Whipple '75 Discusses Biden in Office

Chris Whipple '75 spoke at the YWAA/Scarsdale Forum event, June 3, 2023 (YWAA photos).

Author Chris Whipple '75 chronicled and reviewed the first half of the Biden presidency at a special lecture in Scarsdale, June 3. His speech was part of the lecture series sponsored by the Scarsdale Forum and the YWAA speaker series, held at the Scarsdale Library.  

Whipple shared details from his latest publication and offered in insider's account of President Biden in office. He later signed copies of the book, The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House.  He is also the author of acclaimed books The Gatekeepers and The Spy Masters.

Whipple is a long-time documentarian and won Emmys as a producer at ABC News and CBS News. To purchase a copy of the new book, click Biden Presidency. 

About 50 people, including Yale alumni and Westchester residents, attended the event.

For more about the YWAA speaker series, click YWAA-Events. 

Author Whipple Will Speak in Scarsdale

Appearing in Scarsdale June 3, Chris Whipple '75 will share observations of the Biden administration from his latest book.

Chris Whipple '75, the author, television producer and documentary filmmaker, will speak about his newly published book The Fight for His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House at the Scarsdale Library in Scarsdale, Saturday, June 3 at 2 pm. 

The event will be hosted by the Scarsdale Forum, the Scarsdale Library and YWAA. It is also part of the YWAA lecture series, which brings Yale-affiliated speakers to Westchester. Guests can attend the June 3 event in person or register and join online via Zoom. (See below.)

Whipple's latest work chronicles the first two years of President Biden's administration, starting in its early days after the inauguration, when Biden confronted crises ranging from the pandemic to the revolt on Capitol Hill, from the conflict in Afghanistan to demonstrations against racial injustice. 

Whipple, granted access to the inner workings of the White House, provides an insider's account of the first half of the Biden presidency. 

In a review of the book in the New York Times, author John Gans wrote, "Whipple shines when, like the documentarian he is, he lets people talk....Whipple proves adept at getting members of a relatively opaque administration to play the blame game in print." 

He adds, "For any future writer eager to describe Biden's first two years, this will be the book cited first and most often."

In February, Whipple lectured on campus at Yale, sharing his Biden observations at Yale's Jackson School. The event was hosted by the School's International Security Studies program. 

He is also the author of the book The Gatekeepers (2017), which examines the responsibilities and extraordinary burdens of White House Chiefs of Staff. In January, he wrote an opinion essay for the New York Times about the impactful departure of Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who is also a primary source in Whipple's latest book.

Whipple's book The Spy Masters (2021) describes the vast influence of CIA directors on U.S. history. "This book is part oral history and part old-fashioned storytelling," a reviewer for the Yale Alumni Magazine wrote in 2021. 

As a documentarian and producer, he has received Emmy awards and nominations for his work at ABC News, CBS News and Sixty Minutes.  

While at Yale, Whipple participated in the Yale Political Union, wrote for the New Journal, and played ice hockey. He majored in history. 

To register for the event (in person or via Zoom), click the link Scarsdale Library-June 3. To purchase the book online, click the link The Fight of His Life. (The library is located at 54 Olmsted Road.) Copies of the new book will be available for purchase at the event. Whipple will sign copies after he speaks.

In January, the Scarsdale Forum and Library and YWAA hosted Yale Law professor Akhil Reed Amar '80, '84 JD, who spoke about his latest book on the U.S. Constitution The Words That Made Us. Other speakers for the series have included Yale professors Paul Friedman, Laurie Santos, Meg Urry and Joanne Freeman. 

Prof. Amar: "The Words That Made Us"

Yale Law Prof. Akhil Reed Amar '80, '84 JD made a return trip to Scarsdale, Jan. 29, to present his latest book The Words That Made Us and try to convince his audience that understanding the meaning  of the U.S. Constitution was more important than the country's current attention on the results of the Eagles vs. 49ers, an NFL play-off football game that was played while he spoke in Westchester.  

In a lively 60-minute lecture and spirited 30-minute Q-and-A session, he stated his case and shared well-informed opinions on any current political issue or trend on the country's plate in 2023. He stated firmly U.S. citizens have a responsibility to learn and understand the U.S. Constitution. He referred to the U.S. signing of the Constitution in 1787 as the country's "Big Bang" event. 

Prof. Amar, a Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science and an acclaimed scholar on the topic, was a guest lecturer for the Scarsdale Forum and YWAA Speaker Series at the Scarsdale Library.   In 2016, he spoke at a similar YWAA-Scarsdale gathering, presenting his book The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of the Constitutional Republic. At that time, he focused on the 2016 presidential election. 

At the Scarsdale lecture Jan. 29, Prof. Amar addressed the Constitution's importance and impact in 2023. As the worst of the pandemic disappears, Prof. Amar said he wanted to be the "virus" that infects U.S. citizens to encourage them to read, study and understand sections of the Constitution.  The Words that made the U.S. (the Constitution), he said--pun intended, are "the words that made us."

