Kesha Ram: Roosevelt Elementary Class President To Vermont Legislator

Kesha Ram

Courtesy Photo

Kesha Ram: Roosevelt Elementary Class President To Vermont Legislator

SUSAN CLOKE / MIRROR COLUMNIST

December 18, 2015

Kesha Ram, a Santa Monican by birth and a prominent student leader in Santa Monica is now a Vermont resident, a member of the Vermont Legislature, and a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Vermont. She is working her way around the State of Vermont, meeting voters, talking to people and, in her own words, “just generally having a good time.”

It’s early days in this campaign. The election isn’t until Aug. 9, 2016. Believing that “now is the time to have conversations,” Ram was in the living room of Jill Michaels home in Strafford Vermont on Sunday, Dec. 13. That weekend she had also been to Woodstock, Vermont for the Wassail Weekend Horse Parade and Craft Market and in Bellows Falls Vermont to visit with local business people and to attend the Windham County Democratic Committee Awards Dinner.

In Michaels’ living room Ram sat with a dozen or so people, an impressive group including State Treasurer Beth Pearce, a DNC superdelegate, local business people, and individual Straffordites such as Ned Coffin, an eminent member of the Strafford community. They were there to meet the candidate and talk issues.

Called a “kitten in lipstick” in her first Vermont campaign eight years ago Ram said the comment may have been sexist and rude but it gave her the advantage of being underestimated. While others were making snide comments she was talking to people.

“I would sit in everyone’s living room and we would talk about their lives, their families, their stories and their problems,” she said. “I felt, win or lose, it was all worth it because Vermonters have great stories and are so welcoming.”

Registering hundreds of new voters in the process Ram won her seat in the Vermont State Legislature. To put this in context, the City of Burlington – where Ram was running – has a population of 42,284. The population of the entire state is 626,562.

It was Ram’s first bid for public office.  “I was graduating from the University of Vermont,” she said, “and I felt my generation needed a voice.”

Now in the 8th year of holding her part time legislative position she talks about her work: helping to achieve statewide recognition for the Abenaki people – who called Vermont home before the United States was a country; making first time home-buying more affordable; and planning a path to a clean energy future for the State.

“Vermont has over 16,000 jobs supported by renewable energy,” she said. “We are moving toward energy independence and have committed to 90 percent renewable energy by 2050. I want to make sure we stay the course.”

Ram is on the campaign trail for the position of Lieutenant Governor of the State. Ram calls the position one of “Connector-in-Chief.”  Her responsibilities would include presiding over the Senate with fairness and impartiality; traveling the State listening to people; and helping people solve problems by connecting them to other people and agencies and businesses.

Win or lose her priorities will remain making early childhood education, higher education, home ownership and high speed broadband accessible to every Vermonter.

“Vermonters can’t afford to pay a Vermont premium on their cost of living while at the same time having a Vermont discount on their wages,” said Ram. “Vermont is a special place to live and people are paying more to live here. Our small villages, our rural resiliency, our natural landscape all give Vermonters a great quality of life and we need to make that work.”

Ram said Vermont has more organic farms per capita than any other State in the Union.

“I understand the real value in sustainable farming,” she said. “My mother was president of Co-Opportunity, a health food cooperative in Santa Monica and my father was the owner of McGinty’s Irish Pub in Santa Monica. I draw on their work.

“My grandmother was a big influence in my life. The Big Blue Bus was our ticket to independence and to go interesting places together. So I understand when Vermont seniors express feelings of isolation because of lack of transportation and it is an issue I want to work on.”

She said her interest in service has been with her all her life.  “When I was in 1st grade I could already read and my teacher had me work with other students who needed help learning to read,” she said. “I gained so much from that experience. By the time I was in the 5th grade at Roosevelt I ran for and won the office of Student Body President.”

Ram’s endorsements for Lieutenant Governor include Vermont officials Former Governor Madeleine Kunin, Former Secretary of State Don Hooper, House Majority Leader Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas (D-Bradford), and House Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Kate Webb (D-Shelburne).

Ram is also endorsed by more than 20 of the sitting State Representatives and a long list of community leaders, and it’s early.

Kesha Ram says, “Vermont is now my home. But my commitment to service, learned in my childhood in Santa Monica, is central to my life and I now give my service in Vermont.”

For more information on her campaign, visit kesharam.com.

RELATED:

Hometown Hero column on Kesha Ram, SUSAN CLOKE, Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror, Sept. 24, 2009:

www.smmirror.com/articles/news/Hometown-Hero-Kesha-Ram-Member-Vermont-House-of-Representatives/29160

4th/5th and Arizona A Drama in the Kabuki Theater of Santa Monica

 4th, 5th and Arizona Project Rendering

 Courtesy Photo                       

4th/5th & Arizona Project 

A Drama In The “Kabuki Theater Of Santa Monica”

SUSAN CLOKE / MIRROR COLUMNIST

November 20, 2015

The 4th/5th & Arizona project public process could be a drama in the “Kabuki Theater of Santa Monica.” A drama complete with Kabuki set roles of villagers, warlords, samurai, nobles, and servants and a plot of strategy and gamesmanship.

