Big Night In! 2021

Big Night In! Honoroing Our Educators

Saturday, April 24, 2021

In loving memory of George Popovic March 1941 - January 2021

Letter From Corey Blay Lois Gelernt, Cynthia Rogers, Clint Ingram, Jay Fung, Susan Harris, Laura Swindler – just a handful of educators who have impacted generations of Manhattan Country School students. Since its founding in 1966, Manhattan Country School has attracted a special type of educator. Inside and outside of the classroom, MCS educators courageously bring their identities, cultures, and experiences fully to the community, work collaboratively with one another, build authentic relationships with each student, and inspire a love of learning and commitment to justice in every graduate. They change lives by ensuring MCS is a place where children feel seen, affirmed, and loved.

This year’s Big Night In! Living the Dream award honors MCS educators – past and present – for their unparalleled and indefatigable commitment to progressive education, environmental stewardship, and social justice. In a year filled with immense change, our educators have been a bedrock for the community. Their resilience, creativity, and passion have made learning enriching and joyful, both at home and in the classroom.

Tonight, we gather together to thank our educators for all they do for this beloved community that Dr. King dreamed of and Gus and Marty imagined when they created the school.

Manhattan Country School is proud to celebrate our educators who make the mission of the school come alive each and every single day.

In Solidarity,

Corey

Big Night In! 2021

Saturday, April 24 6:30 p.m.

Watch the virtual event: www.manhattancountryschool.org/bignightin

View the auction and share:

www.manhattancountryschool.org/bignightinauction Bidding closes Wednesday, April 28 at 11:59 p.m.

ABOUT

Manhattan Country School AND

Big Night In!

Manhattan Country School was founded in 1966 as an independent school where equity, social justice, a diverse community and the inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr. would form the basis for a robust, progressive educational experience for children. Today, under the leadership of Director Corey Blay, Manhattan Country School is neither an experiment nor a utopian vision, it is a reality - a school that reflects the socioeconomic, racial and ethnic diversity of New York City and provides all of its students with a high quality progressive education and a deep understanding and appreciation of our multicultural world.

Big Night Out! is Manhattan Country School’s annual spring benefit to support the innovative sliding-scale tuition program that underwrites the school’s rich socioeconomic diversity. The event, which includes the Living the Dream Mentor Award ceremony, helps us raise the more than $2 million needed to sustain our sliding-scale tuition program each year. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s gala is virtual and temporarily renamed Big Night In!

Our Mission Reflecting the vision of the Civil Rights Movement, Manhattan Country School teaches students in a community with no racial majority and broad economic diversity. Our goals for students are academic excellence, intellectual freedom, social awareness, self-confidence and firsthand knowledge of the natural world. MCS is unique among New York City independent schools in having a 180-acre working farm integral to the curriculum and a sliding scale for tuition.

Our Vision Manhattan Country School envisions its students as future leaders whose shared experiences in learning and activism inspire them to champion excellence and justice, compassion and peace and the rights of all people to racial, economic, environmental and educational equity.

Living the Dream Mentor Award Each year, Manhattan Country School honors excellence and leadership in progressive education, arts and sciences, social and environmental justice and community activism with its Living the Dream Mentor Award.

This year, we honor the educators of MCS. We celebrate MCS’ educational impact throughout the years and the educators who help make the school’s mission come alive every day. From city to farm, head teachers to assistants and specialists, and even our special visitors, MCS educators leave a lasting mark on the lives of their students. The leadership and creativity they have displayed in the face of a global pandemic offers another powerful example of their dedication to serving children and the community.

MCS educators are part of a long legacy of impact and innovation in progressive education that extends far beyond the walls of the school.

We are inspired by and grateful for all of the ways MCS educators have risen to the challenges of the current moment and are excited to honor and celebrate the long arc of that work this year.

Living the Dream Mentor Award

For more than 50 years, MCS faculty and staff have had a profound and transformative impact: • On the lives of more than 1,500 MCS alumni, their families and communities.

• On educators in training and the more than 1,000 teachers who have trained and interned at MCS since 1966. Most of these educators have gone on to teach and lead in public schools across New York City and the country.

• On progressive pedagogy and mission-aligned teaching practice.

More than 5,000 educators and administrators from public and independent schools across the nation and around the world have come to see what happens in MCS classrooms and been inspired to put this pedagogy into practice.

• On the day-to-day lives of the 292 current students and hundreds of families in the MCS community now.