About 50 community members and Yale alumni attended the lecture in person; another 17 dialed in via Zoom. 

He highlighted the differences in what other popular Yale-graduate historians (Ron Chernow '70 and David McCullough '55) write about (American history) vs. what he teaches and writes about (American history and Constitution Law). 

For the alumni in the audience, he provided data to show the vast influence of Yale graduates in U.S. Government, based on top leadership positions in all three branches today and through history (U.S. Congress, Supreme Court and the U.S. Presidency). Many in those roles today, he appointed out, had been his students at Yale. 

To purchase the book, click The Words That Made Us.

For more about other speakers in the YWAA Lecture Series, click LECTURES.

Yale Law's Amar Returns to Scarsdale

 

Prof. Akhil Reed Amar is scheduled to present a lecture on his area of expertise, the U.S. Constitution, in Scarsdale, Sunday, Jan. 29 (Yale photo)

Yale Law School Professor Akhil Reed Amar '80, '84JD will return to Westchester to speak at the Scarsdale Forum in Scarsdale, N.Y., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023, at 3 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Yale Westchester Alumni Association (YWAA) and is part of the Scarsdale Forum Sunday Speakers Series. 

The Scarsdale Public Library will host the event in its Scott Room (54 Olmsted Road). See link below for those who wish to join via Zoom. 

Prof. Amar, one of the most popular faculty members on campus and one of the most renowned scholars of the U.S. Constitution, has taught at Yale Law School since 1985. He has written numerous books on the Constitution and will discuss his most recent book, The Words That Made Us, his study of "America's constitutional conversation" from 1760-1840.

The event is open to all, including Yale alumni, families and friends, and will be streamed via Zoom.

Mark Spencer, reviewing the book in The Wall Street Journal described it as a "masterly synthesis of history and law." Reviewer Adam Cohen in The New York Times Book Review described the book, published in 2021, as a "deeply probing, highly readable study of America's (Constitution)."

Prof. Amar was also a guest speaker in the lecture series in May, 2016, when he focused on the upcoming presidential election in the U.S. in that year.

In his 2012 book, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By, Prof. Amar claimed the Constitution must be read "as a whole rather than as a jumble of discrete clauses." In 2015, he wrote The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of Our Constitutional Public.

He has written opinion pieces for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic.

The YWAA lecture series the past decade has also hosted other prominent Yale professors, including Prof. Paul Freedman who spoke about the culinary and restaurant history in America (2019), Prof. Laurie Santos who outlined keys to happiness as part of her globally popular "Happiness" course at Yale (2019), Prof. Marc Lapadula who announced his list of the top six films that influenced the American film industry (2018), Hugh Price '66L who once led the National Urban League (2017), Prof. Joanne Freeman who chronicled "dirty stories" of American politics in the 1790s (2015), and Prof. Meg Urry who introduced her Westchester audience to the "black holes" of physics (2014).

For more about Prof. Amar's previous lecture and about the YWAA Lecture Series, click on the links below:

YWAA: Prof. Amar, the Constitution and the Presidential Election of 2016

YWAA Lecture Series

To participate via Zoom, click on the link to register:

Amar Zoom registration, Jan-29-2023-3pm

Nicholas Qualifies for Golf Tour

James Nicholas '19 (above) continues his golf career beyond his success at Yale (Yale Athletics photos)

In his bid to launch a professional golf career, Scarsdale native James Nicholas '19 in early June qualified for a Korn Ferry tour event.  The event permits golfers like Nicholas to qualify over time for the PGA Tour.  During a period of quarantine this spring, Nicholas spent his time in Florida preparing for the Korn Ferry events and practicing in Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.

The Korn Ferry Tour identifies and develops young golfers to prepare them for the PGA Tour. About 75% of current PGA professionals graduated from the tour, established in 1990. The top 25 finishers in the Korn Ferry Tour each year qualify to play at the PGA level the following year. Like the PGA tour, after a period of CoViD-19 hiatus, the tour resumes this summer.

Nicholas is best known in Westchester athletics circles has having been the area's top high school golfer while attending Scarsdale High School.  He played three sports in high school, excelled in all, and had a difficult decision about which to participate in at college. He won the New York state golf title as a Scarsdale senior. But he was also an All-State football player and scored over 100 goals in ice hockey, also earning All-Sate honors.

At Yale, he started out in football and golf, but eventually settled on a storied four-year golf career in New Haven. He accumulated bundles of titles, trophies and honors. He earned Ivy League player-of-the-year honors in his junior and senior season and competed for NCAA titles. After receiving his Yale diploma in ecology and evolutionary biology, he has attempted to explore opportunities to become a professional.

