FWC Section Chairs, General Meeting #1: the 2018-2019 Celebratory Year

Our April #5 General Meeting 2019 was all about the SECTIONS.
We honored the Section Chairs for their dedication, smart and hard work, as well as for the productive participation in the Centennial Year of the UCLA's Faculty Women's Club.

Helene Des Ruisseaux (French Reading & Conversation), Phyllis Amboss (Co-Chair, Writers), Dianne Homsher (Co-Chair, Cooking), Elisabeth Fuster (Spanish Conversation), Simone King (Tennis, Monday), Marianne Afifi (Co-Chair, Cooking), Marianne Tereszcuk (BRIDGE, all three sections), Doris I. Nelson (Tennis, Friday),
Zorana Ercegovac (VP Sections, and Music in Cultural Contexts), Dagmar Lestrel, for Diane Childs (German), Michaelyn Duboff (Galleries & Sights), Sandy Spolsky (Birthdays),
Rochelle Caballero (Play-reading), Marjorie Friedlander (Co-Chair, Writers).

Zorana Ercegovac, VP Sections presenting roses to Sections Chairs

As Vice President of the UCLA's Faculty Women's Club, 2017-2019, I had been honored and privileged to have worked with wonderful colleagues and friends on several projects throughout this Centennial celebration.

For example, at the April 2018 General Meeting, we presented a young pianist musician Victor Shlyakhtenko, as part of the Music Section participation; we also focused on the history of the UCLA's FWC.

In addition, The Centennial Committee had suggested that sections consider participating in a unique and creative way in the celebration of the Centennial Year.  And they did.

Phyllis Amboss wrote an original one-act play, TIMES HAVE CHANGED
(Phyllis Amboss and Marjori Friedlander Co-Chairs)
Play-readers read (Rochelle Caballero, Chair)

From left: Patti Nagy, Marjorie Friedlander, Noel Carterette, Dianne Homsher, Jo Knopoff, Sandy Spolsky,
narrated by Rochelle Caballero

The play is set in the 1920s when the Faculty Women's Club met at the Vermont campus of the Los Angeles Normal School, precursor to UCLA. Notice hats and gloves.

Playreaders also read two one-act plays by Alice Gerstenberg: OVERTONES, and FOURTEEN.

The Writers produced COLLECTED WORKS, by FWC Writers Workshop, The FWC Centennial Edition (Los Angeles, February 2019).
Copies were available free of charge to the attendees of the April General Meeting.

Lunar New Year was hosted by Shirley Ho at her home, February 13, 2019. She treated us with wonderful luncheon and great hospitality. The event was given by the FWC Birthday Section, and all board members, Centennial committee members, and Scholarship committee members were invited.

Wonderful celebration of the Lunar New Year at the Shirley Ho's home

Our 2018-2019 UCLA Faculty Women's Club Section Chairs Annual Meeting was held on October 3rd 2018 at the Faculty Center. Here is the group photo of this meeting attendees.

From left: Shirley Ho (invited as FWC President-Elect), Elisabeth Furster (Spanish)
Zorana Ercegovac (VP Sections, & Music), Sandy Spolsky (B-days), Marjorie Friedlander (Writers)
Dorothea Frederking (German), Diane Childs (German), Phyllis Amboss (Writers)
Dianne Homsher (Cooking), Simone King (Tennis), Marianne Tereszcuk (Bridge)
Helene desRuisseaux (French), Marianne Afifi (Cooking)
Photo credit: Patti Nagy

Jeanne Pritzker, FWC Woman of Distinction
with Geraldine Walter, FWC President

We started off our General Meeting #1 with the 2018 FWC Woman of Distinction, Jeanne Pritzker, founder and chair of Foster Care Counts (FCC). Jeanne found her non-profit organization that raises awareness and provides financial support to local agencies working to help underserved populations. Our President 2018-2019 Geraldine Walter shares a moment to present the award to Pritzker.

Our sections represent the interests and affinities of FWC members. Each October at our first General Meeting, sections showcase their programs and recruit new members.

We welcomed Helene DesRuisseaux as our new Chair of the FRENCH Reading and Conversation Section.

WRITERS and PLAY READING sections will contribute their own skit at the April 2019 General Meeting.

Marianne Tereszcuk chairs all three BRIDGE sections.

MUSIC IN CULTURAL CONTEXTS section welcomes members outside our own section during many of our regular gatherings.

As a group, we will attend Academy St. Martin in the Fields with Jeremy Denk at the Broad Sage in Santa Monica. 

