Monthly Archives: January 2011

Honoring Dr. King

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“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.” So said Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, the focus of attention over these next few days. Do any of these opportunities to focus on Dr. King’s ideals speak to you?


A listening opportunity: “Why is it so difficult to have conversations about race?” Melissa Harris Perry helped to answer that question, speaking with Marty Moss-Coane this morning on WHYY, and it will be rebroadcast tonight at 10 p.m. (Friday, January 14) and also available by podcast.


A service opportunity: come to PJ Hill school in Trenton on Monday, January 17, 9 to noon. Organizing for America NJ will organize volunteers to paint murals in the cafeteria, spruce up the grounds, and build picnic tables.

A children’s workshop: the Arts Council of Princeton will try to bring Dr. King’s efforts to life with an afternoon of creative learning, artistic expression, and hands on fun, Monday, January 17, 1 to 4 p.m. at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, cosponsored by the Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum.
A university celebration: Princeton University will hold its annual awards ceremony on Monday, January 17, 1 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.

A worship opportunity: attend the Princeton Clergy Association’s annual interfaith service on Monday, January 17, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Princeton United Methodist Church, 7 Vandeventer Street. The Coalition for Peace Action is the co-sponsor. Pastor Catherine Williams, pastoral assistant at Princeton United Methodist Church, will preach. Music will be provided by the Combined Choir of Mt. Pisgah and Lashir of the Jewish Center of Princeton, and there
will be solos by Carlensha Bethea Grady of Nassau Presbyterian Church and Stuart Lehman of the Jewish Center.
A youth interfaith service: bring the family to the First Baptist Church youth day, 126 Kids in Jeans, on Sunday, January 23, at 10:30 p.m. The number 126 refers to the age of the church. (Shown above, the church’s “I Have a Dream” memorial).
A discussion opportunity: attend one of the series, Continuing Conversations on Race, sponsored by Not in Our Town, at the Princeton Public Library on first Mondays. The next is Monday, February 7, at 7:30 p.m.

Martin Luther King also said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Guest Post: on Community Works

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Princeton’s Community Works is always a “must do” in January. As a guest post, here is a letter that CW volunteer Krystal Knapp wrote to remind her friends to register. Thanks, Krystal!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,


Do you know a nonprofit or civic group leader, staff member or volunteer who could benefit from a night of networking and training? If so, please forward this information to them along with the attached flyer.

On the evening of Jan. 24 we will hold the 14th annual Community Works conference at the Frist Center at Princeton University. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Anthony Branker, director of the program in jazz studies at Princeton.

Workshops range from topics like Raising Money in Difficult Times and The Grantwriter’s Toolbox to Recruiting and Cultivating Board Members and Attracting and Retaining Volunteers. There are 20 workshops to choose from, with several new workshops this year, including a session on how to leverage your volunteer experience to find a paying job.

The $29 fee for the conference includes a networking session, keynote, two workshops, a boxed dinner, coffee and snacks. We expect to have more than 400 attendees. People interested in registering should do so ASAP to get their first choice of workshops.

More information about the conference can be found at PrincetonCommunityWorks.org.

Thanks for helping us spread the word. If you have already registered we look forward to seeing you on the 24th.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2011,

Krystal Knapp


I’d like to add that more than 200 organizations have been represented over the past 13 years. Check out this list. I bet your group is on it.
Those who hope to benefit from corporate contributions to their charities would do well to attend the Princeton Chamber of Commerce Foundation Program on Wednesday, January 26, at 8 a.m. at the D&R; Greenway Johnson Education Center. Bill Clark of Philabundance will keynote. Cost: $10.

BFF



Entrepreneurs in a Material World

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Can wannabe entrepreneurs take time to listen to David Pogue expound on Innovation? Len Newton asked this question and called this presentation at WHYY to my attention. On Wednesday, January 26, 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Philadelphia, New York Times columnist David Pogue (above) will host a screening of Nova’s “Making Stuff,” billed as “a groundbreaking series that focuses on the personal qualities that underlie the process of invention — the visionary talent, sheer luck and dogged determination that turn a wild idea into a cutting-edge material.” The series premieres on Wednesday, January 19, at 9 p.m.

