Brightening Spaces: Layla Jafar and LA.DEE.DA

I met Layla early in our freshman year (either crammed in the backseat of a car on the way to a football game, or in her Keeney dorm room...one of the two). Fast forward nine years from then, and she has flourished as an artist – and admirably, she pursued what has become a true passion…after college, without an art degree, all while working a ‘regular job’ too. I’m so proud of her and happy to share with you what she has been up to since graduation.

While the memory of when we first met is fuzzy (pretty sure now it was in Keeney, pre Fish Co.), I remember exactly where we were when she said she wanted to have an art gallery opening in New York City.

True to her character, she accomplished just that.

She found a gallery in SoHo, completed her first NYC-inspired collection...and LA.DEE.DA was launched. Here is a photo of the launch at Pomegranate Gallery and you can see more (including a visit from Matt Dillon) here.

Layla’s artwork is vibrant and unique…very much like her personality, and since the launch she has been brightening up spaces all over – receiving requests from people in NYC to California, for adults, kids, restaurants and more.

Just this past May she was asked to provide paintings for the re-opening of a popular restaurant in Greenwich - Meli Melo. Check out the press release here and if you’re in CT and have time to stop in for a crepe, you will be treated (as will your stomach, the food is delicious) to a viewing of a selection of her work.

And keeping the Brown connections going strong….she created these below for fellow ‘06er and friend Adam Braun that is displayed in his Pencils of Promise office.

AND…just a few weeks ago she showed this new set, which is one of my favorites.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop and let you take a trip over to her site.

If you are looking for something to spice up your walls…..remember LA.DEE.DA. (named for Layla and her two sisters, Nadia and Neda).

Congratulations Layla! And see you all in Providence soon.

Dominique

Lazy Teenage Superheroes

Last year I decided to make a short film called Lazy Teenage Superheroes.

So I called some friends and went back to Rhode Island. I bought pizza and beer and we took over an old warehouse for four days. $300 later (and a few man hours) it was done!

This was legitimately a Brown University collaboration! You can see below how many of the cast and crew went to Brown (in bold), and I couldn't have made it without every single one of them!

It got over 1/2 a million views in a week and I truly cant thank everyone enough!

Enjoy.

Trailer - http://youtu.be/kvCPX8WUNvQ

Before/After VFX - http://youtu.be/43L0grKbRIE

Crew
Michael Ashton - Director, Producer, Writer, VFX
Sean Conaty- Director of Photography
Dave Margolius - Prod. Coordinator
Danny Cannizarro - VFX
Tom Ashton - Boom Operator
Adam Royster - Writer
Dan Teicher - Score
James Myers - Post Story Consultant

Sarah Potts - Post Creative Support

Cast
Joseph Stricker - Ty
Ellis Martin - Mitch
Sean Patrick McGowan - Rick
Federico Rodriguez - Cal
Rafael Cebrian - Solario
Julian Cihi - Laser Wing/Blood Belt
Anne Costner - Mel

CAN'T WAIT FOR OUR 5 YEAR!!!

Socially Impactful Medicine

Hey, fellow Brownies! I'm a little surprised it's already reunion time and I feel a bit like the constant student. Realizing that I'm almost 28 and haven't made a "real salary" yet (and won't for another year and change) made me think, "What the hell have you been doing? Get a job!" Then, the part of me that actually makes decisions for me said, "Whatever. There's always time to work." And I have been doing something.

After graduating, I moved back to Chicago and started writing my medical school applications. I hooked back up with a private tutoring gig I had before I came to Brown (yes, I took a year off before college. And after. And another year during med school. How Brown-y of me) and got to work with an internal medicine doc at Cook County Hospital (of ER and Chicago Hope fame) doing tobacco, drug, and depression screening in his primarily poor, West-side-of-Chicago clinic. I had life-affirming experiences sitting and talking with the very people I wanted to meet about the very life difficulties that made me want to be an ally for them.