Unlike the world of Kabuki Japan we are a democracy. Instead of the Samurai with his sword of justice saving the day we have the tools of democracy. The democratic process, in all its fullness will, I offer, be the way to the best possible decision. The kind of decision that, like Santa Monica City Hall or Palisades Park made it possible for future generations to look back at the careful thoughtfulness of past Santa Monicans and be grateful.

Our cast of characters includes: the Council, City Manager, and City Staff; the developer and his team; the Neighborhood Groups, Residocracy – a City wide group formed to oppose the ultimately unsuccessful Hines development, the Union hotel workers, the political organization SMRR, the low income housing developers Community Corps, and the many Santa Monicans who take a keen interest in development in the City.

On Oct. 20, 2015 the City Council held a special ‘float up’ meeting to hear the project, to decide whether or not to go ahead and, if going ahead, to give direction to the developer and City staff.

The 4th/5th & Arizona project is on City owned land so the City has both regulatory and proprietary responsibilities. The developer proposes to build a 420,000 square foot building comprised of a cultural component, public open space, office space, a boutique hotel and affordable housing. The southern edge is 12 stories with a maximum height of 148 feet. The building steps down, getting lower the nearer it gets to Arizona. The building design has a series of rooftop open spaces and the ground floor has 38,000 square feet of public open space. This project is under a Development Agreement.

John Warfel, the development team leader, said he knows there is support for the design, for open space, hotel and housing in the project but opposition to the proposed height and massing. He asked for direction from the Council.

As is the script at public hearings, next up were the more than 75 speakers for almost three hours of public testimony.

Often design is the center of public opposition. This project has some people who are wary of the design, but many more who think it inspirational and whose wariness is focused on height and scale.

Support for the project as proposed at 148’ in height and 420,000 square feet of floor space came from long time Santa Monica activists who spoke about the good jobs that would be created and the affordable housing that was part of the project. Both housing and jobs were part of the original direction to the developer from the City.

Support for project as proposed came from members of the UNITE HERE Local 11, the hotel workers union. Melanie Lutheran, speaking for the Union said more than 1,000 union members live and/or work in Santa Monica and support the project at 148’. Clergy and Laity United joined in speaking to the need for good, well-paying jobs.

Opposition speakers included long time Santa Monica activists speaking against planning through Development Agreements and asking the Council to look at requiring the building to comply with the 84-foot height limit.

Armen Melkonians, speaking for Residocracy, opposed the project and called instead for a public park. Many of the neighborhood groups are joining in the call for a public park on the site.

Zina Josephs, speaking for the Friends of Sunset Park stated her organizations support for a park on the site and added, “We also believe the development agreement should be put on hold until the completion of the Downtown Specific Plan because: (1) this is resident-owned land that should be used for resident needs, (2) we want a park with parking underneath, and (3) the proposed hotel/office project is deeply flawed.”

At the close of the public hearing the Council deliberated.  Mayor Kevin McKeown called the design “brilliant” but said his concerns were height and mass. He said, “The first thing you do when there’s too big a hole is to put down the shovel.”

Councilmember Ted Winterer said the design was “place-making” but too big for the site and asked the Council to look at how to achieve balance.

Councilmember Terry O’Day said, “If this is a box we’re in it’s a box we’ve built. If what we’re struggling with is the size of the envelope then let’s tell the development team and staff that’s what we want.”

At the end of the discussion it was unanimously agreed that the Council rejected the project as presented and wanted to move forward with a smaller project to be studied in the EIR (Environmental Impact Report).

The EIR to be prepared would:

• Study a project with a 15 percent reduction in overall size of the building. A 50 percent reduction of total sq. ft. allowed for office.

• Study a smaller project alternative.

• Study a project at six stories - per the recommendation of Councilmember Sue Himmelrich.

• Study the site for a park with underground parking.

• Analyze the no project alternative.

Staff estimates EIR preparation will take 12 to 18 months and expects the Downtown Specific Plan to be completed first.

Showing the importance of this project, even though this was the only item on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned at 1:30 am.

Let’s consider the time needed to prepare the EIR as the intermission in the play. More importantly this is the time to carefully and thoughtfully use the tools of democracy to ‘write’ the next act.

A fundamental rule of democracy is that people work together to make decisions. It’s time for our cast of characters to engage in what City Manager Rick Cole calls “robust outreach.”  Not as easy a task as it might sound. But one that is necessary for a good decision to be made given the strength of divergent opinions in the City.

