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Inside Westchester

At the Newly Renovated Jacob Burns Film Center: New Children’s Programs Are Designed to Delight the Eye and Enrich the Mind

June 10, 2023 by Michael Gold

Renovations PHOTO BY JESSE LOCASCIO

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire,” wrote the Irish poet William Buter Yeats.

The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) is trying to ignite the flame of kids’ imaginations in two ways this coming school year:  one, JBFC restarted its JBFC Kids programming in July, playing all kinds of fun, visually spectacular movies, including Mary Poppins, with the words to the songs on screen for singing along, The Muppet Movie and Where the Wild Things Are, showing a film every other Saturday a month; two, the center has created an emerging screenwriting fellowship program in collaboration with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, for 10 students entering 10th and 11th grade, with the first class starting in October.

JBFC has also re-started its late-night weekend screenings, geared toward older kids and younger adults, called, “After Hours,” which was put on hold due to the COVID pandemic, with late night horror and cult films. Beginning in September, the movies the center will show include The People Under the Stairs, Teen Wolf, and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. Movies slated for the October Halloween season include Scream, The Exorcist, and The Wicker Man, said Monica Castillo, JBFC’s senior programmer.

The kids’ film slated for September 16th is Labyrinth, a film directed by Muppet Master Jim Henson, about a girl who wishes her baby brother would disappear. When he actually does, she has to find him, in the labyrinth. Many of the characters are puppets Henson’s shop built.

On September 30th, JBFC will show another Henson production, The Witches, a live-action movie based on a book by Roald Dahl about a group of witches who plot to turn all the world’s children into mice, but there is one brave boy who finds out about the plan and opposes them.

The October 14th movie is Coraline, an animated film about a girl who opens a secret door in her house and discovers an alternative reality that’s inviting at first but has a catch – just a little one. Coco is playing on October 28th, three days before Halloween. It’s about a boy who accidentally finds himself in the Land of the Dead, then goes on a quest there to find out why his family won’t let him play any music, which is a big problem, because he thinks he was born to do it.

Children who come to the show in costumes will get a “spooktacular” prize, said Denise Treco, JBFC director of communications and marketing. The prize during last Halloween’s showing, of E.T. The Extraterrestrial last year was a bendable monster figurine.

The screenwriting fellowship program offered slots to ten students, who had to apply by August 6th. NYU professor Jeremy Kamps will mentor the students as they develop their screen plays. Kamps has won several awards for his fiction and play writing. He’s worked with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, the New York Theatre Workshop, the National Black Theatre of Harlem, and other theaters, from Los Angeles to Alabama.

There is no cost to the participating students or their families, Treco said. Students who earn a place in the program will receive a stipend for deferred wages and transportation to and from the JBFC’s Media Arts Lab twice a week for six weeks – 13 sessions in all. They will be able to use industry-standard equipment and software to do their work. Each student will be required to complete a screenplay for a short film. Professional actors will table-read the screenplays.

JBFC recently renovated its theaters and is opening up a wine bar in October. It will be in the Jane Peck Gallery on the third floor, which will have on display photography and poster exhibits.

“The idea is we will be serving wine and beer, cheese plates and other light fare,” Treco explained. “We’re trying to have a place where people can meet up before or after the movie to talk.”

“The theater renovation took three months,” Treco explained. “We started in January, and it went to the end of April.”

The center has installed new seats in its three ground floor theaters, and a new screen in Theater One. The center upgraded the lighting in the floors under the arm rests and improved its hearing loop technology in the ground floor theaters. People using T-Coil hearing aids will be able to tie into the movie’s sound system with their devices. JBFC also installed better sound acoustics in Theater Two, to block out exterior noise from outside the walls.

It all adds up to an improved experience for movie-goers and the possibility for kids to experience the adventure of a hero’s quest, defeat lots of bad guys, and in the process discover exciting new worlds or get a thrill, lighting the fires of curiosity within.

Filed Under: Cover Stories, Inside Westchester, Westchester Tagged With: children's programming, E.T. The Terrestrial, Enrichment, Family Movies, Jacob Burns Film Center, Jim Henson, Kids programming, Mary Poppins, Theater Renovations

The Harlem Wizards are Coming to Town!

January 13, 2020 by Inside Press

Chappaqua’s favorite day of hoops and alley oops is back on Sunday, January 26that 1:30 pm. Come watch the beloved teachers of the Chappaqua Challengers as they take on the Harlem Wizards! This annual highly anticipated event, hosted by the Chappaqua School Foundation, is the definition of local family fun. Not only an opportunity to support your schools, it’s guaranteed laughs as the tables are turned and the kids cheer on their teachers.

