YaleWomen Initiative
Nancy Stratford '77 sent some details about a new organization for Yale alumnae:
YaleWomen is a new initiative for all Yale alumnae. This alumnae organization is inclusive of all women graduates of the college and graduate and professional schools. YaleWomen began in response to the very successful March 2010 conference on campus which was a Celebration of 40 years of Undergraduate Women at Yale and 140 years of graduate/professional school women at Yale. The response to this conference demonstrated that Yale women want to connect with other Yale alumnae for many reasons.
We are a grass roots organization that is growing in the major metropolitan areas. There are activities that have taken place and are underway in the major metropolitan areas including Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco,and Los Angeles. We are growing rapidly as awareness spreads and our organization has members of all ages and interests. We just held a strategic planning retreat in New York, and Yale women representing a range of ages from all around the country attended to begin the process of shaping a direction for the organization.
For more information, email Nancy at nstratford [at] nyc [dot] rr [dot] com.
Jim Kaplan's Tour of Hell's Kitchen, March 12
Jim Kaplan writes:
I am pleased to report that I will be continuing and accelerating my walking tour schedule and historical writing in 2011 with a number of new and exciting projects.
1. Hell's Kitchen: This spring, I will be giving a new tour on Saturday, March 12, the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, entitled Hell's Kitchen: A political history of the New York Irish. This tour is a revival of a tour I used to give in the 1990's with the legendary Jimmy McManus, the fourth generations of the McMani of Tammany Hall, who have controlled the area politically for more than a hundred years. It will contain new insights into the political history of the mid west side including how the people of Hell's Kitchen saved the theater district from collapse in the late 1970's, and how an allliance between the McManus Democratic club and a political faction known as the "West Side Kids" has elected both the assemblyman and Congressman from the area for the past 40 years. Click here to read my article.
2. Culture Now: I am now working closely with Culture Now, the Museum Without Walls, and an audio of all of my 2010 tours can be accessed on the Culture Now website. So for those few of you who missed them, you merely need visit www.culturenow.org/podcasts and you can listen to the four tours given in 2010---All-Night July 4, Harlem, Arrival Day (the history of the Jews in America) and the Great Crashes of Wall Street---in their entirety.
3. Financial History Magazine: To read a pdf of my article "Bruce and Wendy Wasserstein and the Revival of New York City in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries," click here. This article appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of Financial History magazine, published by the Museum of American Finance.
Richard Schottenfeld Hosts Dar Williams at Master's Tea
Yale Daily News gave us permission to post this article on a recent Master's Tea presided over by our own Richard Schottenfeld, Master of Davenport (h/t Glenn Murphy):
Dar Williams sings in Davenport
By Sharon Yin
Yale Daily News, Thursday, January 20, 2011
Folk singer Dar Williams spoke today at a Davenport’s Master’s Tea about her path to musical success.
Though she was sick with a slight cough, Williams still sang three songs, including “The One Who Knows,” “Iowa,” and “The Beauty of Rain.” She invited the audience to join her for “Iowa."
“There is nothing that beats someone that can get us all singing and together in this room," Master Richard Schottenfeld ’71, MD ’76 said at the end of the tea.
Williams talked about how she got her start at open mic sessions and her time as a day care substitute teacher, a job she does not recommend for musicians because the children are sick all the time.
She said she considered getting a master of fine arts degree so that she could teach or becoming a playwright, but ultimately each time continued her music career.
Williams said found that the most successful songs and the ones that propelled her career forward were those that were the riskiest and written on her futon. She could never be a sell out because her best was what she wrote on her futon.
“It’s important to locate yourself,” she said.
Williams said she finds inspiration in museums and movies and that songs usually take months and months to write.
“I don’t rush that,” she said, referring to the songwriting process.
As for those looking for advice on songwriting, “Finish them,” Williams said.
Photo by Sharon Yin
Shelley Fisher Fishkin Named Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities at Stanford
Congratulations to Shelley Fisher Fishkin on her recent appointment to a named chair in Humanities at Stanford. The university's Clayman Institute for Gender Studies announces:
Current Clayman Faculty Research Fellow Shelley Fisher Fishkin was named the Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities earlier this month. In addition to serving as a full professor in her home department of English, she also serves as the Director of the American Studies program at Stanford University. During her career she has published over eighty essays, articles and reviews and is an author, editor, or co-editor of over forty books. She is a preeminent scholar of Mark Twain, recently publishing The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work. She received her bachelors and PhD from Yale University and taught English and American Studies at the University of Texas for nearly twenty years before moving to Stanford in 2003.
During her time at the Clayman Institute, Professor Fishkin will be developing a new undergraduate course, ‘Feminism and American Literature’, planning a symposium to mark the fortieth anniversary of Ms. Magazine, and continuing work on her newest manuscript, Reading America (University of California Press, forthcoming).
Mike Hearn to Head Metropolitan Museum's Department of Asian Art
Congratulations to Mike Hearn on being named to head the Department of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An article by Grace Patuwo in the Yale Daily News of January 12, 2011 reports:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced yesterday that Maxwell (Mike) Hearn '71 has been chosen as the next Douglas Dillon Curator in Charge of the Department of Asian Art.
James Watt, the current chairman of the department, retires this June.
"Mike has long played a major role in the department," Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas Campbell said in a press release. . . .
Click here for the full YDN article.
Walt Mintkeski Holiday News
Walt Mintkeski writes (12/19/10):
Dear Friends,
As I reflect on 2010, it has been a rough year in terms of the World’s economic problems, ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Gulf oil spill, and slow progress on addressing climate change. These issues impact my efforts to restore and protect Oregon’s environmental quality.
