Mills Quarterly winter 2007

Mills Quarterly Winter 2007 Alumnae Magazine

How Do e Know Who WW e Are? Image, Id ent ity, and t he Media

Because you give to the Mills College Annual Fund,

Gema and Daisy stand for justice.

“Mills has encouraged our dedication to social justice for women around the world. It has given us a unique opportunity to work in solidarity with the women of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico, the sites of hundreds of unsolved femicides.

We now understand more than ever how much Mills has shaped our character, resolve, and vision of what it means to be an agent of change. Mills cultivated us to become the leaders we are today.”

Show the world where you stand on women’s education and leadership. © Support Mills students by designating your gift of any amount to

undergraduate scholarships. © Establish a Named Student Scholarship with a gift of $5,000 or more, and name the scholarship in honor of a relative, friend, or professor. A student will be selected as your scholar and will receive 100 percent of your gift.

Call 510.430.2366 or visit www.mills.edu /giving to make a gift to the Mills College Annual Fund

and transform women’s lives today.

—Gema Ornelas ’07 (left) and Daisy Gonzales ’07 are co-presidents this year of the Associated Students of Mills College and recipients of scholarships supported by the Mills College Annual Fund.

Daisy is a public policy major.

Gema is an art history major and a Bent Twig, the daughter of Patricia Oregel ’86.

TERRY LORANT

BRUCE COOK

14

18

19

Mills Quarterly

CONTENTS WINTER 2007 10

Bookshelf

edited by David Harrison Horton, MFA ’01

Books by Mills authors include collections and anthologies of poetry, short stories, and novels. Books for children and young adults too.

14

How Do We Know Who We Are? Image, Identity, and the Media

by Arabella Grayson, MA ’96

Children learn much from their toys. Arabella Grayson finds that her collection of black paper dolls has much to say about how we view ourselves.

18

Reunion 2006

24

More than a Memory

Mahmud Rahman, MFA ’04

From Bangladesh, the author looks back at nine years at Mills.

D E PA R T M E N T S 4

Inside Mills

8

Mills Matters

19

Profiles

23

Passages

ABOUT THE COVER: Betty Blue and Her Mammy Daphne was created in the early 1900s by children’s book illustrator and author Margaret G. Hayes.

An enduring link to the past, paper dolls accurately record social changes, illustrate attitudes and values, and in the case of African Americans, often depict the caricatures and racial stereotypes that defined their role, place, and status in American society. The mammy depiction of African American women was a common theme in popular culture dating from the centuries of slavery, well into the 1970s. See the article by Arabella Grayson, MA ’96, “How Do We Know Who We Are? Image, Identity, and the Media,” on page 14.

Mills Quarterly Volume XCV Number 3 (USPS 349-900) Winter 2007 Alumnae Director Sheryl J. Bizé-Boutté, ’73 Editor David M. Brin, MA ’75 <dbrin@mills.edu> (510) 430-3312 Design and Art Direction Benjamin Piekut, MA ’01 Assistant Editor Caroline Glesmann Contributing Writers Jo Kaufman, Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04 Moya Stone, MFA ’03 Book Review Editor David Harrison Horton, MFA ’01 Editorial Assistance Katrina Wardell, ’07, Alison Lazareck, ’08 Quarterly Advisory Board Jennifer Neira Heystek, ’04, Marian Hirsch, ’75 Jane Cudlip King, ’42, Jane Redmond Mueller, ’68 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84, Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA ’02 Sharon K. Tatai, ’80, Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72, MA ’74 Class Notes Writers Alice London Bishop, ’58, Julia Bourland Chambers, ’93 Laura Compton, ’93, Barbara Bennion Friedlich, ’49 Sally Mayock Hartley, ’48, Marian Hirsch, ’75 Cathy Chew Smith, ’84, Judith Rathbone, MFA ’05 Special Thanks to David M. Hedden, Erinn Noel House Jane Cudlip King, ’42 Board of Governors President Thomasina S. Woida, ’80 Vice Presidents Anita Aragon Bowers, ’63 Diana Birtwistle Odermatt, ’60 Treasurer Beverley Johnson Zellick, ’49, MA ’50 Executive Director Sheryl J. Bizé-Boutté, ’73 Alumnae Trustees Sara Ellen McClure, ’81 Susan Brown Penrod, ’71, Sharon K. Tatai, ’80 Governors Lila Abdul-Rahim, ’80, Michelle Balovich, ’03 Micheline A. Beam, ’72, Lynda Campfield, ’00, MA ’02 Cecille Caterson, MA ’90, Harriet Fong Chan, ’98 Vivian Fumiko Chin, ’89, Beverly Curwen, ’71 Suzette Lalime Davidson, ’94, Cynthia Guevara, ’04 Kathleen Miller Janes, ’69, Linda Jaquez-Fissori, ’92 Krishen Laetsch, MA ’01, Nangee Warner Morrison, ’63 Ramona Lisa Smith, ’01, MBA ’02 Karlin Sorenson, ’92, Lynette Williams Williamson, ’72, MA ’74 Regional Governors Joyce Menter Wallace, ’50, Eastern Great Lakes Nancy Sanger Pallesen, ’64, Middle Atlantic Albertina Padilla, ’78, Middle California Adrienne Bronstein Becker, ’86, Middle California Judith Smrha, ’87, Midwest Linda Cohen Turner, ’68, North Central Carolyn Chapman Booth, ’63, Northeast Brandy Tuzon Boyd, ’91, Northern California Gayle Rothrock, ’68, Northwest Louise Hurlbut, ’75, Rocky Mountains Colleen Almeida Smith, ’92, South Central Ann Cavanaugh, ’65, Southeast Julia Almazan, ’92, Southern California Elaine Chew, ’68, Southwest The Mills Quarterly (USPS 349-900) is published quarterly in April, July, October, and January by the Alumnae Association of Mills College, Reinhardt Alumnae House, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94613.

Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, CA and at additional mailing office(s). Postmaster: Send address changes to the Mills Quarterly, Alumnae Association of Mills College, P.O. Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613-0998.

Statement of Purpose The purpose of the Mills Quarterly is to report the activities of the Alumnae Association and its branches; to reflect the quality, dignity, and academic achievement of the College family; to communicate the exuberance and vitality of student life; and to demonstrate the worldwide-ranging interests, occupations, and achievements of alumnae.

On This Issue When I was growing up, boys did not play with paper dolls. They probably still don’t. As a result, I never thought that profound questions of identity could be answered by analyzing something I had never given much attention to. In 2004, when part of Arabella Grayson’s collection was exhibited at Mills, we printed the Arabella paper doll in the Quarterly (Winter 2004, page 37). Besides providing our readers with something fun and interactive (not that easy in a magazine), I began to understand that these dolls, which represent Africans and African Americans, reflected the prejudices and stereotypes of the eras in which they were produced.

Still, nothing prepared me for the perceptive insights that Arabella Grayson presents in her article, “How Do We Know Who We Are?” That toys reflect the attitudes of society hardly seems surprising, but that they also tell us about how we see ourselves is perhaps more startling. Arabella shows that a close look at children’s toys will bring up issues of identity and self-esteem. She explains that since her parents were aware of the significance of toys, they raised their children accordingly. (And I couldn’t help but admire the enlightened way they brought up their children, as Arabella describes in her article.)

In short, paper dolls are not harmless, and while some girls today are undoubtedly still playing with paper dolls, others are going to websites such as <www.stardoll.com> and playing with “virtual dolls.” It makes no difference: whether the toys are dolls or guns, whether they take traditional or electronic forms, they still influence children’s thinking and help shape the kind of adults these children will become.

I hope that alums who live in the Washington, D.C. area or find themselves there will take the time to visit this extraordinary exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum. Meanwhile, Arabella’s article will give you much to think about.

In this issue you will also find news of the College and the Alumnae Association in the Inside Mills and Mills Matters sections. Our Bookshelf section shows off Mills authors; many of them have earned MFA degrees from our fine graduate program in creative writing. We also have some photos of Reunion 2006, which will give you a taste of the wonderful time alumnae had at this gathering. We hope you’ll join us for our next Reunion, which will be held in 2007 from October 12 through 14.

I want to encourage you to vote for your alumna trustee by using the ballot on page 37 of this magazine. (And for those of you who save your Quarterlies and can’t stand to remove a piece—I know you’re out there—we’ll be happy to replace your Quarterly with a fresh copy. Just let us know by writing or emailing us.)

And while we’re on the subject of letters and emails, please let me know your thoughts about this issue by emailing me at <dbrin@mills.edu> or sending me a letter c/o the Mills Quarterly, PO Box 9998, Oakland, CA 94613.

I hope to hear from you!

Letters to the Editor

The AAMC Travel Committee inaugurated a new trip this year in conjunction with Reunion: A Napa Valley Wine Tour, Sunday to Tuesday after Reunion. I live in Connecticut, so taking advantage of this trip after Reunion made a lot of sense. We had a small but very congenial group, and the tour was excellent in all respects. We stayed in a lovely inn in Napa; had a tour through Copia, the new wine and food center in Napa; and visited three wineries for tours and tastings.

