QView #178 | April 16, 2024

Guests from Ono Academic College in Israel joined members of the Queens College administration and student body at QC Hillel’s offices in the Student Union.

Representatives of Ono Academic College—one of the largest private higher ed institutions in Israel—visited QC on Tuesday, April 9. Ono is known for its classes and programs serving Muslim, Jewish, and Christian students, emphasizing underrepresented and disadvantaged populations.

From left: Kishida Yuko, Kimiko Hahn, First Lady Jill Biden

Photo by Ting Shen/UPI

On April 10, at the invitation of First Lady Jill Biden, Kimiko Hahn (English) led a poetry workshop for Washington, DC, high school students and participated in a reading in the main library of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The first lady was hosting Kishida Yuko, wife of Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, for an event celebrating the friendship between their respective nations and highlighting the women’s interest in youth, education, and literature. “I teach in the most diverse place on the planet, Queens College, the City University of New York,” said Hahn, who identified herself as the daughter of Japanese American and German American artists. “I am here as a poet, professor, and, I hasten to add, union member. I am here because I sing the body electric, as bidden by Walt Whitman; and I write in a certain Slant of light, as bidden by Emily Dickinson. I found my way to this celebration because these two women take education to heart. And value poetry.” (A work by Hahn is published in the “Poetry Month” item in this week's newsletter.)

The Sociology Department held a special retirement luncheon on Thursday, April 11, to celebrate 15 senior colleagues who collectively represent 547 years of service to Queens College. Each retiree was given an engraved crystal award for their dedication to Sociology. Andrew Beveridge, Hester Eisenstein, Harry Levine, Pyong Gap Min, and Dean Savage accepted recognition in person. The other honorees are Basil Browne, Sophia Catsambis, Patricia Clough, Bernard Cohen, Mauricio Font, Carmenza Gallo, Thomas Gorman, Samuel Heilman, Robert Kapsis, and Lauren Seiler. 

From left: Hester Eisenstein, Dean Savage, Andrew Beveridge, Pyong Gap Min, Harry Levine

President Frank H. Wu congratulated the retirees.

At that night’s performance of Hansel and Gretel in Goldstein Theatre, a witch was vanquished and captive children were freed.

In a surprise coda, Ed Smaldone (ACSM) was saluted for his years of service to the college’s opera program. Smaldone is approaching retirement, but he will maintain a permanent presence in Goldstein Theatre: A seat bears a plaque in his name. The tribute was arranged by Opera Program Director Sherry Overholt.

Neuropsychology Research Day on Friday, April 12, featured poster presentations (above) and a keynote by Mount Sinai’s Yasmin Hurd (below).

Accepted undergraduate students got a sample of campus life during Become a Knight Day on Sunday, April 14, on the Quad.

The Knight and friends display team spirit.

President Frank H. Wu joined photo ops; accepted students browsed course offerings. Many parents and family members attended and spoke with faculty, staff, and student ambassadors who coordinated campus tours.

The same day, President Frank H. Wu volunteered at Forest Hills Jewish Center, joining Mayer Waxman, executive director of the Queens Jewish Community Council, in assembling Passover groceries and materials for free distribution. 

Also on Sunday, New York City Councilmember James Gennaro helped arrange a ceremony naming a sign for late New York State Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn ’78 at 161st Street and Jewel Avenue. Among the officials present, in addition to Councilmember Gennaro, were State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli; Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz; State Senators Toby Ann Stavisky and John Liu; State Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Ed Braunstein, and David Weprin; and New York City Councilmember Linda Lee. Several former elected officials and family members of Assemblymember Mayersohn were present, too. She represented Queens’s 27th District for nearly 30 years.

Men’s Tennis Clinches ECC Regular Season Title; Davis Named to All-Met Women’s Basketball Team

The Queens College men’s tennis team clinched the East Coast Conference (ECC) regular season title and the #1 seed in the upcoming ECC playoffs with a win over Daemen University last week. The Knights are 9-6 overall and 4-1 in ECC play with five matches left in the regular season.

Additionally, Brianna Davis of the women’s basketball team received some high honors last week as she was selected to the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) All-Metropolitan Second Team. The sophomore earned her second straight selection to the team after averaging 15.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game last season.

The Knights baseball team continued its strong season last week, winning four of five games to improve to 20-14 overall and 10-6 in the ECC.

The track and field team hosted the Knights Invitational on campus on Friday. The Knights dominated the relay events, winning both the men’s and women’s 4x100 and 4x400 relays. The Knights also had three individual first-place finishes: Fattima Morrobel in the women’s 800-meter run (2:26.81), Khareena Primus in the women’s 100-meter dash (12.77), and Kadeem Patterson in the men’s 200-meter dash (22.68).