Make this event even more memorable by purchasing the coveted Benchwarmer or Courtside Plus VIP seats! Both include premier seating, a meet & greet with the Wizards, a souvenir lanyard, team poster and discount on team jerseys.  The newly introduced Benchwarmer seats, however, is the only way to watch the action straight from the Wizards bench and includes a half-court photo opp.

Don’t miss out on the fun and purchase tickets today.

Courtesy of the Chappaqua School Foundation

Filed Under: Chappaqua Community, Discover New Castle, Happenings, In and Around Town, Inside My New Castle, Inside Westchester, New Castle News, New Castle Releases, Sponsor News! Tagged With: basketball, Chappaqua School Foundation, education, Greeley, Harlem Wizards, schools, Teachers

A Gutsy Grand Finale

December 20, 2019 by Inside Press

During a final stop on a book tour promoting “The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience” (Simon and Schuster), Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton–in a discussion moderated by Vanessa Williams–addressed everything from Donald Trump’s impeachment to the role faith plays in their lives to several of the role models their co-authored book  portrays. 

Story/Photos by Grace Bennett

Pleasantville, NY, December 18–Excitement at Pace University was palpable both inside the sprawling Goldstein Fitness sports arena and afterwards too when staff and volunteers from both Pace and the Chappaqua Library (from where the event had been moved following a weather-related cancellation to the library weeks earlier) were all smiles helping attendees, from groups of Pace University students to hundreds of Westchester residents, pick up their copies of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s ‘Book of Gutsy Women.’ 

Chelsea Clinton, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vanessa Williams

Before introducing Vanessa Williams to the stage to moderate a discussion with Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, Pace University President Marvin Krislov, noted that Pace has been co-educational since its founding 100 years ago. “We’ve educated many gutsy women of our own,” he noted, mentioning a host of Pace graduates and impressive ‘firsts’ including: Lillian F. Anstie and Charlotte Osann, among the first women to pass the CPA exam in New York;  Florentine Goodrich, appointed first treasurer of the Tennessee Valley Authority; Dr. Susan Merritt, founding dean of Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems; and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins—with two degrees from Pace: the first person of color, and the first woman, to lead a legislative chamber in New York. His final mention, to much applause, was of recent Pace grad Sydney Mesher, “who was born without a left hand, and became the first-ever Radio City Rockette with a visible disability.”

Krislov then invited everyone to welcome Vanessa Williams, “a multi-platinum recording artist… a star of television, film and the Broadway stage, and a lifelong resident of Westchester County.”

Vanessa Williams described The Book of Gutsy Women as Hillary and Chelsea’s portrayal of more than 100 women (103, it was later noted) who have inspired them throughout their lives (Chelsea described the challenge for she and her mom to pare the book down from at least 200 women they had hoped to include).

“They are fascinating profiles and also a playbook for anyone looking for courage… for their own gutsy life,” said Williams. “It is full of personal reflection filled with anecdotes from a mother and a daughter from two different generations but who share a lot in common.”

She introduced Chelsea as “a champion for girls and women, advocacy, writing, and work at the Clinton Foundation, and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.” She introduced Hillary as “the first woman in U.S. history to history to become a major party’s presidential nominee,” also outlining her key roles in public service, and her roles as “also a wife, mother and proud grandmother.”

After that, reading the audience correctly on the night of historic deliberations, Vanessa Williams launched into a question about the impending impeachment of Donald Trump.

Vanessa Williams: “…What do you think is going to happen to Donald Trump?”

Hillary Clinton: “Well, let’s just jump right in!”

Volunteers and staff at Pace University and the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on Pace’s campus
Representing the Chappaqua Library and Scattered Books of Chappaqua

But first she thanked Pace University, the Chappaqua Library, “Pam (Pamela Thornton), who keeps the Library going”,  Scattered Books, “our local store in Chappaqua,” Barnes and Noble on the Pace campus-and Vanessa Williams: “She’s local, she’s Westchester, she’s Chappaqua… but talk about a gutsy woman!…”

And then it was on to the impeachment proceedings:

Hillary said: “I have to say I thought Nancy Pelosi did a really extraordinary job… of delivering a somber, deliberative debate about whether or not the impeachment clause in our Constitution should be applied to our current president…”

She explained that “way back in 1974, she had been on the staff that investigated President Nixon, and able to watch the debate that took place in the House Judiciary Committee then. One of the members of Congress, in particular, who summed up what was at stake was Barbara Jordan, and she delivered, one of the great speeches of the last 100 years. I remember being taken and moved by the seriousness by all the members of Congress to the point when the Judiciary committee voted and Republican House members had voted for at least one of the articles of impeachment, putting country over party..”

At another juncture, Hillary added that Senator Mitch McConnell will aim for an acquittal but also noted “that many in the polls are in favor of conviction…While I don’t think that’s likely with the current state of affairs at least it shows that the American people have really understood why this is such an important moment in our history.”

