Saint Ann's Times | Summer 2021 by Saint Ann's School

SAINT ANN’S TIMES

SUMMER 2021

Animal Vehicles by Third Graders in Chandra and Ajani’s Class

Saint Ann’s Times: Summer 2021 A LETTER FROM VINCE ________________________________________________________

INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Preschool Refection Paintings ___________________________________________________ 6 Second Grade: Studying Ancient Egypt ____________________________________________ 8 Inside the Classroom: Alumni Visitors ____________________________________________ 11 OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Visiting Speakers_____________________________________________________________ 12 High School Students Found “Project Double M” Free Tutoring Service __________________ 14 Featured Year-End Publications _________________________________________________ 15 COMMUNITY EVENTS

Eat • Drink • View: All In: Te Fight for Democracy __________________________________ 16 Tirty Years of African Dance Part I ______________________________________________ 18 Photo Gallery: Graduation ____________________________________________________ 20 CLASS OF 2021 ______________________________________________________________ 24 FACULTY IN THE FIELD: SARAH MOON ON MIDDLETOWN _______________________ 28 FACULTY NEWS ____________________________________________________________

Welcome New Administrators __________________________________________________ 32 Departures _________________________________________________________________ 34 BOARD OF TRUSTEES NEWS __________________________________________________ 37 ALUMNI

Staying in Touch ____________________________________________________________ Alumni Events ______________________________________________________________ Alumni in the Field __________________________________________________________ Alumni Mini Features_________________________________________________________ IN MEMORIAM _____________________________________________________________

40 41 44 46 52

Cover Artwork by Jules H., 12th grade

The Saint Ann’s Times is published biannually by Saint Ann’s School for alumni, parents of alumni, parents, grandparents, faculty, former faculty, and friends of the School. Questions or feedback about the magazine may be sent to the Director of Communications at communications@saintannsny.org and/or the Director of Alumni Relations at alumni@saintannsny.org. Editorial Staf

Design

Anne Conway, Director of Communications

Heather Francovitch, Web and Graphic Design Coordinator

Hannah Swacker Kurnit ’97, Director of Alumni Relations Elena Sheppard ’05, Alumni Relations Associate David Smith, Director of Advancement Anna Verdi, Special Events Coordinator ©2021 Saint Ann’s School

A LETTER FROM VINCE

Portal In April of 2020, the novelist Arundhati Roy published an essay in the Financial Times entitled “The Pandemic is a Portal.” Written at a moment when the global pandemic was still in its infancy, many months before her native India or even the U.S. had endured the worst of Covid’s ravages, Roy nevertheless saw the suffering and disruption that lay ahead as a pivot point: Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality,” trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality... Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next...We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it. Reading this essay now, with the experience of the pandemic and its conjoined crisis of racial justice in our school and in our country in view, I am at once painfully aware of the staggering suffering and loss that has been endured these past sixteen months—and that continues to be endured around the world—and captivated by the possibilities that ‘pandemic as portal’ offers to us at Saint Ann’s. We too have experienced ruptures large and small: illness and loss; the fragmenting of community; the disruption of patterns, habits, and skills that we had relied on for decades; the necessary embrace of teaching technologies for remote learning that had until last year been mostly foreign to us. We are a school in which the words handwritten on a page, the lines of a play uttered to a live audience, the quick glance from an experienced teacher that can bring a raucous classroom to order were everything. The very idea of “social distancing” seemed anathema; our prevailing ethos was an abhorrence of unused space and an eagerness always to be creating together. In the face of all this the impulse to look to the future as an opportunity simply to restore what had been ex ante is powerfully alluring, and to achieve some semblance of that lost normality would seem in and of itself to be a triumph. But the world has changed, and so our notions of how we can best serve the students of today and tomorrow require a critical reexamination. Without question the collective, school-wide “fierce pursuit of knowledge, skill and artistry” remains at our core, as does an ambition defined not by besting someone else in competition but by discovering the deepest capacities within ourselves and each other for discovery, mastery, expression, and creation. Our curriculum, we declare, “is a realm of possibilities where we meet our students. It is a substantive and dynamic means to engage every child.” The curriculum, therefore, is by its very nature a portal, a doorway from a child’s own direct experience of the world into the world as revealed by every discipline we teach and each skill that we impart. It is the means by which traditions are shared and the critical capacity

to question—and even overthrow—those traditions is cultivated. And so the curriculum was one of several places we turned last fall—in every academic and arts department in the school—in our pursuit of creating a school that is deliberately, intentionally, independently, and determinedly more equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist. The questions I asked every department to ponder, deliberate, and discuss over the course of the year were purposefully open-ended: what equity-related skills did they want every student studying in their discipline to acquire? And what pathway and plan did they intend to create for students to get there? These questions led to many others as department chairs and teachers set themselves to this task: why have we chosen certain texts or topics over others? Whose story, whose narrative, whose traditions dominate? What differences if any are manifest in the trajectories of students into advanced work? What internal and external structures, biases, and incentives may be creating roadblocks for some students and implied golden tickets for others? Sacrificing nothing in terms of rigor or excellence—indeed, critically examining what those words rightfully mean in the twenty-first century—the first fruits of this work emerged in late spring. They confirmed that the will, imagination, and intelligence of our faculty— when encouraged with an institutional imperative as wind in their sails—are more than ample to the task of imagining a reinvigorated and more equitable Saint Ann’s education. In each department, deep and penetrating questions about curriculum and pedagogy, about unexamined habits and patterns, about choices made long ago, emerged from collegial conversations, aided in many cases by professional development opportunities made available to teachers and administrators. Teachers across the school trained a critical lens on their practice, shared readings, expertise, and experience with their colleagues, and collectively accomplished a shift in mindset that holds the promise of turning our longstanding commitment to teaching critical thinking skills toward a deepening capacity of students to pursue a more equitable school and society. When students and teachers return this fall the first fruits of this effort will be in practice in more places than I have space here to describe. But some specific examples demonstrate the scope and range of this work throughout the many disciplines we teach: In Math, colleagues discussed and focused on ways to disrupt both the obvious and more subtle signalling mechanisms that can lead to gender or racial discrepancies in advanced classes (including making a conscious effort to ensure that the “Problem of the Week” featured the work of female and BIPOC mathematicians), and are developing curricula aimed to ensure that our students are keen and capable critics of data in which biases of various kinds may be embedded. In Science, a similar scrutiny was brought to bear on the trajectory of students through the department’s offerings, on the ways in which implicit bias can impact pedagogy and student advising, on the opportunities in fields from biology to environmental science to examine how science can contribute to dismantling systemic racism and other forms of discrimination.

A LETTER FROM VINCE In History, the department described its approach as “not simply adding or subtracting from various years or units but instead taking on the exciting and creative work of thinking critically and reflectively about the way that we teach our sequence of fourth through tenth grade courses. This means that everything is up for examination and discussion.” While the department sees this as a multi-year process, our fifth graders will experience an entirely new curriculum for their study of U.S. History this year, and the two required high school courses—World History in ninth grade and U.S. History in tenth—have been redefined to explicitly decenter whiteness, complicate Eurocentric narratives and explanations of historical change, and commit to presenting an inclusive picture of the past. In English, conversations last summer meant that ninth graders this past year took “Global Perspectives” rather than “Western Literature and the Essay.” New texts by women and authors of color are being introduced in every grade level, and the department is equipping students “to read from a critically empowered point of view, which is to say we want them to learn how to recognize how language can be used as a tool of oppression and, underlining pencil in hand, to identify where it is used to manipulate.” Similarly, in Romance Languages and in Classics and Asian Languages teachers critically examined choices of texts and topics and the fundamental role of language as an expression of and tool within cultures. Romance Languages wants our students “to understand the dual character of language—as both a means of communication and a carrier of culture—and to be able to think critically about language usage and the ways in which it may not only sustain biases and injustice, but also creatively subvert them.” And Classics considers it essential that students can understand “how language produces or reifies a perception, how culture is produced and reflected, and how power is distributed.” In the arts—Theater, Music, and Visual Art—the probing and depth of changes initiated and contemplated are just as profound. What does equity of participation and experience truly look like? Whose narratives or creative works are being centered in our curricular choices and repertoire? How do we make choices on stage and what impact do those choices have on the audience? Theater articulated a goal that I believe all three departments share: “We aim to incorporate the celebration of our students’ individual voices and collective joy in each of our classes and productions at Saint Ann’s.” These are just a few of the ways in which Saint Ann’s is stepping lightly through the portal— in Preschool, Kindergarten, and Lower School; in Library, Health, Recreational Arts, Computer, as well as in the departments from which I’ve drawn specific examples. The same subtlety, skill, and child-centeredness that have defined us are being deployed in new exciting ways so that the experience of all students at Saint Ann’s is one in which their full creative self is nurtured, their identity is embraced, and our collective quest for human excellence— boldly proclaimed in our motto, altiora peto—is pursued with equity among its ends and means.

Vincent Tompkins Head of School 4

Artwork by AC M., 12th grade

INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Preschool Reflection Paintings By Ali Medina ’08, Preschool Head Teacher To finish our cave curriculum, Associate Teacher Alex Thomas ’14 and I decided to circle back to one of the essential elements that forms caves: water! Water is fundamental to life. It has the remarkable ability to change shape and—depending on the temperature—it can completely transform. As a class we looked at various bodies of water—waterfalls, rivers, oceans, lakes—to illustrate movement and show how liquid water is constantly in flux. After discussing bodies of water, we began as a class to think about water and fluidity more conceptually. Just like water continuously shifts and transforms, so do we as humans. We are ever-changing and always growing. Water is also reflective. It can help us become aware of ourselves, others, and our surroundings in a new way. We started by talking with the kids about what a reflection is. When we stand in front of a mirror our image is formed when the light on us reaches the mirror and bounces off the surface back to us. The process of the light returning from the mirror is called reflection. Reflection can also teach us about how we see ourselves and about how we see each other. In order for the class to truly experience the process of reflection, we brought in miniature mirrors for everyone to paint on top of. Each child drew intersecting lines with black sharpie and then filled in a select number of sections with acrylic paint. One of the most beautiful parts of this project was seeing how each mirror painting fragmented images in a distinct way. I loved listening to students’ reactions as they painted on top of the mirror surface, where they were observing themselves and simultaneously “obscuring” their reflection: “I can only see a piece of me.” “I can see myself when I get really close.” “Wow! It’s like a whole other world down there.” “I want to go inside the mirror, it’s like another place we can go.” The reflection paintings offered a field in which the observer could visualize potential for transformation, imagining the possibilities that celebrate plurality, identities, and new morphologies. From there, Alex and I decided to do a series of projects that addressed many aspects of identity through the process of self-reflection. What are the parts of yourself that make you YOU? Your personality, the way you think, the way you look, what you believe, what you like to do, where you come from, how you express yourself. We wanted each child to reflect on all of the characteristics that make them unique. Over the course of these projects, we had meaningful and profound conversations around race, gender identity, gender expression, and equity.

