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from Town Topics Newspaper, September 23, 2020

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Tuck-Ponder Has Leadership Experience To Help Make Critical Decisions Ahead

To the Editor:

We are supporting Michele Tuck-Ponder for a second term on the Princeton BOE. Michele has the leadership experience that we can trust to help us make the critical decisions ahead on equity, facilities, budget, safety and educational excellence.

Michele will continue to address systemic and institutional racism in our district, particularly in the areas of discipline, special education classifications, hiring, and academic achievement. She will continue to look at every decision and every expenditure through the lens of equity for every student — LGBTQ students, immigrants, those with learning disabilities, students of every color and ethnicity, and regardless of their economic status. As chair of the Equity Committee, she will continue to lead the coordinated response to inequity in our schools.

Princeton’s schools are crowded and will become even more so over the next few years. As a former mayor experienced with municipal budgets and buildings, she will work collaboratively with the community to ensure that we have the facilities that we need for our children without unduly burdening our taxpayers — she has demonstrated through her voting record on the BOE that fiscal responsibility is key.

Above all, Michele will continue to work tirelessly to help ALL of our current and future students get the skills they need for success in the 21st century — collaboration, creativity, communications, technology, and cultural competence while learning in a safe environment. COVID-19 has presented unique challenges, and we trust Michele to help us make the right investments to help our children, teachers, and staff thrive whether the learning is virtual or in-person.

Please vote for Michele Tuck-Ponder for Princeton BOE. You can learn more about Michele at MTP4BOE.com. IONA AND MAURICE HARDING Fisher Avenue KAREN JEZIERNY Mt. Lucas Road ROBIN BIRKEL Meetinghouse Court

Burke Foundation Early Childhood Center At YWCA Princeton Opens Its Doors

To the Editor:

Last week, we opened the doors to The Burke Foundation Early Childhood Center at YWCA Princeton. With temperature screenings upon arrival, staggered pick up and drop off to avoid crowding, and masks worn by staff and many of the children we serve, it wasn’t the opening we imagined, but it’s the one our community needed.

Many schools are transitioning to online learning — and for older children, it’s the most practical approach — but 2-year-olds can’t be taken care of via Zoom. In addition, social interaction is crucial to social-emotional learning, a pillar of early childhood development that our curriculum prioritizes. For this reason, we’re introducing an after care program for children between the ages of 3-6, who may be learning remotely during the day, to get a few hours of social interaction and physical activity.

During the construction of The Burke Foundation Early Childhood Center at YWCA Princeton, we opened our summer childcare program at a licensed childcare facility just a mile away from our building. Our program ran from July through August, and our staff and the families we serve adapted quickly to our new safety protocols. This allowed us to employ staff who were temporarily laid off at the beginning of the pandemic, and we gained valuable experience that has prepared us to open our childcare on a larger scale. The health and safety of our staff and the families we serve is our highest priority, and there were no cases of COVID-19.

The safe reopening of our summer childcare confirmed to my staff and I that we could safely reopen in the fall; however, a testimonial we received from a parent at the end of the summer made us all realize that we need to reopen. This parent witnessed his daughter’s attitude toward learning transform in the two months she was in our summer childcare program. Not only was she counting and speaking better, she couldn’t wait to tell her family about what she’d learned at the end of each day. At our core we strive to empower and inspire the children in our program, and to prepare them to thrive in kindergarten, and beyond. That’s why we do this work, and why we’ve opened for the fall.

We will live-stream the ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of The Burke Foundation Early

FOR PRINCETON BOARD OF EDUCATION

FOR PRINCETON BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR PRINCETON BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR PRINCETON BOARD OF EDUCATION

Childhood Center at YWCA Princeton on Saturday, September 26, at 11 a.m. on our Facebook page (@ywcaprinceton). The event will feature remarks from Mayor Liz Lempert, James Burke of The Burke Foundation, Councilwoman Leticia Fraga, and First Lady of New Jersey Tammy Murphy will be our keynote speaker. I hope the community will tune in and join us. TAY WALKER Executive Director, YWCA Princeton

Under Behrend’s Leadership of BOE, PPS Have Accomplished Positive Change

To the Editor:

We are writing to enthusiastically endorse Beth Behrend for re-election to the Princeton School Board, where she has served as Board president for the past two years. We have known Beth for many years through her work with our children’s schools, initially as leader of the Riverside PTO. She is a woman of exceptional intelligence, integrity, and energy – and equally important, warmth. In our decades of living in Princeton, Beth and her family are amongst the kindest and most thoughtful people we have ever met.

