Archive

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

The Eighth International Festival of Toy Theater is happening RIGHT NOW through May 31st. It is being presented by Great Small Works at St. Ann's Warehouse. Seeing this festival many years ago inspired me to make my very first puppet show and I am very proud to have helped with the programming for this year's festival! You must go! I can guarantee that you will be amazed, uplifted, inspired and amused. There are over 30 shows, workshops, symposiums, films, live music and The Temporary Toy Theater Museum.

For a complete schedule go to http://www.greatsmallworks.org

To buy tickets, go to http://www.stannswarehouse.org or call 718-254-8779.

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 Dinners events 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

The next playwrights workshop will be Sunday, May 18th at 6 p.m. If you're a playwright, actor, director, producer, or just a theatre enthusiast, please join the SLC NY Metro Alumnae/i Playwrights Workshop. Please RSVP To slcnymetro@yahoo.com for details and location.

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.

For more information on the production, please visit: visit www.shrekthemusicalgroups.com

Posted: Monday, May 5, 2008

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

Department of Human Services Director Clarence H. Carter today named Laura Zeilinger as the Deputy Director for Program Operations of the Department of Human Services (DHS). Zeilinger, an attorney with a longstanding commitment to underserved populations, will act as an advisor to the agency director on all aspects of program operations and be responsible for directing the department’s Income Maintenance Administration and the Family Services Administration.

Laura Zeilinger joins DHS after working as a part of the Health and Human Services cluster in the Office of the City Administrator where she served as liaison between the Mayor and City Administrator and the Department of Human Services and Office of Disability Rights. In that capacity, she was a key facilitator of the District’s policies and achievements in the delivery of homeless services. She developed a strategy for the implementation of the District’s Homeless No More Plan by identifying 2,500 units of permanent supportive housing and coordinating and directing the activities of the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Prior to that, Zeilinger spent much of her early career working on international economic development, managing a technical assistance project to reform the pension system in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Karla DiBenedetto ’02 Premieres New Film, “Trophy”

Karla DiBenedetto announced her new film, "Trophy". The film will have its world premiere at the 10th Annual Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, April 25th - May 4th, 2008. For more information about the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and to purchase tickets, please see http://www.mglff.com.

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

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books in search of the very best in literary achievement. Khakpour's Sons and Other Flammable Objects was the sole "First Fiction" winner. Fiction winners were Michael Chabon and Khaled Hosseini. They will all be honored at an awards ceremony in San Francisco in June. Visit www.porochistakhakpour.blogspot.com for more info and updates.

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.

For more information, please check out http://www.quietpictures.com

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 and Ellen Perecman's adaptation by Mark Altman, Ellen Perecman and Clay McLeod Chapman ('00). Performers include: Alice Cannon*, Chandler Frantz, Jesse Liebman, David Little*, and 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

Rena Rosenwasser will be reading at a tribute to Barbara Guest on April 26, 2008 at 1:00 p.m., at the Poetry Project (located at St. Mark's Church, 131 E. 10th St, NY). Barbara Guest (1920-2006) published over twenty volumes of poetry including The Countess of Minneapolis, Fair Realism and The Red Gaze, and earned awards including the Robert Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Society of America. Join John Ashbery, Charles Bernstein, Susan Bee, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Peter Gizzi, Kathleen Fraser (pre-recorded), Hadley Guest, Ann Lauterbach, Erica Kaufman, Charles North, Rena Rosenwasser, Richard Tuttle, Africa Wayne and Marjorie Welish in a celebration of Guest's life and work, as well as the forthcoming The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest by Wesleyan University Press. Co-sponsored with The Poetry Society of America.

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 fitz@westnet.com

Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008

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

Rachel Stolzman has published new novel, "The Sign for Drowning". This stirring first fiction is a poignant story of loss and healing that explores the frailty of family boinds, the limitations of language, and the ephemeral beauty of life. With intimate precision, Stolzman portrays one woman's fear of loss -- and longing for love -- while exploring the deeper secrets of a family's grief.

Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2008

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

Brass and Nickel is a series of new musical works composed by Andrew Boscardin to be premiered on June 20 at 8pm at the Chapel Performance Space, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, Seattle. The pieces – combining elements of jazz, rock, new music and improvisation – feature a unique ensemble with an emphasis on the low brass and the electric guitar and their combined range of sonic possibilities. Along with Boscardin on guitar, the band features Chris Stover on trombone, Jim Dejoie on woodwinds, Tom Varner on French horn, Mack Grout on piano, Jon Hamar on bass, and Brad Gibson on drums.

Combining ambient guitar sounds, carefully woven textures and a full harmonic palette, Andrew Boscardin's music draws equally from his love of jazz as it does his work as a composer and orchestrator. In addition to his work on guitar, Boscardin has contributed music for dance, stage and film both as a composer and performer.

Check out http://www.boscology.com for more information.

Posted: Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Marian Hyun ’77 Announces New York Jazz Choreography Project

Jazz dance, in its glorious variety, is the highlight of the New York Jazz Choreography Project, a semiannual dance concert featuring original works of jazz, to be held at New Dance Group. Dancers ranging in age from 15 to 50+ will perform the works of 14 choreographers, some emerging and some established. Artistic Directors Marian Hyun '77 and Merete Muenter choose choreographers with the goal of showing a wide range of jazz styles -- musical theatre, contemporary, funk, etc. -- that will appeal to all age groups. The strategy seems to be working because the previous shows have sold out. The performances will be on Friday, May 2nd, and Saturday, May 3rd, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 4th, at 2 p.m. at New Dance Group, 305 W. 38th Street (at 8th Avenue). Tickets are $15. For information and reservations, please call 212-369-8775.

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

Russell Lee Photographs, the book that Lisa Peterson co-authored with John Szarkowski and J. B. Colson, was chosen as one of American Photo magazine's best books of 2007.

Posted: Monday, April 7, 2008

Thea Goodman ’91 Announces Pushcart Nomination

Thea Goodman's story, "The Safety Bubble," published in Other Voices winter, 2007, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Posted: Monday, April 7, 2008

James Jack ’01 Receives Crown Prince Akihito Fellowship

James Jack has received the Crown Prince Akihito Fellowship to conduct additional language training and research on contemporary artists in Tokyo for two years commencing in Fall 2008.

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

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs has just announced the nominees for the 2008 MAC awards and Jenna has received a nomination for best female vocalist! Jenna also has two upcoming performances at the Metropolitan Room: Takin' A Chance On Love, on Sunday, March 30th at 7 p.m. and 13 Men... and Me! on Sunday, April 6th at 9:30 p.m. The Metropolitan Room is located at 34 West 22nd Street and each performance has a $20 cover and $15 minimum. For reservations, call 212-206-0440 or visit the Metropolitan room online at metropolitanroom.com

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", Basil Twist's puppet staging of the Ballet, with Stravinsky's beautiful music played live by two world class pianists. Erin will operate the arms of the Ballerina puppet in this piece.

This is the first time the show will be performed in New York since its premiere in 2001. The show runs from April 2nd through the 12th at 7:30 (Mondays are dark) and April 5, 6, 12 and 13th at 3:00 at Clark Studio Theater located in the Samuel B. and David Rose Building, 7th Floor West 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

The show will likely sell out. For more information and tickets go to www.lincolncenter.org

Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008

Clay McLeod Chapman's ’00 Premieres New Indie Rock musical, HOSTAGE SONG, on April 4th in New York City's East Village

HOSTAGE SONG is the new indie-rock musical and is a Horse Trade production. Stories and Book by Clay McLeod Chapman '00. Music and Lyrics by Kyle Jarrow. Directed by Oliver Butler.

Bound and blindfolded in a war-torn country, two hostages take refuge in music, memory and each other in this new indie-rock musical. HOSTAGE SONG is the new indie-rock musical developed by a powerhouse combo of downtown favorites: playwright and novelist, Clay McLeod Chapman (creator of the Pumpkin Pie Show), Kyle Jarrow (OBIE winning author of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, member of the glam rock band The Fabulous Entourage), and Oliver Butler (The Debate Society). Performed by Paul Thureen, Hanna Cheek, Hannah Bos, Abe Goldfarb and Clay McLeod Chapman '00 and backed by a live band headed by Kyle Jarrow and including Drew St. Aubin, Paul Bates, and Jonathan Sherrill.

The show runs from April 3rd through the 26th, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm. It will celebrate its opening night on Friday, April 4th at 8pm.

Tickets are $18.
**SARAH LAWRENCE ALUM DISCOUNT $15, use code SLCALUM. for performances 4/5 - 4/19**

To buy tickets, call SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or visit www.hostagesong.com

The show will take place at the Kraine Theater at 85 E. 4th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Aves., NY NY 10003.

Posted: Monday, March 31, 2008

Tovah Feldshuh ’70 Presents Show, “Tovah in a Nutshell”

EXTENDED THROUGH MARCH 22ND! ALUMNAE/I DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE!

TOVAH IN A NUTSHELL!

FEINSTEIN’S AT LOEWS REGENCY
PRESENTS
THE DEBUT OF ACCLAIMED ACTRESS/SINGER AND ENTERTAINER
TOVAH FELDSHUH

Her show "Tovah in a Nutshell!" runs through March 22. In this zany musical evening, Ms. Feldshuh sings songs from Gershwin to Judy Collins and inhabits a gallery of hilarious characters, ages 8 to 80, ranging from Grandma Ada in the Bronx to socialite Muffy Brooke Asthma Alsop on Park Avenue. She will be joined by her Musical Director Mathew Eisenstein on piano.

FEINSTEIN’S AT LOEWS REGENCY will play the following schedule: Tuesday through Thursday at 8:30 PM. The new weekend schedule will present shows on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM. The 8:00 PM and 8:30 PM shows have a $60.00 cover with new $75.00 premium seats, both with a $40.00 food and beverage minimum. The 10:00 PM shows have a $40.00 cover with new $60.00 premium seats, both with a $25.00 food and beverage minimum. Jackets are suggested but not required.

Now until March 22, SLC alumnae/i can call (212) 339-4095 and mention the code "Golda" to receive 20% off the following performances: Thursday, 3/20 at 8:30; Friday, 3/21 at 8:00; Saturday, 3/22 at 8:00. For the Saturday, 3/22 performance at 10:00, alumnae/i who mention the code "Golda" can save 50% off the performance price.

FEINSTEIN’S AT THE REGENCY is located at 540 Park Avenue at 61st Street in New York City. For ticket reservations and club information, please call (212) 339-4095 or visit us online at feinsteinsatloewsregency.comand TicketWeb.com.

Posted: Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Courtney Hunt's ’86 “Frozen River” Named Best Drama at Sundance

"Frozen River," a film about a struggling single mother in upstate New York who teams with a Mohawk woman to smuggle people across the Canadian border, is the first feature from director-writer Courtney Hunt. She adapted it from her own 2004 short of the same name.

The original script was selected as one of six finalists in IFP New York’s emerging Narrative Feature Script Section in 2005. It was also included in the Los Angeles Film Festival’s “Fast Track” Program in 2006. Shot in sub-zero weather in Plattsburgh, New York, in March of 2007, on Lake Champlain and surrounding areas, Frozen River stars Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Jr., Michael O’Keefe, and Mark Boone, Jr.

For more information, check out http://frozenriverthemovie.com/index.htm

Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Sandy Rosenberg ’77 performs in CANDIDE at NYC Opera in Lincoln Center

Sandy Rosenberg ’77 will be performing the role of the Baroness in NYC Opera's production of CANDIDE. It will be performed at the NY State Theatre in Lincoln Center April 8-20.

Posted: Monday, March 10, 2008

Erica Abeel ’58 Announces Publication of New Novel

"Conscience Point," a new novel by Erica Abeel, will be published Fall of 2008 by Unbridled Books. A talented woman becomes entranced with a mega-wealthy family in a story about a mysterious love with two faces.

Posted: Monday, March 10, 2008

Laurie Nadel, Ph.D. ’69 Announces New Weekly Radio Show

Laurie Nadel, Ph.D. is the host of "The Sixth Sense," a weekly radio show based on her bestselling book "Sixth Sense: Unlocking Your Ultimate Mind Power" (ASJA Press, 2006). Each program contains interviews with doctors, scientists, authors, detectives, and others who use their intuitive intelligence professionally. For more information, see www.webtalkradio.net

Posted: Monday, March 10, 2008

Adam Feder ’91 Releases Second CD

Adam Feder's second CD, Shul Band Instrumental, has been released. Its a mixture of klezmer folk grateful dead and traditional judaic melodies. Available from CDBABY or through email. Adam is the musical director of the SHUL OF NY in Manhatten and is about to tour in Berlin and Poland. Hear some music at http://adamfeder.com

Posted: Monday, March 10, 2008

Juliet Gentile MFA ’07 Announces New Workshop, “Pathways of the Heart: The Essence of Sufism”

Upcoming Evening Workshop at NY Open Center:

Pathways of the Heart: The Essence of Sufism
Presented by, Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi & Juliet Gentile

This evening we will discover, through direct experience, the essential ideas, practices and techniques of the Sufi tradition. Sufism, the mystical essence of Islam, has produced such luminaries as Rumi and Hafez as well as influenced the shape and scope of western mysticism in America today...