Armen Melkonians, the founder of Residocracy said, “The Residocracy Board feels the site would better serve the City if it were a park.

“Tongva Park,” said Melkonians, “is more a piece of art than it is a place for people to go to relax or to play. And it feels kind of dangerous – from Ocean Avenue it feels as if you’re entering a cave and can’t tell what’s there or where it’s going. We want this park to be a place to rest and relax for both downtown workers and adjacent residents. A place of grass and trees and shade and benches.

“No matter what the Council does, a park belongs there, and in the end it will be a park.”

John Warfel, leading the development team, said, “I know we have a lot of work to do with the neighborhood groups. I believe that once people understand the project at least some will see the project will be a community asset.

He cited the Zimmer Museum (www.zimmermuseum.org), the 48 units of affordable housing, the extensive public open space on the ground floor, the open space within the building structure, the commitment to extensive and on-going programming of the public space, the opportunities for good jobs, the public parking and the design.

Sho Shigematsu, the lead designer for the 4th/5th & Arizona project is a partner at OMA, the architecture firm of star architect Rem Koolhaas. Shigematsu responded to the concern that changing the scale of the project would harm the design. “Because this building's concept was driven by the programmatic need, increasing or decreasing these elements will not dilute the design. We are confident our concept will rise to the challenge of addressing the civic and commercial needs of the city.”

Francis Engler of the hotel workers union, UNITE HERE Local 11, is a supporter of the project at the 148’ height. He has expressed a deeper concern over what he sees as the racism in the dialogue, saying, “When we hear someone say that hotel workers are not residents of Santa Monica we ask, "What makes you jump to the conclusion that hotel workers are not residents of Santa Monica? The fact they are Latino? The fact they speak Spanish? The fact they are wearing the uniform of a housekeeper? Which prejudice tells you they don't belong? We have never, ever heard an opponent of this project ask a white person if they are a resident of the City. They only ask this question of Latino hotel workers.”

SMRR (Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights) Co-Chair Patricia Hoffman said, “SMRR has not yet taken an official position on the project. But many members think it’s too big, that it’s massive and many members love it and think it’s exciting and good for the city.  “It’s normal for us to have differing opinions and disagreements but I expect SMRR will take an official position when the EIR comes forward for review. Then we will actually know something.”

I say I agree with Cole when he says, “the greatest safeguard for long term economic security is not the upfront payoffs but how the new building will contribute to a vibrant and sustainable future for the city.”

I say I agree with the person who, at the public hearing, said, “Good wages should not be a bargaining chip. Good wages should be required of all developments.”

I say I agree the proposed project is too big, out of scale, for the site and don’t, can’t know yet, if the reductions directed by the Council are sufficient.

I say, at the right scale, this is a brilliant piece of architecture for Santa Monica. The design concept of the carpenter’s rule opens in a way that creates many opportunities for being outdoors in a city whose character is defined by the outdoor life. The programming being offered is key to the building’s success as a public building.

I say downtown needs a good park. This site will be considered in the EIR and others downtown sites should be considered as well.

Most of all, I say that this time, the time before the EIR is ready for its first public scoping meeting, is the time for an open and thoughtful dialogue. It can only lead to a better decision.

What Say You?

Tony Gleaton: A Tribute

Tony Gleaton: A Tribute  

Photograph Portrait by Tony Gleaton
Photo permission Lisa Gleaton

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

Tony Gleaton: Artist. American Patriot. Beloved Friend.

August 4, 1948 - August 14, 2015

A brilliant thinker, Tony Gleaton created a singular life pursuing the visual expression of what it means to be human.  He held a profound respect for each and every person.  This respect informed his art, his photographs, his life’s work.

Gleaton’s belief in the principles and values of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were strong.  He was a patriot.  He enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 18, during the Vietnam War. 

Gleaton was a serious man with an irreverent sense of humor.  This gift of humor gave him an extraordinary skill as he navigated the contradictions in his own life.  He was an artist with a profound commitment to his work.  He had lived through turbulent times in the U.S.  He was a very tall and very large, light-skinned, green-eyed African-American man.  Prejudice and discrimination were part and parcel of his daily life.

Respect for the humanity of each person, intelligence and an irreverent sense of humor gave Gleaton entrée just about anywhere he wanted to go.  His work took him to the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, to the northern-most coast of South America and to the American West.

Gleaton’s photo lecture, “Race as a Social Construct” was born out of this work.  In that lecture he proposed not just an end to racism but also that we think of race so differently that our consciousness of race is changed.  The lecture was presented to large audiences at UCLA and other universities in the U.S.

“Race,” Gleaton said, “is a social construction.  It is not a bio-empirical fact.  Ideas and racial definitions come out of the historical, sociological and psychological need to quantify and categorize.

