A New Era Meet Dean Jason Geary

SPRING 2021

MGMASON GROSS SCHOOLSA OF THE ARTS A NEW ERA MEET DEAN JASON GEARY

Creating Through COVID │ Farewell To Stanley Cowell │ Dance & Parkinson's TAKE NOTE

he Wrap has named the Rutgers Filmmaking Center among the T Top 50 Film Schools—no small feat, especially if you consider that the center has only been offering BFA degrees since 2015. The center gets kudos for its “easy access to Manhattan’s film scene without paying Manhattan rent,” and a 1:12 faculty-student ratio in a conservatory setting. In addition, Variety named the program among the top in the nation in its latest Entertainment Impact Report.

Rutgers Theater Company’s fall 2019 production of Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play with Gabriel COVID #keepmakingart August Kessler, from left, Maia Karo, Faith Evan Wilansky, Graham Poore, Candace Grace, Matthew Petrucelli, Magali Trench, and Sofia Duemichen. 02 ance Magazine named alum Oluwadamilare Ayorinde one of “25 to D Watch” in 2020. “Ayorinde transforms himself each and every time he performs, in pieces by drastically different choreographers... His passion is unquestionable, transforming any work brought his way,” says dance writer Charmaine Warren.

utgers Filmmaking Center faculty Mollye Asher took home an Oscar at the R 93rd annual Academy Awards as part of the team that produced the Frances McDormand filmNomadland . The film won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film garnered a Golden Globe and two Independent Spirit Awards as well.

elieve the rumors: This fall, tickets to all of our B events at the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center and the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center will be available online! Once we are ready to present a slate of in-person performances, visit masongross. rutgers.edu to purchase tickets.

COVID House Music

03 MATT PILSNER LETTER FROM THE DEAN

hile I never could have imagined my inaugural year as dean occurring in the midst of a global pandemic, I have found it to be an exhilarating and rewarding one all the same. Seeing faculty, Wstaff, students, and alumni respond to the demands of the moment gave me special insight into the creativity and imagination of the Mason Gross community. Especially inspiring were the ways in which students collaborated across departments within the school to create stunning works of art in a virtual space.

The school has also taken part in important national conversations happening within the arts and more broadly. A schoolwide Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee comprising faculty and staff, and with input from students, was created last spring and has been charged by me with engaging the wider Mason Gross community on ideas for fostering more inclusive programming and curricula. Such issues strike at the heart of a fundamental question around which I have also been having robust dialogue with faculty, staff, students, and alumni, namely what the role Geary at Nicholas Music Center on April 2, 2021. KEITH MUCCILLI of a conservatory should be in preparing students both for professional success and to emerge as leaders prepared to years of experience at Rutgers and in the corporate tackle the post-pandemic challenges that will be faced by sector, has joined us as associate dean for finance and the arts and by our rapidly changing world. administration, and Rebecca Cypess left her role as associate director of the Music Department to become the Answering this question also means thinking about how school’s new associate dean for academic affairs. Both we leverage the opportunities of being part of a leading have already made tremendous contributions and will be public research university like Rutgers. I have already begun vital as we build upon the foundations of the Mason Gross exploring ways in which we can enhance partnerships legacy to reach new heights of excellence, inclusivity, and research collaborations between the arts and other and impact. I’m excited about the road ahead and the disciplines on campus, and I am thrilled to see the outcome possibilities for the future! of an upcoming “speed-networking” session during which faculty from Mason Gross and the School of Public Health will have the opportunity to share ideas and possibilities with an eye toward receiving seed funding to support the most promising projects that arise.

I have also been taking a close look at the school’s operations and have added a couple of key players to what I regard as an already stellar team of staff. Judy Zenowich, who has

Jason Letter – EDI/Rebecca Cypess appointment

04 DancePlus Fall dress rehearsal at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, November 20, 2019. KEITH MUCCILLI MAGAZINE SPRING 2021

6 ON THE COVER 9 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT 10 STUDENT/ALUMNI 13 FAREWELL TO NEWS STANLEY COWELL

FACULTY NEWS HELP FOR INJURED MOVEMENT AS STUDENT SPOTLIGHT WATCH–READ–VISIT 811MUSICIANS12MEDICINE 1718 14 WHY YOU 10, 11, 15, 16 CREATING 19 IN MEMORIAM 20 THE LAST LOOK SHOULD GIVE THROUGH COVID

From left: KEITH MUCCILLI; COURTESY OF GRACE LYNNE HAYNES; KEITH MUCCILLI; NICK ROMANENKO; RAUL AYALA

OUR LEADERSHIP MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS 848-932-9360 Jason Geary, Dean Rebecca Cypess, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs MASON GROSS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Judy Zenowich, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration 848-932-7511 Mandy Feiler, Dean of Students Linda Christian, Associate Dean for Advancement MASON GROSS GALLERIES AT CIVIC SQUARE Marc Handelman, Chair of the Art & Design Department 848-932-5211 Julia M. Ritter, Artistic Director and Chair of the Dance Department William Berz, Director of the Music Department NEW BRUNSWICK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Ellen Bredehoft, Chair of the Theater Department 732-745-8000 Ruqqayya Maudoodi, Director of Rutgers Arts Online Derek Balcom, Director of Rutgers Community Arts masongross.rutgers.edu Patrick Stettner, Director of the Rutgers Filmmaking Center

ON THE COVER: Dean Jason Geary, April 2, 2021. Photo by Keith Muccilli. THIS MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED FOR ALUMNI, FACULTY, STUDENTS, EMPLOYEES, EDITORIAL STAFF DONORS, AND FRIENDS OF THE MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS. YOUR Editor: Laurie Granieri FEEDBACK AND NEWS ITEMS ARE WELCOME. PLEASE WRITE TO [email protected] OR TO MASON GROSS MAGAZINE, MASON GROSS Contributing writers: Risa Barisch, Stephen Whitty SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, 33 LIVINGSTON AVENUE, NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ 08901. Designer: Monica Toledo-Fraginals © 2021 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

05 SPRING 2021 MOVING

DEAN GEARY FORWARD OUTLINES NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE SCHOOL, INCLUDING LEADING RUTGERS’ he arts and RESEARCH “Thumanities can MISSION THROUGH be on the leading edge THE ARTS of grappling with By Risa Barisch some of society’s most

ason Geary has always pressing challenges— viewed change—moving some of the questions to a new city, choosing a different career path, that define our very Jtaking a new job—as a chance existence and time.” for reinvention.

Embracing the unknown has “made it easier to accept change and realize that you can start over, you can create a new life for yourself,” says Geary, the new dean of Mason Gross School of the Arts who arrived last July from the University of Maryland School of Music. “It kind of prepares you for the monumental changes that you encounter in life.” Among those, he notes, was moving to New Jersey with his wife and two sons in the middle of a pandemic.