After the January 26 screening Pogue will preside over a panel of U Penn and Drexel materials scientists, to include Dr. Mitra Taheri, Hoeganaes Assistant Professor of Metallurgy, Department of Materials Science and Engineeri
ng, Drexel University; Dr. Yury Gogotsi, Distinguished University and Trustee Chair Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University; Dr. Robert Carpick, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, and Penn Director of the Nanotechnology Institute; and Dr. Daniel Gianola, Skirkanich Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

As Len Newton says, the price is right, it’s free. But you absolutely must register.

Closer geographically, perhaps dearer to the hearts and minds of New Jersey’s entrepreneurs, is the New Jersey Entrepreneurial Network meeting on Wednesday, February 2 at noon at Rutgers University Welcome Center in Piscataway. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (upper right) will keynote on the topic how can entrepreneurs access university research, technology, and resources. I

f you register, it costs $40 and you get your name on the roster that will be distributed (a valuable perk) $50 at the door.

Guadagno will also speak on a presumably different topic at the Mercer County Economic Summit on Wednesday, March 16. Her appearance hasn’t been announced yet though, so act surprised.

Jo Leonard will discuss “Why Generation Ys are Good for Business” at the Princeton Regional chamber breakfast meeting on Wednesday, January 19, at 7:30 a.m. at the Nassau Club.

Save the date: Bill Ford, Princeton Class of ’79, speaks at the Keller Center on Tuesday, February 15, 4:30 p.m.

T-Shirts Build New Jersey Pride

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Here are some nuggets from Thursday’s Princeton chamber lunch:

The record for eating oysters is 102 in two minutes (apropos of the February 6 Oyster Bowl, the annual fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation staged by restaurateur and chamber board member Jack Morrison).

Bob Hillier, architect and chamber chairman, has found a way to do business with eight chamber member businesses (apropos of how chamber membership is about giving business as well as getting business).

Jeff Vanderbeek, owner of the New Jersey Devils and the luncheon speaker (above), effectively used his Wall Street background in several ways. He didn’t say, but it goes without saying, that he exited Lehman Brothers at the right time. He has wealth and was willing to risk some of it for the good of Newark.

His father had advised him to divide his life into three segments: “learn,” “earn,” and “return,” and now he is in the third phase.

But my ears pricked up when he talked about buying steel for the $400 million new stadium, the first to open in the tri-state area in three decades. Vanderbeek knew enough about the futures market to buy his steel ahead of time. By the time he needed it, Katrina had come along, and the price had skyrocketed.

Freelance reporter Wendy Plump covered the speech well in the Times of Trenton and included a couple more of my favorite comments, such as the story about how — whe
never newspaper headlines prophesied doom for the Prudential stadium — Vanderbeek put those headlines on T-shirts and distributed them to the construction workers: “It’s great to have an enemy because you can galvanize your foes…Management walked around with a smile because your troops have to see you looking cheery. It was us against the world. It was us against the naysayers. You have to will your way through it sometimes.” The stadium came through on time and on budget.

Vanderbeek also pointed out that his team is the only one to wear the state name on their shirts.
Who taught him how to motivate a team? My guess is, he learned it playing high school sports. The inside joke of the day was that Vanderbeek and Larry Krampf, past chamber chairman (shown at right with Cheryl Durst), had played on rival football teams in high school. In one hard-fought game they collided on the field, and Krampf walked away minus his two front teeth.

Krampf must have had a good dentist. Larry, your teeth look terrific now.

PS Thanks to Present Company for the luncheon dessert — elegant boxed chocolates on each table.

Waiters Holiday: At the Witherspoon Grill

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You know that Princeton has come up in the world, as a dining destination, when a French waiter from a very French Upper East Side restaurant (left) chooses a Princeton restaurant (above) for his night on the town.


It was one of those fun Princeton-in-the-wider-world moments. On the spur of the moment today we hopped the train to catch the almost-last showing of Peter Greenaway’s evocation of Da Vinci’s Last Supper at the Park Avenue Armory. (How did I know about it? I wanted to see a Greenaway installation in Venice and missed it by a fluke. I would have missed this one except that Ragged Sky Press happened to tweet about it. The power of Twitter!)