“My thoughts regarding the question of racial construction are at best conditional.  They are shaped out of my own personal history.

“Unknowingly, and in some cases knowingly, conversations about race, its meaning, social significance and definition often take place within the confines of a particular historical, social and psychological memory, which is formed both collectively and individually …. 

TENGO CASI 500 ANOS.  By Tony Gleaton http://www.tonygleaton.com/TonyGleaton.com/Writing_By.html

Much as he sounds, and was, the professor – having taught at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he was, first and always, an artist.

In the 1970’s Gleaton decided to leave UCLA, where he was studying art and history and go to NYC to make his way in the studios of fashion photography.

Coming to LA for a short break from the NYC winter Gleaton talked about his disgust with fashion photography, which he likened to the betrayal of young girls.  Out of that disgust grew the idea that he would, at whatever cost, make his own way and that his photographs would be how he communicated with the world. That decision shaped his work and the rest of his life. 

Gleaton went on the round up and cattle drive with cowboys in the American West.  His photographs of the cowboys at work redefine the myth of the American cowboy and the participation and contributions of African-American, Latino and Native American cowboys.

http://www.tonygleaton.com/TonyGleaton.com/Home_page.html

Gleaton travelled by bus and bicycle to Oaxaca, Mexico. He lived in the villages and became known in the local communities.  Gleaton’s photographs are stunning for their art and for his essential point – his respect for the people.

http://www.tonygleaton.com/TonyGleaton.com/TC5A_Mexico.html

Gleaton followed on land the sea route of the old slave ships along the northern edge of South America.  He photographed the people now living along that route.  On that photo journey he learned that people who may have been the descendents of slaves defined themselves, not by race, but by their country, their indigenous ancestry or their name origin. http://www.tonygleaton.com/TonyGleaton.com/TC5A_So._Am..html

Gleaton’s last work focused on landscapes, on places important in the history of the United States.  Places where people lived and sometimes fought and died.  The people are no more but he honors their memory is his landscape photographs. http://www.tonygleaton.com/TonyGleaton.com/Home_page_files/SaltPond_Tony_010_699.jpg

“I believe that the value of these photographs lie not in the fact that they provide answers.  Their value is in, by viewing them, they provide us a place in which we choose to ask questions,” Gleaton said of his work.

The choice to be an artist could be seen as a hard choice.  Gleaton’s lifestyle itinerant, money scarce, loving and loved and married and divorced three times because of his commitment to his way of making art.  For Gleaton it wasn’t a choice.  The only life he wanted was the life of an artist.

At long last, there was Lisa Ellerbee, a High School Teacher and Principal in San Mateo, California.  They married in 2005 and they came to terms with his commitment to his work and his long absences.  Lisa Ellerbee Gleaton was with him when he died on August 14, 2015 at the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto, California.  Gleaton was buried with full military honors at the National Cemetery in Dixon, California on August 26, 2015.

Gleaton navigated his life with an unrelenting dedication to his work, a sense of humor that was the delight of his friends, a generous heart, and a kind spirit.  He was beloved by many people, among them my children, now adults, and me.  He made the world a kinder and more thoughtful place.  It was a blessing to have known him.  He is missed.

Contact Susan Cloke

susancloke@gmail.com

New York Times Obituary

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/arts/design/tony-gleaton-67-dies-leaving-legacy-in-pictures-of-africans-in-the-americas.html?ref=arts

David and Bruria Finkel: A Remembrance. A Marriage.

David and Bruria Finkel 1968
photo courtesy of Finkel Family

David and Bruria Finkel:  A Remembrance.  A Marriage. 

Bruria Finkel Interview.

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

Santa Monica Mirror

August 21, 2015

“The memorial for David will be an afternoon of shared memories, music and poetry,” said Bruria Finkel wanting to invite everyone to the memorial for David at the Broad Theater on August 30, 2015.

David and Bruria’s 51 year marriage started in 1964.  They were married on Pico Place in Santa Monica, where they lived.  Bruria remembers that they invited about 400 people and almost 1000 guests came.  They created a table 100’ long and everyone who came brought food and drinks to share.  The bowls and pans and trays the food came in were left behind as wedding presents.

They chose May 1st as their wedding day.  An important day to David as May 1st is International Worker’s Day and commemorates the Chicago Haymarket Affair of 1886 and the labor union fight for an 8-hour workday.

And seeing that May Day is also an ancient European spring holiday there was a May Pole and dancing.

Bruria had moved to Pico Place, with her two young daughters, Melva and Wendy in 1959.  Bruria describes Pico Place as an exciting and fun neighborhood.  They had hootenannies on the street.  Bruria remembers Pete Seeger coming, Odetta coming.  Many musicians and artists lived there in the 1950’s and 60’s and Bruria was happy to be there, making art and raising her children.