Yet the Mintkeskis have much to make us thankful this year. Vicki and I are both healthy and happy. We enjoyed a 2 week escape to Maui in January, a week of exercise, meditation, and yoga in Palm Springs during February, a 3 week trip to Botswana and Cape Town, South Africa in April, and a 4 day summer backpack in the Wallowa Mountains with llamas carrying our gear.
We also enjoyed visiting our children and grandchildren. Lucia Blue Mintkeski arrived on October 8 to join her brother, Toby (2½), and her parents, Tyler and Maureen, in Seattle. And what a joy to have Toby calling us Grandpa and Grandma and speaking to us in complete sentences! We travelled twice to see (younger son) Charlie and Rachael in Missoula, Montana where they are enjoying remodeling their first house purchased in September.
Vicki stays busy with painting and teaching watercolor, tending her two chickens, visiting friends, and walking and exercising daily.
I am still working part time for Energy Trust of Oregon (doing energy efficiency for water and wastewater treatment plants), volunteering for environmental organizations, commuting on my bicycle, and racing my one person Laser sailboat. I decided to take my game up a notch by attending a racing clinic and regatta in the windy Columbia Gorge. I have never gone faster in my Laser or experienced more bruises and sore muscles! In October I enjoyed a more relaxing 5 day sail on a friend’s 40 foot boat through the Washington San Juan Island to Victoria, British Columbia.
So, that is our news. Vicki and I look forward to hearing from you and would love to have you visit us in Portland. Keep in touch, and best wishes for the Holidays.
Tom Cole in Documentary 'The Strange Demise of Jim Crow', February 24
The Yale Club of Houston invites alumni to a special film screening on Feb. 24:
On February 24th, we'll be featuring alumni Thomas Cole '71 and William Howze '67 in a film screening and discussion of The Strange Demise of Jim Crow, a documentary chronicling desegregation efforts in Houston, based on Tom Cole's book No Color is My Kind: The Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Integration of Houston. This is a unique opportunity to learn how student activists, local businesses, and black community leaders collaborated to desegregate Houston at a critical time in American history. We'll watch the film at 14 Pews, a unique micro-theater in the Heights. Reserve your spot by visiting http://www.yaleclubofhouston.org.
Barry Scheck and Innocence Project Featured in New Film 'Conviction'
The Innocence Project and our classmate Barry Scheck, the Project's co-founder, are featured in a new movie, Conviction, that opened this month. As described in a media release from Royce Carlton:
Attorney and DNA expert Barry Scheck is co-founder of the Innocence Project, dedicated to exonerating wrongfully imprisoned people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices.
This month, Mr. Scheck and the Innocence Project are featured in the film, Conviction, based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters (played by Hilary Swank) in her two-decade quest to clear her brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell), who was convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. After putting herself through college and law school, Waters joined with the Innocence Project (the role of Barry Scheck is played by Peter Gallagher) to seek the DNA testing that would free her brother.
Since its founding in 1992, the Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to exonerate more than 250 people, including 17 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release.
Eileen Shim Again Named Henry Scholar
Congratulations to Ji Hye (Eileen) Shim '12, who won scholarship support last year from the William A. Henry III '71 Scholarship Fund and has been named a Henry Scholar again this year. Carol Hobbs, Yale's Recording Secretary, wrote recently to Gail Henry:
For 2010-2011, the Henry Fund is again helping to support Ji Hye Shim, a member of the Class of 2012. . . .
Ji Hye, better known by her nickname Eileen, is now a Yale junior and has declared a major in literature. She returned to campus this fall after studying French in Switzerland and interning as a news writer with the Associated Press in Belgium. Over the past two years, Eileen has been a staff reporter for the Yale Daily News. She is now the associate editor of its offshoot magazine and online publication, and is also the junior web assistant for Global21, a network of student-run international affairs publications at top universities around the world.
Eileen has applied her journalism skills to other activities, as well, including serving as chair of the press corps committee at Yale's Model UN conference, and managing multimedia and online content for both the Security Council Simulation at Yale and our chapter of the international student organization AISEC.
Not surprisingly, she informs me that she expects her future to expand on her talents, stating, "I am considering the idea of pursuing a graduate degree in journalism or communications. If not, I also may consider internships or jobs in print or broadcast journalism and eventually making it my career choice."
Martin Rubin on 'Jet Age' by Sam Howe Verhovek
The Washington Times
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sam Howe Verhovek, Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World
New York: Avery. 272pp. $27.00 Illustrated.
Reviewed by Martin Rubin
We’ve all become so used to the quick march of technological innovation that it is salutary for readers to be reminded by this evocative and marvelously detailed book that the age of passenger jet air travel is only a little more than half a century old. Its author, Sam Howe Verhovek, a true globetrotter in the course of a long career as a journalist, has a way of conveying not only the dry facts about jet travel---how it boosted tourism exponentially and doomed the great ocean liners which had transported passengers overseas in such style---but also the excitement it engendered. . . .
If “Jet Age” has a hero, it is the Boeing 707, the first really successful jetliner, not only capable of flying the Atlantic non-stop but also carrying many more passengers---a hundred or so---than previous planes. The story of how, after decades of being bested by its rivals Douglas and Lockheed, Boeing sprang to the forefront with this huge success occupies much of “Jet Age” and is a fascinating mix of avionics and commerce. . . .
For Martin's full review, click here or visit www.washingtontimes.com.