Coz McNooz Winter 2020 by University of Redlands

reality. As with so many other institutions, Johnston has had to adapt. So, our fall semester was almost entirely virtual. For students in need, we are providing a food pantry funded by two alumni donors— Janet Hoffman and Peter Broffman. We cannot thank them enough! For this work and so much more, the University-wide alumni publication, the Och Tamale Magazine, featured Johnston prominently in its Fall 2020 edition. Covid is with us for sure, and yet, we are keeping our community vibrant. Community meetings are still every Tuesday at 4pm. Open mic nights are still a thing. The first year seminar has welcomed almost 30 new students— yes, 30, in the middle of a pandemic!— under the guidance of Kelly Hankin and her four peer advisors: Dani Gomez, Jahmari Johnson, Sara McMahon, and Nikki Ramirez. New students were all enrolled in at least one additional Johnston seminar. And we had a great slate of innovative, dynamic, collaborative seminars. This fall semester we offered: California Dreaming; Election Narratives; Existential Psychology; Living Together; Medicine, Machines, Bodies; Movement Lab; Op-Ed; Storytelling & Ethnicity. The Student Project Fund was able to support a dozen students this semester,

Photo by Coco McKown / Mural by Mallory Ruparel (‘18)

Hello Johnston Alumni and Community, It is nice to be able to write to you, on the occasion of the publication of the Winter 2020 edition of The Coz McNooz. This edition of the Coz highlights some ongoing efforts within Johnston to maintain and expand our efforts in experimental curriculum, hosting of virtual community events by our wonderful Community Interns, the interaction between current students and alumni—and especially those supported through the Kathryn Green lecture series, as well as highlighting some business and public works partnerships spearheaded in the City of Redlands by our very own Johnston

alums. This issue of the Coz also marks the loss of a number of our community members, who live on with us in our memories, in our physical spaces, and in our certainty that their time with us will echo through future generations of Johnston students. Many of you might be wondering about Johnston in the era of Covid. Most of you will remember, at least partially, a living-learning community that was based on a very physical kind of interpersonal learning. Community meetings, seminars, office hours, porch parties, community meals, Kathryn Green alumni speakers, activist projects, studying on the lawn: this and so much more had a three-dimensional

even though our precious Vintage Johnston fundraiser had to be canceled. This is thanks, in large part, due to the generous contributions of alumni in previous years, ongoing support, and prudent financial decisions by Johnston Directors prior to me. Students continue to advocate for change—Johnston students and community members were central to planning an anti-racist protest in Redlands. They were part of the planning process for our Public Square Conversations, which address issues of social justice within and beyond the campus. What I am suggesting to you is that even though we cannot be together, even in a virtual space (to borrow the title of Professor Youna Kwak’s seminar) we are still living together. Virtual community is an analogue to but not a substitute for physical togetherness. We’ll get back to that place, in some way, as soon as possible. But for now, we are working hard to keep the everydayness of our community enervated in online space. All Best, Tim Seiber

Photo by Coco McKown / Mural by Mallory Ruparel (‘18)

KathryN Green LecTure SeriEs PaiNting a Full CiRcle wiTh JEwel PaTtersOn By M. G. Maloney ‘03

Currently a graduate student at California State University-San Bernardino pursuing a master’s degree in Counseling, Jewel is in the unique, narrative therapy program where Johnston College alumna, Lorraine Hedtke teaches and runs the program. Jewel took a storytelling approach to her lecture and described a “full-circle” feeling to her life. She began by bringing attendees back in time to what it was like for her growing up in the Inland Empire/San Bernardino county in the 2000s. “I actually saw in some places that the grass was literally greener than where I was living. It created this dichotomy and I had questions about it.” Jewel asked the audience to imagine the world she saw as a child. “So, picture it. Little Jewel growing up in Black and Brown communities, going to school in pre-dominantly white spaces. What do you think Little Jewel said or did after seeing that contrast?”

Going with the flow after a technical glitch, and not receiving anticipated audience participation, Jewel continued without missing a beat. “I’ve asked folks this question before and some folks are like, ‘I don’t know. She didn’t do nothing because that’s what kids do.’ And others are like, ‘I know what Little Jewel would do. She’d go, ‘What is going on with this injustice?’” Jewel clarified what actually happened. “I was not talking about injustice. I was not even talking much. And I’ll tell you how that happened.” From there Jewel wove a beautiful story from her familial upbringing to how she found her voice as a young activist in 8th grade when the administration of her school attempted to cancel the graduation ceremony. The students organized, wrote a petition, collected signatures and it worked—the graduation ceremony was saved. In high school, Jewel took another approach. “Around the grief of Trayvon Martin, I felt like I had all these emotions and I wanted to let them out. I wanted to protest in some way. I couldn’t be on the streets, so how could I? So, I decided to make a sweatshirt with his face on it that said, ‘Hands up, don’t shoot.’ And that was my way of understanding what I could do. How I could maybe use something—my voice—from where I was.”