Leah Hardcastle Mac Neil, MA ’51, and Kathleen Miller Janes, ’69, organized and hosted the tour, and all arrangements were meticulously worked out. And the weather was just perfect!

With so many wineries in Napa and Sonoma Counties to visit, this kind of tour could easily become an annual post-Reunion event. For people like me who don’t have such

MILLS

wine amenities, it should be a big draw for non-California/Bay Area alumnae and spouses or friends. So if the AAMC decides to host a similar trip next year, I urge Reunion attendees to consider it.

—Katie Dudley Chase, ’61 I was delighted to read the article about the Mills benefactor Mr. Albert Bender in the Summer 2006 issue of the Mills Quarterly.

The Bender Room left an enduring impression on my mind during my student years at Mills. It was in the Bender Room that I earned my very first salary while working as a weekend student librarian. That the pleasure of working in an aesthetic space, filled with history and gravitas, could actually earn me money left me wonderstruck. I spent many satisfying evenings browsing and caring for its beautiful rare books.

However, the same precious, but

POST-IT NOTES

These note pads make great gifts for all of your alumnae friends! They show a eucalyptus branch and the motto “Remember who you are & what you represent.” They come in pads of 50 at $2.50 each plus $1.00 shipping

NEW

now sadly empty, Bender Room is currently being used as a makeshift conference facility. Please do let us know what the College plans to do with this memorable space.

Your articles on the history and architecture of Mills are much appreciated.

—Mamie (Mehjabeen) Abidi Habib, ’84, Lahore, Pakistan I faithfully read every issue and appreciate all of your articles, but this month was even better. Right on page 7 was the good news of increased, record-breaking enrollment, and beneath that the great news that Giulietta Aquino, ’93, has been hired as Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. We were friends in school and I know very few people who feel as strongly about Mills as she does. She’ll be a blessing to the College.

—Carol MacMillan Gagnon, ’94

DATES FOR

REUNION 2007!

Save the Dates!

October 12, 13, and 14

and handling for each order. Mail your check, payable to PAAMCC, to Palo Alto Area Mills College Club, c/o Hunter, 316 Laurel Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025.

Special Guests: Class of 1957 and Classes of 1942, 1947, 1952, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

3

inside mills Summer Program Prepares Future Women Scientists

F

ragments of DNA glow fluorescent green, suspended in a clear blue gel illuminated by ultraviolet light. In the CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation each week, these DNA bands help investigators catch fictional criminals. In a Mills classroom this coming summer, they will help a group of up to 20 entering freshwomen latch onto skills that are fundamental for success in college biology, chemistry, and mathematics courses.

These students will be the first participants in the Hellman Math and Science Experience (MSE), a fourweek summer immersion program currently being designed by Mills faculty. “We’ll use case studies from forensics—like the DNA fingerprinting procedures you’ve seen in CSI—to engage students with the subject of biology,” says Lisa Urry, head of Mills’ Biology Department. Other

students greater confidence with the subject matter, but also teach effective study skills,” explains Urry, who is a contributing author to the most widely used biology textbook in the world (the seventh edition of Campbell and Reece’s Biology).

“We’ve found that these skills are not obvious to students. Students do best in biology when they work in groups, sharing and applying what they’ve learned. But it can take a semester or more of struggling through course work for them to figure this out. The Hellman MSE will give incoming students a leg up.”

The Hellman MSE is modeled on Mills’ Summer Academic Workshop (SAW), which teaches math, English, sociology, and study skills to entering freshwomen. SAW students have had great success at Mills because of the skills they learn as well as the supportive relationships they form with each other. It is hoped that Hellman MSE students will also benefit from being part of such cohorts.

The Hellman MSE is expected to have an immediate effect on students’ performance in chemistry and biology courses. But its ultimate goal is to position women to excel in the sciences throughout their careers. Urry says, “I teach at Mills because I want to give women the firm grounding and confidence in the sciences they need for graduate school and, afterwards, for advancing successfully as scientists into positions of prominence.”

exercises will help students learn basic concepts in chemistry and build quantitative skills—all before they enroll in a single college course.

Students will be invited into the Hellman MSE on the basis of their interest and potential in math and science, as well as their need for additional preparation in these subjects. They will live in Mills residence halls and attend intensive daily workshops. But they won’t need to pay fees to participate: the program is supported by a five-year grant of $250,000 from the Hellman family. Mills Trustee Sabrina Hellman says, “The Hellman family has a long history of ties with Mills College, and is honored to play a role in a program that takes such an innovative approach to preparing women to excel in the sciences.”

“We’re excited about the Hellman MSE because it will not only give

DANA DAVIS

Daisy Gonzalez, ’07 (left), and Clara Andres, ’07 (right), examine DNA fragments in a Mills lab under the direction of Bio 004 (Introduction to Biology) instructor Helen Walter-Schappell (center). During the Hellman Math and Science Experience, to be launched in summer 2007, activities like this will teach entering freshwomen skills for success in the sciences in college and beyond.

4

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

The Hellman Math and Science Experience needs additional support from Mills alumnae and friends. Call (510) 430-2097 to make your contribution to the program.

A D VA N C I N G W O M E N I N S C I E N C E

Biopsychologists Examine Human Behavior through Multidisciplinary Research bined biology and psychology in a self-designed major before the biopsychology major was established), recently finished her PhD in behavioral genetics; another, Marisol Toliver-Sokol, ’02, has entered medical school.

Like Young, Bachen regularly involves students in her research.

With funding from the Arthritis Foundation, she is collaborating with a rheumatologist at the University of California, San Francisco, to examine genetic, immune, and psychosoJared Young, who joined the Mills faculty in January 2006, teaches neurobiology to biopsychology and biolocial factors that contribute to depression and anxiety in women who have gy students and guides Barrett scholars investigating the genes involved in learning and memory. systemic lupus, an autoimmune disease. “In projects like this, student Life Sciences/Psychology Building. The research assistants learn to work as a lab will enable researchers to scientifically team and observe multidisciplinary work observe and record human behavior, colin progress,” she says. lect blood samples and cardiovascular This spring, students and faculty in data, and identify links between behavior biopsychology and related fields will gain and biology. A gift from Mills Trustee a new resource for multidisciplinary Lorry Lokey is supporting the creation of research at Mills: a psychophysiology labthe lab. oratory, now under construction in the DANA DAVIS

T

he biopsychology major has existed at Mills for only three years, but it has already established itself as a locus of fascinating multidisciplinary studentfaculty research and as an effective launching pad for careers in the sciences.

Courses for the biopsychology major are taught by faculty in biology, psychology, and chemistry. The newest of these faculty is Jared Young, assistant professor of biology. He began teaching Neurobiology (a course required for biopsychology majors) and General Biology at Mills one year ago, after completing his PhD at the University of California, San Diego.

In his current research, Young is seeking to identify genes involved in learning and memory by examining the way a relatively simple organism—the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans—learns to respond to stimuli.

Several of Mills’ Barrett scholars, including biopsychology majors Lauren Steinberg, ’07, and Cindie Slightam, ’07, have joined him in conducting research on learning behavior in C. elegans.

“Students are attracted to biopsychology because it provides the biological and molecular context for understanding human behavior,” Young observes. In May 2006, three students graduated from Mills with bachelor’s degrees in biopsychology; ten current students have chosen to major in biopsychology.

Associate Professor of Psychology Elizabeth Bachen, at Mills since 1998 and one of the major’s designers, adds, “A biopsychology major presents students with many different advanced study and career options, from medical fields to graduate school in psychology or biology.” One of Bachen’s former students, Jody Hendrix, ’99 (who com-

Barrett Research Program Receives Additional Funding

T

he Barrett Foundation has provided Mills with a three-year grant of $150,000 to continue the Jill Barrett Research Awards Program, featured in the fall 2006 issue of the Mills Quarterly. Since 1998, this program has awarded stipends to Mills students in biology-related fields to conduct original laboratory and field-based research during the summer. The program also provides stipends to the Mills professors (including Jared Young, profiled on this page) who guide the students’ research.

In addition, the family of Jill Barrett, ’93, has made a generous contribution to support construction of the environmentally sustainable Life Sciences/Psychology Building, which will provide students and faculty in biology, psychology, chemistry, and physics with labs and classrooms. The building’s central courtyard will be named in Jill’s memory.

To make a gift in support of undergraduate research at Mills, call (510) 430-2097.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

5

inside mills Mills Focuses Resources on Student Success

N

ew degree programs, a faculty known for active intellectual engagement with students, and new strategies for communicating the College’s academic assets have enabled Mills to attract more students while becoming more selective. Enrollment is

STEPHAN BABULJAK

One of the most important influences on a student’s success is her faculty advisor. “The best advisors ask students hard questions about what they’ll do with their lives,” says Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Andrew A. Workman, “then show them pathways for achieving their goals.”