Throughout the book tour for The Book of Gutsy Women, Hillary and Chelsea shared memories of the women who had the most profound impact on their lives and life choices. Chelsea referred to Geraldine (Gerry) Ferraro, and her historic nomination as a first woman vice president on a Democrat ticket, and of her mom “taking me to see her…. getting all dressed up… and what a big moment that was.”

The mother/daughter co-authors discussed the big gap in women role models between their generations with Hillary noting that she “didn’t know any women who worked outside the home except for my teachers and librarians. I was constantly looking for other ideas of what women could do.” 

She described her upbringing as a typical post World War II experience in an outside of Chicago ‘hood.  Her mother, Hillary said, was “intent on opening my eyes and expanding my horizons.”

A popular comic book character of the day had made a huge impression on Hillary: Brenda Starr was amazing… she had this flaming red hair, she was an international correspondent who fell in love with the guy with the eye patch. It was so romantic, and exotic.”

Hillary mentioned other larger than life influences, including Anne Frank, Helen Keller… “women i met in the pages of Life magazine…,” she said.  “Not many women were held up as heroic figures in elementary school… maybe Joan of Arc and Queen Elizabeth.”

In stark contrast, she added, “most of Chelsea’s friends mothers worked… an interesting distinction.”

Chelsea referred to her pediatrician, a woman, and hardly the only women in her life who were powerful figures and role models.  “It was an entirely different world for me to grow up in.” 

At one point, Hillary Clinton asked Vanessa Williams, after referring to her as a “pathfinder” and “pioneer” who her own role model was. “Who did you look up to?”

“The support of my parents for sure,” Williams said, noting her mother’s presence (Helen Williams) in the audience too. “She told me you are going to have to do better than everyone else just to be considered equal.  I knew in a white environment, I had to be excellent… as a Girl Scout, in a marching band, choir, theater… I did all those things to be a multi-talented performer to allow me the skill set to achieve things.”

Williams also mentioned ‘trailblazers’ including Lena Horne and Diahann Carroll  “who I had the luxury of working with in my lifetime” and who had “opened the door” for her.

Next it was on to a discussion of the critical influence of faith in both Hillary and Chelsea’s lives.

Hillary: “Having faith that connects me to a larger world is an instrumental part of understanding who I am. It is a source of resilience to know that you can be knocked down, but you can get back up, to know that love is the most powerful force of the universe.”

She noted being lucky that her parents “set high expectations but were there for me unconditionally” and mentioned “ a great minister” who took me to see Martin Luther King, Jr. when i was in junior high school, opening my eyes and my mind in ways that i have never imagined.” Hillary said she linked that to her faith: “how you’re supposed to be, how you’re supposed to treat other people… it became major motivator in my life.”

“A lot of the women in the book are women who have been knocked down, marginalized, who have been criticized, beaten, sometimes brutally for what they believe, terribly assaulted, left to die, exiled, or been in prison. The common characteristic they hung on to is their faith, not just in faith in themselves…”  but more, she elaborated that they “were part of something bigger and greater than themselves…  “they were part of greater sense of possibility and hopefulness.”

“It’s hard to keep going in face of all sorts of challenges unless you can dig deep down and think I really have to do this because it really will help someone else because it really will make a difference.”

Chelsea tied a die-hard optimism she said she teaches her children to her own faith and emphasized that “optimism is a moral choice: you have to make a moral choice to be optimistic… that the forces of darkness I believe are relying on us to become exhausted, less optimistic and to lose our faith.”

“That connects me more to my faith, to my journey and gets my determination going to get up every day to do whatever I can for our world and for our shared community,” Chelsea said.

Both mother and daughter weighed in on the voter registration controversy in Georgia. Chelsea offered: “Stacey Abrams has been so gutsy and extraordinary in how she dealt with her I think illegitimate defeat but also with what she is building through her organization ‘Fair Fight Action’ to help ensure that the right to vote is protected in Georgia. Look at what she is doing and learn from what she’s doing and see if you can support her in Georgia and how to expand it outward and extend it throughout the country.”

The women in the book are not all political figures, but all historical figures who have made a difference, whether social activists, writers, Olympians…or scientists.

 Vanessa Williams asked about including astronaut Sally Rider in Gutsy Women, first commenting: “She started as a tennis player… before she was an astronaut. When asked why she decide to become a scientist, she answered: ‘a bad forehand.’”

Hillary explained that Sally Rider had been one of Chelsea’s heroes growing up, and that the Clintons had sent her to Space Camp as a young girl “because she was fascinated by space and astronauts. That was poignant to me because when President Kennedy had announced the Space program, I had written to Nassau, and asked how I can get to be an astronaut, and they wrote back: ‘Sorry we are not taking girls.’”

