CLASS OF 2004 | 2021 | ISSUE 1
Hi Everyone. We hope this round of Class Notes finds you safe and healthy during this challenging time. That said, we are happy to hear that ’04 continues to have positive updates to share. Some highlights include:
Aja Gabel tells us she just had a baby boy and also a feature film based on a short story of hers. The movie is called Little Fish and stars Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell. It is a love story set in a memory loss pandemic . . . “and written and made way before this current pandemic, it’s worth noting,” she tells us.
Laurel Kemper tells us she’s been working from home in Rockville, Maryland, and is proud to work in grants administration at NIH, where they’ve been busy lately. And another note: “Thank you to author Amy Meyerson for visiting my virtual book club—wonderful to meet a new ’04 classmate after all these years!”
Lelah Baker-Rabe is living in Fairfield County, Connecticut with husband Dylan Osborn ’05 and their two boys. She teaches creative writing, and publishes steamy contemporary romance novels under her pen name Libby Waterford.
Kieran Meadows also shares some great news: “Honored and humbled to have been able to contribute the significant research I did while a student at Wesleyan into the life and assassination of Fred Hampton to the recently-released feature film Judas and The Black Messiah (2021). It was one of those moments when my double-major in African American Studies and Film Studies made sense.”
Kieran also reflected on our last reunion. He says he never got to express gratitude for how much fun he had DJing the most recent all-campus tent party the night before Commencement in May 2019, alongside Peter Seidman (aka Russian Bear) and former Illegalize bandmate Jon Souza, plus Brian McKenna, Tacuma Bradley and Sam Bathrick. Special shouts to Andres Villalon, Yani Lopez-Souza, Javier Gaston-Greenburg ’05 and many others also in attendance. He loved seeing all our old ’04 friends there. He’s still in Brooklyn, quarantining mostly, while continuing to work in journalism and music. “Hope folks are healthy and well, as well as they can be under the circumstances.”
Sohana Punithakumar and her family moved to Austin in September to be closer to her sister Darshana Kalikstein ’01. She now works for Microsoft remotely, currently as a program manager for Xbox. Any Austin folk should reach out!
Ariel Pliskin also writes in, telling us: “The pandemic has been a time of transition for me. I completed my MSW in May and LCSW in December and I am starting a new job as a psychotherapist and educator at South Shore Sexual Health Center. I have published a couple articles in the Journal of Positive Sexuality. I also purchased a house in Shutesbury, Massachusetts and moved in with my partner and our dog and cat.”
Philippe Gosselin tells us: “I took advantage of last year’s lockdown to pen my feature film The Angels, an epic gay love story set in San Francisco—and the great beyond. This year I hope to establish the production company that will produce the film and am looking for collaborators of all stripes. If any film alums are interested, Bay Area or otherwise, please reach out to pgosselin@wesleyan.edu!”
And finally, Kaitlyn Greenidge was covered in The New York Times for her historical novel, Libertie.
That’s about it for now. Wishing you all the best.