This curriculum was extremely moving and revelatory. I feel honored and extremely grateful that I got to know each child a little better through these projects. I am constantly in awe of my students’ willingness, openness, courage, and vulnerability—to reflect not just on themselves, but on others and on the world around them.

INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Second Grade: Studying Ancient Egypt In the Saint Ann’s Lower School, classroom curriculum is not something published in a set of workbooks. Instead, a Head Teacher brings their own interests, passions, and expertise to the project of developing and leading a focused study in a particular subject area. Te classroom curriculum serves as a vehicle for teaching age-level academic, social, and emotional skills, and is adaptable and responsive to students’ interests and enthusiasm in any given year. Whether it be the ocean, the Harlem Renaissance, or outer space, the classroom curriculum provides an anchor for students, and the work they do with specialty subject teachers sometimes incorporates themes from the classroom curriculum. For many years, Lower School Head Teacher Sarah Phipps has been leading her second grade classroom in an in-depth study of ancient Egypt. With an academic background in English and Dramatic Literature, how Phipps became interested in designing the curriculum she now teaches is a Saint Ann’s story of serendipitous discovery. After several years teaching third graders about the Middle Ages, Phipps took over a second grade classroom from Lief Anne Stiles (former faculty) and found books, worksheets, and other materials from her predecessor’s ancient Egypt curriculum left in the classroom. Intrigued, she immediately saw the possibilities: the subject was an ideal mixture of deep, rich content that was nevertheless approachable and accessible for second graders. Studying ancient Egypt is “perfect for this age,” Phipps says, because “the kids are beginning to really think about the bigger world out there.” Tey are “exploring ideas of life and death.” Te same kinds of questions that ancient Egyptians grappled with—how was the world created? what is a soul?—resonate with children who are asking increasingly nuanced questions and trying to make sense of their own world. Artifacts of ancient Egyptian material culture—gods and goddesses with animal heads, hieroglyphics, pyramids, mummies—captivate kids at this age. Rich in visually compelling artwork and sophisticated storytelling about the natural world, Phipps has found that studying ancient Egypt ofers multiple entry points for all diferent kinds of learners to connect to the curriculum. So what does it look like in practice to teach seven-year-olds about ancient Egypt? One key to how teacher-designed curriculum works throughout the Lower School, Phipps says, is that kids learn by doing. Project-based learning emphasizes “what students are going to DO versus what I am going to teach them. Te kids bring their own creativity and that absolutely makes for the deepest and most meaningful learning experience for them.” In Phipps’ second grade classroom, the year generally begins with geography and an exploration of some of the ways ancient Egyptians sought to make sense of their physical environment. Beginning with all of Africa and narrowing down to Egypt, students investigate fat two-dimensional maps, globes, and even satellite maps, beginning to think critically about how one’s understanding of something can change depending on their point of view. Phipps says students fnd the geography of ancient Egypt itself very accessible. Tere’s a long river, green arable land around it, and a desert: students easily understand how the physical space shaped the organization of society. Early in the year, an extensive study of the scarab beetle—a sacred animal to the ancient Egyptians, who regarded it as a symbol of renewal and rebirth—sees students inventing and designing their own beetles. Tey create large pieces of artwork that include a scientifc description of the invented beetle’s traits. Discussing how ancient Egyptians’ views of the dung beetle were part of a

The “Ice Beetle” by Ryu K.

Creation myth by Elsa T., 2nd Grade

process of making sense of their natural environment “it’s amazing how in second grade they totally get it,” Phipps says. “It makes sense to them.” As the year continues, a unit on Egyptian gods and goddesses leads to a project where students invent their own god or goddess and write an accompanying hymn of praise. A study of ancient Egyptain creation myths as forms of storytelling culminates in students dreaming up their own myths for how the world came to be and writing and illustrating their tales, which then adorn the walls of the classroom. As a group, they retell the myth of Osiris in a collaborative writing and illustration project; each page becomes one part of a giant scroll in the style of the Book of the Dead, each student in the class serving as co-author or co-illustrator.

Te study of ancient Egyptian archaeology and art often leads to conversations about fairness and equity—why is so much ancient Egyptian art not in Egypt anymore? How did it come to be that we can view it here in museums in New York City? Who built the pyramids and what were they used for? In art with Olga Okuneva (Art faculty) students build their own sarcophagi out of clay. Studying the pharaohs introduces the concept of government; students contrast the idea of an absolute ruler with that of a representative democracy. Classroom norms and community agreements are memorialized on the wall on a replica of the Rosetta Stone. Building a replica of a pyramid complex in the classroom (a project that used to feature sugar cubes but now employs a much less sticky alternative, classroom blocks) encourages team collaboration and fosters organizational skills; students get a sense of how many individuals working together can create something monumental. Studying the ancient Egyptian number system, which has no place values, gets children thinking about our own number system and why it is organized the way it is. While many go-to projects happen annually, each year is unique because of the fexibility classroom teachers have to follow and build upon students’ interests. “One year the class was really into what ancient Egyptians ate,” Phipps says, “so we ended up doing a whole unit on food.” Tis year, because of the challenges of distance learning, students were craving more individual hands-on projects. So the class decided to design and build their own temples to their invented gods and make short videos describing their creations; you can view two samples of these, by Naomi S. and Eli E., here and here. Having the autonomy to adapt the curriculum to be responsive to individual students also serves to keep the experience of teaching exciting and inventive each year, Phipps says.

Inside the Classroom: Alumni Visitors Alumni visitors are always welcome back to Saint Ann’s. Despite this year’s need for social distancing, we were able to welcome graduates to our classrooms virtually. Kiana Michaan ’15, Rachel Landman ’11, and Alison Hall ’11 all spoke to Gretta Reed’s ffth grade science students this spring. Kiana spoke about climate justice and how students can get involved in climate activism. Rachel, who is currently working towards a Master of Environmental Management at Duke University, spoke about her work surrounding water quality, stormwater management, and data analysis. Alison, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vermont spoke to the ffth graders about marine ecosystems and the impacts of microplastics on the marine food web. Tese visits gave students the opportunity to practice active listening, generate questions, and connect their units of study with real world applications.

Take some music Put it in your ear Eat some sausages. It’s not essential, just good Become delirious, almost done Lather a potion and drink it But there's one more thing It is essential Listen to a symphony. Okay—now you're done. –Lucas S., 4th Grade

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Visiting Speakers Te era of Zoom had some silver linings: without concern for geography or physical space, we were able to welcome a broad range of scholars, artists, and experts to share their work with students this year. Below is just a sampling of who stopped by, online and in person.

Kellie Carter Jackson In February, the History Department welcomed Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson as the First Annual History Department Black History Month Guest Speaker. Te Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, Dr. Carter Jackson spoke to high school students and faculty and took questions. Her talk discussed her recent book Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, which examines the conditions that led some Black abolitionists to believe slavery might only be abolished by violent force, as well as the history of Black activism and the role of violence in afecting change.

Staceyann Chin April 9th is the Day of Silence, a national student-led demonstration where LGBTQ students and allies around the country—and the world—take a vow of silence to protest the harmful efects of harassment and discrimination of LGBTQ people in schools. Typically, Saint Ann’s has observed the day with Shout Out and other community events. Since this year was like no other, the high school marked the day with a performer like none other. Staceyann Chin performed and held a Q&A moderated by high school students Ayla S. and Tisbe W. during high school Friday Meeting. Chin is the author of the poetry collection Crossfre: A Litany For Survival and the critically acclaimed memoir Te Other Side of Paradise. She is the co-writer and original performer in the Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and author of the one-woman shows Hands Afre, Unspeakable Tings, Border/Clash, and MotherStruck.

Melissa Chua Te History Department hosted a talk by Saint Ann’s parent Melissa Chua this spring. Chua spoke to high school students and faculty about the history of anti-Asian American immigration legislation and how that history relates to the rise in violence against Asian Americans. She has worked as an immigration advocate for over a decade, specializing in defense from deportation, asylum, and status for survivors of violence.

Allan Hall In April, the History Department hosted a talk by Holocaust survivor Allan Hall, author of the memoir Hiding in Plain Sight for high school students and interested faculty. Hall shared his remarkable story of survival, including two years spent hiding in an ofce closet with his mother and carrying his baby brother across Europe at eleven years old, trying to get to Italy and a ship to Palestine. After arriving in the United States in 1947 at the age of twelve, unable to read or write and not speaking a word of English, Hall went on to graduate from the University of Florida and the University of Florida School of Law. Hall shared his complete manuscript with all students and faculty after the talk.

Jamal Jackson Dance Company Tis spring, the High School and the Teater Department welcomed Jamal Jackson Dance Company for a unique performance of their piece “846” that was created for the Saint Ann’s high school community. Te performance—live on Love Lane and streamed to the student and faculty audience— was followed by a talkback with dance teacher Jamal Jackson ’96, Artistic Director of JJDC. It also featured alumni dancers Rebecca Greenbaum ’07 and Tamara Tomas ’99. Stravinsky’s 1913 score for “Te Rite of Spring” depicts rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrifcial victim and dances herself to death. In this excerpt from a full-length piece, Jamal Jackson Dance Company used Stravinsky’s score to ask two important questions: Why must our nation rely on the sacrifce of Black bodies to survive? Are you comfortable with a vastly diferent-looking America, if we stopped sacrifcing Black people in order to maintain it?

