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Brookline High School Senior Ani Mathison Wins Pearlman Writing Award

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Brookline.com
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Ani Mathison
Ani Mathison

The third annual Edith Pearlman Creative Writing Award was presented to senior Ani Mathison at the Brookline High School awards ceremony on Tuesday April 24. The award was established in 2016 by the Trustees of the Brookline Library to honor Pearlman, who the Boston Globe has called “our greatest living short story writer.”

The award, given in conjunction with the Brookline High School English department, honors a student who has demonstrated exceptional passion and skill in the area of creative writing. Ben Berman, Ani’s creative writing teacher, says “I have been blown away by her depth and facility with language.” Mary Burchenal, English Department Chair, notes that “Ani has been an anchor member of our Slam Poetry team for 3 years and is currently co-captain. She writes lovely, highly crafted poetry, and delivers it powerfully. She has served as an excellent role model for the younger poets.”

In addition, Ani has been a staff writer and photography editor for Sagamore, the High School’s newspaper, for several years.

Edith Pearlman is a long-time resident of Brookline. She is celebrated for her non-fiction and travel writing and especially for her short fiction. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, and many other publications.

Among her acclaimed books of short stories is the anthology, Binocular Vision, which was nominated for the National Book Award for fiction in 2011 and in 2012 won the National Book Critics Circle award. Her most recent collection of stories, Honeydew (2015), has been praised by novelist Ann Patchett, New Yorker literary critic James Wood, and many others. Pearlman’s skillfully crafted, compassionate work should inspire young writers like Ani Mathison and future winners of the Edith Pearlman Book Award.

 

 

Around Town

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Brookline.com
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1. Enjoy an evening of poetry at the Brookline High School Poetry Fest on April 26. Brookline teens will share their poetry at the event which will start at 6:00 p.m.

2. Learn how to bring mindfulness into your day to day with the Mindfulness at Work event on April 26. The Brookline Chamber will host the event featuring speaker Neil Motenko who will provide a basic orientation to mindfulness. It will take place at Waterstone at the Circle from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online through the chamber’s website.

3. Teens can start the weekend off with cupcake decorating at the library on April 27. As part of the Brookline Eats! series, teens grades 7 to 12 can decorate cupcakes at the event which will run from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

4. Celebrate art at A Taste of Gateway 2018 on April 28. At the event Gateway artists donate works of art which art ticket holders can take home at the end of the evening. The event also includes live and silent auctions, food, refreshments and live music. Tickets can be purchased online.

5. Catch author and king of satire Christopher Moore at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Monday, April 30. More will discuss his new book NOIR at the event which will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online through the Brookline Booksmith website.

 

Vera Hill Passes At 92

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Brookline.com
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Vera Hill
Vera Hill

Vera Hill died peacefully Wednesday, April 18, 2018, at her home. She was 92. Vera June VanTassel was born April 1, 1926, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was the daughter of Kathleen Donovan and Alexander VanTassel. Vera lived with her mother and a brother, George VanTassel, in Royalton, New Brunswick, where she attended school in a one-room schoolhouse and graduated from high school.

Vera was known as a bright student who enjoyed school and learning. During the years of World War II, Vera worked for the Canadian Red Cross. After the war, Vera moved with her mother and brother to Brookline, MA. Her mother purchased a home on Newbury Street and created a business renting rooms for income. It was in Brookline that she met her husband, John Hill, who was employed at the Charleston Naval Shipyard and had secured a rental from Vera’s mother. A romance bloomed and the couple married Sept. 8, 1956, in Boston. They made their home in Brookline for several years before moving to Midcoast Maine, where they owned homes in Rockport and Camden, eventually retiring in Rockland.

Vera was a very loyal wife to her husband, John’s, career path as he rose to become general manager of Dragon Cement Co. and president of People’s Heritage Bank. Vera was employed for nearly 20 years by a Canadian corporation, National Sea Products, which operated out of Rockland. She worked as an executive assistant and personnel manager for National Sea Products and took pride in her work. Vera became known for her strong work ethic and professional competence by the management and employees.

Vera was also active in the Episcopal churches in Camden and Rockland for many years. Vera is remembered for her cleverness and quick wit, her natural ability to listen and engage others in conversation, and her great sense of humor. She and John had a strong network of friends through the years and loved their life on the coast of Maine.

She was predeceased by her mother, her brother, and husband John in 2015. During the last few years of her life, Vera was cared for in her home by a team of warm and caring friends including Cara, Jean, Kahdejah, Rona and Sherry. At Vera’s request, there will be no memorial service. A burial is scheduled for June 8 at 10 a.m. at the Seaview Cemetery, corner of Chestnut and Bayview Streets, Camden.

To share a memory or story with Vera’s family, visit her on line Book of Memories at bchfh.com. Arrangements are with Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, Rockland.

 

New Task Force Set To Review Devotion’s Name Due To Slaveholding History

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Brookline.com
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“You just picture a little black kid having to walk into a school with the name of a slaveholder,” Brookline resident Deborah Brown said during an Ad Hoc Task Force meeting on March 27.

The Ad Hoc Task Force, a committee open to the public that discusses issues in the community, and led by Helen Charlupski is addressing a petition made by Deborah Brown and Brookline resident and Devotion parent Anne Greenwald to change the name of the Edward Devotion School because Edward Devotion was a slaveholder.

Deborah Brown contacted the Devotion PTO and the Brookline School Committee in August 2017 and heard no response until The Boston Globe published a story on the matter on Feb. 28 2017 and then the Brookline Tab on March 14.

