All posts by bfiggefox

Princeton Prizes for Positive Race Relations

Faith and Social Justice, multicultural, , , ,

Coming to town — a conference based on a national prize that Princeton University awards, aiming to “promote harmony, understanding, and respect among people of different races by identifying and recognizing high school age students whose efforts have had a significant, positive effect on race relations in their schools or communities.” The Princeton Prize Symposium on Race is Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30. Mickey Faigan, of Issues Management (based at Princeton Overlook) will open the conference on Friday, and the speakers include Michele Tuck-Ponder, who gives a workshop on 90-second elevator speeches. Saturday’s proceedings are open to the public. 2014 4 prize symposiumI’d also like to point out that Not in Our Town Princeton ––  an interracial, interfaith group united to advance the cause of racial justice in Princeton — gives annual Unity Awards to Princeton High School students who have helped to carry out the NIOT Princeton mission statement:  We are committed to speaking truth about “everyday racism” and other forms of prejudice and discrimination. Where there is conflict we promote reconciliation with open, honest engagement and mutual respect. Our goal is that Princeton will grow as a town where everyone is safe and respected.

 

At minute 4: end-of-life decisions

Healthcare, Technology & Innovation, , , , , ,

Barile at hospitalWHYY’s Newsworks Tonight aired a segment tonight (April 14, 2016) that featured Dr. David Barile’s NJ Goals of Care,.the nonprofit that aims to match patient goals with available therapies by using the NJ POLST (Practitioner Orders for Life Sustaining Treatments) form. Health reporter Elana Gordon also interviewed me re how a caregiver deals with end-of-life decisions. Ten years ago, without good medical guidance, I made end-of-life decisions for a loved one that still keep me awake at night. Two years ago, as a caregiver for a relative in Princeton, I had the benefit of an excellent palliative consult and the POLST process, and I could be completely comfortable with the decisions.

I’m not used to being on the “other end” of an interview, but Gordon expertly elicited an appropriate soundbite.  elana gordon

Here is the podcast link where Barile’s segment is minutes 4 to 6. And here is my first-person story “Evangelist for Palliative Care: Listen First, Then Prescribe,” based on my caregiving experience in 2014,  for U.S. 1 Newspaper.

This Saturday, April 16, is National Healthcare Decisions Day. Much is made of the need for Advanced Directives, and the Princeton Senior Resource  Center offers some excellent tools for making those decisions. But we make Advanced Directives decisions years away from when we are actually sick. If the patient can’t make the decisions, then the Advanced Directives offer useful guidelines.

In contrast, the POLST form deals with particulars — the patient’s current symptoms, current goals, up to date prognosis and available treatments. It offers a framework for extended discussion with a medical professional who can clearly lay out the alternatives.

Please try to take a look at the video series on NJ Goals of Care. Here’s hoping you won’t need them soon. But for later — you will know how to help a loved one get access to good information and make thoughtful decisions, decisions that bring the blessing of peace of mind.

 

Leaning in for Slaughter and Morris

Dance and Dancers, Dance and the other arts, Uncategorized, , , , ,
morris
“The” by Mark Morris, on the McCarter program on April 12

I just registered for the WIBA program featuring Anne Marie Slaughter for (as I write on Monday) for Tuesday, April 12, 5 p.m.. Finally broke down and did it, wasn’t going to (my favorite choreographer Mark Morris is at McCarter that night) but I will just have to leave Greenacres Country Club early. Wasn’t going to go because I have mixed feelings about Slaughter’s opinions on why women can’t have it all as blurted out in the notorious article in The Atlantic. 

Of course women can’t have it all. We pre-Gloria Steinem brides knew that all along.

But I got so confused by the discourse (she said/ She said/ she said/ She said) that I gave up and went on doing what I was doing before, which was trying to have it all and not succeeding.

photo anne-marie-slaughter

So I’m hoping this former Princeton professor turned media guru will enlighten me on her current views about women. (Will she also weigh in, as a former Woodrow Wilson School dean, on the Wilson/name controversy?) . I will have to  leave early to see Mark Morris Dance, but at least I’ll take home a copy of Unfinished Business,  her new book based on the article that caused so much commotion.

As for Morris — Virtually all of Morris’s choreography is to live music, including Whelm to Debussy and The,  a four-hand arrangement of Bach’s first Brandenburg concerto. (There will be one piece to recorded music; the songs of Ivor Cutler. Complete program here.)   I firmly believe the commotion surrounding the excellence about Mark Morris is well deserved.

 

 

Cannabis and Construction: Controversial at the chamber

Business, Faith and Social Justice, , , , ,

David Knowlton, head of the Compassionate Care Foundation, will speak at the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast at the Nassau Club on “Medical Marijuana: Myth vs Reality” on Wednesday, April 20. 

Is cannabis more controversial than Avalon Bay’s construction at the site of the former Princeton Hospital? At the chamber’s Real Estate Business Alliance on April 29 at Springdale Golf Club,  Ron Ladell of AvalonBay Communities will speak and answer what could be some aggressive questions.