Big Night In! 2021

Meet Your Presenters And Performers

Watch the virtual event: www.manhattancountryschool.org/bignightin

View the auction and share:

www.manhattancountryschool.org/bignightinauction Bidding closes Wednesday, April 28 at 11:59 p.m.

Presenters and Performers Master of Ceremonies Robert Reich

Economist, Professor, Author and Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

Robert Reich is a grandparent to a current MCS student and Emcee of Big Night In! 2021. He is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. In addition to his latest book, THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How To Fix It, Robert has written 17 other books, including the best sellers Aftershock,The Work of Nations, Beyond Outrage, and The Common Good.

He is a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, founder of Inequality Media, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentaries “Inequality For All,” streaming on YouTube, and “Saving Capitalism,” now streaming on Netflix.

Presenters and Performers Performer Nick Colt ‘82

Songwriter and Pianist; National Park Service Mechanic and Woodcrafter

Nick Colt has been involved in the Off, Off-Broadway scene for years. He started as a piano player in a Basementworks/Tribeca Lab Friday Night Review and later at Collective Unconscious performance space. Since then, he has written four musicals, all of which have had workshop performances and have been performed at FRINGE festivals in New York and Chicago. In his work, he has utilized a variety of media, such as puppetry, masks, video projection and avant-garde sound design. As a gigging musician, Nick has enjoyed success playing in venues around town. He is currently the piano player for his swing band The Cabinetmakers and is performing with Miss Jane and The Morning After Band.

Presenters and Performers Performers Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran Jazz Pianist and Mezzo Soprano Parents, Class of 2022

Alicia Hall Moran (vocalist) and Jason Moran (pianist) are proud parents of Manhattan Country School seventh graders Malcolm and Jonas. As musicians, artists and frequent collaborators, they have long enjoyed the community, support, and audience of MCS parents, kids, and alumni on stages small (Village Vanguard), large (Carnegie Hall), visual (Whitney Museum) and unusual (ice rinks)!

Presenters and Performers Performer Kai Williams ‘12 Poet and Writer

Kai Naima Willams is a storyteller, poet and performer based in New York City.

Her current work intersects her interest in pop culture/media with her own spiritual-magical practice and her scholarship in Black studies. She is the co-founder and executive director of Eat At The Table Theatre Company, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing actors of color with performance opportunities.

She is the 2018 winner of the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival Fiction Award and the 2019 recipient of the Monroe Prize for Excellence in African-American Studies and she has been honored by The National YoungArts Foundation and The New York Times. She is also the author of the chapbook He Tried to Drown the Ocean, I Waved.

Her writing has been featured in Mask Magazine, DRØME Magazine, Louisiana Literature, Stirring Lit, Abolition-Is and CRWN Magazine, and she has performed in showcases for Densho, Planned Parenthood, Sakhi for South Asian Women and as part of the Freshman Class at Bowery Poetry.

Shoutout to my Educators!

By Kai Williams ‘12

In the beginning, there was you and we Green, sleepy-eyed peering down into a box of chicks.

You planted each fluffy life in our palms, revealed The lesson plan: to nurture anything held in our hands Even the whole world. Even with other’s hateful hearts To be gentle, angry people.

To trace out the untainted parts And make space for them to grow As farmers grow the hardest seeds to harvest They say it takes a village to raise a child’s Bent head to the sky Train our eyes on the weather so we may read the future To see a ray cutting through a thicket of clouds And call it hope. Call it a way forward To believe in our forecasts, that any sun Spotted over head shall come so long as we keep moving towards it Children are told so many lies like, there are two types of people in this world like, worth is drawn in lines, and how easily we pick a side that “all” means less than “either” There’s a reason “order” begins with “or” So shout out to y’all, my truth tellers, cause y’all aint never lied Told us we can’t stand for nothing without “and” and “or” is another word for boulder, hard to erode once its in between Caught us building divisions in and out ourselves and knocked those structures took the bricks from our hands and showed us how to make bridges over walls Because of you I am a bridge And many paths, cause you said there are multiple directions And the most beautiful part of change is where we decide to go Because of you I know the way we make today tomorrow is to never stop marching

You must know how brave I find you, For being yourselves. For trading any question into exchange For instance, you let us use your first names That too is lowering a wall you made sure we knew the freedom songs, how at the end of every struggle sounds a promised glory And know that there is no such thing as a national language or a single story And know no melody is more central than our harmonies So every time I lift my voice to speak, There is still your chorus here, yourselves, reverberating all your villages are somewhere, raised and flourishing Even when my throat is dried of lyrics and legs wearied from the walk Please know, I am the way I am because you lead me up a mountain top And showed me how the sun Can illuminate a world where other is another word for one Is another word for all Is another word for family Is another word for community Is another word for garden Is another word for farm Is another word for school Is another word for a dream That’s realized every day that you rise and return to welcome us home So this poem is another word for thank you, thank you, thank you

Sarah and Rosi, You Showed Us Spring Even in the Longest Winter 4-5’s Oeste

Reese, Njeri, Thanks for diving into this wacky year with us.

