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Spring/Summer 2021 ART AGAINST ANIMOSITY MEET THE CREATOR OF NEW YORK CITY’S VIBRANT ANTI-HATE CAMPAIGN YOUR BEST-LOVED LOCALES Columbia WE PAY TRIBUTE TO THE MOST MEMORABLE College COLLEGE HANGOUTS Today METAMORPHOSIS READ THE WINNING ENTRIES FROM OUR PERSONAL ESSAY CONTEST UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR SAIDIYA HARTMAN IS TELLING THE LOST STORIES OF BLACK AMERICANS RAISING VOICES Contents Columbia College CCT Today VOLUME 48 NUMBER 3 SPRING/SUMMER 2021 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alexis Boncy SOA’11 EXECUTIVE EDITOR Lisa Palladino 14 28 34 DEPUTY EDITOR Jill C. Shomer ASSOCIATE EDITOR Anne-Ryan Sirju JRN’09 FORUM EDITOR Rose Kernochan BC’82 features CONTRIBUTING EDITORS James C. Katz ’72 14 Alex Sachare ’71 ART DIRECTOR Raising Voices Eson Chan University Professor Saidiya Hartman is telling Published three times a the lost stories of Black Americans. year by Columbia College for alumni, students, faculty, By Jill C. Shomer parents and friends. CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING OFFICER 20 Bernice Tsai ’96 Of Memory and Metamorphosis ADDRESS Columbia College Today Presenting the winners of our first personal essay contest. Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 4th Fl. New York, NY 10025 28 PHONE 212-851-7852 “This Is Our Home Too” EMAIL [email protected] Meet the artist behind NYC’s notable anti-hate campaign. WEB By Alexis Boncy SOA’11 college.columbia.edu/cct ISSN 0572-7820 34 Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect ofcial positions The Places You of Columbia College or Columbia University. Called Your Own © 2021 Columbia College Today In honor of Columbia Reunion, we rounded up your All rights reserved. most nostalgic noshes and hallowed hangouts. Cover: Photograph by Jörg Meyer Contents departments alumninews 3 Message from Dean James J. Valentini 41 Whoooooo’s Hiding in Alma Mater’s Robe? 4 The Big Picture: Goooooo, Graduates! 42 Message from the CCAA 6 Letters to the Editor 43 Lions Sara Jacobs ’11, SIPA’12; Nobuhisa Ishizuka ’82, LAW’86; 8 Around the Quads Nick Diao ’19 and Justin Wenig ’19 12 Roar, Lion, Roar 46 Bookshelf The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing 38 Columbia Forum: The Ofce of Women Harnessed the Power of the Home and Changed Historical Corrections the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger ’99 Danielle Evans ’04’s latest set of stories was a decade in the making. 48 Class Notes Just Married! 96 Obituaries ONLINE EXTRAS George Segal ’55, Julius Schachter ’57, • Essay contest Honorable Mentions Morris Dickstein ’61, Hon. Paul G. Feinman ’81, • VIDEO: New Yorker cartoonist Thomas J. Vinciguerra ’85, JRN’86, GSAS’90 Edward Koren ’57 considers his prolific career 104 Alumni Corner A new cartoon by Edward Koren ’57. READ WHAT’S NEW! CCT CCT HAS MORE ONLINE STORIES THAN EVER Online Exclusive: Championing a Common Cause Podcaster Mila Atmos ’96, SIPA’05 wants listeners to join the political conversation. >> bit.ly/34egL1W Patrick Radden Keefe ’99 Dishes About Empire of Pain The New York Times bestselling author discusses his new book’s most striking revelations. >> bit.ly/3eHAegg The Alum Who Designed the NYC Subway Boost your knowledge of Columbia history with this “Did You Know?” video short. >> bit.ly/2ORvkol college.columbia.edu/cct MATTHEW SEPTIMUS MATTHEW Message from the Dean Congratulations to the Class of 2021 On April 28, I addressed the Class of 2021 in a virtual Class Day ceremony, where I touched upon the theme of Beginner’s Mind. Students and families viewed the ceremony from campus at socially distanced watch gatherings and remotely from locations around the world. What follows is an excerpt from my speech. he word “global” appears to have its frst use in the 17th century, and had only limited use until the mid-20th cen- tury. In 1960, Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan T made a prescient statement that electronic media would shrink the world to “a village or tribe where everything happens to everyone at the same time: everyone knows about, and therefore par- DIANE BONDAREFF ticipates in, everything that is happening the minute it happens … in the global village.” In the frst part of the 21st century that sense of the future, guiding choices of what to do now as the Dean James J. global connection has taken on new meaning, new import and fre- unprecedented has arrived. And it, indeed, requires Valentini quent use, in the phrase “global pandemic.” our serious efort. and Elena You, the members of the Columbia College Class of 2021, have It directs us to think about what we do in response Comas Wood ’21 share a experienced our global pandemic in many ways, but likely mostly to the unprecedented. Beginner’s Mind cultivates a celebratory through loss. Some of you have lost family members, some of you may mindset that anything is possible, and that should be elbow bump. have been taken ill by the virus; others experienced fnancial setbacks our expectation, never a surprise. Te unprecedented in your families, and most of you had to contend with severe indi- is to be imagined and anticipated. Your entire Columbia College expe- vidual dislocations and disruptions of your normal lives. But what all rience has been unprecedented because it is an experience unique to of you share is a loss of your expected Columbia College senior year each of you, full of discoveries and realizations, and most importantly, experience. Expectations not met are particularly difcult losses to a new sense of all the possibilities held within each of you. accept, whatever the nature of the expectation. I share that sense of When you arrived at Columbia you had ideas about the world loss, though obviously in a diferent way. and your place in it. Sitting in small Core seminars you were asked While I cannot celebrate you in person, I assure you that today you to speak about, advocate for and defend your ideas, and to understand are celebrated and you are special. You are to be celebrated as a class and appreciate those of others. I expect that your understanding about that displayed impressive adaptability, resourcefulness, resilience, per- the world and your place in it changed in ways unexpected to you. Tat sistence and determination. Tat is why you are part of this Class Day is good. Tat is your Beginner’s Mind being developed. Tat recogni- celebration. Despite the many personal challenges, setbacks, disap- tion won’t diminish the disappointments of this unpredictable senior pointments and losses each of you has encountered, you completed year. But it will point the way to reframing your thinking from what your Columbia College studies and earned this most valuable degree. has been lost to what can be done that is new and full of possibility. It will always be recognized as especially valuable for the daunting As you continue your Columbia College Journey beyond graduation, challenges presented in the year 2021. I look forward to seeing how you do that, and hearing about how you But there are some elements of today’s ceremony that are not unique do that, frequently, in person at Columbia Reunion and at the other to this difcult year. Something that every Columbia College gradu- events that make up your College journey. I have no doubt that the ate might expect to hear from me at Class Day is, “In the Beginner’s creativity and imagination each of you individually has developed here Mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” will enable you to meet every challenge with the same determination For those in our audience who have not heard that before, Beginner’s that you displayed in completing your senior year. Congratulations to Mind is the Zen Buddhist concept “shoshin,” which advises us to see you, our graduates, and to your families, teachers, mentors and advisors. the world with eyes open, as if we were seeing everything for the frst time. In a world of unprecedented challenges, everyone is a begin- ner by defnition because there can be no experience of the unprece- dented. And without such experience, no expertness in the sense used here. But that does not mean that Beginner’s Mind becomes trivial James J. Valentini or automatic or easy. No. Beginner’s Mind looks to the possibilities of Dean Goooooo, Graduates! The Class of 2021 became alumni with a virtual Class Day experience on April 28. Local members of the class were invited to attend on-campus watch parties, while hundreds of others tuned in remotely with friends and family members. The keynote speaker, actor and director Mario Van Peebles ’78, addressed the class from a majestic backdrop overlooking the Hudson River and the western skyline; he urged the new grads, who are launching into an uncertain, post- pandemic world, to shake up their “boxes.” “Be a nerd for people, expand your friend group,” Van Peebles said. “Be a critical thinker, be courageous. Don’t be afraid to get into good trouble and efect good change.” He closed his address with an uplifting directive: “Love and enjoy what you do for a living. Love and enjoy the people you get to work with. And love and enjoy what your work brings to the world. If you get those three career chakras to line up, you’re rich no matter what the paycheck.” A virtual University Commencement was held on April 30, while Grad Walk festivities ofered in-person opportunities to celebrate throughout the week. More than 500 seniors turned out to take photos on the graduation stage and bump elbows with Dean James J. Valentini (see what the dean had to say on page 3).