“The issue was brought up in 2006, 2009, 2012, and {Anna and I} started some correspondence in August 2017,” Brown said. “We got no response, and I sent a letter into the BrooklineTab, the {Boston} Globe picked up on it; then we got a response.”

The Devotion School is currently under construction and will be re-opened next September. Those who want to change the name hope to do so in time for the re-opening.

In order for the name to be changed, The Ad Hoc Task Force needed to decide whether or not to form a task force that would investigate the name. On March 27 a tentative committee was formed to begin the investigation.

If the task force decides that the name should be changed, that recommendation would be brought up to the Town’s Naming Committee, who would then decide on a new name, and this would then be taken to Town Meeting for a vote.

“We don’t have {a process for changing a name} because first we are deciding whether we should change the name or not,” Charlupski said. “So the School Committee will need to figure out how we will give a name, because we’ve never done it, at least not in recent history.”

A list of possible members from March 27 indicates that the committee may consist of Devotion alumni who are still prominent members of the community, and a member of Hidden Brookline, which is an organization that studies Brookline’s history with slavery and the abolition movement.

According to Greenwald, she co-petitioned to change the name because she wanted to educate the community about the town’s history with slavery.

“I think that we really need to bring to light the history of slavery in Brookline,” Greenwald said. “It’s about having people understand the role that slavery played in Brookline. I think there is a myth that slavery was only in the south, when it was in fact completely prevalent in the north.”

Both Brown and Greenwald do not want the name to be forgotten if changed; they hope that this process is educational to the community and that the town’s history with slavery will be remembered.

“All the division and turmoil that is present today goes back to that history,” Greenwald said. “We can’t really heal from it as a nation without acknowledging it and without making the stories of African Americans and Native Americans at the forefront.”

Jackie Perelman

 

#Equality

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Brookline.com
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Modern Educayshun

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Brookline.com
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Brookline Runners To Participate In The 2018 Boston Marathon

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Brookline.com
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130 Brookline residents, 80 of whom are women, have signed up to run the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon on Monday along with nearly 30,000 other participants.

You can use the information below to track the runners on the day of the race or to plan where to cheer them on their way.

The Brookline runners’ list in the order of their last names is as follows:

  1. 27512 Stefanie Acierno
  2. 26986 Caroline Allen
  3. 26234 Sarah Andler
  4. 26716 Brittany Baltay
  5. 26557 Melissa Barden
  6. 27916 Zachary Baron
  7. 25482 Jessica Berardi
  8. 2830 Eric Bergen
  9. 27256 Alexandra Black
  10. 16538 Cheryl Blauth
  11. 26134 Molly Boigon
  12. 16702 Beth Braunegg
  13. 6436 Jason Burke
  14. 30377 Giuliana Caranante
  15. 20982 Lynne Castronuovo
  16. 25618 Cathleen Cavanaugh
  17. 27478 Danielle Chaplick
  18. 26316 Victoria Chen
  19. 25958 John Christian
  20. 25666 Lynne Chuang
  21. 29112 Julia Coleman
  22. 29121 Brian Collins
  23. 28983 Samantha Curran
  24. 11486 Megan Dawson
  25. 30858 William Diamond
  26. 2511 Michael Diiorio
  27. 25768 Allyson Dilsworth
  28. 11496 Rebecca Dobbin
  29. 19645 Kate Driscoll
  30. 16915 Lindsay Ewing
  31. 7086 Anna Fang
  32. 29104 Tasha Feilke
  33. 25237 Jennifer Foley
  34. 1482 Daniel Forward
  35. 29117 Aaron Friedland
  36. 28493 Danielle Gaynor
  37. 14877 Christine Goldman
  38. 6933 Katie Hand
  39. 5403 Xianbao He
  40. 690 Andreas Heilmann
  41. 26527 Juan Herrera
  42. 248 Matthew Herzig
  43. 29700 Heather Ichord
  44. 18717 Elizabeth Idhaw
  45. 14216 Michelle Iovene
  46. 25944 Mariam Ismail
  47. 28018 Lauren Italiano
  48. 16260 Amy Jackson
  49. 17419 Samantha Jaffe
  50. 8647 Samantha Johnson
  51. 5767 Ted Julian
  52. 26286 Seth Kaufman
  53. 29118 Ronit Kempler
  54. 14886 Katie Kiracofe
  55. 9838 Celeste Kmiotek
  56. 9010 Alexy Kochowiec
  57. 26632 David Koenig
  58. 29763 David Krakauer
  59. 25285 Nicole Kuhnly
  60. 26936 Anne Kuphal
  61. 3862 Neal Lakdawala
  62. 26590 Arianna Lanpher
  63. 29971 Emily Legere
  64. 25547 Michael Levin
  65. 29123 Kathleen Mackinnon
  66. 29093 Mackenzie Macrae
  67. 26705 Hilary Maddox
  68. 26213 Christopher Maki
  69. 9465 Ronit Malka
  70. 5769 Christopher Marshall
  71. 27918 Colin Mcevily
  72. 27434 Sara Mckinney
  73. 27594 Catherine Mclaughlin
  74. 30297 Jerri Mcmannis
  75. 28179 Casey Mcnamara
  76. 16483 Martina Mcpherson
  77. 17098 Emily Miller
  78. 31092 Leonid Mirkin
  79. 25399 Ilan Mizrahi
  80. 13260 Saundria Moed
  81. 27528 Fabian Mok
  82. 26251 Cullene Murphy
  83. 27656 Anna Nason
  84. 27568 Laura Nicholson
  85. 7683 Amanda Nurse
  86. 86 Ian Nurse
  87. 30656 Patrick O’Brien
  88. 28222 Lauren O’Connor
  89. 29243 Tom O’Keefe
  90. 11301 Matthew Palmer
  91. 29465 Elyse Pengeroth
  92. 788 Charles Pfander
  93. 25323 Erin Phelps
  94. 21201 William Pine
  95. 3775 Marc Pollina
  96. 10946 Bronwen Price-Dierksen
  97. 29108 Madeleine Pronovost
  98. 27485 Harrison Reeder
  99. 26477 Isabella Riehl
  100. 27648 Corinne Rivard
  101. 4908 David Robb
  102. 27435 Hannah Rochman
  103. 8788 Rachel Rodin
  104. 27073 Dan Rosen
  105. 1008 Trenton Ross
  106. 28866 Alexander Rotenberg
  107. 11219 Rachel Rudder
  108. 499 Matthew Salminen
  109. 29096 Daniel Scaparotti Nagle
  110. 29091 Maryanne Senn
  111. 9441 Kristin Shaw
  112. 5726 Emily Shea
  113. 29058 Brittany Stefano
  114. 29109 Tamar Strauss-Benjamin
  115. 29374 Kevin Sullivan
  116. 27697 Johnny Sze
  117. 31232 Mary Taber
  118. 1159 Katsuhiro Togami
  119. 29124 Brian Trinque
  120. 4465 Andrew Trotman
  121. 7594 Duane Wesemann
  122. 9100 James Wilson
  123. 25612 Rachel Wolfberg
  124. 27433 Jessica Wolk
  125. 25472 Kate Woodward
  126. 26379 Lisa Wyman
  127. 13650 Amy Yu
  128. 29565 Cecilia Yudin
  129. 30194 Michele Zanini
  130. 25636 Scott Zoback