April 11th, 2008 7-10pm, 83 Spring Street, New York, NY

Members $35.00/Non-members $40.00

For more information please visit: www.opencenter.org or call (212) 219-2527 (ext. 2)

Posted: Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Monica Franciscus ’85 Announces Intensive Landscape Painting Workshops in the South of France

Have a memorable and inspiring experience painting in a quiet, mountain village in historic surroundings. Sauve is in the Cevennes, Languedoc wine region and is surrounded by vineyards and mountains. 6 Day sessions starting Mondays, with a welcome dinner the Sunday before are organized from July 13 until August 17. Sessions involve 6 hours instruction per day. All levels welcome.

The objective of the workshop is to build on each painter's individual strengths with a focus on color, space and composition, thereby getting painters to the next level. The classes will deal with specific and different issues each day. Instructor Monica Franciscus has been painting for twenty years and has taught at Cornell University's Johnson Museum.

For more information, please visit www.artbymf.com

Posted: Monday, March 3, 2008

Sarah Sarai ’97 Announces Publication of Her Poetry and Short Story

From Sarah Sarai: poems recently (2007 - 08) in Blackbox, Pank, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Potomac Review, The Minnesota Review, and The Threepenny Review. Poems just published in The Powhatan Review and The Columbia Review. Poems just accepted by Terrain:A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments, The Ester Republic, Numinous, and Juice: A Journal of the Ordinary. My poem "What I Choose To Remind You" has been published in Juice. See http://squeezetheuniverse.com/juice/sarai_remindyou.

Short-short just published in The Houston Literary Review. Download at http://thehoustonliteraryreview.com/february2008fictionissue.aspx .

See www.myspace.com/sarahsarai for updates, poems and stories to be published, and more astounding yet curious information.

Posted: Monday, March 3, 2008

Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00 Announces Next Playwrights Workshop

The next playwrights workshop will be Sunday, March 16 at 6 pm. If you're a playwright, actor, director, producer, or just a theatre enthusiast, please join the SLC NY Metro Alumnae/i Playwrights Workshop. Please RSVP to slcnymetro@yahoo.comfor details and location.

Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2008

Kay Chernush ’66 Releases Artist's Book, A Meditation on Breast Cancer

From Kay Chernush: My artist's book, "Self Examination," is a series of self-portraits in words and images about my experience with breast cancer. The book has metal covers and comes in a brushed aluminum box. It was designed by award-winning graphic artist Ethel Kessler, herself a breast cancer survivor and designer of the U.S. Breast Cancer postal stamp.

The images and a PDF of the book can be viewed on my website: www.kaychernush.com

It is available for $200, with half the proceeds going to a breast cancer navigator program for underserved women. Limited edition archival prints are also available.

Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2008

Laura Pawel ’68 Dance Company at Dance Forum, New York City

Laura Pawel Dance Company will return to Dance Forum, March 7-9, with a program that includes the premiere of "Better Than Being Guillotined," an offbeat group work to electronic music by Phil Stone. Pawel's longtime dance and music collaborators will be on hand for "Brambles," music by Barebones; and "Tangled Yarn," "Phoenix," "Griffins" (premiere), and "Sphinx," all with music by composer/pianist Eleanor Hovda, celebrating her 35th year of collaboration with Laura Pawel Dance Company. This is also the 40th year of Pawel's collaboration with Pamela Dover Finney (1962). Performances are at 8:30 pm, 3/7 and 3/8, and at 5 pm, 3/9. Tickets are $15 at the door. For reservations, call (212) 873-9073. Dance Forum is located at 20 East 17th Street, on the second floor, in New York City.

Posted: Monday, February 25, 2008

J. Keith van Straaten ’93 Presents STORY-TIME IN NEW YORK!

Monday, February 25 - 7:00pm
(Doors at 6:45)

Time Out New York Lounge
downstairs at New World Stages
340 West 50th Street (btwn 8th and 9th Avenues)

FREE - No Cover, No Minimum, No Reservations, No Nuttin.

Ophira Eisenberg and J. Keith van Straaten bring their new story-reading format on the New York storytelling scene with their innovative StorySwap series. A select group of writers read all-true autobiographical stories directly from the page. The twist? They read each others’ stories… and, they don’t know which story they’ll read until they walk on stage! Why? Find out!

Featuring:

*Frank DeCaro
*Jim Colucci
*Theresa Benaquist
*Eric Pliner
*J. Keith van Straaten
*Ophira Eisenberg

Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sarah Chun MFA ’06 Announces Multicultural Fellowship Recruitment in San Francisco

The San Francisco Foundation's Multicultural Fellowship Program provides professionals of color with challenging work experiences as a member of the Foundation's grant-making program staff. This year, the Fellowship Program is seeking one Fellow in each of the following program areas: Arts and Culture, Education, and Social Justice. The fellowship positions will commence in July 2008.

The deadline to apply is February 29, 2008. Visit www.sff.org for more information.

Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Laurel Lipkin ’79 Sponsors High-Profile Hillary Clinton Video

Laurel Lipkin ’72 sponsored the following video, in support of Hillary Clinton. The video is called "Real Solutions for Real Students" and profiles four students talking about the reasons they support her. It was launched on YouTube this weekend. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ofQRam--g

The Clinton campaign loved the video and will be using parts of it in a national effort this Thursday intended to show support by younger voters for Hillary. They expect as many as two million hits.

Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Joyce Lindorff ’72 Announces and Performs in the Music of SLC Emeritus Music Faculty member, André Singer

THE MUSIC OF ANDRÉ SINGER (1907-1996)

Performances will include saxophone, violin, flute, cello, harpsichord, piano, with special guests
JEAN AND KENNETH WENTWORTH
Admission is free.

Saturday, February 23rd at 3p.m.
Bruno Walter Auditorium
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, 111 Amsterdam Ave.

Please join our centennial celebration of the music of André Singer, SLC Emeritus Music Faculty member (1946-77). Singer's more than 100 orchestral, operatic, chamber and keyboard compositions are archived in the American Music Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The afternoon willfeature highlights from these works, performed by his friends. The afternoon was organized by SLC alumna Joyce Lindorff (’72), who is Singer's music executor. For information contact the NYPL at

(212) 642-0142, Joyce Lindorff at (215)204-2533

or log on to

http://www.nypl.org/research/calendar/prog/lpa/plistlpa2.cfm

Posted: Monday, February 18, 2008

Jenny Lane MFA ’97 Announces Premiere of Her Play: “Does Anyone Know Sarah Paisner?”

From Jenny Lane: I am so proud to announce the premier of my play, Does Anyone Know Sarah Paisner? which opens on Friday, February 15th and will run through Sunday, March 2nd. I have a wonderful cast and crew working on the production, so I hope you all can make it! Here is all the information on the production:

SHOW DATES & TIMES

Friday, February 15 - 8PM, Saturday, February 16 at 2 pm & 8PM Sunday, February 17 - 7PM, Monday, February 18 at 8 pm, Thursday, February 21 - 8PM, Friday, February 22 - 8PM, Saturday, February 23 - 2PM & 8PM, Sunday, February 24 - 7PM, Wednesday, February 27 at 7 pm, Thursday, February 28 - 8PM, Friday, February 29 - 8PM, Saturday, March 1 at 2 pm & 8pm, and Sunday, March 2 - 7PM

THE GENE FRANKEL THEATRE
www.genefrankel.com
24 Bond Street (and Lafayette)
Take the 6 to Bleeker, N,R,W to Prince
Visit Theatremania.com or call toll free 866-811-4111. Tickets are $18.00.

I hope you guys can make it! Visit www.sarahpaisner.com for more information.

Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2008

Madeline Silber ’83 Featured on “Behind the Art” online at WSKG.org

This is what they'll announce on the radio:

"Oneonta artist Madeline Silber is our featured artist on 'Behind the Art' this week. Visit Mixed Media, the arts and culture blog to find out more about her work and to explore the arts community in our region. Mixed Media, the arts and culture blog - online at WSKG.ORG."

Read the interview at: http://wskg.typepad.com/mixedmedia/

Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2008

Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00 Announces New Staged Reading on Martha's Vineyard

White Trash Intellectuals Presents:

The Salon: Working Progress
Katharine Cornell Theatre
54 Spring Street, Vineyard Haven, MA
Sunday, February 17, 2008
2 pm and 7 pm

Martha's Vineyard's White Trash Intellectuals is proud to present The Salon: Working Progress at the Katherine Cornell Theatre on Sunday, February 17, 2008.

In a one-day-only exhibition, four innovative New York writers will share their works in progress in two staged readings followed by audience Q and A. This event provides the audience with the opportunity to actively participate in their theatre-going experience, as well as shape the development of a work in progress through their honest reactions and constructive comments. The playwright not only gets to hear their work read aloud, they also get the feedback necessary to take that work to the next level.

Love is the Proof, written by Elizabeth Dembrowsky, explores how a single, seemingly bizarre event affects the lives of those who see it in different ways. After a young woman is arrested for spraying graffiti at Ground Zero, three characters, the arresting officer, the defense lawyer, and an unhinged young nun, all try to make sense of why someone would do such a thing and of what the graffiti means to them.

Worth, written by Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard, follows the memories of a woman who has just learned of the death of her estranged father. As she remembers their tumultuous relationship, she is forced to ask herself how she can find value in herself when she knows she was not valued by others. How much is a relationship worth?

Thomas Michael Quinn's Killer is a dramatic narrative about a small town man who moves to the Big Apple, learns the rules of survival, and begins a journey of self-discovery that takes him to a place more frightening than the city itself.

Sarah Cavallero's Ruby Films focuses on the struggles of a forty year old woman who is trying to have it all. The pressure is on as she juggles running her own production company with the demands of being a wife and mother. Yet the more she tries, the less she succeeds.

The Salon: Working Progress is an event not to be missed. There is no charge for the reading, though there is a suggested donation of $10. For further information, please contact Elizabeth Dembrowsky at dembrowsky@gmail.com.

Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2008

Emilie Miller ’01 Presents Play, Who Will Carry the Word?

The Red Fern Theatre Company Presents

WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD?
By Charlotte Delbo
Translation from French by Cynthia Haft
Directed by Melanie Moyer Williams

February 21 - March 2, 2008
Center Stage, NY (48 West 21st Street)

Featuring Lindsey Andersen*, Laura Anderson, Julia Arazi, Jarusha Ariel, Ilana Becker, Kirsten Benjamin, Alexandra Cremer*, Storm Garner, Nicole Grillos, Anaïs Koivisto, Kasey W. Lockwood, Mariya King, Laura Luciano, Sierra Marcks, Paige McDonnell, Emilie Elizabeth Miller, Adair Moran*, Dot Portella*, Kendall Rileigh*, Emily Riordan, Jacquelyn Schultz, Alicia St. Louis, and Christine Wolff

Based upon the true story of Charlotte Delbo, Who Will Carry the Word? depicts the lives of 23 women while they shared a barracks in Auschwitz. Their goal: to keep the strongest of them alive so that someone could share what they had experienced with the world.

The production team features direction by Melanie Moyer Williams, lighting design by Jessica Greenberg, set design by Adrienne Kapalko, costume design by Summer Lee Jack, makeup by Amanda Donelan, and Stage Management by Kimberly J. Weston. Press representation by Lanie Zipoy. Please call 646-284-3517.

Performance Schedule
Thursday, February 21 @ 8pm, Friday, February 22 @ 8pm, Saturday, February 23 @ 8pm, Sunday, February 24@ 3pm, Monday, February 25 @ 8pm, Thursday, February 28 @ 8pm, Friday, February 29 @ 8pm, Saturday, March 1 @ 8pm, Sunday, March 2 @ 3pm AND 8pm

Tickets
Tickets are $18 and can be purchased here, or at www.theatermania.com. Tickets are also available by calling 212-352-3101. Tickets are available at the box office the day of the show for cash only.

Philanthropy
Red Fern has chosen to partner with the Remember the Women Institute for this production. They are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that conducts and encourages research and cultural activities that contribute to including women in history. Special emphasis is on women in the context of the Holocaust and its aftermath, including post-World War II immigration. Learn more about them at www.rememberwomen.org.

Posted: Monday, February 11, 2008

Alexandra Devin Vicich ’98 Presents The Evolution of the Independent Woman in Society

Why Theatre Company presents four readings.

02/15/08: The Heiress (1850-52)
02/22/08: A Doll's House (1879)
02/29/08: Cactus Flower (1965)
03/07/08: Lilith (1980's - 2007)

Doors open at 7PM, come and mingle, readings will start around 7:15. Enjoy wine, hear the reading of a play, and participate in a discussion afterwards! Four Friday evenings at Where Eagles Dare Studios, 347 W 36th St (8th/9th), 13th Fl, Rm Goose

Admission to the series is FREE!

Call 212-604-4397 if you would like more information.

Posted: Monday, February 11, 2008

Martha Mendelsohn ’64 Announces SLC Alumnae/i Prose Writers Group Has Two Openings

From Martha Mendelsohn: The ongoing SLC alumnae/i prose writers group has two openings. We meet one Tuesday a month at participants' homes in Manhattan. Work is emailed beforehand and read aloud at each meeting. Active, committed writers of fiction or non-fiction are welcome. Next meeting is February 26. Please contact Martha Mendelsohn at marthamend@aol.com .

Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Madeline Silber ’83 Announces New Solo Painting Exhibition, Entanglements

Madeline Silber presents a solo painting exhibition entitled, "Entanglements". The exhibit will take place at the Fine Arts Gallery at SUNY College at Oneonta, from February 4th until February 29th, 2008.

The hours are from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, when classes are in session and by appointment. For more information, call 607-436-3456 or visit www.oneonta.edu/academics/art/gallery.html

Posted: Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Natalie Neal's New Novel Praised by Amazon.com

Natalie Neal's new novel, Best in the Whole Wide World, has been chosen as a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Award. Reviews may be submitted before March 2nd by navigating to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00126595W

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Tara James ’00 Announces Tenth Annual Women's History Month Conference

Tenth Annual Women' History Month Conference: Black Power, Black Feminism: Black Women's Activism and the Development of Womanist / Feminist Consciousness in the Era Black Power

Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
Friday–Saturday March 7-8, 2008

This Conference is FREE and open to the public.

Traditionally scholarship on the Black Power era has characterized this time of renewed cultural and political nationalism and activism as an almost exclusively male domain. This has begun to change. Not only have scholars uncovered a long tradition of black women's activism before and during the Black Power era, but they have begun reevaluating the entire era as a result. Part and parcel with this period of activism has been the development of a Black feminist consciousness. If scholars have seen the seeds of this consciousness far earlier, the sixties and seventies were notable for organizing that recognized inextricable and complicated ties between categories of race, class, and gender. This conference seeks to sustain and enhance new scholarship that redefines the era, bringing the work and effort of women to the center.

Register and see the full program schedule at: http://www.slc.edu/womens-history/conference/index.php

Posted: Thursday, January 24, 2008

Estha Weiner ’72 Presents Workshop, Sculpting a Poem, at the Hudson Valley Writer's Center

The hardest thing to do is write what you intended to write. In this concentrated workshop, you will shape and reshape poems, respond carefully to fellow class members, perhaps respond to an exercise, stretch yourself towards the new and the traditional, in your own work and in the pleasure of reading other poets. Note: this workshop is for more advanced poets

Estha Weiner is co-editor and contributor to Blues For Bill: A Tribute To William Matthews. (Akron Poetry Series, 2005) and author of The Mistress Manuscript (Rivendell Press, forthcoming). Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The New Republic and Barrow Street. She is a 2005 winner of a Paterson Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for “Discovery: The Nation” Prize. Estha is founder and director of The NY Writers Nights Series for Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount Writers Nights, and a Speaker on Shakespeare for The New York Council For The Humanities. She is Adj. Assistant Professor of English at City College of NY, and serves on the Poetry/Writing faculties of The Frost Place, Stonecoast Writers Conference, Poets and Writers, Poets House, as well as The Writers Voice. She also serves on the Advisory Board of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center’s Slapering Hol Press. In her previous life, Estha was an actor and worked for BBC radio in the US.

The workshop will be held at The Hudson Valley Writers' Center, 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow, NY. To register, or for more information, call us at 914-332-5953 or e-mail info@writerscenter.org. General information and directions to the Writers' Center can be found on our website, www.writerscenter.org.

SCULPTING A POEM
with Estha Weiner
4 Mondays, 7 - 9 pm
January 28 - March 3 (skips Feb. 18 & 25)
Fee $180

The Hudson Valley Writers' Center
300 Riverside Drive
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591
914-332-5953 / Fax 332-4825
www.writerscenter.org

Posted: Thursday, January 24, 2008

Rasheed Bell ’96, Now Rasalus, Releases Brand New 5 Song EP and Will Perform in Brooklyn at BAM Cafe

Rasalus has a brand new 5 song EP out on KAWO Music, exclusively in the Netherlands and Germany. This is the long-awaited follow-up to his late 90's Universal Records release, the critically-acclaimed European smash, "prototype".

Rasalus will also be performing Friday, February 1st at 9:30 p.m. at The BAM Cafe in Brooklyn. Admission is free. (BAM Cafe is located at 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217.)

For more information on Rasalus check out his MySpace page at myspace.com/rachidisrasalus, on the web at www.rasalus.com or on youtube.com at rasalus/rachid-pride

Posted: Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Jenna Esposito ’00 Announces CD Release Celebration at Barnes & Noble in New York City

Jenna celebrates the release of her debut CD "Thirteen Men...and Me!" with a free concert and CD signing at Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center on February 6th, 2008. Seating begins at 5:30 and the half-hour concert begins at 6 p.m.The CD will be available for purchase through Barnes & Noble. (Barnes and Noble Lincoln Center is located at 1972 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.)

Posted: Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Jane Freeman ’71 Exhibits "Melville, Miniatures & More" at Art 101 in Brooklyn

It is with great anticipation that ART 101 announces the forthcoming exhibition of works by Jane Freeman.

Jane Freeman is a one-woman artists’ cooperative; painter, sculptor,book artist, designer, thinker, historian, writer, teacher and speaker. ”She is an artist in many ways, not least in her way with words” wrote Oliver Sacks.

She brings her myriad talents to ART 101 on January 25, with a series of paintings and essays inspired by reading “Moby Dick.”

The intense small wood panels evoke 19th century maritime New York. Eleven of Ms. Freeman’s famous miniatures, will also be exhibited, reflecting the 19th century theme. Two have been specially created for the exhibition: “The Spouter Inn; The Creaking Sign” and “The Spouter Inn; The Patchwork Quilt.”

Jane Freeman’s miniature stage sets have been shown both here and abroad. She is the recipient of a Pollack Krasner grant. She has exhibited internationally and has lectured and taught art and writing all over the US and in colleges in New York City. She is the author of “The Art of the Miniature” (Watson-Guptill, 02.)

The exhibition will up from January 25th through February 17th. There will be an artist’s reception on Sunday, January 27th, from 4 to 7 pm. An evening of reading Melville is scheduled for February 12, from 7 to 9 pm.

Art 101 is located at 101 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211. (Take L train to Bedford Avenue, walk south on Bedford to Grand Street, then walk west to 101. Studio is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. or by appointment: 718-302-2242.)

For more information, please visit Art 101's web site at: http://www.art101brooklyn.com

Posted: Monday, January 14, 2008

Sharon Langshur MS ’89 Publishes Book, We Carry Each Other

Sharon Langshur MS '89 is the co-founder of CarePages Inc., a Chicago-based healthcare services company that provides a nationwide web service for patients, their families, and healthcare providers (http://www.carepages.com). CarePages.com provided the inspiration for the recently released book, We Carry Each Other (Conari Press, October 2007). These stories of everyday heroes are meant to inspire a social movement in caring for those struggling with illness, loss and life’s challenges.

"'We Carry Each Other is a book for our time,” says Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution Health and co-founder of AOL. “Eric and Sharon Langshur give us a compassionate, caring and ultimately inspirational look at what we do and say when a loved one or friend is facing serious illness or loss." We Carry Each Other is a guide for anyone who has ever felt paralyzed by the difficulties facing another person and will help them to find the courage to open their hearts and spirits with the right words and actions when a spouse, child, parent, friend, neighbor, or colleague needs them most.

We Carry Each Other was written by Eric and Sharon Langshur with Mary Beth Sammons. Available wherever books are sold or through the publisher at (800) 423-7087, orders@redwheelweiser.com, or online at www.conari.com.

Posted: Monday, January 14, 2008

Gwendolen Gross MFA ’98 Leads Role Mommy Panel at White Plains Public Library

On Wednesday, January 23 from 7-9 pm, Role Mommy Events will present a panel discussion with women writers including Gwendolen Gross SLC MFA 1998, and author of The Other Mother, http://www.The-Other-Mother.com. The Other Mother is one of Role Mommy's list of must-read books for 2007 - "This compelling read paints a realistic portrait of the intense divide between a working and stay at home mom."

The other panelists are Jane Green, bestselling author of Second Chance, and Pamela Dorman, Editorial Director for Every Woman's Voice Press. The event will be held at the White Plains Public Library, located at 100 Martine Avenue, White Plains, NY. Register with beth@rolemommy.com

For more information, please check out the following web site: http://rolemommyevents.blogspot.com/2007/12/our-next-event-january-23-at-white.html

Posted: Monday, January 7, 2008

Adrienne Dawes ’04 Announces World Premiere of You Are Pretty

St Idiot Collective announces the world premiere of You Are Pretty, a dark comedy about a modern-day brothel written by Adrienne Dawes '04. Directed Jenny Larson, You Are Pretty stars Lee Eddy (Austin Chronicle's Best Actress 2003-2007), Cyndi Williams (Independent Spirit Award Nominee for Best Actress-Room), David Yeakle, Carra Martinez, Michael Joplin, Alan Metoskie and Travis Hale.

You Are Pretty will be performed as a site-specific production in a house beginning February 7th, 2008 and closing February 23rd, 2008.

Inspired by HBO's documentary Cathouse and the book Brothel by Alexa Albert, You Are Pretty invites audiences into the intimate lives of the women and men working in the Hippie Ho House, a legal brothel located in the rural town of Moundhouse, NV. Their struggle to find love within the harsh environs of the brothel is met with a biting sense of humor and feminist perspective of the legal sex industry.

You Are Pretty was first developed by Downstage, the Sarah Lawrence College student-run theater company in April 2004 and has continued development with a grant from Austin Scriptworks' Seed Support program and received readings/workshops by St Idiot Collective and Live!

Girls! Theatre (Seattle, WA). In 2004 the play was awarded the Lipkin Prize for Playwriting awarded by Sarah Lawrence College.

In the October issue of American Theater magazine local theatre artist Amparo Garcia Crow raves, "If I could be a young artist again, I would join (or offer my house to) Austin's busiest actor troupe St Idiot Collective. Their site-specific valentine this February is You Are Pretty by Adrienne Dawes, an earnest tale about the legal sex industry from a feminist perspective that has turned - how shall we say? - romantic."

Tickets will go onsale beginning January 28th, 2008 available online at http://youarepretty.eventbrite.com Admission to the opening night performance on February 7th will include goody bags filled with safe-sex products and gifts from project sponsors Early to Bed, Babeland, Bitch Magazine and Forbidden Fruit. Tito's Vodka sponsors the opening weekend party February 8th, 2008.

A limited number of press comps are offered for preview performances February 4th-6th, 2008 by special request.

DATES: February 7th - 23rd, 2008

TIME: 8pm

VENUE: Hippie Ho House brothel (see website for directions)

TICKETS: $14 regular admission; opening night $17 (admission includes goody bag) TICKET URL: http://youarepretty.eventbrite.com

For more information visit the company's URL at: www.myspace.com/stidiotcollective or contact st.idiot@gmail.com

Posted: Thursday, January 3, 2008

Gwynne Middleton ’01 Receives U.S. Student Fulbright Award

Gwynne Middleton '01 and now of University of Nevada, Reno has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student scholarship to Malaysia in Teaching English As A Foreign Language, the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently.

Middleton is one of over 1,300 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2007-2008 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. Since its establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 279,500 people – 105,400 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 174,100 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the United States – with the opportunity to observe each others' political, economic, educational and cultural institutions, to exchange ideas and to embark on joint ventures of importance to the general welfare of the world's inhabitants. The Program operates in over 150 countries worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, please visit our website at http://exchanges.state.gov

Posted: Thursday, January 3, 2008

The World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality invites Hilda Brown ’57 to present The Umbrella Project, a non-profit she founded in 1990

The World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality has invited Hilda Brown, founder and President of The Umbrella Project to present her project at the Congress in New Delhi, India on January 5, 2008. The Umbrella Project, a global 501 ( c)3 non-profit teaches children that they can make a difference through creativity. See www.umbrellaproject.org for more information on this 18 year old venture.

Posted: Monday, December 17, 2007

Mir Productions Presents Fetish: An Original Play by Joyce Wu

Mir Productions presents

Fetish

A New Play by Joyce Wu
Directed by Julianne Just '05
Featuring LeVon Fickling, Michael Lutton, Jacob Troy '05 and Joyce Wu

Thursday, January 10th through Sunday, January 13th at 8:00 pm,
Wednesday, January 16 through Saturday, January 19th at 8:00 pm
Sunday, January 20th at 2:00 pm

The Players Loft
115 MacDougal Street, New York, NY
Tickets are $15.00, visit www.smarttix.com for reservations, or call 212-868-4444.

A recent posting in the dating section of the craigslist.com claimed that "Asian women are the other white meat". The implication was that a white man and an Asian woman make the most common and socially acceptable interracial pairing. Fetish, a new play, depicts Matt and Sophie, a couple about to get married, who must contend with how much race and ethnicity still matter to them in an era after political correctness.

Sophie, perpetually feeling like an outsider, fears that his Wasp family will never fully accept her. Frustrated by her constant insecurity, Matt begins to lose sympathy. When Matt helps his best friend Dion, who is black, secure a job at the private equity firm where he works, his co-worker James assumes it is because Dion has benefitted from Affirmative Action-type quotas. When he discovers that Matt has arranged it, James decides to poison the friends against each other and to sabotage Matt's relationship with Sophie.

Exploiting stereotypes that Matt, like anyone, secretly harbors but would never admit having, James begins to suggest that Sophie is cheating on him with Dion. A contemporary twist on Othello, the play explores the ways in which people of color are exoticized and eroticized even by those who are closest to them. While the tragedy of Othello lies in the title character's capitulation to the violent, barbarous caricature, Fetish portrays the tragedy that arises from subscribing to those very stereotypes.