But her life was about to change.  David’s friend, Dr. Robert Peck suggested to David that he call Bruria.  Peck and David had been in the Army together during the Korean War.  Both objected to the loyalty oath and were threatened with a dishonorable discharge.  The case went to the Supreme Court and David got his honorable discharge.   He went on to USC to study law.   When he met Bruria he was working with Margolis and McTernan, a highly respected civil rights and civil liberties law firm in Los Angeles.

Bruria was planning to go back to Israel where her family still lived.  She hesitated about saying yes when David asked her out but thought to herself, “well, it’s only dinner.”   They went to a party to celebrate the film “The Greatest Story Ever Told” because Bruria had cousins who were extras in the movie.  After the party they went to the Ash Grove.

“I knew David was very special five minutes after I met him.  I could see the character in the man,” remembered Bruria.

David came the next day to meet the children.  That evening they went dancing at the Miramar.  “Once I knew he liked the kids and the kids liked him I knew he was the one.  Very generous and very wonderful and that didn’t change in 51 years,” said Bruria.

David came to live at Pico Place with Bruria and Wendy and Melva.  After about 6 months he said, “let’s get married.”  They did.  Then Amy was born and then Adam.  David would brag he was the father of four.

Bruria was making pottery and doing ceramics.  David decided to go out on his own and Sieroty and Neiman gave him a space in their law firm.  Within a few months he had a good client list and he and Neil Herring, who will be speaking at the memorial on August 30, opened an office together.  They represented unions and conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War.  David also worked for Civil Rights.  In 1964 he went to Mississippi as part of a legal team investigating the Chaney, Schwerner, Goodman case.  And, as always, they were both raising their four children.

“We were lucky to be able to borrow money from David’s father and we also had money from David’s work at Margolis and McTernan.  So we could make the down payment on our house.   We moved to Hill Street in 1966 and have lived here ever since,” said Bruria.

“I had left Israel in 1953 and hadn’t been back.  In 1968 I took Adam and Amy and went to visit with my family for an amazing three weeks.  It was so good for the children to know their grandparents and cousins.”   

David and Bruria and Adam and Amy went again to Israel but not until the time of Adam’s Bar Mitzvah.

“1976 was a hard time for us.  I decided to request a grant.  The CA Arts Council was giving grants under the Artists in the Schools Program,” said Bruria.  She was one of 24 artists to receive a grant. 

“It was my first experience working in the schools.  I went to a Compton elementary school, Tibby Elementary.  It was still a difficult time for Compton.  We made the ‘Hop Scotch Map of the U.S.’  We asked, and the union made for us a 37’ cement circle.  The flower of each State was painted on the circle.  It was an important time for me and I became involved in ways I hadn’t before,” said Bruria

In the 1980’s David ran for the Rent Board on the SMRR ticket.  In that same year he moved his law office to Santa Monica.  It was the beginning of David’s political career in Santa Monica and he would go on to be elected to the City Council.

“I think, in general, the core of my existence has been the family, even though I have many other interests and David felt the same,” said Bruria.

“Our interests were both different and similar.  At the core was our family and we pursued our other interests with support from each other.

“In 1971 David and I went on a trip to England and France.  When we travelled David always wanted to go to the courts and meet legal and political activists and I wanted to go to museums and see art.  We decided one day would be mine and one day his.  And it was interesting to learn that we were not bored with each other’s interests.

“It didn’t always work out the way we hoped but it was an important concept.  It gave each of us respect for each other’s work and is a good way to be married.”

In 1990, after being on the Rent Board and the City Council, David ran for Municipal Court Judge.  The retiring judge, the man David replaced, was the judge who had married David and Bruria.

“David very much liked being a judge and did that for 12 years.  It was a wonderful gift given to him by the people of Santa Monica.  As a sole practitioner and a lawyer for the unions we sometimes had hard times and his being a judge gave us stability and meant we could help our kids and our grandchildren and that was a blessing,” said Bruria.

“At that time there was a mandatory retirement requirement at 70 and so after 12 years David retired.  He went on to teach at Santa Monica College and he loved it.  It was a terrific opportunity for him to be with students.  He ran for the Santa Monica College Board.  He kept on with teaching and being a Board Member as much as possible until his death on July 4 of 2015.  He was 83.

“Losing David has been almost a 3 year process of his sickness but if I get to live long enough I expect the process of healing from the trauma of his death will probably come to be the work I do in the future,” said Bruria thinking aloud.  “Already the outpouring of sympathy from our friends and from the community has been tonic to my heart.”

“My children have been the sustenance of my life.  They are thoughtful, careful, creative people. Having them near me is really important. Everyone of my children is a treasure as is everyone of my grandchildren.”