Professor Héctor Mario Cavallari (right) serves as advisor this year to the Spanish LLC. He also serves as advisor to Spanish and Spanish American studies major Wendy Velasquez, ’07 (left).

“Professor Cavallari’s support has been an essential part of my achievements here at Mills,” says Velasquez. “What I value most is his friendship and encouragement para salir adelante (to succeed).”

6

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

at an all-time high of 1,410 students.

Both the number and grade-point averages of entering undergraduates have risen in the last two years. This trend is set to continue, as this year Mills has received 12 percent more admission inquiries from high school seniors and 18 percent more inquiries from high school juniors than last year at this time.

Larger enrollments today and in the future pose a challenge that is a top priority for the College to address: how can Mills ensure that each student gets the support she needs to fulfill her greatest potential?

“We are pulling all our resources together to make the experience of every student we admit at Mills a success,” says President Janet L. Holmgren.

Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Andrew A. Workman is coordinating efforts to evaluate and strengthen student-support programs across campus. “We’re focusing on building relationships with students so that we can provide help when it’s needed,” he says. “We’re also excited about programs that prepare entering students for the challenges of college life and course work.” In addition, the Mills College Annual Fund is seeking to support students by raising increased contributions for scholarships from Mills alumnae, family, and friends.

Summer Programs for Entering Students Launched in 1989, the Summer Academic Workshop (SAW) provides entering freshwomen who are first-generation college students with intensive preparation in math, English, and sociology before they enroll in courses at Mills; it also cultivates study skills, selfconfidence, and a peer-support net-

work. SAW students have been highly successful in completing their degree programs, and many have served in leadership positions in the campus community. Inspired by SAW, Mills will launch a science and math immersion program in summer 2007 (see article on page 4), and is considering expanding SAW to serve more students.

Living Learning Communities In fall 2005, Mills piloted a new concept in residential life: the Living Learning Community (LLC). An LLC is a cluster of students housed together on campus, sharing a common interest or enrollment in an introductory course. The seven LLCs introduced as options for freshwomen in 2005–06 proved so effective in helping the residents through their first year that now all traditional-aged freshwomen are required to participate in one. This academic year, there are eight LLCs tied to introductory courses; each course’s instructor serves as academic advisor to the students in her or his LLC. There are also four LLCs focusing on common interests.

One reason for the LLCs’ success is that they create more opportunities for students to build relationships with their advisors, who help them plan courses of study and offer help if they are having trouble with the transition to college. Another reason is that LLCs help students form supportive relationships with each other.

“The LLCs give entering freshwomen the ability to bond with others who have a similar interest, especially during the sometimes difficult transition period,” says Rachel Dorney, who participates in the Wellness LLC. Elizabeth Trobaugh in the Spanish LLC

SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS

concurs. “We all share something in common and I love that,” she says. “I laugh, I cry, and I study with these women. We balance each other.”

Academic Excellence Mills continues to provide students with resources that empower them to excel in their course work. Students draw upon The Writing Center’s tutorials and workshops to hone their writing skills; the center’s hours will be doubled in the coming academic year. Students in Chem 4 (Introduction to College Chemistry) benefit this year from a pilot quantitative skills workshop designed to help them overcome anxieties about math and consider careers in the sciences; this workshop will be extended to other lowerdivision courses. Tutoring services are being developed for students enrolled in particularly challenging courses.

Financial Aid Mills admits students with great academic potential regardless of their financial means, then develops, for each student, financial aid packages that may include scholarships from the College, federal and state grants, loans, and work-study. Eighty-eight percent of undergraduates receive scholarships directly from Mills. The amount of the College’s budget dedicated to financial aid has risen from $8 million to $14 million in five years, reflecting increases in tuition and in the number of students. Yet Mills cannot meet the full need of all qualified students. Students experiencing financial difficulties may be forced to leave college or take longer to complete their degrees.

To address this challenge to student success, the Mills College Annual Fund (MCAF) is focusing

this year on increasing contributions for scholarships. It has introduced the Named Student Scholarship Program, which enables each donor who gives $5,000 or more to the MCAF to name a scholarship in honor or memory of a loved one. In fall 2007, a student will be named as the donor’s scholar and receive 100 percent of the donor’s gift.

“Receiving a scholarship from the College demonstrated that an investment was being made in my education,” says Alison Lazareck, ’08, “and because of that I have been motivated to invest as much as I can myself, through my academic work and by seizing every opportunity to make the most of my Mills experience.”

Call (510) 430-2366 to make a gift to the MCAF scholarship fund.

D

anforth House, Stephenson House, and Springs House rise above the slopes of Prospect Hill, looking over the San Francisco Bay and the neighborhood surrounding Mills College. Dedicated on October 26, 2006, these Craftsman-inspired townhouse apartments are the most recent additions to student housing options on campus.

The buildings are named in honor of three living women who have provided exemplary leadership on the Mills College Board of Trustees. In 1992, Joan Lewis Danforth, ’53, became the first woman and alumna to chair the board. Clare H. Springs, ’66, served as chair from 1996 to 2001. Vivian M. Stephenson, LHD ’05, has served as chair since 2002 and received an hon-

orary degree from the College in 2005.

Flanking a common courtyard, the apartments can house up to 95 undergraduates over 21 years of age as well as graduate students. Each four- or fivebedroom apartment includes a living room, dining room, kitchen, and two baths. Danforth House opened for occupancy in August 2006, Stephenson House opened in December, and Springs House opened this month.

During the dedication ceremony, Danforth House resident Leah Albin, ’07, welcomed the audience. “I love living here and feeling independent,” she said. “It’s amazing to live with women whom I’ve known, respected, and trusted for years. . . . I’m very excited to be among the first tenants.”

GENE DAILEY

New Student Apartments Named After Mills Trustees

The dedication ceremony for the new townhouse apartments featured remarks by (left to right) Trustee Clare H. Springs, Trustee Joan Lewis Danforth, student Leah Albin, President Janet L. Holmgren, and Board of Trustees Chair Vivian Stephenson.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

7

MILLS MATTERS

New Course Provides Inside Look at Public Policy Congresswoman Barbara Lee, ’73, and Delaine Eastin, distinguished visiting professor of educational leadership, will co-teach a public policy course at Mills this spring.

The course, entitled Real Policy, Real Politics, will introduce Mills students to the intersection of electoral politics and policymaking, covering topics such as the process of political engagement and campaigning, political analysis, and procedures for effective policy research and presentation.

Congresswoman Lee has described her Mills education as instrumental in launching her successful political career.

The College recently established the endowed Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership in honor of her outstanding leadership on behalf of human rights and social justice.

Delaine Eastin is the former state superintendent of public instruction and a highly respected leader on behalf of statewide school reform. During her tenure as state superintendent, she wrote and shaped legislation to reform California’s public schools.

Mills College Beats the Odds As two more women’s colleges turn to coeducation, Mills College has reaffirmed its dedication to women’s education. Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Regis College in Boston have both opened their doors to men as a result of financial problems and low enrollment.

In the 1960s, there were about 300 women’s colleges; today there are fewer than 60. This overall trend seems to be the result of a lack of interest in singlesex education, and in the past few years, at least six women’s colleges have begun admitting men or merged with larger coeducational institutions. At Rutgers, the women’s undergraduate college, Douglass, will cease to exist at the end of this academic year. This spring, H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, Tulane University’s women’s college, merged with the undergraduate college for men. Wells College in upstate New York began admitting men last year.

Marymount College in New York City merged with Fordham University in 2002, and next spring will be its last semester as a separate entity.

According to an article in the New York Times, “Nationally, most women The staff of the Alumnae Association of Mills College posed for their photo in December. They are, left to right: David Brin, Mills Quarterly editor, Erinn Noel House, administrative specialist, Sheryl J. Bizé-Boutté, ’73, executive director, William C. White, staff accountant, Laurie Krane, executive assistant and office manager, Yadira Lumbreras, director of alumnae relations, and P. Doreen Bueno, ’97, records administrator.

BRUCE COOK

8

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

who attend single-sex colleges say they chose their institutions despite the absence of men, not because of it.”

Mills College, though, has been able to beat these odds with continually increasing enrollment. In an article by Joanne Levy-Prewitt, President Janet L. Holmgren commented, “If I were to look at the whole universe of educational opportunities, women get the best deal at a women’s college. Unequivocally, a women’s college offers a woman the best opportunity to stand out academically so she can prepare for any field she chooses.”

—Katrina Wardell, ’07

Faculty Presentations Abroad Carlota Caulfield, professor of Spanish and Spanish-American Studies, recently presented a lecture on Visual Poetry in Barcelona while she was a visiting professor at the University College London.

She was also a visiting fellow at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies. Author of nine poetry books written in Spanish and English, Caulfield has enjoyed international success as a poet.