Dubbed a "promising young playwright" by Backstage, Joyce Wu (playwright) studied with acclaimed playwright OyamO and graduated with honors with a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan. Her one act, Other People, was lauded by nytheatre.com as a "hellacious amount of thought-provoking fun."

For more information,please visit Mir Productions' web site.

Posted: Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Susan Yankowitz ’63 Presents Staged Reading of New Documentary Theatre Production, "SEVEN"

Seven award-winning playwrights -- Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz -- have created a collaborative work for the theatre based upon personal interviews and oral histories of seven extraordinary women whose work benefits the citizens of their diverse cultures: Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Guatemala, and Cambodia. The play is a testament to their extraordinary acts and common humanity in the face of injustice and violence.

It is about to have its premiere presentation in a staged reading at the 92nd St. 'Y' on January 21, 2008, directed by Evan Yionoulis, and with the support of Vital Voices Global Partnership:

" Vital Voices is proud to be collaborating with such distinguished playwrights on this groundbreaking work of documentary theatre. SEVEN has truly captured the important work and remarkable lives of a diverse and courageous group of women leaders. We hope the SEVEN stories will inspire audiences to commit themselves to changing our world for the better as well."

Date & Time: Mon, Jan 21, 2008, 8:00pm

Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street

Venue: Kaufmann Concert Hall

Code: T-TP5MS17-01

Price: $18.00 / $10.00 Age 35 and Under

Tickets can be ordered online at www.92Y.org -- you can check the 92nd Street Y website and look for SEVEN -- or by phone (212.415.5500), fax (212.415.5788), or in-person at the box office.

Posted: Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Hilda Brown's ’57 The Umbrella Project Invited to Present at the World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality in New Delhi India

From Hilda Brown, class of 1957: The Umbrella Project, a global children's art project, has been invited to present at the World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality in New Delhi, India. After 18 years of teaching children that they can make a difference through creativity, we are excited to be recognized by the International community.

Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007

Nancy Boulicault ’82 Launches Second Book in the Innovative Bilingual Series, One Plot - Two Languages

Radio Franglais, Nancy Boulicault's second book in the innovative bilingual series, One Plot – Two Languages, was launched at the Festival de Jeunesse at the French Institute in London on December 5^th, where she was a featured author alongside such luminaries as Michael Rosen, Quentin Blake and Daniel Pennac. Nancy will be touring North America (US and Canada) with her books and workshops in 2008. Middlesex University Press is pleased to offer a discount of 20% on books and workshops booked by referral from the SLC community. For more information contact Nancy at nancybou@dsl.pipex.com or info@radiofranglais.com.

Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007

Tamara Studniski ’95 Announces Production of Aladdin: A pantomime in the British tradition performed by the Qingdao International Drama Group

The Qingdao International Drama Group is staging their second pantomime directed and co-produced by Tamara Studniski. This year's cast has over 30 members from over 10 different countries. Half of our profits go to charity: Last year, we raised enough to send 15 local, underprivileged children to school.

The performance takes place on January 25th, at Qingdao Number 2 Middle School in the Shandong Province of China.

Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007

Judith Strand Chirgwin ’53 Offers An Opportunity for the Residents of the City of Naples, FL, to Have a Naples Town Meeting

The City of Naples has a population of approximately 20,000 people with about 16,000 voters. For over 75 years the City has attracted the most sophisticated and unpretentious of new residents. When developers built gated communities which now have about 400,000 residents outside the City of Naples in Collier County, the post office allowed the owners to use "Naples" as part of their US Postal address.

Those living within the City limits are now eager to preserve the small town character which brought them here. So beginning in January we will meet to share our interests at the Central Avenue Library at 5:30 pm on the 4th Thursday of each month. Anyone living in Naples who would like to strengthen our network is welcome and encouraged to join.

Everyone's participation will enrich our community. Please see what you can contribute to www.naplestownmeeting.com

Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007

Modern Adaptations of Yiddish Plays Never Before Available in English Just Published by Ellen Perecman ’75

Ellen Perecman '75 has just published a collection of Yiddish plays that have never before been translated into English. The volume, Selected Yiddish Plays Vol. I: Works by Sholem Aleichem, Sholem Asch, I.D. Berkowitz and Peretz Hirshbein, is now available at www.newworldsproject.org and Amazon.com for $16.95. All proceeds from the book go to New Worlds Theatre Project, Inc.

Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007

Eugenia Lovett West ’44 Receives Advance Praise for Her New Mystery, Without Warning

Praise for "Without Warning", the new mystery from Eugenia Lovett West '44:

"Engaging start to a new series... West spins a plausible tale, and flawed, grieving Emma makes an appealing heroine." - Publisher's Weekly
"Simply engaging from start to finish. Clearly a series on its way." - Lyme Times
"West... has a nice way with the material accoutrements of the privileged on both sides of the Atlantic." - Kirkus Reviews
"A delight!" - Rebecca Pepper Sinkler, former editor, The New York Times Book Review

A woman’s search for her husband’s killer plunges her into the high-stakes world of illegal weapons and global threats

Emma Streat had it all: a dream house, two beautiful sons, and a marriage to the successful—if workaholic—CEO of an important defense company. But when her CEO husband dies in a hit-and-run accident, she leaves her comfortable life along the Connecticut River behind to find his killer. The search plunges the dynamic ex-opera singer into an international high tech world where a new laser invention may become a global threat.

Using her talent for making unlikely connections, Emma becomes involved with an intriguing British peer who works undercover smoking out spies. Two physicists are murdered and a key notebook is stolen. Emma must keep her head, while mourning her husband’s death and bearing threats on her life. Her search spirals into a terrifying development—and surprising end.

Eugenia Lovett West delivers a thrilling mystery and a strong, appealing heroine.

Posted: Monday, December 3, 2007

Carl Atkins ’75 Publishes "Shakespeare's Sonnets With Three Hundred Years of Commentary"

Carl Atkins announces the release of his new book, "Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary". This is a fully annotated critical edition of the sonnets written without literary jargon and intended for serious students and general readers alike. It is only the fourth variorum edition of the sonnets ever published, and the first since 1944. It should appeal equally to those coming to Shakespeare's sonnets for the first time and those seeking a fresh look at an old friend. The book is published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press and is available on Amazon.com.

Posted: Monday, December 3, 2007

Rasheed Bell, Now Rasalus, Plays Joe's Pub on December 17th

Rasalus will be playing Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street between East 4th and Astor Place in New York City's East Village) on December 17th at 7 p.m. This event will promote Rasalus's brand new 5 song EP entitled, "my name is Rasalus" on KAWO Records out of Germany. He will also perform songs-from his critically acclaimed debut, "prototype". Rasalus will rock you!

Check out myspace.com/rachidisrasalus to keep up with Rasalus's whereabouts and goings-on!

Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2007

Jane Trigere ’70 Presents Show at Yeshiva University Museum

Local artist, Jane Trigere, has a showing of her art in a New York City museum. Her collective-collage, called "Encompassing Sukkot: Collected Memories", is on view until January 31st at Yeshiva University Museum in the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street).

See www.yumuseum.org for more details.

Trigere's collection of anecdotal Sukkot** memories come from all over the world. She searched for and made objects to represent these memories -- sometimes literally, but also evocatively.

Bound together, these visualized memories form another sort of story.

The viewer is an active participant. Can these varied memories encompassed within one frame bring visions of Sukkot to mind? Does it matter or detract from the experience if a few images are unusual or unfamiliar? And what of the viewers who have no memories of the holiday of Sukkot? Can they make something of this collage of images that is all their own?

Each memory has a distinct space of its own, but is also inscribed, and the author acknowledged, in a booklet attached to the panel. This 3-D collage-in-a-box is homage to the artist Joseph Cornell who single-handedly created this quirky art form in the 1930's through 1950's.

Why "Encompassing Sukkot" as a title?

On Sukkot, Jews shake the lulav and etrog (in tall right-hand box) in six directions -- a symbol of God's presence everywhere, and Jews always need to know where east is in order to direct their prayers toward Jerusalem. Therefore, a working compass is placed in the center. All sailors are taught to "box the compass", which means they must be able to name and locate 32 points on the compass.

Jane Trigere has lived in Western Massachusetts since 1991. She has worked with her husband Ken Schoen in his book business (Schoen Books) and was the founding director of Hatikvah Holocaust Education & Research Center in 1997. She has been active in the arts as a book binder, a graphic artist, a set and costume designer, a calligrapher, a cobbler, an eyeglass frame designer, an embroiderer, a painter, and a textile artist. She is currently collecting stories about ironing for another collective-collage. Contact her at jane@trigere.com. See www.trigere.com for more.

** Sukkot is the Jewish fall holiday that historians agree Thanksgiving was probably modeled on. Both holidays revolve around showing gratitude for a bountiful harvest.

Posted: Monday, November 26, 2007

Stephen Fife Presents His Play, Scattered Blossoms

Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared a studio and living space in the south of France during a six week period in 1888, pursuing their separate dreams of paradise. During those same six weeks, just a few hundred miles away, Jack the Ripper went on his killing spree. What did one event have to do with the other? Was it just metaphysical coincidence or are their times when the culture goes crazy? This play explores van Gogh’s “Japanese Dream” in search of answers.

STEPHEN FIFE’s productions in NYC: Primary Stages, Jewish Rep, Playhouse 91, Circle Rep Lab, Samuel Beckett, Hypothetical Theatre, La Mama, Alice’s Fourth Floor, Theatre for the New City. His adaptation of the Yiddish play God of Vengeance was recently produced in Tel Aviv after having been done several times in the US. This Is Not What I Ordered, an evening of comedies, is published by Samuel French. His theatre memoir Best Revenge was published in 2004. Break of Day, his play about van Gogh’s family, was produced in Hollywood in 1999. He is currently reworking that play while also writing the third play of his “van Gogh Cycle.” He lives in the Los Angeles area, where he is a member of the Actors Studio West playwrights/directors lab. For more information, please check out www.stephenfife.com

Play takes place on November 19th, at 7:30p.m. at 38th Street Studios (Primary Stages Studios, 307 West 38th Street Suite 1510, New York, NY, 10018)

Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2007

Eisa Ulen Richardson's ’90 debut novel, Crystelle Mourning, Now Available in Paperback

Eisa Ulen Richardson's'90debut novel, Crystelle Mourning, is now available in paperback. This profound and intense debut novel is the story of a young African American woman from West Philadelphia who finds her path to a bright future in gentrified Brooklyn, New York, blocked when she can't let go of the love she lost. With its deeply resonant depictions of urban African American life and the cultural forces that challenge and sustain their communities, Crystelle Mourning is a triumphant, lyrical beginning to a bright new talent in fiction.

Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2007

Porochista Khakpour ’00, Acclaimed Author, Reads with SLC Alums and Faculty in Two Events in NYC

Porochista Khakpour, acclaimed author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects (a New York Times Editor's Choice, and selection for Chicago Tribune Fall's Best), will be reading at two events in New York City.

Debut novelist Porochista Khakpour '00 will be reading with SLC faculty members and writers Melvin Bukiet and Victoria Redel on Saturday, November 17 at 4pm as a part of the Enclave Reading Series. See http://www.enclavianmatter.blogspot.com for more info.

On Monday November 19 at 7pm, Khakpour will also read with MFA '02 alum Dalia Sofer and writers Nahid Rachlin and Marsha Mehran for the Half King's "An Evening With Four Female Iranian-Amerian Authors." See http://www.thehalfking.com/calendar/2007/iran.htm for more info.

Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2007

Porochista Khakpour's ’00 Novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, Acclaimed in The New Yorker

The New Yorker this week gave Porochista Khakpur a very positive review:

"Khakpour explores ethnicity, nationalism, and post-9/11 fear—well-worn themes that are far less compelling than the exuberant originality of her style. The characters burst from the page in fiery exchanges, while their chaotic inner lives are conveyed with witty precision; a simple parting comment is accompanied by "a definite wink, a wink or maybe a squint, but a smile, possibly a grimace, more than a smile." Khakpour's comic sense of familial tensions—particularly father-son enmity—is infectious. . ."

For more, please check newsstands for the November issue.

Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2007

Monique Lukens MFA ’97 Is Grand Prize Contender for "Institute for Independent Music"

Placing "1st" in the "IFI Electronica Genre Contest," Monique Marissa Lukens '97& Jake Benson's "Wo Sind Sie" (Jake Heartache trance mix) is NOW vying for the "GRAND HONOR" of the IFIMusic.org/CONTESTS.

Please email your vote to Contest@IFIMusic.org. Type the # of your song choice in the email. (You may vote as many times as you like as long as you use a "different" email address each time.) Thank you for your support!!

Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2007

Denise J. Hart MFA ’99 Is Semi-Finalist in Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference

Denise J. Hart, Graduate Theatre MFA '99 is the 2007 semi-finalist in the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and The Lark Play Festival for her moving drama, This Joy.

Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2007

Emily Franklin ’94 Reads from Her Latest Book, How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights

Join Emily Franklin '94 for a reading from her latest book, How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights. Other authors including Steve Almond, Jill Kargman, Jonathan Tropper, and Adam Langer will read and sign copies at the Upper West Side Jewish Community Center at 7pm on December 10th.

