June 2008 E-Letter

Bryn Mawr Club of New York City Events

• An Edible Tour of Prospect Park with "Wildman" Steve Brill (June 8)
• Young Alumnae Happy Hour at the Boat Basin Café (June 12)
• Finding Your Way as a Mother, a discussion led by Magda Pecsenye, '94 (June 14)

Bryn Mawr Club of New York City Connections

• Bryn Mawr Women Running the World, New York Road Runners Mini 10-K (June 7)
• The Bryn Mawr Book Club discusses What Is the What by Dave Eggers (June 26)
• Metropolitones, Seven Sister A Capella Group, Auditions (Date TBA)

Classifieds

• "A House for All Seasons" for Rent in the Berkshires (Mary Farrell, '67)
• Summer Sublet in Murray Hill/Gramercy Park (Meera Jain, '07)
• Bryn Mawr Hepburn Center Intern Offers Babysitting and Tutoring (Taku Kanyangarara, '09)

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Bryn Mawr Club of New York City Events

An Edible Tour of Prospect Park with "Wildman" Steve Brill, June 8

On Sunday, June 8, the Bryn Mawr Club of New York City will take an edible, fun-filled tour of Brooklyn's Prospect Park led by "Wildman" Steve Brill. We will learn about and taste a variety of edible plants as we make our way through the Park. The four-hour walking tour will begin at 11:45 a.m. at the Park's Grand Army Plaza entrance.

Just inside the park entrance, we will sample spicy hedge mustard greens, then proceed southeast to a vast stand of celery-flavored goutweed, stopping for violet leaves growing at the edge of the path. We will also encounter a plethora of other naturally occurring delicacies, including pokeweed, burdock, poor-man's-pepper, field pennycress, sweet-flavored red clover, corn-flavored chickweed, and spinach-flavored lamb's-quarters. If we're lucky, we may also find gourmet mushrooms such as the chicken mushroom and the wine-cap stropharia.

Please bring the following items with you to the Park: plastic bags to collect greens, paper bags to collect mushrooms, labels to identify the contents of your bags, and drinking water. Digging tools are optional. Please wear sneakers or comfortable walking shoes. Please do not wear sandals. For more information about "Wildman" and his tours, see www.wildmanstevebrill.com.

The RSVP deadline for this event has been extended to Wednesday, June 4. RSVP to Janice Fuld, '88, at jfuld@mindspring.com or 917-843-8048. Adults and children are welcome on this tour. The charge for adults is $15. The charge for children under age 12 is $10. Money is payable to "Wildman" at the tour.

(Note: This tour is open to the general public by reservation. The Club has reserved a block of spots on this tour for BMC alumnae and their guests.)

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Young Alumnae Happy Hour at the Boat Basin Café, June 12

Kick off the summer's festivities at the last Bryn Mawr Young Alumnae Happy Hour of the 2007-2008 season! Join fellow young alums for drinks, conversation, and a celebration of the beautiful weather at the Boat Basin Café, an outdoor waterside venue. Enjoy breathtaking views of the sunset over the Hudson River from the Café's open-air rotunda. Friends, co-workers, and significant others are welcome!

WHAT: Young Alumnae Happy Hour (The Last of the Season!) WHEN:  Thursday, June 12, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. WHERE:  Boat Basin Café Riverside Park W 79th Street at the Hudson River New York, NY 10024 For detailed directions, see the Café's website at http://www.boatbasincafe.com/Location.htm HOW MUCH: No cover charge; attendees pay for their own food and drink. RSVP: By June 10 to Liana Sterling at Liana.Sterling@gmail.com.

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Finding Your Way as a Mother, June 14

As a pregnant woman, mother of a newborn or infant to toddler, you navigate the noise of the media, the pressure to be correct by many different standards every day. The pressure can feel overwhelming from friends and family, especially if you are negotiating between the culture or cultures of your own family and the cult of motherhood in society at large.

Join other Bryn Mawr mothers and friends for a discussion with Magda Pecsenye, '94, who writes AskMoxie.org, an internet advice column for parents. Magda will lead a non-judgmental discussion on figuring out who you are and who you want to be as a mother in the middle of a constant stream of conflicting messages from family and popular culture. Come share and listen to find your way to honoring yourself and your children in the face of society's expectations. Lap-babies welcome. Light refreshments will be provided.