One of the ways Jewel did that was through individualized Africana studies. She said, “I did a lot of research and started to read and see parts of my story told by other people all over the world and far back in time.” Jewel continued, “I realized at some point during this reawakening what Audre Lorde said— ‘When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in service of my vision then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.’ So when I dared to ask questions that made people uncomfortable, when I dared to give input that made me feel uncomfortable, that’s when I found my voice.” During Jewel’s senior year, she and her classmates in the student collective, Project Real, organized the “Forum on Diversity and Race Relations” centering students’ first-hand experiences of racism at the U of R. Despite the forum’s success with over 600 attendees in Orton Center, Jewel found it trying to translate the powerful organizing experience onto her resume. “Amongst those post-undergrad feelings was fear that I would lose my voice again. I felt like it was tied to the campus in a lot of ways. Like this big bad world didn’t know about Project Real and how we packed out Orton with Students of Color talking about their experiences. Nobody knew about that. There were no jobs asking about it.”

Entering Johnston in the fall of 2012, Jewel said; “By the time I got to Johnston, it was a little different. Something in me was on fire.” Jewel’s Johnston degree began as a concept of “Reawakening” and grew into

Jewel was encouraged by Professor Jen Tilton to check-out Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement (C.O.P.E.), a community-based organization in San Bernardino. She was hired and continues to work there today. “C.O.P.E. gave me a chance. And in true Johnston fashion, we actually sat down and created my position there as the Youth Organizer. We developed and fine-tuned a leadership program out of an idea that I had—to get Black students in a room and reawaken them by integrating activism, Black history, and art (similar to what I felt like helped me awaken myself ).” She continued, “It was through C.O.P.E. that I was able to see that the papers I was writing in Jen Tilton’s classes about racism and inequity and injustice—those words were not just words. They actually affected the communities that I lived in.” Before the question and answer portion of the program, Jewel left us some with universal wisdom to pass on. “In closing, use your voice even if you’re still finding it. Ask questions. Do research. Give input. But also back that up with some action. And in true Johnston style, you can put your passions into your creativity. You can integrate it all together and all of that is what will help make the world a better place than what it was yesterday.” To connect with Jewel, she recommends reaching out via social media @JustJewel__And for more information on how to attend the virtual Kathryn Green Lectures this spring, please provide your email information here. Or simply follow the Johnston Center’s Instagram or Facebook pages.

But shortly after graduating from Johnston,

Legacy alum Jewel Patterson is the third Redlands graduate and second Johnston alum (shout-out Nick Dailey) in her family. So it definitely felt like a homecoming to invite Jewel to give the first Kathryn Green lecture of the 2020-21 academic year. Jewel selected “Brown Skinned Girl” by Beyoncé to play in the background as alumni, students, faculty, and staff arrived for her Lecture. But we weren’t in Holt Lobby and Jewel immediately addressed the strangeness of the virtual environment. “I wish we could be in person and I wish I could hug all of you. I wish that we could all be on the porch later, making whoever lives in that room, life’s hell because no, we’re not going to turn it down. But here we are, today.”

“Black Personhood: Activism, Arts & Africana Studies”. Jewel took some time to describe its fine-tuning. “I started to see how deliberate and how violent racism could be and how it actually had an effect on me. And I was tired. I don’t know if Julie (Townsend) remembers this— but me coming to your office and saying, ‘Listen, I just want to graduate in being a Black woman in America. So how do I put that into a contract? How do I do that?”

Photo courtesy of Jewel Patterson

KathryN Green LecTure SeriEs PaiNting a Full CiRcle wiTh JEwel PaTtersOn By M. G. Maloney ‘03

But shortly after graduating from Johnston,

Photo courtesy of Jewel Patterson

Facilitating 20/20 Learning Still, Living Together By Youna Kwak, Lossett Visiting Assistant Professor

Photo by Kelly Hankin

Teaching Election Narratives By Kelly Hankin, Professor of Film Studies

It only took me two decades of teaching in Johnston to realize that, as a media scholar, I should teach a course on the media narratives of elections. So, in the midst of a global pandemic and a spectacularly bananas election season, “Election Narratives” was born. Twice a week, students and I embarked on a semester-long investigation into how elections are shaped by the stories told about them. There was much to explore! We delved into campaign narratives, linking Reese Witherspoon’s brilliant turn as Tracy Flick in Election (1999) to Quintus Tullius Cicero’s ancient campaign advice to his brother Marcus, and we compared the documentary techniques of male-driven campaign narratives in The War Room (1993) to women-of-color campaign narratives in Knock Down the House (2019). Conspiracy and corruption narratives were also parsed, from communist spies in the White House (The Manchurian Candidate, 1962) to “faithless electors” (Chiafalo v. Washington, decided July 6, 2020). Turning to suffrage narratives, we explored how the design choices in the award-winning graphic memoir March: Book Three (2016), written by the late Congressman John Lewis,

