QView #148 | February 28, 2023

President Frank H. Wu thanked legislators for their support of Queens College in testimony to the Queens delegation of the New York State Senate on February 21. He advocated for greater state support for CUNY through additions to the proposed executive budget for 2023-24. He requested $1 million in capital funding to upgrade the technology infrastructure on campus. President Wu has visited many senators and assembly members in Albany and in their districts. He urged members of the college community to contact their respective elected officials in support of budgetary improvements. 

On Wednesday, February 22, Queensborough Community College Public Safety Specialist Doodnauth Singh and Officer Steven Delgado taught a Patio Room audience how to respond in the event of an active shooting on campus. The Public Safety Office and Office of Student Development and Leadership arranged for this presentation. An updated video will soon be released. For additional information, please see the campus safety page.

From left: Queensborough Community College Public Safety Specialist Doodnauth Singh, Officer Steven Delgado

Professionals on Campus (POC), a series that brings students, alumni, and friends together, featured a lecture by Michael Breit ’84—chairman and CEO of accounting firm EisnerAmper LLP and a partner at Eisner Advisory Group LLC—during free hour on Thursday, February 23. Before moving to EisnerAmper, Breit, seen here with President Frank H. Wu, was a partner at Ernst & Young. He majored in accounting and information systems at QC.

POC is sponsored by the Office of Institutional Advancement.

President Frank H. Wu welcomed art lovers to the Godwin-Ternbach Museum (GTM) for the opening reception for The Gift: Queens College Collects on Thursday, February 23. The multimedia show, running through May 25, assembles items from multiple areas of the college: the GTM, the Fashion and Textiles Collection, the Art Department, Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Louis Armstrong House Museum, and the Daghlian Collection of Chinese Art.

The Gift is funded in part by the Friends of the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Kupferberg Center for the Arts, and Queens College.

To older QC alumni, Sir Winslot will always be a college Knight to remember. Nonetheless, on Thursday, February 23, the costume for QC’s original mascot was consigned to the flames. A suitably attired gender-neutral Knight entered service the same evening, dubbed by President Frank H. Wu. The ceremony (see video) on Parking Lot Six ended sweetly, with the “Game of Thrones” theme blasting in the background and delicious smores for attendees.

Women’s Basketball Heads to ECC Playoffs

The Queens College women’s basketball team has qualified for the East Coast Conference (ECC) Playoffs for the first time since the 2018 season. The Knights earned the sixth and final spot and will visit Mercy College this Wednesday at 7 pm. Fans can watch the game live on the ECC Sports Network.

The Knights baseball team got their season underway last weekend as they played four games down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Knights went 2-2 on the trip, earning victories over Post University and Chestnut Hill College. Francis Segarra led the way, collecting six hits and eight RBIs in the two victories.

The men’s tennis team had an impressive week, as they defeated two NCAA division I teams, Long Island University and St. Francis College-Brooklyn. They won both matches by the score of 5-2.

This week, in addition to the women’s basketball playoff game, the Queens College softball season gets underway on Tuesday at 2 pm with a road doubleheader at East Stroudsburg University. The men’s tennis team will host Fairleigh Dickinson University on Tuesday at 12 pm and Jefferson University this Saturday at 6 pm.

QC Fields CUNY Support for Coastal Study Site

CUNY is making a sustainable investment on the Bayside waterfront.

The university just announced a $1.5 million CUNY Green Energy Award to Queens College and the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences. The award will enable the Queens College Green Energy & Coastal Sustainability Field Station to be established at Fort Totten Park. Funding will cover renovation of a New York City Department of Parks and Recreation structure, in addition to purchase of electric vehicles and demonstration and monitoring equipment to be deployed at the station. 

The new facility will focus on workforce development for the city’s green economy and offer integrated educational and research initiatives to further the sustainable growth of coastal cities. CUNY is issuing the Green Energy Award out of a $10 million allocation from New York State’s fiscal 2022 budget “for the capital cost of training and education programs in offshore wind power and other green energy fields.”

Fulbright Spotlight

Queens College was cited as one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright award winners for academic 2022-2023. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S Department of State, which oversees the scholarship exchange program, put QC on the Scholars List for its faculty winners. A total of four CUNY schools—including Baruch College, Hunter College, and the CUNY School of Law—were named top Fulbright producers.