Thinking about her history and her future Bruria said, “The passing of time fascinates me – my personal life has always been expressed in my art.  You could chart my life through my work.  To actively deal with the immediate trauma I need time.  Art takes time.”

Contact Susan Cloke:

susancloke@gmail.com 

Memorial Information:

MEMORIAL FOR JUDGE DAVID B. FINKEL 


Sunday, August 30th from 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM 


The Broad Stage 
1310 11th Street, Santa Monica, CA

Foundation and donation information;

Judge David B. Finkel Social Justice Scholarship

http://santamonicacollegefoundation.org/david_finkel

The Marlboro Music Festival: Rudolf Serkin to Mitsuko Uchida

The Marlboro Music Festival:          

Musicians at Play.  Marlboro College.  Marlboro Vermont.  
photographer Pete Checchia

Rudolf Serkin to Mitsuko Uchida

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

Three famous European music families – the Serkin, Busch and Moyse families - escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany.  They reunited in Marlboro Vermont in the early 1950’s around the concept of learning music in a family and communal environment. 

With the rise of Hitler in Germany in 1933, the Serkins and the Busches went to Switzerland.  In 1939 with Hitler’s Nazis on the march, they fled to the United States.  The Busch family moved soon after their arrival in the United States to Vermont, which they had been told was like Switzerland, the Serkins came later and the Moyse family arrived in 1950.

The Brattleboro Daily Reformer, January 18, 1950, headline reads, “Hendricks Brings Moyse Trio to Marlboro For Music Program and Summer Festival.”

Walter Hendricks is a key part of this story.  In 1946, right after the end of WWII, Hendricks, founder of Marlboro College, bought the Dal Rymple Dairy Farm in Marlboro Vermont. His vision was to start a small Liberal Arts College and to help returning veterans. Funding came from the GI Bill and a loan from Brattleboro Savings and Loan.  He also wanted music to be an important part of the College.

The Marlboro Music Festival was founded in 1951 by the Serkin family, the Busch family and the Moyse family.  Rudolf Serkin “felt what was really needed was a place to bring exceptional young musicians and leading professional musicians together and by immersing them in studies and practice for two months you could teach them to have something important to say about music.”

The Festival has continued that tradition. For two months each summer both young, aspiring musicians and professional musicians come to Marlboro, Vermont to practice music together in an informal and community setting.

Danny Kim, violist, the second generation of his family to be a Marlboro Festival participant, said, “Growing up my involvement with music was through my parents.  Now I have a lot of musician friends and I’m very grateful to be able to love music.”

“If you’re surrounded by music when you’re growing up then music is just part of who you are.  Both my parents are violinists.  I started learning the violin when I was 5.  I always studied music.  My mother is a violinist and a Suzuki teacher,” said Kim.  “Both of my parents are musicians.  My father, Young-Nam Kim is a violinist, a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music and founded, in 2002, the Northern Lights Chamber Music Festival.”

Kim graduated from Central High School, the main public high school in St. Paul, Minnesota. “I studied music and took all the regular high school classes, played soccer and was ‘just a teenager,” said Kim.

After Central High School Kim went on to study at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and then to New York’s Juilliard School of Music.  At Wisconsin he concentrated on the viola.  Kim said, “I felt really good by my sophomore year and I started playing with other musicians. The more I would study and practice the more I grew to love the music. By the time I got to Juilliard I knew the viola was my instrument and I was very lucky to study with Samuel Rhodes.

“Danny Kim is a wonderful example of the Marlboro ethic of taking traditions and developing them through generations of musicians,” said Frank Salomon, the Co-Administrator of the Marlboro Music Festival. “Here at the Festival we work to introduce young musicians to play what lies beneath the notes.  We offer an experience that allows young musicians to play not only brilliantly but also with musical insight and sensitivity.”

“My parents also fled Nazi Germany,” said Salomon.  They came to the United States in 1935.  My father was a professor and my mother was one of the first women medical doctors in Germany.

“They were able to come because Alvin Johnson, an economist and a co-founder and first director of the New School in New York, had offered my father a job teaching at the New School.

“When they arrived in the United States the American doctor at the Embassy said my father was physically unable to earn his living and the fear was that they would be sent back to Germany.

“Johnson came to my parents rescue, as he had for so many people fleeing the Nazis,” said Salomon.

“I didn’t hire this man to teach gymnastics I hired him to teach Sociology,” said Johnson to the emigration authorities. And it was on his word that my parents were allowed to remain in the United States.

“When I was a child, running around Manhattan, my mother had subscription tickets for the New Friends of Music Chamber Orchestra and our family went to their concerts and to children’s concerts and Bach concerts and more,” said Salomon of his early introduction to classical music.

“The issue,” said Salomon “with classical music and with the arts is that they are not included as a natural part of many children’s education.  If they were then they would be a natural part of life for all.”