Geary has crisscrossed the country several times since high Geary, a trained pianist and musicologist, onstage at Nicholas Music Center. KEITH MUCCILLI school, when he and his family relocated from Bakersfield, California, to Aurora, Colorado, He returned to California to earn a of me that was more the stand- “It took a while to get there but, where his father launched piano performance degree at the up-in-front-of-the-classroom ultimately, I never looked back.” a successful business and San Francisco Conservatory of educator—that was what ultimately entrepreneurial career after Music, where he won competitions drove me to pursue musicology as years of working on the railroad resulting in performances with the something that combined my love ARTS FOR ALL following a brief stint playing school’s orchestra and at New York of academics and music.” Geary’s professional path took him football in the NFL. City’s Alice Tully Hall, and became back to the University of Michigan, the first in his family to graduate Choosing musicology over where he taught musicology and Starting anew wasn’t easy, but college. performance was a decision that served as associate dean at the Geary remembers being excited. Geary says he thought long and School of Music, Theatre & Dance, As much as he loved the piano, hard about as he weighed leaving and then on to the University “Bakersfield is not the California Geary found himself increasingly behind the joy of practicing the of Maryland, where he was the of postcards,” Geary says with a drawn to the academic side of piano for several hours each director of the School of Music and smile, “so it didn’t feel like we were music, and soon transitioned to day to make time for research special advisor for the arts within leaving much behind. I also felt like musicology as a graduate student and writing. But once he landed the College of Arts & Humanities. it was an opportunity to reinvent at the University of Michigan. the opportunity to attend Yale myself in some way, a clean slate.” University to pursue a PhD, the Geary began his role as dean “I read a lot as a child, I enjoyed move to academia felt just right. of Mason Gross in July 2020, Geary began teaching himself the writing, and I always kind of knew outlining a leadership plan based piano at age 11 and by 16 was I wanted to be a teacher,” Geary “That was another moment where on what he calls his three core winning state competitions, one says. “My experience with music I felt like the courses I was taking pillars: collaboration; community of which led to a performance as history during my undergraduate and the stimulating interaction with engagement; and inclusive soloist with the National Repertory years connected the passion that my professors and classmates excellence, which encompasses Orchestra at the Keystone Music I had for playing the piano, and confirmed for me that this was the issues of equity, diversity, and Festival in Colorado. music in general, with this part life I wanted to live,” Geary says. inclusion.

06 MASON GROSS He says he was drawn to Mason Gross Geary. “The issues of representation because of its location, both within and equity and inclusion are important a major research university and in to them, and are values that they the greater New York metropolitan want to see enshrined in the heart of area, as well as the chance to foster institutions, including Mason Gross.” interdisciplinary collaboration and address larger social issues through Geary says he is committed to “thinking the arts. in ways that are bold and innovative” about curriculum, including greater “Those kinds of opportunities are exposure to different artistic traditions really rich at a place like Rutgers,” says outside of the western European Geary, citing examples like the Dance canon and the role of representation & Parkinson’s community movement and race when it comes to casting, classes and an emerging partnership programming, guest artists, and faculty. A PIANO, A PRESIDENT, AND WHAT between Mason Gross and the newly established Institute for the Study of A strong educational foundation and MAKES JERSEY UNIQUE—DEAN Global Racial Justice that will explore plenty of hours in the practice room or ways in which the arts can help studio or on the stage are invaluable, GEARY GIVES ADDITIONAL INSIGHT illuminate issues of racism and social Geary says, but there’s a greater inequality. “The arts and humanities responsibility for school leadership to can be on the leading edge of think about the kind of preparation that INTO HIS LIFE grappling with society’s most pressing students need, especially in a post- challenges—some of the questions COVID world where “the professional that define our very existence and landscape is shifting dramatically under time.” our collective feet.” WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED

Geary was instrumental in guiding “It means thinking about how that POSSESSION? Rutgers University–New Brunswick expertise or studio training relates to to join the Alliance for the Arts in other disciplines,” says Geary, “how it My grand piano. In addition to being a beautiful Research Universities (a2ru), which relates to community, what it means to instrument, it has worked well as decor in all six of the helps research universities develop make a living as a visual artist, designer, houses we’ve lived in over the last decade and a half. interdisciplinary arts-integrated filmmaker, musician, dancer, or actor research, curricula, programs, and in 2021, and how that might mean creative practice. cultivating a set of skills that weren’t WHICH TALENT WOULD YOU MOST necessarily highlighted 50 years ago, or The school’s first related initiative will 10 years ago, or even two years ago.” LIKE TO HAVE? build on the foundation of the Dance & Parkinson’s program to create the With such bold proposals, though, ​The ability to eat and not gain weight. I love eating and Integrated Dance Collaboratory, which Geary is careful to point out that his hate working out, so I hope this counts! will serve as a hub of research with goal is not to undo Mason Gross, but to other disciplines including medicine move it forward in a way that benefits and psychology to explore how dance its students and leads to increased WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU can help people with autism, traumatic visibility for the school. brain injury, and other medical MOST ADMIRE? conditions. “It’s not a dismantling of the conservatory model, but rather a ​Former President Barack Obama. Apart from his Joining a2ru “happened with Mason rethinking of what it means to be a pathbreaking achievements, I admire his equanimity, Gross out in front, leading the charge,” conservatory in the 21st century,” his willingness to listen to a multiplicity of voices, says Geary, who serves on the Geary says. “It’s not giving up those executive board of the alliance. “That’s things we wish to conserve, but it’s and his ability to communicate effectively. These are an example of how the arts can be at integrating other kinds of opportunities qualities I try to emulate as a leader. the core of the university’s research and experiences.” mission as opposed to being on the margins, which is often the case, where WHAT PROFESSION OTHER THAN you’re fighting for a seat at the table.” YOUR OWN WOULD YOU LIKE TO “My experience has prepared me well ATTEMPT? to position the arts and Mason Gross to be leaders on campus in terms A lawyer—had I gone to law school, which I once of academic excellence that defines briefly considered, I would have wanted to become a not just who we are as a school but prosecutor and eventually a politician. who Rutgers is as an institution, and what our reputation is nationally and globally,” Geary adds. “The arts can be at the front and center of that.” YOU’VE LIVED ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. WHAT IS ONE THING RESHAPING ABOUT NEW JERSEY THAT YOU’VE THE SCHOOL FOUND DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF While Geary has his sights set far and wide across the university, he’s also THESE PLACES? focused on the needs of Mason Gross students. Through work groups, town It would have to be the dearth of left turns. I’ve seen halls, and small virtual gatherings these jughandles in other East Coast states, but New held throughout the year, Geary has Jersey takes things to another level entirely. Not being gathered feedback from students on able to pump my own gas is also unique, but that one I topics ranging from curriculum reform don’t mind as much, especially considering the winter to career development. we just had. “Students are very interested in a curriculum that reflects the diversity of Geary with his wife, Helen, our student body and our state,” says and their two sons.

07 SPRING 2021 FACULTY NEWS In fact, another word for legacy might actually just be community.”

Dance Teacher Magazine spoke with faculty Ani Javian about grading during COVID-19, which in Javian’s classes has involved self-assessment and self-reflection beyond the studio (or home dance space), as well as activities like drawing, poetry, and taking walks. “With everything that’s been going on this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ways that our movement practice relates to the world around us,” Javian says. “Why are we training in dance? Looking inward will make a difference in how students then extend themselves outward into the world.”

