alumni – Page 15

(By K Alshanetsky '17) Since graduating just last May, Jenny Fran Davis ’17 has become a published author with the fall release of her debut novel, Everything Must Go. The story revolves around Flora Goldwasser, a teenager from New York City who has just transferred to a rural, Quaker boarding school in her junior year. Through a collection of journal entries, e-mails and other archived materials, Flora pieces together her experience and lets readers into her tumultuous period of adjustment. Davis wrote the book in her freshman year of college and spent the next few years editing, before landing a contract…

She Makes Comics, a documentary directed by Marisa Stotter '13, and produced by Patrick Meaney '07 and Stotter, won Best Documentary at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International Film Festival, and was released on Netflix on Oct. 15. Also available on iTunes and Amazon Prime, the film tells the story of the women—artists, writers, executives, as well as ardent fans—in the comic book industry. The documentary has played at film festivals around the world since its release in December 2014. Both a thoroughly researched history—featuring luminaries such as Karen Green, the comic librarian at Columbia University, as well as women…

Brimstone and Glory is the feature-length documentary produced by Benh Zeitlin ’04, Dan Janvey ’06, Kellen Quinn ’05 and others, on the annual festival in Tultepec, Mexico, where pyrotechnics are the major industry. The weeklong celebration honors San Juan de Dios, patron saint of firework makers, and celebrates the artisans who dedicate themselves to pyrotechnics. Directed by Viktor Jakovleski, and edited by Affonso Gonçalves, the film is scored by Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer, the two who collaborated on the Beasts of the Southern Wild score. Dubbed “Best Documentary Feature” at the San Francisco Film Festival, Brimstone and Glory opens in…

Laura R. Walker ’79, P’21, president and CEO of New York Public Radio (NYPR), has an agenda: She wants at least half of the podcasts produced to be hosted or co-hosted by women. "We're making progress," she reported at Werk It 2017, an annual festival she helped to create in 2015 to give women the tools they need to become creative forces in podcasting. Walker came up with the idea after she’d read a report on this new medium and discovered that of the top 100 podcasts on iTunes, only 20 percent were hosted or co-hosted by a woman. "Podcasting…

(By K Alshanetsky '17) Author Daniel Handler ’92 enjoys a prolific career as a celebrated novelist, best known for using the pseudonym Lemony Snicket to publish A Series of Unfortunate Events. This 13-book series about three orphaned children and their increasingly tumultuous lives—which has been adapted for film, video games and, most recently, a Netflix series—established Handler as an appealingly sinister storyteller, a writer with a penchant for narratives without happy endings. The first episode of Articulate on PBS delves into some of Handler's inspirations and how he came to develop his dark approach to children's writing. In the clip,…

(By K Alshanetsky '17) As a woman of color in STEM, Najwa Anasse ’18 represents a minority in a field known for its lack of gender and racial diversity. Recognizing that the low interest among women and youth of color is largely the result of barriers to access, an increasing number of organizations and programs have been created to direct underrepresented youth towards science, technology, engineering and math fields. Anasse, who is double majoring in Neuroscience & Behavior and Biology, credits one such program, the University of California San Francisco’s Science Camp, for sparking her interest in STEM and inspiring her…

When CNN en Español journalist Maria Santana arrived on the island of Puerto Rico on Sept. 25, five days after category 4 Hurricane Maria tore over the land, she was eager to do her work—tell the stories of those in the center of the devastation and report on the efforts to support the victims and rebuild. But the situation was not what she expected, and—though her job has taken her to many places in the United States that had been ravaged by natural disasters—this was nothing like what she’d seen before. While she and the crew stayed at a hotel…

“My sister’s cancer might have been diagnosed sooner — if doctors could have seen beyond her weight,” wrote Laura Fraser ’82, in an article that detailed how medical personnel ignored her sister Jan's serious symptoms as the whinings of “a fat, complaining older woman.” The article, published on Statnews, a site focused on medicine, health, and science journalism and produced by the Boston Globe Media, received more social media shares, Fraser said, than anything else she has written. Fraser’s first book Losing It: America’s Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It (Random House, 1997) had given her a background knowledge of the biases that work against those with obesity and…

Charisse Lillie ’74, an attorney, member of the business community, and a lecturer on issues of diversity and corporate responsibility, will receive the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award during the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Minority Attorney Conference, “Advocacy and Fundamental Rights for Changing Times.” The award recognizes her accomplishments and dedication to the legal profession and the minority community through civil, community or legal service. Now the CEO of CRL Consulting LLC, she recently retired from Comcast Corporation, where she held senior-level positions. Higginbotham, who died in 1998, was a civic leader, author, academic and federal appeals court judge…

Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, who joined Wesleyan's faculty this fall as assistant professor of music, has been awarded a fellowship—better known as a "genius" grant—from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The announcement was made Oct. 11. The fellowship is a "$625,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative and creative individuals as an investment in their potential," according to the MacArthur website. Fellows are selected based on "exceptional creativity," "promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments" and "potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work." (more…)

Bobbito Garcia ’88 and DJ Stretch Armstrong are back broadcasting—just like they were in the ’90s. Except: It’s not student radio WKCR at Columbia University; it’s National Public Radio. It’s not in the 1 until 5 a.m. timeslot; it’s an audio-on-demand podcast. And the guests are not the as-yet-undiscovered hip-hop artists. In What’s Good with Stretch and Bobbito, the listener will find Garcia and Armstrong offering smart, lively conversation with trendsetters and cultural icons ranging from Chance The Rapper, to activists Linda Sarsour, to Stevie Wonder. (“The standout interview of my career,” says Garcia, “with the legend of legends.”) (more…)

Next time you’re seeking a caffeine fix in Starbucks, keep your ears open for a song by J.R. Rhodes ’90. Hers is a haunting alto voice—with a throatiness and rich, emotional depth reminiscent of Joan Armatrading—and the song, in a minor key, “Your Pillow,” was the first single released from her album I Am, due out Nov. 3. A music major at Wesleyan and a singer/songwriter since then, Rhodes had released three albums previously: Elixir (2011), Afriqueen Stare (2003) and Songs of Angels (1999). The high-profile single placement, however, is something entirely new. “A career in music can definitely be…

Davis ’17 Pens Debut Novel, “Everything Must Go”

She Makes Comics: Award-Winning Film by Stotter ’13, Meaney ’07 Available on Netflix

Zeitlin ’04, Janvey ’06, Quinn ’05 Produce Brimstone and Glory Documentary

WNYC’s Walker ’79 P’21 at Werk It: ‘Lean In to Podcasting’

‘Very Fortunate’ Handler ’92 Featured on PBS Series Articulate

Anasse ’18 Reflects on Impact of UCSF Science Camp

CNN’s Santana ’98 Reports from Puerto Rico: Desperate Shortages, Little Relief

Fraser ’82: When Fat-Shaming Precludes Medical Care

Lillie ’74 Receives Higginbotham [Hon. ’96] Lifetime Achievement Award

Assistant Professor of Music Sorey MA ’11 Wins MacArthur “Genius” Award

Garcia ’88 Joins NPR with Weekly Podcast: What’s Good with Stretch and Bobbito

“Your Pillow”: Starbucks Selects Single by Rhodes ’90