Andrew Aydin, and illustrated by Nate Powell, revealed the trauma and triumph leading up to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The visual rhetoric of pro and anti-suffragist movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries was also explored in this last section of the course, which helped the students better understand the visual rhetoric of contemporary retellings of women’s suffrage. And, as we closed the semester, the class focused on the art of losing, indulging in the documentary schadenfreude that is the film Weiner (2016) and examining parody as a form of grieving and political catharsis (e.g., Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton performing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on Saturday Night Live during election week 2016). Focusing on these political losses at a time when President Trump is unwilling to concede power was not lost on all of us. Indeed, we as a class won’t know the end of this particularly gruesome political narrative until much later, and we as a country don’t know what the future holds. As Isaac Asimov’s science fiction voting story “Franchise” (1955) reminded us at the very beginning of the semester, the future of democracy is dependent on how well we pay attention to its present.

The aim of the Johnston seminar “Living Together” was to ask how communal forms of living together can create conditions for amity, desire, justice and support, departing from the model of the neo-liberal, bourgeois nuclear family. How can alternative modes of living together offer different possibilities for intimacy, stability, and care? What unique challenges present difficulties for marginalized forms of living together? The intention of the seminar was to eventually reflect on the specific paradigms and possibilities suggested by the Johnstonian live-work model—a goal that was obviously disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. But we persisted! Since the Johnston community was physically dispersed, we seized the opportunity to delve even deeper into what it means for us to live together— right now. Present conditions of confinement, isolation, and precarity opened new avenues of exploration and thought, as we immersed ourselves in the ethical questions of communal living that are perhaps only more pertinent in situations of crisis. Together, we watched episodes of the series Pose and Tales of the City, while simultaneously chatting on videoconference, to interrogate the promises and pitfalls of “chosen families.” We read and listened to Dean Spade and Jia Tolentino in articles and podcasts about mutual aid in the era of COVID-19. We watched videos by the Barnard Center for Women to analyze pathways to community accountability and self-accountability. We listened to Ruth Gilmore Wilson deconstruct racial capitalism and prison abolition. We read, watched, listened, and discussed these and many other writers, scholars, and

thinkers, to study how different communities create structures of care, responsibility, self-sufficiency, and equality, especially as a response to catastrophe. We also looked at specific examples of communal living: Wilson’s “pop-up university” on the outskirts of Lisbon; Samuel Delany’s memoir of 1960s commune life; T Fleischman’s descriptions of ad hoc rural enclaves of transfolk; and 1970s landdyke movements in rural Oregon that continue to exist, in some form, to this day. Among the many valuable lessons I learned during this semester of remote learning was how to be more flexible and fluid about integrating online sources, including archived video and audio, podcasts, streaming events, websites, as well as “traditional” textual documents accessed through digital annotation tools. And what I am most thrilled to see: how each seminar participant is productively applying what we’ve discussed together to their own area of interest and study. I am so excited that students’ final projects represent a huge range of genres and disciplines: documentary film, creative writing, art, research and personal essays; biology, education, history, literature, psychology, and sociology. After 15 weeks of our intellectual living together, each seminar participant is now following their own passion and expertise to create something unique out of what they have learned. What this means to me is that despite our physical distance, we have managed to form community, by being authentically present to one another, in all our difference. Our living together this semester has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my teaching career.

Facilitating 20/20 Learning Still, Living Together By Youna Kwak, Lossett Visiting Assistant Professor

Photo by Kelly Hankin

Teaching Election Narratives By Kelly Hankin, Professor of Film Studies

An INtErviEw... wITh The INternS, By The INternS! Hello CozMcNooz readers! Community meeting? Porch party? Impromptu and promptu Bekins lawn gatherings? The JAVAS?!?! FIRST YEAR JOHNSTON COMMUNITY MEMBERS?!?!??!?!? During this global pandemic, the question of “How will the Johnston Community and all its living-learning magic continue to thrive under these isolating conditions?” may have crossed your mind. If it did, we would love to give you the in’s and out’s of what the community has been up to in our online format. If the thought didn’t cross your mind, we’ll tell you anyway!

