THE PURIST July 2020

A N A D V E N T U R E IN W E L L N E S S

SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION

DON LEMON SPEAKS OUT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

LEAD WITH LOVE

RAISING COMPASSIONATE, ANTI-RACIST KIDS

HERBAL REMEDIES FOR MENTAL HEALTH

SUMMER IN THE HAMPTONS

SARAH JESSICA PARKER RANDY RAINBOW SHAUN KING CAROLYN MURPHY DR. JOSEPH MICHAEL LEVRY JESSE ISRAEL

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E D I TO R ’ S L E T T E R

On Monday, June 15, I woke to the landmark Supreme Court ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that bars employment discrimination based on sex also applies to people of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

This is one of the court’s most significant rulings ever with respect to the civil rights of the LGBTQ community, following their 2015 ruling recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

Later that day, I went to pick up a phone repair at Geekhampton here in Sag Harbor and talked with my usual tech guru, Chaim Levin, about the bit of good news this country needed.

We spoke again later about him growing up in a strict Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, his subjugation to conversation therapy when he came out as a teen, and his groundbreaking lawsuit that followed. I was reminded in that moment that youth have the power to change the world. Please read his courageous story in Mindful, “Standing Proud”—someone here in our backyard moved a mountain.

There is a deep-rooted sickness in our nation: racism.

As a wellness publication, we are committed to do more, and felt it vital to address and offer some ways to educate and examine our conscious (and unconscious) biases, to show different behaviors parents are modeling for our children, and share strong voices in the Black Lives Matter movement, like our cover subject, Don Lemon.

We have the power to change our own behaviors.

We are listening, we are learning. But we can’t just talk. We have to find opportunities to be the change—creating change in institutions and within ourselves. I grew up in a school and club system that I never thought of as exclusionary because I was a kid. As a first-generation American, I want to make better choices for my kids so that their eyes are open to what their world is and is not about. Every day is Cristina Cuomo an opportunity to choose with Don Lemon action over guilt, honest in Sag Harbor self-reflection over denial, responsibility over shirking it, understanding over defensiveness. We must choose to be open; my perspective in the world is not the only one nor the only right one—there are millions of others to be open to. We must put fear and laziness aside and be anti-racist and allies. It’s about doing the right thing with kindness at the root of it. This is only the beginning and the bare minimum.

This issue is for Elijah McClain and all the other black victims of police brutality before him and after him.

@cristinacuomo @thepurist 14

100 “It’s important for me to be as real as I am and tell the truth, especially about race, because I am the expert in that field simply from living from my time on this planet, and who I am.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURES 100 SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION CNN anchor Don Lemon sits down with his Sag Harbor neighbor, MSNBC’s Tamron Hall, for an in-depth discussion on racism in America.

108 LEAD WITH LOVE Parents navigate the racial justice movement alongside their children.

118 KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Vital resources for combating racism

120 TOAST OF THE TOWN Catching up with Sarah Jessica Parker

124 BECOMING

LITTLE WOMEN

A classic novel becomes inspiration for family bonding for Melissa Errico.

ON THE COVER AND THIS PAGE, PHOTOGRAPHY: CATHRINE WHITE WHITE LINEN SHIRT BY RALPH LAUREN, 31-33 MAIN ST., EAST HAMPTON, RALPHLAUREN.COM

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MINDFUL

62 WELLNESS NOTES Music’s moodenhancing qualities

28 STANDING PROUD One man’s journey in the fight against conversion therapy

64 MOOD BOOST Natural remedies for better mental health

30 THE I OF THE STORM Growth and reflection during difficult times

SPACE 68 HOPE BLOOMS Roxine Brown of Harmonia Inc. on the healing power of nature

34 THE POWER OF MANY Jesse Israel of The Big Quiet’s path from music mogul to meditation master 36 LAUGHS DEPARTMENT Talking with the new comedic genius

Randy Rainbow 40 WELLNESS FINDS Celebrating black women-owned brands 44 LOVE IN ACTION Carolyn Murphy learns the art of spirituality from Dr. Joseph Michael Levry.

46 NEW SCHOOL Avenues: The World

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54 STAY HEALTHY ON A BUDGET Cost-effective immune boosters

School brings comprehensive learning opportunities to the East End.

HEALTH

56 AVOIDING BURNOUT Time to hit reset: achieve optimal health through a balanced circadian rhythm.

50 ASK THE DR. Wellness strategies for a post-pandemic society

58 GOOD BONES Magnesium’s key role in osteoporosis prevention

52 PUT A RING ON IT Could Oura’s smart tech be a lifesaver?

53 ADDRESSING ALZHEIMER’S Brain power and omega-3 fatty acids

60 BENEFITS OF BIKING Two-wheeled summer adventures 18

70 HAMPTONS HOMESTEADERS A growing number of weekenders are putting down roots out East.

72 PURE PROPERTY Real estate news in the Hamptons

GLOW 76 MICRONEEDLING: MIRACLE OR MENACE? Safe ways to partake in the skin rejuvenating trend 77 THE FRESH FACE OF BEAUTY Farm-grown botanical serums from Cultivate Apothecary 78 PURE PICKS Body care gems from beauty guru Christopher Ardant

Cathrine White

32 RAISING COMPASSIONATE

KIDS Teaching our children to make

the world a better

place

82 THE GREAT OUTDOORS Hamptons businesses go alfresco.

84 THE INN CROWD Ten socially distanced getaways to book right now 86 EDITOR’S PICKS Cristina Cuomo’s clean beauty favorites

WEEKEND 90 GOOD FINDS Chic summer pop-ups and new shops in the Hamptons

92 PURE PICKS Wellness must-haves from The Surf Lodge’s Marisa Hochberg

132 AT A GLANCE Virtual happenings all around the Hamptons

FOOD IS MEDICINE

133 COACHES Heavyweight champ Leyon Azubuike and the zen side of boxing

95 FOOD BLOGGING Add a healthy kick to your summer recipes with fresh ginger.

96 THE COVID-19 How to combat quarantine weight gain

PLAY 131 PURE LOVE Ballerina Aesha Ash celebrates diversity in the world of dance.

134 THE SHOW MUST GO ON Virtual Babysitters Club keeps kids laughing and learning online.

136 NUMEROLOGY A by-the-numbers look at writer and civil rights activist Shaun King

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Cristina Cuomo Ray Rogers Jim Servin Gabrielle Echevarrieta Amely Greeven Beth Landman Fernanda Niven Dr. Jeffrey Morrison, The Morrison Center Tapp Francke Ingolia, STANDwellness Michèle Filon Omenaa Boakye, Jill Malter Anne Marie O’Connor Jenny Landey, TR Pescod Gretchen Gunlocke Fenton Monique Millane, Alison Relyea Francesca Antignani, Wyatt Schiff Christopher Ardant, Marisa Belger Roxine Brown, Donna Bulseco Candace Bushnell, Constance Chen Alina Cho, Estela Cockrell, Camille Coy Chris Cuomo, Dr. Gerry Curatola Donna D’Cruz, Matt Diehl, Dimitri Ehrlich Melissa Errico, Pamela Fiori Steve Garbarino, Kara Goldin Alastair Gordon, Mark Grayson Stacey Griffith, Tamron Hall, R. Couri Hay Linda Hayes, Arianna Huffington Nancy Kane, Sharon Kanter, Ami Keaoloha Matthew Kenney, Dr. Gail King Charlotte LaGuardia, Dr. Frank Lipman Dr. Lea Lis, Amanda Little, Brooke Mazurek James Merrell, Roxanna Namavar Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber Dr. Whitney Roban, Hal Rubenstein Ramona Savis, Michele Shapiro Brooke Shields, Lea Sisson, Martha Stewart Julia Szabo, Rebecca Wallwork Edwina Von Gal, Regina Weinreich Ben Margherita Mikio Sakai Seton Rossini Tarin Keith, Aubrèe Mercure Melanie Acevedo, Will Adler Camilla Akrans, Frederic Auerbach Bruno Barbazan, David Bellemere Justin Bettman, Christopher Clarke Gregg Delman, Mikey DeTemple Paul Domzal, Dane Dupuis Marili Forestieri, Juuso Hämäläinen Victor Hugo, Morgan Maassen Mary Ellen Matthews, Peter McBride Craig McDean, Miller Mobley Ryan Moore, Patrick O’Keefe Eric Striffler, Simon Upton, Cathrine White

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By the Water. On Point.

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CO N T R I B U TO R S

TAMRON HALL

DONNA D’CRUZ who penned “The I of the Storm”

who speaks with Dr. Joseph Michael Levry on the journey to spirituality

ROXINE BROWN

who wrote about the healing powers of nature

CATHRINE WHITE

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SELF-CARE TACTIC? “My bath ritual and meditation. I have lots of plants, flowers and candles in my bathroom; this helps me to create a peaceful space.”

WHAT CAN DIFFICULT TIMES TEACH US ABOUT LIFE AND OURSELVES? “It is in our pain and suffering that we are afforded one of life’s greatest treasures: wisdom. Often the place within that we fear the most beckons us to know and understand ourselves more deeply.”

WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE GIVEN TO YOU BY DR. LEVRY? “Dr. Levry has taught me so much, but my favorite is, ‘Your words are your wand.’”

HOW CAN SPENDING TIME OUTDOORS IMPROVE OUR MENTAL HEALTH? “The sights, smells and sounds of nature elevate our mind and soul to a place where the day-to-day issues have no room to exist.”

WHAT INSPIRES YOU MOST AS A PHOTOGRAPHER? “Our shared experiences of being human. The trust of others while creating; witnessing recovery and healing.”

Tamron Hall is a TV host, award-winning journalist and philanthropist. She is currently the host and executive producer of Tamron Hall, a daily destination for viewers to connect with the people who are shaping our world through meaningful, engaging and entertaining conversations.

Founder of Rasa Music, a woman-owned record label, Donna D’Cruz has recently launched Sleep Beditations: A Modern Sleep Solution, available on Spotify and Apple Music. She teaches guided meditation around the world, and is the lead meditation facilitator at Education Alliance.

Carolyn Murphy is a model, actress and founder of upcoming lifestyle brand Mamma Murphy’s. After representing a number of major fashion labels for over three decades, she has now dedicated her life to health and wellness, animal protection and organic farming.

A veteran of over 30 years in the fashion industry, Roxine Brown, raised in Northern California in a family of master gardeners, was inspired by her love for the natural beauty of the East End to create serene, innovative landscape and garden designs through Harmonia Inc.

In addition to family portrait photography, Cathrine White’s work has appeared on television and in best-selling books, major print publications and art galleries in New York and Los Angeles. She was raised in Sweden, and currently lives in Westchester County, outside of New York City.

who interviewed cover star Don Lemon

CAROLYN MURPHY

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who photographed Don Lemon and our families portfolio

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M I N DF U L

MINDFUL

STANDING PROUD

On the day of a significant Supreme Court ruling, one courageous gay man weighs in.

BY CHAIM LEVIN

about human sexuality. After being outed by a friend in the religious yeshiva right before I turned 18, I was the perfect candidate for this predatory practice.

Everything I knew about being gay or LGBT was not “positive” or “acceptable,” the sentiments being peddled by conversion therapists: that LGBT people are in need of being cured of something.

After almost two years of trying, I finally found the strength to accept myself for who I was as a gay man. It was then that I started thinking about the memories of conversion therapy, and realizing that I had a responsibility to the world to talk about it. This was in 2010 and the words “conversion therapy,” as well as the idea of conversion therapy and the fact that organizations like the one I attended still existed, were not well-known. It was clear to me that part of the reason these groups were able to thrive in the way that they did was because of the secrecy that surrounded them, and their ability to ensure that no one in the outside world knew what exactly went on in these places. This secrecy allowed them to thrive for decades while hurting young men like myself, and profiting off our pain.

On June 15, we got some good news for a change: The Supreme Court of the United States finally declared that it was illegal to fire someone in this country simply for being LGBTQ. Many people did not know or understand—mostly because most people who are not members of the LGBTQ community didn’t have to be concerned about this—but prior to June 15, before roughly 9:50AM, it was legal to fire someone simply for being gay, lesbian or trans in 29 states. In the chaotic world that we are living in, this breakthrough felt like a tiny bit of relief to the never-ending downpour of awful news that seems to have been our reality for the past several years.

Due to the fact that the Supreme Court usually hands down its biggest decisions in June, the month of June is special to many, myself included. In my case though, it is because five years ago, during the month of June, an important trial was being held in New Jersey on behalf of myself and five others. When I was 18 years old, I was sent to conversion therapy, a debunked and disproven practice that purports to “cure” gay people of their being gay. Having grown up in a very sheltered Hasidic community in Brooklyn, I did not know much

28

Jesse Collins

With the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, a first-ofits-kind lawsuit was filed on behalf of myself, three fellow attendees of this organization, and two of our parents.

We filed this historic lawsuit against the organization formally known as JONAH, which stood for Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing. On June 1, 2015, jury selection was completed. We were given our chance to tell our stories and for the first time ever, put the practices of conversion therapists to a jury and let them decide if, as we contended, they committed fraud by attempting to sell us a cure for something that did not need to be cured, and that such a cure did not exist in the first place, making their “services” inherently fraudulent. After four weeks of testimony and at times shocking revelations during the trial, truth prevailed, the jury saw this sham for what it was and found that JONAH had committed consumer fraud and engaged in unconscionable business practices.

On a personal level, participating in this lawsuit required sharing a lot of very private and painful things that happened to me before and during conversion therapy. As I’ve gotten older and had time to reflect on

29

all that happened during the first 26 years of my life, I think about how even though these experiences were so painful and felt unbearable at the time, I survived them and I am here to tell this story. There were many moments during this lawsuit and the events that preceded it in which I did not know if I would survive, but I am glad that I outlasted those moments, and I can say definitively now that it was (and continues to be) worth it.

I am surrounded by love, acceptance and kindness with a partner and his family who have embraced me as their own. Spending these past few months living with family here in the Hamptons, I’ve been able to take more time to focus on fitness and my own physical and emotional health. Everything I’ve been through has allowed me to reach this moment where things feel like they are just right in my own life, even though it’s hard to ignore the fact that the world around me right now is in a fragile state. I am working on accepting that the two circumstances can be true at the same time, and that even though things feel like they are so uncertain and even hopeless right now, we can still do our part in taking care of our own well-being, because we need it in order to survive, and even thrive, in this chaos.

MINDFUL

THE I OF THE STORM Look in vs. lock in. BY DONNA D’CRUZ

over each of us. Rejoice in the recovery of people you love who’ve had the virus and got better. Mourn for those who died alone. Cry for a pitiful COVID funeral limited to 10 people and the wretched choice families had to make about whom to include. Mine was one of them. RIP my dear, sweet godmother.

How do we embrace the pressure of dealing with the ongoing global pandemic along with the volatility of social unrest without succumbing to it ourselves? By identifying the best routine for us and our family, and keeping a daily practice. Just like learning how to play the piano or ride a bike, with yoga and meditation, it’s called a practice for a reason—not necessarily because you need to perfect it, but because it offers you a path to get you to become more self-aware, more grounded in purpose, and overall, more harmonious in mind, body and spirit.

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR FEELINGS. Weep for other seismic events during this time. Don’t look away from social and political storms on our streets. Every action we take today— as individuals and as a collective, from our family-andfriend circles to our city, national and global community— impacts our future, so let’s be properly informed, have smart conversations and show up with compassion and wisdom.

Vow to remember this time, and speak with your vote.

LIVE WELL, LOVE WELL. Go big or small—no judgments, just do what resonates best. You can decide to do a full detox, unplugging totally from all media and technology including social media, and embrace a clean, toxinfree diet and regimented sleep and exercise routine. Or you can choose daily measures, like mindfully eating as healthily as you can; expanding your sleep rituals and deepening your nightly sleep experience; drinking mindfully and in moderation; moving your body and doing some form of regular exercise, no matter how little, so long as it’s regular. To read more, especially books and media that are well-researched and elevated in mindset.

To regulate our Prime Flix time, addictive as it can be; to continue practicing safe, social distancing to honor our front-line workers.

Do your best to resist the temptation to blame your current state of mind wholly on coronavirus. It’s an easy thing to do. Your issues were most likely present well before lockdown. COVID-19 just exacerbated what was there already. This is the greatest moment to reimagine what you might perceive to be your flaws and failings, and transform them into your greatest lessons. Allow the practice of meditation to support you (according to a study cited in Time magazine’s special issue—“The Science of Stress,” 31 percent of workers saw a decrease in stress after adopting a program that included meditation).

This is an era to nurture our own witness, that nearflawless silent watcher who sees all our turmoil but manages to remain apart from it, not in a clinical way but in the spirit of calm, compassion and acceptance.

I am the storm. We are in its eye right now. Yes, there’s turbulence and great uncertainty ahead, but we can do a great many things for ourselves and others as we create a new future together.

FEEL AND ACT FOR OTHERS. Remember the lonely in your circle. Do what you can to alleviate their tedium and solitary life at this time. When you are struggling and your troubles seem great, look outside of your own suffering and ask what you can do in the service of others. You can choose to volunteer or look at your circle of family and friends and see how you can support them.

FIND A CONFIDANT, the right one. Better the comfort of books and animals than make-do friends. Be careful during this vulnerable time not to confide too much. If you’re blessed and have a four-legged companion in your home, count yourself fortunate, as unconditional affection and love are yours unreservedly.

For more info on Donna D’Cruz visit donnadcruz.com.

Follow @donnadcruz1 on Instagram and join us for a Dip Into Bliss meditation daily at 9AM EST and on Cristina Cuomo’s Instagram on Thursdays at 6PM EST.

BE GRATEFUL. If COVID-19 has spared you and your family and friends, be grateful. Like Damocles’ sword, the virus— and the looming threat of a second wave—still hangs

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Mario Silva

“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”

—Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers)

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MINDFUL

RAISING COMPASSIONATE KIDS Holistic Life Foundation offers strategies and practices for parents to help empower and enlighten their children. BY AMELY GREEVEN

their kids get about what’s going on. Even 6-year-olds are getting pieces. They know about George [Floyd]. They understand Black Lives Matter. They see their lives being disrupted by COVID-19. What they don’t know is: What happens next?

Kids are dealing with trauma, confusion, anger, disappointment and a lot of sadness. The traumatic experience of schools being shut down and them not being able to see their friends because of a deadly virus, the traumatic experience of seeing black men murdered on TV by cops—people many kids have been taught to trust.

A lot of children are traumatized just from being at home in

Almost 20 years ago, three Baltimore men—brothers Ali Smith, Atman Smith and their friend Andres Gonzalez— created the Holistic Life Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering underserved children to develop their inner lives through practices of yoga, mindfulness and self-care. Purist ’s wellness editor, Amely Greeven, asked executive director Ali Smith how parents can best support their children to be wakeful, resilient and compassionate in a time of turbulent change.

PURIST: What might adults be missing about how kids are feeling right now?

ALI SMITH: A lot of parents don’t understand just how much 32

Daiga Ellaby

We must equip the next generation with respect, empathy, and resilience.

“It’s hard for people to love anything if they don’t love themselves. This means knowing you are worthy and deserve to be treated equally, and deserve to be safe. From there, you can develop empathy and love for others.” the mundane, they feel limited. But when they are shown how to access a big space inside that feels peaceful, their sense of what they can do becomes limitless.

PURIST: What are some key practices that parents could borrow from you?

AS: Every kid, of every age, can learn breath control and breath awareness. Knowing how to take a full deep breath and noticing when you are “panting” are invaluable tools.

The Stress Breath (ujjayi) to calm the mind, reduce stress and anxiety, and bring inner stillness during times of stress and anger. You can play guided meditations that help them realize their true universal nature and experience that they are not totally attached to the physical—there’s a place inside that can help burn off negativity. Older kids can learn to see their areas for growth and development, even discovering “shadow” parts of their personality. In some of our YouTube videos we lead groups on a “heartcentered” loving kindness practice that helps them develop love for self, for others, and even those who piss them off—so that nobody can “rent space” in their minds, draining their mental and emotional energy. And all parents can embody and advocate karma yoga—mindful and selfless service for others and the world. This gives kids the opportunity to “be the change they want to see in the world” while also seeing the changes within themselves.

It teaches them to give from their heart and soul without being attached to results of their work. On our Instagram, we share a lot of these practices.

PURIST: How can parents of white kids help them to show up as spiritual activists?

AS: First, be honest about the power and privilege they have in this country being white, and how the country is set up to keep others down who aren’t. Get them to see that they are more than just a physical body, and that they are spiritually connected to all the other people on this planet. Help them to see that they can use their privilege for good. And guide them to know that when they do want to go help in a community of color, they are not there to save anyone, but to support and empower. Parents can model and support kids of all ages to commit to small daily practice—like breathwork, some yoga stretches or listening to a daily guided meditation—to build their reserves and resilience for what’s coming. Put it in their language, not yours. As we tell our kids, You either kick your own ass on the inside or you can get your ass kicked on the outside.

difficult situations. School was their escape from violence, abuse and neglect. Now they are trapped. Or it was a place where important life events were going to occur, like prom, graduation and sports. And the children who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 have an extra layer on top of that, especially if they are old enough to understand how many people—including government officials—don’t seem to think they need to take the virus seriously.

So the confusion is all-pervasive: Why are we trapped in the house and cannot see our friends? They are confused about the extreme polarization going on. It’s hard for them to process why some people are so mad about George Floyd and others don’t seem mad enough about George Floyd. Parents don’t realize how much their kids see. Most of them, even the really young ones, seem to have caught some footage of his murder, or at least understand that it exists. They’re learning in real time that people can do terrible things and get away with it, and that justice is often an illusion—at least for some people. This is a hard thing for a kid to come to terms with.

PURIST: What resources should parents help their kids develop?

AS: Making change doesn’t just take a revolution, it first takes an involution. From there, you can act on that change. We teach kids to go inward, so they can come outward effectively. Our methods focus on: Self-Love: It’s hard for people to love anything—their communities, their families—if they don’t love themselves.

This means knowing you are worthy and deserve to be treated as equally as everyone else, and you deserve to be safe. From there, you can develop empathy and love for others. Once that is birthed, you can’t go backward.

Self-Connection/Awareness: Being in touch with their thoughts and feelings helps kids avoid getting caught totally off-guard by challenge, and subsequently spiral into depression or rage.

Resolve and Resilience: Everyone gets knocked down by life. For many of our kids, life is always going to be rough.

But inner practices can give them resilience for a quicker bounce-back. When the world is in chaos, you need to be able to escape inwards, find your peace, so you can come back and show up again.

Empowerment: All children need to know that they can make change in their lives and in the world around them. We teach them to take an inner journey and then empower them to teach it to others—their auntie, their cousin or a stressed-out teacher.

Universal Connection: When a kid’s reality is stuck in

Connect with HLF on Instagram @holisticlifefoundation, hlfinc.org 33

MINDFUL

THE POWER OF MANY

Shifting from meditating with rock stars to leading stadium-size workshops and now virtual meet-ups, Jesse Israel and The Big Quiet offer audiences tools for calm and clarity.

BY RAY ROGERS The Big Quiet’s own events at locations like the South by Southwest festival (where R&B/ soul hit-maker Miguel, a devoted meditator himself, performed a song as the afternoon’s guest musician).