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Bryn Mawr Club of New York City Connections

Bryn Mawr Women Running The World

Join fellow Mawrtyrs for the Spring 2008 Bryn Mawr Women Running the World program. at the New York Road Runners Mini-10K (a women-only race) on Saturday, June 7 in Central Park.

For more information,contact Michele McEnroe, '97, at michele.mcenroe@verizon.net.

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The Bryn Mawr Book Club Discusses What Is the What by Dave Eggers, June 26

On Thursday, June 26, the Book Club will meet at the home of Elizabeth Holloway to discuss What Is the What by Dave Eggers.

From Publisher's Weekly's Review of What Is the What:

Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war--the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath--of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ) makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life . . . . Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity--of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.

Even if you can't attend the Bryn Mawr Book Club meeting, reading suggestions are always welcome - just send an email to Elizabeth Holloway, robinsonholloway@gmail.com.

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The Metropolitones, Seven Sisters A Capella Group, Auditions (Date TBA)

Are you an a cappella fan? Do you have musical talent? Would you like to perform in some of NYC's hottest venues as well as in charity concerts?The Metropolitones, the nation's only "vocal band" composed of Seven Sisters College alumnae, will be holding auditions this summer! We are looking for gifted, fun, committed women to join us in singing jazz, pop, and folk songs in the New York City area. For member profiles and our repertoire, please visit www.metropolitones.com. And note: the Metropolitones currently have no member from Bryn Mawr. Let Bryn Mawr's voice be heard!

Please email MailList@metropolitones.com to learn the dates and times and the auditions and to be put on the Metropolitiones' mailing list to receive information on their concert schedule.

The Metropolitones
MailList@metropolitones.com

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Classifieds

"A House for All Seasons" for Rent in the Berkshires

From Mary Farrell, '67:

Alumna is offering a comfortably furnished ranch-style house in Lennox, Massachusetts for rent. The house is available for the summer or longer and includes three bedrooms (one of the bedrooms can be used as a study), two bathrooms, hardwood floors, a family room, a garage, a small deck, and a yard. It's located 4.5 miles from Tanglewood, close to the area's many attractions, which include summer theatre, dance, lakes, parks, shops, and fine restaurants. For more information, contact Robert Baumann at Century 21 at 413-446-4915.

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Summer Sublet in Gramercy Park/Murray Hill

From Meera Jain, '07:

Alumna is seeking a sublettor for her one-bedroom apartment in the Gramercy Park/ Murray Hill neighborhood at 27th Street and 3rd Avenue. The space is available July 13, 2008 to November 30, 2008. Rent is $1350 a month, plus utilities and cable. The renter will share the apartment with a roommate who is a young female professional. The available bedroom is 12' x 10' and gets lots of sunlight. The renter must use the bedroom furniture provided by the alumna, which includes a bed, mattress, dresser, desk, chair, and lamps. The apartment also includes a fully furnished family room with TV, an oven, a microwave. The building features an elevator and a laundry in basement. Potential renter should be responsible and clean and a female in her mid to late twenties. No pets. No smoking or drugs. No live-in significant others. A security deposit is required (for last month's rent). Contact Meera Jain, '07, at Meera.Jain85@gmail.com.

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Bryn Mawr Hepburn Center Intern Offers Babysitting and Tutoring

From Taku Kanyangarara, '09:

I am an International Student from Zimbabwe and will be a senior this fall at Bryn Mawr, where I am a Mathematics and French double major. This summer I will be doing a Hepburn Center internship with Family Care International in New York City, a non profit organization that advocates for the rights of women and adolescents. I will also be trying to save up money to go home in December, so I am looking to make a little extra money beyond my internship stipend. If you know of anyone who would need an evening/weekend or occasional babysitter at any time this summer, please think of me. I have experience babysitting and would be very happy to provide references. I love kids, and I am reliable, fun, and responsible. I can also tutor math. I would greatly appreciate any opportunities; please contact me at tkanyangar@brynmawr.edu.

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THE BMC OF NYC E-LETTER
The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City E-letter is submitted to the Alumnae Association for distribution on the first business day of each month. Items for the e-letter should be submitted to the e-mail address below by the 27th of the prior month. If you have news to share with the New York City BMC alumnae community, if you would like to have information about an upcoming event included, or if you just have a question for the Club, please contact us at brynmawrclubnyc@gmail.com. For address changes, go to http://www.brynmawr.edu/alumnae/updates.htm.