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

High School Students Found “Project Double M” Free Tutoring Service Two Saint Ann’s high school students, Maya B., 11th grade and Maya C., 10th grade, recently co-founded a free tutoring service for children ages fve through thirteen called Project Double M. As the two friends witnessed the global efects of Covid-19 last spring, they wanted to alleviate the weight the pandemic had on organizations, families, and young children. And so Project Double M. was born. Beginning in the summer of 2020 with an entirely student-designed, student-run eight-week online summer program, young campers explored science, history, music, art, and culture. Te project was so successful that in the fall of 2020 the two co-founders decided to expand it, carefully recruiting qualifed peers at Saint Ann’s and other New York City high schools to tutor and mentor younger children, whether to reinforce their current curriculum or for academic enrichment. Maya and Maya are currently running their second summer program and they plan to continue this fall, along with over twentyfve volunteer tutors from high schools across New York City. Visit their website to learn more about Maya and Maya and Project Double M.

Toddler Oh how I wished I could go to the store But I don’t want to anymore Oh how I wished I could eat candy all day But now I’ll take veggies any way Oh how I wished it would be sunny But now I think the rain feels funny Oh how I hated to read a book But now all I want to do is cook –Billy B., 4th Grade 14

Featured Year-End Publications Art Journal Click here to view the 2021 Art Journal .

Literary Magazines Click here to read the High School Literary Magazine. Click here for the Middle School Literary Magazine.

Science Explorations Click here to view.

The Senior Journal Click here to view works by the class of 2021. Te Senior Journal came into being as a way to ofset the loss of a traditional senior experience for this year’s graduates.

Summer Reading Lists Our suggested summer reading lists are available on our website. Check them out for some inspiration. Happy reading this summer!

Artwork by: Ssinjin L., 6th grade 15

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Eat • Drink • View All In: The Fight for Democracy On the evening of March 23, Saint Ann’s parent and flmmaker Liz Garbus discussed her 2020 documentary flm All In: Te Fight for Democracy about voter disenfranchisement in the U.S. and current activism against voter suppression. Saint Ann’s History Department faculty member Dr. Selah Johnson, whose specialties include African-American History, Twentieth Century U.S. History, and U.S. Social and Political Movements, moderated the event. All In: Te Fight for Democracy interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight, and features the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and founder of Fair Fight Action, an organization that works to address voter suppression. Liz Garbus is a two-time Oscar Nominee, a two-time Emmy Winner, a Peabody Winner, a Grammy Nominee, and a DGA-Nominated director. Her flm Te Fourth Estate was nominated for a 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfction Series. Her flm What Happened, Miss Simone? was nominated for a 2016 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, received a Peabody Award, and six Emmy nominations including Best Directing. It received the Emmy Award for Best Documentary or Nonfction Special. Her other notable documentaries include Te Farm: Angola, USA, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Bobby Fischer Against the World, and Love, Marilyn. You can watch a recording of the event here.

Artwork by: Asha M., 7th grade

Artwork by: Esme Q., 8th grade

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Celebrating Thirty Years of African Dance at Saint Ann’s On Tursday, May 20 we celebrated Tirty Years of African Dance at Saint Ann’s, Part I. Dance teachers Shalewa Mackall and Jamal Jackson ’96 emceed a celebration of the African Dance program at Saint Ann’s across the years that included live and prerecorded elements along with testimonials from students and alumni. Te result was a remarkably innovative tribute to a program beloved by students and cherished by hundreds of alumni, showcasing its evolution and standing as a joyful testament to the skill and artistry from which the “magic” of Saint Ann’s is made. As one student in the performance put it simply, “African Dance, to me, it just means a community.” If you missed the evening you can watch it here. Te Teater Department is working on plans to continue the celebration with Part II next spring.

Behind the scenes.

Artwork by L. Otter, 12th grade

Tanks to the alumni below who shared their memories of African Dance at Saint Ann’s with us.

Kari Betts ’02 I never felt as free or connected to my classmates as I did in my African Dance class. Our teacher taught us to let go and embrace the movements which were far more than steps. Our dance was flled with stories and symbols of culture and everyday life in Africa. I still remember the fnal performance in the theater which took every ounce of energy from me to complete. We were motivated by the strength of one another and the drummers who signaled our every move. I look back with great fondness and couldn’t help but share the profound impact this class had on my life. For those attending Saint Ann’s—this class is a must.

Pierce Delahunt ’06 I remember being awkward in my body and a senior, as in just one year left, and signing up. I loved it so much, and was bummed to only learn/practice for one year in such a community. I still have Wunmi Olaiya’s (former faculty) music in my iPod Shufe, and still fondly think of her demonstrating a rhythm and movement with the words, “Like water, yes; like water, yes…”

Elana Gartner Golden ’94 My earliest memories of the African Dance program were in the nineties when it was so early that the performances took place during high school assembly and not within the context of a theater and dance performance in the theater. I remember the lobby being taken over by rhythmic bodies, cheerful drumming, laughter, clapping, and a deep sense of history. As I continued to attend dance concerts over the years as an alum and now, as a parent, I am thrilled to see that African Dance has taken its rightful place on the stage and that it has captured so many hearts, minds and bodies of the students and families that it is often the closing number, bringing down the house with uproarious applause and three or four times as many students as I saw in its early years. I am excited to see that students of diferent backgrounds have embraced this tradition that has become a critical part of the theater and dance department. Congratulations on thirty years!

Isabelle Kenet ’15 As a preteen, I somehow got enrolled in an afterschool dance program. We were nearing our fnal performance when my teacher commented that our routine was only as strong as our weakest link, which was me. She was right. I promised myself I’d never take another dance class. Shalewa Mackall changed my mind. She was one of my peers’ most beloved teachers— they convinced me that a Saint Ann’s education was not complete without African Dance. I was still a bad dancer, but Shalewa gave me permission to try something new and enjoy myself. I learned so much from her. Elliot and I did one of the moves from our senior African Dance performance on the dance foor at a nightclub in Berlin in 2019. Tat choreography will stay with us forever. Tank you, Shalewa.

Sarah (Meline) Lande ’96, Former Faculty I took African Dance the frst year that it was ofered. Júlio Leitão (former faculty) blew all of our minds. To stretch my mind and body in that way was, to this day, one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. Te connection I made with the drums, the foor, and my body taught me all sorts of things about myself that I had never seen or believed: I could dance! I LOVED to dance! I had natural-born rhythm! I was an athlete! I was a performer! Every once in a while I can hear the drums “BA DA DA DA, DA DA DA, DA!” and I break into the frst few moments of our Saint Ann’s Dance Concert...”HA!” [throw arm, stomp, stomp, stomp]...”HA!” [throw arm, stomp, stomp, stomp]...”HA!” [throw arm, stomp, stomp, stomp] Tank you, Júlio. Tank you, Saint Ann’s.

Ashley Mathis ’08, Young Alumni Trustee African Dance was an incredible place for me. Wunmi Olaiya and Shalewa Mackall helped me become confdent in my body and appreciate all that it could do. I loved learning the history of each dance, moving my body to create a story, and listening to the music. African Dance was my community at Saint Ann’s, and I continued to dance throughout college. I am eternally grateful for this community.

Graduation: Celebrating the Class of 2021 We were able to celebrate the Class of 2021 in person and in style on June 7 at an unconventional (even by Saint Ann’s standards) ceremony at Maimonides Park in Coney Island. After the ceremony students and their families relaxed and enjoyed the rides at Luna Park. Tank you to the Senior Parent Class Gift Committee, the high school ofce, and everyone else who made the evening possible under challenging circumstances.

Photos courtesy of Todd France

“

All of you contain multitudes. Every one of you is multi-lingual in languages you speak and write, compute and paint, sign and sing, script and flm and compose. Well before lockdown you brilliantly staged and stage-handed theater without theater—on the 14th foor, in the library, on the sidewalks. You’ve delivered daily concerts down the corridors of the trees. You’ve painted rumpled sheets and pillows and the furniture of sleep into wide-awake art… You read as if your life depended on it. You’ve made books into engines of empathy and understanding. You’ve wondered at, pushed back, taken away not the truth but multiple truths. And you’ve been blasting binary thinking for years. Te lockout of it. You know what happens when you clip the wings of words and march their meaning in a count of two.

”

–Ruth Chapman, Faculty Speaker

CLASS OF 2021 Members of the Class of 2021 were invited to attend the following colleges: American University.........................7

Lehigh University .............................1

Trinity College .................................1

Amherst College ...............................4

Lewis & Clark College .....................1

Bard College ...................................10

Macalester College............................5

Trinity College, University of Dublin (IR) ...............................1

Bard College Berlin (Germany) ........1

Manchester Metropolitan University (UK).............................1

Tufts University..............................11 Tulane University .............................2

Manhattan School of Music .............1

Union College ..................................1

Mannes College of Music .................1

University of Aberdeen (UK)............1

Massachusetts College of Art............1

University of Brighton (UK).............1

McGill University (Canada) .............2

University of British Columbia (Canada)........................................1

Barnard College................................3 Bennington College..........................1 Berklee College of Music ..................2 Boston College..................................2 Boston University .............................6 Bowdoin College ..............................1 Brandeis University...........................3 Brown University..............................5 Bryn Mawr College ..........................3 Bucknell University ..........................1 California Polytech. University.........1 Carleton College...............................2 Carnegie Mellon University..............1 Case Western University...................1 Clark University ...............................7 Colby College ...................................1 Colgate University ............................2 Colorado College..............................2 Columbia University.........................6 Connecticut College .........................4 Cornell University ............................6 Drexel University..............................1 Duke University ...............................1 Durham University (UK) .................2 Emerson College...............................4 Emory University..............................5 Fashion Institute of Technology .......1 George Washington University.........1 Georgetown University.....................3 Georgia Institute of Technology .......1 Grinnell College ...............................4 Hamilton College .............................5 Harvard University...........................3 Haverford College ............................6 Hendrix College ...............................1 Indiana University ............................1 Ithaca College...................................1 Johns Hopkins University.................1 Kenyon College ................................8 King’s College London (UK)............2 Lafayette College ..............................2 Lawrence University .........................1