Earlier this year, Israel landed a dream gig when Oprah Winfrey booked him and The Big Quiet for her sold-out 2020 Vision Tour. Onstage with a DJ and sound bowl player, Israel served as the opening act for the Queen of All Media, guiding upwards of 15,000 to 17,000 participants in quieting their minds. “It was incredible to have these moments when we’re Jesse Israel in sold-out arenas and just totally still and totally quiet for 10 to 25 minutes,” he recalls. “Oprah came up on stage after I led the meditations, and we talked about the importance of rest and slowing down, and what meditation does to the nervous system. At the last Big Quiet, Oprah mentioned how she noticed lots of people had been crying during the meditations. She asked me why that is, and we were talking about the importance of allowing ourselves to feel our emotions: We’re given permission to pause the distractions that often block us from our feelings—and in a large group, how emotional and powerful that can be.”

As the novel coronavirus began to spread, that national tour ended. But the need to further help people isolated at home only grew. Israel, on his own and with The Big Quiet, leaned into digital offerings, participating in mass meditations over Zoom with Winfrey, offering weekly Instagram Live sessions and upcoming online courses throughout the summer. He says, “We’ve been looking at ways we can continue to gather people meaningfully and share the practice and tools of meditation,” particularly in an era with so much unrest in the world. “What’s so beautiful about having a meditation practice is that instead of reacting to what’s around us, we can thoughtfully be proactive with regard to what’s happening—and respond with the clearest sense of purpose.” thebigquiet.com, jesseisrael.com

Antoine Rose

As an NYU undergrad, Jesse Israel co-founded Cantora Records in his sophomore dorm room and signed one of the biggest bands of the early 2000s, the zeitgeist-defining psychedelicrock duo MGMT, which dominated the airwaves with blockbuster hits “Electric Feel,” “Kids” and “Time To Pretend.” With the massive success came equally amped-up pressure.

“My first year out of school, I was getting hit with debilitating anxiety and panic attacks, and I just didn’t feel healthy. I could feel it in my body…it just didn’t feel right,” he recalls.

“And I knew that it wasn’t sustainable.”

Israel’s father introduced him to the writings of Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön, and an intro course at Shambhala Meditation Center in Manhattan really struck a chord with the music man, setting him on a path of exploration that led him to Vedic meditation, “which lined up more with my modern lifestyle.” In this tradition, which descends from the same lineage as Transcendental Meditation, practitioners sit upright with back support and silently repeat a Sanskrit mantra, “allowing the body and mind to settle and deepen into quiet and more restful states,” says Israel. “Once I learned, I was all in.”

Soon enough, backstage at festivals like Lollapalooza, Israel would be leading his own meditations for bands, managers and anyone who needed it during the grind of touring. “I loved this contrast of doing something ancient and spiritual in the context of our busy modern lives, often while rap music was playing on the stage outside.”

Eventually, the label owner realized this was his true calling, and a second act was born. What started as small-scale group “Medi Club” meditations with friends in a downtown Manhattan loft quickly mushroomed into mass gatherings and a formalized company, The Big Quiet.

The first activation: 1,500 people gathered at Central Park SummerStage for a large-scale meditation with live music.

Today, five years later, he leads arena-size meditations for Fortune 500 companies like Google and Adidas, and

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Randy Rainbow: “It sounds like a stage name, but it’s the actual name on my birth certificate.”

PhotoSugar Dirty creditPhotography here.

MINDFUL

THE RAINBOW CONNECTION

The comedian, YouTube sensation and political pundit Randy Rainbow shares personal inspirations, his favorite source material and other true confessions. BY CRISTINA CUOMO CRISTINA CUOMO: Congratulations on your Outstanding Short Form Variety series Emmy nomination for The Randy Rainbow Show. That’s very exciting.

RANDY RAINBOW: Thank you. I appreciate it. I always assumed that I would get a call from you, but I thought it would be to tell me to stop hitting on your husband. And maybe there would be a lawyer present, so this is really a welcome delight.

Hollywood Playhouse, with Josh Gad and some other notable people. Then, in high school, I did all the shows. I never really got any sort of real formal training other than just my experience on stage and community theater. I went to college for 10 minutes, and then dropped out to work on a cruise ship. I’m kind of self-taught.

CC: Your satirical writing is so good. Did you study that at all?

RR: Thank you. And no, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’m just winging it every day. People ask me: How did you learn to do this? or Who does your editing? or Who writes for you? Really, I’m just winging it, and everything that I do comes from my appreciation for the art form, for musical theater. I grew up being obsessed with Stephen Sondheim and his lyrics. That just became a part of me and got in my ear. I try to emulate the people that I love.

CC: No, I actually love it. I showed him the video, and I had so many friends send me that video when he was sick. It was just such a wonderful humorous healing moment for everyone. You went viral in the Cuomo clan.

RR: Well that was my goal, so mission accomplished.

CC: I started showing Chris the video, and he was like, “I don’t want to watch any more Andrew propaganda.”

So then I said, “Wait until you get to the end,” and then you gave out your beautiful shout-out to him, so he was happy.

RR: Well, he’s my No. 1 Cuomo. Let’s be honest.

CC: You do the video editing as well?

RR: I do that myself.

CC: That was going to be my last question!—who is your favorite Cuomo?

RR: Oh my god. Chris has always been my No. 1, and Andrew is having a moment. I love him, too. But really, jokes aside, I really love my Cuomo boys. They are a constant source of clarity and comfort and wisdom, and I love them both. But if I had to choose I would choose your husband.

CC: Your timing is so perfect.

RR: Again, I attribute that to the fact that I do have a musical ear, and I think that ties into my ability to edit.

CC: Good, safe answer. Tell me about your background.

Where did you grow up?

RR: I was born on Long Island, in Huntington Hospital, and then at age 10 I moved to South Florida. From 10 to 21, I was in South Florida, like the Hollywood area, Fort Lauderdale.

My childhood was for the most part terrific. I mean, we could do a whole three hours also on my father, who is Donald Trump, because that’s kind of strange. That’s going to be a chapter in my book. It had its issues, but for the most part I come from a very loving, accepting liberal Jewish family.

CC: How did you get that catchy name?

RR: I know it sounds like a horrible stage name, but it’s the actual name on my birth certificate. My parents are Gwen and Gerry Rainbow. The origin of the name was the Russian word for rainbow, so it wasn’t even changed at Ellis Island or anything. It was always Rainbow. There are a few of us in the world. My parents didn’t have to go with the alliteration of giving me Randy Rainbow, because I really sounded like a drag queen when I was 8 years old.

CC: And some good subjects, too, who offer a lot of fodder to play with.

RR: It’s frankly too much. I haven’t slept in four years.

CC: Is it Randall, or is it just Randy?

RR: No, it’s just plain Randy. So it works out that I do what I do, and I wasn’t a quarterback.

CC: Where did you get your theater training?

RR: I was always on stage as a kid. They put me in ballet lessons when I was 6. I was always in theater camps; in South Florida I went to a summer camp called the

CC: How would your family describe you? Do you have any siblings that you’re close with?

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RR: My father, who is no longer with us, was 16 years older than my mom, and he had two prior marriages, and two daughters from those marriages. My mother really made me this way, if you want to know the truth. She wanted the gayest child she could possibly have. She was the one who was feeding me all this musical theater and introducing me to Sondheim. I would wake up in the morning and she would say things like, “Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand was on television last night, so I taped it for you and then I bought you the soundtrack because you’re going to want the soundtrack.” So she had this plan from the start to have just the gayest kid in the neighborhood.

CC: Think about a one-man show on Broadway. It’s time.

RR: We were ready to do a one-man limited engagement on Broadway this season. We were hoping for October and, of course, that got shot to hell. It’s certainly a dream of mine. I changed agencies right before everything happened; I’m with CAA [Creative Artists Agency] now.

They’re working on a lot of different things for me. I’m excited about all these projects, and happy to know there’s a lot of stuff in the entertainment industry still moving along, even as more things are shut down.

CC: Well, she saw the budding talent. Who has been your favorite subject, since you began making your political satire videos?

RR: The obvious is Trump, but really I think that’s a boring answer. For a while it was Kellyanne. I have to thank Chris for giving me some of those interviews that I ended up using. When I do my live show, I have a whole medley that’s the Kellyanne Conway medley. She gave me a lot of material, I must say. Trump has just been the gift from the comedy gods, unfortunately.

CC: Because we are a wellness publication…

RR: Don’t interview me, because I’m eating pasta every night.

CC: What’s the worst job you ever had?

RR: Right before I started being able to earn a living doing my creative work, I was a receptionist for the accounting firm that does all of the Broadway shows and tours. It was so boring that it really pushed me to pursue my creative work full time. So I quit and I took a leap. And now they’re my accountants.

CC: That’s OK. It fuels your energy. How do you stay healthy?

RR: My exercise really went out the window—these past three months have been a nightmare. But I just bought a NordicTrack, so I’m going to get into that. I like to run outside. I will say, since we’ve been in lockdown I have not had a single alcoholic beverage, which I think has been good for me, although I need it, frankly.

CC: Oh, how funny is that.

RR: Isn’t life great.

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Dirty Sugar Photography

CC: Comedy is that one thing in the entertainment industry that has really been shining right now, because people need it so desperately. OK, what’s been a defining moment in your life?

RR: A lot of amazing things have happened professionally.

On a larger life scale, when my grandmother passed away, that was a big thing for me. My grandmother inspired everything that I do. She instilled this kind of comedy philosophy in me to just laugh at everything. Kind of the Joan Rivers model: If you can laugh at it, you can deal with it. I kind of stole her act, really. She was so amazing in her reactionary comedy. I would be in her home, and she’d have the news on, and if there were interviews going on with a political figure, she would talk back to the person being interviewed as though she were conducting the interview. That’s how I got my comedic voice. I’m really just an old lady talking back to her television.

CC: It’s been a topsy-turvy week to say the least for gay rulings, with Trump pulling back health care protections for transgender people and then, of course, it was a surprise coming from the Supreme Court ruling that gay and transgender workers are protected by federal law forbidding discrimination. So one step forward, three steps back.

RR: Overall, it was something to celebrate. It was certainly historic, and I was very happy about it. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. That was only just a drop in the bucket. I’m still concerned with the actions that Trump continues to take, that are pushing us back. It’s so much harder to celebrate the achievements. It’s rough. I’m mixed about it.

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MINDFUL

WELLNESS INSPIRATIONS Twelve innovative black women-owned businesses to support.

BY GABRIELLE ECHEVARRIETA

Pesy Therese modeling one of JUNNY’s caftans

AARMY The AARMY program is a coaching experience based on four core modes, including cycle, bootcamp, strength training and stretching. Designed by Beyoncé’s former favorite SoulCycle instructor, Angela Davis, AARMY streamlines your athletic performance, with each class building optimal posture, technique and stamina while activating every muscle group.

AARMY’s NYC and LA centers are currently closed due to COVID-19, but you can access a daily lineup of training routines via IGTV broadcasts. @aarmy

BENEATH YOUR MASK After being diagnosed with lupus and finding healing through naturopathic medicine, Beneath Your Mask founder Dana Jackson was inspired to create clean skin care that could be safely used by those with autoimmune conditions. Beneath Your Mask’s line of paraben-, GMO-, gluten- and sulfate-free skin and hair care is designed to restore and shield the body from the harmful effects of chronic stress and environmental toxins. The

AARMY’s cycling classes promote agility and endurance.

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brand’s packaging is plastic-free, opting instead for dark violet miron glass, which lengthens the life span and potency of each product. beneathyourmask.com, @beneathyourmask

BOSSY COSMETICS Former investment banker and self-proclaimed “lipstick junkie” Aisha Dozie founded Bossy Cosmetics with the intention to empower women through cruelty-free, ethically made makeup. Bossy’s lip products are designed with all skin tones in mind, and include a wide array of shades to compliment every complexion. You can try before you buy using the Bossy Beauty DNA technology: Upload a picture of yourself to compare how different colors will look on you. The brand is also a part of the Female Founder Collective, a network of businesses led by women, to support other women. bossybeauty.com, @bossylipstick

EPI.LOGIC Brooklyn Face & Eye, a hot spot for cosmetic dermatology services like

Thorsten Von Overgaard; Courtesy of AARMY

According to a study conducted by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, black-owned businesses have historically had a harder time accessing loans and startup capital. Black Americans have almost zero equity in our capitalist system. We can combat this inequity by harnessing our purchasing power and supporting black-owned businesses in all sectors, including these innovative health and wellness brands.

Kybella, PRP and microneedling, has entered into the skin care realm with epi.logic. Dr. Chaneve Jeanniton has created a line of paraben-, sulfate-, artificial fragrance- and dye-free products to address the needs of her diverse clientele. Alongside cleansers, toners and serums, epi.logic offers The Total Package fortifying facial moisturizer, a combination of hyaluronic acid and bioactives to restore hydration, retexturize and protect skin against environmental stressors. brooklynfaceandeye.com, @bklynfaceandeye

HARLEM CANDLE CO.

Simply Pure products undergo strict testing to ensure quality and potency.

after burning. harlemcandlecompany .com, @harlemcandlecompany

HEALTHY ON YOU Healthy On You marries beats with organic eats. Certified health coach Sam Binkley has created spice blends free of gluten, GMOs, fillers and preservatives to add nutrients and elevate the flavors of your food. Each is named after an iconic song, like “No Woman No Spice,” a fusion of Jamaican jerk flavors with cinnamon and garlic. Try one of the “edible playlists”: a box of three harmonious seasoning mixtures that can be used together in your favorite dishes. healthyonyou.com, @healthyonyou

Courtesy of Simply Pure; Courtesy of PUR Home; Courtesy of Beneath Your Mask

Harlem Candle Co.’s luxury home accessories are inspired by the historic jazz culture of Harlem. Founded by travel and lifestyle expert Teri Johnson, each candle is handcrafted using premium soy-blend wax and pure fragrance oils. Explore the 22K Gold Cocktail Glass collection—the Speakeasy scent is an ode to the Roaring Twenties era with notes of cardamom and patchouli—and then repurpose the ornate holder into a cocktail glass

JUNNY After her corporate role at ESPN was downsized five years ago, Purist’s executive sales director Junny Ann Hibbert designed her first caftan, inspired by the vibrant culture and fashion of her adopted home, Harlem. Her love of colorful textiles and pride for her native Jamaica fueled her innate desire to create, and thus JUNNY was born. JUNNY’s haute couture is made in NYC using imported, upcycled vintage silk saris and African prints with elements from

PUR Home’s nontoxic cleansers are scented with essential oils.

Beneath Your Mask’s line of clean, sustainably packaged skin care

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MINDFUL Healthy On You’s ‘Here Comes The Yum’ blend with coriander, cumin and turmeric

the traditional kimono and African prayer robe woven into the collection.

“JUNNY pieces,” Hibbert says, “are designed for that man, woman and child who no longer wants to feel invisible. They have the chance to be bold and audacious.” junny.nyc, @iamjhibby

PEAR NOVA

PUR HOME Keep your household clean and green with PUR Home’s line of organic laundry detergents and surface cleaners. CEO, formulator and product developer Angela Richardson’s passion for nontoxic

Pear Nova’s BRWNGRLMGC line was created to complement medium to dark skin tones.

living was born after her first homemade bar of soap, and has since expanded into an array of Leaping Bunny-certified, Environmental Working Grouprated products. PUR Home’s Laundry Detergent is packaged in a compostable container made out of newspaper and cardboard, and is scented with an essential oil blend. pur-home.com, @purhomeclean

ROSE MD Rosemarie Ingleton, MD, boardcertified dermatologist, developed Rose MD, a clean skin care brand inspired by the botanicals of her native Jamaica. The signature Jamaican SuperFruit Blend contains high concentrations of potent, scientifically proven ingredients to promote a youthful, more radiant complexion.

Free of parabens, synthetic dyes, sulfates and mineral oil, each product is engineered to target specific skin concerns through natural remedies.

Use the Rose MD Skin Quiz to determine which formula is right for you, and follow Rose MD’s Instagram for expert skin care tips from Dr. Ingleton. rosemdskin.com, @rosemdskin

SIMPLY PURE The first black woman-owned cannabis dispensary in Denver, Simply Pure specializes in healthy alternatives to the often overprocessed and 42

refined sugar-ridden edibles flooding the market. Each treat is 100 percent organic, vegan and gluten-free, created by a certified chef to ensure consistent dosing. Shop for CBDinfused goodies—like mint tinctures and the Pure Vitality protein elixir— online, or visit their brick-and-mortar dispensary for small-batch cannabis products, with curbside pickup available. thepurestlife.com, @simplypuremj

YUBI BEAUTY Swap your arsenal of beauty blenders and brushes for Yubi Beauty’s multipurpose makeup applicator.

Creator Adiya Dixon Wiggins founded the brand out of pure necessity: She was a busy mom with little time for a multistep makeup routine, which eventually led to the development of this no-nonsense beauty tool. Yubi has detachable brush and sponge attachments for flawless coverage of liquid, cream or powder makeup with no smudging or caking. The buff-brush attachment features super-soft vegan microbristles, making smaller amounts of foundation go further. The blend sponge is made of the most porous latex-free material available, for the softest feel and highest-quality results. loveyubi.com, @yubibeauty Discover more black-owned businesses at officialblackwallstreet.com

Courtesy of Healthy On You; Courtesy of Pear Nova

For a gentler alternative to the harmful chemicals found in some big brands of nail polish, turn to Pear Nova’s line of cruelty-free and vegan-friendly lacquers, created by International Academy of Design & Technology graduate Rachel James. Every product is 5-Free: no formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde resin and camphor, with color palette collections inspired by the tropical waters of Tulum and Thailand. While your go-to salon remains closed, treat yourself to a DIY gel manicure using Pear Nova’s gel base and top coat duo, and give your lashes some love with the brand’s nourishing serum. pearnova.com, @pearnova

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joebmoore.com

making the invisible. . . visible

MINDFUL

LOVE IN ACTION

Model and actress Carolyn Murphy speaks with author, composer, yogi and lecturer Dr. Joseph Michael Levry about accessing spirituality in these challenging times.

Carolyn Murphy, student of Dr. Joseph Michael Levry

Dr. Levry is the founder of Global Gatherings for Peace and Healing.

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CAROLYN MURPHY: I’ve worked with you for a couple of years, and I feel so fortunate to have been introduced to you by a dear mutual friend. You are the author of The Divine Doctor: Healing Beyond Medicine, one of many books, as well as a musician and composer. Can you share a little bit more about yourself?

DR. JOSEPH MICHAEL LEVRY: I was born into a spiritual family.

At a young age, all I wanted to do was to be able to touch as many lives as I could, the same way my life has been touched. I realized that it doesn’t matter who we are and where we come from, or what we look like. What matters is what difference we can make in other peoples’ lives.

Ultimately, the best way to express our spirituality is to serve others, to reach out to someone, to feed someone who doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from.

We have to remember that we are spiritual substance, and as spiritual substance, we truly cannot be limited.

CM: A lot of us are isolated right now. Some people really are alone. What advice can you give those people to feel more empowered?

DL: Yes. Simple meditation. All they have to do is rub their hands vigorously and place their hands on their middle of the chest. Your left hand corresponds to love, your right hand corresponds to wisdom; you’re bringing it where your truth is.

CM: To your heart.

DL: Yeah, to your heart. You want to use the breath and shift a little bit of the chemistry of the blood, so you will take, very quickly, full breaths, in and out of the mouth four times. After a minute of this practice, stay there and then just simply listen for “I am, I am.” “I am” is so powerful.

CM: You talk a lot about spiritual logic; there are so many different ways for people to access spirituality. What I love

Courtesy of Carolyn Murphy; Dr. Levry portrait courtesy of Amanda Plant

“We have to do something about the state of the world. We have to make it better. We have to embrace the reality of love by changing ourselves—our thoughts, feelings, the way we speak, our attitude.” about what you are saying is that yes, there is all of that, but it really is truly about serving.

DL: Nothing is as powerful as love. The creator is the manifestation of love. So, love is the manifestation of the spirit of the creator. When we love, we manifest the divine in us. Serving is an extension of love because love gives, service gives. There is no love without sacrifice.

It is true that we have to do something about the state of the world. We have to make it better. To make our world better, we have to embrace the reality of love; we have to change ourselves, by changing our thoughts, our feelings, changing the way we speak, changing our attitude. The hardest part is facing ourselves. You have to go through a breakdown before you get to a breakthrough. The easier path is to focus on someone else. When you serve others, you are actually serving yourself. When serving others, you embrace the reality of love.

There are three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who don’t know what happened. We have to make things happen in the time of this global pandemic, a major challenge for the Earth. Faced with such a challenge, all that is left to fall upon us is the highest vibration, and that is love. As human beings, we thrive on love. Love is the purest essence of truth, and truth is the highest image of love. The human spirit is so powerful, it is so important for us to realize.

When you say “I am, I am,” you’re dialing the full love of the creator. Every time you direct your feelings spiritually, the creator moves.

CM: You have worked with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and other hospitals as a healer with vibration and sound. Tell us about that?

DL: Music is the language of love. Music is the frontier. It’s a transformer of energy. It is amazing, the things that can be done with music.

CM: Why do you think that connection is so important right now?

DL: Connection is key. People have to connect. Connection is an extension of love, whether we are connecting inside, internally, or saying to someone we know, how much we love them. The time has come for us to move away from everything that divides us. This is a time for us to expand our sense of identity because as humans, we have a tendency to help people we identify with. Our environment is an extension of us. If we make our environment happy, we will be happy and healthy. Once you extend love and kindness to a person, you stretch their existence. And you raise the “feel-good” hormone. Love and kindness will heal you. A world of love. Can you imagine that? Incredible. josephmichaellevry.com, rootlight.com 45

MINDFUL

NEW SCHOOL

community and connection, which many families are seeking right now. It provides a small, tight-knit community of learners who engage in mixed-age advisories, servicebased learning programs, and one-on-one mentorship.”

“We exist to create future world-wise leaders who are uniquely equipped to understand and solve globalscale problems,” she says. Admission requirements align with the Avenues learning process: Presented with a challenge anchored to a world-scale problem, students submit a short video in which they share their solutions.

“Our team reviews the video, provides feedback, and engages the applicant in dialogue around their work,” says Wollner. “We are seeking students who are curious, caring and collaborative, and who demonstrate a willingness and delight in taking on challenges.”

Avenues: The World School partners with “socially good companies”—Warby Parker, for example, has already committed to an initiative to address a worldwide shortage of eyewear—to help countries think more creatively about real challenges to the community. It will be interesting to see how their focus on collaborative problem-solving works in East Hampton.

If Avenues Studio Hamptons seeks to establish a new model of secondary education, these strategies may further serve as a model for communities of the future.

191 Buckskill Rd., East Hampton, avenues.org

Move over Hayground and Ross School. Seizing opportunity, or a creative solution in difficult times, the celebrated Avenues: The World School is opening a campus this fall in East Hampton, for families with kids grades 4 to 12 who, for the duration, prefer to stay distanced from the city. Founded in 2009 by Chris Whittle, Alan Greenberg and Benno Schmidt with a vision to create the first world school with a number of interdependent campuses around the globe, Avenues has locations in Manhattan; São Paulo, Brazil; and Shenzhen, China; an online option; and Silicon Valley on the way for fall 2021—and has boasted one highprofile student, Suri Cruise. But, shhh! For now, the goal for many upscale Hamptonites is to keep even deluxe private education low-key.