After flying all over the country looking for a medical school, I landed at Yale (which is just about as Brown as I could find in a med school with its own Open Curriculum equivalent, no rankings, and focus on helping the med student find and nurture their own strengths). Like Jen Bauer, I wanted to keep my educational philosophy close to my Brown heart (weird image? oh, well. I'm sticking with it). The last four years have been a long and awesome process of learning, discovering a love for medical education, and finding my calling in medicine.

Third year of medical school was the best year of my life. I experienced over and over the resilience of people and the incredible charge I got from being there with people at powerful junctures of their life as the steady and gentle young doctor. I got called "doc" for the first time and got scared when I found out what that really meant. Then, I slowly got used to the idea and started to really like it. For those of you who I haven't seen in a while, you might be surprised to know that I considered a career in plastic surgery. The ability to work intimately with the way that people interact with the world and heal that person-world interface when it is hurting is what compels me most about medicine. Hand and facial traumas were some of the most moving cases I was a part of during third year (delivering babies was amazing, too). After letting things marinate during a year dedicated to research, I decided on a career as a psychiatrist. The draw of the complexity of contemplating the mind-body connection, the ability to act as the healer of a foundering mind and how far-reaching the consequences of that healing are, and the broad scope of practice in psychiatry trumped everything else. That and the open possibility of continuing to do policy-driving research.

My research has been oriented largely towards criminal justice systems, but generally focuses on hard-to-reach at-risk populations. I have been working for 3 years on a questionnaire assessing correctional administrators' attitudes towards substance abuse treatment programming. I have run the thing from soup to nuts, and have been collecting the data from it for the last 4 months. Hopefully, the data we generate will go up the ladder at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and have some positive impacts on how funding is targeted towards treatment programs. I've also been working on a review of HIV prevention measures in US criminal justice settings.

I have also been working (with another Brown alum and Yale med student, Jake Izenberg '08) on a project based in Ukraine evaluating integrated health care systems for HIV+ IV drug users. The implications of that project are really exciting because the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is largely injection drug use-driven and if we can figure out a good way of delivering preventative health care to at-risk groups, we can really have an impact on the rising tide of HIV in this vulnerable region of the world. I lived for a month in Ukraine this summer (and visited Chernobyl! THAT was crazy...) while doing that work and would love to go back.

Radioactive bumper cars in Pripyat, the town closest to the reactors that blew

Side of an apartment building in Kyiv. You can kind of see the hammer and sickle, blue, in the middle of the mosaic.

In between all that, I have been finding time to play a little music here and there, do art projects, and write. There's an online journal called Atrium that I've been an editor for since its days as a print entity. Give it a gander if you're interested: www.atrium-magazine.com Anyone who's doing medical writing or thinking about medical things should submit!

I miss Providence, though. I'm lucky to be able to get up there to visit sometimes and I think about moving back. Seriously. I can't wait to see you all again! For many, it's been far too long. I am so excited to hear what everyone's been up to!

Lots of love,
Michael Soule

Never Sorry about Brown '06

At Brown I was a news anchor and jazz DJ at WBRU, produced a show on BSR, and made a short documentary about campus activism with the amazing Julia Liu '06. So even though I didn't study Chinese, maybe it isn't so random that I moved to China after graduation and now I'm making the first feature-length documentary about China's (in)famous artist and activist, Ai Weiwei. The film's called AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY.

It all began with a trip to China in 2006 with Julia, during which I decided not to leave. After adventures that included Ari Savitzky, Jackie Chan and Jet Li (I'm serious) I met Ai Weiwei in 2008. First I made a short film about him, and then I started filming more of his daily life. Eventually I got a bigger camera, an interested funder, and one day Ai Weiwei started introducing me to others saying "That's Alison, she's making a documentary about me. She's been following me for a long time". That's when I knew I was doing it, for real.

Below is the latest trailer for my film, which should come out in Fall 2011. If you're reading this before June, here is the link to our Kickstarter page if you want to support the film.

