5/22
CLASS OF 1990
Commencement Weekend! Join Us in PVD! | May 27 – 29
Then & Now | Always Inverting the Sock | With Stacy Bereck Chernosky ‘90
Puzzle Night Recap | Recorded by Didier Jean-Baptiste ‘90
Brown Trivia | Curated by Jonathan Steinberg ‘90
Spotlight | Cristina Sales ‘90
In Memoriam| Nancy Brous ‘90
Campus Dance Meetup Site & Reunion Weekend Activities in PVD & Remotely!
Whatcha doing at the end of the month? We hope to see you at this prime spot in front of Faunce House the night of Campus Dance which will be our permanent class table location for this Campus Dance and all ones going forward! It is right on the Main Green, near but not too close to the Stage, and near one of the bars and many of the other class tables.
For all persons who come to Campus Dance, it would be especially great to have you come by between 10 and 11:00 PM EDT when we will aim to Zoom to our Class from the table!
Friday May 27th at 10:00 PM EDT / 7:00 PM PDT
Campus Dance All-Class Zoom Gathering! -
Zoom in to see, hear, and enjoy Campus Dance with all of our classmates who will be there in person at our new, permanent Campus Dance table! It will be dark, loud, and fun as we connect live with each other and so we all can celebrate no matter whether we are on College Hill or in front of the computer of your choice:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/84386352642
Meeting ID: 843 8635 2642
Passcode: 264434
Saturday May 28th at 11:30 AM EDT
Informal Class Lunch-esque Gathering
For those on campus, pick up your favorite food from a local restaurant/cafe/truck and meet up with your Campus Dance-recovering classmates on Pembroke Quad for an informal lunch. Our class leaders will bring some drinks. We can enjoy each other's company again, this time in a brighter (subject to Providence weather) and quieter environment than the night before.
Sunday, May 29th at 9:00 AM Procession Walk
Join us at the proper line-up spot between 9:00 and 9:15 AM for the procession which begins at 9:30 AM. While it may not be a reunion year per se and we will probably march without a banner, we should applaud those who are graduating while inverting the sock. And to have one last chance to all be together. Questions?
Jonathan Steinberg 720-469-0469
Didier Jean-Baptiste 973-449-1963
Joan Gelin 480-789-1129
Then & Now | Always Inverting the Sock
By Stacy Bereck Chernosky ‘90
Sometimes it feels tricky to keep up with all the changes that have happened at Brown since our class left campus. Buildings have beenrepurposed, renamed, or even moved to different locations. Dave Binder has put down his guitar after more than 30 years of Spring Weekends at Brown. The senior formal has relocated from the mansions of Newport to downtown Providence.
But alumni who only return to campus for reunions during commencement weekends may be forgiven for thinking that time hasn’t passed at all and that they are still experiencing the beautiful sunny weekend of May 25, 1990 when we first made our way down College Hill. What traditions are still in place?:
Campus Dance on Friday night with senior sing at midnight? Check.
Hour with the president? Check.
Alumni forums? Check.
Graduation speeches by selected Brown undergraduates and not outside speakers? Check (In 1990 Luis Lopez and Jennifer Wilcha represented us). — Although this year it will be graduation speeches by selected Brown undergraduates AND Nancy Pelosi.
Distinguished Honorary Degree recipients? Check. (In our year Toni Morrison, C Everett Koop, Benjamin Hooks, and Mary Leakey were among those honored.)
Undergraduate ceremony in the Baptist Meeting House? Check—since 1776!
Departmental ceremonies to hear your name announced and pick up your degree? Check.
And perhaps most importantly, our joyous commencement procession out the Van Wickle Gates –proclaimed to be “one of Brown’s greatest and oldest traditions”–where graduates and alumni have a chance to applaud one another not just once, but twice--still rounds out a festive commencement weekend.
This is not to say that everything has remained the same for commencement weekend.:
As of 2005, the weekend was shortened by a day, with graduation now happening on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend and not Saturday.
Also gone is the Pops concert which used to be held on Saturday night on the Green and featured guest star luminaries the likes of Ray Charles (1998), Harry Connick Jr. (2003), and Gloria Loring (during our celebration in 1990). Brown kept the Pops Concert going one year after the shortened weekend schedule in 2005 when our own Lisa Loeb headlined the 41st and final concert. In subsequent years, a Brown celebration downtown at Providence’s Waterfire replaced the Pops Concert as the Saturday night festivity when the two events lined up (this year they do not)
Graduating undergraduates can now opt to buy the optional Academic regalia sash to spice up their graduation gown.
The hour with the President is on the renamed Ruth Simmons Quad (called Lincoln Field in our day).