Melinda Micco, associate professor of ethnic studies, has been invited to speak to the March 2007 Oxford University Round Table on Diversity in Society. Her presentation will include an examination of government and military decisions that dramatically changed Native American tribal structure, male and female roles, boarding school experiences, removal policies, relocation programs, and tribal termination. The Oxford Round Table, which meets periodically, promotes human advancement and understanding through the improvement of education. Past Round Table members have included ministers of education, members of Parliament, U.S.

NEWS OF THE COLLEGE AND THE AAMC

Holiday Tea

YADIRA LUMBRERAS

governors, and other outstanding educational leaders.

Professor of Education Joseph Kahne Receives MacArthur Grant

Winter Reception College Hosts Diversity Forum On Saturday, October 28, the College hosted the 2006 Northern California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education. Attended by more than 1,000 students from underrepresented populations, the event provided daylong programming to inform students about academic and career opportunities associated with advanced study in a wide range of disciplines. Colleges and universities from across the United States, including the University of California, Stanford, Cornell, Emory, Duke, Yale, Harvard, Tufts, and Princeton sent recruiters to the conference.

This year’s Winter Reception for New Alumnae/i, sponsored by the AAMC, was held on December 1. Sheryl J. BizéBoutté, ’73, executive director of the Alumnae Association, toasted the students by singing the traditional Mills College song, “Remember.” President Janet L. Holmgren congratulated the graduating class on their accomplishments, and Thomasina Woida, ’80, president of the AAMC’s Board of Governors, welcomed the graduates into a new chapter of their lives as Mills alumnae and alumni. Shown below are new graduate Chelsea Wesnousky, ’07 (center), and her family.

New Track and Field Class The dust has barely settled for Mills cross-country runners, who finished their season November 4, but some run-

YADIRA LUMBRERAS

Joseph Kahne, professor of education and research director of the Institute for Civic Leadership, recently received a three-year MacArthur Foundation grant to study the civic implications of high school students’ participation with digital media. The $450,000 grant will allow Kahne to survey thousands of students from approximately 20 California high schools to assess their engagement with the Internet and other digital media, and its relationship to their civic capacities and activities.

The Mills research study is part of a broad effort on “Educating for Democracy: The California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools” led by the Los Angeles-based Constitutional Rights Foundation to keep the public, educators, and policymakers informed about the impact of education on democracy.

On December 3, the AAMC hosted a holiday tea to celebrate and provide connections for Bay Area alums. Over 120 alumnae and guests attended the event, held at the home of Teresa Kangas-Olsen, ’84. Hung Liu, Mills professor of studio art, was the guest speaker. Her presentation included slides from her recently unveiled artwork, “Going Away, Coming Home,” permanently displayed at the Oakland International Airport (and featured on the back cover of this magazine).

President Holmgren spoke to the gathering about Mills’ 2006 successes and gave a synopsis of things to come in 2007. Shown at left are (standing) Sheryl J. Bizé-Boutté, ’73, AAMC executive director, left, President Janet L. Holmgren, and (seated) Joan Dark, ’75.

ners are already looking ahead to their next season. In the past, this meant waiting until the following August, but with the introduction of a Track and Field PE class this spring (taught by Head Cross-Country Coach Laura Davis, MFA ’06), Mills runners can enjoy the benefits and camaraderie of a more well-rounded training schedule.

“Great runners train throughout the year,” Laura says, “and I hope that this class will help the talented women we have here achieve everything they can in running.” Laura also notes that a good PE class could lead to a track program in the future. While cross-country runners will have a head start, the class is open to all Mills students, and will include sprinting, middle distance, and distance running events.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

9

BOOK SHELF Edited by David Harrison Horton, MFA ’01

The Daydreaming Boy Micheline Aharonian Marcom, MFA ’99; Riverhead <www.riverheadbooks.com> Received & Noted:

“We will some of us have new Christian names and we will learn our trades and we will some of us regive ourselves of this now dead tongue and revived and here, we will say in the dead language: we are as Adams in the garden.”

Agonizing and anti-sentimental, Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s The Daydreaming Boy is in essence the ravished life story of Vahé Tcheubjian, who as a boy was orphaned by the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Plagued by the ghost of Vostanig, the only resident of the Bird’s Nest Orphanage more miserable than himself, Vahé begins to “unhistory” the story of his life. Vahé’s epistemological journey unfurls in Beirut along the blue ribbon of the Mediterranean as he investigates the question: how did I become this sort of man, the sort that does not know how to love right?

The novel is fraught with sexual violence, impotence, and ethnic enmity, and Marcom deploys a radical brand of storytelling to birth a truly remarkable book. Written mostly in English with sprinklings of French, Arabic, and Armenian, the text is haunted by the specter of Western culture, while the sentinels of an impending civil war lurk at every corner. Marcom’s innovative narrative style transforms the dispossessed into the disembodied, allowing reality and time to shift wildly and effectively keeping the reader hungry for a sense of center the way an orphan hungers for just a bit more soup.

—Appalenia Williams, MA ’06

Kristen Anderson, ’63, Planning for Child Care in California (Solano Press, 2006).

Sara Shuttleworth Anderson, ’56, Art is Elementary: Line, Shape, Color, Texture & Space (MM, 2004).

Larkin Barnett, MA ’82, Functional Fitness: The Ultimate Fitness Program for Life on the Run (Florida Academic Press, 2006).

Daphne Gottlieb, MFA ’01, and Diane DiMassa, Jokes and the Unconscious: A Graphic Novel (Cleis, 2006).

Ariel Gore, ’94, The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006).

Dorianne Laux, ’88, Facts about the Moon (Norton, 2006).

Ann McKinstry Micou, ’52, A Guide to Fiction Set in Vermont (Vermont Humanities Council, 2005).

Serena (Julia Rosenstein, ’79), Trocadero! (N2Print, 2005).

Marilyn Shook, ’47, Working Happy: Dodging Bullets, Making Changes, Finding Joy (Humanonics, 2005).

Juliana Spahr, associate professor of English, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs: Poems (University of California Press, 2005).

Kit Sloane, ’62, Extreme Cuisine: A Margot O’Banion & Max Skull Mystery (Durban House, 2005).

Evany Thomas, ’92, and Amelia Bauer, The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide to the ThirtyNine Positions (McSweeney’s, 2006).

Stephanie Young, MFA ’01, Telling the Future Off (Tougher Disguises, 2005).

10

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

The Entrance Place of Wonders: Poems of the Harlem Renaissance Selected by Daphne Muse, director, Women’s Leadership Institute, Mills College, and illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb; Abrams Books for Young Readers <www.hnabooks.com> Children of all ages will enjoy the life-affirming poems and vibrant illustrations in The Entrance Place of Wonders. Selected by Daphne Muse, director of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Mills and a poet herself, these verses represent the full range of the African American experience, from slavery and servitude to segregation to integration and diversity.

Muse focuses on poets of the Harlem Renaissance, roughly from 1917 to 1929, a time when African American art, music, and literature flourished in the New York City neighborhood. “Many of the poems of the Harlem Renaissance were celebratory and life-affirming,” Muse writes in the introduction, “changing the way black people thought of themselves and the world.”

Even when a poem acknowledges hardship, it also contains hope. “Children of the Sun,” by Madeline G. Allison, invokes the worries and fears African American children live with every day, but closes one stanza with, “Your cloud has silv’ry lining, too.” In James Weldon Johnson’s “The Gift to Sing,” a song is sung in defiance of “Sorrow’s somber wing.”

Among the Renaissance poets represented here are Langston Hughes, whose three poems evoke an elusive but passionate desire for freedom, and three contributors to Brownies’ Book, a children’s magazine published in 1920–21 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Charlotte Riley-Webb’s illustrations—paintings, really— carry the reader along on a wave of energy. Her broad, rhythmic brush strokes fill the pages with bold, bright splashes of color.

The book’s title comes from “Rhapsody,” by William Stanley Braithwaite, a self-taught poet on the English faculty of Atlanta University: I am glad for my heart whose gates apart Are the entrance-place of wonders, Where dreams come in from the rush and din Like sheep from rains and thunders.

The Museum of Natural History

by Julie Gamberg, MFA ’04; Eastern Washington University Press <ewupress.ewu.edu> Julie Gamberg’s first book of poetry, The Museum of Natural History, which won the 2005 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry, is a fierce collection—raw, violent, yearning, and frankly sexual.

The Mills alumna writes of relationships—lovers, family, friends; of how two people can connect for moments, days, years; of how these connections are housed in objects: a car key, a window fan, a dishwasher, an ice cube tray. With this book, Gamberg curates a museum of experiences and observations, and it becomes an exhibit of the objects of her history.

The poems reflect the range of her influences, from confessional narrative to prose sequence to popular music.

A recurring series, “From the House,” which gives voice to common household objects, evokes Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons. In “Pepper Shaker,” she notes, I am not a twin and have never been part of something larger. When I look up I do not contemplate the universe and feel tiny. I am always wide open. I am enormous.