Middlebury College..........................5 Mills College ....................................1 Mount Holyoke College ...................1 New England Conservatory of Music.........................................1

University of California, Davis.........1 University of California, Santa Cruz.....................................1 University of Chicago .......................4

New York University.........................2

University of Colorado, Boulder......1

Northeastern University ...................3

University of Edinburgh (UK) .........3

Northwestern University ..................6

University of Glasgow (UK) .............2

Oberlin College ..............................13

University of Hartford......................1

Oberlin Conservatory of Music ........1

University of Massachusetts, Amherst .......................................11

Occidental College ...........................1 Ohio Wesleyan University ................1 Parsons School of Design..................1 Pitzer College....................................1 Pomona College................................2 Pratt Institute ...................................1 Princeton University.........................3 Reed College.....................................3 Rhode Island School of Design ........1 Rice University .................................1 Saint John’s College ..........................1 Sarah Lawrence College....................4 Savannah College of Art and Design.1 Scripps College .................................1 Skidmore College .............................2 Smith College ...................................7 Southern Methodist University ........1 St. Olaf College ................................1 Stanford University...........................1 SUNY, Binghamton .........................4 SUNY, Geneseo................................1 SUNY, New Paltz.............................2 SUNY, Oswego ................................1 SUNY, Stony Brook .........................3 Swarthmore College .........................3 Syracuse University...........................1 Temple University.............................2 Te New School................................1

University of Miami .........................1 University of Michigan.....................7 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill....................................1 University of Oxford (UK) ...............1 University of Pennsylvania................1 University of Pittsburgh....................1 University of Rhode Island ...............1 University of Rochester.....................8 University of Southern California.....1 University of St Andrews (UK) ........5 University of Toronto (Canada)........1 University of Vermont ....................15 University of Virginia .......................2 University of Wisconsin, Madison....5 Vanderbilt University........................1 Vassar College...................................8 Warren Wilson College ....................1 Washington University in St. Louis..2 Wesleyan University .......................12 Williams College ..............................2 Yale University..................................5

Artwork by Allie R., 12th grade

The Class of 2021 will matriculate at the following colleges: American University..................1 Amherst College........................3 Barnard College.........................3 Boston University......................1 Brown University ...................... 2 Carleton College .......................1 Colby College ...........................1 Colorado College ......................1 Columbia University .................3 Connecticut College..................1 Cornell University .....................2 Duke University ........................1 Georgetown University..............2 Harvard University....................3 Hendrix College........................1 Kenyon College.........................2 Lafayette College.......................1 Middlebury College ..................2 Mount Holyoke College............1

New England Conservatory of Music ................................. 1

University of British Columbia (Canada) ................................1

New York University ................. 1

University of Chicago................3

Northwestern University ........... 4

University of Miami ..................1

Oberlin College......................... 2

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor..............................3

Parsons School of Design .......... 1 Pitzer College ............................ 1 Pomona College ........................ 1 Princeton University.................. 3 Savannah College of Art & Design ............................... 1 Smith College............................ 2 Stanford University ................... 1 SUNY, Binghamton .................. 1 Swarthmore College .................. 2 Trinity College, University of Dublin (IR)............................ 1

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ............................1 University of Pennsylvania.........1 University of Rochester .............1 University of Southern California................1 University of St Andrews (UK)..1 Vassar College ...........................3 Wesleyan University ..................5 Williams College .......................2 Yale University ..........................5

Tufts University......................... 3 Tulane University ...................... 1

Kindergarten Artwork

Unbelievable News I went slippery skating On slide-y skates. I saw lion skeletons And hyenas. –Miles C., Kindergarten

The Saint Ann’s Annual Fund is a critical part of the school’s budget, providing approximately 6% of our annual revenue. The generosity of our community supports our entire program, including financial aid, technology, and extraordinary teaching. We hope you will make a gift to the Saint Ann’s Annual Fund. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Make a Gift

Questions?

www.saintannsny.org/annual-fund

FACULTY IN THE FIELD

Writing Middletown by Sarah Moon Sarah Moon currently serves as a College Counselor and High School Student Equity Program Coordinator and is the faculty advisor for high school SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Alliance). Over her twelve years in the Saint Ann’s community Sarah has also worked as a High School Grade Dean and as a Spanish teacher. When she’s not wearing one of her many hats supporting students, Sarah writes novels for young adults, including the critically acclaimed Sparrow, published in 2017. Sarah’s most recent novel Middletown, about two sisters who try to make it on their own while their mom is in rehab, was published in April. Below she shares some thoughts on her work and how her students fnd their way into her writing. Tere is a picture of me at fve years old in a brand new outft. It’s a white button-down with a little pocket square and tie, and green plaid pants. My hands are stufed deep in my pockets and I am beaming, so pleased with myself. Now that I am older, I can zoom out and see that my mother is hoping that I won’t notice that we are in the boys section and feel embarrassed, and I can see her shooing away the sales ladies who try to redirect us. My mother went out of her way my whole life as a young person for me to know that my version of the word “girl” was great. Tis picture sat on my table for years while I was writing Middletown. Tough my life’s circumstances couldn’t have been more diferent, Middletown is probably the most autobiographical thing I will ever write. Primarily, I wanted to tell a story about sisters—the book is dedicated to mine. When our parents got divorced when we were twelve and ffteen, my sister and I were suddenly alone, together, a lot of the time. And there was this feeling of being in a lifeboat together: that no matter what happened, no matter how much we fought (a lot) or how diferent we were (very), it was just the two of us in this lifeboat and we would have to fgure it out. While Eli and Anna are very diferent from us, they love each other in just the same way. I also wanted to tell a story about growing up queer in a small town. I grew up at a time when we didn’t have the same kind of language or understanding of gender as we do now, but I had a mother who understood me. What she always said was there were as many ways to be a girl as there were girls in the world and whatever kind of girl I was was just fne. I was defnitely not a tomboy (in fact, I was a fgure skater, but I did it in a suit, not a skirt), but the frst time I was mistaken for a boy (which happened often), I was six years old and wearing a dress, of all things. Tere was just something “not girl” about me. Tere still is, and Eli, the main character, has it too. She wouldn’t use the same words I use to think or talk about it, but the feeling is the same. I started working with LGBTQAI+ youth in the early 2000s. All of my students, queer and otherwise, sit right over my shoulder when I’m writing. I write for middle school students in particular because

they are such a discerning audience. I can hear them laugh when I manage to be actually funny (which is rare), they make me go back to the sentence that strikes a false note, they pick and pick and pick (the way only the preteened can) when it seems like I’m hiding the truth in a scene. And sometimes they show up in a character like Eli. Her journey with her gender is similar to mine, sure, but it’s diferent, too, because the kids around me think about gender more widely than I did at their age. While writing Middletown I tried to ask myself what if I were me, but grew up now, how would that change how I understood myself? Whether through formal GUST conversations or trips to the True Colors conference, or just laughing over too much candy at SAGA movie nights, I feel humbled and grateful to get a window into my students’ ideas and questions and stories (and jokes!). I tried to do them justice in this book.

Artwork by Isobel M.P., 9th grade 29

FACULTY NEWS

Current Faculty Samina Akbari

Samina, who teaches flmmaking, received a SFFILM Rainin Grant for Screenwriting for her frst feature flm Anees. Set in the Shia MuslimAmerican community, Anees is a meditation on the inheritance of trauma and the relationships that continue after death.

Guillermo Arribas

Guillermo, who joined us as a Classroom Assistant this year, joined the Advancement Ofce this spring as Assistant to the Director of Advancement.

Gillian Bagley

McSweeney’s Issue 63 includes a letter by Gillian (English faculty), published under the name Gillian Linden.

Rebecca Benson

Rebecca, who has taught in our Lower School since 2018, will be a Lower School Head Teacher this fall.

Beth Bosworth

Beth (English faculty) published her fash fction story “Two Grandmothers” in the literary journal Fugue. Her story “WARP(S),” is forthcoming in Te Los Angeles Review.

Jacob, who joined us as a Classroom Assistant this year, will stay on as Special Events Assistant in the Advancement Ofce.

Jamie Hartzell ’14

Jamie, who joined us as a Classroom Assistant in September, will stay in the role of Lower School Associate Teacher this fall.

Jozef Hernandez

Jozef, who had been helping out in our Technology Department on and of in recent years, is now a full-time part of the team as System Support Specialist.

Iman James

In addition to teaching Health, Iman will assume the role of High School Student Equity Coordinator next year.

Kobun Kaluza

Junko, a play by Kobun (Teater faculty), was performed virtually at Te Tank.

Felicia Kang

Felicia will become Co-Chair of the History Department this fall.

Chelsea Bravo

Jesse Kohn

Teja Clayman

Berenice Leal-Bahena

Chelsea will become After School Coordinator next year.

Teja, who joined us as a Classroom Assistant this year, will be the Lower School Art Associate this fall.

Danny Fisher

Danny, who joined us as a Classroom Assistant this year, will be a Lower School Associate Teacher this fall.

Howard Garrett

After a year back at the Kindergarten, Howard returned to his role as Executive Assistant to the Head of School this month. 30

Jacob Goodhart

In addition to his role as 12th Grade Dean, Jesse will become Co-Chair of the History Department this fall.

Berenice will be a Lower School Head Teacher this fall.

Michele Levin

Michele will return to Saint Ann’s this fall as Co-Chair of the Science Department.

Alice Lew ’14

Alice, who has worked as a Substitute Teacher at Saint Ann’s, will become a Preschool Associate Teacher this fall.

Dov Lebowitz-Novak ’00

Dov, our Innovation Educational Technologist & Help Desk Manager, produced and assistant directed the short flm Dead Layer. Dov and his wife also welcomed a new baby this winter.

Eva Melas

Eva (Art faculty) has work on display as part of an exhibit at the Albany International Airport.

Marjorie Meredith

Marjorie will return to Saint Ann’s this fall as Assistant to the Head of the Lower School.