Gigi: So much has changed especially in regards to old Johnston traditions. I love this about the community; we don’t hold on to traditions that don’t reflect the current interests and habits of the community. And that’s okay! Traditions can end, evolve, and adapt. Since being online, we have held onto Community Meetings that occur every Tuesday at 4pm via Zoom. Orientation week was a bit more streamlined to stick to introducing our first years to the community and our meeting practices. GYST Week was a week of very fun and informative zoom workshops and parties! And may I be bold enough to

and stories of their experiences that were cut short (in many different fascinating and frustrating ways) by the pandemic. Anthony and I also started hosting Office Hours, open to all to ask questions, chat, vent, or study together. In addition to the Interns, the Johnston Community is also lucky enough to have such an excited and motivated collective such as Johnston Radio (@jnstradio on instagram) to create networks through zine creating, open mics, and even a Halloween party called “Doom Zoom”, which was open to both community and CAS students to attend on Zoom.

say: This is probably the cleanest Complex has been or will ever be, and the wild untamed beast that is OPOTES (One Person, One Thing, Every Semester– a more recent Johnston tradition of communal cleaning) gets to rest. Anthony: While they’re less traditions, I’ve noticed Johnston still continues to look to each other for support and guidance. Even though we’re miles apart, we find ways to connect and help oneanother through our struggles. We discuss the issues of today’s world, and plan ways to make it better for those affected. Even though our contracts moved online, we’re still turning them in the day before to the registrar. Some things might never change haha.

Anthony: This is my first semester as a Community Intern, and I have to say, it has been so demanding and rewarding; I love it. I was fortunate to have someone like Gigi to help me out in this role. She’s had the opportunity to do this before, and having her there to support me and guide me has made me feel better about taking on this virtual challenge. Gigi and I continue to put ourselves out there and created spaces so people can join when they are comfortable and ready. I think what’s really helped motivate me to continue my active participation in the Johnston community is my emphasis: “Unlocking Potential within College Students”. In these last three years, I’ve learned that simply having a place to go really improves a student’s ability to not only survive, but thrive. Johnston has helped me create everlasting bonds that I cherish, and I think I can do that for others in this role.

By Anthony Castellon (he/him/his) & Giana (Gigi) Mitchell (she/her/hers), Community Interns 2020-2021 Q: What went on with the Spring 2020 grad reviews and commencement? Anthony: Due to COVID-19, we needed to find a way to safely graduate our Johnston seniors. It wasn’t ideal, but Zoom Grad Reviews were very manageable. The best part of it though was that the emotions weren’t lost. Seniors became creative in the ways they were graduating themselves, one even holding a virtual Tarot card reading for the group as a whole (Pici Dennon, 9/20). These momentous occasions may have been moved to an online platform, but Johnston’s desire to celebrate the accomplishments of its students shined through. Gigi: Another added pro to having Zoom meeting grad reviews is that so many people, no matter the geographic distance, can tune in and be a part of celebrating our graduating seniors. I’m also loving the chat feature in these meetings as far as an easy-totrack list of speakers and no-distraction side commentary. While I do miss the setting of Complex, I gotta say this online format is not all bad! Q: How does the community feel different or the same while being online? Gigi: I definitely did not imagine my senior year to be without late nights studying and stressing in the Jimmie Room, sunbathing in between Bekins and Holt, and without welcoming the first years in person...

those little moments that make Complex feel like home. Even without these moments, though, Johnston has proved to be more than just occurrences that happen on Complex. We have a beautiful community and staff that, unsurprisingly and quite gracefully, put in a lot of work to keep us all tethered. Understandably, the number of students that have the time or energy to be involved has lowered, but there are also a lot of us who are still dreaming up new events or ways to keep encouraging students to lean into the available resources. Anthony: Johnston definitely feels different from when we were in person. A lot of the spontaneous activities we would do on Johnston Complex aren’t there. It’s harder to just make up an activity to do when everyone lives apart. Time Zones, internet access, and a bunch of other factors come into play that we didn’t need to think about before. But what’s been helpful is that everyone has been able to focus on their own identities. Though Johnston is a community, we need to remember that we are individuals. We shape this space through our likeness and our differences, and create a dynamic unit that knows how to collaborate. Q: What traditions have followed you to the digital community?

Q: So what about the Interns? What have you been up to in your roles? Gigi: In our first Interns meeting of the year with MG, we jotted down some notes of a collective vision for what our adaptation would look like, and a lot of it was essentially the same: finding creative ways to facilitate growth and connection in the community. I had a lot of fun planning and hosting a Cross-Cultural Storytelling event, in which students who were abroad in Spring of 2020 could share some pictures

Thanks for reading! Interns Anthony and Gigi

Anything else on your mind? Please feel free to contact giana_mitchell@redlands.edu and or anthony_castellon@redlands.edu to chat, ask questions, share suggestions, or give us words of encouragement!

Thanks for reading! Interns Anthony and Gigi

Anything else on your mind? Please feel free to contact giana_mitchell@redlands.edu and or anthony_castellon@redlands.edu to chat, ask questions, share suggestions, or give us words of encouragement!