Scarsdale Honors Munguia

B.K. Munguia '75 and her husband Jon Mark will be honored with the Scarsdale Bowl by the Scarsdale Foundation for their years of service in Westchester (Scarsdale 10583 photo)

For their many years of service to the Scarsdale and Westchester communities, the Scarsdale Foundation announced in January it will honor YWAA board director B.K. Munguia '75 and her husband former Scarsdale mayor Jon Mark with the Scarsdale Bowl. They will be joint recipients. The Foundation has given out the Bowl annually since 1943.

The award is given to a Scarsdale resident, who, according to the Foundation, "has given unselfishly of time, energy and effort to the civic welfare of the community." They will receive the Bowl at a Foundation dinner in Purchase, Apr. 22.

Munguia is being honored for decades of service in Westchester, including her volunteer work at Scarsdale Heathcote School, the Scarsdale School Board, the Girl Scouts, and the Scarsdale Teen Center (where she served as president until its recent closing). She also chaired the Scarsdale Citizens Non-Partisan Campaign Committee.

Mark served two terms as a Village Trustee and as mayor of Scarsdale. He is vice president of the Westchester Reform Temple and has had leadership roles on the Scarsdale Citizens Nominating Committee, the Scarsdale Forum, and the Non-Partisan Campaign Committee.

Munguia's community involvement has not been limited to Scarsdale. The Foundation is recognizing the scarsdale for Scarsdale-related contributions, but she has also been involved in Yale alumni activities for many years. Currently a YWAA board member and vice president, she has led many projects and events involving Yale, Yale alumni and Yale students.

In recent years, she has organized Yale music events in the area, including inviting a cappella singing groups from Yale to perform in Westchester. Last year, she, along with Dan Leonard '76 and Sara Levine, helped organize the Sunday Songfest in Chappaqua, which featured Yale groups the Spizzwinks and the New Blue. (She sang with the New Blue, when she attended Yale.)

Munguia and YWAA board member Regina Possavino '01 have invited Yale a cappella groups to sing at the Teen Center in Scarsdale, including a 2015 Spizzwinks concert. She helped organize another Spizzwinks concert at the Center in 2013.

Also for YWAA, she has joined Maggie Favretti '85 in helping her coordinate the Scarsdale Community Garden for Yale Day of Service events. 

In 2014, she hosted a YWAA music evening-under-the-stars event in Scarsdale Park, featuring the Westchester Band playing popular music and jazz. And she assisted Merrell Clark '57 in 2013, when he organized a Yale night at Caramoor that featured a concert by the Orchestra of St. Luke.

Munguia has hosted and housed Yale students who have done YWAA-sponsored summer internships, including Natalie Warren '17, who worked at Camp Success at Westchester during the summer, 2014. She has been involved in the annual YWAA Book Awards that recognize outstanding Westchester high school students.

Along with Rich Fabbro '76, she helped to host YWAA-sponsored lectures at the Scarsdale Library, where Yale professors have come to Westchester to speak on current topics of interest. And she has participated on the YWAA debate committee, which organized the annual debate competition that has included the debate squad from Yale, other Ivy League schools and participating high schools.

Jane Veron '86, who has been a YWAA board member, has served on the board of the Scarsdale Foundation since 2014.

Maya Lin's Tribute to the Hudson

Maya Lin '81, '86 M.Arch. pays tribute to the Hudson River in an exhibition this fall in Yonkers.

Best known for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and known, too, at Yale for her design of the Women's Table, a tribute to women at Yale, Maya Lin '81, '86 M.Arch. will be featured at an exhibition "A River Is a Drawing" in Yonkers from October through January, 2019.

The exhibition at the Hudson River Museum explores and pays homage to the Hudson River. It features several works from Lin, all with themes recognizing the history and importance river or using the river as a background or setting.

The works will be placed in several areas of the museum.  They include drawings and sculptures. Some will feature the Hudson in the background. Some will be representations of the river. Other drawings will include rivers from around the world, along with the Hudson. 

In announcing the project, Lin observes rivers as "fluid moving drawings--delineated and drawn out." She explores not only the river's shape and its flowing, but wants to study its history and "movement in time and space."

Over the next few months, she will publish an exhibition catalog and plans to lecture on the planning and purpose of her work. 

Yonkers is Lin's professional home. In 2014, she and her art-collector husband Daniel Wolf     purchased an old Yonkers jailhouse and converted it into a working studio and gallery near the Hudson River. The panoramic views of the Hudson and the Palisades, she told the Journal News then, were major reasons why they moved to Yonkers. "The breathtaking views from the doorsteps of the Hudson inspires a vision as unique as the building itself."

At Yale, Lin has received an honorary degree and served as a trustee on the Yale Corporation.

For more information about Lin's work in Yonkers, click Hudson River Museum (Yonkers).