Posted: Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Jeannine Jones ’98 Presents Plays, No Entrance and Blind luv

Dora Mae Productions presents a production of one-act plays written by Alec Miller and Evan Farber, directed by Jeannine Jones '98 and Rachael Evans.

Performances run from November 13th through the 18th at 8pm, November 17th also at 2pm.

Featuring: Matt Stapleton '05, Christopher Cole, Lexi-Cullen-Baker, Sherita Delgado, Helene Galek, TR Hayes, Ellen Haynes, Brandon Hillard, Samantha Jones, Montserrat Mendez, Theresa Rose, Benjamin Weaver, and Brad Zizmor.

Posted: Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Eugenia L. West ’44 Publishes Mystery Novel, "Without Warning"

From Eugenia Lovett West: "Exciting things happen, even when you're not the youngest kid on the block. My mystery, Without Warning, the first in a series, is being published in December 2007 by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press, using the name Eugenia Lovett West."

A woman. A murder. A mission. In Eugenia L. West's new mystery Without Warning, they come together to tell the riveting tale of Emma Streat, a dynamic ex-opera singer who has spent the past twenty years in Connecticut as wife and mother of two sons. But when Emma's mega-successful CEO husband dies in an unlikely hit and run accident, she starts her own hunt for his killer. She is plunged into the high stakes world of illegal weapons, global threats-and murders. She meets an intriguing British peer who works undercover to smoke out spies. But tracking down criminals is hazardous work and Emma pays a heartbreaking price.

Dominick Dunne, author of People Like Us, had this to say of the book: "...a fast-paced page turner...strong characters...interesting backgrounds with international flair. An engaging read."

Posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Tiffany Dugan ’92 Displays Book Art on Center for Book Arts Web Site

Samples of Tiffany Dugan's book art are now posted on the Center for Book Arts artist website. To view her work, please view the link at http://www.centerforbookarts.org/artistmember/bio.asp?artistID=1478

Posted: Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Kay Chernush ’66 Announces Human Trafficking Photography Exhibition

Kay Chernush's powerful images of sex and labor exploitation commissioned by the US State Department are featured with the photography of Howard G. Buffett, President of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Academy Award nominated director Robert Bilheimer, in an exhibition that puts a face on modern-day slavery and the worldwide problem of human trafficking. "These pictures are a dramatic representation of a crime that shames us all. Art is a powerful advocacy tool to motivate people to take action especially in the defense of women and children," said Mr. Antonia Maria Costa at the October 29th opening.

The exhibit takes place at the UN Visitors Gallery, 1st Avenue at 46th Street, New York, NY 10017, from October 29th through November 18th, 2007.

Posted: Thursday, November 1, 2007

Chiara Merino ’95 Announces Publication of Leer Para ti (Reading to You)

Chiara Merino announced the publication of Leer para ti (Reading to You) by Siri Hustvedt (Bilingual Edition, English-Spanish). The book was co-translated by Chiara Merino '95 and poet Julia Piera. The book was edited by Bartleby Editores, Madrid, Spain (May 2007) and the prologue was written by Eduardo Lago, SLC faculty.

The book was presented at the Instituto Cervantes in NYC by SLC Professor Eduardo Lago in April 2007 with Siri Hustvedt, Chiara Merino and Julia Piera.

Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Jee Leong Koh MFA ’05 Announces Publication of Poetry Chapbook, Payday Loans

Jee Leong Koh MFA ’05 published a poetry chapbook, called Payday Loans. The sonnet sequence is about work, love, sex, and migration. The chapbook was published by Poets Wear Prada, 2007. For more information, please visit http://jeeleong.blogspot.com

Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Linda Peterson ’69 Publishes Russell Lee Photographs: Images from the Russell Lee Photograph Collection

Linda Peterson served as editor, project manager and author (many hats!) for a recent University of Texas Press 2007 book, Russell Lee Photographs: Images from the Russell Lee Photograph Collection. URL for more information is: http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/leerus.html .

Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

"SCREWBALLS" in Los Angeles Features Three SLC Alums

"Screwballs", a brand new stage comedy written and directed by Jonathan Edelman ('76), produced by Alexander Edelman ('06) and starring Martha Gehman ('78) is now playing at the Odyssey Theatre in West LA, at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd.

The play, which takes off from the screwball movies of the 1930's, involves role reversal, gender swapping and identity confusion in a story about a divorced couple and a cast of lunatic supporting characters who get mixed up in their lives.

The play runs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at 8:00p.m. and every Sunday at 7:00p.m now through December 15th.

General admission is $20.

To purchase tickets or for more information, please call (310) 477-2055 or visit the theatre online at http://www.odysseytheatre.com. Please visit the show's web site at http://www.screwballstheplay.com

Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Peter Ajemian ’89 Announces Soja Martial Arts Grand Opening

Friday, November 2nd
5:00pm - 10:00pm
Cost: FREE!

You are invited to drop by and see free, flowing martial arts demos every hour on the hour. Participate in brief seminars to see how our safe martial arts workouts feel with your body.

Traditional Martial Arts Demos on the hour every hour. Brief seminars for beginners, get a feel for some of our workouts. Professional holistic body workers discuss their work and offer free demos. Bring a friend and have a fun Friday evening after work.

Live music performances
DJ Music by Tom Thump and Blipsynch

Location: 2406 Webster, Oakland, CA, 94612
between 24th & 25th Streets
* 2 blocks from the newly opened Whole Foods Market in Oakland
* 1 block northeast of Lake Merritt
* 1/2 block from Broadway Autorow

For more information, please visit www.sojamartialarts.com or call 510.832.7652.

Posted: Monday, October 29, 2007

Kate Feiffer ’87 Publishes New Children's Book

Henry the Dog with No Tail, an illustrated children's book written by Kate Feiffer ’87, and illustrated by her father Jules, has just been published (Simon & Schuster). It is a funny tale about a dog that goes in search of a tail. His first stop, of course, is the tailor. Children who enjoy the book might also like www.henrydog.net

Posted: Monday, October 29, 2007

Gwendolen Gross MFA ’98, Acclaimed Author, Offers Free Writing Workshop

Gwendolen Gross - an award-winning writing instructor and author of The Other Mother: A Novel - is offering a free writing workshop. The workshop will be held at Bookends Bookstore in Ridgewood, Jersey from 7:30pm-9:00pm on November 2, 2007.

The workshop will begin with a review of the fundamentals of writing practice. There will be writing topics, discussion of craft and writing process, and a chance (no requirement) to read fresh work aloud. The workshop is for writers at all levels. Please bring a notebook and writing implements.

The workshop is free but advance registration is required. Register as soon as possible to guarantee your space by calling Bookends at 201-445-0726 or in person at the store. Purchase of The Other Mother is requested but not required.

Gwendolen Gross (www.The-Other-Mother.com) is the author of the novels Field Guide, Getting Out, and most recently, The Other Mother. She graduated from Oberlin College, was selected for the PEN West Emerging Writers Fellowship, and received an MFA in fiction and poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. Ms. Gross has worked as a snake and kinkajou demonstrator, naturalist, opera singer, editor, and mom. She lives in northern New Jersey with her family.

Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

New Novel For Moms, Book Signing Event with , Author of The Other Mother

Meet Gwendolen Gross, author of The Other Mother, for a book signing and Q&A. The book signing is on October 27 from 1-3pm at Bookends Bookstore in Ridgewood, New Jersey. BookList calls The Other Mother, "an electrifyingly complex and explosively gripping portrait of contemporary, have-it-all motherhood."

Event Details:
Date and Time: October 27, 2007, 1:00pm-3:00pm
Location: Bookends Bookstore - http://www.Book-Ends.com
Address: 232 East Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey(201-445-0726)
Directions: http://www.insiderpages.com/b/map/3718225888

Title: The Other Mother: A Novel
Author: Gwendolen Gross
Publisher: Crown Books
Website: www.The-Other-Mother.com

Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

New York Premiere of 1001 by Jason Grote, Produced by Elizabeth Jones MFA ’02

Page 73 Productions (led in part by SLC 2002 MFA Alum Liz Jones) proudly presents the New York premiere of the critically acclaimed play 1001, written by Jason Grote and directed by Ethan McSweeny. 1001 will be presented as a limited engagement from October 22 through November 17, 2007 at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue at 25th St). 1001 is Jason Grote's first New York City production. Page 73 produced last year's Pulitzer Prize nominee Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue by Quiara Alegria Hudes.

Mixing the labyrinthine wordplay of Jorge Louis Borges with the ideas of Edward Said and the slapstick comedy of Monty Python, 1001 hyperlinks Scheherazade's tales to contemporary Manhattan. Time blurs and reality is fractured and reconstructed in a world inhabited by characters whose identity shifts unpredictably and deliriously. With rollicking storytelling, a touch of magic realism, and even a little trip-hop music, 1001 simultaneously defaces and energizes A Thousand and One Arabian Nights to guide us through a tour of the dizzyingly precarious world of the 21st century.

1001 received its world premiere this January 2007 at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Variety praised the production, saying Grote's fertile imagination rolls back the stone guarding a treasure-trove of exotic language and romantic subject matter... and spreads a cornucopia of glittering ideas and magical effects in wide arcs throughout the theater.

General admission tickets are just $25.00, reserved seating tickets are $35.00 and student tickets are $10.00 using code STU1001 when purchasing.

Performances run from October 22 through November 17, Mondays and Saturdays at 8pm and Saturdays at 3pm. There is no performance on Saturday, October 27th at 3pm. Tickets can be purchased online at www.1001nyc.com or by calling (212) 352 3101. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Baruch Performing Arts Center's walk-up box office located at 55 Lexington Avenue from 10am-6pm, Monday through Friday and two hours before showtime. For more information, visit www.p73.org or www.1001nyc.com.

Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Ann Cefola Reads at Hudson Valley Writers Center

Poet and translator Ann Cefola (SLC 81, MFA 97) will read her work at the Hudson Valley Writers Center, along with poet Greg Delanty. Ann, the author of Sugaring (Dancing Girl Press, 2007) and translator of Helene Sanguinetti's Hence This Cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007), won the 2007 Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency at the Santa Fe Arts Institute and the 2001 Robert Penn Warren Award judged by John Ashbery. The 7:30pm event on December 14 is $5 and $3 for HVWC members.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Kate Barush ’03 Awarded Distinction, Oxford University

Kate Barush (class of ’03) has been awarded the high honor of Distinction upon completion of her Masters degree in History of Art and Visual Culture at the University of Oxford in England. She has also been awarded the Leverhulme Studentship for further study and is now reading for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at Wadham College, University of Oxford.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Symposium at CUNY Graduate Center on "The Art of Yiddish Drama" curated by Ellen Perecman ’75 in collaboration with Clay McLeod Chapman ’00

THE ART OF YIDDISH DRAMA: MODERNITY CONFRONTS TRADITION

A symposium with panel discussion and staged readings from Sholem Asch, I.D. Berkowitz and Peretz Hirshbein

Venue: Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
Admission: FREE

Date: Tuesday, December 18th, from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

English adaptations by Ellen Perecman ('75) in collaboration with Clay McLeod Chapman ('00). Readings featuring: Noah Bean*, David Little*, Suzanna Matalon*, Brianne Moncrief & Jesse Liebman - Directed by Barbara Rubin - Lighting by Sabrina Braswell - Production Design by David Birn.

Panelists: Rachel Dickstein (Artistic Dir., Ripetime Theatre Co.); Daniel Gerould (Theatre and Comparative Literature, CUNY Graduate Center); Stefan Kanfer (Author, Stardust Lost: Yiddish Theatre in America; Neil Pepe (Artistic Dir., Atlantic Theatre Co.; Alyssa Quint (Judaic Studies, Princeton); & Alisa Solomon (Dir. Arts & Culture MA Program, The Journalism School, Columbia)

Presented in collaboration with the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

For information: www.newworldsproject.org or 917.513.7620 *Member AE

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ellen Perecman ’75 Presents Staged Reading of Sholem Asch Play adapted in collaboration with Clay McLeod Chapman ’00 at The Jewish Museum

THURSDAY, 13 DECEMBER 7:30 - 8:45PM

WITH THE CURRENT by SHOLEM ASCH

A staged reading followed by "talk back"

Translation from Yiddish by Mark Altman & Ellen Perecman ('75) - Adaptation by Mark Altman, Ellen Perecman ('75)& Clay McLeod Chapman ('00) - Featuring: Noah Bean*, David Little*, Suzanna Matalon*, Brianne Moncrief and Jesse Liebman - Directed by Barbara Rubin - Lighting by Sabrina Braswell - Production Design by David Birn

Venue:The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue (at 92nd St.)

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students & seniors

Presented in collaboration with The Jewish Museum

For information: www.newworldsproject.org or 917.513.7620

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Sarina Simon ’70 Announces First Gaming Website Dedicated Entirely to 2008

My team just launched a new website called Whitehouse Countdown. As far as I know, it is the first gaming/community website dedicated entirely to the 2008 presidential elections. The premise of the website is that the upcoming elections are so focused on fundraising, that the little guy is more than ever voiceless in the process. But not at whitehousecountdown, where players sign up for free and raise virtual bucks for the candidate of their choice. The site's attitude is irreverent, non-partisan, and factual.