Ryan Milov-Cordoba

Ryan (Classics faculty) performed covers of indie Arabic music as part of a Cairo-NYC event celebrating Arabic-language music from across continents and cultures.

Winston Nguyen

Winston, who joined us this year as Special Assistant for Covid-Related Projects, will stay on as Special Assistant to the Administrative Team; Winston will also teach a math class.

Nancy Reardon

Nancy (Teater faculty) is giving back as a part-time peer coach at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

Mariette Strauss

Mariette will move to the Kindergarten as an Associate Teacher this fall.

Louis Trujillo

Louis was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS), an international membership organization providing support and professional development programming for college counselors based in nearly 600 independent schools around the globe. He is working toward his Master’s in Education degree at Harvard University where he was recently named an Equity and Inclusion Fellow.

Asiya Wadud

Asiya’s collection of poems and essays No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body was published earlier this year. She also has an essay, in two parts, on the Poetry Foundation’s website. Asiya teaches poetry.

Suki White

Suki, who joined us as a Classroom Assistant in September, will stay on at the Kindergarten as an Associate Teacher this fall.

Aparna Sarkar

Aparna will return to Saint Ann’s this fall as an Art and Music Teacher.

Community Collaboration Grace Chorale of Brooklyn released a virtual choir and dance performance of “Mother to Son,” with music by Undine Smith Moore and poetry by Langston Hughes. Associate Head of School and Music Department faculty member Jason Asbury is the Music Director of Grace Chorale, which includes Saint Ann’s faculty members, alumni, and parents. Te performance of “Mother to Son” was done in collaboration with Jamal Jackson Dance Company, where Teater faculty member Jamal Jackson ’96 is Artistic Director. JJDC’s Associate Artistic Director Dana Tomas also teaches dance at Saint Ann’s.

FACULTY NEWS

Welcome New Administrators Abe Correa

Dean of the Eighth Grade Abe will join us in August as Dean of the Eighth Grade. He brings to this role deep and varied experience as a teacher and administrator in many diferent educational settings and a commitment to building inclusive student cultures. Abe most recently served as the Associate Division Head at Avenues in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and received his master’s degree in Public School Administration from Baruch City College.

Amina Mohamed

Diversity and Institutional Equity Coordinator Amina joins us in August as Diversity and Institutional Equity Coordinator. A graduate of Grand Valley State University in Michigan who is fuent in Swahili, Barawa, Arabic, and English, Amina served most recently as a First Grade Head Teacher at Little Red School House in Manhattan. At Saint Ann’s, she will be a regular presence in the Preschool, Kindergarten, and Lower School: directly supporting and advocating for students, discussing issues related to diversity, equity, and belonging with teachers and administrators, working with faculty to develop the skills necessary to bring an equity lens to their curricula and classrooms, and collaborating with them to refne a framework for creating equitable classrooms across these divisions. Amina will also develop and implement equity programming in the Middle School.

Jeewon Wright-Kim

Associate Head of the Lower School

Artwork by Naima P.J., 8th grade

Jeewon is the new Associate Head of the Lower School. He will supervise the Associate Teacher program and work with the Head of the Lower School in the areas of student support, teacher collaboration, and program design. He brings to the role a strong belief in the agency and potential of young children, a commitment to the centrality of the arts in education, and deep hands-on experience teaching literacy skills. Jeewon most recently served as a Second Grade Teacher and Clerk of the Lower School Faculty at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. As Clerk, he planned and chaired division-wide faculty meetings on pedagogy, curriculum, and equity and inclusion. A graduate of Tufts University, Jeewon received his Master of Science in Education from Northwestern University.

Why Is There A Turtle on My Bed There’s a turtle on my bed. He fell on his head. And he landed on my head. And he landed on a bee. The bee is on my head and he is on the bee. The turtle landed on my baby sister And fell of the bee. And then my baby sister woke up And found the turtle on her And then launched the turtle Out of the window And it landed in outer space. –Leo R.A., Kindergarten

FACULTY NEWS

Departures Diane Gnagnarelli Diane is moving on to pursue new professional opportunities in flm and television acting work and in teaching and administrative work outside of Saint Ann’s. Diane began her career at Saint Ann’s in 1982 as an Associate Teacher. Since then, she has served in various teaching and administrative roles throughout the school. Tese have included Lower School Head Teacher, Teater Department Teacher and Director since 1989, Special Events Coordinator from 2010–13, and Coordinator of the Community Service Program, a program she created, from 2004–2018. For nearly forty years, Diane brought her dedication, creativity and love of children to everything she did. We thank Diane for her many years of service to Saint Ann’s and wish her well as she begins a new chapter.

Melinda Kaminsky For nearly three decades, Melinda was a wise, warm, and experienced presence in our Lower School, flling multiple roles as a classroom teacher and, in the past few years, a hand on deck across every grade and classroom. During her many years as a head teacher, Melinda was a mentor to countless associate teachers who now lead classrooms of their own at Saint Ann’s and elsewhere. In her teaching Melinda exemplifed the aim of our Lower School, to make curriculum “the vehicle that brings sophisticated intellectual and artistic ideas and pursuits into the realm of childhood, and as the terrain in which we build relationships, ask questions of the world, make discoveries, and ultimately cultivate a passion for life-long learning.”

Andy Keating Andy Keating retired after thirty-three years as a painting teacher and cornerstone of the Art Department at Saint Ann’s. Beloved by generations of students, Andy’s warmth, humor, collegial spirit, and dedication to the art of teaching characterized his every interaction. Universally respected by colleagues and unmatched at inspiring his students to bring their unique vision to the studio, Andy assumed the mantle of Department Chair in 2015. In that role he was instrumental in designing and creating a new home for the Art Department in the combined townhouses that would meet the needs of students across ages and disciplines. Outside the classroom, as the visionary behind our annual Art Calendar and shepherd of the Art Journal for many years, Andy was unstintingly committed to the practice at the heart of our school: art-making. We are eternally grateful and wish Andy a restful retirement.

Paul Lockhart Saint Ann’s has always sought to attract the rare subject experts who, by miraculous coincidence, also thrive in sharing their art with children. Paul Lockhart is the epitome of such a fnd. Paul is a virtuoso mathematician, stunning teacher, and prolifc author of iconoclastic books that have riveted the academic mathematics community. For twenty-one years he brought to Saint Ann’s his profound talent for engaging young minds in the deepest, most authentic mathematics. He shared his beloved art with students of all ages, right down to our youngest preschoolers. It is with gratitude and great sadness that we bid farewell to Paul as he returns to California to continue his lifelong search for uncluttered minds with whom to share his profound perspective on mathematics.

Maureen Loyd As a teacher and coach at Saint Ann’s for more than two decades, Maureen shared with generations of Recreational Arts students her passion for ftness, her own wide-ranging athletic prowess, her deep experience and skills across many sports, and her commitment to see each of her students thrive. Remarkably adept at teaching children of every age, Maureen’s classes were full of joy and work, camaraderie and healthy competition. She will be missed by her many colleagues across Saint Ann’s, and we hope to see her at many a future Fun Run, for her running shoes will be impossible to fll.

Drew McGhee As the poet Nikki Giovanni writes, “We love because it’s the only true adventure,” and there is no one more adventurous than Drew McGhee. Drew has loved and been loved by her students, fellow faculty, and friends at Saint Ann’s for the last thirty-six years. As many of you know, Drew was not able to return to teaching this past fall. We are planning to celebrate Drew as a community when we can gather together next year.

We want to thank the faculty and staf members below for all of their contributions to Saint Ann’s. Some were members of our community for only a short time, while others are moving on to their next chapters after several years of service at the school. We wish them all the best. Sarah Abarbanel Kindergarten Head Teacher

Asif Hoque Lower School Art Associate

John Baierl Science and Math Teacher

Michael Hurst ’00 Hybrid Learning Coordinator & Classroom Assistant Manager

Desiree Bailey English Teacher Jhanna Barocas ’06 Lower School Associate Teacher Desiree Butler Kindergarten Head Teacher Dominic Coles ’12 Upper Middle School Assistant Dolapo Demuren English and Poetry Teacher Victoria Eanet ’84 Music Teacher Adrianne Fiala ’00 High School Student Support Counselor

Eli Janka Math Teacher Ade Lewis Lower School Associate Teacher Marie Lopez Interim Assistant to the Head of the Lower School Isobel Mcbride Preschool Associate Teacher Hannah Mermelstein Librarian Tayler Milburn Kindergarten Head Teacher

Gretta Reed Science Teacher and Middle School Equity Coordinator Tori Russell Accounts Payable and Finance Associate Teresa Schirrippa Recreational Arts Teacher Beverly Tan Preschool Associate Teacher Kelvin Ward Interim Assistant to the Head of School Ben Weiner Lower School Head Teacher Nicholas Williams Music Teacher Elizabeth Zechel Kindergarten Associate Teacher 35

Finally, we are grateful to all the many Classroom Assistants and Classroom Associates who joined us in the fall for their dedication to our students. We wish those who are not staying on at Saint Ann’s in new roles the best of luck in their next adventures. Below are a few parting wishes that some CAs wanted to share with students and faculty.

Katherine Haeuser

Leo O’Brien ’14

MS/HS Classroom Assistant

It doesn’t get easier, but you adapt better. Meaning, life always throws you for a loop, you’re constantly learning things, you’re constantly being challenged. But as you get older, you will learn how best to deal with those challenges. And hope is always there.

I was here, and I don’t think I got the most out of every class. Because I was a kid, and it was school. Some classes I really liked, but I wasn’t good about doing my homework for all of them. I think if I could go back, and say, “Hey, you should actually cherish this experience, and take these years of your life and use them” I don’t know if that would fall on deaf ears.

Teachers, God bless you!! You are rockstars for trying to meet this challenge of educating children in such a fraught and difcult time. Just take a deep breath because hope is on the horizon. And we just have to keep going.

Shanice Mike LS Classroom Associate Don’t get discouraged too easily. I know a lot of things don’t always happen quickly, or we may not all get things as fast as others, and we may get discouraged. Just go at your own fow. Everyone is diferent, so take your time, enjoy the moment, and things will come—come to life.