Just this week the PBS show Frontline aired an 18-minute story I produced and narrated for them about Ai Weiwei. Here's the first part of the piece "Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" (PBS has the full version on their site):

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Can't wait to see everybody at reunion, especially from Hope College, Gabe's House, Slater Hall, the Hearty Semites intramural bball team, WBRU, "Not Your Classroom", Art House and everyone else I love!

I F*cking Love Brown!

From my incessant recall of my time at Brown to my literal tears of joy when I return at graduation each year, it’s clear to everyone I know that I love Brown and new acquaintances will realize this within the first ten minutes of meeting. This place, these people, the shared traditions and experiences that came to define the adults we grew to be--there’s just nothing like it and no way to explain it to those who haven’t experienced it. I’m constantly impressed by the achievements of our classmates and consider myself lucky to be counted among you. I’m not going to pretend that I’ve done anything as noteworthy since graduation—no sweet videos to post, no websites to display, no non-profits to plug, had to even steal pictures of 06ers off of facebook profiles just for this post—but I have kept close ties to Bruno and have been reminded along the way how special a place it is.

Like your typical Brown student, I took a year off from school, which for me occurred before heading off to medschool. I spent the year off working as an admission officer for Brown, a job that had me traveling the country preaching my love of the school and reading high school files that were far better than my own (good thing I got in when I did). I moved to Cleveland for medschool at Case Western, and it was here in the Midwest where I realized just how liberal the four years on College Hill had made me. If we haven’t spoken since I started medschool, don’t worry because you haven’t missed much besides a lot of studying and research (and in fairness a good amount of fun and new friends). This year during my senioritis ennui, I am again reading Brown admission files, electronically as a remote admission officer. Being an employee means having a Brown email address which means being filled with the familiar dread at 1am when Morning Mail arrives in my inbox and I'm not close to being done with work for the night. However, reading files reminds me of why I love the school, and also how humbling it is that high schoolers’ resumes are more impressive than mine currently is. Hoping for a trend reversal in time for my still imaginary kids’ applications!

This winter, during my interview and decision process for residency, I had the opportunity to remember and recount just how special a place Brown is. First of all, Cleveland is not exactly a city that Brown graduates (or visiting friends…thanks guys…) flock to, so interviewing around the country had the special perk of bringing me to Brunonions in every city with open arms/beds/couches/floors. Around the same time, amazing alumni wedding festivities landed me with even more Bruno face time. My interviews themselves were also a time for more love, as Brown found its way into the answers for many of my interview questions, for example: what do you think of that makes you grin ear to ear? where were you the most challenged? what is the best decision you ever made? what is your favorite color? what is a type of North American bear? Perfect stock answer! In all seriousness, I think some interviewers were confused by whether I was applying to go back to college or be a resident.

Damnit. I literally just got the Brown Morning Mail as I'm writing this. There's an ARRRR St Patty's Day show tomorrow for those interested.

Which brings me to tomorrow: Match Day for the 06er medstudents who took another year along the way. It was a confusing decision process to create my match list and when I tried to explain what type of a community I was looking for to friends and family, I found myself invariably ending with “I just want to find some place like Brown!” Most people laughed at such a possibility for a surgical residency. What, people don’t go to FishCo during residency?? (RIP FishCo. Please, a moment of silence…). Having found out Monday that I matched, the good news is I’ll be an orthopaedic surgeon somewhere next year. Much love and luck to all the other 06ers waiting to hear the good news later today on where they’re headed. Here’s to making it a place that we can be as proud of as we are of Brown. Because as a fellow alum wisely once said, it’s not about making good decisions, it’s about making your decisions good.

Wishing you all love and happiness, and a safe trip to Brown for reunion weekend! Hope to see you there. I’ll be skipping 1 and a half weddings to make it—and no, I don’t expect my non-Brunonian friends to understand why that could be such an easy decision for me.

Brian Christian '06 on The Daily Show!

The Daily Show - Brian Christian
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

From the MFA to MIT

From 2007 to 2010 I worked in fundraising at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It was an especially exciting time to be at the MFA, during the fundraising, construction, installation, and finally the opening of the beautiful new Art of the Americas Wing. The Wing was designed by Sir Norman Foster and features art from all of the Americas and across time. If you’re in Boston you should check it out!