“With their world-class faculty and talented students, each of these schools showcases CUNY’s historical mission of providing access to topnotch academic programs for New Yorkers of all backgrounds, and we are proud of these four schools and the distinguished honors they, their faculty and students have received,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez in a recent press release. “We also thank the Fulbright Program’s administrators, the U.S. Department of State, and the Institute of International Education, for continuing to work toward the goal of furthering mutual understanding and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and those from other countries, which is more important today than ever.”

Last Day of Black History Month

Black History Month concludes today, Tuesday, February 28. Members of the college community can still enter “I am QC Black History Trivia Month.” For a chance to win prizes, access the educational quiz, presented by Africana Studies, before 5 pm.

Bloodline Dance Theatre

In “My Black Queerness; My Queer Blackness,” taking place tonight from 6 to 8 pm in the Student Union Ballroom and over Zoom, a panel will examine the intersection of Black and Queer identities. The event will also include a performance by Bloodline Dance Theatre. The first 50 in-person attendees will receive a free copy of the book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements, by Charlene Carruthers. Reserve a seat now.

“My Black Queerness; My Queer Blackness” is made possible through the generous support of the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium in partnership with the New York City Council. The event is co-sponsored by Africana Studies, the Center for Racial, Ethnic and Religious Understanding/CERRU, the Black Student Union, the Alliance of Latin American Students/ALAS, the Student Association, the Crear Futuros Program, the Gender, Love and Sexuality Alliance/GLASA, Women and Gender Studies, the Office of Student Development and Leadership, and the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, all at Queens College; the CUNY Office of Student Inclusion Initiatives; the Caribbean Equality Project; and Harlem Pride.

Marching into Women’s History

Women’s History Month gets off to a great start at QC tomorrow—Wednesday, March 1—from 4:30 to 6 pm in Powdermaker Hall 211 with a lecture by Anastasia Curwood, University of Kentucky history professor and author of Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics. Chisholm was the first African American woman in Congress and, decades before the election of Barack Obama, the first African American to seek the presidential nomination from one of the United States’ two major political parties. This talk is presented by Africana Studies and SEEK with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

On Monday, March 13, Women and Gender Studies’ annual Virginia Frese Palmer Conference will address Laughing Matters: Funny Folx and Feminism. Comics and writers Kelli Dunham, Terry Galloway, Lisa Haas, and QC alumna Lorena Russi will tackle topics such as gender, bodies, and power, and take questions from the audience. To attend this virtual panel discussion, register here.

March 8, International Women’s Day, will be celebrated with Give Birth To Yourself: A Guide to Living, Writing, and Walking in Your Truth, a talk by activist and scholar Sonia Sanchez, Philadelphia’s first poet laureate and the author of more than 20 books. This event will take place in the Muyskens Conference Room from 12:15 to 1:30 pm. Sanchez's appearance is sponsored by SEEK; CERRU; the departments of Africana Studies, Women and Gender Studies, English, Comparative Literature, Political Science, Media Studies, and Spanish Languages and Literature; and the associate dean of the Library and the dean of Social Sciences.

All month, the Office of Student Development and Leadership is holding a drive for clothing, toiletries, and sanitary products; donations will be given to a local women’s shelter and to the people of Ukraine. Collection bins have been set up around campus. For a list of acceptable items and drop-off locations, click here. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

Panel Focuses on Indo-Caribbean Community

This month, the Guyanese Student Association, Department of Urban Studies, and Asian American/Asian Research Institute are coordinating a two-panel series focused on the Indo-Caribbean community. The first event, Indo-Caribbean Community Leadership and Political Priorities in Queens, will be held tomorrow—Wednesday, March 1—from 12:15 to 1:30 pm in Campbell Dome. Tarry Hum (Urban Studies) will moderate a panel comprising Annetta Seecharran, executive director of Chhaya Community Development Corporation; Richard David, district leader of Queens District 31; and Felicia Singh, director of Policy and Government Relations for the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families.