Like the pepper shaker, Gamberg is “always wide open,” her voice open yet protective, a shell chipped away but still hard-edged, still brittle to the touch. She is not afraid to contain multitudes. As Gamberg observes in “Compasses,” There are these things we try to say and say like that none of it matters that every little thing matters: the crease of your palm when you open it the variations in the sound of the wind whether to call it coincidence or fate.

Gamberg has focused her attention on “every little thing” in a collection that insists on the significance.

— Loretta Clodfelter, ’00, MFA ’06

—Pat Soberanis, Credential ’06 Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

11

Pleasant Drugs: Stories

by Kathryn Kulpa,’84; MidList Press <www.midlist.org> For tightly woven stories and characters that are more than just pleasant, dip into Kathryn Kulpa’s Pleasant Drugs.

Though Kulpa has been writing for many years, this collection of 15 short stories is her first published book. It won the Mid-List Press First Series Award and two of her stories, “Insensates” and “Mr. Lillicrop’s Shining Moment,” were nominated for Pushcart Prize awards.

The stories are peopled—some as sketches, some as portraits—by characters who are “trying not to be afraid,” as Scotty puts it in the story from which the collection gets its name. Kulpa’s characters are richly wrought, each facing a nearly unbearable sadness made bearable by a kind of love—love of a lover, a stranger, or even finally, oneself.

The stories, though widely different in plot and even style, are concerned with finding things that were thought lost, things like beauty or truth. Settings span decades, giving the book as a whole a sense of timelessness. Some are linear narratives, some border on magical realism; her stories pull you through the collection on the strength of characters, people so tightly drawn and clearly rendered, you feel as if you have somehow brushed against their discreet lives.

Kulpa’s stories are about being grounded. As Maggie, the map-reading little girl in “Cartography” learns, the destination may be irrelevant, being lost is how you get found, and “everywhere is somewhere,” as she literally navigates her mother’s life as the passenger of her car.

Kulpa continually reminds us with phrases ripe with imagery and an ease of language that belies the complications of the everyday, that life is like a strong plot, it is about choices between leaving and losing, loving and longing.

Pleasant Drugs will not numb your senses; rather, it will sharpen and refine them, each potent story honing in on that slice of life between grief and joy.

—Ami Zensius, MFA ’03

12

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

Bay Poetics Edited by Stephanie Young, MFA ’01; Faux Press <www.fauxpress.com> As its title implies, this anthology of poetry—whether geographically, ideologically, or transferentially—finds a way of revolving around the ethos and pathos of the Bay Area.

Clocking in at 110 poets and 498 pages, Stephanie Young (English graduate programs coordinator and poetry faculty member) plunges into the expansive waters of the local poetry scene to collect a veritable smorgasbord of themes, styles, and forms. This important and highly anticipated collection presents works as varied in content as the peoples of the Bay Area itself.

Bay Poetics also reaffirms Mills’ poetic potency in the Bay Area. Contributors include current and former staff and faculty, visiting faculty, lecturers, students, and alumnae. On the one hand, this anthology is testament to the rather robust linguistic melee that Mills as an institution represents, as a destination point creates, and as a fosterer of experimental poetry radically interjects itself. On the other hand, in a world increasingly shaped by geopolitics, Bay Poetics has beat the pundits to the press with its forward-thinking practice of geopoetics.

Bay Poetics is sure to become a fixture in creative writing courses in and outside of the Bay Area. Randomly thumb to a page and your eye just might meet a piece of poetry as delectable and magical as San Francisco itself.

However diverse these works, they stand together in poetic solidarity, gleaming the poetic spirit like the blood-redorange of the Golden Gate towers statically and stoically poking through the residual Bay fog.

—Megan Williams, MA ’06

Blackthorn Winter

by Kathryn Reiss; Harcourt <www.harcourtbooks.com/ ChildrensBooks> Prolific novelist and faculty member in the Mills College English department, Kathryn Reiss has just come out with her 13th novel for young adults, Blackthorn Winter: A Murder Mystery. Never mind about unlucky 13, Reiss’ latest has been nominated for the Young Adult Library Services Association’s Teens Top Ten Award, a list of teenage readers’ favorite books of the year.

Fifteen-year-old Juliana and her two younger siblings have been forced to move from their familiar California home to the unfamiliar and chilly English village, Blackthorn. Their artist mother is rediscovering herself while also taking a break from an unhappy marriage. As well as trying to adjust to a new environment and life without her father, Juliana is also trying to put together her past, which she cannot recall before age five, when she was adopted. The murder of a local (and unpopular) woman sets Juliana on the detective trail, convinced the police have arrested the wrong man. Spookiness really kicks in when it seems this murder might be somehow connected with Juliana’s mysterious past.

An intriguing mystery accented with interesting details about British culture and village life, Blackthorn Winter is a suspenseful read for young adults and older adults alike.

—Moya Stone, MFA ’03

The following writers were featured at the Literary Salon during Reunion 2006 Daphne Muse, director, Women’s Leadership Institute, Mills College, welcomed guests.

Faculty member Yiyun Li gave opening remarks and read from her book, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.

Presentations by Mills authors: Sara Shuttleworth Anderson, ’56—Art is Elementary Robyn Brooks, MFA Student—“How Can I Write Your Last Breath: A Requiem for the Katrina Victims” from The Womanist Joan Gelfand, MFA ’96—Seeking Center Connie Gilbert, ’61—The Iron Hand in the Gold Lamé Glove Doris Mott Hall, ’51—Go Out and Live Anna Nicholas, ’79—Of Wine and Men Carla Blank Reed, ’72 —Rediscovering America: The Making of Multicultural America The readings were followed by a question and answer session with the authors and closing remarks by Daphne Muse.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

13

How Do We Know Who We Are? Image, Identity, and the Media

by Arabella Grayson, MA ’96

How do we know who we are?

That was the question I asked myself as I stood in the children’s section of Barnes and Noble ten years ago, looking at an Addy paper doll and trying to reconcile her image with the publisher’s story line.

Addy, one of a series of period dolls in the American Girls Collection published by the Pleasant Company in 1994, is an escaped slave. Holding a kerchief laden with possessions, her caged pet bird beside her, Addy, in a bright pink frock, cheerfully smiles on the cover of the package. She looks as if she could be on her way to the county fair or off to a church bazaar.

An enduring link to the past, paper dolls record social changes, illustrate attitudes and societal perceptions, and in the case of African Americans, often depict the caricatures and racial stereotypes that defined their place, role, and status in society. Paper dolls in comic strips, political cartoons, greeting cards, magazines, books and box sets, and as advertising premiums, particularly those produced in the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s, commonly depict people of African ancestry in subservient roles such as rotund mammies, fat-lipped butlers, wild savages, eye-popping sambos, and scary little picaninnies in tattered clothes. It wasn’t until the early 1960s, fueled by the black pride movement and the sustained campaign for civil rights, that paper dolls began reflecting more realistic and varied images of African Americans.

How do we know who we are? This was the question I asked myself as I began collecting black paper dolls and came to understand the role toys play in shaping a child’s beliefs and self-concept: toys are the tools we first use to teach children. Long before a child speaks, she sees. She looks. She observes. She comes to understand the world, first through images: images defined by her caretakers and reinforced through popular culture—toys, cartoons, television, commercials, films, books, magazines, newspapers. Images the media reinforces, defines, creates, and shapes. Images that tell us who we are and what we are and who they are and what they are. Images that we don’t create and all too often do not even question, but images that we allow to shape our self-perception and our world-

14

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

view. It’s true, a picture is worth a thousand words. And in the 200 years since black paper dolls were first printed, it’s a very revealing and oftentimes disturbing picture.

I started collecting black paper dolls ten years ago, after a girlfriend gave me a birthday card with the adorable Little Caribbean Girl Paper Doll booklet tucked inside. I did not recall seeing a black paper doll before and wondered if there were others. I found Addy in the bookstore and later learned that the first African American paper doll was also a slave girl—Topsey, the fictional character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Topsey paper doll was printed in 1863, eleven years after the book first appeared.* How do we know who we are? Like most, I learned first from my parents.

My mother graduated from a “colored” high school in Columbia, South Carolina, two years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Familiar with the Kenneth and Mamie Clark doll studies cited in the Supreme Court school desegregation case, she and my father actively sought ways to instill cultural pride and a healthy self-concept in their children.

To understand black children’s views on race and how these views shaped their self-perception and selfesteem, psychologists Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark conducted a series of studies from the late 1930s through the 1940s. In one research project, a group of 253 African American elementary school children were presented with two identical dolls, except one was white and the other painted brown. The children were then asked to respond to a series of statements identifying the dolls as either “nice” or “bad,” ultimately selecting the one that looked like them.

The results of the Clarks’ 1947 study: two-thirds of the children preferred the white doll to the brown doll.