JOHNSTON OFFICE ASSISTANT

To be quite honest, I was nervous about putting my voice out there for others to hear and read since I never did any form of journalism before. Though, after ten episodes and multiple emails (with a few hiccups here and there) it’s gotten

KathryN Green LecTure SeriEs

easier. Even to the point where the notes and

‘12

podcasts are uploaded to their own Wordpress site I created for the community. Aside from these fun letters and reminders to the Johnston community, I send out mass Photos by Jacinta

emails at various points in the week about current events that need to be brought to the

Weekly Notes, Podcast, and More!

forefront, such as: sophomore contract deadlines,

By Jacinta Navas-Galdamez ‘22

deadlines, etc. These are only a couple of the many

Starting in 3, 2 and... Hello! My name is Jacinta

Liberal Arts INteNtiOn IN The WOrLD

volunteers for service on sophomore contract committees, Kathryn Green lectures, registration little buzzes that I send to stuff the inboxes of my

By Community :)

fellow digital denizens.

Navas-Galdamez (she/her). I’m a third year Johnston student and my emphasis is “Psychology

I don’t think my job is about journalism or assisting the

of the City: What makes our identity? What molds

community. While, yes, I am on standby if any

our mind?” Since the start of this digital

Johnston staff or faculty needs my assistance—that’s

semester, it’s been my job to help keep the

just a small part of it. For me, my job is more about

community updated with the goings on of what I

talking with the community and reassuring both the

call, “Virtual Johnston.”

UpperClassGhosts who I have gotten to know over the

Photo courtesy of Whit Washington

past three years, and the new FreshBones, who have I am one of those Johnston students who likes to

yet to experience the strangeness of Complex.

worm their way into different departments to try

Whether it’s telling one of my classmates that the

and snag what I can for my emphasis. Each class

apocalypse still hasn’t arrived or reminding everyone

will give you a different view and that’s needed to

that they should probably check their emails for

have a conversation. While my job may give one

registration, it is still just me talking with the members

impression of me, I’m usually a listener who’s

of Johnston, just as always.

“I think I can speak for everyone who attended when I say Whit’s journey through college and beyond is captivating. I left feeling proud to be Johnston and inspired to work hard for the future. That’s exactly how I want a Kathryn Green Lecture to make me feel.” – Riley Oestreicher (’18)

“Whit Washington just knocked it out of the park with a Kathryn Green talk about their work creating their own jobs and working within established programs as a lawyer to support both international civil rights work and work that supports incarcerated trans folk. Current students, alumni, staff, faculty and many others were humbled and happy to hear about Whit’s brilliance, use of their Johnston education to navigate a complex professional environment, and practices as a life-long liberal arts learner.” – Tim Seiber (’04) “For me, the most inspiring part was the creativity that Johnston was able to bring out in Whit and how they used it not just in Johnston. I was most impressed by how they build-up community, they build-up people, and they’ve been able to create a way of life—not just a career—a way to live.” – Anthony Castellon (’21)

“I’m filled with gratitude for the opportunity to be part of the Kathryn Green lecture series from many miles away in Chicago. What a privilege it was to bear witness Whit’s story. They are a bright and impressively accomplished alum taking on critical issues of justice. Whit described so many of the same profound feelings and revelations I had during my years at Johnston. I don’t think the unique, transformative nature of a Johnston education can be overstated. Johnston grads are truly a diaspora. We are spread far and wide, sharing our abundance of innovative ideas and critical minds to round the sharp angles of business as usual.” – Lindsay Janasiak (’06)

keeping track of what is being said in the background. So then, what is my job? Well, every Friday I publish of a new set of “Weekly Notes,” an email/newsletter for the community about any events that will be taking place the following week. These notes are paired with a podcast for anyone with screen fatigue after a long week of work/classes.

“I think Whit was really inspiring! They did an amazing job describing the tools that their Johnston education equipped them with in order for them to continue on such a unique and fulfilling path as the one they are on. It made me excited for my future and all the possibilities that await me!” – Giana Mitchell (’21)

“Attending the Kathryn Green talks via Zoom during these difficult times has given me hope. Jewel and Whit truly embody the Johnston spirit with their inspiring and empowering work.” – Craig Santos Perez (’02)

JOHNSTON OFFICE ASSISTANT

KathryN Green LecTure SeriEs

easier. Even to the point where the notes and

‘12

podcasts are uploaded to their own Wordpress site I created for the community. Aside from these fun letters and reminders to the Johnston community, I send out mass Photos by Jacinta

emails at various points in the week about current events that need to be brought to the

Weekly Notes, Podcast, and More!

forefront, such as: sophomore contract deadlines,

By Jacinta Navas-Galdamez ‘22

deadlines, etc. These are only a couple of the many

Starting in 3, 2 and... Hello! My name is Jacinta

Liberal Arts INteNtiOn IN The WOrLD

volunteers for service on sophomore contract committees, Kathryn Green lectures, registration little buzzes that I send to stuff the inboxes of my

By Community :)

fellow digital denizens.

Navas-Galdamez (she/her). I’m a third year Johnston student and my emphasis is “Psychology

I don’t think my job is about journalism or assisting the

of the City: What makes our identity? What molds

community. While, yes, I am on standby if any

our mind?” Since the start of this digital

Johnston staff or faculty needs my assistance—that’s

semester, it’s been my job to help keep the

just a small part of it. For me, my job is more about

community updated with the goings on of what I

talking with the community and reassuring both the

call, “Virtual Johnston.”

UpperClassGhosts who I have gotten to know over the

Photo courtesy of Whit Washington

past three years, and the new FreshBones, who have I am one of those Johnston students who likes to

yet to experience the strangeness of Complex.

worm their way into different departments to try

Whether it’s telling one of my classmates that the

and snag what I can for my emphasis. Each class

apocalypse still hasn’t arrived or reminding everyone

will give you a different view and that’s needed to

that they should probably check their emails for

have a conversation. While my job may give one

registration, it is still just me talking with the members

impression of me, I’m usually a listener who’s

of Johnston, just as always.

“Chris was one of the prominent business owners who presented the idea to the Council. If Chris did not gather signatures and build consensus with other business owners so quickly, it may not have happened,” said Davis. In one day, Pepino used his consensus-building skills and talked to every business owner on the street to collect their signatures of support. “It came down to asking the non-restaurants on State Street if they were okay with it.” The result? Davis said, “We were able to approve this program and work out the logistics with city business owners.”

cOOkiNg Up cOllaBoraTion, JOhnston STyle By M. G. Maloney ‘03 Photos by Chris Pepino ‘00

Recently connecting with two Johnston alums from different eras offered the opportunity to reflect on the creative collaborations happening in the city of Redlands during the pandemic. Denise Davis (’06) director of the University of California (Riverside) Women’s Resource Center and Mayor Pro Tem on the Redlands City Council shared her observation; “The pandemic has caused us to be creative and think outside the box.” Enter Chris Pepino (’00), owner and general manager of Caprice Café in downtown Redlands. As a born and raised New Yorker, Pepino paid attention to how independent restaurants in NYC were adapting to indoor closures, back in the early spring. “They were literally building it out,” said Pepino. Viewing videos and photos of the outdoor spaces expanding physically beyond their restaurant walls in NYC, a lightbulb went off in Chris’s head. What if Redlands could close State Street, so restaurants could

take-over the space a couple nights a week? Pepino reached out to Davis. “I met Denise years ago when she invited me to speak about business management in one of her classes. We stayed in touch. She’s been a great advocate for me with the city and has helped me navigate COVID-19 restaurant issues. She connected me with all the City Council people and advocated for State Street closure for weekend dining,” said Pepino.

By mid-July, the “State Street Promenade” was a reality (and continues as of today 11/22/20). Pepino booked a three-piece jazz band to play just beyond the outdoor space designated for Caprice with multicolor party flags and twinkle lights. He designed an arrangement of circular tables, eight feet apart, beautifully lit under the ancient trees lining State Street. Caprice, neighboring independent restaurants and businesses are surviving today thanks to the local community embracing the safe, outdoor space. “It provides a really great alternative to businesses that otherwise would have suffered dramatically during

this pandemic,” said Davis. On a personal note Pepino said, “State Street Promenade is above and beyond the thing that saved our restaurant.” He continued, “I have kept the staff employed the whole time since the pandemic started.” This was especially important for the kitchen staff, many who have worked at Caprice for decades. “It’s like a family,” said Pepino remembering the first time he held the head chef’s baby twenty-one years ago. And now that “baby” works at Caprice. Davis said, “This was a really special collaboration with Chris.” Reflecting on the Johnston alumni connection which brought them together, Davis said, “I’m really appreciative of my Johnston education because creative thinking and critical thinking are really beneficial during this time of the pandemic. I’m really thankful for out-of-the-box learning during my college days. It has served me well on the city council.” Davis and Pepino encourage the Johnston alumni community to think about ways to support local businesses during the pandemic—buying gift cards online, ordering take-out from your favorite restaurants, and if you’re local to Redlands, consider booking a table at Caprice. Davis said, “Think about your favorite places and the ways you can support them especially now with the holidays coming up.”

From March until its opening night in July, Pepino met with the city of Redlands COVID-19 sub-committee to discuss the proposal. The pitch was Thursdays through Saturdays, a portion of State Street would be closed to traffic allowing for independent restaurants to design socially distant dining spaces for the community. At its heart, the idea was vital—to keep local independent businesses financially afloat.

cOOkiNg Up cOllaBoraTion, JOhnston STyle By M. G. Maloney ‘03 Photos by Chris Pepino ‘00

