Alumni in the News: March 10, 2025

Julian Brave NoiseCat ’15 wrote the March 1 New York Times guest essay “I Told a Native Story That Earned an Oscar Nomination. There are So Many More to Tell.” NoiseCat is the co-director (with Emily Kassie) of Sugarcane, which was a Best Documentary Feature Film nominee at the 97th Academy Awards.

Mary Said What She Said, a play based on the book by Darryl Pinckney ’88, was reviewed in the Times on Feb. 28. The production, designed and directed by theater luminary Robert Wilson, starred French actress Isabelle Huppert; it ran at NYU’s Skirball Center through March 2.

Legendary nightlife and gossip columnist Michael Musto ’76 was featured in the Feb. 27 Grub Street article “Two Carnivores Walk Into a Vegan Sichuan Joint.” Writer Mickey Boardman detailed his lunch with longtime friends Musto and fashion journalist Lynn Yaeger at the restaurant Spicy Moon.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. ’73, LAW’76 wrote the Feb. 6 Times guest essay “The Courts Must Stop This Judge From Stealing an Election.” Holder describes actions taken by the North Carolina Supreme Court to challenge the reelection of a Democratic justice after her Republican opponent refused to accept the electorate’s choice.

Also on Feb. 6, Monique Couvson ’94, GSAPP’96 was named to TIME’s 2025 list of “The Closers.” The second-annual list spotlights Black leaders who are working to close racial equity gaps; Couvson is the president and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, which raises and mobilizes resources to support the power and brilliance of girls and gender-expansive youth of Color.

Pearl River Mart announced on Jan. 14 that works by artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya ’10 would be featured in its store gallery exhibition, “We Are Chinatown: A Portrait of Our Community Rising Through Labor and Love.” “Amanda’s public work moved me at the darkest times during the pandemic,” says Pearl River Mart president, Joanne Kwong ’97. “Seeing her bold and colorful work around the city gave me strength and a jolt of happiness and purpose.” The exhibition is on display through April 20.

Patrick Radden Keefe ’99 was the subject of the Jan. 9 Times Style interview, “Celebrated New Yorker Writer Enlisted as Model.” The award-winning journalist and author of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (recently adapted as a Hulu series) shared his “comical” experience as a J. Crew model.

On Dec. 18, Ms. JD, an organization that supports and empowers women in the legal profession, announced that Danielle Mikaelian ’21 was one of four recipients of its Limitless Leadership Award. Mikaelian is the only law student nationwide to receive the honor; the awards will be presented at a gala in San Francisco on April 24.

Jonathan Lemire ’01 is now a co-anchor on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, it was announced on Dec. 10. Lemire, who hosted the network’s show Way Too Early for just over three years, is helming the morning news program alongside Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.