THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE SPRING 2019 OF WAR AND ELEPHANTS INSIDE THE POACHING CRISIS gw magazine / Spring 2019 GW MAGAZINE SPRING 2019 A MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS CONTENTS FEATURES 30 / Of War and Elephants In 2010, worn down by a decade of covering the worst of humanity, alumna and conflict photographer Kate Brooks turned her lens elsewhere. She’s spent the past six years making The Last Animals, a documentary about poaching and the illegal ivory and rhino horn trades. This is how she went from combat to conservation. / By Matthew Stoss / 44 / ‘I’m the One Wearing the Watch’ For eight years, Mark Weinberg, BA ’91, served as an assistant press secretary to President Ronald Reagan and spent most weekends on duty at Camp David, the mountain retreat where he watched hundreds of movies with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan, both of them former actors. In an excerpt adapted from his book, Movie Nights with the Reagans, Weinberg recalls the first time they screened a film from the president’s canon. / PLUS 50 A Front-Row Seat What’s it like to watch hundreds of movies with a president and a first lady? Mark Weinberg takes us behind the scenes. / Q&A by Danny Freedman, BA ’01 / DEPARTMENTS 4 / Postmarks On the cover: Photojournalist Kate 6 / GW News Brooks captures the burning of 105 tons 56 / Class Notes of ivory and 1.35 tons of rhino horn—part of Ronald and Nancy Reagan sit in the family theater at the White House in Kenya’s effort to combat 1986, during the taping of a TV program with Barbara Walters. poaching—in April 2016 in COURTESY RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY REAGAN RONALD COURTESY Nairobi National Park. gwmagazine.com / 1 SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE LATEST NEWS FROM GW TODAY VIA E-MAIL Be Informed | Be Connected | Be Notified gwtoday.gwu.edu Spring 2019 Volume 29, Issue 2 If you could show somebody any movie, which would it be? MANAGING EDITOR // Danny Freedman, BA ’01 The History of Future Folk: An oddball and charming little gem, Three ASSOCIATE EDITOR // Matthew Stoss billed as “the best Amigos: alien folk-duo sci- Because all fi action romance PHOTO EDITOR // William Atkins of us have an El comedy movie Guapo to face. ever made.” DESIGN // GW Marketing & Creative Services ART DIRECTOR // Dominic N. Abbate, BA ’09, MBA ’15 Tommy Boy: That says ART DIRECTOR // John McGlasson, BA ’00, MFA ’03 all you need to know about my maturity level—also because it’s EDITORIAL ASSISTANT // Jennifer Cheng, CCAS ’2021 Ponyo: Its glory is in its peak Farley and Spade. wholesomeness and its surprisingly star-studded voice-acting cast of The World, the Flesh and CONTRIBUTOR // Keith Harriston, senior managing editor GW Today the Devil: This 1959 film Disney's English adaptation. does what a good movie should do—provide a CONTRIBUTOR // Briahnna Brown, GW Today Spike Lee’s Clockers basis for discussion because it’s a heavily about a serious topic: underrated classic CONTRIBUTOR // Kurtis Hiatt, GW Today To Wong Foo, Thanks race relations in the among his more for Everything! Julie United States. popular films and it Newmar: Sure, it's CONTRIBUTOR just tells a great story. // Tatyana Hopkins, GW Today only 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes CONTRIBUTOR // Kristen Mitchell, GW Today but it’s also Patrick Swayze in CONTRIBUTOR // Ruth Steinhardt, GW Today drag. It’s hilarious and heartwarming. Thomas J. LeBlanc Midnight in Paris: PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY It’s clever, poetic and charming. I love the exploration of nostalgia Donna Arbide Lorraine Voles, BA ’81 Cinema Paradiso: Because as a theme through the it’s the most lovely movie VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT VICE PRESIDENT FOR use of historical artistic and will make you cry. cultural icons. AND ALUMNI RELATIONS EXTERNAL RELATIONS Leah Rosen, BBA ’96, MTA ’02 Sarah Gegenheimer Baldassaro Rachel Muir ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE SERVICES FOR COMMUNICATIONS FOR EDITORIAL SERVICES GW Magazine (ISSN 2162-6464) is published three times per year by GW’s Division of External Relations, 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 4th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20052. Phone: 202-994-5709; email: [email protected]. © 2019 The George Washington Opinions expressed in POSTMASTER Please send change-of-address notices to GW Magazine, University. The George these pages are those of GW Alumni Records Office, 2033 K St., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. Washington University is an the individuals and do not 20052. Notices can also be sent via alumni.gwu.edu/update, email to equal opportunity/affirmative necessarily reflect official [email protected], or 202-994-9350. Postage paid at Washington, SOMBRERO: ISTOCK.COM/KRASYUK / WAGON, BUCKET: ISTOCK.COM/JOE_POTATO / SUNGLASSES: ISTOCK.COM/NIRUT PUNSHIRI action institution. positions of the university. D.C., and additional mailing offices. gwmagazine.com / 3 POSTMARKS A Brag, If We May ... Well done, Matthew Stoss, with respect Room for Comments A big shout out to all of you who have created to Patrick O’Connell and his Inn at Little I find it interesting that your fall issue included a contemporary, beautifully designed, well- Washington. a pledge from the university to create a new, written publication with great subject matter. I write not only as one with a bit of integrated, volunteer-led, alumni association Thanks and keep it coming. experience with this Inn, well-deserving that will provide counsel and support to the Clay Purdy, BA ’78 of three Michelin stars, but also as one Office of Alumni Relations. The writers claim who is personally acquainted with a to welcome comments, questions and ideas, number of three-star restaurants in and yet include no email addresses or phone Compliments to the [Writer of the France and count some of their owners numbers to which readers can respond. Story About the] Chef as personal friends. Stoss not only I, for one, love the GW Magazine and read I wanted to write to commend you on recognizes the same fervor in O’Connell each issue from cover to cover. But I would your excellent article, “The Lord of Little that O’Connell’s confreres possess like to see a regular, alumni-written column Washington,” profiling Chef Patrick throughout “the Hexagon,” but also that would demonstrate personal connections O’Connell and his extraordinary restaurant. accurately presents the challenges of to the university and the linkages between This was not only the best alumni magazine excelling in a very competitive profession. alumni, students and faculty, which might article that I’ve read, but one of the better His piece is more than a restaurant add to the proposed new legacy programs for arts/culture/food features that I recall review; it is a glimpse into the soul of a alumni with college-aged students. reading in a long time. creative, determined personality, one Kathy A. Megyeri, MA ’69, MA ’83 The hard work that you put into this piece immersed in visual, sensual and culinary Washington, D.C. is evident from the high-quality writing, the arts. I also appreciated learning of many insightful interviews with both Inn O’Connell’s GW connections. alumni and food critics, and the beautiful Allen Dale Olson, [We’re glad you asked: Comments, questions photos included throughout. I have yet to MA Ed&HD ’67, EdD ’72 and ideas related to the new alumni association visit the Inn but look forward to doing so, Albuquerque, N.M. can be sent to [email protected] or (202) 994- just as I anticipate enjoying more excellent 6435. And we’re always open to ideas like this journalism from GW Magazine. for GW Magazine, too. We can be reached at Jeremy Schlosser, JD ’10 [email protected] or (202) 994-5709. —Eds.] 4 / gw magazine / Spring 2019 Memory Bank Recently we asked: What keepsakes—objects, photos, etc.—do you keep around as reminders of your time at GW? Here’s some of what we’re hearing. (Have a keepsake you want to tell us about? Write us at [email protected] or on Twitter at @TheGWMagazine; we'll feature some of them in this space in future issues.) “I have recently given my GW keepsake to my college bound [FOLLOW UP] granddaughter—my A WIN/WIN well-worn Kittredge FOR ALL! MORE In November, poet and best-selling novelist Elizabeth edition of Shakespeare’s Acevedo, BA ’10, was awarded a National Book Award complete work. I was UNIVERSITIES for her debut novel, The Poet X. If you missed our privileged to be in the SHOULD FOLLOW summer 2018 cover story, “Liz Acevedo Verses the Shakespeare class of Novel,” it can be found at GWMagazine.com. Frederick Tupper. Time in his classroom #GW’s LEAD! 2018 was transformative. Surely Shakespeare GW GIFT GUIDE could not have read his lines better than Correction: Dr. Tupper did. He created a lifelong The feature article, “To Simply Name It Aloud,” appreciation of Shakespeare’s world misstated the age that alumna and Craigslist and the power of his drama. Confessional founder Helena Bala was in 2001; she “Dr. Tupper told us what book to was 13, not 11. buy for his class. Nothing else would do. He related a sad moment in his The article, “Pieces of Eleanor,” about GW’s life when he read a “for sale” note on Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, erroneously the college bulletin board which said: stated that President Theodore Roosevelt was “For Sale. Cheap. Kittredge edition of Eleanor Roosevelt’s cousin; he was her uncle. Shakespeare, hardly used.” June Mesirow Statmore, BA ’59 The “In Memoriam” item featuring Robert Louis @travelwAnn Stilmar, BL ’55, included a typo in the spelling of “Army Signal Corps.” “The playbill from our premiere engagement at the Radio City Music Hall in the summer of 1960.