It's not the kind of product we ordinarily do and certainly not aimed at my generation, but I think just about everyone will get a giggle out of it. If you have a minute, take a peek at www.whitehousecountdown.com.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Gwynne Middleton ’01 Announces Fulbright to Malaysia

From Gwynne Middleton ’01: I wanted to share the good news that I received a Fulbright ETA to teach and pursue research in Malaysia in January 2008.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Karen Gibson Kelley ’62 Presents Exhibition of Mixed Media Work on Wood and Paper

Exhibition of Mixed Media work on wood from 1997-present and Collages on paper from 2007. Exhibit curated by Toni Parks, daughter of the Photographer/Director/Author/Composer Gordon Parks. The Gallery is located in the Bronx, at the College of New Rochelle at the Gordon Parks Gallery at 332 East 149th Street

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Melissa Crowe MFA ’97 Announces Publication of "Cirque du Creve Coeur"

From Melissa Crowe MFA '97: In April of 2008, Dancing Girl Press will publish my chapbook, Cirque du Creve Coeur.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Poet Ann Cefola ’81 MFA ’97 Participates in the NEA's Big Read - Multicultural

SLC alum Alice Walker was in large part responsible for resurrecting Zora Neale Hurston's work. As part of the National Endowment for the Arts' Big Read, a panel of multicultural writers will discuss Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Poet and translator Ann Cefola (SLC 81, MFA 97) will join journalist and novelist Angela Batchelor, poet and novelist Terry Dugan, poet and fiction writer Linda Simone, and essayist and novelist Sarah Bracey White to explore Hurston's masterpiece. Sunday, October 28, from 2-4pm, free; call 914-682-1574 for more information.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ann Cefola ’81 MFA ’97 Completes Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency

Ann Gregory Cefola (BA 1981, MFA Writing 1997) just completed a residency at the Santa Fe Arts Institute (SFAI). The residency, funded by the Witter Bynner Poetry Foundation and SFAI, is awarded to two poetry translators a year. The award allowed Ann to complete the translation of the fourth book by French poet Hélène Sanguinetti. See www.annogram.blogspot.com for Ann's Santa Fe photo journal.

Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Next NY Metro Alumnae/i Playwrights Workshop Meeting Announced

The next playwrights workshop will be Sunday, Oct. 14 at 6 pm. If you're a playwright, actor, director, producer, or just a theatre enthusiast, please join the SLC NY Metro Alumnae/i Playwrights Workshop. Please RSVP to slcnymetro@yahoo.comfor details and location.

Posted: Monday, October 8, 2007

Monique Lukens participates in this year's Billboard Dance Music Summit 2007 and Hosts Radio Show

Monique Lukens ("Unique Monique") participates in this year's Billboard Dance Music Summit 2007 with special guests (tba). The summit is Tuesday, October 9th and Wednesday, October 10th in Las Vegas, so if you are interested in attending and/or finding out more about the summit, there is still time! Log onto: http://www.billboardevents.com/billboardevents/dance/2004/index.jsp

Monique will recap the event all on Thursday, October 11th on her radio show, "Dancing Under the Influence of Electronica" (Dance Music with Intelligent Talk)midnight - 2:22am EST on WLFR on the radio and the web!

Tune in at: http://www.stockton.edu/~wlfr/mainscreen.htm(Click on "listen". A music player should begin playing the station's broadcast.), http://www.shoutcast.com (Type in WLFR in the search bar, then click "Tune in".) You may need to download Winamp to listen to either of these sites. Southern New Jersey area listeners may pick the show up live on the radio at 91.7fm WLFR.

Posted: Monday, October 8, 2007

Come see MILK-n-HONEY, Nicole Betancourt ’90 (Producer, Video Designer) & Bray Poor ’89 (Writer, Sound Designer)

LightBox is proud to present the world premiere of MILK-N-HONEY, a new multimedia play about the politics and pleasures of eating. MILK-N-HONEY runs from October 21, 2007 through November 18, 2007, at 3LD, 80 Greenwich Street @ Rector.

Tickets on sale now at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/18731, or call 1-800-838-3006.

Plan to stay after the performance for the After Show Cafe. Here you can sample delicious locally made treats, engage with authors, activists, and chefs, and take action to change our food system!

Find out about After Show Cafe events at http://www.foodtheaterproject.org/theater/cafe/

Posted: Friday, October 5, 2007

Dancer For Money: An Evening of Ten Minute Plays Features Works Written by Two SLC Alums,

Dancer For Money: An Evening of Ten Minute Plays features works written by two SLC alums, Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00 and Scott Ritter MFA ’04. Four of the plays are being directed by Ed Matthews MFA ’95. It will be performed at the Sargent Theatre at the American Theatre of Actors. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.smarttix.com. Reservations are also available by calling 347-726-8597. The website is www.dancerformoney.com

Posted: Thursday, October 4, 2007

Claire Jeanine Satin ’56 Announces Sale of Her Books to the Library of Congress

Claire Jeanine Satin ’56 announces: The Library of Congress has just acquired four of my bookworks. Two portfolios and two transparent bookworks. Two to the Rare Books Collection and two to the Hebraic Section. They now own five books in all. Also my work will be on exhibition at the Bridge Art Fair, London in October and I will be included in the Art Basel/Art Miami Fair in December in Miami Beach, FL.

Posted: Thursday, October 4, 2007

Porochista Khakpour ’00 Reads at Barnes & Noble, Brooklyn (Park Slope)

Porochista Khakpour will be reading from her acclaimed debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, at the Barnes & Noble in Park Slope at 7:30 pm on October 2nd. This is the first New York stop on her book tour.

This Barnes & Noble is located at 267 Seventh Avenue (at 5th St) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY 11215.

Posted: Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Joan Waite ’55 Performs Sounds of Inspiration: Schubert to Soul

The lyrical mezzo-soprano, Joan Waite, accompanied by pianist Drew Nielsen will perform a fifth annual recital called, "Sounds of Inspiration: Schubert to Soul" on Sunday, October 21st at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton. The concert begins at 3 PM. All proceeds will benefit the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) which last year received over $4,500.00 from Ms. Waite's 2006 concert. "As TASK undertakes its building program to expand its services," says Ms. Waite who often volunteers at TASK, "it needs all the support we can provide"

This year's program draws on the inspiration of sacred songs of assurance, the hope that good will triumph so often found in the popular songs of Broadway and soul by composers such as Richard Rodgers and Stevie Wonder, and finally the uplifting qualities of art songs by classical composers.

Posted: Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Elyse Pasquale ’98 Announces Her First Off-Broadway Play

Elyse Pasquale '98 has some exciting news: she has finally "made it" in New York City as a theatre producer and happily announces her first off-Broadway play, "Die! Mommie! Die!" The play stars and was written by the fabulous Charles Busch.Elyse is the Associate Producer of this exciting production, which will begin on October 10th at New World Stages (340 W. 50th Street) in Manhattan. Previews run from the 10th to the 20th and all tickets are $35.00.

Here are all the details:

Charles Busch's "Die! Mommie! Die!"
Starring Charles Busch and "As the World Turns" emmy-nominated star, Van Hansis
at New World Stages
340 West 50th St. New York, NY
Performances beginning October 10th
all tickets $35 before October 22nd (then $61 and $71, and premium seats for $91)
www.telecharge.com for tickets
show website: www.dmdtheplay.com

About the plot of "Die! Mommie! Die!"

A comedy-thriller steeped in the glamour of 1960s Hollywood, Die Mommie Die! tells the story of Angela Arden's hateful marriage to film producer Sol Sussman . Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, an out-of-work TV actor named Tony Parker, Angela gruesomely murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository. In a plot that reflects Greek tragedy as well as Hollywood kitsch, Angela's manipulative daughter, Edith, convinces her "emotionally disturbed" brother, Lance (played by Hansis), that together they must avenge their father's death—by killing their mother.

Posted: Monday, September 24, 2007

Jenna Esposito ’00 CD Release Party

Join Jenna as she celebrates the much-anticipated release of her debut CD, 13 Men And Me! From Bacharach & David to Duke Ellington, to songs made popular by the likes of such diverse artists as Ann Margaret, Paul Anka and The Fifth Dimension, there's a little something for everyone!

Jenna will celebrate the CD's release at The Metropolitan Room in NYC, located at 34 W. 22nd Street, on October 15th, at 9:30pm.

$20 cover + 2 drink minimum
EVERYONE IN ATTENDANCE ON 10/15 WILL RECEIVE A FREE CD!

Jenna will also perform at The Metropolitan Room, at 7:00 pm, on October 22nd and October 28th, 2007.
With Fortune Esposito (musical director) on guitar, Kelly Park on piano, Michael Blanco on bass, Brian Broelmann on tenor sax, Brian DeWitt on drums, and Kelly Esposito-Broelmann and Rob Langeder on backup vocals.
*Reservations highly recommended: 212-206-0440.

Finally, Jenna will also perform at John's Harvest Inn (633 Route 17M, Middletown, NY) on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 7:30p.m. $20 cover + $15 minimum. Everyone in attendance will receive a free CD. *Reservations highly recommended: 845-343-6630

Posted: Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Mari Rosa ’02 Announces Live Show at Twins in DC 9/27/07

"Rosa...is catching the attention of bossa nova and Latin jazz aficionados, who praise her voice as well as her multilingual song-writing skills" -- Russell Contreras, Boston Globe, May 6, 2007

On Thursday September 27, join me and my excellent 5 piece Latin Jazz band as we take the stage at Twins Jazz Club in DC. (Twins is located at 1344 U. Street, Washington, DC.) We will perform 2 shows at 8 and 10 pm and tickets are available for $10 per person.

It would be really lovely to see SLCers there, and I would be happy to extend back to you at any time.

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2007

NYC Department of Parks and Recreation Presents Diana L. Fortinberry ’81, Author of Shadow & Substance: A Mother Daughter Vision Quest

Exquisite. Raw. Mystical. Brave. Soulful. Soothing. These are words used by a quickly growing readership to describe this soul-bonded mother-daughter voyage. Their story/our stories unfold via poetry within the seven chronologically ordered sections of this book. Through their combined work, Diana and her deceased mother, Barbara, take you into the cavernous depths of sadness and despair, then swiftly pull you out and up into safety and joy—like rescuers hovering above with rope and harness.

This is a book of triumph over issues that have haunted and held back many amongst us: childhood physical and sexual abuse, rape, learning disabilities, mental illness, addiction, grief, cancer and more. It is self-help meets poetry, meets spirituality, meets healing. And it is a testimony to love and eternal bonds unbroken by the inescapable event some call “Death.”

Inspired by the teachings of their combined Native American, Christian, and Zen Buddhist voices whose imagery weaves its web throughout the 224 pages of this book, we find, through the healing power of Nature and love, strength to help us shed tired, old layers of skin; we are reminded that freedom and joy are our spiritual birthrights.

The authors’ intent with this work is to touch women and men of all educational, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, and it is doing that. The book is a “Vision Quest” whose mission is succeeding: To ignite our desire for freedom from our fears, our pasts, our demons. As we journey with the authors, we find ourselves opening the doors of heart and soul that we may or may not have known were closed.

The authors invite us to accompany them on this warrior’s walk, this healing voyage, as we cast our nets with theirs “upon the ocean to catch the falling stars.”

October 12, 2007 at 7PM

At the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center
3 Clarkson St. and 7th Ave. South
New York, NY 10014
This event is FREE and open to the public.

Book available at:
www.coldtreepress.com

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2007

Dalia Sofer MFA ’02 Releases Novel, "The Septembers of Shiraz"

Dalia Sofer's new novel, "The Septembers of Shiraz" is now available in bookstores and online

The novel has enjoyed remarkably positive press. Publisher's weekly wrote: "Sofer's dramatization of just-post-revolutionary Iran captures its small tensions and larger brutalities, which play vividly upon a family that cannot, even if it wishes to, conform."

Dalia Sofer will promote her new novel, "The Septembers of Shiraz", throughout the next few months.

Her appearances will include:

Thursday, September 27, 2007
07:00 PM
Strand Bookstore
828 Broadway 3 New York, NY 10003

Thursday, October 11, 2007
07:30 PM
Community Bookstore
143 Seventh Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11215

Monday, November 19, 2007
07:00 PM
Half King
505 W.23rd, New York, NY 10012

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2007

Erinina Ness ’05 Presents a New Show and Calls for Volunteers

Monarch. Manipulation. Murder. Macbeth.

During times of war, we are faced with death, boundless expenses and families torn apart. Many want to point the finger, searching frantically for a scapegoat. We all want to blame someone...but who?

Playing with text, plot and characters, The 'M' Game will explore Shakespeare's Macbeth by examining self-determination and manipulation versus fate as it relates to Macbeth's rapid rise to power and his equally rapid fall. Rethink notions of responsibility, the state of the nation and even your own actions.

Featuring Naomi Finkelstein, Genevieve Gearhart, Miebaka Johannes, Jarett Karlsberg, Jeff Kissam, Miriam Lind, Clinton Lowe, Scott MacKenzie, Cynthia Osuji, Christina Shipp, Lindsay Strachan, Mattie Whipple and Joyce Wu.