Rachel Sarah Mount LS Classroom Associate How proud I am of you for adjusting to this crazy situation! I admire you and your strength because you’re able to come into school every single day and do such productive work, and sometimes it’s hard for teachers to do productive work and to be in the moment. I look up to you now, as you have shown me what strength really is in a time like this.

Em Vitiello MS/HS Classroom Assistant It really does get so much better. Once you’re out of the bubble that is high school, you just have to really practice looking into yourself for answers and guidance, instead of looking outwardly. It’s like a muscle, you have to practice looking inwardly. Teachers, God bless you all. Tank you all, you guys are all saints! (CA wishes courtesy of Melanie Shah, Romance Languages faculty.)

BOARD OF TRUSTEES NEWS

Welcome New Trustees (2021) Josh Epstein ’95 Josh is the parent of three current Saint Ann’s students. He is an executive, entrepreneur and investor creating innovative businesses at the intersection of media and technology. Currently, Josh is building Likewise, a content discovery platform incubated by Bill Gates. He previously led corporate strategy at Viacom, was part of the formative team at ad tech pioneer aQuantive acquired by Microsoft, and was founder and CEO of Periodic, a video news platform. Josh received an A.B. from Princeton University and M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He currently serves on the Board of BRIC. Josh joined the Saint Ann’s Board in 2021.

Shahed Fakhari Larson Shahed is the parent of two current Saint Ann’s students. She specializes in critical issues advisory and is currently a partner at Brunswick Group. Shahed began her career as an attorney at Skadden Arps. She also currently serves on the boards of New York Consolidated and America Needs You. Shahed received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She joined the Board in 2021.

Kavita Patel Kavita is the parent of two current Saint Ann’s students. Kavita is Chief of Radiology at Lenox Health Greenwich Village. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, her M.D. from SUNY Downstate Medical College, and completed fellowships at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Duke University Medical Center. Kavita joined the Board in 2021.

Bradley Weekes ’13

YOUNG ALUMNI TRUSTEE

Brad currently serves as a Senior Associate at Kivvit, a media company. A young professional seeking to continue his engagement and work in public afairs in New York City, Brad came to Saint Ann’s through the Teak Fellowship program and went on to receive his B.A. in political science and history from Brown University in 2017. After completing a fellowship at Coro New York Leadership Center, Brad spent several years sharing his experiences as a student at Saint Ann’s with current and prospective families and alumni as a participant in tours and panel discussions. In the fall of 2020, Brad joined the Alumni Advisory Committee. Brad began his Young Alumni trustee term in 2021.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES NEWS

Welcome New Trustees (2020) Julia Kahr Julia is the parent of three current Saint Ann’s students. Julia is a Senior Managing Director at Te Blackstone Group. She became the frm’s youngest female principal in 2008. Julia currently also serves on the boards of Sheltering Arms and BRIC. She received a B.A. in Classical Civilization from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. Julia joined the Board in 2020.

Alex King ’05 Alex is a Prep for Prep program alumnus who came to Saint Ann’s in ninth grade. He currently works as a Strategy and Operations Manager at Google Fiber. Alex began his private sector career as a fnancial analyst in the energy infrastructure industry, after serving as Corps Member of Teach For America where he taught third grade. He holds a B.A. in History from Yale University and an M.B.A from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Alex also serves as a member of the Saint Ann’s Alumni Advisory Committee. He joined the Board in 2020.

Ashley Mathis ’08

YOUNG ALUMNI TRUSTEE

After graduating from Saint Ann’s, Ashley earned her B.A. in Sociology from Boston College and her M.Ed in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She develops and facilitates diversity, inclusion, and social justice trainings for nonproft and community-based organizations. Previously, Ashley was Program Director for a Beacon Community Center at Center for Family Life, a neighborhood-based social services organization in Sunset Park. She is also a member of the Citizens’ Committee for Children Advocacy Council. Ashley began her Young Alumni trustee term in 2020.

Chinyere Odim ’13

YOUNG ALUMNI TRUSTEE

Chinyere is a doctoral student in the feld of Sociology at Brown University. Her research focuses on the intersections of class, race, and power within elite independent schools. Chinyere is also an educational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consultant and previously taught at Deerfeld Academy. Chinyere holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Chinyere serves on both the Alumni Council and Black Alumni Network Executive Committee at Swarthmore College. Chinyere began her Young Alumni trustee term in 2020.

Information about our full Board of Trustees is available on our website.

Departures Te Board wishes to acknowledge and thank the following trustees for their steadfast work on behalf of Saint Ann’s School.

Mike Haddad Mike joined the Board in 2009. As the longstanding Chair of the Investment Committee and member of the Finance Committee, Mike has been a thoughtful and careful steward of Saint Ann’s. He brought his extensive fnancial experience and acumen to bear on the school’s investments at a crucial time. Tanks to his guidance, endowment and investment income is now a crucial support for fnancial aid, faculty and staf salaries, and many other vital elements of the academic program at Saint Ann’s. Mike’s wise and candid advice has been an invaluable contribution to the Board’s deliberations over his twelve years of service, and Saint Ann’s is better for it.

Bess Weatherman Bess has served as a trustee since 2015. During her six years of service on the Board, Bess exemplifed the best qualities of a trustee: asking probing questions, ofering prescient advice, and supporting the school in every possible way. Trough her work on the Finance and Investment Committees, Bess helped to improve the long-term fscal health of the school, to increase 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. Her recent work on the Nominating Committee was essential in launching the Young Alumni trustee program that brings the critical perspectives of the school’s young alumni to the work of the Board.

Jide Zeitlin Jide joined the Board in 2011. Over his ten years of service, Jide made invaluable contributions as a member of the Committees on Finance, Financial Aid, Admissions and Enrollment. In 2016, in his capacity as chair of the Board Resources Committee, Jide outlined a vision for identifying the funding necessary to sustain several mission-critical priorities, including a faculty extensive enough to enact a broad and deep curriculum; salary and benefts adequate to ensure the excellence of our teachers and staf; and fnancial aid to support talented students. Jide’s work was a crucial predecessor to the long-term planning Saint Ann’s has undertaken over the past several years to put the school’s fnances on a solid footing.

Kindergarten Artwork 39

STAYING IN TOUCH

Staying in Touch with Saint Ann’s School Dear Alumni, Tis year at Saint Ann’s was unique and challenging, but it also created space for a lot of important conversations, creativity, and growth. Alumni from all over the world gathered virtually for our Alumni Week. We celebrated alumni creativity with our Alumni Auction. Classes ending in 1s and 6s toasted their milestone years from the safety of Zoom. We continued to dispatch our new Alumni Newsletter which shares news about our alumni community as well as what’s happening here on Pierrepont Street. As alumni, many of you remain involved with the school through various events and happenings. I encourage you to continue to be engaged with Saint Ann’s. Here are some ways you can stay connected: •

Attend Alumni Day! Save the Date—May 14, 2022! We will celebrate classes ending in 2s and 7s

•

We changed the format of our alumni news section in the Saint Ann’s Times. Instead of Alumni Notes, we now have mini features—check them out!

•

Want to give a reading? Speak to a class? We love visitors (virtual or IRL)!

•

Use the Growing Shelf on Goodreads.

•

Check out the Happenings page on our website.

•

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.

As alumni you are our school’s history, and with the input of your voices you can help us to create the best possible future. We are so fortunate to have you in this community. Wishing you all good health and a good summer,

Hannah Swacker Kurnit ’97 Director of Alumni Relations 718.522.1660 ext. 345 | hkurnit@saintannsny.org

ALUMNI EVENTS

Alumni Auction 2021 We held our second online Alumni Auction after being delayed a year due to the pandemic. All donations to the auction—whether they were an item, experience, subscription, or service—were made, created, painted, built, invented, written, designed, composed, acted, edited, directed, or owned by Saint Ann’s alumni. Items included a studio tour with artist Ilana Harris-Babou ’09, a custom illustration by Pia Mileaf-Patel ’16, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Bronx Zoo donated by John Sykes ’94, gold and silver owl charms designed by Dana Betts ’97—and much more! All proceeds supported the Scholarship Fund at Saint Ann’s School. Tank you to all the alumni who donated auction items and to everyone who participated in the online event.

Alumni Reunions 2021 (1s and 6s) Over the course of fve evenings in late April and early May, the classes ending in 1s and 6s celebrated their milestone reunions virtually. Once again, our virtual reunions brought joy to many alumni usually unable to attend alumni day and reunions in person and on Pierrepont Street. Alumni gathered on screen from far corners of the country and the world to reconnect with each other and Saint Ann’s. Tank you to the classes ending in 1s and 6s. I hope your next reunion brings you all together shoulder to shoulder on the Red Stairs!

Alumni Week 2021 Tis spring, we invited alumni back to Saint Ann’s virtually for a few evenings of happenings, conversations, and activities to allow space for alumni to connect with each other and with Saint Ann’s. Over the course of four evenings, alumni participated in social sessions like Yoga with Adesina Dowers Cash ’97, Cooking with Romilly Newman ’16, and Poetry with Asiya Wadud, Dolapo Demuren, and Marty Skoble (all Poetry faculty). As part of our 30th anniversary of the African Dance program, Jamal Jackon ’96 and Shalewa Mackall (both Teater faculty) ofered dance classes to get us all moving. We also held a few sessions that allowed alumni to reconnect with our school. Bianca Roberson, CFO and David Smith, Director of Advancement talked to alumni about Understanding Saint Ann’s as a Nonproft Organization. We heard from the Mathematics and History departments along with Head of the Lower School Gillian Baine about this year’s school-wide equity curriculum review eforts in a panel discussion led by Dean of Faculty Melissa Kantor. Tere was also a chance to meet and hear from the Diversity and Institutional Equity team. Closing out each night were happy hours for LGBTQ+ alumni, Black alumni, alumni of color, and alumni by decade, which enabled us to gather in many diferent ways and spaces to reconnect in this most challenging year. Tank you to the Alumni Week 2021 Planning Committee for making this a fantastic week of alumni events. Andrew Cali-Vasquez ’01 Josh Epstein ’95 Shola Fakoya ’20

* Young Alumni Trustee

Olivia Ford ’97 Dora Grossman-Weir ’16 Jonathan Kay ’07 Ashley Mathis ’08*

Chinyere Odim ’13* Clif Tomas ’01** Gabby Wilson ’05

**Trustee 41

ALUMNI EVENTS Te Poetry workshop during Alumni Week fostered a space for creativity and community. In pairs we spoke to one another, mostly about our lives during the pandemic, and then wrote poems based on what the other person shared. Below is one of the poems written in the workshop.