After an awesome three years at the MFA, I decided to leave the nonprofit and art worlds for business school. To switch things up, I picked the most quantitative program I could find and enrolled at MIT Sloan with fellow ’06-er Sonia Gupta where I’m doing more math than I have since high school!


Sloan has been a wonderful and challenging experience so far. With the intense first semester “core” behind me, I’m looking forward to traveling with classmates to London, Paris and Milan this March as part of a class I’m taking on the European Luxury Goods industry.

On a final note, I won’t be able to come to Reunion Weekend this year, but I have a good excuse: I’m getting married to another Brown Alum, John Lynch, over Memorial Day Weekend! Brown attendees will include Jen Doorly Magaziner and Whitney May as bridesmaids, and Jon Magaziner and Steven Levenson as ushers.

Have fun everyone, and see you at the 10th!

Ali Kaufman

El Origen Wool

In February 2008 I went to live in Uruguay and in July 2010 I returned home to the United States to begin my MBA at the University of Chicago. While in Uruguay I began a small exporting business called Textura, which retails and wholesales clothing and accessories handcrafted by women knitters (think your grandma. rocking chair. throwback). GOOD Magazine recently ran a story about our new vertically-integrated line, El Origen Wool, which uses only un-dyed mernio wool for its pieces. As I told GOOD and the Brown Alumni Magazine, my work with Textura (and now El Origen Wool) combines my interest in gender equity, craft, and sustainability. It also is keeping me sane as I learn the likes of the Fama-French Three Factor Model.

For the photos, Brown 2006 Alum Annie Costner lent me her beautiful face and Gillian Almy lent me her time and her beautiful city. Another 2006 Alum, Michael Ashton (of Youtube fame), got me hooked up with GOOD and photographer Laura Dart shot the scenes. I thank them all, and welcome you to explore our goods at http://www.texturastore.com/.

Itchy Feet...

Ahh - so i guess it all starts after I got back to Brown from studying abroad in London. Senior year - 2005-06. Fuck that was a great year. Living with all my favorite people, chillin because grades didnt matter as much (taking all of senior spring pass/fail) and enjoying one e-x-t-e-n-d-e-d last hurrah!

After the lovefest senior spring was (including the spring break in DR trip - special shoutouts to the fantastic four and the lovely ladies who joined us...another shoutout to Brugal!), I got some funding from the Dept. of State to go to India for the summer. It was warm in temperature, but going from a place where there's so much love and trust to being in a program with strangers in a community where I knew no one SUCKED. This juxtaposition was my first taste that Brown was truly something special - a period of time I may never get to re-live. So I tried to add highlight's to my hair - add a little Brown to my life. FAIL.

After that, I moved back to London and did a super-easy one year masters degree. Anyone who wants an extra qualification for the resume should think about going to London and getting a quick masters. I know NOTHING. But I am now a master of management. Score. Then I worked out there and basically learn to drink like an Englishman. (Side note: yeah I know - I didn't drink at Brown - but see what parting ways with Brown has done to me?!?!?) I engaged in much cultural exchange with the Brits - including eating fish and chips - and then teaching them beer pong. I am a professional beer pong player. I challenge anyone reading this to a game of beer pong at reunion.

Since quitting my job and taking an 'around the world trip,' I started law school in hella NorCal - come visit me! Brian Korgaonkar already has...

I am writing this to you all whilst in my Contracts class. SNOOZEFEST. First year of law school (in Berkeley, where it was 75 degrees for 3 consecutive days at some point last week) has consumed my life, but I look forward to making new Brown memories with you all at the 5 year reunion! Buy your tickets now!!!!

peace and love -

bali kumar

A Little Brown Music

I thought it would make sense to Tarantino this story by showing you what's happening now and then how we got here.

