CLASS OF 1986 | 2018 | ISSUE 2

We have fewer submissions than usual for this issue, so as class secretary, I am using the extra space to mention our cohort of class agents. John Gannon, David Hill, Michael Levin, and John McIntyre were in touch asking if I might put the word out that they’d welcome some help connecting with and contacting fellow members of our class. Perhaps some female members of our class might wish to help diversify the volunteer leadership! Please e-mail me if you’d like more information.

Here are some notes from several classmates: Down in D.C., Scott Michaud is the senior speechwriter for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He has a 5-year-old daughter (Class of 2032!) and another little girl due in July. He is still playing ultimate, still seeing other members of Nietzsch Factor at ultimate tournaments, and still playing summer league ultimate on the D.C. Wesleyan alumni team. He says, “Best wishes to all my Class of 1986 classmates and to the Class of 2018!”

Lisa Porter is living in Berkeley, Calif., where she is the head of voice and dialects at the American Conservatory Theatre and a lecturer at UC Berkeley. “I act professionally and just finished productions of two very successful new plays—Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector at the Aurora Theatre and The Eva Trilogy by Barbara Hammond at the Magic Theatre. My daughter, Maggie, will start at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in the fall. I also am the lead artist in a participatory Shakespeare theme camp at Burning Man. I keep in close touch with Melinda Newman and Shawn Cuddy.”

Monica Jahan Bose is busy with art and advocacy work around gender issues and climate change. She is working on a long-term feminist project called Storytelling with Saris and had a solo show, Weather the Storm. She is collaborating with homeless women in D.C., One Billion Rising in Miami, and women from her ancestral island village in Bangladesh, making saris about climate change and doing elaborate outdoor performance art actions. On a trip to Athens, she hopes to reconnect with Nada Bahu Pentaris. She wrote, “I’m so happy that my spouse (Michael S. Bennett ’87) will join me in Athens for a week so that we can relive our visit there in our 20s! Our older daughter, Tuli (“paintbrush” in Bangla), attends UC Berkeley and loves it. She is active with the Cal Dems and has started the Bangali Student Association. Our younger daughter, Koli (“flower bud”), is finishing eighth grade at a Spanish-English bilingual public school.”

Peter Crivelli is on the board of the Serviam Girls Academy. Based in Delaware, where he lives, Serviam is tuition-free, independent Catholic middle school in the Ursuline tradition for young women of all faiths from low-income families. The school has been very helpful in preparing the young girls for success in high school and beyond.

The film made by Ralph Savarese’s son won a Peabody Award. According to the jurors, the film is “a bold step forward in inclusive filmmaking that allows David James Savarese, a nonspeaking young man with autism, to tell his own story, focusing on accomplishment and possibility, not limits and barriers.” One of nine winners in the category of documentary films, Deej is the story of his journey. Last year he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberlin College.

Belinda Hanson, founding partner of Hanson Crawford Crum Family Law Group based in Silicon Valley, has opened a second office in San Francisco. Her firm is celebrating their 20th year in business.

Eric Howard | ehoward86@wesleyan.edu