The Avenues Studio Hamptons campus opens on August 24, at Hampton Country Day Camp on Buckskill Road. Small by design, the studio campus will serve a maximum of 150 students, many already attending the Manhattan site. A for-profit institution, tuition for the 2020-21 academic year is set at $48,000, a savings from Manhattan’s $58,700. Most advantageous, notes Maggie Wollner, Head of Avenues Studio Hamptons: “The Studio ensures continuity of the academic program and seamless student support regardless of a student’s location: at home, abroad, or at the Studio. The Studio prioritizes 46

Frank Mckenna

The smart set welcomes Avenues and its world-renowned curriculum to the Hamptons. BY REGINA WEINREICH

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H E A LT H

Socially distanced outdoor activity, including time in the sun, is crucial for physical and mental health.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MORGAN MAASSEN

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H E A LT H

ASK THE DR.

Protect yourself in a post-COVID-19 lockdown world. BY DR. FRANK LIPMAN

Even breathing, speaking loudly or singing can send thousands of droplets, both large and microscopic, flying through the air, leaving behind viral clouds that by some estimates can linger for about 15 minutes. So it’s easy to see how the virus can land on other people, as well as nearby surfaces, regardless of whether or not Support mental the person who launched health with practices the droplets (who may be such as meditation and yoga, which asymptomatic and not in turn strengthen taking special precautions) physical resilience. is still on scene. How far the viral particles travel and how long they linger will be influenced by things like the force of a cough or a sneeze (some particles can hit 200 mph), how good or bad the ventilation is, and which way the proverbial wind is blowing.

With each passing day, we learn more about SARSCoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and how it behaves. That in turn inches us closer to winning the battle against it. But we’re still in the early stages, with more questions than answers. Regardless, our federal and state governments are forging ahead with plans to reopen various parts of the economy and relax many of the lockdown measures that have helped slow COVID-19’s spread.

Though the wisdom of these steps may be up for debate, one thing is not: Many people are concerned for their safety going forward.

We’re stepping back out into a world that involves increased risk of exposure to the virus we’ve all been trying to avoid. Exactly how much risk is unclear, but safeguarding health during the reentry process is all about prevention.

And prevention is not only about continuing to engage in behaviors that we know help keep a lid on the spread of the virus and avoiding the ones that don’t. Just as important, if not more so, is fortifying your body against the scourge now, before an anticipated viral surge in the fall. if you’re waiting around for some miraculous, fasttracked vaccine, it could be a long wait—at least, for a vaccine that’s reasonably safe, effective and doesn’t trigger a host of devastating side effects. So we need rational protection right now, and it’s up to us as individuals.

To get started on a healthy, natural, self-inoculation path, here are the essentials to reduce risk right now, and during the months to come:

Should you cross paths with a cloud of viral particles, researchers believe that it doesn’t take much—possibly as little as a few thousand or even a few hundred—to cause infection and illness. Though we don’t yet know the exact number of coronavirus particles that constitute the minimal infectious dose, we do know that a number of outbreaks have been traced to events like religious services, funerals and family celebrations, where one asymptomatic person in relatively close quarters sickened many others, sometimes fatally.

When it comes to COVID-19, it’s believed that the bigger the viral load you’re exposed to—as in, the more particles that find their way into your system—the more severe the symptoms of the disease. Prolonged exposure is very likely to make matters worse. While a quick trip to the pharmacy would be considered fairly low risk, a full day of work in a busy office or manufacturing plant is not—far from it. But low risk or high, keeping the virus out is critical, which is why masks are so important. When you wear a mask, you’re

COVID-19 FLIES WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE To keep the virus at bay, it helps to understand the basics of how a coronavirus like the one that causes COVID-19 spreads. The average sneeze or cough releases hundreds of thousands of virus-laced respiratory droplets into the air.

50

@culinarydots

CONTAINMENT STRATEGY

high-touch surfaces: break-room fridges and microwave handles, coffee-making equipment, door handles, elevator buttons, shared printers, copiers. Thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water (gloved or not) every chance you get, turning faucets on and off with paper towels as a barrier to help prevent infection.

primarily helping to prevent any virus you’re harboring (unknowingly, if you’re asymptomatic) from infecting others, and you’re also creating somewhat of a physical barrier between yourself and the viral droplets (large or small). Another mask-wearing bonus: You’ll be a lot less likely to transfer viral particles from your hands into your nose or mouth.

START SELF-INOCULATING WITH HEALTHY HABIT INTEGRATION

GET IN, GET OUT So what do those viral clouds mean in the real world?

In enclosed spaces, even with social distancing, they increase risk for contagion, so the modern open-plan office is a major concern. If you’re one of the millions who are being called back to work in an office, at a time when a COVID-laced sneeze or two can potentially infect most of the room, insist on finding out what protocols management will be implementing to minimize infection risk. In addition to work-from-home options and flexible hours, on-site basics like increased physical distance between colleagues, physical barriers, upgraded sanitizing procedures, upgraded ventilation/airflow, ending the practice of “hot desking” (where different people use the same workspace at different times), and making masks mandatory for all—are a good place to start.

With obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease being closely associated with poor COVID-19 outcomes, I cannot stress enough how important it is that you take your nutrition seriously, and work on getting those issues under control now. If you’ve made it through these first few months unscathed, that’s great, but you may not be so lucky when the next COVID-19 wave likely returns in the fall.

And if you’re already on a healthy path, now is the time to upgrade your wellness regimens even more. The more you can fortify your body with nutrition and healthy habits, the better equipped it will be to repel the viral invaders. Here are a few essential tweaks to start with: Manage your stress, with meditation moments through out the day and restorative yoga before bed.

Support your mental health, which will in turn support physical resilience.

Move more, walk more. Work out when possible; just don’t overdo it and undermine your immunity.

Get a few minutes of morning sun, to help regulate sleep/

wake cycles, and to get a dose of vitamin D. Retrain yourself to sleep well, to give your body the time it

needs to repair, restore and become more resilient.

If you snore, periodically wake up choking or gasping,

or find it hard to remain asleep during the night, get checked for sleep apnea, which disrupts sleep and can

weaken the heart, which can have dire, even fatal consequences.

Purge processed foods and sugar.

Ditch vegetable oils (including canola oil) and switch to

healthier fats to cook with, such as extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil.

Load up on immunity-boosting, delicious medicinal foods

rich in phytochemicals, anti-virals and anti-fungals.

Pour on turmeric, ginger, basil and other spices with medicinal benefits.

Get into intermittent fasting and practices that encourage immunity-boosting autophagy.

Strengthen immunity with supportive botanicals and nutraceuticals like curcumin, quercetin, N-acetylcysteine,

zinc, vitamins C and D, and elderberry. drfranklipman.com

WORKDAY WISDOM As we return to our offices and public transportation, masks and gloves are simple and effective barriers that will go a long way toward keeping you safe from viral invaders, so use them without fail (style be damned). If you need a bit more peace of mind, you might also want to consider wearing safety glasses to prevent particles from entering through the eyes. Keep spare masks, gloves and eyewear in sealed plastic bags, and be sure to store them in your desk drawer or in briefcases and backpacks, so you’re not caught short.

If your commute is a manageable one, instead of taking the bus or train, consider walking, riding a bicycle or using a scooter to minimize exposure to both asymptomatic and symptomatic commuters, as well as infected surfaces, along the way.

At the office, dispense with handshakes, fist bumps, elbow bumps and business card exchanges, and always be sure to maintain social distance. Keep in-person meetings to a minimum or, when feasible, consider conducting meetings outdoors, where distancing, sunshine and breezes can help minimize viral exposure.

Why step outside? One preliminary Japanese study recently found that risk of transmission indoors was almost 19 times higher compared to an outdoor environment.

Indoors, be conscious of shared office equipment and 51

H E A LT H

PUT A RING ON IT

This piece of smart jewelry could be a lifesaver. BY JULIA SZABO

against viral spread, this is Oura’s most timely draw. An Oura wearer can be alerted to noteworthy changes in, say, menstrual cycle phases, or, more pressingly, COVID-19 symptoms before one starts to feel ill. More studies are needed regarding whether Oura or any other wearable tech can accurately assess the health of patients who show no symptoms at all. But the NBA isn’t sidelining smart rings: Players and team staff are given the option to wear Oura to ascertain their “illness probability score,” indicating whether they might be at risk of contracting (or already having) COVID-19.

Durable and lightweight, Oura weighs a scant 0.25 ounce and calls itself “the most comfortable smart ring in the world.” Among the 10 widely acknowledged best smart rings on the market—including McLEAR, Jakcom R3 and Alotm R3—Oura is recognized as the most advanced in terms of sleep tracking and battery life, although its primary competition—Motiv—leads in security features. The $300 wireless device is also the most convenient, thanks to its extended battery life (a single one-hour charge lasts up to seven days—longer than any other smart ring). Fans include the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, Dr. Mark Hyman, and the fitness polymath known as Da Rulk (@da_rulk), who says, “Thankfully there’s technology today that exists to provide feedback to your own health and wellness. The Oura ring is a great example.” ouraring.com

The ring finger happens to be the perfect pulse indicator, an ideal source for accurate and reliable data. With its elegant design, the Oura smart ring, which is paired with a mobile app tracker, replaces rubies and emeralds with NTC temperature sensors, gleaming green or infraredLED; there’s even an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

Although it is not a medical device, it can help you track health indicators like temperature, quality of sleep and heart rate, plus the current preoccupation of everyone on the planet: possible COVID-19 infection.

While you’re reading the morning news update with your cup of coffee, bulletins tuned to your personal biorhythms are just as useful when lining up the day’s agenda. For example, you may awaken to a morning greeting revealing your readiness score. Let’s say it measures 85; here’s what you’ll see on your phone: GOING STRONG. Last night’s sleep could’ve been better, but your readiness is still good. On other days, when fighting infection, you could use a helpful Oura tag “Flu,” and take immediate action to help your body recover.

Meanwhile, providing insights on your sleep quality throughout the slumber cycle—from deep, REM, to light sleep—Oura’s sensors continually monitor the body’s pulse and movement. Most importantly, the ring measures temperature directly from the wearer’s skin. With temptaking becoming more critical as a front-line defense 52

Courtesy of Oura Ring

Oura ring provides users with a daily health report via their phone.

ADDRESSING ALZHEIMER’S Can consumption of omega-3 fatty acids help prevent the disease?

@thebeachpeople

BY TAPP FRANCKE INGOLIA more brain damage and The most common form eventually, death. of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, deteriorates a WHAT CAN YOU DO? person’s memory and over Despite significant time, time, prevents them from energy and resources devoted being able to perform basic to testing, neurodegenerative functions like dressing or diseases like Alzheimer’s are feeding themselves. The not well understood. Though disease slowly takes away the there are drugs on the market Alzheimer’s patient’s essence, that help treat symptoms, and as I watch my stepfather’s there is no cure. Stress, descent, it is heartbreaking. an unbalanced diet and The body remains, but the microbiome-affecting drugs memories—the history, the are possible contributing years you’ve spent with that factors. Interventions, such person—are gone. as regular exercise and The disease represents maintaining a Mediterranean 60 to 80 percent of dementia diet, have been shown to cases. Approximately be helpful in slowing the 5.8 million people in the U.S. progression of the disease. are afflicted with this memoryrobbing condition. Though One seafood meal a week can help protect the brains of a person OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS not considered a normal part at heightened risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Omega-3 fatty acids are of the aging process, age is a class of polyunsaturated fatty acids that includes the greatest risk factor. The majority of people afflicted are DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic over the age of 65. Though the disease is less common in acid) and ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). This class of fats younger people, they are not immune: Around 200,000 is considered essential because our body cannot people under 65 have an early form of the disease called produce them. As a result, they must come in through early-onset Alzheimer’s. diet or supplements. The brain, which is approximately Alzheimer’s is fatal. The time between diagnosis and 60 percent fat, of which 35 percent is polyunsaturated fat, death can be as short as three to eight years, though some may survive for up to 20 years. The rate of death from is dependent on this fat. These essential fats determine the brain’s integrity and ability to function properly.

Alzheimer’s is on the rise: It increased 123 percent between Specific to the progression of Alzheimer’s, consumption 2000 and 2015 in the U.S. of omega-3 fatty acid DHA has been shown to increase a protein called LR11. LR11 helps to prevent the formation WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BRAIN? of beta-amyloid plaques, one of the causes of neuronal Memories, thoughts, feelings and sensations are the result degradation in Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, DHA of neuronal communication in the brain. It is thought has been shown to reduce the buildup of the tau kinase that alterations to this communication in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients may occur as many as 20 years before enzyme, which causes the tau to misfold and build up in the neurons, resulting in tau tangles. symptoms begin. The demise of the brain’s neurons causes It should be noted that the more advanced the the brain to shrink. Initially, the damage takes place in the Alzheimer’s progression, the less this dietary measure has hippocampus and entorhinal regions of the brain, which been shown to help. Though this information may not are responsible for memory formation. Over time, this neuronal destruction spreads to other parts of the brain like be able to help my stepfather, it might be able to assist someone who is subclinical, or someone whose disease the cerebral cortex, which controls language, reasoning process has not yet begun. STANDwellness.com and behavior, then on to even more areas, resulting in 53

H E A LT H

STAY HEALTHY ON A BUDGET

The best things you can do to boost your immune system are free. The secondbest are nearly so. Here are some of the most effective (and economical) things you can do for your health.

BY DR. ROXANNA NAMAVAR

EXERCISE, IN MODERATION Studies have shown that regular, moderate exercise (such as brisk walking) improves immunity. There are several theories as to why this may be, including an increase in circulation, more efficient movement of the lymphatic system, and stress reduction. Try to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, like brisk walking or riding a bike most days in a week. Very strenuous workouts (more than 90 minutes of high-intensity endurance exercise) aren’t necessarily good for building immunity, as they can deplete the body’s resources.

HYDRATE Proper hydration plays a role in

optimizing nearly every function of the body. Dehydration also contributes to fatigue and slows metabolism. Aim to drink around eight to 10 glasses of water per day; more if you’re exercising or in hot weather.

in the vitamin due to low sun exposure and inadequate amounts of vitamin D in the diet. Most people can achieve sufficient vitamin D levels with five minutes a day of full open-air sun exposure to the hands and face. Good dietary sources of vitamin D include fatty fishes like salmon or mackerel, cheese, egg yolks, and with vitamin D-fortified foods such as orange juice and dairy products. Adults typically need between 600 and 800 IUs per day, but needs can vary, so be sure to consult your doctor. It’s also possible to have too much vitamin D, so follow your doctor’s recommendations.

GET ENOUGH VITAMIN C Taking vitamin C is a simple way to support your immune system.

Deficiency lowers immunity and greatly increases susceptibility to infections of all kinds: viral, bacterial and fungal.

Vitamin C is also a potent antioxidant and supports a great number of cellular functions essential to the immune system; it has also been shown to especially support lung function.

Citrus fruits and tomatoes, along with many other fruits and vegetables, are good sources of the vitamin. Individual needs range from 75 mg to 125 mg of vitamin C per day.

These simple free or low-cost interventions can make a powerful difference in your health. Consult your health care provider before starting any new exercise program or supplements.

CONSIDER SUPPLEMENTING WITH VITAMIN D, TOO Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with greater susceptibility to infection.

Many adults and children are deficient

Dr. Roxanna Namavar is a boardcertified psychiatrist and fellow in the American Academy of Anti-Aging who specializes in functional and integrative medicine.

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Jamie Street

SLEEP You’ve heard it before, but it’s true. Studies show that people who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to get sick and take longer to recover if they do become ill. Getting a solid seven to nine hours of sleep per night will not only help your immune system function at its best, but it will also boost metabolism and mood.

Lower your risk of infection by upping your vitamin C intake.

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H E A LT H

AVOIDING BURNOUT 13 ways to re-sync your natural rhythms. BY DR. FRANK LIPMAN

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR MASTER CLOCK In the brain’s hypothalamus, there is something called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is, in effect, the body’s master clock. Over the course of the 24-hour day, the eyes’ retinas register light and dark and send that information to the master clock, effectively setting it. In turn, it sends signals to the other clocks in the body that regulate digestion, the immune system, the release of hormones and so on. The natural rhythm of light and dark entrains the body to do what it should at the right time. The more tunedin we are, the better for the entire physiology. But what throws a body’s rhythms off? One of the biggies is poor sleep habits: staying up too late (especially in front of glowing

screens); keeping irregular hours; taking frequent jet lag-inducing long flights.

GOOD RHYTHM HELPS YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT The body’s most fundamental rhythm is the sleep-wake cycle. The body readies itself for sleep each night by producing the hormone melatonin, which relaxes the muscles and-makes us drowsy. Maximum melatonin production happens when your eyes can’t see any light, even behind the eyelids, which is why a completely dark bedroom and/or an eye mask is essential for high-quality sleep.

Even the small amount of light from a laptop or a phone can disrupt the body’s production of melatonin, which is why you want to keep all electronics out of the bedroom. When you spend late nights in front of bright screens, melatonin production doesn’t get started early enough. The blue light from the screen tells your body it’s daytime, so no need for melatonin yet. Jet lag is a similar problem. The exposure to light and dark when you’re crossing multiple time zones in a plane throws off the body’s internal sense of time—and poor, disrupted sleep is the almost inevitable result.

Melatonin also happens to be one of the body’s most powerful antioxidants, magnifying the effectiveness of other antioxidants, so short-changing yourself with poor sleep habits comes with a raft of serious consequences for your weight, energy levels and overall health.

We’ve all heard people say things like “Who’s got time to sleep?” or “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” But it’s no joke.

Poor sleep habits can lead to the development of a number of chronic ills like diabetes (type 2), depression, obesity and cardiovascular disease— 56

The sleep-wake cycle has a pattern, like the ocean’s tides and the moon’s phases.

Barrett Harvey

In these pressure-cooker times, with so many people feeling over-stressed and under-slept, is it any wonder that depression, burnout and chronic illness are considered routine costs of getting through life? With every corner we cut, in the way we eat, rest and move, we push ourselves further away from the natural rhythms that should be guiding our daily lives. And we think we can get away with it. Unfortunately, our bodies don’t work that way.

Our bodies are designed to thrive on balance and predictability. When we’re living in sync with our internal rhythms cued by the rhythms of the natural world—sunrise, sunset, the changing of the seasons—we’re on our way to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness. When we ignore those rhythms, or constantly fight to override them, we compromise our health. So, how to re-sync your body with natural rhythms for optimal health? Consider the following:

“When we’re asleep, insulin and cortisol drop to their lowest levels, setting the stage for the body to secrete growth hormone, which regenerates tissues.

It’s a choreographed dance set to the rhythm of light and dark.” so cleaning up your sleep act should be job No. 1 for anyone looking to upgrade their health.

IF YOUR MASTER CLOCK IS OFFTRACK, YOUR METABOLISM WILL BE TOO Acting in concert with the rhythms of nature, our hormones often work in a yin-and-yang fashion. Just as lower light levels trigger the release of melatonin that slows us down, higherintensity light stimulates the production of cortisol, an energy hormone that helps us get out of bed in the morning.

Or take another example. Our metabolism works most efficiently when we eat most of our calories during the day and avoid late-night munching, so by the time bedtime rolls around, the hormone insulin has already done its work converting the food you eat into energy. Then when we’re asleep, insulin, as well as cortisol, drop to their lowest levels, setting the stage for the body to secrete growth hormone, which repairs and regenerates tissues.

It’s a tightly choreographed dance, set to the rhythm of light and dark.

BEING OUT OF SYNC CAN MESS WITH YOUR SEX LIFE, AMONG OTHER THINGS Not, ahem, in the mood? An out-ofsync body clock probably isn’t helping.

Animal studies suggest that clock disruption may affect sex hormones.

Wild animals are particularly vulnerable to the disruptions caused by human-made artificial light.

According to an article published

by Environmental Health News, light pollution causes hatchling sea turtles to lose their way from the beach to the ocean, and disorients monarch butterflies searching for migration routes. In field experiments, Atlantic

salmon swim at odd times, and frogs stop mating under skies glowing from football stadium lights. Millions of birds die from collisions with brightly lit communication towers, and migratory flocks are confused by signals gone awry. Of course, we are animals too.

If turtles, salmons, frogs and birds suffer when their internal rhythms are disrupted by modern life, you can bet we do, too.

RESET YOUR CLOCK BY RESPECTING YOUR NATURAL RHYTHMS Instead of fighting nature, retrain your body to work with it. I’m not saying that we all need to live without electric lights at night, but I am asking you to be more conscious of tuning in to what your body needs to support health. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to re-sync your body’s master clock. Here are rhythm-respecting habits you can start working on today for a healthier tomorrow: 1| Try to get some exposure to bright, natural light during the day—every day. A daily blast of sunshine, particularly the morning sun, has a rhythm-regulating effect.

2| Eat light and on the early side, so your body’s not working overtime trying to digest a heavy meal when it should be winding down and preparing for bed.

3| Ease into the evening with relaxing rituals, like meditation, restorative yoga, a hot bath before bed, or any calming, soothing activity to help you unwind from the day.

4| Avoid fluorescent light, especially at night—it disrupts your body’s biological clock.

5| Go to sleep at the same time each night, and wake up at the same time each morning.

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6| If you’re short on sleep one day, try to return to your normal bedtime and wake-time as soon as possible, rather than sleeping late or taking a nap.

7| Observe an “electronic sundown”: Avoid all electronic devices for at least two hours before bedtime. If you wish to read in bed, go old-school and read a (paper) book or magazine in lower light.

8| Hold the sugar. Actually, you should avoid it all the time, but particularly before bed, when sweet treats can have an energizing effect, revving you up when you should be powering down.

9| Get hard workouts done earlier in the day. Sure, a walk after dinner is fine, but many people find that more strenuous workouts in the evenings can boost energy levels too close to bedtime.

10| Keep electronic devices out of the bedroom, including your phone (or, set the phone to airplane mode while you sleep).

11| Keep your bedroom as dark as possible, since any amount of light disrupts melatonin production.

12| If you’re jumping time zones, try taking some melatonin when it would be night at your destination, and getting some daylight in the morning of your new location. If you can tolerate coffee, have some when it is morning in your new destination, so you feel awake and alert. Try your best to get onto a regular schedule in your new time zone as soon as possible.

13| If your body needs more encouragement in the rhythm department, consider the Re-Timer, a light-therapy device that helps your body adjust to your preferred sleep time. drfranklipman.com

H E A LT H

GOOD BONES

In praise of magnesium’s pivotal role in helping prevent osteoporosis.

BY TAPP FRANCKE INGOLIA

What treatment comes to mind when the issue is strengthening bones? Calcium. With what image?

Pictures of movie stars with milk mustaches under the slogan “Got Milk?” The implication is that the daily intake of calcium-rich milk will keep bones strong and ward off encroaching osteoporosis. But that’s only part of the solution. What we don’t hear about is one of calcium’s co-pilots, magnesium. Why not a “Got Magnesium?” ad campaign—touting the benefits of magnesium-rich foods such as dark chocolate and avocado—along with “Got Milk?” Both calcium and magnesium are essential to helping maintain healthy bone density.

Sadly, many people have a diet that is deficient in magnesium, though it is abundant in a wide array of green, leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans and whole grains. Why the deficiency? Because many people have diets high in processed foods, with the majority of the magnesium stripped away. They are missing this magnificent cofactor in over 300 enzyme systems that regulate biochemical reactions in the body, especially the bones. Between 50 and 60 percent of it shows up in the bones, the rest in soft tissues. That leaves many with substandard serum magnesium, and more at risk of developing osteoporosis.