My full time gig is at a live music venue in New York City called SOBs (Sounds of Brazil), where I'm the Director of Marketing & Publicity (just a fancy way of saying that I try to make sure press & fans come to the shows). SOBs features many genres like Latin, World Music, Hip-Hop, R&B & more. I started working there as an intern in 2008 and eventually became my predecessor's successor (with his blessing...maybe because he dates a Brown Alum...).

SOBs does some very cool shows...like this one.

Nneka @ SOBs (2010)

When Im not at SOBs for shows, instead of moonlighting as Batman, Im part of the band Andy Suzuki & The Method, composed entirely of Brown people.

Andy Suzuki & The Method play 'Fairytale (Acoustic)' for BalconyTV

Senior year at Brown a mutual friend introduced me and Andy Suzuki, Class of 2009 & it was love at first sight...actually what happened was that we hit it off immediately & vibed real well.

I eventually found out that Andy was a paino-playing, aspiring singer-songwriter and I mentioned that I was a (lapsing) hand percussionist/djembe player.

Andy suggested that we jam at some point (taking inspiration from his favorite singer-songwriter, Jason Mraz who often played with only a Djembe player, Toca).

Jason Mraz & Toca Rivera play 'You & I (Acoustic)'

We met in a cramped practice room in Steinart, and it only took one perfect musical moment for us to decide to give playing together, regularly, a try (that first meeting consisted of many sh*tty musical moments).

Since that fateful first meeting in The Gate (I had a turkey sandwich...Andy probably ate some carrots), we have evolved into the band And Suzuki & The Method.

Andy's senior year he met a scarily good, classically trained (and Suzuki method-trained) Freshman violinist, Jason Gorelick (Class of 2012) aka Jason G., who is also part of the band.

The band self-released a CD entitled '300 Pianos' in 2009 and we're currently working on an EP as a follow-up to be released this year. The first single is 'Take Care Of Me'.

We've played shows all over the place (ask me about some of the wilder ones when you see me in person...there was once a Tapas bar we played in & we've done our fair share of Irish Pubs...).

Our next show is a headlining performance on March 26th at Joe's Pub, a respected New York venue that we sold out last summer. Tickets to this one are still available, but grab 'em quick here.

If you've never been to Joe's Pub, you should check it out. Great spot. The last show we had there was pretty amazing. Heres some footage...

Andy Suzuki & The Method, Live @ Joe's Pub

Right after graduation I took a job as a 'counselour/teacher/unofficial psychiatrist' of 'high-achieving' Middle School students in a program called JrNYLC (Junior National Young Leaders Conference) in Washington, D.C...its a miracle that neither I nor any of my students suffered lasting physical injury from this [Ask me in person why they let me influence the impressionable youth...]

After that summer I ended up working at a financial bank in some financial capacity in Boston, my hometown (please remember that I went to Brown & had not done any serious Math since my voice first started changing in Middle School...). Ask me about my year there when you see me in person...pretty wild adventures.

Oh, another very important update is that Im still dating my (painter) girlfriend from freshman year, Lauren Gidwitz (Class of 2006); which basically means that she's eligible for sainthood, because most humans can't deal with me that long (8 years...you guys only had to do 4). We first met on Pembroke Field on the first day of school, introduced by Laurabeth Greenwald (Class of 2006), and then smiled coyly at each other at Wayland Arch, Keeney, Andrews, The V-Dub, The Gate, Sayles & Jo's for the next few weeks. I'll let her tell you her story about where she is right now and where she's been (I promise you, its really really interesting).

Basically, Brown is still a very major part of my life. I hang out with Brown friends every day, and Im affected by Brunonians constantly. I know that Im right where Im supposed to be, because of my experiences at Brown and because of its most important resource, the people that went there...

See you in May...I can hardly wait.