Rochelle Caballero and Phyllis Amboss

Marianne Tereszcuk chairs all BRIDGE sections

Evan Kleiman was our speaker at the November 2018 General Meeting. She walked into a professional restaurant kitchen and found her home. In 1984 she opened Angeli Caffe serving regional Italian food in a casual welcoming atmosphere.

Evan co-authore Cucina Fresca, still in print, considered a classic. Since 1998 the radio show and podcast Good Food has been the place she could explore various aspects of food and how it intersects with our lives. The show airs on KCRW, and NPR station in Southern California and has a worldwide audience on the web. On how to make homemade pies, and other delicious meals, visit her BLUPRINT.

 Zorana, Vice President for Sections and Chair of Music in Cultural Contexts Section, suggested that the sections be more open to the entire membership rather than to our own section members.

Jaime Bulkacz, presenter on ARGENTINE TANGO
with Zorana Ercegovac, VP Sections

October 17, 2018, our MUSIC SECTION presented a unique opportunity for the participants to learn about the evolution of the Argentine TANGO since the beginnings. It incorporates a variety of cultural traits and performance traditions. Jaime, a native of Buenos Aires, expertly marched through its historical origins of vocal and instrumental genres and ensembles.

One among our attendees observed that while we typically associate the word "tango" with dance, many Argentinians focus on the tango music.

From left: Glorya Dixon, Zorana Ercegovac, Marilyn Slater, and Mary Lou Ward
General Meeting #1: October 16, 2018, UCLA's Faculty Center

Our bulletin UPDATE announces section dates and programs, but traditionally each section has included its own members. This "openness" would be a wonderful opportunity for new members to sample those sections they feel particular affinity for. Examples abound. For example, as we read Julian Barnes' "Flaubert's Parrot" in the book section, French section may offer expertise on the novelist Gustave Flaubert.

Currently, UCLA's Hammer Museum is exhibiting drawings by Victor Hugo's son Charles Hugo (1826-1871). He photographed his father seated on the Jersey rock, Rocher des Prescripts (exiles' rock), around 1853.

Here, Victor Hugo is seen gazing up and beyond the horizon contemplating that the ground and the air we breath is the same for all people regardless of their origins and birthplace. Everywhere, man is at home.

Reading Hugo's novels and watching his son's drawings made strong impression on me, worth exploring further, perhaps in our Book and French Sections.
Now in our third year, Music Section will offer our traditional Holiday SING ALONG in December. We invite members from Book and Play-Reading sections. Shirley Ho, a member of Music Section and B-day Section will be the hostess of a special event in February 2019. Dishes from our International Cooking Section could be another possible candidate to include in this year's experiment.

Debby Kennel who chairs our Book Section presented Jamie Bernstein's Famous Father Girl (HarperCollins 2018), the work which could have been presented both in the Music Section and the Book Section. Here's the group from yesterday's meeting.

From left: Bette, Debby (holding the book), our hostess Barbara, Zorana, Jarka,
Marjorie, Monique (new member), Anne, Amelia, and Norma (new member)
Photo credit: Sara Crandall

Bernstein's firstborn daughter has written a memoir of her family, her "daddy." The photo on the left is from The New Yorker (June 25, 2018), written by David Denby and titled "Music Man." As a group, we dissected numerous issues as presented in the book that was published by HarperCollins in 2018, in the year of Leonard Bernstein's centenary.

Bernstein was the great American composer, conductor, humanitarian, pianist, and the one who negotiated endless boundaries between the concert hall and the Broadway, between secular and sacred musical genres, and much more.

Leonard Bernstein @ 100 was on view at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles from April 26 through September 2, 2018.

He was Harvard educated, handsome, American-Jewish super hero, who enjoyed frequent company of family members, friends, and his colleagues, especially his New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He was well regarded and revered both at home and internationally.

Our discussion was equally divided to LB as a person as well as the artist.

With permission from The Getty Restaurant's
newest creation: PEAR with the
almond base. DELICIOUS!

Finally, Zorana invited all Section Chairs attendees to the screening of Roma King's documentary film, based on her book "Footsteps in the Snow." The film will be showing Sunday on October 21st at the Laemmle Film Center in Santa Monica.
I had coffee with Roma just before her departure for Poland, and chatted about her debut documentary film.
The photo below is of Roma who told me all about what would be happening back in Poland.

Roma with her book, "Footsteps in the snow"
From one's family journey, to the story told in her book, and to the big screen
Congratulations!

Roma with her husband Stephen Kania King at the private reception
September 8th 2018 at the Dwor Wilkowice in Poland 

Roma at the podium speaking