Thank You! From 6-7s Oeste

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge -- Albert Einstein

Thank you to the artists of 7-8s Este - Rosalinda, Will, Leann and Liam

WHETHER OR

WEMARVELAT THE

JESSI CA BROUGHTTO 89S OESTE!

THANKSFORTHEWI LDRI DEOFA YEAR!

Nicole,

No matter how stormy the seas, or how arduous the journey, you guided us bravely through the uncharted waters of this year.

Thank you for always being the wind in our sails.

5th Grade!

S.S.

9-10s OE STE

“Thank you for being a great teacher!!” ~ Dylan, Finn, Haydée, Kaito, Kano, Lola, Madison, Maggie, Mia, Masao, Maya, Sydney, Syrus, Tamayo, Tamir, & Victor.

T

E

H

A

N

Y

O

U

K

C

S

C

T

E

A

R

S

!

From

th e

MC S

H

5t h Grade rs

ELLA BROOKLYN ARTHUR VRINDA FAITH MATEO RAFA MARCUS OSCAR FREDDIE AIDAN GORDON HAILEY NADIA ESTELLE JASPER LIAM LULU KAAJAL WINNIE LUCY ANTONI

Dear Shani, You welcomed us into your home and managed to find your way into each and every one of our hearts as well. We will never forget two amazing years of learning and growing with you, and, of course, all of the fun we’ve had.

With much love and gratitude, The 6th Grade Families

Thank You For Being Among Us !

Peter

Nassim

Cynthia Ava

Tom Maiya

Many Thanks

for

ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK

7th Grade

Myriam

The Altschuler Family Donna, Alan, Sari ’93 and Daniel ’96 congratulate this year’s Living the Dream Mentor Award honorees, MCS Educators, for over 50 years of impact on progressive education and the lives of MCS students, past and present.

Thank you!

We are proud to support Manhattan Country

School’s Big Night In.

Based in New York with an office in Shanghai, American Securities is a leading U.S. private equity firm that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues generally ranging from $200 million to $2 billion and/or $50 million to $250 million of EBITDA. American Securities and its affiliates have approximately $23 billion under management.

Dearest MCS Grandparents and Special Friends, we have missed you!

You are loved, treasured and cherished!

“ Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela

to

our amazing MCS educators!

T h e B et h k e F a m i l y

CCS proudly supports Manhattan Country School’s Big Night In! Virtual Gala

We partner with nonprofits for transformational change.

(212) 695-1175 | info@ccsfundraising.com ccsfundraising.com

The Elings-Haynie family extends our thanks to MCS faculty and staff whose teachings have prepared our alum, Altana ‘12 and Roscoe ‘15, to navigate this world and continue to inspire us all.

From Tom, Roxanne, Altana ’12 and Roscoe ’15

For lifting our spirits by giving us a glimpse of the beauty that can exist in this world, thank you MCS teachers and staff!

We are so grateful for this village!

Ali Mencin, Maida Galvez, Thomas ‘25 and Family

Thank you MCS educators for your hard work and dedication!

4 Hardscrabble H e ig h ts , B r e w ster, NY 10509 info@guardianv e te r in a r y s p e c ia li sts.com guard ia n v e te r in a r y s p ecialists.com

Guardian Veterinary Specialists is an independently owned, full-service 24/7 emergency and specialty care veterinary hospital in Brewster, New York. Our entire team is dedicated to providing the very best and most progressive care to all of our patients, and courteous service to our clients and primary care veterinary partners.

