"When we decided to launch the Charles H. Revson Fellowship almost three decades ago, we knew that we needed to connect Columbia University to the city," recalled Eli Evans, former president of the Revson Foundation. "Since then, we have dedicated over $5 million to bring people committed to social change to Columbia to share their experiences and to gain the tools necessary to move forward in their careers. There is a dream here, and that dream is reflected tonight. We hope that over the years, the program continues to gather a network of people concerned with the future of New York City."
Evans was met by resounding applause from nearly a hundred current and former Revson Fellows gathered for the 26 th Annual Alumni Dinner on May 2 at COLORS restaurant in downtown Manhattan. COLORS was founded and is cooperatively owned by Revson Fellow Fekkak Mamdouh and other members of ROC-NY, an organization created by former employees of Windows on the World to improve opportunities for restaurant workers. Current fellows, alumni, and a new cohort, including journalist Ed Morales, Quang Bao, founder of the Asian-American Writer's Workshop, and Catherine Herman from Los Sures Community Development Company, joined Evans and current Revson Foundation President Lisa Goldberg in honoring the long tradition of the Fellowship and in welcoming Columbia sociology professor Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh to the program. Venkatesh became the new Fellowship Director in December.
Over the course of the year, Venkatesh has led a group of ten mid-career urban leaders in weekly dinner seminars and has helped them design their curricula at the University. According to him, "The dinners are the core part of the Fellowship experience because otherwise, they conduct their schedules individually. The dinners give them an opportunity to come back to each other and share their worlds with other active members of the New York City civic community. These meetings take place at the University, at the Fellows' homes, at galleries, and across the city. The success of the seminar is that it moves around to where ideas are generated." The dinners put Fellows in dialogue with pillars of the NYC community, including former mayors, non-profit leaders, journalists, activists, and artists.
Venkatesh went on to introduce next year's Revson Fellows and to reveal several changes that would shepherd the program into a new phase of development. "This summer, the program will become part of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University," he announced. "With the integration of Revson into ISERP, we hope to strengthen the relationship of Fellows to the Columbia community."
Following these announcements, the main portion of the night's program commenced -- a discussion with actor Danny Glover on "Politics, Activism, and Art." Glover is known both for his long and varied film career and for his social activism. He was joined in conversation by Mable Haddock, a current Revson Fellow and the President and CEO of the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), and by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh.
Regarding how his acting career supports his ideals of social activism, Glover said, "I can change ideas with the work I do and use it to place value on the things I think are important. The playwright Athol Fugard showed me how language could be used as an organizing tool, how my words and actions on stage can express something meaningful and be crystallized into productive use."
A major theme of his talk was the power of collective thinking and action. "Revson is bringing people together around a family of ideas. It's that kind of work that's more necessary than ever," he said. He expounded on this theme through examples ranging from his fascination with Frantz Fanon as a student, magical realism and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the effect of technological advances on artistic practice to immigration, healthcare, and education. In particular, Glover emphasized the "coming together of people" demonstrated by the recent immigration rallies and by a rally of hotel workers that he helped lead with Sen. John Edwards earlier this year.
"Imagine what we can do," he mused. "If we keep building these bridges, imagine what we can do." With these inspirational words, Glover concluded his speech and the dinner.
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