Good luck to all!

 

Chemical Health Policy Stricter Than State’s

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Brookline.com
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*image caption below
*image caption below

Since the 90s, the high school has enforced a chemical health policy that is more strict than the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), specifically in regards to the statement: “in the presence of” controlled substances.

The MIAA details the minimum punishments for athlete violations. According to the MIAA Wellness Handbook, it is considered a violation of the chemical substance policy for a student to “use, consume, possess, buy or sell, or give away any beverage containing alcohol; any tobacco product; marijuana; steroids; or any controlled substance.”

After a student’s first offense, they cannot participate in a quarter of their school’s sports games, and if there is a second offense, punishments can become stricter. After a second violation of the policy, the student will have to miss 60 percent of their season, but that number can be reduced to 40 percent if the student voluntarily submits themself to counseling.

The MIAA Wellness Handbook states that if a student is in the presence of drugs or alcohol and not using, the student will not be punished. It specifically excludes from its minimum standards what it calls “guilt by association.”

Yet, some schools, including Brookline High School, make their policies stricter than the MIAA policy. The high school considers students who are in the presence of illegal substances to be in violation of its policy on substance abuse, whether or not they partake in the actual consumption of illegal substances. The high school also adds a minimum three day suspension for students caught using substances such as alcohol, marijuana, nicotine and other drugs on school grounds or at school-sponsored events.

According to the Brookline High School Handbook, the high school’s policy regarding chemical health is that during the school year, students cannot use, consume, buy, sell or give away alcohol, marijuana, steroids or any controlled substance or be in the presence of any of these substances.

According to Athletic Director Pete Rittenberg, the high school added “in the presence of” to deal with a recurring situation at parties at which substances were present.

“In 1990 the decision was made because there were police reports that came in, and essentially everybody on the list was denying that they were drinking except maybe the host,” Rittenberg said.

Rittenberg said that the administration makes case-by-case decisions about what counts as being “in the presence of.”

“The way we really interpret it is knowingly ‘in the presence of,’” Rittenberg said.

Despite administration leniency about what “in the presence of” means, many students feel that parts of the policy are unfair.

Student council member and sophomore Max Siegel and some fellow council members are in the process of drafting a bill for what the handbook policy would look like without a minimum suspension.

“We just want to eliminate that completely because it seems like the wrong idea to take a student out of school,” Siegel said.

Senior Talia Lanckton, an athlete who dives for the high school, wrote in a social studies paper about the inconsistencies in the policies for punishments in regards to chemical health.

According to the Brookline High School Handbook, on offense number one, a student in possession or using a controlled substance will be suspended for minimum of five days and three days, respectively. However, there is no suspension listed for sale or transfer for offense number one but expulsion will be considered.

“I think my biggest qualm with the drug policy is probably that even though, in implementation, transfer and sale get longer suspensions, possession and use have suspensions mandated in the handbook, whereas transfer and sale do not,” Lanckton said.

Lanckton used this discrepancy in the policy to argue that the minimum punishment for use should be eliminated.

“The fact that there aren’t minimum suspensions for sale and transfer shows that you still can have harsh and effective punishments without giving an arbitrary minimum for the offense,” Lanckton said. “I think arbitrary minimum suspensions aren’t accomplishing the goal of either helping the student who is receiving disciplinary action or the school community.”

According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, from 2015-2016, six out of 2,010 students in Brookline were disciplined for illegal substances. That is only 0.30 percent of the student body.

From 2015-2016, Newton North High School disciplined 0.75 percent of students for illegal substances, Walpole disciplined 1.26 percent, Natick disciplined 0.36 percent, Braintree disciplined 0.40 percent, Belmont disciplined 0.79 percent, and Milton disciplined 0.49 percent.

On the far end of the spectrum, in 2015-2016, Framingham High School had 2.16 percent, or 47 out of their 2,178 students disciplined for violating the policy about illegal substances.

Although Lanckton still has some hesitation about the policy, she is not opposed to the way the administration handles violations of the chemical substance policy.