Department of Art & Design faculty Patrick Strzelec (left) received the 2020 International Sculpture Center Outstanding Educator Award. Strzelec was featured in the January/February issue of Sculpture magazine in a Q&A about teaching and the inspiration he draws from his students at Rutgers. “When you come from a middle-class family, with no serious background in art, attend a large public institution, and are often the first family member to attend college, and you choose to focus on art—that is inspiring,” he says. “There is more than courage involved. There is a desire for freedom, expression, love, and passion. They are gutsy young people. I suppose they remind me of myself to some degree.”

Congrats to Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Rebecca Cypess on her new recording with The Raritan Players, In the Salon of Madame Brillon.

Dance’s Pam Tanowitz and her company, Pam Tanowitz Dance, returned to the Joyce Theater in December with two works: Gustave Le Gray, No. 2 and a new, site- KEITH MUCCILLI specific work, Finally Unfinished: Part 1, created in collaboration with Tanowitz’s dancers while in quarantine via Zoom and performed ctor and director Cameron Department of Art & Design faculty way that torches get passed from throughout the empty Joyce Knight of the University Steffani Jemison is featured in one generation to the next, super Theater. The program was a Critic’s of North Carolina School Harper’s Bazaar in an article about formal. Legacy was a very distant Pick in The New York Times: “... of the Arts will take over the Studio Museum in Harlem. “As concept. And what I learned from this theater that has been dark Aas head of BFA acting this fall. He a younger person, the idea of legacy the Studio Museum is that legacies and empty for most of this year replaces Barbara Marchant, who is always seemed really abstract,” are built. They’re built with intention. becomes animated by elegant, retiring after more than two decades she says in the piece, published on That legacy is rooted in very real eccentric, brilliant dance,” Brian with the Theater Department. February 26. “Legacy described the relationships between real people. Seibert writes in his review.

08 MASON GROSS 4 QUESTIONS FOR DIDIER WILLIAM

of Haiti. Additionally, it is also home familiar, I try to disassociate them to many others across the Latin from the usual cultural symbols to American diaspora. In this remaking which they are attached. and re-mapping of home, I think a very unique and peculiar aesthetic is built, Additionally, I think I must say that wherein color, surface, and texture my mom is a chef. She has a Haitian are projected onto everything from restaurant in Miramar, Florida, and textiles, to architecture, the landscape, so I grew up constantly surrounded to the food, even the language. And by delicious Haitian food and Haitian so there is a kind of rich tapestry, an cooking (which if you know anything evolving grit that is characteristic of about it, is really spicy and colorful South Florida’s material culture. It’s and flavorful with rich ingredients. not uncommon in South Florida to Haitian food comprises an incredibly see brilliantly colored homes with layered palette), and I often like to terra-cotta rooftops and bright green say that the way that I think about porches. The South Florida sun also painting and art is very much the way illuminates everything with a piercing, that my mom thinks about cooking blinding luminescence. These are very and food…. My associations and much the colors that I source in my relationships to color in the print shop paintings. have always been analogous to food. There’s a beautiful synchronicity for In my work I also try to take what me that exists between the alchemy are thought of as usual or typical of printmaking and the alchemy of associations with color and cooking. re-distribute them. Bodies and landscapes can exchange scale and You’ve mentioned a teacher surface. I try to take colors we would who believed in you as an associate with architecture and bring artist when you were very them into the body, colors we would young. Can you talk about the associate with sky and bring them into the ground, and vice-versa. In this significance of that faith—and kind of reassessment of the picture your parents’ devotion to your plane I’m education as an artist? attempting t’s critical for young to create an It’s critical for young artists to feel artists to feel supported. alternative supported. I’ve benefited from a great “ deal of support even before I had a I space in which ALEX NUNEZ AND THE FOUNDTAINHEAD FOUNDATION I’ve benefited from a great the viewer can clear vision of who or what I wanted certainly find to be. This laid the groundwork for the deal of support even before familiarity, persistence I’ve relied on as a working epartment of Art & Design’s on the function I had a clear vision of who but they’re artist and teacher. My parents’ Didier William joined the of historical intentionally support not only reminded me that I faculty in fall 2019 as a silences, or what I wanted to be. This slowed down. was loved and cared for, but that what professor of expanded Silencing the laid the groundwork for the Even when I had to say was important and that I print. In a New York Times Past, has been things are sort deserved to be heard. We owe young Dprofile on the Haitian-American artist, an important persistence I’ve relied on as of explicitly artists this affirmation. Laurel Graeber says that William’s one for me. In a working artist and teacher.” works “incorporate collage, oil paint, it he argues, and acrylic as well, making them as “Historical multifarious as the Afro-Caribbean representations—be they books, diaspora itself.” commercial exhibits, or public commemorations, cannot be Much of your work is on conceived only as vehicles for the wood, not canvas. transmission of knowledge, they must also establish some relation to that The rigid and somewhat brittle knowledge.” This greatly resonates surface of wood provides a material with me, particularly in terms of that has some resistance to my how I think about the body and authorship, which I like. It’s an organic representations of human form. material, so inconsistencies and blemishes in the surface are natural, How has geography shaped and I love that. It effects a kind of your work? You were born organic collaboration—a midway point in Haiti and then moved to between readymade and something Miami as a child. Now you fabricated. live in Philadelphia and teach Many of your works feature in New Brunswick. How do bodies or backgrounds covered these places seep into your with eyes. Your works seem to work, if at all?