Favretti Receives Sobol Award

In Scarsdale Jan. 23, Maggie Favretti '85 will receive the Thomas Sobol Award for Community Service

Scarsdale High School teacher and community leader Maggie Favretti '85 will receive Scarsdale's Thomas Sobol Award for Service to the Community at a luncheon in Scarsdale Jan. 23.  The award is sponsored by the Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling Service and honors the late superintendent of schools in Scarsdale. 

Mary Lou McClure, CFO and Custodian of Taxes for the Village of Scarsdale, is a co-recipient of the award.

Favretti, an art history major at Yale and long-time instructor in social studies and world history, coordinates the community garden at Scarsdale, a popular site for Yale Day of Service, and has supervised many school clubs and activities, including a new student group devoted to understanding and helping in the global refugee crisis. Her leadership in the garden, which helps distribute over 1,000 pounds of food annually to food banks in the region, was recognized by the White House.

"Maggie has connected with countless students, family and community members not only because of her dedication to the school and to education in general, but also because of her belief that we each have the capacity to improve the world around us....," Thomas Hagerman, Scarsdale's current schools superintendent, said in Scarsdale10583. 

In Aug., 2017, Favretti received the Sousa Mendes Foundation award for her work organizing student tu support refugees.

Sobol, for whom the award is named, was superintendent for 16 years before becoming New York State Commissioner of Education from 1987-95.

Price to Speak at Jay Heritage Center

Hugh Price '66 Law will be one of three speakers featured at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, Jan. 15, at an event organized by the American Women of African Heritage.

Hugh Price '66 Law, Yale Law Graduate, New Rochelle resident and a former President and CEO of the National Urban League, will be one of three featured authors who will speak at Jay Estate in Rye, Jan. 15 (2-5 pm), as part of the celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday. Price will be joined by authors Brenda Ross and Tiffany D. Jackson. 

This year he published his memoir This African-American Life, which recounts his years growing up in Washington, D.C., his days at Yale Law School and working in the New Haven community, and programs he pursued while at the Urban League. 

The Annual Literary Tea, held at the Jay Heritage Center for the fourth straight year, is sponsored by the American Women of African Heritage.

Price has been affiliated with the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. In Westchester, he served on the board and was a Chairman at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville.  He headed the National Urban League from 1994-2003. During his time there, he established the Institute for Opportunity and Equality. He is also the author of Mobilizing the Community, Getting Your Child the Best Education, and Achievement Matters.

While at Yale Law School, he was executive director of the Black Coalition of New Haven, which was instrumental in providing legal services to low-income families.  Before becoming CEO at the Urban League, Price held posts at the New York Times (editorial board) and the Rockefeller Foundation.

At the National Urban League, he focused on education, youth development, and economic empowerment in African-American communities. He also launched the Campaign for African American Achievement program.

A graduate also of Amherst College, Price has taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy at Princeton.

Speaker Brenda Ross is the author of Bibsy, a love story that captures small-town, African-American life.  Tiffany D. Jackson wrote the novel Allegedly, selected by many reviewers as one of the best young-adult novels of 2017.  Her novel Monday's Not Coming will be published in June.

Suzanne Clary '83 is president of the board of trustees at the Jay Heritage Center. The Center hosted Yale history professor Joanne Freeman as part of the YWAA speaker series in Dec., 2015.

For more about tickets ($65/person) for the Martin Luther King Day event, contact franteek@aol.com or jayheritagecenter@gmail.com.  Or call the Center at 914-698-9275.

Foundation Will Honor Favretti

New York's Sousa Mendes Foundation will honor Maggie Favretti '85 (above) for organizing Westchester students to support international refugees.

Maggie Favretti '85, a history teacher at Scarsdale High School and leader of the school's community garden, will be honored by the Sousa Mendes Foundation for spearheading efforts in Westchester County to organize students to support refugees.

Founded in 2010, the Mendes Foundation honors Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a diplomat from Portugal, who when stationed in France in World War II assisted in providing visas for thousands of refugees fleeing the Nazi regime. He did so against the wishes of the Portuguese government.     Favretti will receive the honor at a scheduled program later this year at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

For the past several years, Favretti has also coordinated the Yale Day of Service program in Scarsdale, where Yale alumni and friends prepare the garden on the school's grounds for spring planting. The community garden produces over 1,500 pounds of food (from about 7,500 sq. ft. of garden space), the bulk of which is supplied to area food shelters.

Favretti has also been recognized by the White House for her gardening programs, including assisting other communities in the area in starting their own gardens.

The Mendes Foundation is citing her for encouraging students at Scarsdale High School to start an organization, Students for Refugees, to support refugees and inform Westchester residents about the plight of refugees around the world, including those from Syria.

She and Scarsdale students were inspired to launch the organization when they visited Germany on a school cultural trip in 2015. On the trip, they met with refugees and resettlement organizations and decided to organize when they returned to Scarsdale.