Chelsea, for her part, said that during the first time she met Sally Rider (at Space Camp graduation!), she “was so overwhelmed that I tripped over my own feet and fell in front of her… mortified, was 12 or 13, and turned a beet red, but she could not have been nicer to me.” But most importantly, Chelsea noted Riders advocacy for young girls in science, and Rider making efforts throughout her busy career to nurture that.

In the course of a little over an hour, the discussion ran the gamut, from the Howard Stern interview, the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, and a defense of Title IX and health care. A handful of audience questions were posed including a nine year old boy’s question about their favorite baseball teams. Chelsea: The Eagles (“because marriage requires compromise”), and Hillary: the Yankees (because she’s a New Yorker now).

Grace Bennett, Publisher and Editor of the Inside Press, appreciates gutsy women, too.

 

 

Filed Under: Inside Westchester Tagged With: Book Tour, Chappaqua library, Chelsea Clinton, courage, Goldstein Fitness Arena, Gutsy, Hillary Clinton, Influence, Martin Krislov, Nancy Pelosi, Pace University, Resiliance, Role Models, Sally Rider, Stacey Abrams, The Book of Gutsy Women, Vanessa Williams, Westchester

Executive Director Millie Jasper Elected to Board of Renowned Holocaust Organization

June 10, 2019 by Inside Press

Jasper chosen as one of eleven members on the Board of Directors

Skokie, IL— Millie Jasper, Executive Director of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) was elected to the Board of the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) at their annual early June conference.

Millie Jasper

The AHO is an international organization dedicated to Holocaust education, remembrance, and research, and brings together hundreds of Holocaust organizations within the United States and 27 countries across the globe. Their annual conference held in June serves as a hub for celebrated scholars and others devoted to Holocaust remembrance to discuss the lessons of the past and advancements for education surrounding the Holocaust and human rights issues.

In a release announcing the appointment, the HHREC expressed its excitement ant that they are “absolutely certain that Millie will serve as an impactful contributor to pushing forward and upholding the AHO’s vision and mission.”

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center’s mission is to enhance the teaching and learning of lessons of Holocaust and the right of all people to be treated with dignity and respect. We encourage students to speak up and act against all forms of bigotry and prejudice. Some of our programs and initiatives include:
• A Speakers Bureau, comprised of Holocaust Survivors and Liberators, who through first hand story telling reach over 25,000 students per year.
• Provide curriculum with key lessons from the Holocaust for educators to use in fulfilling the NYS mandate, as well as professional development workshops. Free downloads of a Holocaust curriculum to teachers from across the country.
• Train thousands of Middle and High School students in our Human Rights Institutes.
• Robust programs of Events and Distinguished Lectures.

For more information, please contact Millie Jasper at (914) 696-0738, or email mjasper@hhrecny.org.

Filed Under: Inside Westchester Tagged With: AHO, Board of the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, Millie Jasper, NYS Mandate

Medoff Lecture on “FDR, Immigration and the Jews” to Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

October 19, 2018 by Inside Press

 Manhattanville College Department of World Religions and the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center are proud to present a lecture by Rafael Medoff, entitled “FDR, Immigration Policy and the Jews” on Wednesday, November 7  at 7 p.m., at Manhattanville College. 

This presentation is part of the Distinguished Lecture series and will also commemorate the 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) which takes place on November 9th.  This event is FREE and open to the public, but registration is requested.

Dr. Medoff is an Historian and Founding Director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.  The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust studies teaches the history and lessons of America’s response to the Holocaust through scholarly research, public events, publications and educational programs.  Dr. Medoff is also an editor and author of 17 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust. His forthcoming book “The Jews Should Keep Quiet: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and the Holocaust.” will be published in 2019.

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center’s mission is to enhance the teaching and learning of lessons of Holocaust and the right of all people to be treated with dignity and respect. We encourage students to speak up and act against all forms of bigotry and prejudice.   Some of our programs and initiatives include:

  • A Speakers Bureau, comprised of Holocaust Survivors and Liberators, who through first hand story telling reach over 25,000 students per year.
  • Provide curriculum with key lessons from the Holocaust for educators to use in fulfilling the NYS mandate, as well as professional development workshops. Free downloads of a Holocaust curriculum to teachers from across the country. 
  • Train thousands of Middle and High School students in our Human Rights Institutes. These student Upstanders return to their schools with a mission to develop human rights awareness among
    their peers.
  • Community programs include an annual Countywide Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration and Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration
  • Robust programs of Events and Distinguished Lectures


Please click on the EVENTS tab on the HHREC website to register. For more information please contact Executive Director, Millie Jasper mjasper@hhrecny.org and visit our website www.hhrecny.org
or call 914 696-0738.
                                                                                                                      . 

 

Filed Under: Inside Westchester Tagged With: Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, Kristallnacht, Manhattanville College

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