Stage Managed by Andi Cohen and Elizabeth Nielsen.
Designed by Marisa Champoonote, Hunter Kacsorowski, Erinina Marie Ness, E. I. Read and Elisha Shaefer.
Choreographed by Joyce Trotta with Fight Choreography by Carlo Riviecco.

The 'M' Game will be performed at the 14th Street Y Theater located at 344 East 14th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues on the following dates:

Thursday, October 11th-Sunday, October 14th at 8pm Wednesday, October 17th-Saturday, October 20th at 8pm Sunday, October 14th and Saturday, October 20th at 2pm

Advance tickets are available through Smart Tix at www.smarttix.com or by calling 212-868-4444. Tickets are $15.00 and will also be available at the door (with cash only).

Mir Productions seeks to break down cultural and language boundaries by exploring the interdisciplinary nature of art, through theater, dance, sound, film and visual art.

www.mirproductions.org

(Or check us out on MySpace and Facebook!)

Note from Erinina:

I am also currently seeking volunteers to run the bar, the box office, or come help out during load-in or strike. Mir Productions survives entirely on volunteer staff committed to producing quality art, so your help is greatly appreciated. Give me a call or an if you have anytime to give between October 8th and October 21st. Thanks!! And I'll see you at the show!

Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007

Marina Morrow, ’99, Playing Kate in The Taming of the Shrew in Springfield, MA

From Marina Morrow, ’99: I'm playing "Kate the Curst" in The Majestic Theater's fall production of The Taming of the Shrew. This will be my first play since grad school (at UC Irvine, from whence our new president came.)

The show runs from Nov 1st - Dec 9th at The Majestic Theater, 131 Elm Street, West Springfield, MA.

Posted: Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Porochista Khakpour's ’00 novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, Launches to Great Acclaim

Porochista Khakpour's first novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic), is now available in bookstores, as well as online.

The novel has only enjoyed considerable acclaim so far, topped of course by a very enthusiastic review from Sunday NY Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/books/review/Budnitz-t.html?ref=books

Khakpour will also be on Kurt Anderson's "Studio 360" NPR show in two weeks.

A 6-city book tour is also upcoming, from late September through October. Please check www.porochistakhakpour.blogspot.com for more info on readings, reviews, etc.

Posted: Monday, September 10, 2007

Orphans, A New Play by Joel Shatsky, Stars Ouida Maedel ’06

The illusion of an African American family's altruistic adoption of a five-year-old Vietnamese girl is shattered when a stranger from the child's past contacts them. With the shocking truth revealed, the family and child, now 17, must find a way to live with that truth or be torn apart. The play is set in the 1980s.

Ouida Maedel, ’06, stars as the oldest sister in the family.

Preview begin on September 14th, at 50 West 13th Street, NY, NY, at 7pm. To purchase tickets in advance, please visit www.theatermania.com.

Posted: Monday, September 10, 2007

Michael Haverty’s ’00 Haverty Marionettes presents William Faulkner’s ‘As I Lay Dying’

A mother's death triggers a farcical-heroic journey to the graveyard for one dirt-poor southern family. Piling the body aboard their rickety wagon, the Bundrens face raging flood waters, arson, physical abuse, and buzzards tempted by the smell of decomposing flesh in their quest for interment. With the combination of a fast-paced, kaleidoscopic structure, an ever-shifting point of view, and a heightened level of tragedy that approaches the comically absurd, Faulkner's novel, one of the greatest works of American literature, begs for adaptation to the puppet stage.

This inaugural production of Atlanta's newest puppetry company, Haverty Marionettes, uses hand-carved wooden marionettes, animated two dimensional portraits, silhouette film, and live musicians to explore each Bundren family member's inner desires and delusions.

The show runs from September 6th through the 23rd at New Street Arts, 121 New Street #4, Decatur, GA.

For more information, please visit www.havertymarionettes.org

Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007

Ellen Perecman ’75 Presents Staged Reading at The Jewish Museum

New Worlds Theatre Project, in collaboration with The Jewish Museum, presents a world premier staged reading of an English language adaptation of Sholem Asch's "With the Current (Mitn Strom)" by SLC alum Ellen Perecman '75, Mark Altman, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, and Clay McLeod Chapman on Thursday, December 13th, at 6:30pm at The Jewish Museum.

This semi-autobiographical play tells the story of a young father who makes a shocking discovery when he abandons his wife and child in search of a meaningful life.

Talk back with cast and director, Barbara Rubin, immediately following the performance.

See www.newworldsproject.org for more information.

Posted: Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Jon Grinspan ’06 Receives Positive Press for His Article in American Heritage

Jon Grinspan '06 has received positive press for his article in Americanheritage.com. The article, comparing the role of the Jeep during WWII and the role of the Humvee in Iraq today, is available here: http://www.americanheritage.com/rss/articles/web/20070801-jeep-humvee-wwII-iraq.shtml

The article has been mentioned on the web sites of Foreign Policy Magazine, Arts & Letters Daily, Haaretz Newspaper and in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007

Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard ’00 Announces Next Meeting of SLC Playwrights Workshop

If you're a playwright, actor, director, producer, or just a theatre enthusiast, please join the SLC NY Metro Alumnae/i Playwrights Workshop. The next meeting will take place on Sunday, Sept. 9th at 6pm.

Please RSVP to slcnymetro@yahoo.com for details and location.

Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007

Ann Patchett ’85 Presents New Book at Barnes and Nobles in New York City

Award-winning author, Ann Patchett '85 will appear at Barnes and Nobles at Lincoln Center at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 27th, to discuss her new book, Run.

Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007

Bob Lamm ’69 Presents The Joy of Improv Workshop

Bob Lamm ’69 presents The Joy of Improv, an improv comedy workshop for beginners and non-performers, in its seventh year at the City University of New York Graduate Center.Workshop sessions will begin on Wednesday, September 26th at 6:30 P.M. For the fall semester, there will also be sessions on October 24th, November 28th, and January 9th.

No performing experience is necessary; just a willingness to play, experiment and laugh with others in a relaxed, supportive atmosphere. Students can sign up for the entire series or attend on a single-session basis. To register, call the Continuing Education office at (212) 817-8215. For more information, contact Bob at blamm@blamm.cnc.net or (212) 874-3959.

Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007

Marlon Ka’ramuu Kush Williams MFA ’00 and T. Tara Turk MFA ’99 Screen Their Films at Raleigh Studios in LA

Marlon Ka'ramuu MFA ’00 invites fellow alums to an evening of thought-provoking, intensely passionate and poignant short films.

An Evening with The Black Op
Hosted by George Alexander (author of "Why We Make Movies")
with a special introduction by Charles Reese (James Baldin: A Soul on Fire)

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 7:00pm.

This will include his own film, K(no)w De:tales (18 min). This films is about a paraplegic woman who gambles on a chance at unconventional love when she consents to a blind date with her online suitor, "Dark Gable". This film is based on a short story by fellow alum T. Tara Turk, MFA '99.

T. Tara Turk '99 also wrote Love Aquarium (37 mins). This film follow three writers who create three separate stories about three couples deconstructing their myriad concepts, ideas, and ways of relating in this meditation on the complex theme of love.

The screening will take place at Raleigh Studios: Chaplin Theatre at 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038 (Across from Paramount Studios - Melrose & Van Ness).

Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Alison Brown ’72 Travels to India in October 2007 to the XXXIV Trienniel Congress of the International Alliance of Women

Alison Brown ’72will be traveling to India in October 2007 to the XXXIV Trienniel Congress of the International Alliance of Women (www.womenalliance.org)where she will relinquish her post as Secretary General. While there shewould like to make contact with any SLC graduates who are in Delhi (10.20. to 11.3.) Agra (10.22.) or Jaipur (10.23.).Alison can be reached at iawsec@liwest.at

Posted: Monday, August 13, 2007

Yvonne Isaac ’71 Honored at the Professional Women in Construction (PWC) Salute to Women of Achievement Awards

Yvonne Isaac ’71 was honored at the Professional Women in Construction (PWC) Salute to Women of Achievement awards luncheon on May 16 at the Yale Club. Isaac, an alumna trustee of Sarah Lawrence, is vice president/general manager of Full Spectrum of NY, a real estate development firm. Pictured are (L-R) Yvonne, third from left, and several other Sarah Lawrence grads: from left, Joy V. Jones ’71, former trustee; Susan Ulick ’75, who introduced Isaac at the award ceremony; Barbara Kolsun ’71, former trustee; Jackie Peu-Duvallon ’97, Alumnae/i Association Board member; and Wendy Samuel ’71, former alumnae/i trustee.

Posted: Monday, August 13, 2007

Katie Lippa ’95 Performs Stand-Up at Comedy Club in San Francisco

Katie Lippa has a stand-up comedy gig in San Francisco at the Punchline Comedy Club on August 12th at 8pm.She is flying in from Los Angeles for the show. Here's the info:

Punchline Comedy Club
444 Battery St.
San Francisco, CA 94111

Tickets: $12.50

To purchase tix, please visit: http://www.livenation.com/venue/getVenue/venueId/1555

Posted: Thursday, August 9, 2007

Nina Gibans ’54 Presents Cleveland Goes Modern: Mid-Century Residential Architecture 1930-1970

MOMA's 1932 exhibit introduced Modern Architecture to America and traveled to 10 cities. Philip Johnson, whose father was John D. Rockefeller's attorney and one of the exhibit's curators was from Cleveland and introduced Alfred Clauss to this region. Clauss designed models of SOPHIO Gas Stations and also an early house for Kenneth Bates, a premier enamelist. That house still stands and anchors the exhibit in the 30s. Regional architects trained by Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Breuer, Yamasaki, Louis Kahn and others came back here to design modern homes that have never been recognized. This exhibit honors the national American Institute of Architect's 150th anniversary. Created by the Cleveland Artists Foundation in partnership with the Cleveland chapter AIA, it is the first exhibit on this subject. There will be programs, discussions, and tours as well as a catalog.

The exhibit runs from September 10th through November 24th at the following address: 18701 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. Please check out http://www.clevelandmemory.org for more information.

Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Jennifer Fischer ’00 Runs for Peace September 16th

Jennifer Fischer will participate in "My Run for Peace" on September 16th, as she takes part in the Big Basin Redwoods Trail Run. Leading up to the Run, Jennifer will be raising funds for The Rebuilding Alliance (TRA). She invites everyone to check out her blog (http://jennifischer.blogspot.com) to find out more about the run and the important work of TRA.

Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Alison Rose Levy ’72 Presents Releasing Ancestral Sources of Suffering: A Workshop in Family Healing

Alison Rose Levy presents Releasing Ancestral Sources of Suffering: A Workshop in Family Healing. In this experiential workshop, current life, family, and relationship problems will be traced to broken heart connections of the past. Family healing can energetically reconnect people and instigate healing, while helping you to come to terms with loss and rediscover the love.

Coming together in a healing circle, workshop members participate in creating a living picture of an individual's family system, a method called Family Constellations and developed in Europe by Bert Hellinger. At first the system is revealed with all its blockages, then it is gently realigned, moving the system into a healthier configuration that benefits all its members and restores the flow of love and natural connection between family members. In the process, something very deep, at the level of the soul, is nourished.

Only one family member, working with other participants in the workshop, needs to be present to invoke his or her "family field". The evolution of each constellation is a guided unfolding of that family's unique path to self-revelation and healing, carefully supported by the facilitator and participants.

The workshop takes place on Saturday, September 29th at The Tibet House (22 West 15th Street) in New York City. Please register on the following web site: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/58239195

Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2007

The Business Journal Profiles Susan Stein ’74

The Business Journal recently profiled alum Susan Stein. Stein founded Strategies for Philanthropy L.L.C. in Milwaukee's 3rd ward in 2002. With her firm's motto as guide -- "Vision Focus Action" -- she advises clients in developing strategies to enhance philanthropy, organize and manage campaigns, and implement projects. Philanthropy L.L.C.'s client list includes Aurora Health Care, United Performing Arts Fund and YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee.

Stein has been active in the Milwaukee community since moving there from New York in 1987, participating on committees for United Way, Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Planned Parenthood and Mental Health America. She has created endowment campaigns for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee, the University School of Milwaukee, and most notably for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, where she helped raise $27 million.

Posted: Thursday, August 2, 2007

Benjamin Blackburn ’86 Exhibits New Work in Show Called "Diamonds Are Forever"

Benjamin Blackburn ’86 will exhibit his new work in a show called “Diamonds Are Forever” (that’s baseball diamonds) at Springfield College’s Becker Gallery from September 13th through October 19th. His work has also been in numerous other locations including the George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco and the Columbus Museum of Art.

Benjamin says “I began this project not long after 9/11/01, at a time when I worked on Wall Street. Like many people in the metropolitan New York area at that time, I experienced an enormous sadness in the days that followed and the bats became a sort of cathartic means of working through some of the grief I felt. I began working on what turned out to be a Yankee bat after a long September evening in Union Square Park on 14th Street in Manhattan, a place that was filled with thousands of pictures of people who hadn’t returned home or been located. I gave one of the first bats I made to a young boy whose father, a Yankee fan, had worked in the North Tower.”

For more information please go his web site www.wonderboystudios.com

Posted: Thursday, August 2, 2007

Diana Fortinberry ’81 Published Book of Poetry, "Shadow and Substance: A Mother-Daughter Vision Quest"

Diana Fortinberry published Shadow & Substance: A Mother-Daughter Vision Quest, an exquisite book of poetry that celebrates relationships, the natural world, and the journey toward healing.