Over time, the Scarsdale group expanded the initiative to other Westchester schools.  Today, there are at least 10 Students for Refugees (SFR) chapters at Westchester high schools. They convene to learn more about refugee families and assist in local and international efforts to resettle refugees into other countries, including the U.S.

The Scarsdale chapter held a forum in April to discuss why refugees flee and how they resettle in foreign countries. It hosted a Westchester schools conference in May. The Scarsdale and other school chapters have arranged to work with other Westchester and Connecticut settlement organizations, including the Westchester Refugee Task Force.

Other current projects have included a fund-raising effort for Syrian refugees and public events to educate the community about refugees.

Sidra Bell at the Yale Club, Mar. 15

At Yale, Sidra Bell '01 studied history before deciding on a career in dance.

Greenburgh native Sidra Bell '01, the choreographer who leads her own New York dance company Sidra Bell Dance, will speak on dance innovation at the Yale Club of New York, Wednesday, Mar. 5 at 6:30 pm. Yale alumni, guests, and those interested in the arts and dance are invited to attend. 

A New York Times reviewer once referred to one of her group's performances as "slick, in-your-face intensity."  A Washington Post critic described her choreography as "creepy and comical."  

Bell will discuss her work after a short reception.  At Yale, a resident of Saybrook College, she majored in history before earning an MFA degree from Purchase College. Her dance company has performed around the country and abroad (in Greece, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Germany, among other countries). 

In 2015, she was honored by ArtsWestchester as one of the top 50 artists who work in or are from Westchester. 

"It's not about the steps," she once told an interviewer. "It's the ideas behind the steps."

Sidra Bell '01 will speak on dance innovation and contemporary dance at the Yale Club of New York, Mar. 15

Rosenthal: "I Got This"

At the Pittsburgh Opera this month, with little notice, Edgemont's Rosenthal was asked to sing two roles in one performance.

Luck, they say, is the residue of hard work.  Or it's all about being in the right place at the right time, because of passion, preparation and confidence.

Take Claudia Rosenthal '08 '14MM, for example. A recent example.  Rosenthal, an Edgemont native, studied music and opera at Yale and has won prizes to identify promising young performers, including competitions sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera.  She is currently a Resident Artist at the Pittsburgh Opera.

One afternoon in mid-October, she had a scheduled small part (Annina) in the company's La Traviata production.  On the morning of the performance, the performer for the lead role Violetta was unable to sing because of a bout with laryngitis.  The opera's directors decided to come up with a plan.  They asked Rosenthal to sing both her role and the lead role. 

During the performance, Rosenthal stood on the side of the stage and sang both parts, while other performers acted the parts and lip-synced what Rosenthal sang. (The audience was aware and could see Rosenthal.) By the end of the performance, Rosenthal, by some estimates, had sung about two-thirds of the entire performance. 

Local media didn't miss the feat.  "I was having conversations with myself," Rosenthal told the Pitts Post-Gazette, "because Violetta and Annina have conversations."

One audience member said of Rosenthal's two-part role, "Opera can be very tradition-bound, so when something shakes it up a little bit, I think that's all to the good."

Before she approached the stage to begin the performance, Rosenthal looked into a mirror and said she told herself, "You got this."

Cool, Comfortable Macbeth

YWAA's annual outing at Boscobel, Aug. 14, featured a performance of Macbeth by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival after a late-afternoon rain cooled off a hot summer day in Garrison (YWAA photos)

Maria Christina-Oliveras '01 played the role of Macbeth in an audience of rows of Yale alumni and guests. (YWAA photos)

The weather cooperated in the end. After a day of scorching heat and a before-dark thunderstorm, the evening setting at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival was cool, comfortable. Hot temperatures had scared away a few ticket-buyers for the production of Macbeth under the big tent. The few hundred who gathered received special Hudson River treatment—a welcome after-rain breeze as they watched Shakespeare characters wrestle mightily with 17th-century power struggles.

The annual YWAA outing at Boscobel in Garrison, Aug. 14, featured Yale alum Maria Christina-Oliveras ’01 playing the male role of Macbeth. Christina-Oliveras was tasked with bringing female sensibilities to a character who spends much of the play plotting, by any means necessary, to become king of Scotland.

And she performed the role in front of several rows of Yale alumni and one of her Yale Shakespeare professors, Martin Biggs. True to YWAA custom, before the performance at the nearby Hastings Center, Biggs lectured to YWAA guests and invited his former student to discuss Macbeth and the uniqueness of her playing this male role. His ex-pupil talked about “the curse of Macbeth,” the reluctance of performers to mention the play by name, and some personal evidence of why that might be true.

During the performance, Christina-Oliveras had a chance to exhibit many talents—from pantomiming violent scenes and exuding Macbethian rage to singing a handful of her lines (as called for in this performance).