Salomon is committed to classical music.  He has represented Richard Goode, Jaime Laredo, Leon Fleisher, Masaaki Suzuki, Lisa de la Salle and Simon Rattle and more.  He is equally committed to new and young musicians as is demonstrated by his 50 plus year tenure with the Festival. 

“In chamber music you learn your part and the score and learn to listen and compromise and be supportive of your colleagues and make multiple voices into one,” said Salomon.  “The important thing is that these are life lessons as well as music lessons.

“Our current Director, Mitsuko Uchida, continues the legacy of the founders and also continues the tradition of adding of imprint of each succeeding generation,” said Salomon.

Festival participants are at Marlboro for two months.    In late July and early August of each year they offer public concerts.  The programs are chosen by the musicians and are announced a week or so before 

the performances.

The Young James Levine and Van Cliburn
Marlboro Music Festival Participants
Historic Photo.
 Photographer Clemens  Kalischer

Saturday July 25 and Sunday July 26, 2015 Program Notes:

Saturday

Saariaho - Nymphea

Tessa Lark, Lucy Chapman, John Stulz, and Jonah Ellsworth.

Mozart - Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370

Mary Lynch, Yoojin Jang, Daniel Kim, and Judith Serkin.

Mendelssohn - String Quintet in B-flat Major, Op.87

Yoojin Jang, Hiroko Yajima, Wenting Kang, John Stulz, and Will Chow.

Sunday

Beethoven - Piano Trio in C Minor, Op.1, No.3

Mitsuko Uchida, Tessa Lark, and Peter Wiley.

Saariaho - Mirage

Sarah Shafer, Marcy Rosen, and Lydia Brown.

Mozart - String Quintet in G Minor, K.516

Siwoo Kim, Luosha Fang, Daniel Kim, Matthew Lipman, and Peter Wiley.

Danny Kim said it all when he said, “The level of playing is so high and you have so much practice time with other musicians.  It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on a piece of music you love with great musicians.”

Contact: Susan Cloke

susan@smmirror.com

For recordings of performances and information about the Festival go to: www.Marlboro.music.org

For more information on Marlboro College go to: https://www.marlboro.edu/

What Say You? Diana Gordon: Artist. Lawyer, Activist

Diana Gordon "Red"
photo courtesy of artist

What Say You?  Diana Gordon: Artist, Lawyer, Activist

SUSAN CLOKE

Columnist

“You have to do the work even when it’s not going well,” were Diana Gordon’s words when talking about making art.  “It’s not a sometimes thing.  You have to be disciplined.”

Gordon was speaking about her current show at FIG Gallery, Bergamot Station. http://www.figgallery.com/   She could have been talking about so many parts of her life.

Publicly known in Santa Monica for her involvement in local politics, Gordon was one of the founders of the Coalition for a Livable City  http://www.smclc.net/

“It was my first Council meeting, “ said Gordon talking about her introduction to Santa Monica politics.  “I went to a hearing on the plans for the renovation of Santa Monica Place.  The meeting was long.  Many articulate people spoke.  Yet it felt as if it were a done deal.”

Fast-forward to the present time.  “I think we are at an interesting crossroads in Santa Monica.  The Hines project was a decisive turning point and residents are now organized in a way that makes their voices heard.”

Gordon the political activist is also Gordon the attorney and Gordon the artist.

“My Grandmother was an artist.  She was raised at a time when women were taught to paint on china and paint watercolors as part of their college educations.  It wasn’t until the later years of her life she began painting landscapes.  She painted for the sheer joy of painting.  That fascinated me,” remembered Gordon.

Gordon was also influenced by her mother’s friends,  “My mother had two best friends, one was with a major ad company and the other was a fashion buyer for a major department store in the Midwest.  They had interesting work and I wanted to have interesting work too.

“As a UCLA student I studied history, Spanish and art.  When I was a Junior I did a Year Abroad in Madrid.  I studied at the Prado and saw for myself the worlds created by artist such as Goya and Bosch.  Having grown up in the San Fernando Valley the artists I studied at the Prado were a revelation.”

Being a painter herself was in her future, but Gordon didn’t know it yet.  She graduated UCLA with a major in history and went on to law school at UC Davis.

“I liked being a lawyer,” said Gordon.  “I went into the field of business and entertainment litigation and practiced law for most of my adult life.  I only began transitioning to being an artist in the last 12 years.”

In 2003 Gordon inherited a treasure trove of paints and art materials and books about art.  It seemed the inheritance came at just the right time in her life.  Gordon began to study with the artist Martin Lubner at his studio in Venice, CA.

“Abstract art interests me because it is a nonverbal language and it requires an emotional understanding whereas with figurative art our minds recognize the object.  How color works in the service of other color, the diversity, the range and the dialogue of color fascinates me,” said Gordon.