Other Clark studies supporting these findings revealed that as early as age three, the majority of children identified the brown doll as “bad,” associating it with “evil, ugliness, inferiority, and shame.”

The Clarks’ famous doll studies have been revisited in recent decades and psychologists such as Darlene Powell Hopson, who conducted her own study involving preschoolers in 1985, have had nearly identical findings.

My mother, a stay-at-home mom, and father, who worked multiple jobs—harbor master, scuba diving instructor, teamster, real estate investor—both understood the damaging effects of racism on children and the role toys can play in reinforcing stereotypes, particularly those assigned to people of African descent. So growing up, my * Based on the author’s research, she has identified a paper doll of a distinguished man printed in England in 1811 that appears to be a depiction of a black or mulatto. If so, he would be the first black paper doll; and Topsey, still the first African American paper doll (the first black paper doll printed in the United States).

Italian Fashion 2002, Legacy Designs, 2002. Illustrator Donald Hendricks. In the 1960s more realistic and varied images of African Americans began appearing in paper doll format.

Illustrators Jackie Ormes and Dale Messick produced the first black fashion paper dolls in the 1940s and 50s.

three sisters, brother, and I primarily played with educational toys. My mother did a great job of choosing books with positive stories, and if the people in the pictures were not black she would brown them in. As best she could, she chose images that were uplifting, ones that more accurately reflected our history in Africa and the Americas.

As I write this, I am reminded of an encounter I had while working as an admission officer at Mills. The year, 1992. The location, Mills Hall lobby, when the Admission Office was housed on the first floor. I am on my way out the main entrance, when I spot the ten-yearold daughter of one of my colleagues. Laura (not her real name), who is seated at the piano patiently waiting for her mom, has recently had her thick hair braided in an elaborate and very flattering cornrow design, one that complements her Hershey-brown complexion and highlights her African features. We exchange greetings and I tell her she looks like an African princess. In response, Laura looks stricken. Frowning, tears well. “I do not,” she protests, “look like an African.”

Now, I am stricken. I have offended a beautiful, African-looking African American child by telling her she looks like what she is, an African.

What images fill her head? The paper dolls in my collection depicting continental Africans look menacing . . . savage . . . unattractive: Sultan Zugo, Svarta Nelly, Jocko, Jackie, and Jock. Not one princess or prince in the entire lot.

I try to calm Laura, who is getting more upset as I Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

15

explain that her negative perceptions of Africans as ugly, dirty, and uncivilized, and Africa as a backward continent, are flawed; however, she is not.

You are enough. Laura, you are enough. I have been feeling a need to say that to the women and girls I meet who suffer from low self-esteem, those who don’t feel worthy because they believe that circumstances or ethnic origin or sexual orientation or the way they look make them less than enough. You are enough. Your worth is not determined or diminished by being born female or African American, unless you deem it so. To a large extent, your self-worth, your self-esteem, is determined by what you think about yourself and how much value you place on the identity you have created for yourself.

Sultan Zugo, a character from the comic strip, Tim Tyler’s Luck, September 23, 1934. Popular playthings by the early 1900s, paper dolls can be found in comic strips, women’s and children’s magazines, in expensive box sets, and in book format. On occasion a person of African descent will appear in a stereotypical role.

16

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

According to authors Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning in their book Self-Esteem, self-esteem “is an emotional sine qua non—without some measure of selfworth, life can be enormously painful, with many basic needs going unmet.” A person with low self-esteem takes fewer social, academic, or career risks. I look at all the mammy paper dolls in my collection: depictions of women, who, according to historian Michelle Wallace in her book, The Myth of the Superwoman, are “the personification of the ideal slave and the ideal woman: [an] obese, domesticated, asexual house slave with a world of wisdom, the patience of Job, a heart of gold, and the willingness to breastfeed the world” and wonder how many women’s dreams died and hopes were dimmed knowing their roles had been so narrowly defined, their options so limited by society’s assessment of their worth.

Until the 1950s most of the paper dolls of African American adults depicted maids or butlers, cooks, porters, or nursemaids to white families.

Learning about Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, both strong and brave historical figures, inspired my social consciousness, but did little to dispel my teenage awkwardness and self-consciousness in a society that tells me how I look is more important than what I know, where fitting in is the end all and be all. Corporations and advertising firms reap billions of dollars on the notion that I, in all my natural glory and forever changing body, will never be enough; that I will always be too something: too young, too old, too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, too dark, too light, too intelligent, too dull, too plain, too exotic, too too something.

When I was 13, I believed that I was too tall—at 5'7" I towered over most of my classmates. Like most teenagers, I wanted to fit in. I slouched to appear shorter.

For an entire month, I believed my nose was too big.

When I finally stopped trying to conform, I felt better about myself and my body. It feels good to feel comfortable in my own skin; not to judge myself or to reject aspects of my being based on ideals that exist in fashion layouts and on movie sets. It takes courage to be one’s self in our celebrity-obsessed, quick-fix culture that tells us that in order to be more, have more, do more, to measure up, we must somehow change or look a certain way.

Pitted, almost from birth, against other females, the long cycle to compare and compete, to see who can be the most attractive (or the most successful) can become an all-consuming preoccupation. While boys are groomed to aspire to success, girls are still being taught that beauty is a woman’s greatest asset. Personally, you may not believe the hype, but millions of women (and more and more men) seem to. With shows like The Swan and Extreme Makeover fueling the $15 billion a year cosmetic surgery industry, there has been a threefold increase in the number of teens having breast implants and rhinoplasties.

I grew up in the 1960s and ’70s, decades mired in

social upheaval. These were times of hope and revolution: hippies, Vietnam, the Voting Rights Act, assassinations (Kennedy, King, and Malcolm X), riots, the Motown Sound, Watergate, Roe v. Wade, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Diahann Carroll, a young, sophisticated actress stars in the television series Julia, playing the role of a beautiful, independent, widowed career woman raising her son Cory alone in a nice middle class neighborhood. She is the first African American, since Beulah aired in the 1950s, to star in her own show. James Brown sings, “Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud.” I am. In the fifth grade, I read A Glorious Age in Africa, a historical recounting of African commerce and trade routes predating the Atlantic slave trade, at least six times as I prepare to discuss it with my father during one of the readings he frequently assigns to supplement my homework.

Through book reports for my father and my insatiable quest for knowledge, I know that my forebears come from great and ancient civilizations. I am taught not to be ashamed of America’s history, nor to think less of the countless generations of men, women, and children who have been enslaved and ensnared in a cruel and inhumane institution that mocked, ridiculed, and demeaned those of African ancestry and favored their European oppressors and their progeny.

In all our youthful glory and exuberance, my classmates and I walk across the junior high school stage during our ninth-grade promotion ceremony to Nina Simone’s lush voice telling us how wonderful it is “to be young, gifted, and black.” I believe her.

Intellectually I can compete. I know I am as smart as the next person, even if society tells me differently; my parents have seen to it that I do not believe the lie.

Fortified with cultural pride, and my parents’ early history lessons, I imagine I can do or become whatever I set my mind to if I am willing to work hard and persevere. I still believe that.

On November 12, 2006, at the opening reception of “Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls: The Arabella Grayson Collection,” I ended my remarks with Judith Wilson’s provocative question, “How do we know who we are?” and her equally profound response (from Autobiography in Her Own Image): Answer 1: Society tells us. “Society,” first in the form of family and other caretakers. Later, we learn our “place” increasingly via messages from institutional mechanisms—government, schools, media . . .

Answer 2: If society tells us lies, how can we know who we are?

Answer 3: Maybe the only thing to know is that we need to keep on searching.

It is through searching that I began collecting black paper dolls and recording an unknown aspect of America’s history. It is through the story of each one of

Described as “odd” and “goblin-like” in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Topsey becomes the first African American paper doll. Two-sided figure from woodblock engraving with hand tinted watercolor.

McLoughlin Brothers of New York, 1863.

these precious paper playthings that I trace my personal history of cultural pride and self-acceptance.

“Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls” is on exhibit through April 29, 2007, at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in Washington, D.C. Part of the collection was displayed at Mills College at the F.W. Olin Library in January and February 2004.

A California native, Arabella Grayson has spent the last six years in Washington, D.C., working as a ghostwriter and public relations consultant. The author of the forthcoming book Precious Playthings: An Illustrated History of Black Paper Dolls, The First Two Hundred Years, she travels frequently to promote the exhibition, which will tour after leaving the Smithsonian. In the meantime, Arabella continues to work on an animation script (an adaptation of a fairy tale she has written for adults) and to hone her acting skills.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

17

REUNION 2006 Clockwise from top left: members of the Class of 1991 on Toyon Meadow; Jane Cudlip King, ’42, waits as alumnae gather for her famous stroll of the campus; Cynthia Bird, ’61, wore her class beanie to Reunion. At the president’s garden reception: AAMC Executive Director Sheryl Bizé-Boutté, ’73 (left), Leone La Duke Evans, MA ’45, Estrellita Hudson Redus, ’65, and Daphne Muse, director of the Women’s Leadership Institute.