IN MemOriUm JOhn BrOwnFieLD By Bill McDonald

I first met John Brownfield in the fall of 1969, when he came to one of the early Johnston College Community Meetings and introduced himself as an artist and a “volunteer fellow traveler” with the experiment. Students interested in art, especially painting, gravitated toward him from the beginning. We soon discovered another connection: John’s alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University—a clone school to the U of R in many ways—was also the site of my first teaching job before I came to Johnston. So, I knew John’s art faculty, and we talked about the ways they helped refine his style, strengthen his confidence, and shape his own mentoring. Our friendship of fifty years formed around these two things, and before long we were buying John’s work, or gratefully accepting his generous gifts, turning our home into a mini-museum of his work across the decades. With his first wife Elyse we hosted many a dinner party for our colleagues and friends, played poker together for forty years, went to the L.A. opera together—I had to shush John sometimes when he started humming along with the soprano—and while we never taught together on campus, we did lead two student January “Interim” trips to England in 1986 and 1988. There we roomed together, teamed up with the dynamic tour guide and playwright Richard Morris to enrich the month for our charges, and had a fine time touring the country’s museums, historical and literary sites, and one or two pubs.

It was always a delight to walk through a gallery with John, seeing great work through his discerning and enthusiastic eye. Later, with his second wife Gail, he took students to Salzburg, and more adventurously, to Egypt. The two of them also traced down his ancestry in German villages, and even went to India. He especially prized his trip to Ethiopia with his good friend and colleague, James Malcolm. He loved to travel, anytime, anywhere. In addition to his central role in the art department, John also served the U of R as an academic administrator for several years. He also served the city of Redlands, volunteering to do sketches for the police, playing the horn in the town’s 4th July band, and with Gail taking leadership positions in the Redlands Art Association. Many former students posted on Facebook after John’s death about his work and influence over the decades. Sandie Bacon, now a highly successful Chicago painter, is representative: “He was my inspiration for sticking with this long (often painful) painting career, supportive of me as an artist... he was intellectually curious, kind to a whole swath of people, felt deeply, a great listener...” Other alums celebrated his “mischievous smile,” his mentoring and supportive criticism, his “excitement about his work and life in general,” and his modeling of an artist’s career. John’s elder daughter Sybil wrote that, “He was a great father figure to many of his students and many of my friends. He did good in the world that way... there is a huge body of work that is solid, beautiful, and worthy of its cost. His drawings of hands speak to his capacity for compassion and his deep humanism.” President emeritus Jim Appleton called John “an important person for the U of R, most likely not appreciated by some

ContiNueD On paGe 15

Bill McDonald portrait and mixed media assemblage by John Brownfield. Photo by Jeff Wilson ‘93

IN MemOriUm JOhn BrOwnFieLD By Bill McDonald

ContiNueD On paGe 15

Bill McDonald portrait and mixed media assemblage by John Brownfield. Photo by Jeff Wilson ‘93

IN MemOriUm as much as he deserved, but certainly respected and admired by Carol and me for a host of reasons,” and he remembered the hilarious satiric sketches John would produce of speakers, including one of him, at faculty meetings. Colleagues would elbow each other to get a seat next to John in order to watch the cartoons flow onto the paper from his needling pen. When Gail died unexpectedly, John was devastated—his decline really began at that time— and a group of his friends, mostly emeriti from the U of R and UCR, got together to cheer him—and ourselves—up. In January of 2020 I hosted a lunch for the crew at our house, where fifteen of John’s works enliven and enrich our walls. We persuaded John to give us a spontaneous tour. He spoke of each work —including a couple he’d forgotten about—and in doing so recovered for a time his old enthusiasm. Here’s a couple of photos of that event, and pictures of some the works— paintings, drawings, sculpture—that we’re privileged to live with.

Photos by Bill McDonald

We were great friends for more than fifty years, and I, Dolores, and his many friends miss him very much.

Untitled, by John Brownfield Photo by Jeff Wilson

The Cardinal, by John Brownfield Photos by Jeff Wilson

Photos by Bill McDonald

We were great friends for more than fifty years, and I, Dolores, and his many friends miss him very much.

Untitled, by John Brownfield Photo by Jeff Wilson

The Cardinal, by John Brownfield Photos by Jeff Wilson

IN MemOriUm

ElisaBeth JaSoN ‘01

“ErNie” ErNesT HaYeS ‘07

wHere The SUn HiTs By Taylor O. Miller ‘04

SinGuLaRis

Thinking about the physical life of

By Ricky Burton ‘09

Elisabeth Jason (’01) ending makes it surreal and incredibly difficult to know where to start.