Time to Remember: Jose Limon

Dance and the other arts, Memoir, ,
stackhouse 1
Limon dancer Sarah Stackhouse, left, setting “There Is a Time” on American Repertory Ballet, August 2015

Some of my most exquisite dance memories came from watching Jose Limon’s company perform in 1960, when I was a college student at the American Dance Festival.Some of my most embarrassing moments came, that summer, when I struggled to participate in Limon’s class.

Both came flooding back last August when I watched a former Limon company member, Sarah Stackhouse, on the first day of her teaching the masterwork “There Is a Time” to the American Repertory Ballet. The technique that looks so easy and natural on her body –I began to feel it in my long-ago bones. I’ve been impatient to see the company perform it tonight (Friday, April 8) at McCarter Theatre (tickets here). Do whatever you can to get there, because this piece, based on Ecclesiastes 3, will touch your heart. Here is a video of excerpts from the piece, as performed by the Limon Dance Company.

The April 8 program, titled Masters of American Dance and Music, features the world premiere of Mary Barton’s A Shepherd Singing (And I Still Heard Nothing) with the music –– Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 – performed live by the Princeton University Orchestra under the direction of Michael Pratt.

ARB is at the State Theater next week, April 15, when the company dances to two iconic Stravinsky scores, Firebird and Rite of Spring, vividly choreographed by Douglas Martin. It’s called Echoes of Russian Ballet.

 

David Sedaris & Patrick Murray

Around Town, Business, , , , , ,

When David Sedaris launched his annual speaking tour tonight, standing room only at McCarter (Wednesday), the line for book signing snaked around corners. Asked about the election, his off-the-cuff answer about Trump, paraphrased:

“It’s as if he looked at who wasn’t being pandered to — the stupidest people in America weren’t being pandered to.” Sedaris said, pointing out that at least Trump gives plain answers rather than politician-runaround. “I think he dominated the news so long that people were tired of him.”

Patrick Murray will opine on the same subject on Thursday, April 7 at the Princeton Regional Chamber. To find out what folks are really thinking about politicians like Trump, says Murray, eavesdrop in a diner. Murray is quoted  in  Michele Alperin’s U.S. 1 cover story here. Murray heads the Monmouth University Polling Institute, which is still in the game of political prognosticating, an arena in which — surprisingly — Gallup has left. Here is why.

For this occasion, Sedaris wore culottes. What would Trump say?

 

UFAR’s African Soiree 3/19

Around Town, Faith and Social Justice, , , , , ,
2014 elsie and daniel
Daniel Shungu, founder of UFAR, with Prof Elsie McKee, UFAR supporter and founder of another Congo-based charity, FEBA: Woman, Cradle of Abundance. 

This is an alert about and an invitation to this Saturday’s African Soiree to benefit the United Front Against Riverblindness,  founded by Lawrence resident Daniel Shungu, who has an amazing story — he took early retirement from Merck to “give back” to his home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

My church, Princeton United Methodist, sent a mission team to the Congo in 2008. That was the year we had four (count ’em 4!) fundraisers including the “first annual” African Soiree.

2016 3 15 P1010646 geri vasanth at buffet
Geri LaPlaca, left, Anne Fikaris and Vasanth Victor enjoy the authentic African buffet at the Soiree

Here, a picture of the bountiful feast — the multi-course home-cooked African and American dinner prepared by volunteers — a major feature of the African Soirée. On Saturday, March 19, it starts 5  p.m.(doors open at 4:30 p.m.) at the  Mackay Campus Center of Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer St. Princeton NJ. Tickets are $70 per adult and $35 per child at www.riverblindness.org. For free parking, enter from College Road.shankadi mask

At the Soiree you can shop at the “African Market,” bid on exciting auction items, and get an update on the progress of the UFAR mission by Dr. Shungu. If you’ve attended in the past, you know how much fun it is — Thursday is not too late to get tickets. 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Daniel Shungu, founder of UFAR, with Prof Elsie McKee, UFAR supporter and founder of another Congo-based charity, FEBA: Woman, Cradle of Abundance.

In 2008 to get support for the mission trip, adults and kids from PUMC acted out what it means to be blind in the Congo — where riverblindness ruins two lives, the adult who is blind and the child who must leave school to lead the adult with a pole. This photo shows how we marched through Communiversity with children leading adults to bring the message “$10 saves 7 people from going blind.”

Every year since then UFAR sets up a table at Communiversity in front of the church. Look for them on April 17 on Nassau and Vandeventer at  “the friendly church on the corner.” .

Two talks for National Button Week

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, women, , , , , , , , , ,

 

bridge 2014-04-24 23.07.38

For Women’s History Month — and for National Button Week – here is a button that covers both. It is of the Brooklyn Bridge. This article credits its construction to Emily Roebling who took her father-in-law’s drawings and advice from her bedridden husband to direct the workers.