18

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

Profiles

M AKING A RT SPA C ES, B U ILD I N G C O MMU N I T Y: D E B O R A H F R I E D E N , M FA ’ 7 6

by Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04 When Deborah Frieden was an art student at Mills, she had no idea that 15 years later she’d be overseeing the renovation of one of the West Coast’s premier art museums.

“I didn’t even know people did what I do now when I was going to college,” she says, “and I never dreamed I would have an interest in it.”

At the time, Deborah worked in the Mills Art Gallery, then went on to coordinate independent films in San Francisco. From there, her organizational talent led her to work for an up-and-coming law firm, managing its expansion and remodeling efforts. After ten years of soaking up knowledge about the legal and contractual aspects of her job, she was hired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to manage the restoration and expansion of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

However, it was Frieden’s work as project manager for the rebuilding of the de Young Museum that was her true pièce de resistance. All of the planning and implementation, from the budget to the hiring to the architectural selection process, was included on her impressive list of responsibilities. And the job wasn’t easy.

Two state bond measures that would have supplied critical funding to the project, one in 1996 and one in 1998, failed to pass, so the Board of Trustees sought private funding. Luckily, the community was on their side.

“We ended up with over 6,000 individual donors to the project of a thousand dollars or more, including many community members for whom a thousand dollars was a significant contribution.”

The other major obstacle was the architecture. The firm Herzog & de Meuron had created a design whose subtle detail was difficult to communicate to the public. Moreover, not everyone was convinced that the new de Young should have a tower.

“When we held workshops with the public, the public told us that the tower was an iconic element of the museum,” Deborah points out. Despite some heavily publicized criticism of the design, she says that most people do love the place—now that they’ve had a chance to experience it.

“The architects worked very hard to make the visitor experience quite thrilling and diverse, so that you have lively spaces, you have quiet spaces, contemplative spaces, and daylit spaces and dark spaces and dramatic spaces. . . . I think part of people’s fear of modern architecture is that it’s going to be cold and impersonal, whereas this building is anything but that.”

The tower was dubbed the Education Tower, in honor of one of the primary roles of the museum in the community. Classrooms, teachers’ resources, a lecture hall—Deborah helped ensure that all of these were included in the architects’ design, so that the de Young could play a vital role in community arts education for many years to come. Moreover, she says, “It has put San Francisco on the architectural map.”

Now, Frieden has reached another moment of change in her career.

In the fall, she began a prestigious one-year fellowship in Cambridge, Massachusetts—the Loeb Fellowship—which is for “mid-career professionals who have had an impact on the built or natural environment.”

Frieden welcomes the opportunity to use her skills in new ways. She hopes to study a range of subjects, including courses on photographing the urban narrative, urban planning and public discourse, and nonprofit management. Despite her years of experience working on high-profile projects for one of the most culturally active cities in the country, she still maintains a down-to-earth, even humble, outlook on the changes in her life.

“It’s very exciting,” she says. “It’s a huge change to leave your work and your home and your life and just drop out for nine months, come to Harvard, get settled, and become a student again.” But no matter what comes next for Deborah Frieden, it’s certain to enrich the community around her.

Sarah J. Stevenson, MFA ’04, is a freelance writer, editor, artist, and designer. For contact information, please visit <www.thedecklededge.com>.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

19

Mills educated her to believe she could be whatever she wanted to be.

Author/illustrator Nancy Winslow Parker ’52 explains why she has established a legacy at Mills through her will.

“Can you make it possible for your daughter, or someone else’s daughter, to be educated so they grow to their fullest potential, even if it means that they may become very different from you? To enable Mills to carry out this directive—with strong educational principles, dedication, curiosity, experimentation, and honor—I have remembered Mills in my will.”

Photo: Benjamin Kracauer

“President Woodrow Wilson once told a graduating class that the purpose of college was to make students as different from their parents as possible.

I don’t think this thought had crossed my mother’s mind in 1948 when she sent me to Mills College, 3000 miles away from my leafy town and seashore village in New Jersey. But Mills left no California leaf unturned in its quest to educate this Yankee transplant to believe that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and gave me the tools to accomplish this task.

Now, at the age of 76, I am my mother. I am also the woman that Mills made me in mind and spirit, but still my mother in heart, vision, and courage.

Nancy Winslow Parker is the author and/or illustrator of more than 50 books for children in grades K through 12. Her literary legacy includes books about science (such as her best-seller, Bugs ), U.S. government (The President’s Cabinet ), geopolitics (The Panama Canal ) and human anatomy (in progress, to be released in 2008).

Find out how you can create a legacy at Mills.

Please contact April Hopkins, director of planned giving, toll-free at 877.PGMILLS (877.746.4557) or by email at aprilh@mills.edu, or visit www.mills.edu/giving/planned_gifts.php.

Mills College does not offer or provide tax advice. Consult your professional advisor before making a gift that could have tax consequences.

Planned Giving

Profiles

SAVING THE O REGO N F O RES T: R E B E C C A S T E C K L E R , ’ 9 2

by Pat Soberanis, Credential, ’06

For most of us, “saving the forest” amounts to writing a check. For Rebecca “Becky” Steckler, ’92, it’s a career—and she has just landed her dream job. As land-use project manager for a new statewide task force on land use planning, Becky has a chance to influence the future of Oregon.

The ambitious mission of the task force is to review the state’s 30-year-old land use planning system and recommend any needed changes. Dubbed the Big Look, the review will set the course for future development in Oregon.

Oregon’s pioneering land use laws, often cited as the national model for keeping suburban sprawl in check, are under fire from farmers, ranchers, and other property owners just beyond the suburbs who want to subdivide their land. In late 2004, voters passed Measure 37, a statute that gave Oregon property owners the right to claim compensation for land use laws that lowered their property values—or the laws would have to be modified or waived. The measure went into effect in 2006 after being held up by litigation on its constitutionality, and it has the potential to upend the state’s efforts to keep a lid on urban growth.

“The Big Look comes at a critical time for Oregon,” Becky says. “We’re at a crossroads. We’ve really done a lot to preserve farmland and forest land, which in the ’70s was the base of Oregon’s economy.” But over time the comprehensive land use plan became more complex, and, with an influx of new residents, some felt it became less relevant. “Fifty percent of the population in Oregon weren’t living here ten years ago,” says the 35-year-old Oregon native. “All that growth threatens the kinds of things people come here to enjoy.”

Becky and her staff’s role in the Big Look is to collect the data the task force needs to make its decisions. They’ll be reviewing existing conditions and trends, surveying public sentiment and values

regarding land use, and submitting those data to task force members. “They need to feel confident, and the legislature needs to feel confident, that they have the support of Oregonians,” Becky says.

The Big Look might be her dream job, but Becky has been preparing for it for more than ten years. A postcollege job at the Sierra Club introduced her to environmental issues, and by the time she became

an editor of The Planet, the club’s newsletter, in 1996–97, she was hooked. From there she became outreach coordinator for the California Coastal Commission, managing 50,000 volunteers for the annual Coastal Cleanup Day, and another 30,000 for the Adopt-a-Beach program. “Both programs had a network of regional contacts,” Becky says. “For Cleanup Day, a teacher in Del Norte County brought out two-thirds of the entire school district.” Heal the Bay in Los Angeles drew about 10,000 in that county alone.

When Becky first looked into graduate programs, she had public policy in mind, but it didn’t quite feel right. A chance encounter with a coworker’s book on land use brought an epiphany: “This is what I want to do—make a difference” on how and where we live our lives. She earned her master’s degree in community and regional planning at the University of Oregon in 2002.

For the next four years, she was project manager at ECONorthwest, an economic consulting firm in Portland. “I learned a lot about how to quantify the benefits and costs of public policy,” Becky says. “It really broadened my perspective, and I will be able to use a lot of that knowledge now for the Big Look.”

Her time at Mills also prepared Becky for her dream job. The summer after the strike, in 1990, she worked as a waitress at two resorts in Oregon, and many of her customers came from California. She found herself repeatedly defending the strike and Mills. “Who are the [female] leaders?” she would ask. “A high proportion come from women’s colleges.” She adds, “I’ve taken that ability to talk about issues that are controversial and used it in my career.”

Mills also played a role in how Becky and her new husband, Martin Heim, met—on her way to her ten-year reunion. Riding the Portland-area light rail system to the airport, she overheard Martin and another passenger’s conversation about the system’s fare structure. Working at the economic consulting firm, Becky put her two cents in. “We continued talking as we walked into the airport and up to the gate,” says Becky. “Our conversation continued for the next four hours. We’ve been together ever since.” They were married on May 7, 2005.

The new job is the icing on her life’s delicious cake. “With the passage of Measure 37,” Becky says, “it’s a bit overwhelming to feel that this thing you really cared about is being dismantled. The Big Look is a hopeful, incredibly optimistic place to be.”