Under Beth’s leadership of the BOE, Princeton Public Schools have accomplished a great deal of positive change. We have improved our school facilities, stabilized district finances while addressing overdue building maintenance to achieve even greater cost savings, welcomed talented new hires at all levels, initiated free pre-K for scores of students, promoted important equity initiatives and racial literacy, provided all students equal access to new technology, and supported a rapid shift to remote learning, but there is more work to be done.

In a time of significant change and uncertainty, Beth has proven to be a leader we can count on to help us navigate successfully and ensure we deliver an effective education to all children that reflects the values of our community. Please join us this fall in re-electing Beth Behrend to the Princeton Board of Education. JAMES BASH EVA MARTIN ANNE CASWELL-KLEIN GRADY CASWELL-KLEIN South Harrison Street

PCDO and MC Democratic Committee To Host Virtual Meeting on Sept. 24

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization (PCDO) and the Mercer County Democratic Committee, I would like to extend an invitation to all voters to join us for a virtual meeting this Thursday, September 24 at 7 p.m., to hear from our special guest, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, as well as Congressman Tom Malinowski, and our own representative Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. The meeting can be accessed at princetondems.org.

With the untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the political landscape has changed yet again. Please join us to learn the latest news on what is happening nationally and in New Jersey as we near Election Day, November 3, 2020. The meeting is free and open to the public. JO BUTLER President, PCDO Hibben Road

Expressing Gratitude for Virtual BOE Candidates’ Forum Hosted by WJNA

To the Editor:

I’m certain the more than 70 others who attended the virtual Board of Education Candidates’ Forum share my gratitude to Leighton Newlin and the Witherspoon-Jackson Neighborhood Association (WJNA) for hosting this timely and instructive event last Saturday, September 19.

After listening to each candidate’s platform and their solutions to longtime and emergent local educational issues, attendees acquired information and insight to assist them in casting an informed vote in the upcoming seminal Board of Education election for a new direction for Princeton’s public schools.

Capping off the excellent meeting was a presentation by Anton (Tony) Nelessen, who has been teaching urban design and professional practice, first at Harvard and currently at Rutgers, for the past 39 years. Nelessen spoke on affordable housing, zoning, sustainability, and smart growth with particular reference to the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood. LINDA SIPPRELLE Victoria Mews

Urging Residents to Vote In New BOE Members Who Will Act For Community

To the Editor:

It is time for a change. For years, I’ve watched with dismay as members of Princeton’s Board of Education (BOE), with a few notable exceptions, have consistently failed to examine each question put before them with a critical eye.

The role of a Board member is to draw upon their experience, expertise, and analytical skills to deliberate with their fellow Board members to make informed decisions. It is not to serve as a rubber stamp.

Sadly, the leadership of our BOE discourages dissent among Board members in exchange for conformity to the wishes of both the administration and a small, but vocal, cadre political insiders who have for years set the BOE’s agenda.

As part of their effort to stifle public discourse, last year the BOE leadership spent taxpayer funds on legal fees to silence fellow Board members who shared information about topics of significant interest to the community.

Similarly, the BOE leadership established a policy to prevent Board members from communicating directly with the superintendent or the general public. Instead, all communications with the superintendent must now be filtered through the BOE’s president.

Such measures are chilling to those who believe in the crucial role that public debate has in a democracy.

The results speak for themselves. The BOE has recently made a series of tone-deaf decisions that underscore its inability to function as an effective deliberative body.

This spring the BOE moved forward with an ill-conceived and ill-timed plan to spend more than half a million dollars on two outdoor toilets and a small concession stand, despite concerns about both the cost and the need for the project. This decision was reached during height of the spring surge of the pandemic, with limited public input, and over objections of several Board members, when many Princetonians feared for their health, were struggling with reduced incomes, or worried about possible job losses.

A few weeks later, the BOE moved forward with a costly plan to equip our students with MacBook Airs and Chromebooks. During the meeting, several members acknowledged they hadn’t been given adequate time to review the administration’s proposals before voting. Indeed, one Board member admitted they didn’t know much about the teaching methodologies or technology solutions proposed but would nonetheless follow the advice of the administration’s “experts” and voted in favor of the plan.

Princeton deserves better.

