11/21
CLASS OF 1990
Memorial Service for Edelgard Morse | November 20th |Manning Chapel
A Note From Dr. Joan Gelin ‘90:
“For those of you who lived in the Quad dorm: It is with sadness that we share the passing of Edelgard Morse.
She and her husband Ted hosted Tuesday night study-breaks out of their home. A staple of these gatherings was the seemingly endless supply of brownies. Dr. Morse was a chemistry professor who ran a very popular tutorial class. One of her former students, our classmate Ainissa Ramirez, wrote about her in an essay and in her latest book The Alchemy of Us.
There will be a memorial service at Manning Chapel on Saturday, November 20th, at 3pm. A reception will follow at 4pm in the Maddock Alumni Center.”
Fill the Class of 1990 Bookshelf!
A Note From Jenny Backus ‘90:
Calling all authors in the Class of 1990 (like those you see above)! We are building a virtual and real bookshelf for the Class of 1990 featuring all the books you have written since we've graduated. We want fiction, non-fiction, humanities, sciences, textbooks, long-form magazine articles, comics, graphic novels, plays, movies. If someone in the class wrote it, we want it. Please add your title to this spreadsheet and a link to where folks can purchase it. The Reunion Committee is working on securing hardcover copies for a real Brown bookshelf full of your books that we will raffle off in our reunion year of 2025 so if you haven't finished your opus yet, there is still time. We are hoping to feature the virtual bookshelf in upcoming newsletters so folks can go there for gift ideas and inspiration. Questions & Suggestions about the Class of 1990 Book Shelf?
And yeah, if you are a carpenter who wants to build the shelf, let us know too. Thanks!
Do You Have a Great Idea for our 35th Reunion?
...Something no class has tried before:a Class of 1990 Step Show, a Scavenger Hunt Across Providence, or a War of the Units Talent Show? Or a great idea for an event or activity our class could do virtually in the off years: a thought-provoking Zoom panel or recipes to share when leading a virtual Class of 1990 cooking class?
The Reunion Committee wants to hear from you! All ideas are welcome and we would love new members too. Email us with the words REUNION 90 in the Subject line and someone from the committee will get right back to you. You are also welcome to join our meetings anytime which are fun, efficient, and full of funny memories of Brown. Stay tuned to this space for dates for upcoming meetings.
Class of 1990 Spotlight: Duskie Estes!
Duskie Estes ‘90 (Perkins, Second Floor) is the Executive Director of Farm to Pantry, whose mission is to provide a continuous supply of fresh, healthy produce to vulnerable neighbors in Sonoma County, California through cultivating a community of growers and volunteers and “gleaning” food that would be ordinarily lie wasted and instead harvesting that produce to donate to people in need.
Duskie and her husband, John Stewart, operated their restaurant ZAZU from 2001 through the spring of 2019, when the restaurant was lost due to the flooding of the Russian River. ZAZU was listed for multiple years in the San Francisco Chronicle’s TOP 100 restaurants. Duskie was selected to compete on Food Network’s Next Iron Chef, seasons three and five, and serves as a judge on Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games.
Lisa Ryers ‘90 recently touched base with Duskie, her fellow Perkinite, to talk Brown and to fast forward to what she’s doing now.
Ratty or VW?
The rice cooker in my room. I survived on sticky rice with a sprinkle of spike. My favorite part of the Ratty was putting banana peels under our chair legs and having races. I’ve heard the Ratty has improved these days…
Favorite class at Brown?
African drumming and dance. I still have my moves!
How did being the coxswain on the Brown Crew team prepare you for your life ahead?
It gave me the skills to wrangle a posse of unruly men to move forward to a common goal. This is what kitchens are like. A motley crew of mostly boyz who can be misguided but need to come together to get good food out at the same time in the midst of chaos, especially when the menu is changing every night to be tied to what the farms have to offer. Of course, the guys on the Brown Crew team were always perfect and never gave me a hard time. I love them so!
How did you decide to get into cooking as a career?
