Laurence Carr's (MA '95) new book of microfiction, The Wytheport Tales, was recently published by Codhill Press. Carr is a lecturer at SUNY New Paltz.
Kara Lee Corthron (MA '02) is a 2006 graduate of The Juilliard School's Playwriting program and the recipient of the 2007 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award. She also recently received a Sloan Foundation commission to write a science play.
Andre DeShields (MA '91), a veteran stage actor, received an Obie Award in May 2007 for "Sustained Excellence of Performance" in his Off-Broadway work, which includes playing King Lear with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. The award, given by The Village Voice, is Off-Broadway's highest honor, although DeShields has appeared in numerous roles on Broadway as well. The awards were presented at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and were hosted by Cynthia Nixon and T.R. Knight.
Yvonne Farrow (BA '83) was a celebrity guest at the 2007 National Black Theater Festival, held this summer in Winston-Salem, NC, where she starred main stage in What Would Jesus Do?, a full-length play written and directed by Yvette Heyliger, her twin sister and fellow Gallatin alumna. Farrow originated the role of Leonta Wilson and also recently starred in the critically acclaimed world premiere of the Twinbiz production. She is delighted that her niece, Faith Heyliger, has also chosen to attend the Gallatin School.
Terri Jo Ginsberg (MA '89), a visiting assistant professor in film studies at North Carolina State University, recently published Holocaust Film: The Political Aesthetics of Ideology (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2007). The book is based on her Ph.D. dissertation, which she completed in 1997 in NYU's Cinema Studies program after concentrating in cinema studies for her Gallatin
masters degree.
Margit Kaufman (BA '03), a medical student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, was recently appointed to represent the Association of American Medical Colleges as a student member on the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. There are only two student positions available in the entire nation. Kaufman intends to graduate with her M.D. in May 2008.
Maxinne Leighton's (MA '06) essay, "The Man with Big Hands" was recently published in a nonfiction anthology, The Other Woman (Warner Books, June 2007), whose contributors also include Jane Smiley and Susan Cheever. Leighton gave readings and book signings in New York and California during the summer of 2007, notably doing a signing of her children's book, An Ellis Island Christmas, at the Statue of Liberty in June.
Photo courtesy of MTV
Parisa Montazaran (BA '07) is appearing on MTV as a cast member in the 19th season of the documentary reality television series The Real World. She is the first Iranian-American to be cast for a Real World series. While at Gallatin, Montazaran focused her academics on intercultural relations, Middle Eastern studies, economics, and performance studies. She hopes to work on U.S. -Iranian diplomacy while pursuing a career in the performing arts, and is currently recording her first album and doing commercial voiceovers.
Patti Scialfa (BA '75), a Columbia Records solo artist and member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, released her third album, Play It as It Lays, in September 2007 to critical acclaim. Scialfa's first two albums are 1993's Rumble Doll and 2004's 23rd Street Lullaby.
Billy Siegenfeld (MA '90) is the founder, artistic director, principal choreographer, and a performing member of Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, a Chicago-based dance company. Some of his recent highlights include: receiving Chicago's most prestigious dance honor, the Ruth Page Award, in 2006; being named a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2005, an honor that took him to Finland to introduce the theory and practice of Jump Rhythm Technique to the Arts Academy of Turku University; and receiving the Jazz Dance World Congress Award in 2005. Siegenfeld is also a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University. This fall he returns to Turku to work with dance students. Visit www.jrjp.org for more info.