“On the handbook level, I’m against the policy,” Lanckton said. “But on the implementation level, I’m not as strongly opposed to it.”

*Image caption: Although the high school has stricter chemical health policies than the MIAA requires, less students in Brookline are disciplined for substance abuse violations than many of its Bay State Conference rivals.

By Sophia Stewart
Graphic by Lauren Mahoney
Additional reporting by Becky Perelman & Josh Gladstone

 

Brookline’s Bernard Lown, MD, Among Diabetes Activists Protesting Insulin Prices

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Brookline.com
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Bernard Lown, MD
Bernard Lown, MD

Physicians joined patients with diabetes and other activists in a demonstration against the high cost of insulin in the United States held in the capital this past weekend.

The protest, held on April 8, was organized by the Right Care Alliance, a grassroots activist group of clinicians, patients, and other stakeholders dedicated to making “health care institutions accountable to communities and put patients, not profits, at the heart of health care.”

The event is part of a campaign involving several such demonstrations in US cities.

The Alliance is an arm of the Lown Institute, a think tank founded by the renowned cardiologist Bernard Lown, MD, Brookline, Massachusetts, that advocates for “a radically better and uniquely American health system that overturns high-cost, low-value care.”

Several of the physicians who participated in the rally were in Washington to attend the 2018 Lown Institute Conference, held on April 9 and 10.

According to the Alliance’s website, as many as 7 million people with diabetes in the United States rely on insulin, including up to 3 million with type 1 diabetes and about 4 million with type 2 diabetes. The average cost of a vial of insulin has risen from $33 in 1996 to $112 in 2010, and is $275 today.

At the event, about 40 participants stood in front of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery holding “portraits” of people with diabetes adversely affected by the high cost of insulin. Participants took turns at the megaphone telling the individuals’ stories, including those of two young adults with type 1 diabetes who died while rationing their insulin.

A portrait was also presented of US Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, who was president of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly and Company, during a time that the price of insulin rose substantially. Another protester’s portrait of David A Ricks called out the current chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company for continuing to raise the price of the company’s product.

“It’s Not a Functioning Market….Action, Not Talk, Is Needed”

“There’s no real market justification for the kind of price structure we have and the price increases we’ve seen in the last 10 to 20 years,” Lown Institute president and cardiologist Vikas Saini, MD, Brookline, Massachusetts, told Mеdscаpе Mеdicаl Nеws, adding, “It’s clearly a case of doing what the market can bear. It’s not a functioning market, and it hasn’t been for a while.”

The solution, he believes, needs to involve the entire health care system.

“There’s this finger-pointing game. The pharmaceutical companies point to the pharmacy benefit managers, and the pharmacy benefit managers point to the pharmaceutical companies and insurance plans. Everybody is pointing at each other, and the reality is that prices keep going up. So, we’re asking people to join us and begin to get organized to create pressure to change that dynamic.”

But, he also said that pharmaceutical companies could unilaterally lower prices.

“The president could demand that they lower the prices. He could create a commission, or Congress could create a commission, to lower the prices. That’s what people need. Not talk, but action.”

In the meantime, Saini advises physicians to ask patients about the affordability of their drugs.

“Doctors often are in a cloud. They just write the script, hand it out, and move on. They have no idea what it means in the life of the patient. I think it would be very instructive for them to find out.”

“Drowning Underneath the Costs”

Maia Dorsett, MD, PhD, an emergency physician from Rochester, New York, told the group about a recent patient, a middle-aged man who presented with nausea, extreme hyperglycemia, and rapid breathing. It turned out that he was due to start a new job the following week and was already in debt from previous medical bills. He had been rationing his diabetes medications until his new health insurance kicked in.

“This man was drowning underneath the costs of his medications that he needs to live,” Dorsett said.

Her hospital has social workers on-call to help and a voucher program that covers some medications, but “this is rare, and really only a temporary fix for a lifelong condition. I have to work to fill the holes in patients’ lives because we have a system that does not provide everybody with health insurance. We have a system that lets drug companies charge unpayable prices for a drug that my patients literally need to live.”

Dorsett addressed the latter part of her remarks directly to clinicians.

“If you care about what is best for your patients, your role as a patient advocate does not end at the door of your hospital or clinic….I’m here to ask you to join us in the Right Care Alliance, and together we can force drug companies to lower their prices and bring some justice back to health care.”

Jonathan Weinkle, MD, a general internist and pediatrician at a federally qualified health center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, came to Washington to attend the Lown conference for the second year in a row because the issues addressed are so pertinent to his patients.

He is currently working to reduce the amount of formulary switching that occurs in Medicaid plans.

“Because of the high price of insulin, they keep switching brands. This creates confusion, gaps in coverage, and I think, terrible harm….The noncoverage creates a delay, and people ration,” he told Mеdscаpе Mеdicаl Nеws, noting that the problem also occurs with glucose meters and test strips.

“You don’t want people taking risks.”

Insulin Manufacturers Respond to the Criticism

Reached for response, all three of the major insulin manufacturers said they support the cause and have established programs to help patients who cannot afford their insulin.

“We are pleased that people in the diabetes community are engaged in this issue, and demonstrations are one way to do so. It will take continued effort across the health care system to effect real change, and Lilly is committed to working with others to make it happen,” the company said in an e-mail to the media.

In the last year, Lilly has “introduced a number of initiatives to help reduce the amount people pay at the pharmacy until broader changes occur,” including a savings program through Blink Health that allows people who pay full retail price for Lilly insulin to save 40% at the pharmacy, and another called Inside Rx, through Express Scripts. Links to Lilly’s support programs are available here.