The number of students marching has also grown significantly. According to a story in the June/July 1990 Brown Alumni Monthly, the approximately 4,200 people who marched down College Hill our year beat the prior highest turnout by over 700 people. In 2022, the first full graduation ceremony since the start of the pandemic – one where the class of 2020 is being invited back to have their own march out the gates on Saturday to make up for their missed commencement two years ago – Brown is anticipating over 7,000 marchers.
Yet, all those minor changes slip away as you step onto the green to the lights of Campus Dance or wait your turn at the gates to walk down College Hill. That is why many 1990 graduates are gathering in Providence this year and plan to have a presence at the rest of our off-cycle reunions—why should we have to wait a long ten years between reunions to be transported back in time once again?
BTW…DO YOU REMEMBER?
Fun facts about our commencement weekend
– Sourced from the June/July 1990 BAM
Senior week prior to Commencement weekend was a literal washout. For more than a week before commencement weekend skies were gray and it “rained and rained and rained.” But the Friday of commencement weekend “dawned crisp and bright in shades of blue, gold, and newest green,” and remained that way the whole four days of festivities.
For the first time in 1990, thanks to President Gregorian’s urging, 125 parents who were educators participated in the procession march.
There were 71 flags on the green representing the countries of all the graduates.
1,430 graduating seniors.
Approximately 16,000 spectators, 2,500 alumni and family members participated, including 215 members of the class of 1940, a record turnout for a fiftieth reunion year. A first-time reunion attendee from the class of 1945 commented on his dormitory accommodations, “It’s like camping, with walls.”
1990 Curious? | Name This Place!
Hint 1: It is not in Providence
Hint 2: In the 1990s it had a reputation as a place for wild parties
Hint 3: The class of 1990 threw a wild party of our own there
Find Out later in this issue!
– Stacy Bereck Chernosky ‘90
West Coast 90s…We Don't Talk About Brunonia…Vartan's Gregorians…Two Free Spirit…The White TruckTeam… PuzzledTeam Mead… LoungeTeam… EverywhereTeam… Brook Street…Store 24…One Free Spirit…Governor’s Mansion…Bowbos
| Class of 1990 Puzzle Night Recap
By Didier Jean-Baptiste ‘90
As evidenced by the team names above we had a great turnout for our virtual Puzzle Night event with Watson Adventures! We had 78 classmates engaged in 13 teams of about six people each to compete in solving 10 different puzzles the fastest and most accurately. Eleven of the teams were self-created in the days leading up to the event while two others included classmates who had registered to play without a team affiliation.
Before the "Puzzled to Death" competition kicked-off, classmate A.J. Jacobs, whose wife Julie is President of Watson Adventures, told us about how he became fascinated with puzzles and about the new book he is writing on the topic, The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life, as a follow-up to his four New York Times bestsellers.
Once the game began, each team scrambled in their breakout room to solve a variety of puzzles that required tapping into different members' knowledge and talents--from information about pop music or the animal kingdom to logical thinking or visualization skills. Whether they spent the entire allotted 40 minutes racking their brains together and laughing at themselves, or efficiently finished in 30 minutes and spent the rest of the time catching up with each other, everyone had a great time interacting with classmates in the breakout rooms.
The evening was capped by a fun and challenging set of multi-part Brown virtual scavenger hunt questions, put together by class Co-President Jonathan Steinberg.
While the event was the product of the entire Class of 1990 Leadership Team, special thanks for making this event happen for our class go to Jenny Backus and Charlie Luband, who researched different platforms that we could use before we settled on Watson Adventures; Lisa Ryers, Stacy Bereck Chernosky and Courtney Wilson, who handled the emails and Facebook posts promoting the event; and Didier Jean-Baptiste, who tracked the teams classmates formed and created those for classmates who registered unaffiliated.
Classmates who rallied others to join them in forming teams also played a critical role in making the night a success. To see the names of the teams, their members, the final standings, and a screenshot of the beautiful faces of all of the participants on Zoom, go to https://games.watsonadventures.com/events/1xCxQu/.
We are looking forward to hosting another Class of 1990 event in the fall and hope that even more classmates will join! Stay tuned for details!
ICYMI Brown Trivia!
Compiled by Jonathan Steinberg ‘90
Did you miss Puzzle Night last month? No worries, we got you. Class Leadership Committee Co-President Jonathan Steinberg ‘90 compiled these questions to stump all of us. How well do you REALLY know our alma mater?
Spotlight
Cristina Sales ‘90
VW or Ratty?
Ratty.
Favorite Class/Professor?
Non-Western Theater Performance/John Emigh. John was my concentration advisor and remains the most important influence of my entire education. I adore him.
What did you enjoy doing at Brown outside of Class?
Singing with Higher Keys, directing theatre productions, building community with AASA.
Impressions of first week at Brown.