“The process of painting is, for me, like being a lawyer.  You are always working to marshal ideas and winnowing down to the strongest possible statement, said Gordon.  “Everything that you’re passionate about in your life makes your life and your work better.”

What Say You?

The show at the Bergamot Station FIG Gallery, Will to Form, is Gordon’s first solo show.  The opening reception is May 30.  The show closes June 27.

GRAPHIC COURTESY CITY OF SANTA MONICA

California Incline detours that are now in effect through Spring 2016.

The “Big Three” Santa Monica Construction Projects

COURTESY PHOTO

The future Colorado Esplanade looking west on Colorado Ave. with the Pier sign in the distance. From left to right the image shows the new pedestrian walkway, the new bike lanes, the road divider, and the westbound vehicle lanes.

PHOTO CREDIT WATER AND POWER ASSOCIATION

Sunset Trail Pedestrian Path.

The California Incline closed to traffic on Monday, April 20. I made the circuit of the “Big Three,” the three construction projects that have Santa Monicans talking about traffic. Walking from the under construction light rail station at 4th and Colorado, along the under construction Colorado Esplanade, and up Ocean Avenue to the under construction California Incline. All three projects have an estimated end date of Spring 2016.

At mid-morning the Colorado Esplanade was busy with people walking to the Pier and the Park and Downtown and with cars on the westbound only lanes. At the California Incline, PCH and Ocean Ave. were relatively quiet with cars moving normally and people in the park walking and jogging, sitting on the benches, leaning on the fence, and watching the ocean.

The word on the street had Santa Monica in a mad traffic snarl because of the closure of the California Incline. But it seems drivers had gotten the word to find alternate routes. Perhaps enough drivers had found alternate routes to account for the easier than usual Ocean Ave. traffic.

Why three construction projects at once? Why build during the high tourist summer months? Why start the California Incline before the PCH sewer work is complete?

Interim City Manager Elaine Polachek talked about the reasons why the California Incline project was starting now.

“The California Incline Bridge is substandard, meeting only 30 percent of the standards used to evaluate the structural integrity of the bridge. A lot has changed since 1930 when this bridge was built,” Polachek said.

“No matter when we start it will take a year to complete the project even though it’s a fast-track project. We timed it so only one summer season will be affected by construction.”

“We had been told that the PCH sewer construction project would be completed before the California Incline project start date. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Although we have now been told that it will be completed by June.

“We will be continually responding to daily problems and events and will be tweaking details as things happen to make this as smooth as possible.”

Originally called the “Sunset Trail” the wood fenced path led from Palisades Park to the beach. Wikipedia lists the trail as being built in 1896 and replaced in 1930 and in continuous use until today’s closure.

“Bringing the California Incline to current seismic standards is the reason for this project. We’ve been working on this project for a long time to secure funding and to receive all the approvals necessary to meet the Federal and State standards. Ninety percent of the $20 million cost of the project will be federally funded,” said Susan Cline, Interim Director of Public Works for the City.

“Once the resources and approvals were secured we moved forward as quickly as we could on this project because it is in the interest of public safety.

“The new bridge will be 52 feet wide. There will be two vehicle lanes, two bicycle lanes and a pedestrian walkway. The iconic design of the fence will be maintained.”

The California Incline is on its own schedule, determined by public safety and by guidelines that come with the Federal funding. The two other big construction projects, the light rail station, run by Expo, and the City run Colorado Esplanade are being coordinated so that the Esplanade is ready when the first passengers get off the light rail train at the 4th Street Station.

“The Colorado Esplanade is designed to be an extension of the light rail, a gateway to the downtown, the Pier and Palisades Park,” said Cline.

At a cost of $13 million the Esplanade is funded by a combination of city general funds, federal funds and special revenue funds. The idea behind the Esplanade design was to make it easier and more fun to walk and bike than to drive.

The 6.6 mile light rail line currently under construction will extend Expo from Culver City to Santa Monica. Expo projects that, by 2030, there will be 64,000 people who ride the Expo line along the Downtown Los Angeles/Santa Monica route. The total cost of the line is estimated at $1.5 billion.

For now plan your detours and your alternate routes. But hold on to the thought that 64,000 Expo riders overall will translate into thousands fewer people coming to Santa Monica in cars and easier trips to downtown LA for Santa Monicans. Hold on to knowing that the California Incline will not fall down in an earthquake.

It’s early times, and there are and will be many problems that need to be solved so people can get where they need to go. But in a year maybe there will be a party celebrating the end of construction on the “Big Three” and the reason will be more people walking and biking and people in cars having a much easier time of it.

What Say You?

City project information: www.smconstructs.org

Esplanade Hotline: 626.344.4248

Incline Hotline: 888.303.6026