Unfortunately, given the current Board leadership discourages debate and dissent, an end to this dysfunctional behavior is unlikely unless a new team of leaders take charge.

To change the culture of Princeton’s Board of Education, we need to elect new Board members who will ask hard questions, take a critical look at each proposal, and hold the administration accountable. It is for this reason that I urge my fellow residents to vote in new School Board members who will act on behalf of the community and elect a new BOE leadership team.

Please join me in electing the slate of Paul Johnson, Karen Lemon, and William Hare for the Princeton Board of Education. MARC MONSEAU Moore Street

C.K.Williams Series Features Alameddine

The 2020-21 C.K. Williams Reading Series will be launched by novelist Rabih Alameddine, who will read from his work at 6 p.m. on September 30 via Zoom Webinar. The reading will be followed by a conversation with Alameddine and Hamza Hashem, a senior in Princeton’s Program in Creative Writing. The series is named after the late Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet C.K. Williams, who also served on Princeton’s faculty for 20 years. This virtual event, presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts, is free and open to the public.

Alameddine is the author of five novels and a collection of short stories, The Perv, which in 2019 won the Dos Passos Prize. His sixth novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope, will be published by Grove in Spring/ Summer 2021. His pieces have appeared in Zoetrope, The Evening Standard, and Al-Hayat, among others. Born in Amman, Jordan, to Lebanese parents, Alameddine grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon. He was educated in England and the U.S., and he has an engineering degree from UCLA and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco. He has lectured at numerous universities including M.I.T and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2002. He divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut.

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Crossing Abbey Road Again — Baseball, Beatles, RBG, and Nabokov

Ayear ago I was writing about baseone-sided deals: the Red Sox “Curse of the side of Abbey Road (“Fifty Years on Abbey literature at Cornell, Vladimir Nabokov, ball and the Beatles on the 50th Bambino” sale of Babe Ruth to the Yan Road: ‘The Love You Take Is Equal to the with changing “the way I read and the anniversary of Abbey Road and the kees in 1920 and the trade that brought Love You Make’”). way I write. Words could paint pictures, St. Louis Cardinals’ four-game playoffLou Brock (1939-2020) from Chicago to Handshakes and Smiles I learned from him. Choosing the right clinching sweep of their arch rivals, the Chicago Cubs. At the time I didn’t know about the photograph staged to publicize the ill-fated June 2020 London series be tween the Cubs and the Cardinals. However disappointed fans may have been when the event was canceled by the pandemic, the image of Cubs outfielder Kris Bryant and first baseman Anthony Rizzo and Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and catcher Yadier Molina crossing Abbey Road helps make up for it. Here are four ballplayers reenacting in full uniform the zebra crossing cover shot seen round the world, each player replicating the posture, style, and stride of a Beatle — Bryant subbing for George, Rizzo for barefoot Paul (his slightly uplifted lead foot similarly positioned at the exact edge of the identical zebra stripe), Goldschmidt for Ringo, and Molina for John, whose song “Come Together” provided the ta gline for both teams’ Facebook postings. Just imagining what went on behind the scenes brings a smile. Did Rizzo volunteer to go shoeless, or did the organizer of the shoot explain the situation by quoting Mc Cartney, who lived around the corner at the time: “It was a really nice hot day and I didn’t feel like wearing shoes, so I went around to the photo session and showed me bare feet.” Or was there a squabble among the players about which Beatle each would be subbing for? Or perhaps some back and forth between the fiery Molina and the outspoken Bryant, who once defamed the city of St. Louis as “bor ing.” And maybe a debate about airbrushing the elaborate tattoo on Molina’s right arm, settled with a line from the theme song of the shoot: “One thing I tell you is you got to be free.” Deals and Steals It’s worth noting that the legendary Cardinals-Cubs rivalry, the second-most storied in baseball, made them the logical choice to follow 2019’s Red Sox-Yankees London match-up, which had been billed as “an intense and historic rivalry well St. Louis in 1964, a move that helped lift the Cardinals to a world championship the same year. When Brock died earlier this month, t h e N e w Yo r k Times obit uar y (“Baseball Hall of Famer Known for Stealing Bases”) quoted him on bravado: “You know before you steal a base that you’ve got nine guys out there in different uniforms. You’re alone in a sea of enemies. The only way you can hold your own is by arrogance, the ability to stand before the crowd.” The reference to “the crowd” has unhappy resonance in this Covid-mangled season where fans have been replaced by cardboard cutouts and canned cheering. Following the Cardinals this year has been a challenge, the excitement muted, distant, hard to grasp, with the team missing two weeks’ worth of games due to players testing positive for the virus. Even though chances for a playoff spot look promising, it feels a long way from this time last year when I Among last week’s rare feel-good moments was watching hockey players line up for handshakes after the overtime victory that sent Tampa Bay past the Islanders to the Stanley Cup finals. Surely one of the most admirable traditions in sports is the ceremony wherein players who were hammer ing each other like warriors in mortal combat take off the gloves to shake hands, maybe give a hug, a shoulder pat, even a smile or a look that says “Win or lose, we’re all in this together.” I n c a s e y o u haven’t guessed, I’m looking for some positives in the shadow of last week’s news cycle, led by the diminutive, indomitable 87-year-old warrior who died on Friday. Nabokov’s Best Reward In a New York T i m e s O p E d piece from 2016 reprinted over the weekend, Rut h Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) repeats her motherin-law’s wedding day advice (“In every good marriage, word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.” When the author of Pale Fire and Lolita was asked in a 1967 Paris Review interview what he learned from his classes at Cornell, he replied, “My best reward comes from those former students of mine who ten or fifteen years later write to me to say that they now understand what I wanted of them when I taught them to visualize Emma Bovary’s mistranslated hairdo or the arrangement of rooms in the Samsa household [in Kafka’s Metamorphosis] or the two homosexuals in Anna Karenina.” Whatever Justice Ginsberg might have learned from Nabokov’s reading of a mistranslated hairdo, there’s a touch of his art in the metaphor she’s being remembered for, from her dissent in Shelby County v. Holder, the case that weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act: “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” Abbey Road 24/7 W hile the montage of some 60 celebrities, living and dead, featured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band probably made a deeper impression on the consciousness of the culture, it was a fantasy. Not so the cover of Abbey Road. Whether or not the photo shoot was Photoshopped, the locale shown in the Cubs-Cardinals photograph is real; it’s still there; it can be visited, and so it is, day after day, year after year, by real people of all ages from all around the real world, there to walk in the footsteps of the Beatles and take pictures of themselves doing it. If you prefer the comfort and economy of a virtual visit, you can access the Abbey Road crossing, day or night, 24/7, courtesy of EMI’s webcam (abbeyroad.co.uk/visit). over a century in the making.” compared the euphoria of winning vicariit helps sometimes to be a little deaf”) —Stuart Mitchner