Both Diana and her mother, Barbara, spent much of their lives struggling for empowerment in the face of abuse, alcoholism, addiction, and mental illness. Though Barbara passed away in 1994, the mother-daughter bond is woven throughout the women's poetry in this book. They've used their connection and encouragement of each other to emerge from the cocoon of depression, anxiety, and dependence.

Diana has beautifully arranged a collection of her and her mother's poetry into a curative body of work. As they've inspired each other, this collection will inspire other in their fights against their own demons. Diana has created a book that not only chronicles her own healing, but is a talisman to those who struggle that there is hope. As Diana says, "The spirit has two choices: to remain trapped in a prison of pain, or to walk, however falteringly, toward freedom." Shadow & Substance is a celebration of that freedom.

Posted: Thursday, August 2, 2007

Jeffrey Paul Bobrick to Perform at the Legendary Bitter End in NYC

Billboard Award winning singer-songwriter Jeffrey Paul Bobrick will perform at the legendary Bitter End in New York City (at 147 Bleeker Street, between Thompson and LaGuardia).

Bob Dylan played there in the 60's, Billy Joel in the 70's, Tracy Chapman in the 80's, Sarah McLachlan in the 90's, Norah Jones in the 2000's -- and now Jeffrey Paul Bobrick has the opportunity. Come join him for the JPB experience on Tuesday, August 14th at 8:15pm. The night will consist of new and old songs; he'll definitely do something you like!

Posted: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Derek B. Miller , Ph.D., ’92 Launches Book, Media Pressure on Foreign Policy

Derek B. Miller, Ph.D. launched his new book, Media Pressure on Foreign Policy, which was published by Palgrave/Macmillan (2007). Derek currently works with the United Nations in Geneva and runs projects, as Senior Researcher and Project Manager,at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). More information on the project he runs at UNIDIR can be found at: http://www.unidir.org/bdd/fiche-activite.php?ref_activite=337

Posted: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Rasheed Bell ’96 Releases Five Song EP and Will Perform at the Mercury Lounge in NYC

Rachid is now Rasalus and will be playing at the Mercury Lounge on August 14th. He'll be performing new material from his forthcoming five song EP due out this fall on KAWO Records in Germany and from the new album. He will also throw in a surprise from his universal records debut, "Prototype". Showtime is at 10pm.

Posted: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Taj Forer ’03, Launches Monograph, Threefold Sun, and Presents Solo Photography Exhibit

Taj Forer, class of 2003, will have a solo exhibition of his photographs at Yossi Milo Gallery North in New York City. The opening will coincide with the release party and book signing for a companion monograph, titled Threefold Sun, published by Charta Art Books.

In his monograph, Threefold Sun, photographer Taj Forer takes a warm and thoughtful look at some people and places influenced by the work of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the German artist-philosopher. Forer's color photographs of laundry lines, garden hoses, straw forts, rubber boots and kitchen tables are at once beautiful and banal. Beauty is where it might be expected (a wall of sunny children's paintings, a tree house), but more often where it wouldn't be (a slightly deflated yellow ball in a cement play yard, a sledding hill without enough snow). Utopia is waiting in a patch of sun, a smudge of mud, a chalkboard message professing heavenly joy, a little bit of blood in the small nostrils of a boy baptized with everyday dirt.

For more information, please visit www.tajforer.com

Posted: Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Monique Lukens MFA ’97 Hosts Radio Show, Dancing Under the Influence of Electronica

Monique Lukens hosts the radio show,"Dancing Under the Influence of Electronica". The show focuses on dance music and intelligent talk. Listen in at WLFR.fm, shoutcast.com, or on the radio at 97.1 for those in Southern New Jersey.

Be sure to tune in Thursday nights, August 2nd and August 9th for a chance to win free weekly passes good for this year's "International DJ Expo 2007". For more information, please view the Events Posted by Alums Listing.

Posted: Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Jackie Pardue Goldfinger's ’01 Play Premieres at the New York Fringe Festival

Jackie Pardue Goldfinger's ’01 play, The Terrible Girls,premieres at the New York Fringe Festival in August. The Terrible Girls is a wicked dark comedy of friendship, obsession, and Southern sensibilities. Two women battle for the love of one man, while the third guards his terrible secret.

The Terrible Girls will run from August 10 - 26, at the New York International Fringe Festival at the New School for Drama Theater at 151 Bank Streets, New York, NY (West & Washington Streets, Greenwich Village). Tickets go on sale at midnight on July 20th. They can be purchased online (http://fringenyc.org/basic_page.asp?ltr=t), over the phone (inside NY, 9am to 7pm eastern time at 212.279.4488; outside NY, at 888-FringeNYC), or at the theater box office at New School for Drama.

For more information about the show, please visit http://www.theterriblegirls.com

Posted: Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Brian Emery's ’07 Short Film Accepted to New Filmmakers Screening Series

Filmmaker Brian Emery's short film (and final Conference project at Sarah Lawrence), "Contrition", has just been accepted to the NewFilmmakers Screening Series at the Anthology Archives in New York City. The film will screen on Wednesday, October 3rd. You can find the listing at this link: http://www.newfilmmakers.com. (Just click on the "Fall Schedule".) If you'd like to see the trailer for the film, please check it out here: http://web.mac.com/brianfilm/iWeb/brianfilm/Contrition.html

Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007

Jennifer Woodward ’00 Announces Drawing Show Opening

Jennifer Woodward announced the opening of her drawing show, "Doppelganger", in Portland, OR. She extends the invitation to the show to her fellow alums! The opening will take place on Thursday, July 26th, from 6-8 pm at Redbird Studio/Haikuat 2827 NE Alberta St.,Portland OR.

The exhibit includes fifteen original pieces and a variety of prints for sale and will continue though August 28th.

For more information, please contact Jennifer at jennarty@gmail.com

Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007

Jan Simpson ’72 Has Launched a Theater Blog

Jan Simpson ’72, the former Arts editor of TIME Magazine, has started a theater blog, Broadway& Me, that chronicles the New York theater season and invites everyone who loves theater to log on to it at http://broadwayandme.blogspot.com

Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007

Susan Schwimmer ’76 Requests Photos, Film, or Stories About Grace Paley on Behalf of Filmmaker

Filmmaker Lilly Rivlin is making a film about Grace Paley, who taught at SLC from 1966-1988. If anyone among you took photos of her, or better yet, shot video or film of any activities that Grace was involved in; if Grace influenced you in a major way; if you have a story you want to tell about Grace, please contact Lilly at lilith@att.net.

Posted: Monday, July 16, 2007

Mira Spektor ’50 Presents: An Evening of Songs and Poems, Past & Present

The Montauk Library & The AVIVA Players present An Evening of Songs & Poetry, Past and Present: pieces by composer Fanny Mendelssohn, and new works by composer, poet & East Hampton summer resident, Mira J. Spektor '50.

The program will include a fifteen-minute opera, The Passion of Lizzie Borden. Music by Mira J. Spektor; libretto by the late Ruth Whitman. The New York Times called Ms. Spektor "an interesting composer" and praised her short opera about the famous murder, as "an impassioned duet for Lizzie Borden and her sister."

Also on program are six songs based on poems by Goethe (1710-1782), written and sung in German, three by Ms. Spektor and three duets by Fanny Mendelsohn. Musicologist Dr. Dorothy Indenbaum, co-author of the newly published, Gifted Sister: The Story of Fanny Mendelssohn, will provide background about the Mendelssohns and Goethe. If time allows, Ms Spektor will read some of her new poems.

Guest artists, Maeve Hoglund, soprano, Elizabeth Cernadas, mezzo-soprano, and pianist, Charity Wicks, all hold graduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. Like Ms. Spektor and Dr. Indenbaum, they are members of AVIVA Players, an organization founded in 1975 to sponsor performances of works by women composers of the past and present.

Free and open to the public.

Montauk Library
Meeting Room, Lower Level
871 Montauk Highway
Montauk, NY

Posted: Monday, July 16, 2007

Valerie Beller ’87 Presents Three Paintings in NYC Summer Group Show

Valerie Beller will have three small paintings in Clear Blue Sky, a summer group show at Aidan Savoy Gallery. The show opens July 12 from 7-10 p.m. and runs until July 29th. Please visit the gallery website at www.aidansavoygallery.com for gallery hours and more details. To see examples of Valerie's work, check out www.valeriebeller.com

Aidan Savoy Gallery

175 Stanton Street
New York, NY 10002
212.253.8308

Posted: Monday, July 9, 2007

 

July 12 Alum Event: Summer Cocktails and Pizza After Work

SLC Summer in the City

Please join fellow alumnae/i of all ages for Summer cocktails outdoors and free pizza in the East Village. Cash bar.

Date: July 12, 2007 Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm Place: d.b.a. 41 First Avenue, between East 2nd & 3rd Streets REAR GARDEN (inside if it\'s raining)

This is an informal gathering, and the garden is really popular. Please get there early; your help in securing space in the garden would be appreciated. Look for a table with SLC tote bags on it. RSVP's are welcome and appreciated. Call or email Jackie Peu-Duvallon '97 at 212 876 3973 .

Posted: Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Tavia Trepte ’04 Performs in Play, The Lunch, in New York City

The Lunch, a play by Alex DeWitt and directed by Judith Kenny, open Thursday, June 21st with alum, Tavia Trepte. The show will run from June 21st through the 24th, and the the 27th through the 30th. Wednesdays through Saturday performances are at 8pm, with the Sunday performance at 3pm.

Tickets are $15 at the door and reservations are recommended. To purchase tickets, please visit this link:
www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/134236

Location: Roy Arias Theatre
Times Square Arts Center
300 W. 43rd St Suite 506

Posted: Thursday, June 21, 2007

J. Keith Van Straaten ’93 Hosts "What's My Line? - Live On Stage" in Los Angeles

SLC Alum J. Keith van Straaten hosts and produces a live stage re-creation of the classic TV game show, "What's My Line?," featuring celebrity panelists, unusual occupations, and famous Mystery Guests. The fun goes down on Sunday nights at 8pm at the ACME Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles. "What's My Line? - Live On Stage" follows the basic format of the classic TV game show that ran for over 25 years: Four celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of a guest, asking only yes-or-no questions. The guests are all regular folks with interesting or unusual occupations --plus an appearance by a special celebrity mystery guest. Our show, however, is not broadcast; the only audience is the folks who show up in our 99-seat theatre. We do actually play the game with real people with real occupations and genuine celebrity mystery guests --the show is not scripted. Some of our previous Mystery Guests include Larry King, Drew Carey, Noah Wyle, Tara Lipinski, LeVar Burton, Lisa Loeb, Michael & Kitty Dukakis, and Shirley Jones. The press raves include: "This should be an L.A. institution!" --LA Weekly; "Witty... Charming... Stays true to its TV show roots..." --L.A. Times; "Spontaneous fun!" --Paper Magazine.

Much more info at www.whatsmyline.org

Posted: Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Richard Hochberg ’77 Presents New Show, Town Without Pity... The Songs of Gene Pitney

Richard Hochberg happily presents his first show in NY! This is a show that he conceived, wrote, and staged. It's the music of Gene Pitney sang by four of the smoothest guys in Hollywood. It's going to be in NYC for two nights only -- July 15th and July 16th -- and Richard would love to see some SLC alums there. For reservations, please call 212-206-0440

Please e-mail Richard at thehoch@aol.comand check him out on MySpace at townwithoutpitysingers.

Posted: Thursday, June 14, 2007

Jed Distler ’78 Performs at Make Music New York and Composers Collaborative Launches New Web Site

Celebrate the summer solstice with friends and family and the Mighty CCi House Band and Friends -- on Cornelia Street (between Bleecker and West 4th streets). CCi goes outdoors for this citywide music festival with an extended performance of Terry Riley's 1964 Minimalist Manifesto, in C. To view the complete list of singers, instrumentalists, and composers scheduled to participate, visit the events page at www.composerscollab.org/events.html.

Also, Jed Distler '78's Composers Collaborative launched its newly renovated web site at www.composerscollab.org.

 

Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Madeline Silber ’83 Exhibits Work this Summer

Madeline Silber '83 will show her work this summer at the following exhibitions:

Former Fellows of the Fine Arts Work Center, 1989-90, 1991-92, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, May-June 2007

Mohawk Hudson Regional Exhibition, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY, June-September 2007
http://www.albanyairport.com/3/gallery/current.html

Roberson Regional Art Exhibition, Roberson Museum and Science Center, Binghamton, NY, juried by Philip Pearlstein, June-September 2007

Made in New York 2007, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY, July-September 2007 http://schweinfurthartcenter.org/exhibits/2007/MadeinNY.html

Please visit Madeline's new Web site for more information and images of her work at www.madelinesilber.com.

Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Jenna Esposito ’00 Sings the Songs of Rosemary Clooney

Jenna Esposito '00 stars in:

A Hint of Rosemary: The Songs of Rosemary Clooney
Sunday, July 8th at 7 p.m.
The Metropolitan Room
34 West 22nd Street (Between 5th and 6th Avenues)
New York, NY

$20 cover + 2 drink minimum

Reservations: (212) 206-0440

For more information, visit www.jennaesposito.com

Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2007