She was joined on the tent’s dirt-floor stage by two other female actresses in director Lee
Sunday Evans’ effort to present this modern variation of Macbeth: Female characters who normally observe violent activities of male counterparts become those male characters to better understand malevolent intent and violent behavior. HVSF just doesn’t do Shakespeare. It shakes up the performance, reinterprets themes, and modernizes the setting. It asks characters like Christina-Oliveras to wear costumes that seem more like 2016 than 1616 and make gestures that are more akin to 21st-century dance steps than gyrations from the 1500's.

During a busy Boscobel summer, Christina-Oliveras, who went to high school in New Rochelle before enrolling at Yale, has also appeared in the Shakespeare play As You Like It.

YWAA board members Dan Leonard '76 and Rich Fabbro ’76 arranged the day's Yale events, substituting for long-time Boscobel organizer, Bruce Jennings '71, now a Nashville resident.

Amar and the Constitution in Scarsdale

Yale Prof. Akhil Reed Amar spoke at the Scarsdale Library, May 10, and his lecture was like "a really good Yale lecture that had students hanging out after class."  (YWAA photos)

By all accounts from New Haven, Yale Law School Professor Akhil Reed Amar '80 '84JD is a favorite, popular lecturer on campus, an experienced instructor who brings  content to life and keeps students on edges of seats begging for more.  He is an expert on the U.S. Constitution and--just as much--an expert in analyzing what Founding Fathers might have had in mind and explaining the vast interpretations of the old document.

As part of YWAA's lecture series, Amar spoke to alumni, guests and neighbors in Scarsdale, May 10, and bedazzled his audience in the  way he thrills his students in the Law School and at Yale College. In his mostly extemporaneous talk, which included a lively Q-and-A session, Amar was exuberant, engaged, and entertaining.

His talk, "The Constitution and the Presidential Election of 2016,"  touched all bases and hot buttons--from the left to the right, referring occasionally to analyses from one of his many books.

His latest book, The Law of the Land:  A Grand Tour of our Constitutional Republic, was published last year. He is finishing a book, The Constitution Today:  Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era, that will be published in late 2016. He has written opinion pieces on current issues and the Constitution for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic.

Amar knew his audience, which included lawyers who learned a little bit more about Constitutional law and non-lawyers who followed him in step and were inspired to spar with him to ask him anything they wished. It was like, one observer said, "a really good Yale lecture that had students hanging out after class for more questions and arguments after class."

The YWAA series, led and organized by YWAA board member and treasurer Rich Fabbro '76, invites prominent Yale professors to Westchester to lead discussions on their areas of expertise, favorite projects and programs or recent publications. The Scarsdale event was hosted by YWAA board members Fabbro and B.K. Munguia '75.

Lighten Leadership Luncheon, 2016

The annual Janifer Lighten '83 Leadership Luncheon will be held in Larchmont, June 12. (YBAA photos)

The Janifer Lighten '83 2016 Leadership Luncheon, which pays tribute to the late YWAA board member and Yale alumni leader, is scheduled for Saturday, June 12 at Larchmont Shore Club (1 Oak Bluff Ave.), 12-4 pm, in Larchmont.  Besides commemorating Lighten's community contributions, the third-annual luncheon highlights the accomplishments of local high-school students and benefits the Boys & Girls Club of New Rochelle.

Lighten, at the time of her death from cancer in Feb., 2012, was the president of the Yale Black Alumni Association. She was also a prominent community-services leader in Westchester.  Married to William Lighten '86, she was the mother of four children, all of whom attended or are current students at Yale.

Lighten was a past recipient of the Yale Outstanding Service Award for her service in Westchester.

Contact the Club at 914-235-3736 for tickets, sponsorships and more details about the event.

Amar Comes to Scarsdale, May 10

Yale Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar '80, U.S. Constitution expert, will speak to alumni and guests in Scarsdale, May 10 (Yale photos)

Yale Law School Professor Akhil Reed Amar '80 '84JD, one of the most popular faculty members on campus and one of the best known scholars of the U.S. Constitution, will speak to alumni and guests in Scarsdale, May 10, as part of YWAA's ongoing lecture series.  The series, led and organized by YWAA board member and treasurer Rich Fabbro '76, invites prominent Yale professors to Westchester to lead discussions on their areas of expertise, favorite projects and programs or recent publications.

Amar will give his talk, "The Constitution and the Presidential Election of 2016," at the Scarsdale Library (54 Olmsted Rd.) at 7:30 pm.

Yale history Professor Joanne Freeman presented a lively lecture on "Dirty Politics" and America in the early years after the Revolution last December.  Physics Professor and Department Head Meg Urry spoke about and explained with colorful slides "Galaxies and Black Holes," also in Scarsdale, in 2014.