Both feuds were founded on infamously ously on the field to listening to the second and credits her professor of European

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State Theatre New Jersey Presents “Broadway Online Trivia Night”; “Anastasia” and “Beautiful” Actor Kathryn Boswell Emcees and Sings

State Theatre New Jersey presented and that child has gone through the enhe answered 47 questions correctly, but actress: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya RuBroadway Online Trivia Night on tirety of their education, and has now left he won because “Kahoot! also factors in dolph, or Kristen Wiig? September 16. Kathryn Boswell, a the house. Now [the dancer] is an empty the speed [with] which people answer,” 3. Which actress played both the Witch member of the Broadway casts of Gigi and nester, and she is still in the ballet corps. Blithe explains to this writer. “In this case, in Into the Woods, and Dot in Sunday in Anastasia, hosted the event. Which is crazy; talk about longevity in a Jacob was faster.” the Park with George: Angela Lansbury,

Boswell performed at the State Theatre career … that is a gift in our business!” State Theatre New Jersey will host simi Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman, or Patin November 2019, as songwriter Cynthia As a break in the middle of the contest, lar online events in the coming months. ti LuPone? (a participant named Jordan Weil, in the North American tour of BeauBoswell delivered a sincere, exquisitely There will be an 80s Online Trivia Night noted that all four performers starred as tiful–The Carole King Musical. Boswell phrased rendition (to a prerecorded acon October 14. Actor Brandon A. Wright Mama Rose in Gypsy.) told Broadway Online Trivia Night viewcompaniment) of “A Cockeyed Optimist” will host another Broadway Online Trivia 4. What time period is the musical Hairers that the New Brunswick-based theater from the Rodgers and Hammerstein muNight on November 11, and viewers will spray set in? ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, or ’80s? “was one of our favorite stops as a company. It was so wonderful to be so close to New York City; we felt like we were coming home. It’s just such a … beautiful, welcoming space.” Broadway Online Trivia Night was sical South Pacific. Boswell commented that she “wanted to sing a song that brought me a lot of optimism … in a weird time and a weird world. I think that there is room for hope, even in this really trying time.” have an opportunity to participate in Holiday Online Trivia Night with Suzie the Elf on December 9. Sample Questions To give readers an opportunity to test their own knowledge of theater, here is a (Boswell noted, “In the original Broadway production, some of the actors were also the musicians. Nowadays … the lines have blurred between the musicians and the actors, but back then it was not really done that way.” In the chat a participant hosted via Zoom. A donation, of $5 or The prize for first place was a $150 gift sampling of the questions that were asked. named Jess noted that Once employed higher, allowed viewers to participate in card to the State Theatre, as well as a See the final paragraph for answers. that technique as well. Boswell added, “I the contest, by using a smartphone-based game app (Kahoot!). State Theatre “swag bag.” The swag bag also served as the prize for second place. 1. Singer Jennifer Holliday became a successful recording artist, after she beloved Once, because it was the musicians and the actors blending together … it re

“Proceeds raised support State Theatre’s A participant named Jordan S. came came famous for originating this role: Efally moved me.” Director John Doyle has Community Engagement programs,” states in third, having answered 46 out of 50 fie in Dreamgirls, Lottie in Shuffle Along, become known for having actors double a press release. Director of Communicaquestions correctly. Julie G. earned sec Dorothy in The Wiz, or Motormouth Mayas musicians, particularly in his productions Kelly Blithe elaborates in an email, ond place, successfully answering 47 belle in Hairspray? tions of Stephen Sondheim musicals such “The donations are going towards the general community engagement funds which include our Artist-in-Residence program, questions. Jacob P. won first place. Like Julie G. 2. Both the movie and musical Mean Girls were written by which comedic as Company and Sweeney Todd.) 5. In Beautiful–The Carole King Musical, Carole is part of a songwriting team virtual school programs, the Milk & Cookwith Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weil, and who: ies series [an interactive storytelling and Neil Sedaka, Barry Mann, James Taylor, music program for families], and Ticket or Don Kirshner? Subsidies including free tickets for community partners, charities, and veterans.” 6. Audra McDonald won her first Tony for playing which role: Sarah in Ragtime,

Boswell said that the State Theatre’s Carrie Pipperidge Snow in Carousel, Macommunity engagement programs “serve rie Christine in Marie Christine, or Sha35,000 people each year, with events and ron Graham in Master Class? activities that help make the arts more accessible and meaningful and affordable to people of all ages and backgrounds.” She acknowledged that “the arts are struggling — this industry is really taking a hit,” but added, “I believe more than ever that the arts are so essential.” There were 50 questions — each accompanied by four multiple-choice answers — read by Boswell and displayed on a screen. While giving participants time to submit answers, the affable and exuberant 7. Which is the highest grossing musical to date: The Lion King, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, or Cats? (Boswell noted that the answer has grossed over $1.6 billion.) 8. Which musical did Jerome Robbins not choreograph and direct: West Side Story, Funny Girl, Fiddler on the Roof, or Gypsy? 9. Who adapted To Kill a Mockingbird from a book to a play: Harper Lee, Stephen Sondheim, Aaron Sorkin, or Tracy Letts? Boswell responded to comments submit10. What special singing technique did ted in the chat room, and offered bits of Frankie Valli use that differentiated him trivia about the show or artist covered by self from others in Jersey Boys: vibrato, a particular question. belting, vocal fry, or falsetto?

An example concerns The Phantom Answers of the Opera, which had been running on Broadway for 32 years at the time all theaters were shuttered by the pandemic. Boswell said that she knows someone “BROADWAY ONLINE TRIVIA NIGHT”: Broadway performer Kathryn Boswell (above) hosted State Theatre New Jersey’s “Broadway Online Trivia Night.” Boswell read trivia questions, chatted with viewers, and performed a song. (Photo by Corinne Louie) 1. Effie in Dreamgirls. 2. Tina Fey. 3. Bernadette Peters. 4. ’60s. 5. Barry Mann. 6. Carrie Pipperidge Snow. 7. The Lion King. 8. Funny Girl. 9. Aaron Sorkin. who has been in the musical’s ballet corps “since she was 18.” In the course of the show’s run that dancer “has had a child, To learn about future trivia nights, or other upcoming events hosted by State Theatre New Jersey, visit https://www.stnj.org/events. 10. Falsetto. —Donald H. Sanborn III

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