Novo Nordisk spokesperson Ken Inchausti called the current situation “not acceptable,” but also said that the responsibility isn’t the pharmaceutical industry’s alone.

“Ensuring access and affordability is a shared responsibility, and we’re committed to collaborating with those within the health care system….The best approach to finding viable solutions is through collaboration among all stakeholders: pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy benefit managers, insurance companies, employers, patient organizations, and policy makers.”

Sanofi said it is “determined to do our part in pricing our medicines with greater transparency and according to their value, while continuing to advance scientific knowledge and bring important treatments to patients worldwide.”

To that end, the company has begun limiting its year-over-year price increases to National Health Expenditure (medical inflation) projections and disclosing its aggregate gross and net price changes.

Sanofi also offers several programs to help reduce out-of-pocket expenses, including co-pay cards for eligible patients and the Sanofi Patient Connection program, which provides medications at no charge for qualified low-income, uninsured patients.

And the company has just launched the Insulins VALyou Savings Program for insulin glargine (Lantus) and insulin lispro (Admelog) for all nonfederally insured patients, regardless of insurance status or type of plan.

No Safety Net in the United States

Some of the speakers at the protest acknowledged those programs, but dismissed them as insufficient to create sustainable change in an “essentially broken” system.

Rally organizer Hannah Crabtree, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 23 years ago at age 4 and whose mother died at age 45 of complications from the disease, told the media: “We just don’t have a safety net in this country that guarantees us access to insulin. And without that, we’re days away from dying.”

Saini, Dorsett, Weinkle, and Crabtree have reported no relevant financial relationships.

 

Local Designer Sells Her 1950s-Style Attire In Brookline

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Brookline.com
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Luna Joachim (center)
Luna Joachim (center)

Stepping into L’Accent boutique in Brookline is like going back in time. Billie Holiday’s crooning voice plays softly in the background, racks of dramatic full-skirted and caped dresses, two-piece suits, pillbox hats, and fascinators line the shelves. Pictures of Luna Joachim’s fashion designs are placed all over the walls.

Joachim is the owner of the shop and designer of Luna Joachim Collection, a fashion line she started in 2013 that has been showcased in fashion shows all over the world and has women in the Greater Boston area buzzing for the vintage 1950s and 60s style clothing.

Naturally, Joachim’s line is based on her own personal closet, the majority of which she made from scratch herself.

“I’m in love with the ’50s and early ’60s, the hats and the gloves. That’s the only thing I wear,” says Joachim, who names Jackie Kennedy as one of her style icons.

“I’m the only one here in Brookline selling stuff like this,” she says.

Describing herself as a self-taught designer, Joachim began making her own clothes as a child growing up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“I always had a sense of style and liked my own stuff. They called me ‘royalty’ even until today,” she says about her lifelong love of elegant and chic clothing.

Joachim first learned to sew while attending a summer camp program. “I made my first beautiful dress, I will never forget that.”

The budding designer finished high school in Montreal, where she also took on the popular trends of the time, including sporting an Afro and bell bottoms.

She moved to the U.S. after graduating and lived with her brother, who was an entrepreneur, in Connecticut. Then she began her decades-long career as a nurse in 1988.

Joachim primarily worked in Brookline, first as a private nurse for a client and then for a Brigham and Women’s doctor — but, “fashion is in my blood,” she says, and so she decided to pursue a different career.

A family affair

She first opened L’Accent in Malden in 2010, selling fashions from other designers. Despite it being her first business venture, Joachim was not a stranger to entrepreneurship, having been exposed to it by her parents who were “always in business.”

She says her parents, who sold fabrics and wholesale food in Haiti, helped her start up the boutique, and she never had to borrow any money. “Everything is mine, I don’t owe anyone anything.”

L’Accent in Malden ran for seven years. For the first three years, Joachim was not selling her own clothes yet, although she regularly wore her own designs to work and church.

“Each time I get dressed, for church especially, they always want what I wear,” says Joachim. “They would ask me, ‘Where do I buy it?’”

That’s when Joachim plunged even further into the fashion world by distributing her own designs. Her fabrics are sourced from New York, France and Italy and her prices range from $200 (“although that’s rare,” says Joachim) up to $800. Most of the dresses, which go from size extra-small to extra-large, are priced between $400 to $800.

Each dress is given a woman’s name. For example, the “Betty” dress is a polka-dotted, swing-skirt, cinched-waist number.

Joachim makes up to 12 pieces in each style. “I want my line to stay exclusive. I don’t make a lot of pieces,” she says.

Luna Joachim Collection has been shown at New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week.

Joachim says her 26-year-old daughter, Rebecca, is the face of her line and often models the designs. Rebecca, who works as a therapist, helps the designer set up fashion shows, along with Joachim’s niece, Jessica Kernizan, and designed the Brookline store layout.

The designer says the reason she moved the store to Brookline in November 2017, was that the market there seemed more suited for the style and price range of her clothes.

“People in Brookline love it,” she says about the styles she offers. Joachim’s store is now the top place for women to buy dresses and fascinator hats for the annual Kentucky Derby event in Brookline, which Joachim was asked to attend as a judge this year.

Joachim plans to launch a summer collection at the end of May, with lighter blouses and dresses. And this fall, she will be showing new designs as part of Boston Fashion Week.

Dual passions

Although perhaps contradictory, Joachim says the two most important things in her life have been fashion and ministry. In addition to being a designer and store owner, she is highly involved at her church, the Holy Bible Baptist Church in Somerville.

She runs the children’s programs at the church, organizing kids-only services, choir and summer programs, and distributes a newsletter to parents and families every three months.