Our services include: 24/7 Emergency & Critical Care Blood Bank Program We're proud to have MCS Cardiology Alum Erika Gibson '86 DVM, Diagnostic Imaging & Lab Services DACVIM on our team of Board Internal Medicine Certified Veterinary Neurologists Neurology/Neurosurgery Ophthalmology Oncology Pets Get Fit Rehabilitation Services Surgery 4 Hardscrabble Heights, Brewster, NY 10509 info@guardianveterinaryspecialists.com (914) 704-3400 guardianveterinaryspecialists.com 4 Hardscrabble Heights Brewster, NY 10509 guardianveterinaryspecialists.com

THE JOHNSTON FAMILY IS HONORED TO SUPPORT MANHATTAN COUNTRY SCHOOL ON ITS BIG NIGHT IN

5-6’s 2014-15

FROM THE FIRST DAYS OF KINDERGARTEN, HANGING OUT IN THE READING LOFT, THROUGH THE ZOOM FILLED DAYS OF SIXTH GRADE, MANHATTAN COUNTRY SCHOOL HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR OUR FAMILY. WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR ALL YOU DO TO FOSTER OUR CHILDREN’S LIFELONG LOVE OF LEARNING AND ACTIVISM.

6th Grade 2020-21

IAN, VALERIE, AVA AND NADIA

A huge thank you to MCS – to the teachers who have had to transform at an incredible pace and be nimble. Thank you for being there, for making learning fun for our kids, for a different sort of Seesaw, for listening to their little or loud voices on zoom, and in the room, for being constant, for the ideals that we all stand for, the safe spaces you create, for the friendships we’ve made and for the partnership this has been.

--Ashwin, Nadiya, Amaarah, Vir and Nazaarah Kapur

Every day we are inspired by Manhattan Country School and those who have passed through its doors to make the world a better place. So many are helping to Live the Dream—we should all tell the story and, as Paula Lawrence Wehmiller says, “Share the Gold.”

“Don’t assume that there is gold in the soil everywhere else. Yes, you know what to do with your gold here at MCS, but you must share the gold. You must tell the stories.

Tell them to the children, tell them to each other, tell them in metaphor, in song, in dance, in plays. Teach the children the story of the school, and tell the story of the school to the world. As the story is told from the collective experiences of members of the community, the legacy of commitment to change is passed on. In the telling and retelling, the original mission of the school is re-perceived and sustained in the new times. And still, Dr. King is there at the door presiding over the living dream.”

—“Share the Gold” by Paula Lawrence Wehmiller (former 6s teacher)

Alumni reunion in the Music Room, 7 East 96th Street, March 2015

THANK YOU MCS TEACHERS AND STAFF FOR ALL YOU DO. YOU MAKE MCS SPECIAL WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE, THE TROWBRIDGE AND KOVACS FAMILIES

MCS EDUCATORS

AMPLIFY

T h e

L a l / J e u n e F a m i l y t h a n k s y o u

u o y k n Th a M CS ! s r o t a c u Ed Your hard work and dedication means so much to our family. Thank you!

Carol Lamoste, grandmother of Anthony Le Melle

Edward and Stacy Parker Le Melle say

THANK YOU TO MCS EDUCATORS! Whether at 85th Street or at the Farm, MCS Educators mean so much to our children's lives!

WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER GEORGE POPOVIC. HE EDUCATED CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE WITH KINDNESS AND RESPECT.

“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

- Frederick Douglass

Endless gratitude to our children’s teachers - and to all the educators we honor this year - for lighting the fire.

-

Edwin Lee and Sharon Phillips

“...it is the most militant, most radical intervention anyone can make to not only speak of love, but to engage in the practice of love. For love as the foundation of all social movements for self-determination is the only way we create a world that domination and dominator thinking cannot destroy. Anytime we do the work of love we are doing the work of ending domination.”

- bell hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom

“My hope for the future of MCS, and for all of us inspired by the prophetic longings of progressive education, is that we can educate others, who can educate others, who can help us fulfill the dream. I look forward to new generations of schools demonstrating that progressive education and civil rights can succeed.”

--- Gus Trowbridge, MCS Founder To all the educators at Manhattan Country School!

With deep appreciation, Mary and Maiya

Thank you, Educators, for your service and dedication

to the MCS community and beyond.