I came to Brown as pre-med and then switched to pre-law when someone stole the reserved reading from the Science Library. The summer after graduating from Brown, I had an internship at the public defender in Washington DC and thought I was headed to law school in Oregon. While I was at Brown, I was the pastry chef at Al Forno and then worked at restaurants in Washington DC to pay the bills. I had also taken art classes at RISD while at Brown. I loved the multi sensory art of making beautiful looking and tasting food.and layering textures. I love multitasking and being incredibly busy. I thrive off of immediate gratification. I am proud of the physical strength and grit it takes to be a woman in a kitchen. I am dedicated to making a difference with my purchasing. When I got accepted to law school, I also got offered the Chef position at Palace Kitchen in Seattle. I took the job. Thank you, Tom Douglas.
How did you bounce back after the loss of your restaurant?
It has been tough. I’m still grappling with standing in waters above my waist that day and everything we built and our restaurant family washing away. We still have our pasture raised bacon and snout-to-tail meat company called Black Pig Meat Co. www.blackpigmeatco.com . When the pandemic hit, our overbooked food truck’s dance card emptied. In times of crisis, my family has always turned to service. We have cooked for first responders and evacuees in every fire (too many to count at this point here in Sonoma County). This time, I was afraid to go into a kitchen. The tight quarters and helping my parents in their 80s didn't seem like a good fit. I heard about Farm to Pantry and I signed up to glean. Gleaning is rescuing food that would otherwise go wasted and getting it to people in need. I get to go outside in beautiful Sonoma County at safe distances and give of my labor to help another. And then I heard the director position was open and I took the leap. I had worked in food insecurity and policy early in my career running the kitchen at Glide Memorial in San Francisco feeding up to 3000/day. I had organized chefs to teach cooking classes on food stamp budgets for Share Our Strength. I had cycled 300 miles with 275 chefs to raise over 2 million for No Kid Hungry. I worked with the James Beard Foundation to advocate for food policy to save small farmers & ranchers. I got the job and have been a little bit busy. It has been an amazing silver lining. Every day, I get the immediate gratification of harvesting in the morning and distributing in the afternoon. I see hope in the random acts of kindness of our 300+ volunteers and 250+ property owners and farmers. I see justice in an incredible fragrant white peach getting onto everyone’s table - not just for the lucky few.
Tell us about your life now with Farm to Pantry.
This has been a hard time for all. There is no one untouched by this pandemic. In that way, it is a great equalizer. But the resulting food insecurity for far too many is not. Between the double up of the fires and the pandemic, one in three is facing food insecurity in Sonoma County. 80% of our grapes - our economic strength is tied to this agricultural product - went unharvested because of smoke taint. Farmworkers would show up to harvest and be sent home with no pay after the winemakers determined the grapes unusable. In Sonoma County, our unemployment has gone above 15% and these figures do not include the undocumented workers. At the same time, our local farmers lost their buyers with the closure of the restaurants, tech campuses, and events. It was not worth it to spend the money on the labor to harvest. Farm to Pantry put it into gear to try to connect our Sonoma County abundance with its need. This year rescued over 200,000 pounds of fruits & vegetables that is 800,000 servings of produce. join us at a gleaner, grower, or giver atwww.farmtopantry.org
Have a fellow 1990 classmate you would like to have us Spotlight?
BAM!
From Didier Jean-Baptiste ‘90
According to Sheila Dillon, assistant editor at BAM, the January-March issues will be printed and mailed five weeks later than the scheduled date due to a national paper shortage. Thanks for your patience!
Who Are These People Writing to Me?
We are just some of your Class Leaders and we want to hear from you: how you’re doing, ideas on how you want to connect, and general spreading of 1990 good vibes.
Ever True:
President: Didier Jean-Baptiste and Jonathan Steinberg
Vice President: Joan Gelin and Lisa Ryers
Treasurer: Michael Buchanan
Secretary: Ruta Brickus and Julia Hyun-Lee
Communications Committee: Courtney Wilson, Stacy Bereck Chernosky, Keith Wexelblatt
Reunion Committee: Jenny Backus, Jenny Ord Bonadio and Elena Gerli
DEI Chairs: Elena Gerli and Cris Sales
Activities & Innovation Committee: Stephen Kim, Rodney Robinson, Joe Kavesh, Charlie Luband, Daniel Kraft