In 2012, Amar wrote America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By.  Reviewer Ken Gormley in the Washington Post called the work "a masterful, readable book that constitutes one of the best, most creative treatments of the U.S. Constitution in decades." In the book, Amar claims the Constitution must be read "as a whole rather than as a jumble of discrete clauses."

Amar has written opinion pieces on current issues and the Constitution for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic.

His latest book, The Law of the Land:  A Grand Tour of our Constitutional Republic, was published last year. He is finishing a book, The Constitution Today:  Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era, that will published in late 2016.

"Amar is a respectful critic of conservative originalism (in interpreting the Constitution)," Princeton Professor Robert George wrote in the New York Times in 2012. "He takes the written text seriously as limiting judicial freedom of maneuver, but argues that the Constitution is more than the text, even when supplemented by its original understanding."

George wrote in reviewing one of his books: "Amar insists that the idea itself (of an unwritten interpretation of the Constitution) is sound...(but) needs rescuing from its abusers."

During the 2016 presidential-election season, Amar has been asked to interpret whether candidate Ted Cruz, born in Canada, is eligible to be U.S. president.  "I do not embrace Ted Cruz politically," he wrote in CNN.com in January and outlined a lengthy layman's argument to support Cruz's eligibility.  "But I do embrace his right to run for president, and so should you."

Holloway: Civic Engagement at Yale

Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway '95 Ph.D. talked to alumni in Rye Brook, Mar. 2, about campus events and about the Yale Civic Leadership Conference (YWAA photos)

Events on the campus at Yale last fall attracted national attention and could have reached a combustion point, as factions of students fought to get their voices heard. Fortunately they didn't. Speaking to an alumni group from YWAA and Yale Greenwich, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway '95 Ph.D. didn't avoid addressing what was surely on the minds of many alumni. He welcomed and handled questions with ease and candor.

But he insisted on highlighting a promising new program on campus regarding civic engagement. Thanks in part to time and leadership of alumnus Eric Liu '90, CEO of Citizen University, the Yale Civic Leadership Initiative was formed last year to give students a forum to address civic and community issues and learn how to become effective leaders in the community.

What started as an idea and a discussion by Liu and Holloway has taken off.  In January, the Initiative held its second conference of workshops, idea sharing, and leadership, open to Yale undergraduates.  On a Saturday for a whole day, when most would have preferred to sleep in, 120 students arrived early in the morning to take buses to West Campus to participate. 

Impressed by the students' resolve to commit to something new and important, Holloway said students sacrificed the day to devote to discussions and planning to improve civic engagement and agree to disagree in a civil way. They seized the day and proved students from different backgrounds and political interests could find common ground for the common good.

After a fall semester remembered for flared emotions and national media chronicling high-pitched dialogue among professors, deans, and student groups, Holloway said sessions like that of Civic Leadership Conference prove students want the best for all. So engaged have many become that students gladly accepted Holloway's challenge to assume greater roles in the Initiative in the periods to come.

Detroit city official Richard Tao '10,  film producer Lynn Novick '83, and former student leader and New Haven activist Caroline Smith '14 were Yale alumni speakers at the Conference.

The national media  have wandered away from Cross Campus, and Holloway and President Peter Salovey '86 Ph.D have been attentive to follow-up and have returned to the business of managing complex university affairs. Other institutions, he acknowledged, have invited him and Yale officials to speak to understand how Yale wound up last fall on an upbeat note.

Prominent on the New Haven agenda these days, Holloway said, is preparing for the opening of the two new residential colleges in 2017, the names for which will be announced in the weeks to come.  New colleges mean hiring new staff and even luring some off-campus students back to campus by allowing them to live in an elegant new setting, which promises attractive amenities.

Holloway's agenda is crammed, he admitted, far more than he thought when he accepted the Yale College post. Often the events of the moment or a crisis of the week sets his schedule each day.

The "core of Yale" is still there, he assured Westchester and Greenwich alums.  What makes Yale Yale is still there.  But a more diverse Yale with global roots and community-engaged students makes Yale better.

Rosenthal Wins Opera Prize

Claudia Rosenthal '08 '14MM receives another honor highlighting her talents in singing (CR photos)

Claudia Rosenthal ’08 ‘14MMus., who trained at Yale and grew up in Edgemont, was named a winner at the George London Foundation competition Feb. 19. The competition honors outstanding young opera singers from America and Canada. She was among six winners who each received a $10,000 prize. The event in Manhattan at the Morgan Library featured 83 singers.

The competition, named for the bass baritone George London, has awarded prizes annually since 1971 and encourages young, talented singers to pursue long careers in opera. Judges this year included a notable list of opera singers.  Soprano Harolyn Blackwell, tenor George Shirley, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, and baritone Richard Stilwell, who himself was a George London winner at the first competition, helped select the 2016 winners.