My first week at Brown was at TWTP, which remains one of the most impactful weeks of my life. I had my preconceived notions of what to expect attending an Ivy League college with such a high profile but I hadn’t considered entirely how walking in as a person of color would inform my experience. Being with so many other people who looked like me and shared similar experiences for my first few days gave me a security I didn’t realize I needed until it happened.
Experience as Person of Color at Brown.
My time at Brown was the first time in my life I actually felt comfortable claiming my identity as an Asian American and felt like my experience mattered and was unique. I also felt like it was the first time in my life when I began to recognize what that actually meant in the larger picture - the ways in which I was set apart and also how I was marginalized. Naming and identifying experiences of being marginalized can be empowering and threatening all at once. That contradiction informed my four years, especially as a woman of color intending a career in the arts. The expression of that contradiction has informed all my career choices and many life decisions since.
How did Brown shape you for life after Brown, if in any way.
Brown was essential to how I approach life now, for better or worse. I find that I'm a risk taker in ways I otherwise wouldn't be. I'm a skilled communicator and active listener because of my Brown education. Most importantly, no matter how rough things get, I try to find creative ways of solving problems, because there always is one. Brown was essential to how I approach life now, for better or worse. I find that I'm a risk taker in ways I otherwise wouldn't be.
I'm a skilled communicator and active listener because of my Brown education and also from being trained as an MPC (Minority Peer Counselor). Those have been the most valuable skills in every stage of my professional life, first as a theatre director, then as a standards and practices consultant in television.
Most importantly, no matter how rough things get, I try to find creative ways of solving problems, because there always is one.
What Challenges are you Facing Now?
I'm in the process of rebuilding my life after almost a decade of caregiving for both of my parents in their home. (Both are now deceased) That rebuild centers around moving into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consulting, a career choice that started (unsurprisingly) with alumni volunteer work for Brown!
1990 Curious? | Answer Revealed!
This is Belcourt of Newport, formerly Belcourt Castle, the site of our Senior Formal.
The house, which was built in 1894 as a “summer cottage” for Oliver Belmont and designed to look like the hunting lodge at Versailles, went through a litany of owners who barely used it before being sold to the Tinney family for $25,000 in 1956—the equivalent of about $265,000 in today’s dollars.
Belcourt has a colorful history. In the early 1980s one million dollars of jewelry and other valuables were stolen from the mansion, but the police recovered most of the stolen items a couple of months later. In the 1990s, Belcourt had a reputation as a place for wild parties including a 1999 “no underwear” party with 800 attendees. (Brown’s senior formal of 1990 is inexplicably absent from any news reports). The mansion is also rumored to be haunted.
In 2012 Belcourt was sold to Carolyn Rafaelian, the founder of Alex and Ani, who has worked to restore it to its former condition. It is now open to the public for tours and events. In 2019 actress Jennifer Lawrence got married at Belcourt.
– Stacy Bereck Chernosky ‘90
In Memoriam | Nancy Brous ‘90
With heavy hearts we share that our Classmate Nancy Brous ‘90 passed away February 18, 2022 after a battle with cancer.
From The New York Times March 6, 2022:
With profound sadness we announce the death of our precious Nancy, beloved wife of Kurt Nelson; adoring stepmother of Sacha and Soren; daughter of Barbara Biber Brous and the late Philip Brous; sister of Len Brous and Helen Garey, sister of the late Elizabeth Brous Guevara and Charlie Guevara, and best friend of Anne Rothschild. We have lost an irreplaceable source of brightness and love in our family and remain inconsolable. Nancy was a 1990 graduate of Brown University and also received an MFA in Costume Design from NYU in 1995. She was an exceptionally creative costume designer who showcased her craft across dance and theater productions, television, and feature films for nearly thirty years. In 2014 she and Kurt discovered true love together and married in 2018. They cherished each other and were grateful every day for the gift of their rare and special connection. The consummate connector, Nancy galvanized her large, diverse group of friends and loved to create opportunities to celebrate and embark on adventures together. She was also a prolific international traveler and was fortunate to explore numerous countries across Asia, South America, and Europe. Nancy was an expert kayaker and legendary in the New York City paddling community not only for her speed, but also her tireless advocacy for human-powered boating and clean, safe waterways. She was passionate about several waterfront causes and served as Vice President of the Hudson River Watertrail Association, co-founded the Citizens Water Quality Testing Program, was co-chair of The Paddle for A Cure, a founding member of the New York City Water Trail Association, and a founding member of New York Kayak Polo. Charitable donations can be made in Nancy's name to Hudson River Park (https://www.hudsonriver park.org/get-involved/support/donate-now/) and the Billion Oyster Project (https://www.billionoysterproject.org/donate
Fast forward with us and keep in touch here. Our Co-Secretary, Julia Hyun-Lee, will get back to you in an Ever True way.