How does magnesium work? Despite its secondary position to calcium, magnesium influences the activity of osteoclasts and osteoblasts in cells responsible for resorbing and growing new bone. Our bones are in a constant state of breaking down and building up, a process called bone remodeling; magnesium plays an important role in making sure this happens successfully. Magnesium also helps maintain levels of parathyroid hormone in the body, as well as the active form of vitamin D, both of which are the major regulators of bone homeostasis. Additionally, magnesium stimulates the thyroid hormone calcitonin, which helps to deliver calcium from the tissues and bloodstream back into the bones. Adequate magnesium levels in the body can lower the risk of developing osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a complex disorder with many possible causes. Typically experienced later in life, it is characterized by loss of bone mass, leaving bones weaker and more brittle. Individuals become more vulnerable to fractures of the hip and spine. Postmenopausal women are the most susceptible to this condition, for a couple of reasons.

One is that women tend to have smaller body frames and therefore less bone mass than men. The second has to do

with women’s natural decline in bone-protective estrogen in menopause.

The 2:1 ratio between calcium and magnesium appears to be critical in healthy bone maintenance. When supplementing magnesium, a dose of 300 mg to 350 mg of the highly absorbable chelated or glycinate form is recommended (so, take 350 mg of magnesium to 700 mg of calcium). Of course, a diet rich in natural magnesium sources like spinach, almonds and brown rice will also help maintain healthy magnesium levels. So when considering strong bones, make sure to take your calcium, but don’t forget its essential cohort—the mighty magnesium. Your bones will thank you.

Tapp Francke Ingolia is a contributing health editor to Purist and the founder of STANDwellness.com 58

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Magnesium is plentiful in green vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans and whole grains.

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H E A LT H

TWO-WHEEL ADVENTURES Looking to enjoy some outdoor time with your family this summer?

The East End has a bike trail just for you. BY MICHELE SHAPIRO

who has cycled in the Hamptons for more than 20 years.

If riding with children, he adds, you should scope out the ride ahead of time to be aware of possible dangers.

Brunsberg suggests the area south of the highway between Southampton and Amagansett, or everything north of East Hampton over to Sag Harbor. If you feel safer riding offroad with your kids, try one of these paved or dirt trails:

Whether you’re out East for the entire summer or for just a week, one thing you can expect to see a lot more of this year: bicycles. Children’s bike sales in March were up 56 percent over March 2019, while adult leisure-bike sales rose 121 percent, according to the NPD Group, which tracks retail sporting-goods sales.

Hamptonites are leading the pack, buying new twowheelers (or fixing up old ones) and pedaling around rather than putting their foot on the gas pedal. Cycling isn’t only eco-friendly; it’s the perfect group activity for families looking to spend time outdoors while maintaining their physical health and well-being.

Before you hit the open road, a few things to keep in mind: “Everyone needs to wear a helmet, leave earbuds at home so you can hear what’s going on around you, and ride with the traffic,” says Raymond Brunsberg, a triathlete

Rocky Point Natural Resource Management Area, Rocky Point This trail, located in the 6,000-acre Rocky Point 60

Bjorn Ioos

Orient Beach State Park, Orient Located on Route 25 in Orient, the park features a paved, 2-mile trail for cyclists. The park also offers 45,000 feet of waterfront on Gardiner’s Bay, as well as trails for hiking.

Management area off 25A, offers several clearly marked bike-trail loops for different skill levels, including the 3-mile Firestone Loop, the 4.8-mile Pine Loop, and the 5.8-mile Outback Loop. Rocky Point Natural Resources Management Area also offers provides loops for advanced riders, including some with uphill climbs.

Hither Hills State Park, Montauk Located on the eastern end of the South Fork near Montauk, Hither Hills State Park offers a number of bike paths that wind through woodland, ranging from a short half-mile bike ride to a cycling journey 2.5 miles long. Bring along a swimsuit and take a victory dip in the ocean after your ride.

beaches • dunes • bluffs • re-vegetation

GEAR UP

Since your family will rely on you to lead the way, make sure you have the right cycling equipment and accessories to get you there and back in style.

Smith Network Helmet, $160 With a clean, modern design, this unisex helmet features ventilated technology in strategic, zonal impact areas to offer coverage where and when it matters most.

Available at Olympia Sports, Bridgehampton, olympiasports.net, or at smithoptics.com

walkways • docks • revetments • bulkheads

Smith Lowdown 2 CORE eco-conscious sunglasses, $129 Each durable, lightweight frame is made almost entirely from recycled plastic bottles and boasts polarized lenses made from Smith’s castor oil-based material for your eco-chic peepers. smithoptics.com Priority Coast beach cruiser bicycle, $499 Designed, assembled and tested in coastal climates around the globe, this eye-catching cruiser is made to take on salt, sand and water. With its ultralight rustproof frame and fork, you’ve got the smoothest ride at the beach. prioritybicycles.com Machines For Freedom The Summerweight Long Sleeve in Palmera sun protection cycling shirt, $168 This silky shirt provides sun protection in UPF 50, while offering three full-size back pockets and a side-zip moisture-resistant one for your keys and credit cards. machinesforfreedom.com Polar Bottle Breakaway Insulated cycling bottle, $14/20oz Hydration is important on any ride, particularly in hot weather. This is the original BPA-free insulated cycling bottle, which keeps fluids colder twice as long through its trilayer insulation. The Surge Valve is also completely removable, so you can clean it to eliminate mildew and mold build-up. olympiasports.net; polarbottle.com –M.S.

consulting • wetlands • zoning • permits Billy Mack Aram Terchunian since 1975 631.288.2271 firstcoastal.com

H E A LT H

WELLNESS NOTES From meditation apps to biofeedback-powered playlists, a soundscape of healing awaits.

bodies in real time to compose music that shifts in reaction to our physical and emotional experience, with the promise of enhancing health, mood and performance. Music is beginning to take its place alongside diet and exercise as a fundamental element of an optimized lifestyle.

Wellness music is quickly becoming a core part of the streaming business. For example, new apps like Myndstream create music that promises to enhance specific wellness goals. You can choose tracks for meditation (“Lilac Dreams”), focus (“Cupid Blindfolded”), relaxation (“Standing in the Rain”) or sleep (“Nebula”), while Mubert, the first “generative” music app, allows listeners to choose a computer-generated (and therefore always unique) stream of electronic sounds to aid activities such as “study” and “dream.”

In the world of AI, Endel, based in Berlin, is an app that mines data from your phone (location, weather, time of day) and combines that with biometric and psychometric data (heart rate, physical activity) from your smartwatch.

It then uses an algorithm (not a songwriter) to compose customized wellness music just for you. For less tech-savvy listeners (or if you just don’t feel like sharing all your personal data), there’s also a web version that allows you to stream various preexisting soundscapes. I tried one called “Balance,” which Endel claims is designed to “optimize

As with the scent of fresh flowers, or an exciting kiss, the experience of hearing music is something that’s somehow new each time. Maybe that explains why music is at the center of a new wellness movement, and why wellness is also transforming the music business. It’s a two-way street: While artists like Erykah Badu, Jhené Aiko and Sigur Rós have begun offering wellness experiences including guided meditations, sound baths, mantra-chanting and aromatherapy as part of their concerts, the wellness industry is going all in on music as a form of healing, meditation and motivation.

It’s not just a matter of blasting the tunes that get you pumped at the gym. According to a recent study by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Maryland, the human brain is innately suited for music.

From a neurological standpoint, music is the king of all stimuli. In fact, no other sensory input—from the smell of freshly baked bread to an amazing Swedish massage— can activate as many regions of the human brain, giving music unrivaled power to boost both mood and memory.

While Tibetan singing bowls have been a staple of new age spas for decades, technology is opening intriguing new frontiers that go far beyond the traditional gong bath.

A new generation of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered apps is drawing on biofeedback information from our

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@thevr

BY DIMITRI EHRLICH

Photo credit here.

Music helps reduce pain perception, and offers building blocks to better adult mental health.

Tomaino, who co-founded the IMNF, says that in the early 1980s, when she and Sacks first studied the effects of music on memory in people with dementia and the impact of rhythm on motor function in patients with Parkinson’s disease, there was little known about music and the brain. Today, a growing body of research indicates that music can play a significant role in healing, for alleviating conditions from depression, anxiety and pain to PTSD, Parkinson’s and dementia. Music therapy has been shown to improve social skills in kids with autism and has also been a helpful tool in the fight against Alzheimer’s, because memories of music remain intact despite the disease.

“The early mission of the IMNF was to engage the neuroscience community to help us understand how and why music and sound could influence brain function so that we could help people with a wide range of health challenges,” says Tomaino. “Today there is scientific evidence that music can help in the reduction of pain perception, improve language and communication skills after stroke or traumatic brain injury, and help people with movement disorders walk better. There is also a growing interest in the role of music to help build emotional resilience in young children, as a building block to better adult mental health.” For those of us who want medicine with no side effects, all of this is music to our ears.

brain response when you’re looking to collect and regain your center.” The music is subtle— slowly shifting patterns of single synthesizer notes held for long periods of time—and I found it did induce an immediate sense of serenity and a calm feeling of optimism and curiosity.

But you don’t need to dig around for obscure apps to find evidence that music is becoming a mainstream part of wellness: Just search Spotify for “healing” playlists, or scroll through the growing number of apps that now offer music as a primary method of meditation. One of the most popular of these apps, Calm, is going so far as to become a quasi record label for a growing number of artists who focus on wellness music. Calm now offers relaxation music by stars as diverse as Keith Urban, Sigur Rós, Sam Smith and Moby, and the app’s wellness music has been streamed more than 200 million times.

Moby began exploring the connection between music and the brain several years ago, through his collaborations with an organization in New York called the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), co-founded by the late Oliver Sacks. “I’d always loved calm, atmospheric music, but after working with Oliver Sacks I realized that music is quite literally a viable healing modality,” says Moby. “The work that Dr. Sacks and Dr. [Concetta] Tomaino have done at the IMNF is phenomenal.”

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H E A LT H

MOOD BOOST

Consider natural remedies for improving mental health. BY DR. LEA LIS

Lea Lis, MD, is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and author of the upcoming book No Shame: Real Talk With Your Kids About Sex, Self Confidence, and Healthy Relationships. See shamelesspsychiatrist.com for more.

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taking the vitamin regardless, as I have found it very useful in lifting mood.

Another evidence-based vitamin is SAM-e, very effective in treating depression and anxiety. SAM-e helps produce and regulate hormones and maintain cell membranes in the body. I recommend taking 400 mg a day of the Nature Made brand. Be careful not to mix SAM-e with traditional antidepressants, as this can cause serotonin syndrome, a flu-like reaction with symptoms ranging from mild (increased heart rate) to severe (high fever).

For adults and kids with insomnia, I love Nature Made Good Sleep gummies with melatonin and L-theanine.

They work great, without causing addiction.

Want more? Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to be an effective nootropic, helping cognitive functioning, attention deficit and memory. They have to be derived from oily fish, such as anchovies; plant-based forms are not as effective. Taking high-dosage omega-3s may reduce symptoms of depression, and possibly help with bipolar disorder. They can also reduce the risk of psychotic disorders for those who are prone to them, as well as help with a decrease in depression and heart disease. I recommend 1000 mg, or 1 gram, of omega-3 from the Nordic Naturals brand; they make many options for kids and adults in various sizes. Dosage must be 1000 mg to be effective.

As a psychiatrist, I am often asked by my patients what they can do to promote better mental health without the use of prescribed medication. Natural remedies certainly can offer a very useful way to improve mood, but the effectiveness of many of these treatments has not been proven. I would like to discuss which natural remedies have been shown to be the most effective, in real medical studies. As always, it’s a good idea to check in with your doctor before taking any supplements.

One remedy is a type of folate supplement called 5-MTHF. Some people are deficient in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), an enzyme important for a chemical reaction in the body involving the vitamin folate (also called vitamin B9). This is the primary form of folate found in blood, and is necessary for the multistep process that converts the amino acid homocysteine to another amino acid, methionine. The body uses methionine to make proteins and other important compounds. Up to 40 percent of the general population cannot convert folate to its active form, methylfolate. This makes it difficult for certain antidepressants to work, or can lead to a deficiency that causes anxiety and depression. If you have this genetic issue, it is important to supplement with folate.

Unfortunately, you cannot do so with regular folic acid pills. You must take a specific type of a folate supplement called 5-MTHF—one option is the brand Thorne MethylGuard Plus. An easy saliva test for the gene can be taken to determine if you have this genetic mutation and possibly low folate levels. Genomind and Phosphorus are two companies that test for the genetic variant. I recommend

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e man com 2488 MAIN ST, P.O. BOX 1251, BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY 11932. 631.537.5900 © 2020 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

S PAC E

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The Inversion home in Wainscott, designed by Barnes Coy Architects, “was conceived in the context of dune, ocean and sky,” says Christopher Coy, “to amplify the unique beauty of the East End landscape.”

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S PAC E

HOPE BLOOMS The founder and creative director of one of the Hamptons’ most revered landscape design firms, Harmonia, takes wellness cues from the thriving natural word around her.

I feel blessed to be in a profession that allows me to be outdoors and part of the wondrous world we call nature. The sounds, smells and visual candy provided by nature have been my support system during these turbulent times. The excitement of spring coming to life, with its vivid colors of fresh growth, gives us hope for rebirth.

The fragrance of the first blush of lilac, the scent from a tomato plant left on the hands—nature’s imprints remind us of the genuine pleasures of life, grounding and nurturing us back to our spirit.

This is a year like no other.

Kitchen gardens are more popular than ever. Not only are we growing herbs of all types for seasonings but also carrots, radishes and microgreens from seeds; tomatoes, cucumbers and many different types of peas and beans, including soybeans (harvested immature for edamame), snap peas and long beans.

It’s not just food that these gardens produce, but also needed interaction within the family. One of my favorite preparations I have shared with others over the past months is a vegan cream of cauliflower soup, made with cauliflower, leeks, olive oil, vegetable broth and raw cashews.

We have also seen homes that once were parttime, second residences become primary ones. This has created the desire to expand exteriors and have more beauty to enjoy. Trees and flowers give us a sense of wonder as we watch them evolve. This is the enjoyment of new full-time residents: seeing the beauty of nature’s transition from season to season.

We live in a very special place in the world, one that can expedite and support the healing process. Even without all of the amenities currently available, we still have everything we need to survive and thrive. harmoniainc.com

Botanical rebirth can inspire spiritual growth.

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Courtesy of Harmonia

BY ROXINE BROWN

MODERN SAGAPONACK SOUTH Sagaponack - Web#35886 $9,995,000 - 1.25 Acres | Built 2016 | 6,780 SF+/- Residence | 7 Bedrooms 7.5 Bathrooms | Finished Lower Level | Heated Gunite Pool | Pool House Built by John Hummel | Pond and Oceanviews

WAINSCOTT SOUTH ABUTTING RESERVE Web#863676 $14,950,000 - 5.3 Acres | 13,400 SF+/- | 11 Bedrooms | 10 Bathrooms Library | Sunroom | Elevator | Theater | Gym with Steam & Sauna Heated Gunite Pool & Spa Pool House | Tennis | Close to Ocean Beaches

SAG HARBOR VILLAGE WATERFRONT Web#540436 $7,250,000 - .68 Acre | 5,000 SF+/- | Built 2012 | Waterfront | 5 BR | 6 BTH Great Room with Fireplace | Formal Dining Room | Master BR with Fireplace Deep Water Dock | Heated Waterside Gunite Pool and Spa

AMANGASETT PERFECTION

MODERN IN AMAGANSETT SOUTH Amagansett - Web#865082 $5,700,000 - 1.10 Acres | 1,200 SF+/- | 2 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms Heated Pool | Deeded Access to Ocean Beach | Pool House Accomodates 6,000 SF House + Lower Level + 600 SF Detached Garage

SAGAPONACK SOUTH WATERFRONT Sagaponack - Web#866886 $5,500,000 - .93 Acres | 1,884 SF+/- | 3 Bedrooms | 2.5 Bathrooms Private Dock | Close to Ocean Beaches | Property Can Accommodate a 5,000 SF House & Pool | Ocean and Farmfield Views

Amagansett South - Web#860574 $4,950,000 - Built 1995 | Recently Renovated | .70 Acres | 4,000 SF+/5 BR | 4.5 BTH | Heated Infinity Edge Gunite Pool | Deeded Ocean Access Property Abuts Reserve

Michael A. Schultz Licensed A s sociate Real E s t ate Broker m 917.8 82.8 3 3 8 mic hael.sc hult z @corcor an.com Ranked A mong T he To p Ham ptons Real E s t ate Ag ent s by T he Wall Street Jour nal Real estate agents affiliated with The Corcoran Group are independent contractors and are not employees of The Corcoran Group. Equal Housing Opportunity. The Corcoran Group is a licensed real estate broker located at 660 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10065. All listing phone numbers indicate listing agent direct line unless otherwise noted. All information furnished regarding property for sale or rent or regarding financing is from sources deemed reliable, but Corcoran makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy thereof. All property information is presented subject to errors, omissions, price changes, changed property conditions, and withdrawal of the property from the market, without notice. All dimensions provided are approximate. To obtain exact dimensions, Corcoran advises you to hire a qualified architect or engineer.

S PAC E One team of realtors has done over $300 million in transactions during the past three months.

HAMPTONS HOMESTEADERS make a move,” says Miller), the market shows no sign of slowing. And why not? “The Hamptons are special,” says DePersia. “The Hamptons will always be the Hamptons.”

The last time the East End saw such a surge in population was after September 11. But as Miller notes, “We weren’t as technologically advanced back then.

Now, with so many people working from home, they go into the city only occasionally.”

While Miller adds that the deals can take a lot of negotiation when emotions are high, DePersia notes that buyers and sellers are working together—even if that means that the buyer and seller must wait until the tenant vacates (which could be the end of the summer).

“Clients who weren’t considering buying before, are doing so now,” he says. “They love this area, and while the houses might not necessarily become full-time residences, they’ll have permanent places to call their own, should the pandemic continue.”

Meanwhile, the East End is innovating to keep up with the demand and sustain it. Restaurants have turned seating areas into takeout sections. Establishments are working together: West Village bar Dante is serving up specialty cocktail kits in the parking lot of East Hampton’s Highway Restaurant. Farm stands are working hard to keep fresh produce and cheese well-stocked on their shelves.

“I am very proud of how the community has stepped up,” says Miller. “I foresee a true year-round community.

You can feel the energy.” adammillergroup.com

Brokers have been busy. The real estate season started early this year and from the looks of it, will stay lively long past Labor Day. Ross School admissions are up and prestigious Avenues is opening a campus in the Hamptons, while New Yorkers (and those from farther afield) are swapping rentals for sales.

It all began in mid-March. “There was a panic at first,” recalls attorney Adam Miller, founder of The Adam Miller Group, who focuses on all things real estate-related.

“People started to renegotiate deals.” Then, a mass exodus. “Rentals were snapped up at two and three times their rate,” he says. “Soon people started thinking, ‘I’m happy here; my kids are riding their bikes, maybe I should invest.’” Miller and his team have done over $300 million in real estate transactions in the past three months.

“We experienced an unprecedented demand for rentals beginning in March and April,” says Rylan Jacka, a top broker at Sotheby’s. “That has now transitioned into a robust sales market. Buyers are not only looking to purchase a summer home, but are rethinking the way they work and live in New York City, and considering joining the East End community full-time.”

“Buyers are looking to own versus just rent,” says Gary DePersia, a top Corcoran luxury real estate broker, “because they want their own country home. Renters have become buyers, because they want a permanent solution.”

While July is typically a lean month for sales (“people tend to enjoy the homes they’re in; they’re not looking to 70

Courtesy of Paul Domzal/EdgeMediaDigital

Forget about summer Friday commutes. City dwellers are making a permanent move to the East End. BY NANCY KANE

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SHELTER IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE

S PAC E A Sagaponack farmhouse has been transformed into a summer hideaway.

PURE PROPERTY

The Summer looks out from her brazen tower, Through the flashing bars of July.

English poet Francis Thompson may have written these lines over a century ago, but they seem apropos of this year. While East Enders venture out again, cautiously, our homes will always be our castles, with midsummer the most glorious time to celebrate some of the best residences on the market.

They say location is everything, and The Latch Southampton Village has that in spades. The lush 5-acreplus property was the site of the former Village Latch Inn. �Exteriors of two historic buildings, The Latch and Terry Cottage, are being restored to their original, late 19thand early 20th-century grandeur as designed by Stanford White,� says Steven Dubb, principal of The Beechwood Organization, and developer of the property. With this homage to the past, Beechwood is building 20 luxury homes and villas, and a clubhouse with a high-end fitness center and outdoor pool. Four villa residences range in pre-construction price from $1.75 million to $2.4 million, and feature two or three bedrooms and two or three baths.

Each residence has its own garage and driveway; the layouts are spacious and open with luxurious finishes and

The breezy open floorplan of the Southampton Latch residences

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Courtesy of The Corcoran Group; Courtesy of Beechwood Homes

Hits of the summer include two loving restorations, a waterfront haven and a picture-perfect farmhouse. BY NANCY KANE

Douglas Elliman; The Corcoran Group

top-of-the-line appliances. Fifteen five-bedroom, 3.5 bath townhomes, on two levels plus a basement, are priced pre-construction from $3.2 million. The largest home at The Latch, the restored Terry Cottage (at pre-construction $5 million), features five bedrooms, 5.5 baths—plus the option of a finished basement for two additional bedrooms—as well as a two-car garage. All this, a stone’s throw from the village shops and a bike ride to the beach.

Right across town on Elm Street, Mary Slattery of Corcoran Group has a beautiful listing, new to the market and priced at $2,895,000. A meticulous restoration of a village classic, originally built in 1890 and completely renovated in 2014, the five-bedroom, 3.5 bath home offers the best of Old World charm and modern convenience.

On the lower level, a gym, home theater and wine cellar accommodate modern family living, while the main floor features restored front and rear parlors, a library/den, a formal dining room, a powder room and a renovated, modern cook’s kitchen. A sunroom looks out onto a gunite pool, outdoor dining area and pergola-filled garden.

Matt Lauer’s former home is on the market, listed with Douglas Elliman’s Braun Rosko team—Marcy Braun, Kyle Rosko and Susan Hovdesven—asking $3,950,000. Set on the waterfront in Southampton Shores, the three-bedroom, two-bath cottage with detached garage has a back deck with bulkhead and dock. These are the stunning harbor sunset views homeowners dream of. The house is movein ready, with permits and variances in place to build a 7,000-square-foot new home when the mood strikes.

Existing approvals allow for an additional three levels, four fireplaces, a custom-designed kitchen, seven en-suite guest bedrooms, and a waterside pool, making this a special opportunity—as is, or as you like it.

Farther east, in Sagaponack, right on Sagaponack Main Street, sits a picture-perfect historic farmhouse (currently on the National Register of Historic Places) offered at $5,800,000 with Michael Schultz at the Corcoran Group.

Close to nature preserves, vineyards and restaurants, and minutes from the beach, the four-bedroom, two-bath farmhouse built in 1910 was once the residence of the keeper of the Marconi Tower—the first wireless sending and receiving station in the country. Renovated in 2000, the home features a formal dining room and open kitchen; the master bedroom on the second floor includes a balcony overlooking the property. There is also a guest house. An extensive, fenced-in yard with gunite pool and bluestone patio sets the scene for perfect outdoor living.

Waterfront views at 67 Scotts Landing in Southampton Shores

Classic architecture meets new-school luxury on Elm Street in Southampton.

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G LOW

Nourish your skin with plant-based remedies such as honey, rosehip and lavender.