New York Times music critic James Oestreich assessed Rosenthal's final performance as one of his four favorites in the competition.  Rosenthal sang Poulenc's "Les Mamelles de Tiresais."

Rosenthal is a first-year Resident Artist at Pittsburgh Opera. In recent years, she has sung with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Yale Opera (Yale in New York) in Carnegie Hall, and Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and at Tanglewood Music Center. She has received other prizes, including the Rohatyn Great Promise Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council (East Region) and the Alumni Prize when she graduated from the Yale School of Music.

Also at Yale, she was a featured performer at the 2013 inauguration concert in Woolsey Hall for new President Peter Salovey ’86 Ph.D. As a student, she sang in six different productions (in the undergraduate and graduate programs) and performed at the YWAA banquet in 2008.

In 2016, at Pittsburgh Opera she will sing in performances of The Barber of Seville (Rossini) and The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky).

Save the Date: Holloway in Rye Brook

Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway '91MA '95Ph.D. will speak to alumni in Rye Brook, Mar.2 (Yale photos)

In all his decades at Yale, at no time was Dean Jonathan Holloway '91MA '95Ph.D. as busy as he was last fall on campus in New Haven.

Wrapping up his first full year as dean of Yale College, Holloway emerged to become a known face of Yale, while listening with concern to student demonstrators, developing plans to improve diversity in all aspects of Yale, devising an approach to address the naming of Calhoun College, promoting a new edition (with his own introduction in the front) of the seminal book (Souls of Black Folk) by scholar W.E.B. DuBois, teaching and doing research in Yale's African American Studies department, and responding to a stream of interview requests from the national media, including the New York Times and the New Yorker. 

In 2016, Holloway will slip away from New Haven for an evening to talk to alumni, when he will speak at the Hilton Westchester in Rye Brook, Wednesday, Mar. 2 at 6 pm.  His talk will be entitled "Continuing the Tradition of Civic Engagement in Yale College." Alumni and guests are invited and encouraged to register online.

The program is sponsored by YWAA, AYA and the Yale Alumni Association of Greenwich and follows a tradition of Yale leaders speaking to Westchester-area alumni, parents and students about Yale issues and programs.  (Yale president Peter Salovey '86Ph.d. spoke in Greenwich to a ballroom filled with alumni just weeks after his inauguration in Oct., 2013.)

Holloway was a popular master of Calhoun College for nine years before stepping into the deanship of Yale College in July, 2014. He was often called "Dr. J" while presiding over the college and was known to have memorized the name of every student in Calhoun every year. (He is also known to sport a different Yale tie for each day of the week.) "Part of why Calhoun is so cohesive is his force of personality," a student told the Yale Daily News in 2008.  "He is (the college)."

He has served as Chair of the Council of Masters and Chair of the Department of African American Studies.  He received Yale's DeVane award for outstanding scholarship and teaching in 2009 and wrote major reports encouraging Yale to expand the number of residential colleges by two.

Holloway has a resume' similar to those of Salovey and former president Richard Levin '74Ph.D. All three migrated to Yale for graduate school after receiving undergraduate degrees at Stanford. (Holloway, in fact, played football at Stanford.) All three served in senior administration roles at Yale.

In 2015, a favorite moment for him occurred hundreds miles from his office at Yale in Florida. Last July, Holloway, the former football player with no baseball experience, threw out the first pitch at a Miami Marlins game against the New York Yankees. The Yale connection?  The Marlins are owned by Jeffrey Loria '62.  Their president is David Samson, father of current student Hannah Samson '16.

To register for this event, click HOLLOWAY.  The online registration fee is $35.

Alumni College: Intro to Jung

Kendrick Norris '77 MDiv '01 MST will lead a short course on the Psychology of Jung in Rye Mar. 8-Apr. 12

The AYA's Yale Alumni College returns to Westchester this spring, when Yale Divinity School alumnus Kendrick Norris '77 MDiv '01 MST will teach a short course, "An Introduction to the Psychology of Jung," in Rye Mar. 8-Apr. 12, 2016.  Classes are scheduled for Tuesday evenings at 7 pm at the Osborn at 101 Theall Rd.

Kendrick, an expert on the teachings and principles of Carl Jung, also has a Ph.d. from the Graduate Theological Foundation and has worked in pastoral and family counseling at St. Raphael Hospital in New Haven. He is a founding member of the Connecticut Association for Jungian Psychology and a board member of the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology in New York.

Norris' six-week course is an introduction to the theories of Jung with reference to the second half of life.  Jung often said the first half of life is about the development of ego, influenced in part by relationships with parents. The second half is about letting go of egos and is a "time of the soul," a psychological freedom.

Westchester alums interested in attending can register by clicking ALUM-COLLEGE. A $200 fee is required.

In 2015, the Alumni College in Westchester hosted courses on Shakespeare and opera in the fall and sleep disorders last spring.