It’s another busy week ahead for the Knights. Softball will host doubleheaders on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against the College of Staten Island, Southern Connecticut State University, and Molloy University, respectively. Baseball hosts East Stroudsburg University on Tuesday and then will take on St. Thomas Aquinas in a four-game series beginning Friday. Men’s tennis hosts Adelphi on Wednesday and Daemen on Saturday evening and women’s tennis will visit Stonybrook University on Saturday. Track and field will compete at the Jack Maloney Invitational on Saturday in New Haven, Connecticut.

For the latest Knights news, be sure to visit queensknights.com.

Diversified Activities

QC’s second annual Diversity Week, organized around the theme of Nurturing a Sense of Belonging and Value, is now underway. Faculty and staff training about unconscious bias, a Monday Mile walk around the Quad with President Frank H. Wu, an LGBTQIAA+ Paint Your Pride event, and a workshop on bodily autonomy and disability justice were just some of the items on yesterday’s agenda. Combating antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, sexism and all forms of bigotry are scheduled to be addressed. 

Students accompanied President Frank H. Wu on Monday Mile.

Upcoming events include Q UNITY Day, a ribbon-cutting for the campus office of CUNY Citizenship Now!, and a celebration of QC veterans and students connected to the military (Wednesday, April 17); the CUNY Queens Second Chance Prom (Thursday, April 18); and the Dismantling and Combating Hate Conference (Friday, April 19).

The complete schedule is posted online.

Remembering Lives Lost to the Pandemic

Queens College’s third annual COVID Memorial, hosted by the Office of Student Development and Leadership, will be held at Cooperman Plaza on Wednesday, April 17, at 12:30 pm. During the ceremony, a moment of silence will be observed in honor of those who passed away.

Inspired by QC alumnae Jessica and Danielle Alejandro, State Senator Jamaal Bailey introduced Bill S8483, the New York State COVID-19 Remembrance Act, in the New York State Senate. The bill is in committee right now. If enacted, the legislation will authorize municipalities to collaborate with parks departments and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to establish permanent COVID-19 memorials. The bill would also establish funding to provide financial support for the creation and maintenance of these memorials. Final memorial designs and locations are to be selected through a community-driven process, prioritizing input from those most affected, including family members and loved ones of victims of COVID-19.

The Alejandro sisters, who lost their grandfather in the pandemic, spearheaded the creation of a Yellow Heart Memorial on campus (QView 126) to commemorate loved ones lost to COVID.

Poetry Month, Continued

This week, QView shares poetry by faculty members Roger Sedarat and Kimiko Hahn, both of the English Department.

In response to the Persian New Year, Sedarat submitted a translation of Hafez from his forthcoming book.

Hafez’s Joy                                                

The breeze through the spring garden brings us joy.

Our work is pleasure as we harvest joy.

Allowed to sit in shade and drink our wine,

Our bountiful God longs to give us joy.

You dare deny the gardener’s ripe gifts?

Repent! It’s sinful to refuse his joy.

The wine of Jamshid overcomes the world.

It’s mirror reflects the universe’s joy.

Surrender all the stories of your pain.

You’ll find that in God’s total trust is joy.

Hide from your fears. Don’t listen to your heart.

You’ll never understand the mystic’s joy.

Forgive these outliers their dirty talk.

Such dark humor lights up Hafez’s joy.

Hahn wrote about a local stroll.

Ode to the Mud in Corona Park

 “Walk so silently that that the bottoms of your feet become ears.” Pauline Oliveros

After all, you persist this late winter 

to offer history and souvenir

so I walk--as a teacher instructed--

listening to you with my feet. I hear

the slow creak of a glacier, ice sheets

breaking stone into terminal moraine.

I hear the waters in a glacial lake and rivulets.

Torrents turning earth to marsh.

Then, the Lenape hunted then the Dutch

used tufts and twigs for grazing animals. 

I hear their lowing. I hear muskets. 

I hear the metal on road and rail.

And after the rich enjoyed a quiet green resort,

there came dumping. Can you hear the tons

of ash? Can you hear the stench and infestation?

Can you hear the fur trappers and squatters? 

I hear them and the locals collecting firewood. 

I hear the lawns unrolled for the fair. 

The vigils and games! (The crimes--

we can't forget the crimes--) 

Hear the picnic benches and picnickers.

Hear the macadam. The gravel. Hear

new stampedes. New trains of thought. 

New embraces. New ardor. 

The centuries whisper to my feet. 