We figured there would plenty of places to eat around there, in the neighborhood of Hunter College. Wrong. We began to think we would have to settle for pizza when we stumbled into what looked like a hotel but was actually an elegant French restaurant on Park Avenue at 65th. (When I first wrote this I didn’t include the actual name of the restaurant, but now I can — it’s Daniel’s.. Turns out it has three Michelin *** and four New York Times stars and is arguably the best French restaurant in Manhattan.)


We weren’t dressed for elegant dining but they let us hang out in the lounge, and having consumed some really fabulous food, delivered with really fabulous service, discovered that our waiter (I don’t have his permission to use his name) actually lives in Bucks County and commutes by NJ Transit.

We chatted about Princeton’s dining scene; he remembered Les Copains and said his favorite spot is the Witherspoon Grill, because it does such great things with meats. He brings his wife there for his own night on the town.

When I get his permission I’ll add his name and the name of the New York eatery. (It’s Pascal Vittu, and he’s the cheese steward at Daniel’s.) Here’s the strange or perhaps not so strange part: He had never heard of Lahiere’s.

Princeton’s Beautiful People

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All those beautiful people. All those tantalizing dates. They’re in this year’s U.S. 1 Newspaper’s calendar and datebook, and if you go to the Princeton Regional Chamber’s lunch on Thursday, January 6, you’ll be able to get your own free copy.


If you can’t make it to Thursday’s lunch, stop by the U.S. 1 office at Roszel Road for a copy of the calendar, and if you volunteer for a non-profit, pick up some extras for the other board members. Free copies are also available in limited quantities at the Princeton Public Library, or the West Windsor or Plainsboro libraries.

The dates — five to the day, carefully curated by Lynn Miller — help you plan your week and your month. (Did you know that these dates, and more, are also online?

The images by David Kelly Crow are taken from more than 20 “U.S. 1 Crashes a Party” photo features, including the Jerry Fennelly’s 50th birthday party, the Arts Council’s Pinot to Picasso event, Trinity’s Bastille Day ball, and the Palmer Square fashion show. Check out these photo opps: former governor James Florio at the chamber’s Jasna Polana awards gala, or David Crane, CEO of NRG at the Princeton Art Museum party, dancing with his wife, dipping her parallel to the floor. Va Va Voom.

Will you see yourself in the calendar?

Power Plays for January

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For the past several years, the Princeton Regional Chamber has started off the New Year with a luncheon speaker who prognosticated about the economy. For instance, last year’s January speaker for the chamber was David Sandahl, who predicted gloomy results for job creation. But for this year, enough about the economy, we need something more cheerful.

Jeff Vanderbeek, the speaker for Thursday, January 6, 11:30 a.m. at the Princeton Marriott, has finance forecasting chops, because he used to be at Lehman Brothers. But now he is chairman of the New Jersey Devils hockey team, and he will talk about how he aims for a payout from the largest private investment in New Jersey. Walk-ins pay more, so pre-register.

And sure enough, this January lots of people are still looking for jobs. At the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday, January 5, at 7 p.m., outplacement consultant Jean Baur offers some consolation and advice, in part from her book, “Eliminated? Now What?” Co-sponsored by NJ Unemployed, the group begun by Katie Devito aimed at making the unemployed a collective voice, the event is free.

More meetings of value in the next week:

At the library, on Monday, January 10, at 6:45 p.m., Brinda Wiita will speak about how small businesses can use social media. A neuroendocrinologist and pharmacologist, she manages a website for submission of patented and patent-pending opportunities that may be commercialized by Johnson & Johnson Consumer companies.

New Jersey Technology Council offers its latest CEO Forum, “Managing a Board of Directors,” on Wednesday, January 12, at 8:30 a.m. at the offices of the Edison Venture Fund, 1009 Lenox Drive. Cost: $25. Visit www.njtc.org.

Also on January 12, a nationwide group teams with New Jersey’s Solid Waste Resource Group will present “Creating Ways to Keep Organics Out of the Landfill, a day-long interactive workshop, aimed at creating a vision for organics recycling. Cost $20 including lunch, call 609-651-1544 or vastola@aesop.rutgers.edu.