To honor National Button Week and also the 75th anniversary of the New Jersey State Button Society, I will give a talk on how buttons can illuminate local history. This button will be on prominent display — in fact it is in the case at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library now. Set for Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at the library, the free talk will focus on Theresa Doelger Kuser, doyenne of Kuser Farm Mansion, and I will be joined by Sally Lane, her great granddaughter.

Perhaps I’ll see you there — or at the Women’s College Club of Princeton on Monday, March 21, at 1 p.m. at All Saint’s Church. Guests are welcome, and it will be a different subject, “Every Button has a Story: What story do your buttons tell?” The 133-year-old Brooklyn Bridge is billed as “the most well built bridge in the city” and surely it has stories to tell.

Or perhaps I’ll inspire you to come to the NJSBS Show and Sale on Saturday, May 7 in Titusville. 

Diamond Anniversary for Buttons

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, Uncategorized, ,
through frame
Pam Muzio judges winning trays at the NJSBS show and sale

If “diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” as Marilyn Monroe liked to sing, a very big cake and a diamond anniversary  button will help members and guests of New Jersey State Button Society (NJSBS) celebrate its 75th Anniversary on Saturday, May 7, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The NJSBS will hold its Spring Show and Sale at the Union Fire Company hall, 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ 08560, where there is plenty of free parking.  All are welcome; admission is $2 for adults, free for juniors to age 17.

More than a dozen dealers and artists will offer buttons made from enamel, china, metal, and ivory — plus modern and vintage buttons made from fruit pits, rubber, and glass. The anniversary button, made by New Jersey studio artist Nancy DuBois, will be distributed. At an information table, guests can learn about buttons and the collecting hobby. After the anniversary cake is cut at 1 p.m.,  there will be a button raffle, an NJSBS business meeting, and Annie Frazier, past president of the National Button Society, will lead a forum on how entries are judged for state competitions.

“This  show of collectible clothing buttons attracts antique enthusiasts, quilters, crafters,  re-enactors, and those seeking special buttons to wear,” says Sara Mulford,  president of the NJSBS.  “Whether you are fascinated with their artistic quality, want to examine their material and construction, or seek to delve into their history, there will be buttons for everyone in all price ranges.”

Members of the NJSBS share an interest in studying, collecting, and preserving clothing buttons, both old and new. The group was founded on March 27, 1941, at a time when a nationwide interest in button collecting was surging.  Many authors of classic books on button collecting come from New Jersey.

The anniversary celebration will continue on Saturday, September 10,  at the Fall Show and Sale,  same times and place. The Union Fire Company & Rescue Squad building is located at the intersection of Route 29 and Park Lake Avenue in Titusville, opposite the Delaware River and D&R Canal State Park (within easy access to the canal park), a half mile north of Washington Crossing State Park in Hopewell Township, and some five miles south of Lambertville and New Hope, PA.

For questions contact Sara Mulford, president,  slmulford@verizon.net or 856-275-6945 or see http://newjerseystatebuttonsociety.org

-30-

Saturday, May 7, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., New Jersey State Button Society Fall Show and Competition, Union Fire Company fire hall, 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ 08560.  Diamond Anniversary Celebration. Admission: $2 for adults at the door. http://newjerseystatebuttonsociety.org

Saturday, September 10, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., New Jersey State Button Society Fall Show and Competition, Union Fire Company fire hall, 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ 08560.  Admission: $2 for adults at the door. http://newjerseystatebuttonsociety.org

 

Three decades of dance: Mary Pat Robertson

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, Memoir, women, , , , , , , ,

mary patAfter 35 years at Princeton Ballet School, Mary Pat Robertson has retired. I’m very sad for the dance community but glad for her to have a less compressed schedule

In a comprehensive article by my colleague Anne Levin at Town Topics, Robertson says — and I know this to be true about her — that she loves coaching young dancers and mentions two of her former students among the many. Kraig Patterson  (formerly with Mark Morris) and Unity Phelan, Phelan, whose father is entrepreneur John Phelan, was named in a March 1 essay on rising stars at City Ballet by New York Times critic Alastair Macauley. I saw Phelan teach a master class at PBS and was captivated by her energy and fascinated by her feet. More on that at another time.

Meanwhile I hark back to what was, for me, the heyday of modern dance in Central Jersey, the early ’80s, when Robertson launched an innovative company, Teamwork Dance. Teamwork concerts were never dull, The late Geulah Abrahams and Michelle Mathesius  had their own companies — and even Mark Morris performed at Trenton’s Mill Hill Playhouse. Grant money was available and — surprise! — just a little bit of dough encouraged a lot of dance.

One of Teamwork’s principals, Janell Byrne, also danced with Abrahams and has had her own company for three decades at Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre. Her choreography is on the program this weekend at Rider University, which is now the center for innovative dance. “Transforming and manipulating a scenic element…..” sounds intriguing!

 

. 03.07.16_Rider_Dances_11x17_Eblast (1)