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MICRONEEDLING: MIRACLE OR MENACE? Everyone loves the idea of microneedling. It promises miracles—youthful-looking skin, no wrinkles, collagen growth, faded scars. It sounds almost too good to be true…

In 2005, my Swiss center was chosen to evaluate microneedling for skin rejuvenation. I tested it extensively using the Visia® imaging system. My team and I came to the conclusion that microneedling was and is the best quasi-invasive skin procedure to improve the appearance of scars and keloids. However, when it comes to true skin rejuvenation, if deciding Your skin must be in good health before between microneedling attempting DIY versus retinoids, microcurrent microneedling. [treatments], cold lasers, ascorbates and peptides, I choose the latter options.

You may question my opinion, particularly when you’re looking at before-and-after pictures in microneedling advertisements. The skin looks plumper. It seems as though your skin is plumper. The truth is, if the skin looks plumper in the days following the microneedling, it’s probably the result of subclinical inflammation, and not because new collagen was built in the dermis. If I biopsied the skin like we often do in Switzerland, it wouldn’t show new collagen, but edema, which is water retention induced by subclinical inflammation. And people say, “It works so well for me.” If only they knew the truth!

Since several microneedling DIY devices are on the market and our patients regularly ask about do-it-yourself microneedling, I feel I need to give information on how to use the device at home in the safest way possible.

It is of vital importance to remember that the skin is an immune organ. We strive to keep it as free from infection as possible, so it can protect us. Before you even think of using a microneedling device, your skin needs to be checked by a doctor or a licensed skin care professional

to determine whether or not you can use the device responsibly and safely.

Your skin should be free of infections, warts and burns that are still healing. There are clinical cases of people microneedling and spreading warts all over their faces (warts are caused by viruses, and are very contagious).

Always read and follow the instructions in the packaging before using your microneedling device. You don’t want to bring infection to your skin, so be extremely careful. Keep the spikes of the device covered until you’re going to use it. Don’t put your device on the counter.

Skin must be in a healthy state before you use this tool, because it intentionally causes “controlled damage” to the skin. Following the use of a microneedling device, the skin will pass through four phases: hemostasis, where there is blood coming from the skin; then inflammatory, caused by the cytokines and white blood cells starting the repair process. If the skin is left alone, this will naturally move to the proliferative stage, where new skin grows; and finally, remodeling.

Respect for healing time is key. If your skin is still in the inflammatory phase or the proliferative phase and you microneedle again, you will break the cycle and trigger acute inflammation, which could turn into chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation may induce hyperpigmentation, overstimulate collagen production and create scarring (scars are essentially excess collagen).

With microneedling, there’s a balance between potential benefits and potential damage. That’s why this technique should be left in the hands of professionals.

Christopher Ardant is a dermocosmetic scientist, with 30 years of expertise in the field of noninvasive skin rejuvenation. His Centers are in Lugano, Switzerland, and New York City. christopherardant.com 76

Alex Perez

A top skin care specialist weighs in. BY CHRISTOPHER ARDANT

THE FRESH FACE OF BEAUTY

Matthew Benson

Cultivate Apothecary utilizes organic and sustainable farming practices for a healthy, locavore take on skin care. BY RAY ROGERS assistant general manager at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Cafe for eight years prior to moving upstate, Rowe was already deeply passionate about the terroir of where and how foods were grown. “All of these things that had to do with growing and eating healthy and the importance of culture and history really dovetailed for me,” she recalls. “When I met Matthew, it was a potent moment of realizing what we could do together. How can we be in the community more? How can we share our knowledge and expertise and the way we see the world?”

The new business started with a period of research Cultivate and pointed questions Apothecary’s serums are made from the back in 2017: What are the brand’s own farmbenefits of the botanicals grown botanicals. they were already growing?

What would thrive in the area? What, on a small-scale level, could they do?

“Instead of trying to grow 50 things, we grew 15 that are just amazing for your skin,” says Rowe. Their soon-to-launch exfoliating masks, for instance, employ aronia berry, which has the highest antioxidant levels of any berry, and calendula, among other farm-grown ingredients. The serums have aromatherapy qualities built in: energizing lemon balm and rose geranium for the morning Awaken formulation, and soothing chamomile for the evening Moonlight version.

“Everything we do is ‘here first,’” says Rowe. “We grow all of our annual seed plants every year, we harvest them at their peak, we infuse them with organic sunflower oil for six weeks to make these incredible oils. We formulate here, package here, send everything out from here. We’re kind of control freaks, and that’s part of the joy of doing it, to say I took that seed all the way through to creating this incredible oil.” cultivateapothecary.com

“You’ve heard of the slow food movement? This is slow beauty,” says Jill Rowe, co-founder of Cultivate Apothecary, a new botanical brand that more than lives up to its name.

Rowe and her partner, Matthew Benson, grow all the essential ingredients for their serums, tinctures and face masks at Stonegate Farm, the 19th-century estate farm located in the picturesque Hudson Valley, where the couple resides.

As in the slow food world, transparency is key for the duo: Just as conscious eaters relish going to farmers markets and getting to know the farmer growing their foods, Rowe and Benson encourage beauty buffs to visit their 3-acre property and see where and how it’s all made—using organic and sustainable farming practices, no chemical fertilizers and no pesticides. And the ingredients on their products are all clearly labeled “in common name,” says Rowe. “They’re not in Latin; there’s not anything you’d have to look up and say ‘What is that?’”

Benson, a photographer and writer, has been shepherding the farm for over two decades now, transforming it from “four buildings in the woods” into the spectacular grounds it is today, alive with historic fruit trees and bramble fruit, medicinal and culinary herbs, and organic vegetables and flowers. “His passion project is this property,” says Rowe, “and he’s cultivated it for almost 25 years,” creating a CSA (community-supported agriculture) system, and documenting the farm’s journey in the book Growing Beautiful Food. “The importance of small-scale sustainable farming in a suburban environment became extremely important to him.”

Cultivate Apothecary, according to Rowe, “was an organic evolution of what this property could be.” An 77

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PURE PICKS

Christopher Ardant, dermocosmetic specialist and founder of New York City and Lugano, Switzerland’s Christopher Ardant Centers, shares science-backed body care favorites.

“This lavender-based oil permeates and nourishes the scalp and hair fibers without weighing down your hair.

It’s also beneficial for those predisposed to scalp psoriasis.”

Rejuvenating oil, from $35, Philip B. Botanical Products International, philipb.com

“This serum is a natural antidote to skin ‘inflamm-aging’— redness, dryness, and lack of firmness and hydration. It brings deep skin nutrition, even for the most problematic skin.”

EFAlift concentrate, Dermorevision, visit dermorevision.com for pricing and availability

“My methodology of skin biohacking combines the best of everything: technology, nutrition and topical applications. Healthy skin is attractive skin. Stop chasing youth and start chasing beauty.”

“Heavy water—water that contains heavy hydrogen, also known as deuterium, in place of regular hydrogen— is one of the best hydrators of the skin, and can be used on all complexions.

Saturate your face and body with this mist before applying serum or cream, and reapply throughout the day.”

D2 O™ Hydration Spray, from $33, Jane Iredale, janeiredale.com

“My friend Carol Alt says a raw diet is the key to her natural youthfulness. Her book, with a foreword by David Perlmutter, MD, details easy ways we can un-cook delicious and nutrient-rich food.”

A Healthy You: Boost Your Energy, Live Cleaner, and Look and Feel Younger Every Day by Carol Alt, $20, available on amazon.com 78

“According to Biotics Research, this supplement’s proprietary formula is designed to downregulate inflammatory pathways, primarily through the inhibition of NF-kappaB, a molecule inside each cell. I take it every day.” KappArest anti-inflammatory supplement, 180 capsules, $60, Biotics Research, available on amazon.com

“I love floral fragrances—I even wear jasmine on the lapel of my blazer. The sales of this fragrance also benefit a cause that’s close to my heart: Hope for Depression Research Foundation.”

Eau de parfum vaporisateur spray, $150, Hope Fragrances, hopefragrances.com

Courtesy of Christopher Ardant

“This body buffer increases connective tissue perfusion and temperature. It can be used pre- or post-workout, and can help diminish cellulite.” babyBelle® bodybuffer, $149, BelleCore, bellecore.com

H A MP T ON S IN T ER N AT ION A L FIL M FE S T I VA L PRESENTS

SUMMER DRIVE-IN MOVIES JULY: Hayground School, Bridgehampton

Visit HamptonsFilm.org for schedule and tickets

Salt-baked whole branzino—Mediterranean sea bass—is an Italian staple, and it’s on the menu at Dopo Argento, recently opened at 15 Main Street in Southampton (it replaces the classic Silver’s). Owner Vlad Rozsypal has modernized the space and is offering a farm-fresh Italian menu with savory dishes like linguine alle vongole and panzanella, the classic chopped Tuscan summer salad.

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Photo credit here.

@cooking_with_wine

S U PPO RT SMALL B U S I N ESS ES

SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

From restaurants to hair salons, businesses across the East End are going alfresco.

BY BETH LANDMAN

On June 10, after months of cooking at home or ordering takeout, hungry Hamptons dwellers were finally allowed to dine at restaurants—but only outside. Since the novel coronavirus appears to be much less transmittable in the open air than inside, other activities also moved outdoors, from fitness classes to hairstyling.

“My prediction was that everyone wanted to be outdoors, so I took advantage of the outdoor space we had,” says VALERY JOSEPH, who expanded the deck behind his Bridgehampton salon, adding hydrangeas and music, and creating nine stations with social distancing, including two shampoo chairs. “We are doing haircuts, keratin, extensions, blow-dries and color, plus manicures and pedicures, which has made everyone more comfortable,” he says. “The new

Vongerichten has partnered with Ladurée to offer a pastry experience that can be enjoyed on the porch or elsewhere on the property. 1 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Tpke., Bridgehampton, 631.537.0870; toppingrosehouse.com Other restaurants have gotten creative, expanding and upgrading outdoor space. TUTTO IL GIORNO in Sag Harbor added a new dining terrace and T-BAR SOUTHAMPTON expanded its picturesque outdoor garden, with a new direct entrance so you no longer pass through the dining room. “Our advantage is that we have space to spread out,” says owner Tony Fortuna. Attention to safety is so paramount that cutlery is wrapped at each place setting after being sterilized, and surfaces are sanitized with 180-proof vodka. 16 Main

expansion has a real vacation vibe.” 2454 Main St., Bridgehampton, 631.537.8967; valeryjoseph.com HERO BEACH CLUB has been holding classes for guests on its sprawling lawn, ranging from meditation and yoga to Pilates and sculpt. “It’s a beautiful space and people are thrilled to experience the energy of working out together again in a safe way,” says Jon Krasner, an owner of the hotel.

“We are happy to provide work for many instructors who have been unable to teach.” 626 Montauk Hwy., Montauk, 631.668.9825; herobeachclub.com TOPPING ROSE HOUSE has also introduced outdoor yoga, as well as picnicinspired dining along with a nightly fire pit where drinks and s’mores are served.

And Chef Jean-Georges 82

St., Sag Harbor, 631.919.5353; tuttoilgiorno.com; 268 Elm St., Southampton, 631.283.0202; tbarnyc.com K PASA in Sag Harbor has spread out into its parking lot, adding a little tiki hut.

“Parking lots aren’t the most attractive areas, but we beautified ours and made it fun,” says coowner Tora Matsuoka. He and his partner Stephen Loffredo are also operating CLAUDIO’S WATERFRONT and the more casual CRABBY JERRY’S in Greenport, where they have partnered with a delivery service called RideShore, which brings their seafood-focused dishes to boats. Those who don’t have their own seaworthy crafts won’t be deprived of this ultimate outdoor experience. “If you don’t have a boat, don’t worry,” says Matsuoka. “We will provide one for you!” 2 Main St., Sag Harbor, 631.800.8226;

Courtsey of Kissaki

Kissaki has migrated from Midtown to Water Mill this summer.

631.488.1300; argentosouth .com); Ian Duke, owner of Southampton Social Club, is unveiling UNION SUSHI & STEAK (40 Bowden Square, Southampton, 631.377.3500; dineatunion.com); KISSAKI will premiere in Water Mill with a focus on omakase and rolls (670 Montauk Hwy., 631.709.8844; explorekissaki .com); and Matt Lambert, whose city restaurant Musket Room earned a Michelin star, has introduced SWEET AZ, a summer pop-up at the former Stone Lion Inn in Montauk focusing on sandwiches inspired by his native New Zealand.

It’s facing the water with inspirational views, which will make outdoor dining all the more appealing (51 S. Edgemere St., 631.668.8535; sweetazsandos.com).

Courtesy of Hero Beach Club; Courtesy of Toppingr Rse House

1-800-taco.com; 111 Main St., Greenport, 631.477.1889; claudios.com Despite the industry’s current challenges, including a limit of 50 percent occupancy when restaurants do open, exciting new ventures are springing up. MOBY’S is back in its original spot in East Hampton (home to Paola’s last year), which has one of the most enviable outdoor spaces (341 Pantigo Rd., 631.604.2227; mobysny.com); Maurizio Marfoglia, chef/ owner of Dopo La Spiaggia (with partners Maria and Larry Baum), has taken over the former Silver’s in Southampton, along with managing partner, Vladimir Rozsypal, to open an Italian American spot called DOPO ARGENTO (15 Main St.,

Ocean views from Hero Beach Club’s sunny porch

Topping Rose House has introduced safe outdoor experiences like poolside yoga.

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SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES

THE INN CROWD

Ten places to check in and check out, with safety and comfort a priority. BY BETH LANDMAN

Marram’s beachfront pool and lounge space

THE BAKER HOUSE 1650 You will feel like a guest at an English country estate at this grand house across from the pond in East Hampton.

The massages and facials you’ve craved for months are available in your room, and complimentary restorative yoga classes are given on the lawn (each mat has a little skin care gift bag with sunscreen, serum and other goodies from Luzern Labs). Don’t worry about taking a magazine to read by one of the two pools; each issue is sealed in plastic. bakerhouse1650.com

BARON’S COVE This mini-resort right on the water in Sag Harbor provides everything

Shou Sugi Ban House offers 13 rooms with private entrances and terraces.

you might want in a Hamptons stay.

A 60-foot saltwater pool is perfect for laps. Tennis courts are available by reservation, and the gym is open to guests—only one person or couple at a time. The hotel features complimentary bikes and weekend yoga on the outdoor deck or terrace.

Outdoor dining affords spectacular views. A new “Linger Longer” program offers adjusted rates for extended stays. caperesorts.com

A BUTLER’S MANOR A saltwater pool and extreme privacy 84

are the lure at this five-room inn in Southampton. The decanter of sherry has been removed from each room, along with the comforters, which have been replaced by washable blankets in the name of safety. Breakfast is served downstairs, at socially distanced tables, and guests—as well as staff—wear masks in common areas. You remove them, of course, when strolling the grounds and taking a deep breath in the rose garden. abutlersmanor.com

GURNEY’S The spa and pool may be closed for renovation this summer, but the resort makes the most of its outdoor space, as well as offering in-room streaming workouts and in-room activities for kids. Wellness kits, including weights and yoga mats, are available upon request. The fire pit will be transformed into a venue with food and music, with reservations required and social distancing emphasized. Lobster bakes are also available to be enjoyed in the room, or on the beach. gurneysresorts.com

courtesy of Marram; Warren Elgort for Shou Sugi Ban House

Hotels have been upended by this year’s health crisis, and while they may not book weddings or other catered events this season, local getaways are going to great lengths to ensure summer visitors feel safe and comfortable. They have upped their sanitization regimens, and although some activities have been curtailed, creative alternatives are offered.

A tranquil summer night at the Mill House Inn The Surf Lodge is offering monthlong stays in Montauk.

courtesy of The Mill House Inn; courtesy of The Surf Lodge; courtesy of The Maidstone

Main Beach is a quick bike ride away from The Maidstone.

THE MAIDSTONE

MILLHOUSE INN

THE SURF LODGE

In addition to the main hotel, you’ll find quaint little cottages surrounded by gardens at this dog-friendly getaway in the village of East Hampton. A new filtration system that mists the air with probiotics has been added to all rooms, which are also sterilized with UV lights and left empty for 24 to 48 hours between bookings.

Yoga classes are given outside on the patio, adorned with a large Buddha. themaidstone.com

Located in the village of East Hampton, this pristine spot with 10 suites has now implemented a face mask-wearing policy for guests and staff in common areas, along with pillow protectors that are washed before each visitor arrives. Guests are provided with masks (KN95 if requested), and the legendary breakfast is now delivered picnic-style, so it can be enjoyed in-room, on the grounds or on the beach. Bikes are available upon request. millhouseinn.com

The famed free minibars are still there—now fully loaded with specialty coffees and hand sanitizers—but the rooms have been gut-renovated and updated for extended stays (book a full month, or the full season), with new white cedar closets and artwork curated by Max Levai of Marlborough Gallery Downtown. One thing founder Jayma Cardoso smartly kept: the hammocks tethered to each room’s outside deck overlooking the lake. thesurflodge.com

SHOU SUGI BAN HOUSE

WHITE FENCES INN

Opened last year as a destination spa in Water Mill, this 13-room retreat offers movement and yoga classes outdoors, as well as tennis, wellness programming and spa services with enhanced safety protocols. Dining is now offered in-room, as well as in several outdoor dining areas.

Guest rooms are perfect for social distancing; each has two private entrances. shousugibanhouse.com

Since restaurant space is limited this summer, this high-end Water Mill inn offers evening meals to its guests from Thursday to Sunday, serving in two dining rooms as well as on two patios.

Accommodations feature Frette sheets and Malin+Goetz products, along with carts containing disinfectants.

Lounge at the picturesque pool out back, or use the inn’s beach pass. whitefenceswatermill.com

MARRAM Opened along the ocean in Montauk at the end of last summer, the boutique spot has introduced yoga, singing bowl and morning meditations, guided nature walks and Reiki. Common spaces have been reconfigured to maximize social distancing, and a Latin American café provides food for guests. Just sitting in one of the chic rooms with muted tones and staring at the ocean from your balcony is plenty restorative. marrammontauk.com

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EDITOR’S PICKS

Purist founder Cristina Cuomo’s summer beauty and immune-boosting obsessions

“NYC dermatologist Dr. Rosemarie Ingleton developed this skin care line, utilizing Jamaican superfruit botanicals.”

Skin Calming Booster, $70, rosemdskin.com

“Wisdom, Faith, Courage, Bravery, Hustle: all the things an empowered woman needs from her lip gloss!” Bossy gloss in nougat, $15, Bossy Beauty, bossybeauty.com

“Simple, nourishing ingredients in a serum developed by a dermatologist, Dr. Chaneve Jeanniton of Brooklyn Face & Eye.” Daily dose // vitamin C + multivitamin defense serum, $110, Epi.logic, brooklynface andeye.com

“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.”

—Alice Walker

“The five types of herbs and mushrooms in this blend will keep your immune system strong.”

Advanced Immune Power, $35, Plant People, plantpeople.com

“This all-in-one must-have makeup tool prevents foundation from caking and looking patchy.” Original Yubi applicator, $32, Yubi, loveyubi.com 86

“Keep this air-purifying spray in your bag at all times.” PlaneAire® surface & air travel mist, $15, PlaneAire®, planeaire.com

Marili Forastieri

“This new nontoxic rosescented detergent was made by co-founder Lindsey Boyd. I love their entire laundry line.” The Laundress no. 723, $19, thelaundress.com

EAST HAMPTON LIBRARY’S

AUTHORS NIGHT NIGHT AN ONLINE LITERARY CELEBRATION • AUGUST 2020

visit AUTHORSNIGHT.ORG for event details and tickets Proceeds benefit the East Hampton Library, a private, non-profit organization providing outstanding free library services to the East Hampton community.

The funds raised at Authors Night are used for essential programs and services at the Library throughout the year.

MEDIA SPONSOR

All week, beginning Monday, September 21, tune in to CONNECT 4 online, where esteemed speakers will address the 4 hot-button topics of today—anti-racism, our national health, the environment, and burgeoning political unrest. More information can be found on www.thePuristOnline.com for speakers and to sign up.

Past speakers have included:

DON LEMON

CNN primetime anchor and host of the podcast Silence Is Not an Option

DR. FRANK LIPMAN

Integrative medicine coach and bestselling author

DONNA KARAN

Designer and activist

BOB ROTH

CEO, David Lynch Foundation

MARYLOUISE PARKER

Actress and author

JASON FLOM

Founding member, The Innocence Project

NEIL PHILLIPS

Founder, Visible Men & Visible Men Academy, Harvard University & Aspen Institute Fellow, Open Society Foundation/ Echoing Green Fellow

ALEXANDRA SHIVA Awardwinning filmmaker

For ticket information, go to thePURISTonline.com/connect4

GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO

Stephanie Liu Jhelmeseth

WEEK| END

Style blogger Stephanie Liu Hjelmeseth and her year-old son, Jacob, with the Cote d’Azur raffia and leather tote bag by Mark Cross. “We’ve been spending a lot of time safely outdoors, creating little picnics, activities and getting reacquainted with Mother Earth’s beautiful details.”

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WEEKEND

SHOPPING SPACES

Six East End boutiques offering socially distanced retail therapy this summer.

BY GABRIELLE ECHEVARRIETA

JIMMY CHOO Following the success of its 2017 and 2018 pop-ups, iconic high-fashion house Jimmy Choo returns to East Hampton this summer, with a twist.

Located at 17 Newtown Lane, the designer offers a number of innovative, socially distanced shopping experiences, including private appointments, virtual styling services and contactless curbside pickup. The boutique also introduces Choo to You, an on-demand service that will provide same-day delivery throughout the Hamptons. The Choo to You van acts as a warehouse on wheels, delivering accessories for in-home shopping and private shopping events among close friends. jimmychoo.com

MOBY’S MARKET Moby’s is back at its original location (341 Pantigo Road, East Hampton) and while the restaurant focuses on takeout and serving its famed woodfire oven-baked pizzas outdoors, the indoor dining room will be converted into Moby’s Market, a lifestyle shop featuring luxury home and pantry products. The shop will sell pastas and sauces, spreads and dips, olive oil and housemade ice cream, along with kitchen must-haves like cheese boards, linen napkins and candles.

Perfect your tablescapes with help from Sferra.

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For swimwear, intimates, face masks and more, look to Sag Harbor’s Relax.

Open now at 150 Main Street for curbside pickup and private shopping appointments, Relax, a haven for those in search of unique, mindfully crafted summer styles, carries an extensive list of independent fashion brands. If your generic face mask cramps your style, preorder some of Relax’s floral-print

Courtesy of Sferra

RELAX

Eclectic home goods at SIMMS

Liberty of London masks to keep yourself and your little ones protected. Relax also offers cozy loungewear from Sag Harbor-based brand Polkadot England. With designs for women and children, these everyday home essentials include delicate, breathable camisoles, joggers, shorts, and kids’ sailor-stripe and tie dye-style pajamas, all manufactured in heritage knitting mills in the English countryside.

Polkadot England is donating a portion of June sales to the River Fund, a nonprofit organization fighting homelessness, hunger and poverty in New York. relaxhampton.com

Courtesy of SIMMS; Courtesy of Sunflow

SFERRA Hamptonites can now explore Sferra’s collection of fine linens while social distancing. Its Southampton boutique has opened with private and virtual shopping appointments, curbside pickup, and complimentary Hamptons delivery. The brand’s fabrics are woven using the world’s choicest natural fibers, including Giza 45, a coveted, high-grade Egyptian cotton. Swap that winter bedding for one of Sferra’s

lightweight throw blankets, and drift to sleep beneath a cool sea breeze.

