Feb. 13, 2018: Hamm ’78 on Activism in Newark; Sigman ’89 *98’s New Spin on Interpretive Dance; and More

Larry Hamm ’78, who led his first protest march at 17 and was a protégé of the late writer and activist Amiri Baraka, discusses the causes he’s fought for in his native Newark during the last five decades. — NJ.com

Jill Sigman ’89 *98 teaches a dance class that explores the concept of protest through interpretive dance. — The New Yorker 

Director Cathy Yan ’08 discusses her decision to film her debut movie Dead Pigs in China instead of the U.S.; the film won an award for ensemble acting at the Sundance Film Festival. — MarketWatch

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy named Aecom executive Kevin Corbett *94 as the next executive director of New Jersey Transit. — The New York Times

Poet W.S. Merwin ’48’s work, “steeped in legend, the classics, and the Bible, is also anchored in the present, marked, above all, by a vigilance for all living things,” according to a recent profile. — Humanities Magazine

David Denkenberger *05, founder of the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters, explains the steps the world can take to minimize the chances of famine after a global natural disaster. — HuffPost

“Although politicians deplore high health-care costs, they rarely speak of the staggering, unfair, and unnecessary burden on working people, preferring instead to talk earnestly about the need to slow cost increases.”

— Clark Havighurst ’55, an emeritus professor of law at Duke University, in a recent opinion column about the “conspiracy of silence” in the health-care debate. Read more in The Wall Street Journal

Princeton Professor Pierre-Thomas Brun, MIT graduate student Alice Nasto, and MIT professor Anette Hosoi ’92 have published a study that uses fluid mechanics to model how bats use their hairy tongues to scoop up nectar from flowers. — Phys.org

Cecily King ’10 was named executive director of the Live6 Alliance, a nonprofit working to revitalize neighborhoods in northwest Detroit. — Crain’s Detroit Business

Ita Ekpoudom ’03, the founder and CEO of Tigress Ventures, believes it is important for women entrepreneurs to network with other women for support and advice. — Black Enterprise

Annelise Riles ’88, an anthropology professor at Cornell, received the Anneliese Maier Award for lifetime achievement across the social sciences and humanities, awarded by the German government and Humboldt Foundation. — Cornell Chronicle

Michael Thomas ’12 was elected the 132nd president of the Harvard Law Review. — Harvard Law Today

Aditya Agarwalla ’16 and his father, Sanjay Agarwalla, launched Kisan Network, an app that lets farmers in India advertise their products. — National Geographic

Carol Medlin *90 was named the chief program officer of Feeding America, where she will oversee programs and partnerships to support the health and financial well-being of those facing hunger. — Pharmiweb

Broadway producer Jordan Roth ’97 launched a comedic series of political web videos called “The Birds and the BS,” which he describes as “a kids’ show for us, to remind ourselves of these basic human decencies in the complicated adult world that we now swim in.” — The New York Times

Lewis Flinn ’89 is writing the score for To Wong Foo: The Musical, an adaptation of the 1995 cult-hit film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. — New York Post