Highlighting Faculty Talent

Persian poetry, Baroque dance, drama, and of course lots of music will be on the program on March 3 at 7:30 pm in LeFrak Concert Hall, when QCArts presents a Faculty Showcase. Performers at this free event will include Dongmyung Ahn, Tim Armacost, Haim Avitsur, Iantheia Calhoun, Carlos Fittante, Antonio Hart, Michael Lipsey, Dennis Mackrel, Michael Mossman, Daniel Phillips, Marcy Rosen, Veronica Schanoes, Roger Sedarat, and Jon Weber.

Theater Project Traces Immigrants’ Experiences

When the newly devised documentary theater piece Traces begins its 11-day run at Kupferberg Center’s Goldstein Theatre on March 9, it will mark the culmination of a remarkable three-year run as artists in residence at Queens College for the Brooklyn-based theater company What Will the Neighbors Say?.

Commissioned by the college, Traces is a story about the lives lived in one small apartment in Queens on a block built at the turn of the 20th century. The play examines a sample of the residents that have called this apartment home over the last century, focusing specifically on the stories of the immigrant residents who have dwelled there during four great pandemics that swept the United States during the last hundred years: Spanish Flu, Polio, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19.

In fact, it was literally in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic that the Neighbors company began its residence. Co-Artistic Directors James Clements, Ana Cristina DaSilva, Sam Hood Adrain, and Jorge Morales Picó were initially invited to join as adjunct faculty in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance in spring of 2020. The company was invited to become artists in residence later in the fall teaching “Introduction to Documentary Theatre,” an undergraduate course in which students researched, created, directed, and presented their own original theatre pieces. In Fall 2022 the company taught “TRACES: Page to Stage,” a documentary theatre class focusing on immigrant life in Queens that resulted in the work that will premiere on March 9.

Production Manager Ralph Carhart has overseen many different dramatic productions in his time at Queens College and is particularly enthused about this one: “The kind of theater that I personally enjoy the most is the kind that is nontraditional in its nature. So, the way that the Neighbors are structuring and creating this script is intriguing to me—especially because it’s so deeply rooted in history and docudrama, which is a subject I’m fascinated by. So, it’s been really great working with them.”

“They’re giving their advisement as experienced professionals,” he explains, “but the script itself is really being generated by the students who are participating in the project.”

Helping Hands

Carhart describes his role as production manager as helping “actualize” the Neighbors’ ideas, whether with the help of QC theater production staff or professionals hired for the production: “We do what we can to help their vision come to light. We’re offering them the design support and the financial support that’s allowing them to go a little bigger than they usually get to go.”

Of his interaction with the students involved in creating and performing Traces, Carhart observes, “I think they’re excited for the opportunity to create something that they get to own in a new way. A lot of the students who are in the cast of this show have done a show with us before, but they’ve never built a show from the ground up in this way; they’ve never structured a script in this way. So that’s a big deal to them: to structure something out of nothing. They’re used to being handed a script and figuring out what to do from there. But in this particular case, they had nothing to work with beyond their own imaginations. They’re really enjoying the opportunity to see the possibilities that exist within them outside of their skills as actors.”

Those possibilities included doing research that involved, when possible, interviewing people who lived through some of the periods explored in the show: “The script is deeply rooted in those interviews and what they learned from them,” says Carhart. “It’s not even just traditional library research; they were out there with interview questions in hand.”

“Theater is in many ways the most collaborative of art forms,” he continues. “For them to be able to step out of their comfort zone of acting and the traditional roles of acting and taking on this new mantle, I think, has been quite an education for them.”

Walks in the Parks

Excursions scheduled this month offer everyone the opportunity, with advance registration, to explore the borough’s great outdoors.

The Queens Botanical Garden regularly conducts walking tours of its 39-acre grounds. On Saturday, March 4, at 11 am, garden staff will talk about early spring bulbs and ephemerals. Click here for details. Walk-ins, so to speak, may be accommodated if room is available.

Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) is holding a series of events. On March 11 at 11 am, Linda Lombardo, a certified forest therapy guide, will lead a healing walk along the park’s wooded trails and at the end, serve participants pine needle tea. Go online to find out more and reserve a place.

During the Lucky in Love Evening Hike, on March 18 at 6:30 pm, Jocelyn Perez Blanco of Herbalists Without Borders will point out Alley Pond plants associated with romance and other good fortune.

Finally, for National Take a Walk in the Park Day, APEC is offering a one-hour stroll at 3:30 pm. Lace up a pair of sneakers and join a nation-wide phenomenon.