behold the viewer. Probably most directly, the geography For me, looking isn’t just about a of the places I’ve lived have influenced stable, singular process, it’s something my aesthetics and the aesthetics that takes place in the present of the different places I’ve lived moment between the bodies in my continue to influence my work. I paintings and the curious viewer. immediately think of color with this The eye motif developed out of an question, and I think it’s hard not to urge to make this process physical. think about South Florida, where I It grew out of an attempt to trace grew up, as one of the primary sites the process of looking and bearing that helped build my relationship witness. The repeated eye forms to a kind of cultural aesthetic that I work to make physical the otherwise associate with a particularly diasporic unseen circuitry of looking and being experience. As you might know, South Two Dads, 64-inches-by-50-inches, wood carving, acrylic, collage, and ink on looked at. Here I’m very much thinking Florida is home to the largest Haitian panel. COURTESY OF DIDIER WILLIAM. about Michel-Rolph Trouillot. His text population outside of the country 09 SPRING 2021 several months developing new organization include Aaron Copland Dance alum Student & works to be presented as readings and William Schuman. Artists in Kyle Marshall’s work in June. seven disciplines live and work at MacDowell for a period of up to eight during COVID leads to Alumni News Congrats to senior Dance weeks. Painter’s memoir, Old in Art world-premiere works Department students Cassidy School: A Memoir of Starting Over this summer Rivas and Julia Foti, whose (which details, among other things, usic doctoral student work will be shown at the her time at Rutgers), was a 2018 Adrienne Baker was part of 2021 American College Dance finalist for the National Book Critics By Risa Barisch Mthe four-member woodwind Association Screendance Festival. Circle Award. section that created music for Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical. Film student Keeks Rogers and four In the fall, MM percussion ife during lockdown was The event streamed in January to Rutgers scientists made UTUQAQ, student and BM alum Andrew productive for choreographer a short, lyrical documentary in the an audience of millions. Performing Bambridge was featured on WNET’s and BFA'11 dance graduate while socially distancing in a studio Arctic serving as a kind of ode to the All Arts Rising Artist series. The L Kyle Marshall. Over the last was the first time Baker had played disappearing ice. The film is available series profiles creative student talent year, the 2018 NY Dance and with other musicians in person since to stream through Field of Vision. at New York City-area universities. the pandemic began. “It brought Performance “Bessie” Jury Award Recent costume design grad Bambridge also performed a live back to me how magical that really winner was able to reconnect with Ashley Kong is a winner of the concert from home in a series is,” Baker said. “One of the great himself and his family during the 2020 CosBond Creator Contest for that the school co-sponsored with things about the arts is the ability down time while also creating her cosplay replica of the Thorin the Rutgers University Alumni to nonverbally communicate, to Oakenshield costume from Peter Association. Bambridge presented several new works. move together and do cues together, Jackson’s The Hobbit film trilogy. music on marimba. You can view the have musical conversations in Kong’s creation took a whopping 234 series, called House Music, on the First and foremost for a dancer, the moment.” The online event hours over 6 months to complete! RUAA’s Facebook page. though, is staying in motion. co-starred theater alum and three- Music alum and Silk Road time Tony Award-nominee Kevin Theater alum Tom Pelphrey, a “Improvisation was a way I stayed Chamberlin as Auguste Gusteau. breakout star on Ozark and co-star in Ensemble member Cristina Pato physically curious,” says Marshall. the Oscar-nominated film Mank (both has received the Committed Artist It’s confirmed: Sex and the City is “Moving in my living room and in streaming on Netflix), was named Award from the Daniel and Nina returning, with co-stars Sarah one of Variety's 10 Actors to Watch Carasso Foundation. Pato also outdoor spaces allowed me to Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, 2020! appears in a video playing Galician connect to my inner impulse and to and theater alum Kristin Davis. The bagpipes along with pianist Arturo my environment.” HBO Max reboot, titled And Just Like In February, dance alum Myssi O’Farrill on a rendition of Carla That… will follow the women as they Robinson was profiled inDance Bley’s “Útviklingssang” and is one To push himself artistically, navigate love and friendship in their Magazine. Choreographer David of several artists from around the Marshall directed and edited 50s during 10 episodes. Production Dorfman said of Robinson: “When world, including Yo-Yo Ma, Meshell in New York City was set to begin Ndegeocello, and Angélique Kidjo, collaborative digital dances she moves, her aliveness seeps with his company, Kyle Marshall this spring. through every pore.” featured in a recent video recording of Peter Gabriel’s 1980 protest Choreography. A new work, Acting alum Katie Do is one of Art & Design Department alum and song Biko. Hudson, premiered in late six playwrights participating in best-selling author Nell Painter was December as part of Operation the inaugural Sống Collective’s appointed chair of MacDowell’s Downbeat Magazine named jazz Unite Education and Cultural Arts Việt Writers Lab, a community of board of directors. She takes over guitar student Ilan Eisenzweig Center’s Kwanzaa Celebration, Vietnamese artists from the United for novelist Michael Chabon. Past among the winners of their Student States and Canada who spent featuring performers and alumni chairs of the New Hampshire-based Music Awards! Oluwadamilare Ayorinde, Bria Bacon, Mimi Gabriel, and Myssi Robinson.

Marshall was also able to work on several projects that will premiere live this summer, including Stellar, CREATING THROUGHCOVID a dance film commissioned by the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Rise, commissioned by The Shed. I and I, a solo performance, will premiere at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center on October 15 and 16 as part of the Dance Studies Association annual conference, hosted by the Dance Department.

Marshall says the pandemic pause also afforded him time to improve his mental health through meditation, yoga, and therapy, and to find a deeper connection with his family.

“Pursuing a career in this field left less time to be with my younger siblings and parents,” says STAYING Marshall. “I found curiosity in my history, trying to cook Jamaican dishes and catching up with my siblings and cousins.” IN What’s the first thing that Marshall, who lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, will do once the region is fully open?

“I cannot wait to see anything MOTION live—dance, theater, music, a DJ, comedy, sports,” Marshall says. “I really miss gathering to witness others.” 10 MASON GROSS STEVEN SPELIOTIS Impact Award, as well as acknowledgment from leaders CREATING including Anthony Yung, an MD THROUGHCOVID candidate at Rutgers Robert A DOCTOR IN THE Wood Johnson Medical School and co-president of the Global Health Institute student council. PRACTICE ROOM “Laura’s leadership and vision have made a positive impact Student on our student council and the greater university community,” is adding a says Yung. “The diversity of student membership in performance degree our councils brings unique to her medical perspectives and creative solutions, which further advance background to treat the topic of global health at musicians like herself Rutgers and beyond.” For Palm, leading the committee is a way to tend to her medical By Risa Barisch roots while having an impact in the field. “As much as I like music, I also started to miss medicine a little bit,” Palm says. “[The institute] has been very welcoming even though, on paper, I’m at school for music. It’s great that they’re specifically trying to get people from all schools to be part of this, because global health, as we’re now seeing, is something that affects everyone.” Palm knows this personally, having gotten sick with COVID-19 in March 2020. Her immune system was already compromised, because Palm has suffered from recurring brain tumors for several years, For Laura Palm, in the practice room,” says Palm. With the few weeks she had requiring intense treatment and “It might not be possible to say off during the summers, Palm significant downtime. music and medicine ‘oh, I’ll stop playing for six or eight traveled to Philadelphia, where are natural partners. weeks.’” she had been staying with “I had so many plans for the friends to practice her English summer,” Palm says with a Palm plays violin and viola and That’s the advice Palm was given skills and studying violin at sigh, including studying for the happens to have a medical when she sought treatment for Haverford College. After earning board exams and making more degree. Her goal is to become elbow pain and went from doctor her master’s degree at Temple videos. “A lot of things have not a doctor specializing in treating to doctor searching for a practical University, Palm decided to progressed as much as I wanted injuries specific to musicians, solution. Now, Palm is working pursue a doctoral performance them to—getting sick kind of who, like athletes, suffer from toward a doctor of musical arts degree at Rutgers, drawn in by derailed my timeline.” repetitive stress. degree in viola performance professors like Todd Phillips, as at Mason Gross to gain expert well as a significant academic And yet, Palm continues to “Repeating the same motion over knowledge of the physiology of component and affiliated medical pursue her two passions at a and over to get it as perfect as playing, she says, in order to best school, she says. remarkable pace. She’s working you can—that’s essentially what help her patients. on a book with her physical we do in the practice room,” Palm “For music students, the number- therapist, who specializes says. “The big difference for “The higher the level of one thing always is instrumental in treating musicians, about musicians is that it’s the smaller my playing, the better I will teachers,” says Palm, who is exercises for string players to muscles—in the fingers or the understand and be able to figure active with the Rutgers Global prevent injury. After graduating wrist and tendons. The parts of out other people’s problems,” Health Institute, where she serves with her doctorate next year and the body are different, but the says Palm, who has a bachelor’s as the co-chair of the student completing her board exams in way the injury happens—and the and master’s degree in violin council’s global health education the United States, she plans to way you prevent the injury in the performance. “But I also want committee. “But also important start a dual residency in physical future—is very similar to athletes.” to pay attention from a medical to me was a strong medical medicine and rehab. perspective so that [musicians] school, because I knew I wanted Unlike athletes, though, don’t develop problems, because to do something that combines Despite her health obstacles, musicians can have trouble I think prevention is better than my two fields.” Palm says she has learned finding specialists to rehab their treating.” valuable lessons about herself particular ailments, Palm says. Palm has created a series of and her path forward. Palm grew up playing violin in YouTube videos for the institute “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst “I know of so many people in Germany, where she earned a about COVID-related topics medical degree while at the same including masks, mental health, enemy,” Palm says of the brain music schools, and people who tumors, “but it also helped me have jobs in orchestras later on, time studying at a conservatory in and pets, with plans for more Cologne. At the time, she thought on issues like testing and lung grow a lot as a person, and I who develop medical issues from think I’ll be a much better doctor singing or playing, and it’s so hard she might pursue a research- health. based medical career, but she because of it. Nothing teaches to finddoctors who understand you how to be a good doctor what it means to spend five hours says she always knew music Her contributions have earned would be in her life. her the council’s Student better than being a patient.”