“It’s in my blood,” says Joachim about her dual passions. “God put everything in everybody.”

 

Around Town

By
Brookline.com
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Upcoming events

Thursday, April 12

Lavenber Bee Baking Company Pop-Up: Noon to 6:00 p.m., Lavender Bee Baking Company, 14 Pleasant Street, Brookline. For more information, please e-mail here; or visit here. Lavender Bee Baking Company is a local nut-free specialty baked good business.

Phenomenal Foodies: 5:30 – 8:00 p.m., Showcase Superlux Chestnut Hill, 55 Boylston Street, Newton. For more information or to buy tickets, please visit here. A Women’s Panel featuring women in the food industry. Features appetizers from Davio’s and a cash bar.

Pop & Protection: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-695-4617; e-mail here; or visit here. Attendees learn about the different types of insurance and the components of a basic estate plan, while exploring sparkling wines.

Saturday, April 14

Spring Pruning Workshop: 12:30 – 3:00 p.m., Minot Rose Garden, Saint Paul and Browne streets, Brookline. For more information, please e-mail here. The Friends of the Minot Rose Garden annual spring pruning workshop. Master Rosarian David Cannistraro will demonstrate pruning techniques and guide participants as they prune the roses in anticipation of their spring blooms.

Summer Ensembles & Intensive Programs Open House: 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Lincoln Elementary School, 25 Kennard Road, Brookline. For more information, please visit here. During Summer Preview Days, Brookline Music School invites the community to explore its summer program options, including full- and half-day programs, weekly music classes, and private lessons.

Sunday, April 15

Opera at the Cinema: “Carmen:” 10:00 a.m., The Makery, 2 Sewall Avenue, Brookline. Cost: $20-$23. For more information, please e-mail here; or visit here. Presented by the Royal Opera House. Bizet’s classic French opera stars Anna Goryachova in Barrie Kosky’s production.

“Phantasy:” 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 15 St. Paul Street, Brookline. Cost: $10-$30. For more information, please visit here. Winsor Music’s 2017-18 season will conclude with a varied program of English, American and German masterpieces, highlighted by the premiere of a “Song for the Spirit.”

Tuesday, April 17

Couples & Money: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-695-4617; e-mail here; or visit here. A talk about the roles behavior and money play in every relationship.

Wine Centered: Malbec & Raw Milk Cheeses: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m., Curds & Co., 288 Washington Street, Brookline. Cost: $35. For more information or to register, please visit here. Flights of wine paired with an array of raw milk cheeses.

Wednesday, April 18

Marketing for People Who Don’t Like Marketing: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., Inner Space Yoga, 17 Station Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to register, please visit here. For consultative professionals in charge of their own marketing, including realtors, financial advisers, coaches of all varieties in the first two-five years of business.

Brookline GreenSpace Alliance annual meeting: 6:00 – 8:30 p.m., Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline. For more information or to RSVP, please e-mail here. A celebration of 30 years of environmental advocacy. Ken Liss, president of the Brookline Historical Society, speaks about “Public Squares and Parks Reserved: An Early History of Open Space in Brookline.”

Thursday, April 19

Short-Term Goal Planning: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-695-4617; e-mail here; or visit here. Attendees make a plan to achieve their most important financial goal.

Sunday, April 22

Brookline Open Studios Preview Show reception: 1:30 – 3:30 p.m., Brookline Town Hall, 333 Washington Street, Brookline. For more information, please visit here. A chance to see work by participating artists, as well as a chance to meet some of them.

Calliope’s Call presents Cross Connections: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon Street, Brookline. A series that presents selected works of song by a featured composer alongside works by other composers and poets who have influenced the featured artist’s life and career. This first program will focus on the compositions of art song composer, Tom Cipullo, whose works explore the entire spectrum of human emotions.

Piano Trio of Forte New York concert: 5:30 – 7:00 p.m., The Korean Church of Boston, 32 Harvard Street, Brookline. Free. Presented by Oasis Cafe Music Night and the Forte NY Chamber Music present. Features Vicky HyunJin Lee, violin; Yu Mi Bae, cello; and Hyojin Rhim, piano. Free refreshments.

Monday, April 23

Shakespeare show: 1:30 p.m., Wingate Residences at Boylston Place, 615 Heath Street, Brookline. Free; space limited. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-244-6400. Actor Stephen Collins will perform his one-man Shakespeare show.

Schindler survivor to speak: 7:30 p.m., Pine Manor Ellsworth Theater, 400 Heath Stret, Chestnut Hill. Cost: $18; $5 for students. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Spce limited. For more information or to reserve seats, please call 617-738-9770 or visit here. Chabad at Chestnut Hill will be hosting guest speaker Mrs. Rena Finder, who was 10 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland. Her father was killed at Auschwitz. She and her mother were sent to work at Emalia, Oskar Schindler’s enamel and ammunition factory.

Brookline Democrats Candidate Forum: 7:30 p.m., Brookline Town Hall, fifth floor, 333 Washington Street, Brookline. For more information, please call Cindy Rowe at 617-277-6282; or e-mail here. Attendees can meet the candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.

Tuesday, April 24

Community presentation and discussion: 5:30 p.m., Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, 99 Warren Street, Brookline. For more information or to RSVP, please call Alan Banks at 617-566-1689, ext. 221. Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site is hosting a community gathering to present and discuss its Treatment Plan for managing the adjoining Green Hill Parcel located at 111-135 Warren Street.

Author Terry Ann Knopf talk: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to register, please call 617-566-6660; or e-mail here. Terry Ann Knopf will discuss her book, “The Golden Age of Boston Television.” Books available for sale.