Making Plans for Summer

Summer Session at QC offers hundreds of courses in in-person, online, and hybrid formats. Students can earn up to 15 college credits in 4, 6, or 10 weeks, making progress toward graduation. Classes will start in June and July. Learn more about learning more at www.qc.cuny.edu/summer.

Virtual Panel Features Italianists of Asian Background

Increasing numbers of Italianists of Asian backgrounds are working at North American institutions. A few of these scholars will discuss their perspectives and experiences virtually on March 3 at 11:15 PST, 14:15 EST, 20:15 CET. 

Mohammad Jamali, a PhD candidate at the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, and Gaoheng Zhang, associate professor of Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia, organized the panel. Speakers will include Jamali; Hiromi Kaneda, a visiting instructor at Pepperdine University and a PhD candidate at Rutgers University; Hiju Kim, a doctoral candidate in the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles; Akash Kumar, assistant professor of Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; Qian Liu, a PhD candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan; and Vetri Nathan, Mellon Associate Professor of Global Racial Justice and associate professor of Italian at Rutgers University. Zhang will serve as moderator.

https://ubc.zoom.us/j/67162604437?pwd=TVd4dzFMVXpUdGhRTTFmdzNRZlRFQT09

Meeting ID: 671 6260 4437

Passcode: 714682

Susan Duhan Felix ’58

Susan Duhan Felix, a ceramicist whose pieces are in the collections of the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the National Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia, and reportedly a Jewish museum in the former Soviet Union, passed away on February 4. She was age 85.

The future artist grew up in Queens, where her father was a doctor and her mother a high school teacher. Majoring in English at QC, Duhan became smitten with a student several years her senior, Morton Felix, already an accomplished poet. Marrying him and moving with him to Connecticut, she earned a master’s degree at the University of Connecticut and with her husband helped found the Wormwood Review, a celebrated literary magazine that would last for 40 years.

Impressed by ceramic dishes she couldn’t afford to buy, Susan Felix decided to make her own and took a class. The experience prompted her to drop out of Brown University’s doctoral program in English and work with clay instead. The switch was fortuitous; after only three years, she took first place in a regional ceramics contest and, at the request of a local rabbi, crafted a menorah. Jewish ritual objects would become her specialty.

When the couple and their daughter relocated to Berkeley, California, Susan Felix immersed herself in her new hometown, making ceramics, teaching, founding the Jewish Arts Community of the Bay in 1979 and serving as its executive director from 1989 to 1991. She was regularly featured in solo and group art shows at institutions in California and elsewhere in the United States. She also supported affordable housing.

Berkeley reciprocated her commitment, declaring Susan Felix Days in 1989 and 1999, appointing her the city’s first art ambassador in 2003, and giving her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. The honoree continued to create art well into her eighth decade.

Susan Felix was predeceased by her husband. She is survived by her daughter, granddaughter, companion, sister, and sisters-in-law.

#81

Keena Lipsitz

Tarry Hum

Frank H. Wu

Keena Lipsitz (Political Science) and Tarry Hum (Urban Studies) appeared at a press conference on Monday, February 27, for the release of a CUNY Research Consortium report, How Communities of Interest Are Evolving in New York City. Lipsitz and Hum were part of the faculty consortium that wrote the report for the New York City Districting Commission . . . . Images from the Mark Levy Papers in the Special Collections of Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library were used to illustrate “Florida’s Stop Woke Act Is latest in a long history of censoring Black scholarship”, published in Andscape. Levy ’64, ’73 MS, who volunteered for the Mississippi Summer project and taught in the Meridian Freedom School, donated his papers to the library’s Civil Rights Archive . . . . Asif Rahman, a QC student, died in 2008, hit by a truck on Queens Boulevard. Now, thanks to a bill co-sponsored by City Council Member Shekar Krishnan, the would-be music teacher will be commemorated with a sign designating a portion of the boulevard Asif Rahman Way. His mother, Nafisa Rahman ’11 MSEd/Special Education, turned her grief into advocacy, working to making streets safer . . . . President Frank H. Wu is quoted in a San Francisco Standard article, “Texas Bill Barring Chinese Real Estate Ownership Renews Anti-Asian Racism Debate” about proposed legislation that would ban citizens and government entities from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from buying property in the Lone Star State.