The brand’s down duvets, pillows and mattress pads are lightly filled, soft yet breathable for warm weather.

Sferra also offers a number of bespoke services, including satin-stitched monogramming, tailor-made bedding crafted in Italy, and customizable table linens to fit any size table. Visit the Sferra boutique outpost at 43 Jobs Lane in Southampton.

SHELTER ISLAND MAKER’S MARKET (SIMMS) Cristina Peffer & Bill Tancredi of Ram Design, and Marie Eiffel and Jason Penney of Marie Eiffel Fashion have joined forces to curate an eclectic shopping experience on the East End. Located across from the Marie Eiffel Market at 184 North Ferry Road in Shelter Island, the emporium will feature custom-made furniture, one-of-a-kind lighting designs, pottery, rotating fine art collections, and chic home accessories like candles, Turkish towels and Marie Eiffel’s elegant Jackie O-inspired clothing and accessories line. The 91

Take in natural splendor from Sunflow’s signature Sunrise Chair.

market will be open year-round, and has big plans for the future, with hopes to expand its fashion collection to include designs for children, menswear, and more collaborations with local home-decor artisans.

SUNFLOW East Hampton-based lifestyle brand Sunflow is on a mission to revamp your beach day. Co-creators and fashion design veterans Leslie Hsu and Greg Besner offer a line of accessories made with hard-core beach bums in mind, including an overhead shade attachment crafted with UPF 50+ fabric, an adjustable drink holder, and waterproof pouches to protect valuables. Sunflow’s signature Sunrise Chair, made with upcycled, rust- and water-resistant aluminum, is lightweight, folds easily, and is available in an array of colors and prints, including lagoon turquoise, kelp green stripe, and the “Love is Love” rainbow stripe design.

Sunflow’s outpost is located at 55 Main Street Cove in East Hampton. getsunflow.com

WEEKEND

PURE PICKS

Marisa Hochberg, vice president of brand partnerships for The Surf Lodge, and co-founder of the Surf Lodge Sanctuary, shares at-home wellness accessories and clean beauty favorites for summer elegance on the East End.

“I often struggle with anxiety during these uncertain times, and Evolution_18’s all-natural Chill gummies with broadspectrum CBD help manage my daily stress.” Chill CBD gummies, $50, Evolution_18, chillbyevolution18.com

“I have fallen in love with this brand’s loungewear while staying at home these past few months.

Their matching sets are comfortable yet super chic.”

Heart print jogger, $98, Polkadot England, polkadot-england.com

“I’ve been living in sweatpants the past few months, but once I slip on a floral LoveShackFancy dress, I feel ethereal and inspired to socialize.”

Castella dress, $895, LoveShackFancy, loveshackfancy.com

“Montauk has always been my escape from city life. Its bucolic setting and eclectic group of locals are my greatest inspirations in the growth of my business.”

“My morning jogs out East aren’t complete without my APL sneakers. They make me want to hop out of bed and run straight to the beach.” Women’s techLoom phantom running shoe in gold, $185, Athletic Propulsion Labs, athleticpropulsionlabs.com 92

“Necessaire’s body wash leaves your shower feeling like a eucalyptus steam room and the scent lingers post-shower, transforming your home into what feels like a luxury spa.” The body wash in eucalyptus (250 ml), $25, Necessaire, necessaire.com

“I’m loving my pearl pendant from Olivela, especially because my purchase helps provide essential supplies for families in need through Save the Children.” Pearl pendant necklace, $525, Poppy Finch, available at olivela.com

@marisahochberg

“This serum features a synergistic antioxidant combination of ferulic acid with pure vitamins C and E to enhance your skin’s protection against environmental damage caused by free radicals.” C E ferulic serum (1 fl. oz.), $166, SkinCeuticals, available at dermstore.com

horses heal horses heal A celebration of the healing power of horses, August 20, 2020 to benefit the Center for Therapeutic Riding of the East End (CTREE)

Event Chairs

Silent Auction Chairs

Amalie Bandelier

Helen Gifford

& Chris Ritchey

& Daniel Richards

for more information or to join our sponsors: info@ctreeny.org 631.779.2835 www.ctreeny.org CTREE is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to Transforming Lives Through The Therapeutic Power Of Horses

FOOD I S M E DI C I N E

@brenda_godf

For a performanceenhancing, brain-boosting, anti-inflammatory summer pick-me-up, try an iced beetroot, turmeric or matcha latte, packed with fiber and vitamin C.

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FOOD IS MEDICINE

FOOD BLOGGING Highlighting our favorite foodies this summer

Fresh ginger was hard to find in markets during quarantine, because of its potential as a germ fighter and an antiinflammatory, and for its general health benefits. It is also believed to have anti-microbial properties that may help fight viral and bacterial infections, including those that

cause sore throats. Here are some ways to include ginger in everything you make this summer, from breakfast to dessert: mocktails with fennel; simple broth with jalapeùos; broccoli and cashew soup; turmeric meatballs; sticky orange carrots; gingerbread; and blueberry parfaits. –Cristina Cuomo

@foodminimalist

@rachelgurjar

@nakedgrubs

@panaceas_pantry

@rachelgurjar

1 @thesweetandsimplekitchen

@thefeedfeed

All images available on www.thefeedfeed.com

@its_a_vegworld_afterall @decotartelette

All images available on www.thefeedfeed.com

@daenskitchen

FOOD IS MEDICINE

THE COVID-19

How to gently restore pre-pandemic body weight. BY JULIA SZABO Googled recipe, and any time was snack time. But now, as we finally emerge from quarantine while the coronavirus still circulates, staying fit is more important than ever.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, my clients didn’t want to talk to me,” says nutritional and culinary coach Silu Sao Narvekar. “I get it: During March and April, they were in survival mode, baking and doing a lot of emotional eating, stress eating, boredom eating. Before talking about a protocol for getting rid of excess weight, we need to get back to a balance: The weight could cause digestive issues, fatigue, joint problems—so let’s try to rectify those

@tahneinei

Since March, many people have succumbed to a new strain of the “Freshman 15”—the “COVID-19,” i.e. varying quantities of extra weight packed on during lockdown.

Even more stressful than that first year away from home, months of sheltering in place and fearing contamination from the pandemic took a toll on our physical and mental health. Seeking edible comfort, we might have made a few unwise food choices. With gyms and parks closed but liquor stores deemed essential, it was tough to adhere to a fitness regimen—and all too easy to turn repeatedly to the bottle or kitchen for solace, as banana bread became the most-

1

Beth Bierema

things first, because when you’re healthy, eating the rightfor-you combination of fats, carbs and proteins, you will be at a good weight. We know that sugar reduces good gut microbes, especially if you have digestive issues; it makes the gut lining more permeable to things that shouldn’t be getting into your bloodstream, and your immune system goes ‘What’s that?!’ So we work on diversifying the gut microbiome to avoid a leaky gut, which increases your chances of having a better immune response”—critical amid concerns of a second pandemic wave.

“I love to eat, and I love that more people are cooking at home,” Narvekar adds. “Having a well-stocked pantry enables you to make healthy food taste so good. I keep on hand dried mushrooms, tahini, nutritional yeast and several kinds of dried chili peppers. In the freezer, I store tortillas, great for making avocado tacos: rehydrate two dried peppers, slice an avocado, then blend the softened peppers with a clove of garlic, some diced onions and olive oil. I also keep nuts and seeds in the freezer; hemp hearts are awesome, with 10 grams of protein per tablespoon. Nuts and seeds are all game-changers, but they can go rancid very easily—plus, if I keep them on the counter, I’m more apt to walk by and snack on them!

Pumpkin seeds are a great way to get good fats from ingredients you already have; add them to your avocado tacos.” Rounding out the well-stocked pantry: miso paste, apple cider vinegar (both potent probiotics), tamari and maple syrup. “Take eggplant—grilled, baked or broiled— then take a little miso paste and maple syrup, blend them together, add a splash of tamari, and you have something fantastic.”

With so much uncertainty and fear in the air, steering clear of unhealthy foods—artificial sweeteners, processed foods loaded with nitrates and sodium, gluten, dairy and alcohol—is essential, and empowering. If wine is essential to you, enjoy reds or rosés by drinking and even cooking with them, in measured amounts. “It’s fine to use a couple of tablespoons of wine to deglaze a pan when doing, say, scampi with zucchini noodles and cooked shrimp,” Narvekar says. “As a coach, my goal is to give people safety and security in their bodies, so they feel good. When we feel good, we can put our dreams into reality, and hopefully inspire others to do the same.” She recommends keeping a food journal: “So much research says journaling helps change a habit—so, to break the habit of late-night snacking, we want to identify what triggers it. Food is comfort and security, especially when we feel such anxiety right now. Journaling is a great way to see your patterns.

You’ve gotten to the root of how to make that change, so you’re more likely to lose weight and to keep it off.”

When making changes, go small; avoid radical shifts,

Healthy food choices improve immune response.

experts say. If you have put on excess weight, don’t place additional stress on your immune system by attempting any crash diet or other extreme makeover. “Do increase your exercise gently, set reasonable goals and be gentle with yourself,” advises Dr. Laurie Nadel, psychotherapist, trauma specialist and author of The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes (HCI Books; foreword by Dan Rather). “This is not a good time to take on extreme lifestyle modification. Balance healthy eating and hydration, exercise and rest, with the emphasis on balance.”

Prevent a return to overeating by avoiding reminders that could trigger anxiety. “The American Red Cross says that whatever emotional upheaval you experience during a disaster, you are a normal person having normal reactions to an abnormal situation,” Nadel adds. “But you may want to get professional help for psychological symptoms that go on too long: if you experience flashbacks, reliving something particularly disturbing about the pandemic or the lockdown, the shutting down and isolation.”

Allow yourself time to mourn all that’s now gone: “There was a sudden, violent loss to our way of life, and we need to identify it as traumatic grief,” Nadel concludes. “After a disaster, healing is not a straight line; we’re never going back to what ‘normal’ was, and we have to learn to coexist with uncertainty.”

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F E AT U R E S “Whether it is dealing with a pandemic or dealing with race, I just try to be in the moment.”

—DON LEMON

Don Lemon, photographed in Sag Harbor. White linen shirt, Ralph Lauren, 31-33 Main St., East Hampton, ralphlauren.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATHRINE WHITE

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Photo credit here.

Don Lemon, photographed in Sag Harbor Navy Earth Polo from Ralph Lauren’s sustainable collection.

Ralph Lauren, 31-33 Main St., East Hampton, ralphlauren.com

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SILENCE IS

NOT AN

OPTION

It’s no time to be silent, and Don Lemon, the only black anchor on cable news during prime time, has been hitting that important message home every night through his twohour broadcast on CNN at 10PM. As a major voice in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, Lemon has expanded his platform to include a new podcast, Silence Is Not an Option, which launched on June 15 and will examine race.

His conversations with special guests will be more intimate and longer than TV news allows, and guests like Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, a historian and scholar on race and discriminatory policy, and Dr. Christopher Petrella, the director of engagement at American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center—who also develops the curriculum for Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp—are among the

scholars and activists he has interviewed.

His hope is to offer people at home staving off the pandemic a safe place to educate themselves and create a new intention to fight against racism, one built on equality and understanding. Here, talk-show host Tamron Hall speaks with Lemon, both from their Sag Harbor homes, about the responsibilities that come with being an American.

INTERVIEW BY TAMRON HALL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATHRINE WHITE 101

DL: It’s harder to explain it to my wealthy liberal friends because my friends in the rural South are like well, at least sometimes they say that they’re open; they are sometimes willing to understand. People in the South connect—poor people and black people. Poor white people and black people have similar experiences in the South. If you ask a poor white person would they rather be born white and poor, or black, you know what the answer will be. At least that it’s that connection. When you are fairly well-to-do, you have that shield, that protection from having to deal with people unless they’re the help. Many times it’s harder to explain to my wealthy liberal friends—because one, they’ve made up their minds that they’re not racists: “I don’t have a racist bone in my body,” which is not true of anyone. Or that “I have a black friend” or “I have black friends” or whatever. They say those things, but when you interact with them, you realize that the only person who you ever see at their home who’s black is yourself. And then you realize that no, you are not who you think you are.

I think it’s sometimes harder for people who think that they are not racist or they don’t have issues to dig into more deeply than those who may think that they do, simply because they’re either in the South or because they’re poor. Do you understand what I’m saying?

Tamron Hall: It’s been fantastic to watch you develop—as they say in our industry—your voice. How does that feel when someone says you’re a messenger in the room, because what you do is obviously journalism but it is with great perspective and point of view?

Don Lemon: That’s a really good question. It feels like a lot of responsibility and it feels like a lot of pressure, so I try not to think about that. Whether it is dealing with a pandemic or dealing with race, I just try to be in the moment. Everyone has a lens, and my lens is having lived in different cities growing up in the South, growing up as someone who was not wealthy. And living in both red and blue states, being around people who are both poor and rich. I try to just bring that to the table.

TH: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say, “I’m happy Don brought that up,” or “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” When you hear that, is that like a heatseeking missile where you know you’re on the right track?

DL: I feel that I am reflecting the times that we’re in. I can lean into it because people are receptive to it, so my voice is stronger now.

TH: You have a diverse group of friends. You walk in circles that may never connect, but you are their connection. You have friends that will never meet from different walks of life, whether they’re friends from the South that you grew up with and kept in contact with, or friends in Philly or Chicago. You have many friends who are white, black and who may not get each other and you are in the middle.

DL: I have friends who are in the Deep South who are in Louisiana, very red country, with whom I went to college.

And whom I’ve actually heard, when I was younger, say the N word—and even back in the ’80s when I was in college, I had to correct them. It wasn’t always a comfortable conversation. And even now I have friends who are very supportive of the president, who are big Trump supporters and I’m on text exchange with them and I still see them and I still consider them friends. I try to get them to understand the race issues, like why is it offensive when you call someone a son of a bitch because they’re trying to fight for equality or against police brutality.

Sometimes you just have to let people go, because they don’t want to understand.

TH: I think about the cable news landscape and I believe that you are the only person of color who anchors a prime-time show in cable news—does that add to the pressure of what we are talking about right now?

DL: There’s a lot of pressure, but it’s more important for me to be as real as I am and tell the truth, especially about race, because I am the expert in that field simply from living from my time on this planet and who I am.

TH: What gives you hope right now?

DL: That you and I can have a conversation like this, and you have this unique platform that you lean into that you are unapologetically black and I am unapologetically black. We do know that there are very fine people and notvery-fine people on both sides, and we have to let people know that. There’s a difference between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter and in this moment, you can’t run an All Lives Matter, you can’t let people get away with that— because yes, all lives do matter but this is a moment where we’re talking about blackness. There’s a conversation for that and people of all ethnicities are hurting, but this isn’t a time for All Lives Matter, because right now we are talking about race and blackness in America and this is our

TH: Is it harder to explain it to your wealthy liberal friends or your friends in the rural South?

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“I AM

REFLECTING THE TIMES

WE’RE IN.”

Lemon and Boomer, one of his two “fur babies”

104

not approach him. They approach me. And why do you feel that you are entitled enough to address me in that manner? Because I don’t go up to people and tell them what to do. That tells me there is something behind your effort and your actions. People need to examine that, and then once you examine that you may come to some conclusion about yourself that you may not be happy about, but you have to deal with and it’ll make you a better person.

moment to discuss that fully and not have it sanitized or, what’s the word I’m looking for...

TH: Diluted.

DL: Diluted. This is about the black experience in America when it comes to racism, policing, criminal justice, the corporate world and so on and so forth. It should not be diluted. Let’s talk about this issue and don’t bring other issues into it. That’s how I feel.

TH: The young generation are talking much more about microaggression and macroaggression: the Amy Cooper moment in Central Park. There is a conversation happening among many people, similar to #MeToo. Little moments that have built up and now there is a sense of what someone coined the Us Too. DL: That was me.

TH: Listen, the Reverend Dr. William Barber says—and I think these words are very, very true—that if we tell our kids or if we tell ourselves that this is the worst that we’ve seen, are we doing a disservice? The world watched as Jewish people were killed, and acted in a delayed form but eventually acted. The Holocaust compelled

“WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER IN THIS MOMENT. ALL HANDS ON DECK.” people at some point to do something. The civil rights movement in the middle of the threats of assassination of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., all young men.

John Lewis, a child, rose up in a way that I would wonder if we could do today. Would you walk across a bridge knowing that you were going to be beaten within an inch of your life in front of TV cameras and no one cared?

DL: I would.

TH: I know that. Oh my god. You said it a year ago.

DL: I did. I said finally women have rightfully so had their moment when it comes to misogyny and sexism and abuse and discrimination. It’s about the #MeToo movement. And I so often wondered: When are we going to have our Us Too moment, when it comes to people of color but especially black people, because the Amy Cooper moment comes every single day. You don’t know if it’s going to come right, left or behind you or in front of you. I can point out an Amy Cooper moment in my life almost every single day of my life.

TH: We watched. I would like to believe we all would, but not everybody did, even then. That’s why we revere him.

Genocide throughout the world, the enslavement of women even today who are not able to receive education.

History shows us that evil is persistent and it never is tired, but it’s not new. And so I thought that was a great perspective and as heavy and as hard as this is: to know that there are people who still exist who fought evil, who fought racism and continue to. And if we negate the triumphant moments of people fighting back against the Holocaust then we’re denying what they did. And we’re denying what humans can do when we want to do right.

DL: You realize there are people who were killed, were lynched, were beaten...and even with all of that we’re still not treated fairly and equally in America. I wonder how

TH: Even now.

DL: Even now. There was one this weekend. I’m out on my boat coming back with my friend and this guy is trying to tell me at what speed I’m supposed to drive at in the harbor, and he cuts me off in my boat. I’m looking at my speed and I do this almost every other day, and I don’t really need you to tell me how to drive my boat.

TH: You have some people who say that guy at the harbor was being a jerk. How do you know it’s racism?

DL: Because they are being a jerk and they are being rude, but I am also with someone all the time. If I am standing with Tim, who is my partner and is white, they do 105

TKTK SLUG

Photo credit here.

Don Lemon with his fiancĂŠ, realtor Tim Malone

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probation or whatever we’re on with this COVID still.

much more is it going to take? Am I spinning my wheels?

Am I standing at the edge of the ocean screaming into the ocean and no one hears me? That’s where the frustration comes in, with people you are trying to reach. If the heads of companies are hearing what you’re having to say, it can make a real difference when it comes to employment standards. If your political leaders are listening, the people who create law, if your president is listening to you.

TH: Probation. Oh my gosh. Well listen, I look forward to days on the water. I look forward to my son being able to learn how to swim and do all those things with you, and most importantly, I look forward to you continuing to have this unique voice and this powerful presence, not just today but for many, many years to come.

DL: Thank you, Tamron. Very rarely do we get this opportunity to interview each other, which says a lot about what our forefathers did to help progress when it comes to race. But I am so proud of you, Tamron. Every day when your show comes on I’m almost in tears, because to see a black woman with that platform is just amazing and

TH: We know one person is listening: Dave Chappelle.

[Ed note: In his recent Netflix special, Chappelle criticized Lemon for calling on black celebrities, rather than protestors, to speak up about racial injustice.] Why don’t we make it a Dave Chappelle moment. We know

“IT’S TIRING THAT PEOPLE COULD THINK THAT

YOUR VOICE, YOUR ACTIONS ARE INTIMIDATING.”

somebody in Hollywood is listening. I had to interject.

Tell me about this Dave Chappelle moment. Have you spoken to him on the phone? Did you email Dave Chappelle? When is lunch? When is your beer summit— or I should say, your bong summit?

DL: I’ve reached out to Dave and we talked. There is something in the works that we are planning. I don’t know if it’s going to be a bong summit, but it’s going to be a summit of sorts. And I agree with him—and listen, I’m not here to fight with anyone, and I’m especially not here in this moment to fight with a black person who holds a position of power in this country, because we all need each other in this moment. All hands on deck, and we need to unify in our message and in our strategy.

how you use it is humbling and inspiring. I’m so happy that you’re in my life, that you’re my friend, but I’m also happy about what you bring to the world.

TH: There was a far greater black woman that had this space.

DL: Oprah.

TH: I think you might know her as Oprah. As my brother calls me Noprah. Thank you for the compliment.

DL: Hold on. There’s one more thing that I want to say. I want people to know—and I’m not sure how this will fit in—but we were talking about people telling you to carry yourself as a black man in a black body in this country. It’s tiring that people could think that your voice, your words, your actions, your stature are intimidating. I don’t know if white people can relate to that, but black men certainly can. Just our actions and our presence is deemed more threatening. That’s exhausting. I want that to stop because I’m tired of being exhausted in that way, just by my mere difficult presence. That’s it.

TH: Your mother—does she help you?

DL: I talk to my mother every single day. Every single night when I’m coming home, my mom is my reset. Hey, what are you doing? Did you watch the show? Great. We talk about food or something and then I can decompress.

And then on the weekends usually...honestly, I try to get as close to water as possible. Out on the beach, out on the boat or out on a lake or something, because I feel like that is my happy place. I try to lean into the people I love the most, into my fiancé and my crazy kids who are fur babies, my dogs, and talk to people like Tamron Hall. And spend more time with people like Tamron Hall when we’re out of

TH: You are a part of the revolution, and I know that people realize that. It’s been my pleasure to watch with each passing moment more and more people recognize why diversity is necessary, and why you are a necessary part of this.

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LEAD WITH

How do we raise the next generation to be more aware of racial injustice, to be actively anti-racist, to do better than society has in the past? Photographer Cathrine White asked a selection of her friends and colleagues to weigh in on parenting during a historic cultural shift, on teaching awareness, cultivating optimism and creating authentically diverse experiences and new traditions.

Photography and Interviews by Cathrine White 108

Cathrine White’s daughter Katie, on right, and her friend Morgan

E

ver since I can remember, I have lived with diversity. I was born in Tehran, adopted as a baby and raised in Sweden. I knew that being darker was different, and in Sweden, there were even more blond people then there are today. Racism existed around me as a young child; you don’t necessarily know why at that younger age, you just know it really hurts. As time passed, I knew I didn’t want to stay there, so I moved to New York City in ’94. I finally felt a sense of freedom, of belonging; it was magical, it was home.

Today, in our mudroom, I have a piece of art hanging; it depicts an ice cream cone, with the words “Life Is Too Short to Be Vanilla.” It’s been there for 10 years now, always giving room for some interesting conversations with my kids’ friends as they have come to our home. For me, it has always been about being proud to be able to offer my own experience growing up with my children, giving them a broader and deeper perspective of what life has to offer by being open to the differences that people have, and

the beauty in embracing that. Living it every day is the only way to truly understand it. And having a strong voice and teaching others where you can. If we let it, diversity is really an opportunity to teach one another to live with more humanity and compassion.

Throughout my journey as a photographer, I have been able to find myself in so many of the stories I got to capture with my lens. For me, that’s what makes life so incredibly meaningful, being vulnerable with both the pain and the joy of our stories. These images are a glimpse and a reflection of those connections. They have taught me so much, and continue to. As my friend Don Lemon said (echoing the words of philosopher George Santayana) when I photographed him for this issue of Purist: “Those who forgot the past are doomed to relive it.” So, may we all be willing to dive deep.

Onward!

–Cathrine White 109

Jillian Gumbel YOGA FOR ATHLETES TEACHER

For people who might live in a more homogeneous community, how do you create authentic, diverse experiences for your children to learn about others?