Wednesday, April 25

Legal Bootcamp: Protecting Your Business Assets Through Restrictive Covenants: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., Inner Space Yoga, 17 Station Street, Brookline. Free. For more information, please visit here. Attendees join Daily General Counsel for a workshop focusing on non-solicitation agreements to prevent the poaching of employees, customers and vendors, and the importance of non-disclosure and non-competition agreements.

“Healing the Planet & Ourselves”: 1:30 p.m., Wingate Residences at Boylston Place, 615 Heath Street, Brookline. Free; space limited. For more information or to RSVP, pleae call 617-244-6400. J.T. Vannah will explore elements in nature that contribute to natural disasters as well as disease, investigating nature’s parallels with health and well being.

Ongoing events

“Off the Wall:” 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, through April 27, Gallery 93, 93 Winchester Street, Brookline. Photographs by Julie Smith, taken during her travels, feature stencils and wall art superimposed on layers of paint and plaster.

Release Rebalance Restore Essentrics Class: noon – 1:00 p.m. Fridays, All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon Street. Cost: $15-$65. For more information, please call 617-738-1810; or visit here. A full-body, rebalancing exercise program designed to slowly build strength, flexibility and balance. This class is for those who are new to, or returning to exercise, have slightly-limited mobility, or have atrophy-related stiffness, frozen shoulder or other chronic aches and pains.

Zen meditation & talk: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Thursdays, Eishoji Zen Center, 1318 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free; space limited. For mor information, or to RSVP, please call Jason at 508-360-2323.

Al-Anon Family Group meeting: 7:00 – 8:40 p.m. Tuesdays, United Parish – Brookline, Choir Room, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline. For families and friends of problem drinkers. Anonymous, confidential and free. Open to newcomers.

Caffe’ Italiano — Free Italian Conversations: 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and noon Fridays, Coolidge Corner Library, meeting room, 31 Pleasant Street, Brookline. Supported by the Publish Library of Brookline and the Italian Consulate in Boston. A free and friendly Italian conversation, leaded by an Italian teacher. Participants practice and improve their Italian regardless of proficiency. No registration require; drop-in. For more information, please visit here.

Game Day for Seniors at Putterham Library: 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Thursdays, Putterham Branch Library Community Room, 959 West Roxbury Parkway, Brookline. MahJongg, chess, Scrabble, dominoes, bring your own game or request. Handicapped accessible; wheelchair available. For mre information or to request a game, please call Helen at 617-942-7547.

Mindfulness Practice & Meditation: 7:00 – 8:40 p.m. Tuesdays, United Parish of Brookline, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline. Attendees sit and walk mindfully together, read a text and share what comes up for us in the reading. MPCGB links the 17 ongoing meditation groups in the greater Boston area that practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, to build relationships and deepen the practice of mindfulness. Free. For more information, please call 617-738-5917; or e-mail here.

Learn to Meditate: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Sundays, Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston, 646 Brookline Avenue, Brookline. Taught by qualified instructors, this basic meditation class is for beginners, as well as anyone who would like to refresh their understanding of the technique. Drop-in class; no registration required. Participants are welcome to come as often as you like, but the class is designed as a one-time introduction with the same content each week. Suggested donation: $5-$10. For more information, please call 617-734-1498; or visit here.

Overeaters Anonymous: 9:45 – 11:00 a.m. every Saturday, Brighton Marine Health Center, Hawes Building, third floor, 77 Warren Street, Brighton. Attendees find physical, emotional and spiritual recovery. For more information, please call Deanna at 617-731-8150.

 

Marathon Security Gets Test Run

By
Brookline.com
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With situations playing out in real-time, nearly 250 public safety officials trained inside the state’s underground bunker Tuesday morning to prepare for next week’s Boston Marathon.

During the drill, a kitchen fire broke out at Masonic Lodge in Hopkinton and someone reported a drone flying near the Ashland-Framingham line.

“It is still undetermined at this time,” the group heard during a briefing in regards to the drone. “Ashland is en route to identify the operator and take steps to address the situation.”

Brookline officers investigated an unattended bag reported at the Hawes Street T station in Brookline.

The large-scale functional exercise, which lasted several hours, brought together 70 local, state and federal agencies, private nonprofit organizations and private companies who will be working together at the the Unified Coordination Center at Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency MEMA headquarters in Framingham for the Marathon. Each town and city along the course has its own emergency operations center.

“We will test our ability to communicate, to share our information and to move resources depending on the situation and to make quick effective decisions on small things to major things,” said Kurt Schwartz, MEMA director.

Nearly 8,000 uniformed and undercover public safety personnel will line the course.

The group worked with many scenarios, including protestors standing on the course with signs.

“Our plans change every year. There are new threats and hazards that we worry about and focus on,” Schwartz said. “A few years ago, we didn’t focus on cyber security and the possibility of some sort of attack on our network infrastructure. We do that now. We weren’t focused five years ago on car-ramming attacks. We are now.”

The team keeps an eye on the weather, too.

“We deal with weather most often and we’re already looking at the forecast for next week,” he said. “It is looking like it might be a cold, wet, windy day.”

 

Students Left Scrambling As AG Healey Looks Into UMass-Mount Ida deal

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Brookline.com
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Thousands of students are scrambling to decide on their future as the state’s attorney general looks into a deal between UMass-Dartmouth and Mount Ida College, which announced last week that it would be closing its doors this fall due financial problems.

UMass-Amherst will acquire the struggling college campus under a deal finalized Friday. Current seniors will graduate from Mount Ida, while all others will be able to attend UMass-Dartmouth.