NICK ROMANENKO 11 SPRING 2021 Participants in a free movement class that Mason Gross offers to people with Parkinson’s disease. ON THE MOVE KEITH MUCCILLI Wellness Center in New Brunswick as their project. The topic, however, “I’m very interested in ‘physically FILM EXPLORES CLASS as well as at the Mason Gross provided a variety of challenges. integrated dance,’ ” Friedman says. THAT HELPS PEOPLE Performing Arts Center based “Too often we limit ourselves and on concepts developed by Pam “Whenever you’re dealing with our work to what we might call WITH PARKINSON'S Quinn. A dancer and choreographer, old age or disability, you are ‘able-bodied dancers.’ Other people she was first diagnosed with the treading in delicate terrain,” says become invisible. This is about RECLAIM CONTROL disease more than 20 years ago. Thomas Lennon, an Oscar-winning creating a more sensitive approach, filmmaker and director of the lab. deepening our artistry to embrace OF THEIR BODIES “It took me a long time to come to “You have to push to get into the all of life’s challenges. terms with it,” Quinn admits. “My nooks and crannies of people’s By Stephen Whitty entire identity revolved around private lives, but not push so much After all, we’re all aging. We’re all Courtesy of Rutgers Today movement. But then I began to that you become this bullying pretty much on our way to some think, ‘I know how my body works. presence. It’s a balancing act, in sort of disability.” My dance training gives me tools. I the filming and in the editing, and o be a dancer is to be in tune can thwart the reality of this.’ ” it was my job to help the students In addition to running workshops with your own physicality. navigate that.” at Rutgers and teaching at the To be fully aware of every Later, beginning with the PD Mark Morris Dance Studio in muscle, in control of every Movement Lab in Brooklyn, Quinn The film,Dance | Parkinsons, Brooklyn, Quinn creates dances Tmovement. To be your body’s started bringing her ideas to runs about six minutes. The for differently abled performers. In master. It is a feeling most people nondancers, too. documentary won first place in the spring 2019, she choreographed with Parkinson’s disease can only Outstanding Documentary category a piece for 20 people, 14 of whom remember. MOVING at the 2020 Utah Dance Film had Parkinson’s. Another piece, Festival. It screened locally, at the this one featuring 50 dancers, A degenerative disorder of the EXPERIENCE Dance & Parkinson’s symposium was performed the next month, central nervous system, Parkinson’s in downtown New Brunswick, in at the opening night of the World can cause stiffness, shaking, and With the help of instructors, and March 2020, and received the Parkinson Congress in Kyoto. problems with balance. It also may a playlist that ranges from Glenn Community Impact award at the leave people self-conscious, and Miller to Talking Heads, participants Austin Dance Film Festival 2020. It’s all become a hugely fulfilling part reluctant to leave their homes. at the Rutgers sessions reclaim Student filmmakers who worked of Quinn’s life. And no one is more some control over their own bodies, on the project were: Stephanie surprised than she. The Dance & Parkinson’s program stepping around the floor, moving in Bradli, Patricia de Jesus, Gina at Mason Gross, however, uses unison to the beat. Lombardo, Kelly O’Neill, Andrea “I was reticent at first to get involved music and movement to empower Pfaff, Christopher Rodriguez, Sam in this sort of therapy,” Quinn them. And a film from the school’s “Dance is particularly suited Spencer, Abe Urquilla, and Henry admits. “I thought, ‘Do I really want Documentary Film Lab captures to treating Parkinson’s,” Quinn Wolfson. to be surrounded by PD all the time? just how moving, and joyful, that explains. “It involves music, which Is it going to be a downer?’ But it’s process can be. is part of what’s called a cueing Lennon says the film allows viewers been more rewarding than I ever system, a prompt that facilitates to see these students “performing expected. And while there’s a part “Sometimes the class is hard to movement. It also involves visual at the highest level.” They see the of me that still rejects my disease, get started, the folks schmooze so cues, and an element of touch.” program’s participants doing the rejection has its benefits, too, much,” jokes Jeff Friedman, director same. because with that comes a certain of the MFA dance program. “That’s “Unlike regular physical therapy, defiance. Not denial – defiance. something I hadn’t expected – the which uses body parts in a And that gives you the energy to social connections this class mechanistic approach, it’s a holistic DANCE FOR ALL fight on.” creates. One man told me, ‘This experience,” says Friedman, whose students often work with the As important as the emotional is the only thing I come out of the support or physical therapy it offers, Watch Dance | Parkinsons at house to do.’ ” enrollees. “You’re using your mind go.rutgers.edu/Parkinsons; and your body, challenging your however, this is still a dance class. learn more about the student whole neurological system.” It involves personal expression, The free classes are offered in performance, aesthetics. Quinn and filmmakers’ experience making partnership with the American Friedman find that artistic aspect Dance | Parkinsons on our podcast, Parkinson’s Disease Association– The subject immediately intrigued the young filmmakers at the particularly inspiring and liberating. Work of Art, available on iTunes NJ Office at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s Fitness and Documentary Film Lab, who chose it or Google Play.

12 MASON GROSS FAREWELL TO A TRENDSETTER

LARRY LEVANTI

But Cowell also embraced new sounds and musicians’ collectives of the time and dedicated Stanley Cowell, technology, both as a composer and as a to exploratory African American jazz. Although professor emeritus performer. Cowell and Tolliver left the label just three years later to pursue other career goals, the label is still of jazz studies, “Cowell’s playing epitomized the piano’s ability to releasing artist-produced recordings to this day. consolidate generations of musical history into a embraced the past unified expression, while extending various routes Cowell came to Rutgers in 2000 and was a and the future—and into the future,” wrote Giovanni Russonello in an “prestigious addition” to the Mason Gross faculty, obituary in The New York Times. “And when he says Ralph Bowen, professor of saxophone and left a teaching legacy needed to say more than the piano allowed, he jazz studies. expanded his palette,” exploring electronic music By Risa Barisch with digital sound processors and incorporating “Stanley was a world-class pianist at the top of new instruments into his compositions, like the his field,” Bowen says. “Whether teaching piano, improvisation, ensembles, or composition, he had Stanley Cowell, a pianist, composer, and record kalimba, a thumb piano from southeastern Africa. a wealth of knowledge to impart.” label co-founder who taught on the Mason Gross jazz faculty for over a decade, died in December Alum Courtney Bryan, a student of Cowell’s who As a professor, Cowell, who retired in 2013, 2020, at age 79. His career in jazz spanned more earned her master’s degree in music in 2007, welcomed students into his studio “with a warm than 50 years, and included over a dozen albums remembers her professor as “rigorous yet patient smile and gentle demeanor,” recalls Stasio, and as a bandleader, beginning with Blues for the Viet in his pedagogy.” had an ability to translate his background in Cong in 1969. “There is so much I learned from him, from classical and traditional jazz music into relevant teaching for contemporary jazz students. As a musician, Cowell was known as a trendsetter studying the nuances of stride styles of Jelly Roll who helped shape modern jazz in the ’60s but Morton and James P. Johnson to approaching “His foundational guidance helped bring clarity to stayed true to his own sound, says alum Marc harmony and arrangements from a very the pursuit of the piano, to understand where the Stasio, coordinator of jazz studies for the Music contemporary approach,” Bryan says. instrument has been, where it can go, and how Department. Stasio studied with Cowell in we can take part in that trajectory,” says Stasio. “I 2011–2012 as he earned his master’s degree in “I remain amazed at his groundedness in what think I speak for all his piano students when I say music at Mason Gross. truly mattered in life, and how his spirituality and depth of personality came through all the music he he made us love being pianists, and [helped us] remember why we were drawn to the instrument “Rather than mimic the post-bop and post- made,” Bryan adds. “We will miss him greatly, and and to fall back in love with it.” modern styles of that decade as so many others I am grateful he left us so much brilliant music to keep learning from.” did, Stanley maintained a unique, somewhat Watch a concert by the Rutgers University nostalgic voice,” Stasio says. “There wasn’t a need Jazz Ensemble in tribute to Cowell, performed to compete with his contemporaries, but rather In 1971, Cowell and trumpeter Charles Tolliver May 3, 2021, on the Mason Gross Facebook page: contribute alongside the energy of that era.” founded Strata-East Records, inspired by the Black facebook.com/MasonGrossSchool.

13 SPRING 2021 FACING INJUSTICE Recent BFA acting grad Alex Scoloveno (left) created a 15-by-23-foot mosaic of George Floyd, a Black man killed last spring during an arrest in Minneapolis, with images of people who have either died fighting for civil rights, were victims of racial inequality, or were killed by the police. Scoloveno researched and found the pictures of the civil rights activists and racial injustice victims, then used an app to create a grid and invited his Central New Jersey community to help create the mosaic. “I wanted it to be not just me making it on my own. I wanted to include and enroll people,” Scoloveno told MyCentralJersey.com. “I wanted to create that experience where people could come and really see the perspective and gain knowledge that they may have not had before.” NICK ROMANENKO

WHY YOU SHOULD GIVE “Helping people bring out their changing. I don’t want kids to have emotions and react to what doubts if they can make it in the they’re watching is my goal for film industry based on what they each story and film I make. My look like. I want them to look at favorite part about filmmaking themselves and believe they can is going into the editing make it and that they’re awesome room and bringing out those because they have the talent. emotions through how I edit That’s something no one can take the scenes,” says filmmaking away from them.” student and scholarship recipient Ivanna Guerrero. “Also, Your support can help students as an Afro-Latina filmmaker, like Guerrero achieve their goals. seeing how the industry lacks Please consider donating to women and POC behind and selected Mason Gross funds or in front of the camera really events series. Learn more at discourages me and is an issue give.rutgers.edu/mgsa. I’m very passionate about COURTESY OF IVANNA GUERRERO

14 MASON GROSS CREATING THROUGHCOVID

Department of Art & Design undergrad Ria Monga with her installation, Growing Pains. The piece was part of an annual public art project that spotlights social justice issues in Central Jersey.

NICK ROMANENKO

DRAWING ON COMMUNITY

Public art initiative an online exhibition, and finding a looking in a mirror to represent without being disruptive to wider audience with virtual events. youth having a conversation with everything else,” Cruz says. expands mission themselves in order to heal. Oliveras-Moreno, the communications Taking a flexible approach to the with virtual events and collaboration administrator in “I wanted to convey that no one is project was essential to continue the Department of Art & Design, and isolated with their emotions,” says the public installations during a By Risa Barisch her team—which includes Windows Monga, whose work was displayed pandemic, Oliveras-Moreno says. indows of of Understanding cofounders and in the outside case at RiteAid in Understanding, a Rutgers alumnae Jennifer Sevilla Highland Park. “Negative feelings “There are so many things public art initiative and Tracey O’Reggio Clark—realized are common among our youth, happening in the lives of our artists that highlights social the importance of raising awareness which is why it is important to and in the work of our partners justice issues and about community support during a discuss pain and trauma to allow that it has been completely about Wraises awareness about Central pandemic. for healing.” accommodation and trying to come New Jersey-based community up with creative solutions around organizations, began planning its Founded in 2018 as an homage Art and design undergraduate how to make these things happen,” fourth year last spring while much to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin student Frances Cruz was paired says Oliveras-Moreno. of the state was reeling from the Luther King Jr. and co-presented with the Highland Park Food Pantry. chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. by Mason Gross, the project pairs Despite complications, Windows artists with local nonprofits to The pandemic prevented her from of Understanding found plenty “I was thinking, everyone is dealing create installations in storefronts being able to visit the food pantry, of opportunities to have an even with so much right now, they’re and other public spaces that so she relied on photos and videos deeper impact on the community never going to want to think about center around themes including from volunteers to create her this year. an art project,” says Cassandra food insecurity, public health, installation, which depicted the Oliveras-Moreno, a cofounder healing from trauma, and youth volunteers serving clients outdoors. In addition to the public art, an of the project and a Rutgers engagement. online exhibition focused on racial University-New Brunswick alumna. “I wanted to convey how the food justice featured work by local and “We had no idea who would have Ria Monga, an art and design pantry is very welcoming and more national artists. the bandwidth to say yes and undergraduate student, was paired than happy to help out anyone in whether the windows or spaces with the Traumatic Loss Coalitions their community who needs food Windows of Understanding where we needed to show art for Youth Program, which operates regardless of their identity, which is was also involved with the New would even be an option given the out of Rutgers University Behavioral portrayed in the racial diversity of Brunswick Public Schools, where pandemic.” Health Care and provides support their community as well,” Cruz says. they piloted a racial justice for communities affected by workshop at the high school and But despite the raging coronavirus traumatic events, especially The artwork, which hung at the showcased art by elementary and pandemic, which led to a state suicide—the third-leading cause Middlesex County Regional middle school participants. shutdown, kept students out of of death in New Jersey for people Chamber of Commerce in New the classroom, and overwhelmed ages 15 to 24, according to the Brunswick, was a challenge to “The art and events we’re offering hospitals, this year’s Windows of program. create at home, says Cruz. are intended to raise critical Understanding, which took place in visibility in the community, that January and February, expanded, Monga’s installation, Growing “I live in a small home, so I had whether you’re in a position to give adding partner organizations, Pains, featured the title printed some difficulty deciding where to or receive help—support exists increasing its roster of artists with backwards—meant to reverse when set up my drawing and workspace around you,” says Oliveras-Moreno.

15 SPRING 2021 CREATING HOPPING ON THE THROUGHCOVID BANDWAGON “All of us brass players have played experience was that interaction with outside, going back to high school, the audience—something he misses when we played in marching band, out on in a concert hall, where he and we’ve all played outdoor concerts usually is seated at the back of the throughout our careers,” says Deane. stage. “So we’re used to the logistics of the wind, and to some degree the cold. But for any musician, once you get [Creativity] is a cold, it’s a little hard to play.” “ part of us, and The mask proved to be less it got ripped away. comfortable than the temperature drops, says Deane, who wore a face- Once you don’t covering that included a horizontal slit covered by a flap to allow the get a chance to horn’s mouthpiece to fit through. be creative, as a “We’re really sensitive about our creative person, lips and our mouths, and how the mouthpiece fits right on our lips, so to you really start have that extra layer of stuff there was just distracting,” Deane says. “That feeling like there’s aspect of it was something that was something wrong.” Faculty Richard Deane performed at opera houses around the hard to get used to.” globe. performed as part of the Still, that level of safety allowed the “The first rehearsal for the New York Philharmonic's Costanzo and a team from the musicians to get closer to audiences Bandwagon, I felt so nervous, I was pop-up concert series philharmonic rented a pickup truck, who showed up at city parks, in Herald kind of sick to my stomach,” Deane complete with a custom logo wrap, Square, and in front of schools and says. “And then we started playing, By Risa Barisch and secured outdoor venue locations libraries across New York City. and I got so happy. Riding the bus and permits. By the end of August, the In addition to getting to play music back across town, I’ll never forget, I ichard Deane played his last Bandwagon and orchestra musicians again with his colleagues, Deane was high as a kite—I hadn’t been that concert with the New York set out on a whirlwind tour across says the best part of the Bandwagon happy since March.” Philharmonic on March 12, New York City to perform works 2020, and then, like the rest of ranging from Beethoven to Bernstein Rthe city, hunkered down to endure the in more than 90 concerts. COVID-19 crisis. Deane performed with the Bandwagon Four months later, with New York over two weekends, in three concerts reeling in the pandemic’s aftermath, each day, first in a brass quintet, which Deane, the orchestra’s principal acting included Mason Gross music faculty horn and member of the music faculty member Alan Baer, the philharmonic’s at Mason Gross, began to feel his own principal tuba, and again in a horn sense of personal anguish without the quartet, which included music faculty creative outlet of performing. member Leelanee Sterrett, acting associate principal horn. “It was a feeling of unfulfillment,” says Deane. “[Creativity] is a part of us, and Musicians were responsible for it got ripped away. Once you don’t get getting themselves to each venue, a chance to be creative, as a creative where the truck would be waiting with person, you really start feeling like equipment including chairs, music there’s something wrong.” stands, and amplification, along with the orchestra’s stage manager and Enter the NY Phil Bandwagon, a mobile crew to set it all up. musical experience dreamed up by Anthony Roth Costanzo, a Grammy- The only challenges to the arrangement, nominated countertenor described Deane says, were playing in a mask PHOTOS COURTESY OF RICHARD DEANE by Deane as “a local star,” who has and, by mid-October, the cold.

Acting students Will Ehrenfreund (left) and Malcolm Callender have created a podcast, Through the Mic, to offer a platform for artists and creatives to share their work and discuss what it means to create, especially during the pandemic. Stream the first five episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

16 MASON GROSS TODD ESTRIN STUDENT DESIGNS TWO the United States–she knew she wanted to paint a historical portrait of a Black woman–and soon learned a hard truth: that Black NEW YORKER COVERS women were actually not able to vote in the United States until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, nearly a half-century after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Haynes says she was “disappointed” but not exactly taken aback, “given this country’s complex history.” Truth emerged as the ideal candidate for the cover, Haynes says, because despite her prolonged and vocal advocacy for women’s rights—her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech remains iconic, to this day—Truth “didn’t get to see the fruits of her labor.” So, the portrait, rather than a celebration of the centennial, stands as a reminder, Haynes says, “that this anniversary ojourner isn’t inclusive.” Truth’s It could also be seen as a “S celebration of grit, a toast to the daily, grinding work story shows the of justice—justice that [resilience] of eluded Truth in her lifetime. “People are looking for the human spirit positivity right now and a message that is uplifting,” and represents Haynes says, “and Sojourner Truth’s story the tenacity to shows the [resilience] of the human spirit and move forward. ” represents the tenacity to move forward.”

Despite Haynes’s choice to highlight COURTESY OF GRACE LYNNE HAYNES a historical figure forThe New Yorker, she is devoted to creating work that resonates with 21st- century viewers. Grace Lynne Haynes commemorates 100th “One of my all-time favorite quotes by Nina Simone is: ‘An artist’s anniversary of the women’s right to vote duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.’ I firmly stand by By Laurie Granieri this statement, and live by it in my work,” Haynes says. “My role as a Painter Grace Lynne Haynes September 7 Fall Style and Design New Yorker. “When I was an visual artist and a Black woman accomplished something few issue. Her inaugural cover for the undergraduate, I couldn’t find is to reflect on the current state of young artists have, even before she magazine in early August (bottom information on how to paint womanhood and create paintings began her MFA in design at Mason right) marked the passage of the darker-brown skin tones, so I that represent what women in my Gross last fall. Nineteenth Amendment with an began painting my characters in a generation are feeling and going equally bold and highly patterned deep black. Since then, the color through.” At just 27 years old, Haynes, a portrait of 19th-century abolitionist, black has been the focus of my student in the Department of Follow Haynes on Instagram at former slave, and women’s rights paintings. I want to challenge the @bygracelynne. Art & Design, painted two covers crusader Sojourner Truth flanked notion that black represents evil for The New Yorker, a significant by hummingbirds. and showcase how darkness can achievement at any age. be positive and pure.” Haynes, who grew up in California “It is exceedingly rare for an and studied illustration, possesses Haynes, featured last year among artist be featured on two covers a signature style that is evident Forbes’ “30 Under 30 in Art and within a single month, which is in the haute-couture paintings Style,” says her firstNew Yorker clearly a testament to the power she's contributed to Vogue. In commission surfaced at the last of Grace’s unique vision as an other words, you know a Haynes minute, after the magazine learned artist,” says department chair Marc when you see one: high-fashion, about her collaboration with Vogue. Handelman. “We are so proud of luxuriating poses, and of course She only had a few days to submit Grace for her stunning and moving those bold pops of color and her sketches on the topic of the contributions to The New Yorker.” textiles, set against flat, abstracted 100th anniversary of U.S. women Black bodies. earning the right to vote, and Her color-drenched, boldly less than a week to complete the patterned portrait of a Black “I’m especially fascinated by the painting. woman in a fabulous outfit with idea of dark and light existing an equally fabulous bird perched in one image,” Haynes, who Haynes plunged into researching on her right palm, was featured lives in New Brunswick, told The the history of voting rights in on the cover of the magazine’s

17 SPRING 2021 To Break Bread, Raul Ayala, 18-feet-by-9-feet, acrylic paint on Polytab. COURTESY OF RAUL AYALA WATCH VISIT In a belated celebration of Beethoven’s 250th Newark-based muralist and BFA Department of Art birthday, DMA piano students Alber Chien and & Design alum Layqa Nuna Yawar was listed among Christie Cho curated and assembled video BestofNJ.com’s top mural artists. Yawar’s work performances by fellow DMA students Kang Eun Seo, addresses issues such as racism, injustice, and Anastasia Dedik, YiQiao Li, Santiago Lomelin, and xenophobia. His newest creation, “This Guiding Light,” Lingjun Song as well as MM student Abraham Alinea is visible on Newark’s McCarter Highway. The work and piano faculty member Daniel Epstein. Watch at documents the rising power born from Black Lives go.rutgers.edu/Beethoven250. Matter protests. Yawar was featured last summer in The New York Times in a piece about artists thriving during the pandemic. The shutdown meant canceled commissions and a retreat to the studio, but, as Yawar said, “As artists what we do is deal with that through READ our work.” While you’re in Brick City, stop by to see Art In December, Donald Holder, the Tony Award-winning & Design MFA student Grace Lynne Haynes’s nearly head of lighting design for the Theater Department, 30-foot-tall “Sojourner Truth: Founding Mother” mural wrote an op-ed for USITT about theater educators on the rear of the Project for Empty Space building. In and remote learning, and the importance of preparing Highland Park? Get a peek at recent Art & Design MFA students for their careers. “We are living through grad Raul Ayala’s mural “To Break Bread,” a work that incredibly challenging times, and the hardship and celebrates multiculturalism. “I see walls as the ideal the loss we’ve experienced may have long-lasting canvas—they are a metaphor for separation—all kinds impact,” Holder writes. “I have faith that audiences of separations…social, economic, physical,” he told will eventually return to museums and concert halls Street Art NYC. The mural is displayed outside Robert’s and theaters across America, and that the lights Florals on Raritan Avenue. of Broadway will burn brightly once again. But our collective future ultimately depends on how we support the next generation of emerging artists as they enter an uncertain world.” Read the entire op-ed at go.rutgers.edu/Holder.

18 MASON GROSS THE LAST WORD JEREMY O.

HARRIS

If we don’t allow failure— especially Black failure—we don’t allow Black greatness.… The failure was actually the “genius, was the excellence. Our ability to do something wrong is the entryway to breaking through to the genius thing.” —Jeremy O. Harris, record-breaking, 12-time Tony Award-nominated playwright and actor for Slave Play. Harris was a guest of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, hosted by the Department of Art & Design, on December 2, 2020. MATTHEW LEIFHEIT IN Emma Amos, Chair Emeritus Visual Arts and Retired Faculty, MGSA, (May 20, 2020) W. Jeffrey Bechtel, BFA MGSA - Professional Visual Arts 1988 (January 13, 2020) MEMORIAM Sharon L. Bernson, BFA MGSA - Theater Arts 1980 (February 10, 2017) Peter J. Berry, MFA GMGA - Professional Visual Arts 1989 (March 9, 2020) Darryl J. Bott, Former Faculty - Music, MM GMGA 2007 (May 23, 2020) THE MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS DeWitt T. Budd, BS AG 1949 (February 7, 2020) COMMUNITY REPORTS WITH GREAT SADNESS Austin M. Cahill III, MFA GMGA 1983 (May 28, 2020) THE LOSS OF ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF THE Jorge A. Casanovas, MFA - Theater 2004 (October 22, 2020) Professor Stanley A. Cowell, Retired Faculty - Music (December 17, 2020) SCHOOL. WE EXTEND OUR CONDOLENCES TO Donna M. Czirjak, BFA MGSA 1983 (June 24, 2017) EACH OF THEIR FAMILIES AND CLASSMATES. Manuel S. Garrido, BFA MGSA - Art 1982, MA GSNB 1985 (February 3, 2020) William D. Garrison, MFA GMGA - Theater Arts 1993 (March 14, 2020) All death notifications included in this issue of The Honorable Bernard A. Kannen, BA RC 1950 (June 6, 2020) our magazine were submitted to the university Virginia Ann Moravek, BA DC 1964 and EdM GSED 1977 (December 23, 2020) after our last issue and before going to press on L. Kenneth Richardson, BA RC 1972, MFA MGSA 1977 (May 24, 2020) this issue. We apologize for any omissions and ask Robert Soler, BFA MGSA 1986, MBA RBSG 1992 (November 4, 2016) that loved ones of deceased alumni, friends, donors Joanne A. Sullebarger, BA DC 1953 (March 25, 2020) to the school, faculty, and staff notify us by emailing [email protected]. Please be sure to include the Floyd G. Sumner, Retired Faculty - Music, PHD-Music GSNB 1973 (April 9, 2020) full name of the deceased (and name as a student), Ronald G. Targan, Esq., LLB NLAW 1951 (October 20, 2020) death date, class year, and major. Thank you. Anthony R. Volpe, DDS, MS, DDS RSDM 1960 (October 8, 2020)

19 SPRING 2021 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 33 Livingston Avenue New Brunswick, NJ 08901

THE LAST LOOK Director Benny Safdie signs student Jackson Clark’s sneaker after a screening of his and brother Josh Safdie’s (left) 2017 crime drama Good Time at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. The Rutgers Filmmaking Center brought the filmmakers to the city for a screening, Q&A, and reception on October 25, 2019, as part of the Mason Gross Presents Series. KEITH MUCCILLI