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Alumni in the News: December 6, 2021
Julian Budge
Tony Kushner ’78 is the subject of a November 30 New York Times Style Magazine feature, “Tony Kushner, Oracle of the Upper West Side.” Kushner has had a busy year: In addition to his 2004 musical Caroline, Or Change returning to Broadway, he wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, which opens on December 10.
Maggie Gyllenhaal ’99 was a big winner at the 31st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, held on November 29. Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, earned prizes for best feature, best screenplay, breakthrough director for her and outstanding lead performance for actress Olivia Colman. The Lost Daughter will be in theaters on December 17, and streaming on Netflix starting December 31.
Tara Donne
Dr. Ashish K. Jha ’92 wrote the November 27 New York Times guest essay, “3 Questions We Must Answer About the Omicron Variant.” Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, outlines key questions that help scientists understand how consequential any variant might be, and makes suggestions as to what the Biden administration can do to prepare the country.
Philip Montgomery
Alicia Guevara ’94 was featured in The Cut column “How I Get It Done” on November 15. Guevara is the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters New York City, matching more than 2,500 kids from across the five boroughs with “bigs” who support and advise them.
Also on November 15, Beto O’Rourke ’95 announced a run for governor of Texas. The New York Times reported: “O’Rourke, a former El Paso congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, presented his campaign as a corrective to what he said were the ‘extremist policies’ of the state’s Republican leadership.”
A new mural by Maurice “Pops” Peterson ’73 was unveiled in Pittsfield, Mass., on November 10. Walk With Her reinvents the image of Ruby Bridges from Norman Rockwell’s 1964 painting The Problem We All Live With, considered an iconic emblem of the Civil Rights Movement. Peterson says: “When the neighborhood below Jubilee Hill was razed for urban renewal, the tenants had to bravely walk on in their lives much like little Ruby Bridges, whose historic walk to school at the age of 6 changed the world and inspired generations. We have brought ‘Rainbow Ruby’ to Pittsfield to inspire a new generation.”
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