A Final Fading Thought By Kimani Emmanuel ’14

Glass returning light to a growing star. What remains of the rain eating away at concrete, replacing footfalls along the handless guardrails between monuments to nothing. Te death of fault, the death of thought, the death of constructed memory. Te calm of colored dust and plastics, and all the glinting metals of the world. Te death of meaning; etchings left unattended become part of their surfaces, their voices leaving them. Te death of the mind, of all the heavy concepts of conception, an evaporation of the existence of worry. Te death of falling hopes and rising dreams, the death of continuity. Te passing of category from all things, the death of classifcation, the death of truth. Dyed cloth dappling rooms devoid of the idea of emptiness, shrouding unimportant things, shrouding no things, shrouding things which lost their sentimentality long before the last of the losses. Te death of time, of pastimes, of passing time, Te death of history and future, of all questions answered and yet to be asked, of all things spoken of and not, of all things worth speaking of. Te death of worth. Te death of ugliness and beauty. Above stands the expanse of all existence, devoid of mocking, devoid of subject, devoid of gaze, having outlived objectivity. Te death of life, the death of comprehension, Te death of death.

Artwork by Edie L., 11th grade

ALUMNI IN THE FIELD

On Launching a New and Diverse Concert Series By Chelsea Randall ’01 It’s been twenty(!) years since I graduated from Saint Ann’s, where I was a student from frst through twelfth grades, and I still miss the brilliant teachers and courses: Stanley Bosworth’s often incomprehensible but irreplaceable “Teory of Everything”; “Te Inferno” taught by Jane Avrich (English faculty); “Individual in Art” taught by Ruth Chapman (English faculty) among so many others. I miss the impromptu art-making, the sometimes messy but wonderful confuence of ideas, the inclusive atmosphere. My twelve years at the school were fundamental to my life as a musician, and the Saint Ann’s ethos directly carried over to a project I launched in June 2021: EXTENSITY Concert Series. Te series was created with my colleague, the pianist Francesca Khalifa, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was in response to the seismic societal and racial reckoning in the wake of the George Floyd protests. As graduates of conservatories that felt narrowly focused on the Western Canon, and as musicians frustrated by the lack of diversity in programming and on the concert stage, we aim to platform underrepresented artists and spotlight new and overlooked voices. We also seek to create forums for artists and audiences to interact and dialogue through artist talkbacks, interviews, lectures, and receptions after every event. Ultimately, our goal is for EXTENSITY to become a diverse, collaborative hub for artists to freely experiment and share new perspectives with an engaged, active audience. Te road to creating this series was a long one, which started with a chance meeting of my co-founder, Francesca, in 2018. My friend was hosting a Groupmuse (a platform that pairs musicians with hosts to play at their homes) and Francesca happened to be performing. We chatted after the concert, our visions aligned, and soon we embarked on the quest of starting up a series, with zero business knowledge and a one-paragraph mission. What a learning curve it was! For months, we scoured NYC for a venue only to run into contractual or logistical issues. We were even ofered the loan of a 1800s Steinway piano, which ultimately fell through due to high insurance costs. Ten, in mid-2020, we received a call from Musae, a livestream organization we had worked with to present concerts earlier in the pandemic. Tey knew a guy with a new venue in Ridgewood (called Uncommonly Studio), who was looking to host a music series. Bingo. It fell into our laps all at once, but not quite at the right time. Due to the pandemic, everything was shut down and live performance was canceled indefnitely. We knew we wanted our series to have a live audience in order to create a tangible sense of community, so we just had to wait and strategize behind the scenes. For a year we Zoomed constantly with each other and Sam, Uncommonly’s Artistic Director, did a ton of late night brainstorming, went on a six hour Long Island road trip to select a piano, and steadily reached out to our talented colleagues and a slew of musicians we’d admired for years, persuading them to join us in this messy, exciting, experimental endeavor during the most difcult of times. On June 12, 2021, we fnally launched our inaugural season of EXTENSITY at Uncommonly Studio in Ridgewood, NY. Te seven concert series ran through July 31 and featured a diverse roster of some of the most innovative classical, jazz, and world music artists working today. Our opening night concert was the frst time Francesca and I, or our (masked) audience, had seen live music for over a year, and it was a collectively moving experience. Months earlier, we had approached the incredible baritone Adam Richardson to open our series, and Adam responded that he’d love to, if he could present a concert of all living Black composers and arrangers. We couldn’t have asked for a program that more perfectly aligned with our vision and mission for EXTENSITY. Adam sang modern arrangements of spirituals, contemporary works by Daniel Bernard Roumain, H. Leslie Adams, and 44

capped of the program with a piece titled “Two Black Churches” by Shawn Okpebholo, which, serendipitously, is set to the poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, my late, great uncle who was a pioneering poet and the founder of Broadside Press, one of the frst publishers of Black poets in America. His poem, written in response to the devastating 1963 Birmingham, Alabama Church Bombing, was a prescient reminder of the long road ahead, and the difcult work still to be done. Many of our audience members were moved to tears that night, and we all shared something that felt like a reprieve, a release (both somber and joyous), that was the start of something new.

“Stand The Storm” June 12, 2021. Adam Richardson, baritone and John Arida, piano 45

ALUMNI MINI FEATURES

Elia Hunt ’20

I sat cross-legged on the wall-to-wall carpet of my bedroom foor in the early days of the pandemic, scraps of newspaper articles scattered around me as I pieced together my artwork for Rob Goldberg’s (History faculty) high school history elective “School and Society.” As one of the many students around the world forced to abandon my in-person experience for an online format, I crafted my classwork to focus on the parallels between school closures caused by the pandemics in 1918 and 2019. In order to visually capture the similarities, I interspersed the headlines from the Spanish Flu of 1918 and Covid-19 into a collage. I used a surgical mask as the base of my work because its current common usage creates a clear visual contrast from life pre-pandemic. In the summer of 2020, I was contacted by historian David Serlin for the piece’s use in his article “Guns, Germs and Public History” for the Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences. Tis was such an honor and allowed me to share my work with those outside of our virtual “classroom.” Masks are objects that symbolize so much for us today and which we will hopefully be able to retire soon, fnding them only in the back of a closet, a museum display case, or captured in a photograph on the page of a journal article.

Rebecca Brudner ’12 In April 2020, I co-founded Hear Your Song, a national nonproft that empowers children and teens with serious illnesses and complex health needs to make their voices heard through collaborative songwriting. Hear Your Song volunteers guide kids through the process of writing their own songs about anything they want, from pasta to ninjas to grief to strength. Our team of composers and musicians then produce and record the songs to be heard, celebrated, and shared. Hear Your Song has recorded over 150 songs written by kids in fourteen states, while mentoring student leaders at fve campus-based chapters, engaging hundreds of volunteer musicians around the globe, and building more than a dozen partnerships with children’s hospitals, specialized schools/camps, and other nonprofts. Troughout the pandemic, Hear Your Song has provided a virtual creative outlet for kids who have been especially isolated and at risk.

Diana Bowers-Smith ’05 In 2012 I started a dual master’s program in Art History and Library Science, thinking I wanted to be a museum registrar. I fell in love with librarianship and ended up also getting a certifcate in archives. By the time I graduated, I was working as the archivist for an artist’s estate. Soon thereafter, I was hired to be an archivist for the Brooklyn Collection at Brooklyn Public Library, where I have worked ever since. Last year, the Brooklyn Collection merged with the Brooklyn Historical Society to form the new Center for Brooklyn History, housed in the Historical Society building across the street from Saint Ann’s. As an archivist, I work to organize and preserve documents, photographs, maps, audiovisual materials (including oral histories), and digital materials that span hundreds of years of Brooklyn history. From eighteenth century Dutch land deeds to preserving contemporary web content and everything in between, I’m proud to be part of bringing Brooklyn’s history to both the people of our borough and the world beyond.

Olivia Cuartero-Briggs ’01 After realizing my status as a classically disillusioned Hollywood hopeful, I returned to school, earning an M.F.A. in dramatic writing from Tisch Asia in Singapore. Strange, I know. And stranger still, I knew this could mean becoming catastrophically disillusioned with the added bonus of crippling student debt. Nonetheless, I rolled the dice, and I am ridiculously glad I did. Fresh out of graduate school in 2013, the amazing Nancy Reardon (Teater faculty) helped me produce a night of short plays in the theater of the Drama Book Shop. I had my frst daughter, Quinn Ryan Dean, in 2014, and landed my frst job in TV as a writers assistant on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders in 2015, which brought me back to L.A. From there, I got my frst script on E! Entertainment’s Te Arrangement and came back as a staf writer for the second season. Crazy momentum, I know. I am literally the coolest. Until the show was cancelled, that is. My “cool” stock dropping with each passing moment, I scrambled, got scrappy, and stumbled headlong into the world of comics. My frst, Mary Shelley Monster Hunter, I co-wrote with the illustrious Adam Glass. It made a few top ten lists in 2019. My frst solo comic, Silver City, is hitting shelves this summer. In the meantime, I made another amazing human, Kit Nancy Dean (named after the incomparable Nancy Fales Garrett, former faculty) and somehow snuck into the writers room of USA’s Queen of the South to write on their awesome, fnal season. I’m not sure how my cool stock is doing, but my kids like me, and I’m happy, so there’s that. Oh, yeah, and my dad (Bob Briggs, former faculty) says “hi.” He’s happy too.