-Kozza Babumba, '06

Tebukozza@gmail.com

Becoming a Brooklyn Politico

After graduating from Brown I put my Urban Studies degree to use and went to work for New York City on a fellowship. I ultimately became the Senior Policy Advisor to a Commissioner, which meant I advised the Commissioner on strategy, policy, and programs, helped run the executive office, and was the main writer for the city agency. I was also able to design and manage a multi-million dollar job training and placement program. It was an incredible experience, and I quickly learned how much I enjoyed understanding urban politics and decision-making. In my free time, I ended up digging my heels into local Brooklyn politics. I was one of the founders of Brooklyn for Barack, and ran the Williamsburg/Greenpoint chapter of the local grassroots campaign. Knowing how to register hipsters to vote is like the greatest skill I have.

After the Presidential election I began looking for ways to continue being involved civically and politically in Brooklyn, and realized that the Brooklyn Democrat Party still had features of an old school urban political machine, rife with closed-door, back-room, corrupt politicking. So, along with my boyfriend, I founded New Kings Democrats, a progressive, grassroots political organization that recruits and prepares people to run for local elected office. The idea is to bring transparency and accountability to Brooklyn politics, and to train and nurture a new group of leaders. We've been very successful, running dozens of people for local offices and gaining a good deal of press (we've been written up in the New York Times, the Village Voice, the NY Post, etc.). And we have arguably shifted the political debate in New York State-- to be a viable candidate you have to denounce corruption and offer good government solutions, and federal and state law enforcement are now looking into the politicians that we have been fighting politically.

One of our premier candidates this past September was Lincoln Restler, who is officially a Brown 06.5er (he still counts), and a lifelong Brooklyn resident. I recruited Lincoln to get involved with New Kings Democrats after re-connecting with him at my city agency. Lincoln won a close campaign for District Leader, and beat out the Brooklyn political establishment. Lincoln is a rising star in New York City politics, and I am so grateful that I have fellow Brunonians to fight the good fight with.

At Harvard Law School, where I am a 3L right now, we hear a lot about opportunities for public service in the federal government, but we hear less about the opportunities in local and state government. My experience thus far in New York, however, has been that some of the greatest opportunity to make change is by getting involved locally. If there are any Brown '06ers in Brooklyn, or New York City, who are interested in learning more or getting involved, please email me at Rachel.Lauter@gmail.com. New Kings is also hosting a film screening of Gerrymandering by Jeff Reichert (a Brown alum) on Wed. Feb. 23rd at 6 PM at the Dweck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library. You should all go and check it out.

Looking forward to catching up with you all in May! Rachel

What's In a Name

"Brown... That's, like, a good school, right?"

After four amazing years on College Hill, I'm always happy to answer questions about my experience at Brown, whether it's during alumni interviews of high school applicants or while talking with other grad students at the University of St. Andrews this year. But what never ceases to amaze me are the questions that come up:

"Brown... You guys don't get grades, right?"

"Brown... So are you a hippie or something?"

Or my personal favorite, "Brown... That's up by Portland, right?" (This was asked of me when I was back home in Oregon.)

There are, of course, many people who are familiar with Brown's reputation for strong academics and an encouraging learning environment. But at first, I got stuck on the question of whether it's a "good school" (or any one of its variants, whether it's an Ivy, whether it's one of the best colleges, etc.). I don't know about your experience, but this is the single most common question I've been asked. A "no" in response was out of the question. A "yes" seemed snobby and didn't encompass the wonderful time I had as an undergraduate. After all, not only did I take away some of the most challenging and rewarding intellectual experiences of my life, but from ADOCH to Campus Dance, I've always been impressed by the people in the community at Brown. (In fact, I loved the people so much that I will celebrate not only our 5th reunion this summer but my 5th year of marriage with David Gomel '06 as well. We recently moved to Chicago, so if you're ever in the area, please get in touch!) My best friends are fellow Brunonians and some of the people I am most proud of knowing. Just reading through this blog is inspiring! I also can't ignore that a degree from Brown helped me get a great job in San Francisco at a government transparency software company and into a Master's program in Peace and Conflict Studies this year.

So I finally settled on an answer that reflects what I most want people to know about Brown:

"I loved every minute of it."

Ever true,
Sarah

sarah@hurwit.net