Donna Liu teaches a free course on how to use the Internet to spread your message. It’s on Thursday, January 13, 9 a.m., at Princeton Community Television, 369 Witherspoon Street, and. like the library workshops, it’s free.

For more social media advice, check out these excerpts from U.S. 1’s Survival Guide.) And check the calendar of U.S. 1 Newspaper for other business meetings that can give you a “shot on goal.”


LEEEP for Emerging Leaders

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If you are young, or at least young at heart, you can help launch the Princeton chamber’s new networking organization on Thursday, January 13, 6 to 8 p.m. at the D&R; Greenway Land Trust, One Preservation Place. Cost: $10. Register at http://www.princetonchamber.org

This new group is called “LEEEP” and though all the promos don’t necessarily say so, it’s geared for younger folk. I’m not sure what the cut off is, maybe early 40s? “Emerging leaders” is the catch word. So if you feel like you belong in the emerging leader crowd, check it out.

LEEEP will offer social, philanthropic, and professional development activities. Ronit Levy, of RHR International, and attorney Sandy Durst, are the co-chairs, and the board includes David Sears, Pam Weiss, Adam Perle, Scott Jurgens, Megan Johnston, Walter Hedrick, Fred Gomez, and Kari Barrio.

Oh yes, if you’re wondering, the three Es stand for Engage, Exchange, and Excel.


Medieval Play Unfolds Mystery

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Ever since 1980, when I saw Bhutanese monks incorporate slapstick with their religious dances, I’ve been interested in how comedy can impart spiritual values. They knew that in the Middle Ages, when stained glass windows served as Biblical texts for illiterate peasants, and when actor/dancers told Bible stories by staging “mystery plays” in front of the cathedrals.


Today’s churches follow suit when they stage Nativity plays (shown here, my church’s annual pageant). Like the medieval mystery plays, they depict Bible stories as tableaux, accompanied by songs.


A Princeton University senior, Phoenix Gonzalez, had that same fascination. For her senior thesis she presents Wakefield Mystery Plays at the University chapel on Friday, January 7, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, January 8, at 3 p.m. The play begins outside the chapel, so dress warmly. It’s free, no tickets needed.


Says Gonzalez: “The goal of this project is to capture some of the medieval aspects of the plays, while also exploring elements of modern life, and in so doing, to probe important questions such as: What is the role of the community as audience and creator in this type of theater? How can religious theater be understood today?”


This could be a wonderful family activity on Saturday afternoon. Actors will be speaking in stanzas but one of the two plays, The Second Shepherd’s Play, opens with buffoonery, involving a thief who steals a sheep and tries to pretend it is his son. When he is discovered, the shepherds punish him by tossing him on a blanket – and then set forth to visit the Christ Child.


Time travel to the early 15th century — and get back in time for dinner.

Titans of Dance Teach

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Two titans of dance are represented here next week in master classes. One, amazingly enough, is for those with Parkinson’s Disease. It makes sense, doesn’t it, that dancers — who know how to use the body — are the best teachers of those who have difficulty moving.

On Saturday, January 15, at 2:30 p.m., two dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Group will give a free movement class for those with Parkinson’s Disease and their partners, caregivers, and friends. Space is limited at the PDT studio in Forrestal Village at 116 Rockingham Row, so register now, says Marie Snyder, who organized this class, the first such master class in New Jersey. Here;s a link to a documentary about this therapy.

Bill T. Jones will lecture and show a video of his 1978 work Continuous Replay, which Princeton University students are scheduled to perform. Then Jones will conduct an open rehearsal. The Tuesday, January 18 lecture and screening will be from 3 to 4:15 p.m. in the James M. Stewart theater at 185 Nassau Street, and the rehearsal will start at 4:45 p.m. in the Hagan Dance Studio in the same building. Both events are free, and no tickets are needed. Master classes “open to the university community” are also offered, in January, on the styles of Balanchine, Fosse, and Robbins.

Looking ahead, the students will likely perform the Bill T. Jones work at the Spring Dance Festival, February 18-20 in McCarter’s Berlind Theatre. The Mark Morris Dance Group (pictured) will no doubt be a sellout at McCarter on March 30.