ALUMNI MINI FEATURES

Jocelyn Marie Goode ’99 When I frst got struck by the inspired idea, I felt like it was ridiculous. A roller-skate museum? An African-American Roller-Skate Museum? But it could also be the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done! With the pandemic shutting down my main outlets for dance and artistic expression, I rediscovered roller-skating in late 2020 as one way to still socialize and get my groove on. I actually fell in love with skating and began looking for more ways to do it, when I learned about the grievances the African-American community was expressing about being overlooked for their contributions to the sport. Turns out, several people began roller-skating during the pandemic and the media was widely highlighting white, blonde skaters, glazing over the rich history roller-skating has within Black culture. Creating an institution was my solution. After over twenty years as a professional artist, I felt like a museum could lend itself to addressing the needs of the Black community to be recognized, while innovating on how a museum can operate and exist in a 21st century society. Our approach to curating and presenting exhibitions includes creating content intended to be experienced virtually and online, as well as crafting site-specifc, customized pop-up events here in NYC, and wherever else we are requested to appear! I decided to create the frst ever NYC RollerSkate Week which ofcially launched in April, and since then, the museum has been on a roll! See what’s happening now by visiting www.afamrollerskatemuseum.org.

Alexis Sykes ’97 I work as a violist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra (NYCB) and was about to launch a company called Arts At Work (AAW) at the precipice of the pandemic. AAW ofers companies a benefts program focused on personal development through the arts. Our workshops ofer leadership skills, emotional intelligence training, and health and wellness through the performing arts. Te irony of launching a program focused on old-school human interaction through arts during the most disconnected and technology-dependent moment of our lifetime is not lost on me. I made a difcult choice to continue the launch but obviously had to pivot to virtual oferings. One of my favorite AAW oferings is a compilation of songwriting and company chorus with the goal of creating a music video expressing an issue of importance to the group or company. It takes the form of a workshop which is conducted through Zoom. A small team of employees writes a song under the tutelage of our amazing songwriting teacher Natalia Zukerman, and a much larger team of employees creates a virtual chorus using the song their co-workers wrote.

AAW’s virtual workshops are meant to boost morale, connect employees, and get people out of their sedentary routines. When I looked at my own company, NYCB, I thought how necessary this kind of workshop is for a group of employees who have been furloughed since March of 2020. So far our seven person songwriting team has written a truly beautiful song called “Building A Place” which invites audiences back to see NYCB when they fnally re-open and a twenty-six person chorus has recorded this song (remotely). Te video will be posted in September and we hope you will consider coming to a NYCB performance at that time.

Matt Russotti ’97 and Max Kenner ’96 Max and I frst met in Middle School at Saint Ann’s where we were great friends and classmates— we’ve remained very close ever since. Trough our partnership in Sol Purpose Development Company (Sol Purpose), Max and I recently completed the largest public housing community solar project in the world. Sol Purpose was founded by Max to be an innovative solar developer with a mission to further renewable energy development that serves the broader public interest, dedicating profts to community-based initiatives in education and criminal justice reform. I joined Max at the onset and lead the company. Right now I’m working on developing projects that incorporate public beneft initiatives like afordable community solar programs for low-to-moderate income (LMI) households, local job training and workforce development programs, and using project proceeds to fund social programs for local communities. On our most recent project, Sol Purpose partnered with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and more than eight other local companies to lead the development of 1.8 megawatts of rooftop solar arrays on twenty-seven buildings across Queensbridge North and Queensbridge South Houses in Long Island City. Te project has created more than thirteen full-time jobs for NYCHA residents and provided job training and certifcations for twenty NYCHA residents throughout the City. Te project will deliver solar energy at a discount to over 400 households with 100 of those being LMI households across NYC. It will also provide NYCHA with $1.3 million in lease revenue to improve conditions of the properties housing the solar. Finally, Max and I will use development proceeds to fund scholarships for underserved individuals in programs operated by Max through the Bard Microcolleges (a project of the Bard Prison Initiative) in Harlem and/or Brooklyn.

Douglas Gillison ’96 Last year I left journalism to become an anti-corruption investigator at Te Sentry, a nonproft created by John Prendergast and George Clooney that traces assets and illicit fnancial fows tied to atrocities and corruption in Africa, a region I knew little about. Te work is fascinating and engrossing and despite being unable to travel we’ve been very productive during the pandemic. Frankly, it’s a bit nerve-wracking to be in a new line of work for the frst time. But our focus on resource corruption and money laundering builds on work that I did on mining and illegal logging while I was in Cambodia from 2005 to 2011. All of this reminds me every day of how much I owe the Saint Ann’s Romance Languages Department, in particular Marielle Vigourt, whom I miss very much. Who knew reading Racine, Molière, and Germaine de Staël would come in so handy after all? I keep a book Marielle gave me as a gift at graduation in 1996. Inside, she wrote a note of congratulations, wishing me good luck as I went out into the world: “and don’t forget to come back and see us!” I only wish I still could.

ALUMNI MINI FEATURES

Rob Mackay ’84 Well, I am an ofcial Saint Ann-er...I’ve written a book. It’s not creative fction or a play, but it’s something that our wonderful teachers Bob Swacker (History faculty), Bill Everdell (former faculty), and Liam Flaherty ’85 (History faculty) might like. It’s entitled Historic Houses of Queens and is put out by Arcadia Publishing. With 200 images and long captions, the paperback narrates the history of the borough via some of its most outstanding dwellings.

Ken Granderson ’80 In the late 1970s, Saint Ann’s introduced me to computers, but as my family could not aford one at the time, I got into audio electronics instead. (Some Saint Ann’s old-timers may recall Cyril Jermin ’80 and myself DJing the Class of 1980 school dance). After leaving Brooklyn for MIT in 1980, and having a successful career as a DJ, I reconnected with my passion for computing and taught myself how to code. Tis led me to start creating products which enabled me to quit my mainstream tech job in 1993. Excited by the opportunities that I saw in the technology space for anyone regardless of their ethnic backgrounds—and inspired by the introduction I got to Black literature and history from the AfroAmerican Studies class taught at Saint Ann’s by Jackie Lee (former faculty) before her untimely passing in 1976—in 1997 I created Blackfacts.com. BlackFacts was the world’s frst online Black History encyclopedia, which I created to make the internet more welcoming as Black people started going online in large numbers. Today, BlackFacts is the world’s largest online source of Black History and current Black news, with over a quarter million indexed articles and 200 orginal videos including our “Black Facts Minute,” a daily video of a Black History event for every day of the year. Our content is free to the public, and as a business, we create “Diversity Technology Solutions” that enable companies committed to diversity to celebrate and track their diversity activities and objectives.

John Ordover ’80 My life has taken yet another turn. While I’m still a creative consultant, I also side-stepped into standup comedy a few years back and have started appearing regularly around town from the Broadway Comedy Club to Stand Up NY to various spots in the Village. I’m also all over the web appearing with the comedy video group @oldjewishmen. So to everyone who laughed at me in school, now you have to pay to do it!

Keep in touch and share your news with us at alumni@saintannsny.org.

Cheryl Singleton ’77 Like it did for many people, the pandemic brought upheaval to my work life and my living situation: the place where I worked for twelve years closed permanently, and my roommates decided to move back in with their folks last June, ending our search for a new apartment. Tankfully, I landed with friends as I searched for a place and began work as a standardized patient. One wonderful constant has been a weekly children’s music class written and performed with my ex-roomies: the positive feedback from the kids and their parents touches us deeply and keeps us moving forward, hopefully of of Zoom and into another format. I continue to work as a theater professional, acting, directing and volunteering on three boards and a DEI task force in the Boston community. We are excited to get back to work as we determine just what the post-Covid parameters will be. I recently shot a monologue on set: it felt great to be working face-to-face with other theater professionals again.

Connie Halporn ’74 After many many years of working at Columbia University, frst in the Center for Biomedical Communication, then in the Development Ofce—I ofcially retired on December 31, 2020. I am working on my own photography and still teaching Judo—although it’s via Zoom. It’s the silver lining to what was a terrible 2020.

Kindergarten Artwork 51

IN MEMORIAM ALUMNI

Morgan Cottrell Ellis ’96 aka “Jake” It is with great sadness that we share the news that Morgan Cottrell Ellis ‘96 aka “Jake” died on March 1, 2021 after complications following surgery. Morgan, known as Jake at Saint Ann’s, lived in Santa Monica, CA and was an award-winning role-playing game designer. Jake is survived by his parents Ann and Dwight and his brother Warren.

FORMER FACULTY AND STAFF

Nancy Doyle Nancy passed away in January of this year. She was the manager of the food services program at Saint Ann’s from 1992 until 2010. Over the eighteen years that Nancy worked at Saint Ann’s she saw to the care and feeding of our students and staf with commitment and kindness. She will be missed. We send our deepest condolences to Nancy’s husband Neil Bakalar, who is also a former Saint Ann’s staf member, as well as to their family and friends.

Joanne Huebsch Joanne, who spent twenty-fve years caring for Saint Ann’s students with kindness and thoughtfulness as our School Nurse until her retirement in 2013, passed away in early February. To her husband Bill and son Jonathan ’93, and to all of those who loved Joanne, we send our deepest condolences.

Robert ‘Bob’ Hershon Bob died earlier this year at the age of 83. Click here to read his obituary in the New York Times. Bob worked at Saint Ann’s from 1975 to 1977 in the English Department.

FORMER TRUSTEES

John Pomfret John passed away in February of this year at the age of ninety-three. He served on the St. Ann’s Epsicopal School Board of Governors (later known as the Saint Ann’s School Board of Trustees) from 1976 to 1977. Click here to read John’s obituary in the New York Times.

Artwork by Leila M., 9th grade

Kindergarten Artwork

Things getting worn and things getting born Things get dingy Things get old, things Get sandy and even sold. Some things last a while Some things last two days My grandmother’s Stuf has been alive For ages, even rages So much stuf has Passed away. It is countless What it can combine It makes one ancient World –Austen S., 1st Grade

Self-Portraits by Third Graders in I-Huei and Lauren’s Class and Chandra and Ajani’s Class

Artwork by Henry K., 12th grade

129 Pierrepont Street Brooklyn, NY 11201

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