With deep gratitude, Proud MCS Grandparent of Maya ‘20 & Gordon ‘23

The Pleven/Morse Family Salutes MCS and its Educators

Red Rabbit is proud to support Manhattan Country School’s Big Night In! Celebrating Food From All Cultures in the School Cafeteria

Willkie proudly supports the

Manhattan Country School and salutes all MCS educators, past and present, for their unyielding commitment to equity in education

Big Night In! April 24, 2021

NEW YORK WASHINGTON HOUSTON PALO ALTO SAN FRANCISCO CHICAGO PARIS LONDON FRANKFURT BRUSSELS MILAN ROME

Big Night In! 2021 Benefit Committee

Megan Bethke, Co-Chair Corey Blay, Director Hope Bond, Co-Chair Erika Gibson ‘86 Roxanne Elings Mary Trowbridge ‘76

Maiya Jackson Cynthia Rogers Lois Gelernt Clint Ingram Nicole Letelier ‘94

Sponsors As of April 16, 2021

Adjaye Associates and Russell Crader Alan Altschuler and Donna Katzin American Securities Michael & Rosemarie Arons Smita Baliga and Scott Kraft Megan and Brian Bethke Suzi Bethke William Bethke CCS Fundraising Class of 1994 Adrienne and Ryan Cooper Caroline and Laurie Cotter Roxanne Elings and Tom Haynie Maida Galvez and Ali Mencin Craig Gentry and Michelle Montgomery Erika Gibson ‘86 Nell and Bert Gibson Caren Golden and Peter Herzberg Jolle Greenleaf and Hank Heijink Guardian Veterinary Specialists Nadiya and Ashwin Kapur Bator Kovacs ‘73

Ian Johnston and Valerie Mitchell-Johnston Surabhi Lal and Winston Jeune Carol Lamoste Michael Leary Roxanne and Ben Leff Deb Levy and Jayne Jordan Stacy and Ed Le Melle Amy and Steve Lipin Ernest and Princess Lyles Linda Meyers Ragnar Naess New Renaissance Productions Sharon Phillips and Edwin Lee The Pleven/Morse Family The Post BK/Harris Friess PowerFleet Red Rabbit/Rhys and Ren Powell Seth Rosen and Jacob Goertz Marty Trowbridge Stephen Trowbridge ‘74 and Lisa Trowbridge Dena and Thaddeus Verhoff Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

Big Night In! 2021 Special Thanks To...

Hiam Abbas and Toby Tiktinsky And Now Media Maya Barbosa ‘15 Megan & Brian Bethke Betsy Brown ‘77 Blue Chevigny ‘85 and Aaron Kirtz Lance Cain Josie Colt ‘07 Nick Colt ‘82 Chris Emdin Jamie Evans Joy Davis Fair and Tony Fair Jason Flom Jay Fung Lois Gelernt

Alicia Glen ‘80 The Grapes Unwrapped Tom Grattan Jolle Greenleaf and Hank Heijink Nadra Holmes Sabrina Hope King ‘74 Marika Hughes ‘85 Najha Zigbi-Johnson ‘09 Zack Lee ‘15 Deb Levy and Jayne Jordan Dr. Noni Thomas López Leonardo Luca Maplewood Wheelhouse MCS Class of 2021 MCS Farm

MCS Students from the Classes of 2022-2030 Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran Sophia Morel ‘94 Sophia Goring-Piard and Johnny Piard Robert Reich Cynthia Rogers Alisa Soriano ‘98 The Post BK Kai Williams ‘12 Khalil “Zulu” Williams ‘82 Sasha Wilson ‘84

...And to all our MCS Educators Past and Present

Big Night In! 2021 MCS Board of Trustees

Alan Altschuler, Treasurer Michael Arons Corey Blay, Director Leslie Watkins Cain, Advancement Committee Chair Ricky Castillo ‘92 Caroline Cotter Roxanne Elings, Vice Chair Harris Friess ‘98, Alumni Rep Erika A. Gibson ‘86, Chair Ian Johnston Nadiya Kapur Omar Kariuki ‘89 Bator Kovacs ‘73

Surabhi Lal Stacy Parker Le Melle, Communications Committee Chair Roxanne Leff, Secretary Nicole Letelier ‘94, Alumni Rep Ernest Lyles Ragnar Naess Sharon Phillips, Committee on Trustees Chair Liam Pleven ‘79,Farm Committee Chair Marcin Sawicki Gisele C. Shorter ‘91 Gus Trowbridge, Founder, Lifetime Trustee* Stephen Trowbridge ‘74 Dena Verhoff

Honorary Board Members

Consulting Trustees

Debo Adegbile ‘80 Aiyoung Choi Carl Flemister* Frank Roosevelt

Smita Baliga Adrienne Cooper Maida Galvez Ken Herrera Amani Reed Adjowah Scott Toby Tiktinsky

*deceased

Thank You! www.manhattancountryschool.org/bignightin