Incubator To House NYC Node

In collaboration with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Tech Talent Pipeline within the Mayor's Office of Talent and Workforce Development (NYC Talent), the Tech Incubator at Queens College (TIQC) launched the NYC Node, a blockchain applied learning program.

Blockchain nodes are devices that participate in a peer-to-peer network for data decentralization and security. The NYC Node project, supported through investments from NYCEDC, NYC Talent, and Queens College, includes the acquisition of hardware components, and the development of educational materials for engineering and financial data analytics students. The program will be housed at TIQC.

Joshua Gottlieb, tech founder and QC alumnus, conceived of the NYC Node as a platform to offer CUNY students hands-on blockchain development experience. It already has: Current students Baldwin Cepeda (Queens College), Daniel Chrostowski (Hunter College), Jeremy Oppenheimer (Baruch College), and Jonathan Shields (York College) spearheaded the creation of the NYC Node. The project will be made open-source to foster further collaboration among CUNY students and the wider blockchain development community.

The NYC Node is set up an etherium archival node. “Archival nodes maintain a complete record of all transactions from the genesis block—the first block in a blockchain—to the current block,” explains Faheem Kudo Hoosain ’23, blockchain advisor. “This makes them useful for purposes such as auditing, historical analysis, and research. . . . any student who creates a blockchain app will need to connect to an archival node to access historical data from a blockchain.”

“NYC Node is the first blockchain project jointly sponsored by TIQC, as a key component of the Blockchain Accelerator at TIQC,” said Tech Incubator Executive Director Ying Zhou. “We look forward to supporting more blockchain-related projects and initiatives across CUNY.”

CUNY Dance Initiative Turns Ten

Flamenco artists Sonia Olla & Ismael Fernández and the tap and music troupe Music from the Sole will take the stage at LeFrak Concert Hall on Saturday, April 27, when the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) celebrates its tenth anniversary.

Spearheaded by the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, CDI awards residencies to early and mid-career dance troupes and choreographers based in New York City. Participating companies have access to underutilized rehearsal and performance space; as part of the program, they hold master classes, open rehearsals, or Q&As to connect directly with CUNY communities. Olla & Fernández had a residency at QC in 2018; three years later, Music from the Sole had a residency at City College.

To date, CDI has hosted 220 residencies at 13 CUNY campuses, sponsored instruction to more than 5,000 CUNY students, and attracted more than 20,000 New Yorkers to performances at CUNY arts centers. Most of the artists are people of color specializing in dance traditions from all over the world.

Farm Museum To “Bloom” for a Month

Tulipmania caused an economic bubble in 17th century Holland, and Blooms at Queens Farm - Queens County Farm Museum, opening on Thursday, April 18, illustrates why. Orange Brilliant, Queen of the Night, and Texas Flame Parrots are just a few of the gorgeous varieties planted on the grounds. Visitors can take selfies in a field of flowers and, equipped with designated stem collection supplies, pick their own to go.

As functional as they are beautiful, flowers support critical pollinators, such as the bees on the farm’s apiary, and multiple butterfly species, among them the endangered monarchs. (The Queens County Farm Museum uses regenerative agricultural practices; all crops are Certified Naturally Grown.)

Entry to the farm is free; tickets—released on the Monday preceding every event week—are required for admission to Blooms. Sign up at Queens County Farm Museum (list-manage.com) to be notified when tickets are available. Field conditions permitting, the show will run through May 19.

Morris Rossabi (History) is among six China specialists chosen for a new program organized by the American Council of International Education and the U.S. Embassies in Central Asia, with support from the U.S. State Department. He will travel to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan to give lectures on China and interact with Central Asian China scholars. The program also calls for U.S. participants to host a Central Asian in academic 2024-25 . . . . Pedro Val (SEES) gave an interview (audio only) to radio station WCBS 880 about the recent earthquake affecting New York City . . . . Ying Zhou (Tech Incubator) served as a judge for Congresswoman Grace Meng’s app contest this year. Through the the annual Congressional App Challenge, legislators invite junior high and high school students who live or attend school in their district to submit original apps for mobile, tablet, or computer devices . . . .

the QC contingent at CUNY's Office of Transformation April 12 event on best practices developed through the Career Success Fellowship included past and present fellows (from left) Jian Xiao (Accounting and Information Systems), Schiro Withanachchi (Economics, BALA), Dean Savage (Sociology), Sebastian Alvarado (Biology), Nerve Macaspac (Library and Information Studies), Khánh Lê (Linguistics and Communication Disorders), and William Orchard (English) . . . .

Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman

The 60th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner was commemorated in Senate Resolution 2197, introduced by Senator Leroy Comrie. The same resolution has been filed in the New York State Assembly by Rebecca Seawright.