Pat Soberanis <pat.soberanis@gmail.com> is the former associate editor of the Mills Quarterly and continues to write on a variety of subjects.

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

21

Profiles

Life at the Crossroads: Stephanie Montgomery, ’72

by Moya Stone, MFA ’03 “I have arrived at almost every crossroad in my life a little late,” says Stephanie Montgomery, ’72. Whenever she may have reached her crossroads, Stephanie has an impressive list of accomplishments: she has a master’s degree in French from Brandeis University, spent 35 years teaching language and literature, raised two daughters, and now she’s mentoring 200 women memoirists on her website, Memoir Café <www.memoircafe.com>.

Growing up in rural Massachusetts, Stephanie attended all-girl schools from fifth grade on. She says her single-sex education gave her an advantage. “Without boys in the classroom, it was an open field of learning opportunity,” says Stephanie. “It was okay for girls to be smart.” Stephanie knew early on that she wanted to be a teacher, and she credits the women teachers in her young life with inspiring that desire in her.

Several years ago, Stephanie reached a major crossroad when she decided to give up teaching and mentor in a new way. She had discovered that, although women wrote good academic essays, when it came to personal essays, they felt what they had to say wasn’t worthwhile. Wanting to address this issue, Stephanie started up a website where women post their memoir pieces and receive supportive feedback from other women. “I wanted to create something where women could feel comfortable and valued,” says Stephanie, “and a place where their stories would endure.”

22

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

PASSAGES

Gifts in Honor of

Gifts in Memory of

Margery Churchill Adams, ’41, by Mariam Herrick Melendez, ’54 Sheryl Bize-Boutté, ’73, by Michelle Balovich, ’03 Class of 1941, Honoring my classmates and the occasion of our 65th Reunion, by Mary-Lee “Lippy” Lipscomb Reade, ’41 Eric Doyle, by Barbara L. Hunter, ’57 Elaine Wertheimer Ehrman, ’47, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Nikki Tenneson King, ’56, by Mike Shaw Swan, ’56 Fred Lawson, by the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Daphne Muse, by Anna Darden Ray Sanders, by the Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’42,

by Jean Morgan Randall, ’41 Katherine Zelinsky Westheimer, ’42, Happy Birthday! by Ann Sulzberger Wolff, ’42 Thomasina Woida, ’80, by Michelle Balovich, ’03

Chloe Doerr Ackman, ’40, by Peggy Weber, ’65, and Robert Whitlock Charlotte Bonica, ’68,

by Linda Cohen Turner, ’68 Linda Nelson Branson, ’77,

by James Branson Mary Lou Brooks, ’61, by Dorotha Myers Bradley, ’61 Alice Paxman Chambers, ’45,

by Camille Chambers Sara Glasgow Cogan, ’60, by Dr. Nathan F. Cogan and the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation Willa Wolcott Condon, MA ’32,

by Ann Condon Barbour, ’69 Mary Davis, daughter of Madeleine Ebbesen Davis, ’46, by Madeleine Ebbesen Davis, ’46 Ralph Davis, husband of Madeleine Ebbesen Davis, ’46, by Madeleine Ebbesen Davis, ’46 Evelyn “Peg” Deane, ’41, by Mary Hart Clark, ’42 Jean Ginder Dew, ’56, by

Patricia Sawyier Eldredge, ’56 Joan Waldkoetter di Giulio, ’49,

by Susan Clare and Joy Hicks Carol Meyer Doyle, MFA ’81, by Barbara Hunter, ’57 Acacia Wing Ebbesen, ’46, by Madeleine Ebbesen Davis, ’46 Lori Fong, daughter of Borgee Chinn, ’41, by Marilyn Learn Elizabeth Ridgway Ham, ’41, by Jean Morgan Randall, ’41 Dolores “Dee” Robinson Hawthorne-Simpson, MA ’59,

by Alice London Bishop, ’58 Nancy Lin Li, MA ’48,

by Angela Grubb Maryann Mangold, ’61, by Dorotha Myers Bradley, ’61 Shirley Frick Merrill, ’50, by Margaret Bard Fall, ’50 Elizabeth Lucker Miller, ’39, by W. Prescott Miller Phyllis “Phyl” Kneass Molinari, ’42, by Billie Gardner Axel, ’42, Dorothy Sharp Carter, ’42, and the Palo Alto Area Mills College Club Margaret “Mugs” Dolph Murfit, ’41, by Jean Morgan Randall, ’41 Connie Wong Ong (Jade Snow

Wong), ’42, by Madeleine Ebbesen Davis, ’46, and Harriet Bradley Tegart, ’42 Robert Poindexter, husband of Helen Poindexter, ’46, by Sara Barnes Carnahan, ’49, and Betty Taves Whitman, ’46 Theodore Reed, by Randi Keppeler, ’79 Jean Roy Shell, ’45, by Marian McCormack Wilkie, ’45 Melody Clarke Teppola, ’64, by Julie Headley, ’63 Cynthia Weintraub Weber, ’69,

by Cynthia Cooper, ’69, and Harriet Silverblatt Worobey, ’69 Jean Robinson Weir, ’41, by Jean Morgan Randall, ’41 Nancy McClintock Zeus, ’41, by Norma Godfrey Vermilion, ’42

Winter 2007 M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY

23

More than a Memory b y M a h m u d R a h m a n , M FA ’ 0 4

T

he sun was already high in the sky and the air seemed to hold the moisture of the entire Gulf of Mexico. Then I entered shade, a walkway of asphalt with trees on either side, their upper branches touching in a love embrace.

I was taking a lazy walk through Audubon Park in uptown New Orleans.

But my mind veered off to another treelined pathway—Roberts Road. In the silence of that steamy morning broken only by the chirping of crickets, my body craved the cool shade of Mills.

A month earlier, I had said goodbye to Mills after nine years of a life enmeshed with the College. I bade farewell to a sunny Lake Merritt apartment, my home for the same stretch of time. Taking off on a drive across North America, I would visit friends and family, delight in encounters with strangers, and clear my head of details about columns and rows, as I transitioned from the world of databases into the life of a full-time writer. At the end of my road trip, I would depart for a self-funded residency in Bangladesh, the land where I was born, and the setting of the novel knocking around my head.

Nine years ago I had also taken a road trip, then heading west toward Oakland. I left the northeast seeking refuge from harsh winters and unrequited love. On a lark I had applied for a job at Mills, a college I knew lit-

tle about. During the drive Mills grew larger in my awareness. In Detroit, I discovered they were interested. In Madison, I interviewed on the phone. In Wichita, I heard they wanted to meet. In a rush, I crossed the West, got the job, and started on July 16, 1997.

This summer on my road trip away from California, I kept bumping into my old life. In Boulder, I trampled the streets with a classmate from my first MFA workshop. Outside Atlanta, I sat in the shade of another women’s college and looked on with a touch of nostalgia as freshwomen arrived with their bags. In New York, before I flew to the other side of the planet, I shared stories with half a dozen friends from my years at Mills.

Today I am worlds removed from Mills. I no longer mark time by a school calendar.

Instead of oak and eucalyptus, I am surrounded by mango and tamarind. The air smells different. When I walk in the rain, the drops caressing my skin are warm, not cold. And tea shop means something else entirely.

Yet Mills is more than a memory. I met people there who will be friends forever. And while I have long been a writer, it was at Mills where I sharpened my skills with fiction.

Today the pages I write carry some trace of a lesson, a visual memory, or a conversation culled at the lovely campus that was a home for nine packed years.

Though I miss Mills the place, I am glad to carry Mills the experience along with me.

Until July 2006, Mahmud Rahman worked at Mills as Banner services coordinator, providing support to users of the College’s database system. In spring 2004, he completed an MFA in creative writing. You can read his stories and blog at <www.mahmudrahman.com>.

24

M I L L S Q U A R T E R LY Winter 2007

Class Notes do not appear in the online edition of Mills Quarterly.

Alumnae are invited to share their news with classmates in the Mills College alumnae community.

To submit notes for publication in the next available Quarterly, send your update to classnotes@mills. edu.

Class Notes do not appear in the online edition of the Mills Quarterly.

Alumnae are invited to share their news with classmates in the Mills College Alumnae Community, alumnae.mills.edu. To submit notes for publication in the next available Quarterly, send your update to classnotes@mills.edu.

Professor of Studio Art Hung Liu was selected to create a public art installation for display at Oakland International Airport.

Recently unveiled, “Going Away, Coming Home” (2006) is a 160-foot glass mural the artist created at Derix Glasstudios in Germany.

Liu, a native of China, is renowned for incorporating Chinese and Western images into her artwork.

Mills Quarterly Alumnae Association of Mills College Reinhardt Alumnae House Mills College PO Box 9998 Oakland, CA 94613-0998 (510) 430-2110 aamc@mills.edu www.mills.edu

PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT OAKLAND, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICE(S)

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks.