“WHALES” BY FIRST GRADE STUDENTS IN BECCA & LÉA’S CLASS
STUDENTS LEARNED ABOUT THE RETURN OF WHALES TO NYC WATERS. THESE WHALES INCLUDE THE SEI, FIN, HUMPBACK, AND ENDANGERED ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES.
Editorial Staff
Robin Becker, Director of Communications
Hannah Swacker Kurnit ’97, Director of Advancement
Elena Sheppard ’05, Communications Associate
Jacob Goodhart, Alumni Relations Manager
Last August, our school leadership met in the dog days of summer to center the 2023–24 school year around four goals—each intended to bolster our School’s mission and support our students and our community as a whole.
The goal-planning process involved much discussion and some healthy debate, and in the end, we started the year with ambitious plans and clearly agreed upon direction. Next, we formed working groups to oversee each of the four goals. The groups were staffed by leadership from across the School who sought guidance and input from all faculty and staff—the intention being to invite in as many voices as possible throughout the year.
I wanted to share these goals with the larger community, so you can see the many ways in which we are thinking about our students and how we may continue to nurture and support one another and our School.
The 2023–24 goals were mapped out as follows:
We will create a concrete and clear cell phone policy that is followed and enforced by all.
As a community that values focused, in-person connection, we are increasingly attuned to ways in which cell phone use is an experience blocker—encroaching on students’ attention spans and healthy sociability. This must change. The cell phone working group partnered with faculty across the School to craft a new policy that will take effect in the 2024–2025 school year. Current parents/guardians will receive information about the new policy prior to the start of the school year.
Implementing this policy will be a community-wide undertaking. We are looking forward to working with children and their families, as well as our faculty and staff, in this effort to be all-the-more present with each other and to sharpen the intellectual and artistic focus of our learning environment.
While Saint Ann’s is made up of six divisions across multiple buildings, we are one school, united behind the same mission. This working group spent the year identifying moments to celebrate and opportunities for growth in the experiences of students, families, and faculty and staff, with a particular focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion across the divisions. Successes from this year include the bi-weekly newsletter News & Notes; the faculty and staff Professional and Community Development Day; various cross-divisional and multi-grade projects and events such as the Reading Marathon, the Seminar program, and GUST; and school-wide events open to the full community, such as the Skating Party, Puppet Parade, and Picnic with a View. Opportunities for growth include more cross-departmental and divisional communication, collaboration, and comradery. This work is ongoing and extends beyond this school year. We will continue to strive for a unified experience for our entire community.
We will foster and create a healthy adult culture.
In order to provide the best possible care for our students, we must ensure that our faculty and staff feel cared for and supported. The Cohesion, Alignment, Appreciation, and Trust (CAAT) working group spent the year gathering feedback on the connection between administrators and faculty. The group also explored the ways that we can make room for healthy, valuable disagreement as we continue to lead with empathy and respect. The CAAT working group surveyed the entire staff, held multiple working sessions, and shared their findings and presented their suggestions at the final staff meeting of the year. Their work has provided concrete strategies and steps for us all to incorporate as we prepare for the upcoming school year.
We will create a clear and realistic organizational structure.
A successful organizational structure provides clarity around decision making, lines of communication and support, and the parameters of roles and responsibilities. The organizational structure working group spent this year gathering information and feedback on where we can improve lines of communication and reporting structures at our School. This work led to the redefining of the Dean of Faculty role, the creation of Chair Coordinators, and our new Co-Director model for the Department of Diversity and Institutional Equity. This organizational structure work will continue into next year.
These four goals were designed to support the most important work we do every day—teaching and caring for our students. Thank you to everyone who worked on them throughout the year, and who will continue to work on them for the years to come.
As I look back on my first year as Head of School the pervasive feeling I am left with is gratitude. Gratitude for being welcomed so warmly into this incredible community; gratitude for the passion of our faculty, the dedication of our administration, and the support of our families. But most importantly, I feel gratitude for our students. Their brilliance, bravery, compassion, and creativity are my north stars. So thank you to them, and thank you to you. This community is built and sustained and made better by all of us.
Have a wonderful summer.
wishes for when I grow old by Louise K., 10th Grade
I want to still have a wet lip—& cracked eyes—sharp teeth and a shiny tongue— No, no—that’s not right—
Do you think my eyelashes, too, will turn gray?
I hope that I’ll still be able to run with Saggy knees and wrinkled toes
I wonder if my body will feel heavy, anchored. I’d like to stop floating away
1. I wish to stay friends with my sister
Do scars fade? I don’t want to forget the one above my left elbow—It’d be rude to forget it, you see, it was a gift from a lovely birchbark back in Montpelier
Once I tried to count all the moles on my back and it took me ten whole minutes. I wonder if they’ll even be possible to count when I’m older, if my freckles will blanket my face so thoroughly that the scar on my nose will be covered, my skin so spotted it’d be hard to see it’s true color
2.I want to live for a long time, but not so long that it is painful to live.
3.I want to have grandchildren, so that my fingers do not grow idle without hair to braid.
4.I want to still look at my grandmother’s photo albums, for they will remember the things I will have forgotten—like how shadow fell across my nose when I was too young to crawl, and what my father wore the day my sister was born and what color the hair tie he carried on his wrist for me was.
I want to be able to swim still, in water so cold it makes you forget your own name, so that the only thing you feel between your teeth knocking against each other is life’s fleeting, vibrant spirit.
Scan the QR code to enjoy a scrapbook of the 2023–2024 school year, featuring poetry by Louise K 10th grade and music by Conor M , 10th grade
In January Jesse and Elizabeth’s ’12 first grade class kicked off a months-long study of New York City-based musicians who also fought for social justice. They started with the pioneering bebop drummer Max Roach, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. They also looked at Jean-Michel Basquiat’s portrait “Max Roach,” from 1984. After weeks of sketching various jazz musicians—including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone—while listening to key jazz compositions, the class studied a few more paintings by Basquiat, including “Horn Players,” then set to translating their sketches into large 2’x3’ paintings using pencil, Sharpie, oil pastel, color stick, and acrylic paint. They learned about Basquiat’s beginnings as a graffiti artist, the role of text in other artists’ work, like Andy Warhol and Edward Ruscha, and as a final step students could add text to their paintings—including musician’s names, or nicknames, and song titles.
In May, Andrea and Sofiy’s second grade classroom transformed into the Hall of Ancient Egyptian Discoveries. Visitors to the museum received a hand-drawn sticker granting them entry to the special exhibit. Student docents led tours of the museum, which included living dioramas of Ancient Egyptian life, a collection of relics, and the Pharaoh Hatshepsut.
In 9th Grade Digital Literacy, students worked with EdTech Coordinator Laura Winnick to complete six weeks of workshops about our increasingly digital world. Students learned about digital deceleration (how to untether ourselves from technology), privacy online (and how to protect it), data (what is it and where does it go?), and social media (best practices and safety). For their final projects, students created and shared stories about digital literacy on the School’s Instagram page.
Two Saint Ann’s students, Braden O. (9th grade) and Savi R. (10th grade), performed with the New York Philharmonic Youth Orchestra this year. Braden, who plays the oboe, was also selected to perform with the full New York Philharmonic in a special performance at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to connect and play with some of the best musicians I’ve ever seen,” Savi says of his time with the New York Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
“It was very encouraging to meet so many people who love being a musician,” says Braden on his experience with the New York Philharmonic. “It’s a very difficult career to pursue, but from what I saw, I would fit in and this is something that I want to do. I felt like it clicked.”
In May, the fourth and fifth grade descended upon Brooklyn Bridge Park for their annual Park Day— a great day spent playing outside in the spring sunshine!
During May’s Independent Research Symposium, High School science and math students presented their independent research projects, pursued under the guidance of faculty advisors. Topics ran the gamut from the possibility of growing chickens outside of an egg, to binary modulation radio and oscilloscopes, to the rise in early onset puberty. At the Symposium, students had the opportunity to share their findings with their fellow classmates and the larger Saint Ann’s community.
For decades, the Saint Ann’s puppetry classes have been a unique cornerstone of the School’s curriculum—the annual Puppet Parade serving as a showcase of the creative, often larger-than-life work that happens in the Townhouse puppetry studio. What many don’t realize, however, is that all the puppets made at Saint Ann’s utilize upcycled materials. “We try to not buy anything—no styrofoam, nothing,” shares art teacher Olga Okuneva , adding that the School’s kitchen and different departments often drop off items for the puppet makers to use. “The kids also collect stuff; this teaches the kids to use natural material,” Olga adds.
Olga and Christina Rodriguez are the School’s puppetry teachers, together fostering a space for students to take their creativity as far as they can, while simultaneously complimenting the work they do in their other classes. “It’s not just an art class, it’s an outlet for our kids,” shares Christina. “It’s an important learning tool.”
“This year we had a Spanish teacher who came in once a week and got his students to put on scripts that they’d written in Spanish,” Christina shares. “They use these characters and these puppets to learn the language.”
For a department that relies on upcycled goods to make their creations both large and small, many household items are hot commodities in the puppetry studio: toilet paper tubes, cereal boxes, bottles, newspaper, magazines, broken umbrellas, broken hangers, square-shaped bottles—“oh my goodness, those are gold,” says Olga.
Olga also notes that at the outset of the school year, kids are often hung up on the idea that they need the exact right piece to complete their puppets, but by the end of the year their creativity has blossomed. “Their brains start re-wiring,” says Olga. “They see a hook or something and think this will be good for this, this will be good for that. I say ‘just don’t cut up your parents’ cashmere sweaters.’”
Instructions For Spring
Leave spring to kabbalah & kismet— ring your splintered shins in gold.
Feel the biplane drift towards disaster on May Day. Press the pulp out of each well-turned day. Know that the slickness of these streets never tasted so good.
Love them well. Think of violet nights you spent dancing on the tops of your father’s big shoes so he could swing you across the kitchen floor. The explosion of rainwashed dirt under ragged nails. You can be Gepetto & God at the same time, you can lie in the underbelly of this blue whale, let it carry you off to a sleepy somewhere.
Let the wake-up bite a little. Remind yourself that you are the ace. Remind yourself what it feels like to speak in all caps. Never forget to love your strong skin,
blooming just as cherry blossoms do— all pink, all puffy, all everywhere, all fleeting.
There are things to relearn while the irises are out. Remember that spring is your father yelling
“underdog!” as he pushes your swing forward, sliding under at the last second before his head is sliced like a flower. Attempt to kiss the sweet world on the mouth.
Flash a little teeth, think of the tintinnabulation, the things you are made of— all that stardust and all that light.
By Lyla B., 12th Grade
Celebrate Saint Ann’s features notable and innovative voices and talent from across our community. These events bring our community together to celebrate the centrality of the arts at Saint Ann’s.
Our event on February 22 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre featured a performance of the highly acclaimed Sweeney Todd followed by a talkback with Tony and Emmy Award-winning director Thomas Kail. A Saint Ann’s parent, Tommy is renowned for directing Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, the latter earning him a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. His Broadway directing credits also include Freestyle Love Supreme, Lombardi, and Magic/Bird. His Television directing and producing credits include Fosse/Verdon on FX and Grease: Live on Fox.
For the first time since 1980, audiences were able to experience Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Awardwinning score as it was performed in the original production with Jonathan Tunick’s classic 26-player orchestration. The amazing cast at our performance included Tony Award-winner Aaron Tviet (Moulin Rouge: The Musical ) as Sweeney Todd and Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster ( Anything Goes and Thoroughly Modern Millie) as Mrs. Lovett.
In February, the Saint Ann’s community went to see Ari Brand ’02 on Broadway in the three-time Tony nominated show, Prayer for the French Republic. After the show, Ari met with audience members to answer questions and connect with our community. Ari was with the production beginning with its off-Broadway premiere in 2022 and until its closing on Broadway in March.
In March, first time authors Francesca Capossela ’14, Mina Seçkin ’11, and Elena Sheppard ’05 sat on a panel to discuss their debut books and the road to publication. The evening was moderated by published author and Dean of Faculty Melissa Kantor. The alumni opened the evening by reading excerpts from their most recent works, later taking questions from the audience and sharing how Saint Ann’s helped inform their career paths.
Our final Celebrate Saint Ann’s event of the year featured a performance of An Enemy of the People at Circle in the Square Theatre on April 24 followed by a talkback with Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, and Saint Ann’s parent, Jeremy Strong with fellow Saint Ann’s parent Katherine Profeta The play received five Tony Award nominations and Jeremy won for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for his portrayal of Dr. Stockmann. This new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play was written by Tony Award nominee Amy Herzog and directed by Tony Award winner Sam Gold. Jeremy has been nominated for multiple Emmy and Golden Globes and received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor for his performance as Kendall Roy in the HBO series Succession. Jeremy made his Broadway debut in 2008, starring opposite Frank Langella in A Man For All Seasons directed by Doug Hughes.
On May 16, parents/guardians, faculty, and staff were invited to a celebratory open house for the latest addition to our campus, 142 Pierrepont Street. Attendees had a chance to tour the lower floors of the building—including the bank’s vault!—before construction begins this summer. Following the tours, guests gathered down the street in the Bosworth building to hear remarks from Head of School Kenyatte Reid, outgoing Board President Mino Capossela , and incoming Board President Mary Watson ’78. We all raised a glass to the future of Saint Ann’s.
To learn more about this exciting milestone, please contact Hannah Swacker Kurnit ’97, Director of Advancement, at hkurnit@saintannsny.org.
time passing quickly when you are playing the time can pass quickly
I love playing time passes quickly when the seed is in the ground you don’t see time moving but when you grow you see time
By Iben W , Kindergarten
Our School, over the course of 58 years, has been bolstered by the generous support of our community. We are so grateful for the many donors who sustained this tradition of support with a gift to the 2023–24 Annual Fund. Your philanthropic contribution has benefited every student in countless ways. Every gift makes an impact. THANK YOU!
Make a Gift
Throughout the school year, volunteers donated their time and effort in support of the Annual Fund. This May, the volunteers gathered in person to reach out to and encourage participation in the Annual Fund from their peers. We are appreciative of their time, energy, and support.
Michelle Bell, Ambriel Bostic, Allison Bosworth, Claire Bourgeois, Andrew Cali-Vasquez, Purva Cullman, Cynthia Godsoe, Amilcar Gomes, Navin Gupta, Stephanie Newhouse, Risa Scobie, and Laura Stephens.
Scan QR code at right to make your gift or visit www.saintannsny.org/annual-fund
For questions about giving to Saint Ann’s or becoming involved as a volunteer, contact:
Hannah Swacker Kurnit ’97
Director of Advancement
718.522.1660 Ext.345
hkurnit@saintannsny.org
Regan Murphy Director of Annual Giving
718.522.1660 Ext.317
rmurphy@saintannsny.org
Golnar Adili
Work by art teacher Golnar was featured in Structural Play at Sugarhill Museum in Harlem, on view until August 18. She is also the visiting book artist at Sweren Wogan Institute, leading the workshop Pleats Please: Transforming Sheet into Volume.
Jorge Alvis
Spanish teacher Jorge has been appointed the new Chair of the Romance Languages Department. He has been teaching at Saint Ann’s since 2021.
Josef Bolton
Recreational Arts teacher and gymnastics coach Josef is now a Co-Chair of the Recreational Arts Department. Josef has taught at Saint Ann’s since 2014 and is the Assistant Director of Summer Arts Camp.
Alex Darrow ’87
Alex was announced as the new Head of the High School after serving as the Interim Head of the High School. Alex previously served in this position from 2013 to 2017, and has taught English across grade levels.
Kristin Fiori
Chair of the Science Department, Kristin Fiori, will be our next Dean of Faculty. Over the course of her tenure at Saint Ann’s, Kristin has developed many new classes—including High School Organic Chemistry and Middle School Design and Construction—and expanded the science curriculum for third through twelfth grade students.
Nadia Harmsen & Amina Mohamed
Diversity and Institutional Equity Coordinators, Nadia Harmsen and Amina Mohamed, have been named Co-Directors of the Office of Diversity and Institutional Equity.
Melissa Kantor
Melissa’s YA novel Biology Lessons will be published by Feiwel and Friends (a division of Macmillan Publishing) in January 2025.
Hannah Swacker Kurnit ’97
Hannah was announced as the School’s new Director of Advancement, after serving as the Interim Director of Advancement for the beginning of the year.
Shalewa Mackall
Theater Teacher and Interdisciplinary Studies Coordinator Shalewa Mackall created a short film Suite for the Ancestor I Hope to Be as a member of the inaugural cohort of Obsidian Literary Magazine’s O Sessions Black Listening Fellows.
Current computer faculty, Jascha, edited, mixed, and mastered former math faculty Lainie Fefferman’s newly released album, Here I Am.
The new Chair of the History Department is Stephanie Schragger. She has taught History at Saint Ann’s since 2002.
Aidan Thomas ’04
Aidan, who served as 10th Grade Dean during the 2023-24 school year, will be moving up with the grade becoming the 11th Grade Dean.
Liz Velikonja
Liz Velikonja is the new Chair of the Science Department. She has taught Science at Saint Ann’s since 1997.
Laura Winnick
EdTech Coordinator Laura Winnick will be our new Upper Middle School 7th Grade Dean.
Rosalie is retiring after teaching French since 1995. She also served as the Chair of the Romance Languages Department.
Felicia is leaving after teaching History at Saint Ann’s since 2002. She was also the Chair of the History Department.
Melissa is leaving after serving as the Dean of Faculty. She had also taught English at Saint Ann’s since 1994.
A thank you is hardly enough, but it’s a start. Thank you to these faculty members for the many years of service they devoted to Saint Ann’s and its students. We wish you luck on your next adventure. You will be missed.
Lisa is leaving after teaching Middle School and High School History at Saint Ann’s since 2001.
Colin is retiring after more than 30 years teaching Art at Saint Ann’s. He began working at the school in 1989.
Thank you all for many wonderful years and many wonderful memories.
The Board is delighted to announce that it elected Mary as the next President. Mary, who is both an alumna and the parent of a Saint Ann’s 2016 graduate, brings a wealth of experience to the role. For most of the last thirty years, she has been with the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton— first as an attorney with the litigation group and later developing the professional development department for associate attorneys. Before practicing law, Mary was Chair of the Classics and Asian Languages Department at Saint Ann’s, a Latin and Language Structures teacher, and Director of the After School Program. Mary served on the Board from 1996–2005, then spent two years as the Dean of Faculty at Saint Ann’s before returning to the Board in 2008. As outgoing Board President Mino Capossela wrote to the community in April, “I could not be more excited about the skill and passion for Saint Ann’s that Mary will bring to the role.”
Joanna Pozen is the parent of two Saint Ann’s students. She is an international human rights lawyer, public health specialist, and social entrepreneur. Joanna is the Director of Public Health Programs at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities and is the Executive Director of Restore Health, a non-profit incubating innovations in women’s health. Her work is focused on developing and implementing programs that protect human rights, and improve health outcomes for marginalized communities. Joanna received her B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from New York University School of Law, a M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health, and was a Fulbright Scholar. She serves on the Board of the Women’s Refugee Commission and is a Green Leader for Change at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She previously served as legal aid in other public and human rights efforts such as The Global Fund to Fight Aids, the United Nations, and HealthRight International.
Andrew Ferrer is a current parent of three Saint Ann’s students. Andrew has been a Managing Director at General Atlantic since 2014, where he focuses on growth investments in the Consumer sector. Prior to joining General Atlantic, Andrew worked at Sycamore Partners, Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners, where he also focused primarily on consumer investments. He serves on the Boards of Center for Supportive Schools, Groton School, and the TEAK Fellowship. Andrew received his A.B. from Princeton University in Public and International Affairs and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Anna McNeil joined Saint Ann’s as a first grader and graduated in 2016. Fueled by a lifelong interest in urbanism and social justice, Anna works as an Associate at Vistria Group, where she invests in the preservation and creation of affordable housing across the country. Previously, Anna worked in the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs. Anna holds a B.A. from Yale University in History of Art. In addition to her professional pursuits, she currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Brooklyn Youth Chorus as well as serving on the Junior Boards for Camba since July 2022 and for The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York since November 2022.
The Board wishes to acknowledge and thank the following trustees for their steadfast work on behalf of Saint Ann’s School.
Mino Capossela joined the Board in 2012 and for the last six years has led the Board as President. Over Mino’s twelve years of service he oversaw the Board for significant milestones including supporting a new Young Alumni Trustee program, a global pandemic which entailed a seismic shift to virtual learning, financial management and a reentry plan, a Head of School search process resulting in the fourth head of school in Saint Ann’s history, and the expansion of the School’s campus with 142 Pierrepont Street. Without exception, Mino centered students and faculty and remained a steward of the School’s mission. He worked to improve faculty compensation so that we could attract and retain stellar teachers, and to invest in and improve our buildings so that Saint Ann’s could serve many future generations of students.
In April, Mino wrote to the community, “Serving on our Board has been a privilege for me, and I want to particularly thank the wonderful group of trustees from whom I have learned so much. We have had the chance to see countless astounding presentations from various Department Chairs and Division Heads which never fail to demonstrate enormous vibrancy and dedication to students. We have also worked on extremely challenging, charged issues where it was vital to welcome and explore very different opinions and approaches while always returning to what best serves and sustains the particular mission of this extraordinary school. No school or community is perfect and it feels trite to observe that the entire world is struggling with sustaining civility, community, and compassion. These storms notwithstanding, Saint Ann’s remains a stunning and distinctive place that deserves all our wholehearted support and care.”
Cliff Thomas, Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs at Relay Graduate School of Education, joined the Saint Ann’s School Board in 2015. An alum of the School, he brought a unique perspective as both an alum and an educator. Cliff chaired the Financial Aid, Admissions, and Enrollment Committee with a concentration on increased racial and socio-economic diversity. Cliff was also a member of the Advancement Committee as well as the Nominating and Governance Committee, as well as working on the Alumni Advisory Committee.
Shahed Fakhari Larson joined the Board in 2021. Shahed sat on the several committees of the Board, including Advancement, Nominating and Governance, Audit and Risk, and was an at-large member of the Executive Committee. In addition, Shahed was a member of the Head of School Search Committee that appointed Kenyatte Reid. Through her work on these committees, Shahed generously shared her guidance and wisdom especially when related to strategic communications. Shahed’s wise and candid advice has been an invaluable contribution to the Board’s deliberations over her three years of service.
Jared Della Valle joined the Board in 2022 and played an instrumental role in the acquisition of 142 Pierrepont Street. A real estate professional and architect, Jared’s guidance throughout our real estate dealings was steadfast, while staying true to the School’s mission and working in the best interest of the students. Jared worked on the Physical Facilities Committee and was also a member of the Investment Committee.
Dear Alumni,
As I wrap up my first year as the Alumni Relations Manager, I am filled with gratitude and excitement reflecting on the journey so far. It was a pleasure to witness the vibrancy and unending creative capacity of our students as I watched the class of 2024 make the transition to Saint Ann’s alumni. Their graduation was filled with heartfelt reflections and captivating musical performances, making the evening a notable highlight of my year.
I was also honored to host my first Alumni Day, celebrating classes ending in 4’s and 9’s. I was struck by the similarities between the graduates of 1974 and the students of 2024. It was heartening to see that the same spirit of curiosity (with maybe a touch of mischief) to question conventional norms continues to thrive. This unique Saint Ann’s quality equips our alumni to excel in their endeavors, whether they are just starting their careers or have already enjoyed multiple fulfilling lives.
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this incredible journey—students, faculty, parents, and our alums. Your warm welcome and ongoing support have made this year unforgettable. I look forward to continuing to build on this foundation and to many more successful alumni events in the future. If you are interested in becoming more engaged at Saint Ann’s, there are many ways to stay involved:
• Make plans to attend Alumni Day next May 17, 2025.
›Guests of honor will be the classes ending in 5s and 0s—if you would like to volunteer as a class representative, contact Jacob Goodhart.
›All are welcome to attend the cocktail party!
• Keep your contact information up to date (email us at alumni@saintannsny.org to make any changes).
• Give a reading, speak to a class, share your professional expertise and experience. We love visitors!
• Follow our Facebook page (Saint Ann’s School Alumni News), as well as following us on LinkedIn, and Instagram (@saintannsschool).
• Check out the Happenings page on our website www.saintannsny.org to see upcoming events.
• Give a gift! Alumni donations to the Annual Fund are a chance to make contributions in honor or memory of a classmate, a teacher, or anyone who impacted your education.
• Suggest another idea! We’re all ears.
Thank you for keeping Saint Ann’s School’s rich history alive through your influence and input. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or suggestions. I look forward to hearing from you!
With love,
Jacob Goodhart Alumni Relations Manager
718.522.1660 ext. 323 jgoodhart@saintannsny.org
This year’s Alumni Day honored classes ending in 4s and 9s. The festivities began with a historic tour of Brooklyn Heights led by Saint Ann’s History Teacher Liam Flaherty ’85, and concluded with a peek inside the School’s new building 142 Pierrepont Street. The evening continued with a cocktail party for all alumni and dinners for classes celebrating milestone years. Thank you to all the familiar faces who joined us!
In April, Saint Ann’s alumni families with children newly-enrolled for the 2024–2025 school year gathered at Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Alums connected over their shared experiences while getting excited about returning to the School as parents.
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander month, authors Wendy Chin-Tanner ’94 and Jeff Yang ’85 returned to Saint Ann’s to speak with members of the Asian Student Union. In a discussion moderated by outgoing faculty member Felicia Kang, they spoke about what it was like navigating Saint Ann’s as a minority student in the ’80s and ’90s and their flourishing career paths after graduating. All student attendees were gifted copies of the authors’ most recent publications, King of the Armadillos by Wendy and The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America by Jeff.
In April, alumni faculty and staff had their first official gathering at Custom House to relax and reconnect before the final stretch of the school year. There were 46 alumni employed at Saint Ann’s during the 2023–2024 school year, represented in nearly every department and division. Thank you to our incredible alumni faculty and staff for staying so committed to Saint Ann’s.
I have been passionate about old movies since early childhood, but that cinephilia was ratified by so many formative experiences at Saint Ann’s—especially kvelling over Joan Crawford with Peter Clark and being introduced to the glorious Catherine Deneuve when we watched Le Dernier Métro in Madame Fisher’s French class.
Today my cinephilia continues apace! Interlaced with a lifelong cultivation of unruly laughter (speaking of which: I’m grateful for the patience of too many Saint Ann’s fellow travelers to name here), my love of movies has been a lightning rod for various recent activities. With two friends, I co-curated a 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set featuring 99 feminist silent films, Cinema’s First Nasty Women (Kino Lorber, 2022), and write about many of those films in my new book Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema (Columbia UP, 2024), which further investigates the untold history of women who allegedly died from laughing too hard. (Be warned!)
For my day job I teach courses on cinema and comedy at the University of Minnesota where I am employed as a Prof. of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. I enjoy curating archival cinema in the Twin Cities and reading about feminist media historiography with my two cats, Schmutz & Kibbutz.
It all started at Saint Ann’s. I mean it also “all started” with the movies themselves and for sure the video store on Henry Street played a big (big) role. But mostly it was at school in the 3rd grade, when we wrote, storyboarded, photographed, directed, acted and edited our own short films on Super 8mm that I got the bug. A Hitchcock club in 3rd grade? Still pretty unusual.
I started working on sets when I was 16. By that I mean that my job was to sweep away the dead rats from the empty stages that would someday have sets if they weren’t full of dead rats. Spike Lee was shooting Inside Man and I’d look down from the rafters to see what I could learn about camera placement and blocking. Not much. But it was romantic, anyway.
I’ve been down a funny path since those days but I’m still entranced by “film” although now it’s mostly called “television.” I’m currently working as the Director of Photography on HBO’s And Just Like That. I recently completed American Horror Story Delicate with Kim Kardashian and before that shot two season’s of POSE on FX. Feature films have sprinkled in but not nearly enough of them.
Honestly not much has changed since 3rd grade at Saint Ann’s. It’s harder, but even more fun now.
the sky with stars filling up the sky is beautiful with stars I can hear the swaying of the wind it gives me a shiver
by Sienna A , Kindergarten
by Brianna J. Cox ’14
Dear Reader,
I write to you from the desk of my sun-filled Rhode Island study having just finished my second year of being an artist and tenure-track film professor in my late 20s, wondering how it is that I got here. Upon reflection, it all flashes before me, and I recall a flurry of memories that spin into a common thread—my love of learning. My journey as a storyteller began before I could even articulate my identity with the word “artist.” Penning limericks in kindergarten, publishing short stories and poems in anthologies with the encouragement of my English and Language Arts teacher by Middle School, and even writing a feminist retelling of a Dickensian play for my drama club are some early examples of bringing the visions of my lucrative imagination into the world via words and narrative. Videos of skits I created with my sister on an old flip phone were my first films without me even realizing it. As the beloved Reading Rainbow theme song so enthusiastically states: “I can go anywhere,” via my imagination: a playground, a desert, an ocean, a galaxy, a time far in the future. I have always found storytelling to be a beautiful exercise in empathy, both for myself and others.
A proud alum of Prep for Prep, I attended Saint Ann’s for eighth grade and all of my high school years. To me, this experience presented a charcuterie board of options for artistic exploration. I continued to write poetry and acted in plays and musicals. Through classes like Jazz Ensemble with Jonathan Elliot , African Dance with Shalewa Mackall, Acting Intensive with Sharon Lamazor, and Painting with Colin Lee, I was enthralled with the number of ways I could express myself. In addition to the education I received from my teachers, I was validated in my own love of the arts. I was in an educational space where I was able to focus on the notes and scales in my soprano range during Voice with Peter Clark with the same grit and attention I brought to writing my essays for World Literature with Will Geiger (former faculty).
As I reflect upon my senior year at Saint Ann’s, I notice how my artistry began to integrate more into my identity. I performed a spoken word poem, delivering it to the entire student body to discuss my experience as a Black girl facing microaggressions and bullying in the community. Finding my artistic voice, paired with my public speaking practice in the Debate seminar with Tom Kingsley, helped me find my voice and use it to say what I needed to say, in artful ways that were authentic to me. I was surprised that my classmates even voted me to be one of our graduation speakers. The confidence that had been building up for years, ever since writing my first poems and acting in my first plays, began to cement itself a little bit more. But there was still so much to learn.
I then set off to Brown University for my undergraduate education. I had my heart set on a double concentration in music and public policy, but as many college students do, I swiftly changed my mind, and then I changed it again several times. Sophomore spring, when the time came that I absolutely needed to declare my concentration(s), I selected Theater Arts and Performance Studies: Writing for Performance track, in addition to Africana Studies, a field I discovered and fell in love with during my freshman year. Another development came when I decided to direct my first play, a student-run production of A Raisin in the Sun, in response to my burning desire to give center stage to stories I was interested in that had roles for the brilliant Black actors with whom I found myself in community. I went on to direct the musical Dreamgirls, and then had the idea that I wanted to make a film. Next came Sidewalks, my first film, a 29-minute dramedy that I wrote, starred in, produced, and directed alongside amazing collaborators. Upon graduation, I worked for a year as an elementary school teacher, and decided I wanted to learn even more about the medium of film. I went to graduate school at Emerson College where I earned my MFA in Film and Media Art, working tirelessly at my craft, even through the pandemic. I made a proof-of-concept film called 18 Years: A Letter to Zora for my TV series idea: an Afrofuturistic speculative sci-fi universe called Onyx and the Chronicle of the
Seers, a project I continue to write and develop. I’ve had the honor of seeing my films accepted to various festivals around the country. Since then, I continue to write scripts, do photography, and am planning on making more films in the near future.
And so, I find myself continuing on in my endeavors of learning. As a film professor, I’ve taught many students about all aspects of film, from pre-to post-production, and led many of them through the process of creating their own films. All the while, I continue to learn—even through teaching, which I believe is re-learning via the act of explaining, demonstrating, and breaking down concepts to their basic building blocks with the goal of transferring the knowledge to the students so they can apply it toward their own visions. I see the world as a classroom where I can be a lifelong student myself. Last year, I won the Alex Trebek Legacy Fellowship from the Television Academy to attend their Media Educators Conference, and took my first ever trip to Hollywood, where I gained knowledge from industry professionals. I was thankful to have this experience chronicled in a profile in the Boston Globe and continue to engage further with the industry as a member of the Television Academy. I attended and presented my research on the topic of the work of multi-hyphenate performer Janelle Monáe at several film and media conferences, connecting with academic colleagues from all over the world.
I am grateful for the talented collaborators I have worked with, the dedicated teachers who have trained me well, my students who trust me to share my knowledge with them, and the family, friends, and community members who have believed in and supported me along the way. I walk in the path paved by the great creatives and thinkers who came before me and alongside my fellow artists and makers of today. I am inspired by my peers and seeing them excel in their arts professions as well. I look on into the future with curiosity at what is to come next, and welcome the artistic possibilities that my experience at Saint Ann’s empowered me to dive into.
Sincerely,
Brianna J. Cox ’14, MFA
Ocean waves crashing sand clinging to my legs
Like little creatures afraid to fall back into the
Treacherous sea, but of course it swishes back in,
A gigantic blue gentle whale glides smoothly far
Off land unlike me. But still inside we are the same, Being together in the same world, breathing the same Air , living not the same but a similar life
by Evie B , Fourth Grade
"PROUD TO BE ME" MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE SELF PORTRAITS
BY JON & CHELSEA'S FIRST GRADE CLASS