My sons are exposed to diversity largely through their family. Our family is salt-and-peppered with different shades of colors, culture and history. Born from African American and Jewish heritage with cousins, uncles, grandparents and ancestors that represent a wide variety of appearances, traditions and beliefs, Bryant, 8, and Alan, 6, are being raised to not view color as something that divides people. The basic structure of where they come from has been built on grounds of variety and inclusion.

difficult times. Healthy eating, exercising, reading, and time outside in nature are things they see as my sources of joy.

It’s common for Alan to do yoga with me during one of my online classes, and for Bryant to sit with me and read.

I think the best thing you can give your kids to build their self-esteem is being present with them and making them feel that the time you spend with them is important. During the past few months, being together as a family and being forced to be present for one another has been a moving and powerful experience for the four of us.

How are you examining your own biases? What has shifted within you during this time?

These past few weeks have been a time of deep sadness and reflection for me. I’ve felt both seen and heard, hurt and disappointed by people and their actions or lack thereof, even those close to me. I’ve been forced to prioritize the people and things that are truly important to me to protect my peace. Ironically, now more than ever I feel power in my identity as a woman of color. The bias that the color of my skin could deem me “less than” is so preposterous that I find strength just in knowing its absurdity. My focus going forward is to continue to raise my boys to be loving, kind and understanding and to model healthfulness, strong character and self-love.

What behaviors are you modeling for your children and how do you continue to build their self-esteem during a time like this?

The love between me and my husband, Will, is a model of the boundless love of two people living in different colored bodies. It’s our job to love and shelter our children, while still letting the outside world be known and experienced. They are aware that they haven’t been able to attend school because of a pandemic, and they are equally aware that people are protesting the mistreatment of people of color. I remind my sons every day through my own self-care how to stay positive and grateful during these 110

Jillian Gumbel with her sons Bryant and Alan, and dog Bear

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Shiva Rose FOUNDER OF CLEAN BEAUTY LINE SHIVA ROSE SKINCARE AND AUTHOR OF THE BOOK WHOLE BEAUTY

For people who might live in a more homogeneous community, how do you create authentic, diverse experiences for your children to learn about others?

For people who don’t live in a multicultural community, I would make sure to travel as much as I could. Traveling is such a beautiful way to open a child’s eyes to the various cultures, languages, and opinions of other people. There is nothing like seeing firsthand how diverse our world is.

That also is a way to imprint the experience in the neural pathways of the child’s brain, so it will always endure.

I would also make film, music and art a part of their upbringing. Watching amazing stories is a very powerful way to expose children to the truths of our world.

as important as our words. If they see me involved with bringing changes and social justice in the world, it will naturally influence them. I build their esteem by reminding them how their big, compassionate hearts can change the planet.

How are you examining your own biases? What has shifted within you during this time?

I have always felt that I was of many cultures and races.

This could be due to being half-Persian and half-American.

Also growing up in LA, I am lucky enough to have had quite a multicultural environment. With that being said, it’s always a good reminder to look at ourselves, truly look into our souls and check in to see if our hearts are aligned with justice and equality for all.

I’ve always been one to question authority and unite with humanity. It’s nice to see that is being applauded in our country right now.

What behaviors are you modeling for your children and how do you continue to build their self-esteem during a time like this?

I’m trying to show my children that our actions are equally 112

Shiva Rose with her daughter Charlotte

113

Mari Agory MODEL AND CO-FOUNDER OF MAMA TALKS

For people who might live in a more homogeneous community, how do you create authentic, diverse experiences for your children to learn about others?

My children (ages 3 and 1.5), being half South Sudanese, one quarter Italian and one quarter Jewish, are the drop of diversity in our community. We live in downtown Manhattan. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see a lot of other children of color, but I view this as an opportunity to allow my children and myself to be the ones to show and inform people in our community about other cultures.

Having come from a country with vast traditions and values, it’s extremely important for me to ensure that my boys understand the complexity of people, not only in our community but around the world. We are doing this through simple measures. I truly believe the simplest way to start introducing different cultures and creating authentic, diverse experiences for preschool-age children is through music and language, and building on that as they grow.

me to allow them both to be themselves at all times. I feel this will afford them the confidence they need to go through life authentically with courage and grace. Life is challenging; we often go through tough times so that we may be rewarded with the wisdom, knowledge and strength we need to continue to endure. If my boys can grow up to understand the power of grit, the world is their oyster and they will be able to make great contributions to it through hard work and perseverance.

How are you examining your own biases? What has shifted within you during this time?

The past couple of months have certainly been the most uncomfortable in terms of uprooting and unlearning things that I’ve come to discover have been conditioned in me throughout my 30-year existence. One thing I know for certain is that people are seeking to be seen, heard and loved. Learning and coming to some level of awareness of my subconscious beliefs, conditioning and behaviors was the first step in understanding and unpacking the layers of life experiences, traumas and biases, thereby allowing me to tap into my authentic self as a human being. It’s been through experiencing stillness that I am able to discover a space of power and vulnerability within me. In that space is where I am able to feel a sense of human connectedness, regardless of race, religion, or any other cultural-ideological constructs put in place to divide us all.

What behaviors are you modeling for your children and how do you continue to build their self-esteem during a time like this?

This is a hard one, because I sometimes find myself falling short on the very things I want my boys to epitomize as children and adults—patience, kindness and compassion.

My sons are so different from each other, it’s almost comical; their differences in personality have helped 114

Jennifer Justice with her twins Jack and Nico, and dog Hank

Jennifer Justice CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, THE JUSTICE DEPT

What behaviors are you modeling for your children and how do you continue to build their self-esteem during a time like this ?

My twins turned 7 in quarantine, and have been to multiple protests and stumped for Democratic local candidates— going door-to-door—so we’re a pretty activist family. I have dedicated my career to the equality of women through financial equity, so fighting for—and teaching my kids on a daily basis about—justice, empathy and compassion is super-important to me.

As a single mom, it’s been necessary for me to have more difficult conversations about how things aren’t the same, like families, as well as things that aren’t equal or fair, and I don’t try to hide the real world from them. They are so much more capable of processing information than we give them credit for at this young age, so it’s important to have conversations about how being different is so important and makes the world so much more just and interesting.

It’s not enough for them to know that we are all the same on the inside. They still need to understand that people often don’t get to see the inside, because they are judged by the outside in different ways than my kids. It helps prepare them to stand up for themselves and others, to build their self-esteem by showing how all differences are important and interesting—including their own—and that the fight for equality for everyone, regardless of their race,

gender, religion, socioeconomic background or sexuality, is the way to a better world.

How are you examining your own biases? What has shifted within you during this time?

Teaching my children about their privilege and how to be anti-racist while examining my own is a daily exercise and something that needs to be discussed all the time.

Working in hip-hop for artists in the music industry for 20 years, I witnessed racism firsthand over and over again. It is very ingrained in our society.

During COVID, it was easy to slip into feeling sorry for myself—we were all experiencing grief for our old lives, and fear around our future—but ultimately if we were healthy and had financial means we should be grateful.

I allowed myself this self-pity and then snapped out of it quickly when the murder of Ahmaud Arbery happened.

It was then that I was reminded that I have work to do—I can jog down a street, fall asleep in a car, and buy Skittles without fear of being murdered for the color of my skin.

My kids saw that photo of George Floyd—they know how he died and that was heartbreaking enough for them to see a man murdered. But it’s important for them to know that it was because of the color of his skin—to learn about systemic racism and what that means—and to spot it, even in themselves, and fight against it. It is incumbent upon white people to fix systemic racism.

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Marilee Holmes CHIEF OF STAFF, ROC NATION

For people who might live in a more homogeneous community, how do you create authentic, diverse experiences for your children to learn about others?

The easy answer would be to say that you can teach your children to appreciate multiethnic food, languages, religion, music, architecture, movies, books, histories, hairstyles, fashion and the many other aspects of diversity that can initially be taught right at home, at school, at church, even at the library. But in addition to what can be textbook-taught, regardless of where you choose to live, if you look up and really take in the world around you, you will realize that it is not as homogeneous as you think.

However, you have to be the change for yourself and your children. Be active in looking up and around, not just to observe, but to ask people questions about their stories so you can understand who they are and where they come from. Respect comes from not seeing everything through your own lens. And you can start with small steps in your own neighborhood. For example, who are the people in service positions around you, who are disproportionately black and brown people, working hard every day to make your life easier—your local grocery store clerk, or mailman, or sanitation worker? Have you taken the time to learn their names, ask their stories, to say “thank you” to them and the families they leave at home every day to do their jobs on your community’s behalf? Show your children those small steps, so they can see what respect for others looks like.

also want her to be curious. I want her to be confident in asking questions, seeking answers and exercising her voice. In today’s Black Lives Matter movement, we have talked about the tragedies, the responses, and explained our current reality as best as possible. We’re listening to her innocent questions and talking through it all. We’re also showing her, by watching the news, seeing protests, and waving to those marching, that change is happening now. And as demonstrations are interspersed with stronger messages against racism and dedication to fairness, it has been a great place to start a dialogue about what these topics mean in light of what she’s witnessing, so that she can understand that although the world is far from perfect, organizations and individuals from all backgrounds are taking important proactive measures, and she can have a voice to be the change that is good.

How are you examining your own biases? What has shifted within you during this time?

As a woman and a person of color, I have always known the challenges I face. As I reflect on my daily experiences, I want to ensure that the societal messages that I’ve internalized do not in any way limit my child’s dreams. What has shifted for me, during such a significant challenge to this unfortunate status quo, is my awareness that there are far more people than not who view these dual identities as powerful and beautiful gifts rather than inferior qualities.

Stated plainly, my shift has been one of positivity and optimism for our future. I have come to be less cynical in thinking that others, particularly white men, assumingly doubt or think less of me. Instead, I am taking this time as an opportunity to have people fully see and hear me.

What behaviors are you modeling for your children, and how do you continue to build their self-esteem during a time like this?

I want our daughter to be, first and foremost, kind. But I 116

Marilee and T.J. Holmes with their daughter Sabine 117

KNOWLEDGE IS

POWER

Combating racism through education

“In a racist society, it is not enough to be nonracist, we must be anti-racist.” — Angela Davis

books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander New Kid by Jerry Craft Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o What Is Given From the Heart by Patricia C. McKissack Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky: Tristan Strong,Book 1 by Kwame Mbalia Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks

by Jason Reynolds Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

by Junauda Petrus

Education is a vital tool in the fight for racial justice.

Explore the following anti-racism learning resources, compiled by activist, writer and filmmaker Sarah Sophie Flicker and social media strategist and writer Alyssa Klein in May 2020.

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS TO HELP RAISE ANTI-RACIST CHILDREN: The following publications are winners of The Coretta Scott King Book Award, an annual award given to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of 118

The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly and Winifred Conkling The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson March, Book Three by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem’s Greatest

Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the

Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely Firebird by Misty Copeland My People by Langston Hughes I Have a Dream by Kadir Nelson The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop by Laban Carrick Hill Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson The Crossover by Kwame Alexander Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America

by Andrea Davis Pinkney Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by

Kadir Nelson Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson Darius & Twig by Walter Dean Myers PODCASTS: Parenting Forward podcast episode “Five Pandemic Parenting Lessons With Cindy Wang Brandt” Fare of the Free Child podcast by Akilah S. Richards Integrated Schools podcast episode “Raising White Kids With Jennifer Harvey” CREATING A DIALOGUE IN YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL: Many private schools across New York City are addressing the racism that permeates America’s education system.

Instagram accounts have been created by many schools as a platform for black students to address these concerns, including Brearley (@blackatbrearley), The Dalton School (@blackatdalton) and The Chapin School (@chapinstudentsofcolor). Visit Purist ’s website for a full list of participating schools.

BOOKS FOR ADULTS TO READ: Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan S

tevenson Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold Redefining Realness by Janet Mock Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for

the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women

of Color by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira

Katznelson White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk

About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD

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RAISING A GLASS TO ACTRESS, ENTREPRENEUR, MOTHER, WIFE AND OENOLOGIST SARAH JESSICA PARKER.

Jem Mitchell

BY C R I S T I NA C UOMO

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Photo credit here.

lecture us about how we could answer the question: “Why are you wearing a black armband?” My mom was fighting apartheid and for civil rights on her college campus, and I’m so grateful for the activism she inspired in all of her children. I try to recall how my mother did it, and why it was important for her to make her children feel uncomfortable, inspired, called. It's OK for white people to feel uncomfortable right now. To ask the very hard questions...

It’s a lot to put on a child, so I don’t tell them THEY have fallen short. I tell them society has fallen short. I say that we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to make sure that everybody is enjoying the liberties and the freedoms that we assume, because it just isn’t happening for other families. We’re talking about it. They find places to protest.

They want to understand.

Cristina Cuomo: What did you read or listen to during the months of lockdown—any favorite podcasts?

Sarah Jessica Parker: More Perfect. It came out of Radiolab, produced by WNYC, and it's a podcast about Supreme Court rulings and presidents. It’s not dry; it’s academic, and every case that they examine is like reading a thriller. I listened to one about the Graham v. Connor Supreme Court ruling in 1989, and it’s very interesting to hear the origins of reasonable force. It’s an amazing case, and the one that set the precedent for reasonable force, which was meant to advocate for the defendant. It has somehow become a Fourth Amendment “objective reasonableness” standard for police officers, which of course has become an integral part of recent conversations and a large part of conversations about reform.

CC: You were doing Plaza Suite on Broadway with your husband, Matthew Broderick. How had that been for you?

SJP: I have to say it was one of the most extraordinary, fulfilling experiences in my professional life, working on a Neil Simon play that is set in a different time. My husband’s career is in large part due to Neil Simon.

His first two projects were Brighton Beach Memoirs and the movie Max Dugan Returns that he did with Jason Robards. All that early success was Neil Simon, and he’s a wonderful interpreter, so I got to work with someone who is just really good at it. The play was poised to be a wonderful, at least financial, success in New York. We’re disappointed, obviously, but our disappointment is held in perspective relative to what the rest of the world was experiencing, and real loss. We were about to do our first preview on the 13th of March and they told us, Get out by 5PM. My false eyelashes are still in that dressing room. As we walked away, I found a towel and just draped it over the makeup table, thinking what we all thought, that we’d be back in a few weeks.

CC: June is usually when a lot of the court decisions come down. We just had a major unexpected victory for the LGBTQ movement with the Supreme Court ruling that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination.

SJP: We are so accustomed now to a politically divided court that I couldn’t believe that decision. It was really incredible and yet surprising to hear an argument against it. We are a young nation, but we’re also a nation built on ideals. It’s frustrating, given in recent weeks how people are not getting the full advantage of our constitutional rights, people who are suffering, people who are marginalized and their voices aren’t heard or they’ve been victims of the lack of social justice reform. I cannot begin to know how dispiriting, disappointing, exhausting and how deeply sad it is to not feel heard.

CC: If there is no well-balanced society, no equality, there’s no well-being. How do you as a mother of three communicate that to your children and instill a sense of purpose as well as spiritual activism?

SJP: We talk about it really candidly. I want to make sure that they are understanding what we’re talking about, and that it is only scary if they retreat from it. Someone very wise said to me that children really want to be involved, and children give you the signs, or they stop asking questions when the conversation becomes too complex or too uncomfortabIe. This I mean, in particular, relative to my 10-year-old daughter. I grew up in a household of social activism. My parents were always protesting. From the time I was little, we wore black armbands to school when my parents believed people were being held as political prisoners. My mom used to cut up my father’s socks and make us wear them to school; she’d also sit us down and

CC: Now that the play is postponed until March 2021, what is your plan for the summer?

SJP: I plan to devote myself to my son for his senior year— just be there for him, and also travel when and if I can for the upcoming election. Also, to work on some Senate runs and things like that. I’ll be available in September outside of the ways in which I want to commit as a parent to my children, but I’m concerned about how we will do the old-fashioned canvassing now, I have always enjoyed that. Meeting people and hearing their thoughts, even when they are radically different than my own. I grew up working on campaigns like that. The super-local approach. So I'm wondering where we are going to be 122

“I will say that I have had a glass of wine every single day [of lockdown].

Every single day.

Every single day.”

everybody hates—and I walk fast. And even the other day my kids said, “You’ve got to slow down, you walk too fast, mama.” My mom walks fast. Everyone used to make fun of my mom because she walks so fast. So, all the Parkers walk really fast. My husband and I try to eat well, we cook all the time. But I also can’t tell you how many Swedish Fish I’ve eaten since March 14.

CC: Is that one of your tools for alleviating anxiety during this pandemic?

SJP: One that I sort of moved beyond, like chocolate licorice—Twizzlers makes chocolate licorice that I’m just absolutely mad for. I’ve eaten more Drake’s Cakes Yodels, which I love, and Oreos. My husband also makes beautiful popcorn. We make a lot of snacks, too.

CC: You’ve launched a new Invivo X by Sarah Jessica Parker rosé to follow the sauvignon blanc you launched last summer. I love the rosé—it’s delicious.

SJP: I will say that I have had a glass of wine every single day. Every single day. Every single day.

in September with COVID. It’s hard to know how to be a responsible citizen in terms of working on the campaign and visiting other states.

CC: Ha, well, it helps! And hopefully when this is all over we can have a toast with your rosé.

JP: I would love that.

Courtesy of Invivo X by Sarah Jessica Parker

CC: What does well-being mean to you?

SJP: I think a lot of what’s happened over the past few months prior to the killing of Mr. Floyd was about gratitude. Seeing how many families were affected by COVID-19, how many lives were lost, and how folks across the country were affected. We spent a lot of those first eight weeks together [on COVID lockdown] feeling so grateful to have food, to have a meal to cook. We ate every single leftover. We cleaned out the corner of every single bin of leftover food, every bowl, every plate, every Tupperware. We were trying to be really thoughtful about going to the grocery store, not over-buying. We were safe and warm and healthy, and that was in stark contrast to those whose lives were upended by the virus. So the gratitude I felt for our health and fortunate circumstances was the way I defined wellness.

CC: How do you stay healthy?

SJP: I walk a lot, I run after my kids, I move around a lot.

I just saw a friend the other day that I hadn’t seen since she came up to Boston to see the show in January; she visited recently, and we sat a nice distance from one another. And I said to her, these are the things that I want to do this summer, which I always say I’m going to do and then I change my mind. I love kayaking so much, and I’m always planning to rent one for a day. I count on walking for exercise. That’s why I love the city, because what’s in front of me is always changing. If I have a walk to the subway, then I make sure I take the stairs—the stairs that

Sarah Jessica Parker’s new Invivo X rosé

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BECOMING LITTLE WOMEN

overcome by an emotion whose purpose or source I could hardly explain or recognize. Was it nostalgia for something past? The world depicted seemed so remote from my usual one, where I was getting ready to go on the road with a series of concerts singing the songs of my mentor, Michel Legrand. The tour was to take me throughout America and on to London and Paris, and while this is not quite as glamorous as it may sound—a lot of small hotel rooms and rented gowns and sleepless nights in strange beds—still, I won’t pretend it doesn’t sound glamorous.

I was weeping. Not just crying, or quietly tearful—but full out shoulder-shaking and wracked with sobs, alone in my seat in a suburban movie theater. My three young daughters—the oldest, 13, the twins, 11—and I had just seen Greta Gerwig’s wonderful adaptation of Little Women, and they were surprised—maybe even alarmed— by my reaction. Oh, I react to plays and movies that move me—my friends tease me about being a “real emotional girl” after the Randy Newman song I love to sing—but this was, even I knew, something else. I sat in my seat, 124

All photos courtesy of Melissa Errico

Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel and 2019 film adaptation set a blueprint for family togetherness and resourcefulness during the pandemic. BY MELISSA ERRICO

Errico’s three daughters: Juliette, Diana and Victoria

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And then, scarcely a month later, the coronavirus crisis fell from the sky and everything was canceled and the world locked down and there we were, in that lost world, scarily exact. Four women, mother and daughters, alone in a suburban house on the East Coast of America, with me suddenly Marmee, raising three daughters in pure 19thcentury style. There was daily laundry to do and cooking to execute—I had never even unboxed the Cuisinart we’d gotten as a wedding gift—books to read out loud and lessons to do, and all this in a fatherless house. My sensitive Beth of a daughter, Diana, a girl who can sense everyone’s moods and is often the peacemaker, recognized it at once: “This is just like Little Women,” she said, “only with Dad in the basement instead of at the Civil War.” Well, the basement he was in was a kind of war zone, really, where he was fighting a noble battle—against the virus itself. The basement was the only place I could think of to put him. It was March 20 after dinnertime, and my husband seemed limp. He had been coughing for a few days and had had a disturbed night of sleep. I found him in our living room in the center of the sofa, seated and still.

Like the characters in Little Women, Errico and her daughters grew closer through hardship.

“I was thinking, Is 14 too young for this? But weren’t medieval queens already hard at work running France by her age? I couldn’t hide all this from Victoria.

I needed her help. I watched her grow up in those 10 minutes.”

I assessed the corner space, which had been a sort of still-unused but designated “man cave” for the past three years since we had, semi-reluctantly, left our 23-year life in lower Manhattan. Certain areas of the house just hadn’t been used or settled into. This was one of them, and now it was the most important corner ever. There was his desk and a pull-out sofa, and a TV. Tennis memorabilia filled windowsills, the Patrick McEnroe Wheaties box he once appeared on was sitting on a shelf, and there was a gallery wall of framed photos including a cover of Tennis magazine from the early 1980s where Patrick looked something like George Michael. Victoria is my tennisplaying Jo, with the same warrior nature, in which Jo and other girls did sports “to practice the graceful bound by which every girl expected to save her life some day when the mad bull, which was always coming but never seemed to arrive, should be bellowing at her heels,” quoting from Jo’s Boys, the final volume in Alcott’s Little Women series.

Well, the mad bull was here, and making this bed was our best defense. After struggling over the angle of the elasticized bottom sheet, we made him a nice bed. She looked satisfied but shell-shocked and I tried to correct myself, being cheerful and matter-of-fact about our haste.

“I haven’t been feeling well. I am sick. And now, I have a fever,” he said quietly. I went upstairs quickly and got the thermometer for the ear from the closet in Diana’s room. The shelf had other thermometers also, for under the tongue—some seemed dead; two were in Celsius.

I needed a temperature. Suddenly I was furious! Where is the simple thermometer from the 1970s that is glass and goes under your tongue and is accurate? I took the whole plastic box downstairs with six different modern battery-powered digital thermometers, put one in his ear, and pushed buttons at random. I imagined, with rage, Googling the Celsius equivalents, wanting to know if I was seeing a fever like 101 or 103…not 39 or whatever…. My impatience made me switch gadgets too quickly and soon his face was being attacked from every angle. Finally, I found the simplest one, which went under the tongue.

Back to the basics I had seen work as a child. Lift the tongue and wait.

It read 101. I looked at him and said, “I guess we have to treat you like you have the coronavirus until we know.” I called Victoria in what can only be described as a serious mom voice. I met her in the basement, and, with an arm full of Tylenol bottles, cough syrups and hand sanitizer, 126

where you are coming back from. Now the table was to become re-formed as a, well, table where you sit down and eat.

Meanwhile, his struggle down in the basement coincided exactly with my first week of homeschooling. On the first Monday, I didn’t know what a line of demarcation was. I said, “Oh that’s geometry!”…only to find out it was geography. I had to start to pay attention. Once I realized the virus was simultaneously stopping the world and had already arrived in our house, my instinct was to have a schedule. I thought about time even before I thought about germs. I thought about structuring time and immediately set expectations: beds made, wake-up time, cleaning rules, and created, with my child who is most resistant to militarism, a calendar for the entire house for cleaning.