I’ve yet to meet anyone as gentle and

There aren’t many people like

caring as Ernie. I knew him for over half

Elisabeth. She was her own poem,

my time on this planet. In the darker

her own song. On a road trip we took

annals of my personal history, Ernie was

across Route 66, we stopped on a

the most reassuring and constant

Sunday evening outside of Memphis.

presence in my life. He kept us fed, kept a

She wanted a beer. You can’t buy

roof over our heads, and loved me

beer on Sundays in certain counties

unconditionally. Many nights looked like

in the south. No problem said E. We

this: we’d be sitting on our couch, Photo by Ricky Burton

drove 3 counties over until we found E. Jason ‘01 (left) with Lily Gomez ‘03 and Taylor a place and she enjoyed that cold beerMiller ‘04. Photo by Lily Gomez

quiet, with a glass of bourbon. We’d look through the picture window of our home

as much as the stories she told me about growing

at Mount San Jacinto and the lights in

up in Massachusetts. Nothing stopped her once

Palm Springs. At some point, Ernie’s head

she set her mind to it. She would stay up all night

would make its way out of that blue,

talking with new students about social justice and

white, and green blanket, gently rock to

the absolute necessity of compassion and

the left and come to rest on my shoulder.

devotion to understanding how other people live.

And we’d sit like that and be happy and

She liked animals, sometimes more than people,

whole. And he’d say to me like he said to

and always insisted on the overlooked beauty of

so many of his friends, “My love, you’re

checking in on those you love.

the love of my life.” Wednesday was hard, yesterday worse, and today—today’s a bit

I heard her voice before I saw her face for the first

better.

time. She was standing on Bekins porch in the corner where the sun hit. She was lit up telling a story, a story under a story, the macro and the micro, the focused on and the overlooked; every story was an important story for E. She’s always

Ernie on Bekins Porch by Clarke Henry

standing in the sunlight when I remember her.

Elisabeth made a deep impact on every single person that crossed her path because of the attention she gave to the little things we grow most from in life. She always tilted her head when she was listening, always put her finger on her chin when she was reading a poem. A poem for Elisabeth was an entire universe blooming into focus before the petals dropped onto the grass. Grass she walked barefoot in. She could keep any secret but she would warn you that a secret can swallow you up without you knowing it. She spoke up and spoke out for anyone in pain or struggling with inequality. E was and will forever be Johnston. She was a lighthouse for us. I may feel the boulder of her absence when something reminds me of her. But it’s E. The presence of her beautiful life lives on in those who were lucky enough to know her.

IN MemOriUm

ElisaBeth JaSoN ‘01

“ErNie” ErNesT HaYeS ‘07

wHere The SUn HiTs By Taylor O. Miller ‘04

SinGuLaRis

Thinking about the physical life of

By Ricky Burton ‘09

Elisabeth Jason (’01) ending makes it surreal and incredibly difficult to know where to start.

I’ve yet to meet anyone as gentle and

There aren’t many people like

caring as Ernie. I knew him for over half

Elisabeth. She was her own poem,

my time on this planet. In the darker

her own song. On a road trip we took

annals of my personal history, Ernie was

across Route 66, we stopped on a

the most reassuring and constant

Sunday evening outside of Memphis.

presence in my life. He kept us fed, kept a

She wanted a beer. You can’t buy

roof over our heads, and loved me

beer on Sundays in certain counties

unconditionally. Many nights looked like

in the south. No problem said E. We

this: we’d be sitting on our couch, Photo by Ricky Burton

drove 3 counties over until we found E. Jason ‘01 (left) with Lily Gomez ‘03 and Taylor a place and she enjoyed that cold beerMiller ‘04. Photo by Lily Gomez

quiet, with a glass of bourbon. We’d look through the picture window of our home

as much as the stories she told me about growing

at Mount San Jacinto and the lights in

up in Massachusetts. Nothing stopped her once

Palm Springs. At some point, Ernie’s head

she set her mind to it. She would stay up all night

would make its way out of that blue,

talking with new students about social justice and

white, and green blanket, gently rock to

the absolute necessity of compassion and

the left and come to rest on my shoulder.

devotion to understanding how other people live.

And we’d sit like that and be happy and

She liked animals, sometimes more than people,

whole. And he’d say to me like he said to

and always insisted on the overlooked beauty of

so many of his friends, “My love, you’re

checking in on those you love.

the love of my life.” Wednesday was hard, yesterday worse, and today—today’s a bit

I heard her voice before I saw her face for the first

better.

Ernie on Bekins Porch by Clarke Henry

standing in the sunlight when I remember her.

The Coz McNooz is a bi-annual e-newsletter for Johnston’s alumni and friends. Publisher—Tim Seiber Editor—M. G. Maloney Designer—Giana Mitchell Artists—Anthony Castellon, Giana Mitchell, Jacinta Navas-Galdamez Photographer—Jeff Wilson Cover—Giana Mitchell Assistant—Anthony Castellon Correction: In the summer 2020 issue, Jeff Wilson was mistakenly identified in the “In Memoriam: Ralph Angel” article by Cody Gates. Jeff Lytle is the correct “Jeff” referenced by Gates. Please accept our sincere apology for the error. –MGM Errata/omissions may be submitted to mg_maloney@redlands.edu

Art for Fall 2020 Seminar “Living Together” by Anthony Castellon