Enlisting her turned out to be a good idea because she took some satisfaction out of having written the rules she was bound to resent. “Toilets on Friday,” for example.

My days were immediately dominated by being late for various Zooms, and consulting a large dry-erase board I converted into a family planner. I had to organize bodies in motion before I could even fathom the invisible pathogen of this coronavirus. As much as before, but now inside the house, I thought where they needed to be next, and how to get them there. Cleaning became the next priority in my first triangle of concerns. I had a bottle of Clorox. I diluted it in a bucket and started to wash surfaces, all day, but with a kind of grand closure at 8PM, after dinner and before I turned off the kitchen light. The beginning of this virus was all about washing hands. My thinking went from my

I was thinking, Is 14 too young for this? But weren’t medieval queens already hard at work running France by her age?

I couldn’t hide all this from Victoria. I needed her help. I watched her grow up in those 10 minutes.

I called my parents. My father—an 80-year-old Italian American, a surgeon and a Vietnam vet—became all those things but in reverse order. “Find a shower curtain,” he said. “Nail it to the wall if you have to,” charmingly added my mother, who lived through Vietnam with a newborn child. “You don’t want cloth. You don’t want moisture to get through. You don’t want to clean it.” I have no idea what Crazy Moment Angel descended that second, but I reached to the bottom shelf near the laundry machine, and my hand fell on a large new white shower curtain, folded and waiting. I have no idea who bought it, how I knew it was there. I did know where the hammer was, and I started taking nails and creating a vinyl wall.

My 50th birthday was approaching, a time at once terrible and opportune. In the months before, I had become simply staggered by the momentum of life, as if my hair were permanently swept behind me by a wind in which I was caught. And my children were moving too, constantly, from suburbs to city, from school to tennis courts, on highways and cars and occasional carpools.

Connections were so exact that we would plan to meet in certain parking lots so the car a child was jumping into would already turn onto a road facing the correct direction toward a freeway entrance. There wasn’t even time to do a U-turn. My three daughters had laid out their interests—ballet, music, tennis—and though they were hardly too many disciplines, the trend is to take at least one activity three or more times a week. Can I ever just have my kids home? I’d thought. What would it be like if I just had a whole summer alone with my family?

Suddenly, that prayer was answered. I don’t remember the day of my birthday, but I do remember what we called my birthday party at the kitchen table—one of the last moments of the quarantine where the four of us sat at the kitchen table for dinner. In the months that followed, we began to use the dining room, which we had never used at all. During one of our first meals there, Juliette, my pretty, artistic and prickly Amy, said, “We never use this table. I think I’ve only been in here on Christmas and Thanksgiving.” Truthfully, we used the table every day— but as a place to leave book bags and dance bags and school instruments and school forms. It had been a place to drop and collect the accoutrements of the next action.

The house is small and the dining room is near the front door—and the front door, until now, had been the hearth.

Everything used to circle around that front door—the main theme of every day being: Where you are going and

Keeping spirits high with music during quarantine

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hands to…where else is this virus? And where had Patrick been this week? Incessantly, I washed my hands, surfaces, even (my own invention) my nose with soap. I monitored the kids and had them shower more often, especially after they helped clean the house. I opened windows in some sort of old-fashioned gesture, believing the wind would bring health, the cool air could cleanse. I was suddenly a colonial mother who was also glued to the television and the internet. I invented ideas of wellness to pass to three young girls who looked to me for direction. I said everyone needed fresh air, and a walk after dinner. I shared what I had read and told them to drink less ice, and offered them tea at night. My kids tried everything I proposed, and I had them watch (literally) five minutes of news each night at 6PM, so they would know we were doing what we had to do. Little acts of control made them less afraid. What we could do, we would do! And we were being asked to stay home, to help the country, to help older people, to help all people, to help hospitals, and we would. And Daddy was not too sick, but he had to be serious and so we would be serious. We had to run our house.

But I also knew we needed something frivolous to happen, to make the days gay. And so, I started a cooking show in the kitchen. I had never cooked much in my life, and I called some friends and asked for some basic tips.

The first time I tried to make a dish with a familiar but fancy title was on a cold March night when I made chicken cacciatore, after which I set my phone on its side and texted a video to my friend. I leaned into the camera and briefly explained that this recipe is nothing more than pasta sauce with peppers added and sautéed chicken pieces soaked in. Easier than I had thought! I had a glass of wine in one hand and an apron on. It was 14 seconds of video and I was tipsy and exhausted. I ended up posting on Facebook and hundreds of people could relate to my exhaustion and enjoyed the apron, and a new view on maybe a familiar actress friend who wasn’t often tipsy and making dinner with no makeup and a bundle of dirty hair. The next night, I was given a recipe from a friend for sweet potatoes with North African spice rub. I filmed it to share it on Instagram, and my daughter walked into the kitchen and joined me on camera as a co-star. I filmed two to three dishes a week and collected recipes and enjoyed some of the backstory from my recipe books—a favorite turned out to be the fact that pesto appeared in an ancient Roman poem by Virgil.

Having a cooking show in our kitchen served a few purposes: One, it was familiar. “Mommy is getting ready for her show.” And “I have a show today. I am printing my script. I am setting up a light. Showtime.” And the obvious other purpose: IT FED THE FAMILY. The next purposes I didn’t

“We are a family like every other family, and we hurt and we heal and we hang together.”

exactly know were: the comfort it offered the kids and the way it amused Patrick, who watched me film often from the window outside. My “show” signaled to him and to the girls that all was well, and gave us a way to sit down at night to eat, unified together with the food, if not with our bodies. Needless to say, a really good dinner brought our dining room the pleasures of scent, taste and discussion. The words beef Bourguignon always struck me as pretentious and deeply culinary, a realm bordered by domestic-police tape saying “Do Not Enter.” Well, I made beef Bourguignon!!

Which took three days. It was such a good feeling for something to go well that took three days to figure out—and which also took those three days out of the interminable list of days that were starting to stitch to other days.

Patrick’s corona illness was, as so many cases seem to be, both manageable—he never got much worse than on the first night—and severe; he was significantly short of breath for weeks, and it took a long time for him to fully recover. “Away at war,” he became a sort of phantom on the property. We saw Dad on the lawn. He walked the dog, Pepper, and returned. I would see him from my window, or stand at a distance. He stayed cheerful. He went to the New Rochelle drive-thru with only Pepper for company to get a test. His result came back in 24 hours and he was indeed confirmed positive for COVID-19. We spent a total of three weeks passing meals under the shower curtain and smiling through windows. A man who has never figured out how to use our family printer, or really any other gadget, was in the basement all day—and I 128

class people to survive a series of crises—the Civil War, a pandemic of scarlet fever—while accepting that it will be a struggle, with everyone divided inside herself. My three daughters feel like four. Maybe it is four because in some way, I am a sister and a mother. I am Jo sometimes, and I am Marmee, though in the past I was often mistaken for a Meg. I drift between roles, and my daughters know it, and they, too, drift between roles themselves. Sometimes Diana is Jo, sometimes Beth, everyone is sometimes Jo. Juliette doesn’t see Amy how she is, and that is OK. They all long to be Meg, because of course Meg has the most princess-like life and the prettiest frocks. There is, I see now, a cure, a medicine, in a story—and sometimes the cure comes when we don’t know what the illness ahead may be. Part of me is still seated in that movie theater crying. I see now that watching the movie, I wasn’t sure if what I was responding to might be longing for the lost world of Little Women. Now, I know that it’s the opposite: I was longing for the chance of the future world where the same good values and hard

reminded him that his lifelong dream of having a podcast was in a box down there. He actually owned a podcast machine. With that isolation and with Pepper’s steady and loving gaze, Patrick launched Holding Court With Patrick McEnroe, and between naps and relapses of shortness of breath, he interviewed a host of friends and tennis lovers and started to live a dream of his.

After four weeks he tested negative, and we had a sense that the war was over. Well, that war. But the next war becomes the fact that this virus…globally…isn’t going to end all that quickly. With every passing day, it seems, endurance is the war. How to pace this kind of enclosure.

Do I keep our life going as usual, as best I can? Do we keep taking ballet? I can’t think why we would stop. I have to keep their lives resembling their lives. So, we have ballet, they make murals on the street in chalk. Juliette painted a section of the driveway with permanent acrylic paint, by mistake—she didn’t know it was permanent—so now her large white square filled with hand-painted daisies sits

“My three daughters feel like four. Maybe it is four because in some way, I am a sister and a mother. I am Jo sometimes, and I am Marmee, though in the past I was often mistaken for a Meg. I drift between roles.” work could hold, where my daughters and I could inhabit the characters, embody their struggles, become little women...which means, big ones.

They did a scene from Little Women for Mother’s Day, but we ran out of time to do more. In the one scene they performed, Jo was saying how men are a trap and how flirting is only going to get you nowhere. But there was also fun talk about getting dressed up nice, and Laurie entered. Diana, as Amy and Laurie, courted herself, and will presumably in the next installment have to save herself from the ice. I hope Mother’s Day lasts a few weeks and that my busy fairies will find time to do the play even if one run-through takes a few sessions, even if it takes a summer. Things are different in show business now, even in this show. A one-hour production may take weeks and I will still follow the story, as it’s my story to fill in anyway, hour by hour—the solidarity of the four of us, carpentering every day. Quietly inside me, my own threads of yarn sew my heart together, as it unravels for the discomforts and unease of the world. Yarn that pulls my heart wider; that stitches and mends and knots and collects, days upon days, colorful, as these girls unroll to me in their individual unguarded splendor and honesty of self. I can’t tell if the days are long or short. Day turns to lunch to laundry to eternity to brevity.

on our otherwise black driveway as a tattoo of this time of hardship and painted daisies. There are more cooking shows, and pointe shoes, and I learned to do haircuts, and all three are tie-dying T-shirts in the basement sink. There have been some emotional fights. The broken vacuum was a saga. We are a family like every other family, and we hurt and we heal and we hang together.

The movie and book still haunt me. I’ve learned since that Bronson Alcott, the father of the family, who is presented in his fictional role as missing from most of the action, was actually present in the house throughout the war, while it was Louisa—“Jo”—who went to Washington, D.C., as a nurse: In her book, she made the passive man of the house into the one who had gone to the front to minister to the soldiers.

It was only the success of his daughter’s book that then allowed Bronson, a pioneering abolitionist, the freedom to pursue his utopian educational plans (access to schooling regardless of race). Louisa’s imagination supported her Dad’s idealism. As a novelist, she rewrote her own father, making him bolder, getting him, imaginatively, out of the house—closer to the battle for racial equality.

It’s one more way in which the novel of Little Women, when you think about it, is hyper-contemporary. It seems to be about old-fashioned comfort, but on closer inspection is really about the muscular struggle of ordinary middle129

Courtesy of Thaler Photography

PLAY

Ballerina Aesha Ash brings the art of dance to her hometown of Rochester.

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PURE LOVE

Ballerina Aesha Ash is using her expertise to break through racial and socioeconomic barriers in the world of dance. BY OMENAA BOAKYE a charity that now works to expose more African American kids to ballet and tackle the lack of diversity within the industry. “I want to help change the demoralized, objectified and caricatured images of African American women by showing the world that beauty is not reserved for any particular race or socioeconomic background.

I want our youth to know that they are not limited by stereotypes or by their environment, but only by their dreams,” says Ash. In 2018, Ash expanded the Swan Dreams Project into a summer camp in her hometown. “The whole idea of the camp is to impart onto these kids everything I experienced as a ballet dancer. It was by those experiences that I feel empowered, that I’m not intimidated by any environment that I am put in,” says Ash. The summer camp is held for kids aged 9 to 13 and includes classes in ballet, nutrition, etiquette and art. Field trips and workshops with classical singers are also provided. “I want to expose the kids to a world outside their day-to-day, to different art forms and cultures. The more we are exposed to, the more our eyes, minds and hearts are open.” theswandreamsproject.org

Dancing creates freedom and joy known all too well by accomplished ballerina Aesha Ash. As a retired professional ballet dancer, she danced on some of the world’s grandest stages for 13 years. Growing up in an impoverished community in inner-city Rochester, New York, Ash decided at a young age that she wanted to redefine the typical stereotypes placed upon women of color from low-income communities and persevere in a career as a ballerina, an art form known to be very homogeneous. At 18 years old, Ash became one of the few women of color who have danced with the New York City Ballet, where she remained for eight years. Her career has seen her perform numerous soloist and principal roles for different companies throughout Europe, the United States and Australia.

Despite her success, Ash recalls often feeling lonely. “I did not see many images that looked like me. I would look in books and magazines and everything that was talking about a ballerina was every other image but my own. It was often a challenge to be the only woman of color— you’re in class, you’re the only one. You’re on stage, you’re the only one.” In 2011, Ash started the Swan Dreams Project,

Renee Scott

Ash’s charity, Swan Dreams Project, works to create more diversity in ballet.

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AT A GLANCE

Stay connected to the East End community online through art, astronomy and meditation.

BY GABRIELLE ECHEVARRIETA will be sent out 15 minutes before the event to registered attendees. easthamptonlibrary.org

JULY 6 LIVE Meditation Neil Toyota, resident teacher at Kadampa Meditation Center, will guide online participants to inner zen through foundational Buddhist meditation teachings. From 1-2:30PM. Free. Zoom link will be sent out 15 minutes before the event to registered attendees. easthamptonlibrary.org

JULY 25 The Ellen Hermanson Foundation Virtual Summer Gala Join The Ellen Hermanson Foundation for a virtual celebration to raise funds for The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and satellite locations in Hampton Bays and East Hampton, as well as Ellen’s Well, a free psychosocial support program. The event will proudly honor Purist Editor-in-Chief Cristina Cuomo. From $120. Register at ellenhermanson.org

JULY 9 Contemplative Aromatherapy and the Safe Use of Essential Oils Expert practitioners will facilitate aromatherapy-assisted meditation and a gentle yoga practice, and take a deep dive into the power of essential oils. $35. Link will be sent to registrants 15 minutes before the event. mandalayoga.com JULY 11 What’s in The Sky This Month An astronomer leads a guided tour of celestial bodies, both visible to the naked eye and through binoculars and telescopes. Jupiter and Saturn will be at opposition, the optimal time to witness these distant planets.

This lecture will be held virtually from Custer Observatory in Southold. Free with suggested charitable donation.

An access link will be emailed

to registrants prior to the event. custerobservatory.org JULY 11 Calm Together: Meditation DJ Live Stream Soundbath Experience Meditators across the world unite online through the tranquil sounds of crystal bowls, drums, gongs and more.

Immersion in the sacred vibrations of these instruments will calm and rejuvenate mind and spirit. Suggested donation of $15–$20. Visit meditation dj.com for Zoom link and password.

JULY 18 Discussion with Nutritionist and Author Lyn-Genet Recitas Lyn-Genet Recitas, bestselling author of The Plan, breaks down the science behind weight loss, aging and inflammation, and how to optimize your health using a customized nutritional plan. Free. Zoom link 132

AUGUST 1 Gala in Your Garden - Stony Brook Southampton Hospital 62nd Annual Summer Party This hybrid virtual and in-person event benefits The Jenny & John Paulson Emergency Department and The Healthcare Heroes Fund, and includes a party-delivery service for up to 10 people, sponsored by local restaurants and florists. A virtual program will unite socially distanced attendees for a toast to our health care heroes. Visit southampton.stonybrookmedicine.edu for more information.

AUGUST 6-9 Author’s Night The East Hampton Library’s annual Author’s Night goes digital this year, featuring a series of conversations with over a dozen renowned writers, including Julie Andrews, Robert A. Caro, Ibram X. Kendi and Allison Pataki, daughter of former New York Gov. George Pataki. Visit authorsnight.org, or call 631.324.0222 x7 for pricing and information.

Courtesy of Random House

JULY 6 Pollinator Gardens Learn how to transform your garden into a haven for pollinators, like butterflies, birds and bees. This event will cover key pollinator plants for each season, plus the best colors and arrangements to attract beneficial species. Free. Zoom link will be sent out 15 minutes before the event to registered attendees. easthamptonlibrary.org

COACHES

How knockout artist Leyon Azubuike finds inner peace. BY DIMITRI EHRLICH

Photo credit here. @simonneedhamphotography

Azubuike has trained Jennifer Aniston and Khloé Kardashian.

that point rather than feel defeated,” he says. “There is always another way forward.”

Although to the uninitiated, boxing can seem like a matter of brute violence, at the sport’s highest level there is an intricacy that’s more like a game of chess— albeit extremely physical chess. One of the key qualities a successful boxer must have is the ability to deal with setbacks without being conquered mentally. This is, of course, a lesson that can also be applied outside the ring. “Life has many ups and downs,” says Azubuike.

“Sometimes things that seem negative can actually prove to be a huge, positive turning point in your life. It’s easy to respond quickly, but it’s always better to let your emotions settle before coming to a decision.”

While boxing is now widely appreciated as a fun way to get in shape, there’s no avoiding the reality that as a sport, it is a deadly serious business, and boxing gyms can be intimidating places to step into. Despite his hulking presence, Azubuike is a gentle soul with a warm smile, and he’s found success by creating a workout that’s welcoming and accessible to all. “Sometimes people get intimidated by the sport,” he explains. “It’s a sport that involves a lot of discipline. The workout is very physical, it’s hard, but it’s fun. It’s also a very good mental workout as well. It relieves stress. It’ll take any bad energy you have and kind of leave you void of that—because after an hour of a boxing workout you don’t have the energy to be mad at anyone….

Boxing can be a very zen workout.” gloveworx.com

There’s a saying in boxing: Train hard to fight easy. In fact, months of preparation go into the 36 minutes of action that comprise a professional 12-round fight. And while the physical training is grueling, ask any champion and they will tell you the same thing: The mental aspect is the toughest. Leyon Azubuike, a trainer to the stars who fought as a U.S. Nationals heavyweight competitor, knows that getting into fighting shape isn’t just a physical challenge.

In a sport that involves making strategic split-second decisions while an opponent is literally trying to knock you unconscious, the ability to remain calm under pressure is more important than chiseled abs and rock-hard biceps (though it helps to have those, too).

Azubuike’s father was a boxer, so the sweet science has always been part of his life, but as a teen he was more passionate about basketball and football. He became a captain of the football team at Temple University, but his NFL dreams were cut short by a knee injury in his senior year. And so he turned to boxing, making it onto the U.S. national team.

After retiring as a competitive fighter, Azubuike became a personal trainer and entrepreneur, eventually opening his own gym, Gloveworx, with locations in LA and New York.

He has trained Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Love Hewitt and NFL star Cam Newton, and last year he appeared on the Khloé Kardashian-hosted show, Revenge Body. The key to his success? The same mental toughness and problemsolving mentality that’s critical in the ring. “I think part of what made me successful was that I was able to pivot at 133 2

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FOR LITTLE ONES, THE SHOW MUST GO ON

The Virtual Babysitters Club enlists talents from Broadway and beyond to entertain kids. BY RAY ROGERS

times, he hosts the international touring shows of the America’s Got Talent brand, and spent the past two years hosting MasterChef Junior Live! shows across the country.

For the VBC, he creates game shows to entertain kids from as young as 3 years old, and hosts live trivia-game sessions himself (Beat the Board, for ages 7 and up, and Smarty Pants for the 3- to 6-year-old set).

“We’re creating virtual escape rooms for kids, which we call ‘Breakout Adventures,’ interactive puzzle games, and other creative ways to engage kids through a screen that isn’t your average Netflix or social media,” says Shane. “Kids have a great time, and it gives the parents the opportunity to keep working—or just breathe for a while.”

This summer, families can send their children to virtual summer camp. “Kids can spend days with us and get a taste of all we have to offer,” says Shane. With over 75 performers already in the company, the young audiences are in for a special experience. “We believe a lot of the content we create is enriching and educational for these kids, but it’s definitely entertainment first.”

The VBC had such success with the kids that parents are now seeking out the services for adult groups. And the enterprising performers have their eyes set on another community in need: seniors. “We know how isolated they’ve been during this pandemic, and we’re excited to bring them some joy,” says Shane. virtualbabysittersclub.com

While the bright lights of Broadway are currently dimmed, the Virtual Babysitters Club is helping families stay entertained and giving performers of all stripes the opportunity to do what they do best: Put on a show.

“When the pandemic hit, the entire entertainment industry came to a halt,” says Casey Shane, who has been a core member of the Virtual Babysitters Club since the idea germinated with co-founders Kyle Reilly and Kristina Hanford. “This all started because for the whole performing community—actors, artists, set designers, lighting designers, you name it—everything came to a stop: No more tours, no more shows. We couldn’t do what we love to do. This idea has re-inspired us as artists. Now we all have this incredible opportunity to continue doing our craft. What better way to do that than to continue to create—and to do it for kids?”

Parents can book individual or group sessions in areas such as dance, music, art and story time for their children, enlisting Broadway performers, Juilliard-trained musicians and international puppeteers to delight their little ones while they work. All sessions are done virtually over secure Zoom rooms; parents can check in throughout the session or watch from another device.

Shane, the son of two Broadway performers, followed the family tradition, spending years performing offBroadway before embarking on a hosting career. In normal 134

Ben White

The Virtual Babysitters Club makes screen time educational and engaging.

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The Corcoran Group is a licensed real estate broker located at 660 Madison Ave, NY, NY 10065. All listing phone numbers indicate listing agent direct line unless otherwise noted. All information furnished regarding property for sale or rent or regarding financing is from sources deemed reliable, but Corcoran makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy thereof. All property information is presented subject to errors, omissions, price changes, changed property conditions, and withdrawal of the property from the market, without notice. All dimensions provided are approximate. To obtain exact dimensions, Corcoran advises you to hire a qualified architect or engineer.

P L AY

NUMEROLOGY

A by-the-numbers look at Shaun King, racial justice activist, co-founder of The Real Justice PAC and Grassroots Law Project, and author of Make Change, out August 4.

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4

King’s political action committee, Real Justice, uses these four tactics to mobilize voters: distributed field organizing, digital-media outreach, small-dollar fundraising, and candidate recruitment.

3.5

King currently has over 3.5 million followers on Instagram, a powerful platform for racial-justice activism.

2018 The year King received his master’s degree in history from Arizona State University.

5

Shaun King has five children with his wife, Rai King.

“If you ever wondered what you would do if you were alive during the civil rights movement, now is the time to find out.”

With three planets in Virgo, Shaun King is the quintessential writer and journalist. Virgo is ruled

by Mercury, which conjures the mastery of the written and spoken word. Virgos are famous for shying away from the limelight, but Saturn runs through King’s chart, so it was destiny that he would emerge as a revered activist. His work with the Black Lives Matter movement shows his genuine drive to bring about much-needed order in the chaos of our current political moment, something Virgos are born to do.

—Horoscope by Karen Thorne

18

600

King is one of roughly 600 Oprah Winfrey Scholars, a scholarship program through King’s alma mater, Morehouse College.

Shaun King and his wife, Rai, have been married for 18 years.

136

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The year Jeffery Shaun King was born on September 17 in Versailles, Kentucky.

25

King was honored as one of Time’s 25 most influential people on the internet in 2018.

THREE

King was a victim of a hate crime in high school, suffering numerous injuries and undergoing three spinal surgeries as a result.

He claims that this pivotal moment changed the trajectory of his life and inspired his career in racial-justice activism.

@shaunking

At age 20, King became one of the youngest Student Government Association presidents elected at Morehouse College, and the first sophomore.

A CNN ORIGINAL SERIES