Forty staffers from UMass-Dartmouth visited the Mount Ida campus on Monday to go over the transfer process.

“It seemed like UMass-Dartmouth was our option. That’s where they want us to go. They’re streamlining us there,” said sophomore Andrew Foley.

Mount Ida struck a deal with UMass-Dartmouth that would allow current students to transfer directly there. Problem is: not all of the majors offered at Mount Ida are available at UMass-Dartmouth.

In the days since the announcement, many Mount Ida students have voiced concern about UMass-Dartmouth, saying the campus is too far away. That leaves students, like Margo O’Dea’s son who is studying to be a funeral director, in a lurch.

“There are big issues about accreditation and licensing for kids who are seniors and even juniors, so what’s my son supposed to do?” said O’Dea.

The agreement between the colleges also doesn’t guarantee admission to high school seniors who were accepted to Mount Ida in the fall.

“They asked me my GPA since it was below 3.0. They’re like ‘ooooohhhh we can’t do that for you, sorry,’” said high school senior Jacob Solomita.

Mount Ida says all deposits will be refunded to those incoming freshman. UMass-Dartmouth promises any students who transfer will pay the same admission or less. Attorney General Maura Healey is keeping tabs on the situation and has promised an investigation.

Healey’s office set up a hotline for students regarding loans and transfer options.

“I think it’s really important that we have in place a process that works for these students that will allow them to complete their education,” Healey said. “Students who have taken on loans might be eligible for a discharge of these loans due to their school closing down.”

Brookline’s Newbury College said Monday that it will offer help and accept Mount Ida students who would like to transfer and finish their degrees.

 

Chase Chooses Three Locations For Its First Local Bank Branches

By
Brookline.com
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JPMorgan Chase has won state approval to open three bank branches — two in Boston and another in Brookline — making good on its strong hints earlier this year that it was planning a retail presence in Boston.

Chase (NYSE: JPM) is set to open brand-new branches at 800 Boylston Street in Back Bay, the address for the Prudential Tower; at 1 Winter Street in Downtown Crossing, and at 1364 Beacon Street in Brookline, according to a report on Friday from the Massachusetts Division of Banks. The agency approved Chase’s applications for the sites last week.

The three locations will give Chase, the country’s largest bank, its first retail branches in Massachusetts. The company now has 1,000 employees in the city, according to a spokesman, in areas like asset management and commercial and investment banking.

A Chase representative declined to answer questions about the three branches, including when they would open, saying the bank was not ready to comment on the locations.

The banking giant announced in January that it wanted to add up to 400 new branches nationwide in the next five years, even as many banks are shrinking their brick-and-mortar footprints. Chase did not say at the time where it would expand, though it made a point of saying that it was not yet in Boston.

The last megabank to enter Boston by opening new branches, rather than acquiring another bank, was Citibank (NYSE: C). At its height, it had more than 30 branches in Massachusetts, but it announced in late 2015 that it would close all of its local retail branches less than a decade after they opened. Citi never gained as much market share locally as other large banks like Bank of America and TD Bank. Webster Bank (NYSE: WBS) took over Citi’s branches.

At the moment, Chase’s retail operations in Boston are limited to exactly three ATMs, according to its website: Two in Logan Airport, and one at 30 Rowes Wharf.

 

David Bonetti Passes At 71

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Brookline.com
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David Bonetti, an incisive and passionate art critic for the Post-Dispatch from 2003 to 2009, was found dead Wednesday in his apartment in Brookline, MA.

Mr. Bonetti was discovered by his apartment manager, who came to change batteries in a smoke alarm. Slumped in a chair, he had been listening to classical music, according to Amanda Doenitz, a close friend who spoke to a police detective in Brookline. He was 71.

As a critic for the Post-Dispatch, he brought a new, sharper tone to art criticism in St. Louis, says Harper Barnes, former critic at large for the paper.

“He could be very acerbic, sometime to the point of cruelty. But he also was a master at digging out the deeper meaning of some of the work he wrote about, and beneath his sarcasm was a deep love of the creative process.”

Mr. Bonetti graduated from Brandeis University in 1969 and was the art critic for the Boston Phoenix when he was recruited by San Francisco Examiner publisher Will Hearst in 1989, in a bold move to beef up the Examiner’s art coverage when it was the broadsheet afternoon daily.

From the start, Bonetti stood out for his commitment to the Bay Area art scene in all its venues no matter how small, garage galleries being a favorite. He was an early and ardent advocate for gay and queer artists, along with all forms of high art and low art. The only thing he could not abide was kitsch.

“As a critic and colleague, David was smart, funny and bitchy — all good qualities,” said his longtime editor Paul Wilner. “As a writer, he was clear on his likes and dislikes. And while funny in conversation, he was serious and committed to his beat.”

“He was very lively, very opinionated and lots of fun,” said Sandra S. Phillips, curator emerita of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “He was also very knowledgeable about the art that he was focused on. If you get into an argument with him, you had to know what you were talking about because he could tackle you very adroitly.”

In addition to promoting gay artists through his criticism, Mr. Bonetti was a collector and owned work by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and Jerome Caja, a San Francisco eccentric who used nail polish to paint perverse iconography on tiny thimbles and pieces of cardboard. “David arrived at the apex of the high queer era in San Francisco,” said queer historian Gerard Koskovich. “It was a time period that saw an extraordinary political and cultural response to the darkest years of the AIDS crisis and the extreme attack on LGBT people during the right-wing culture wars.”

After the Examiner merged with the Chronicle in 2000, Mr. Bonetti became uncomfortable in his role on the combined staff. He ultimately took a buyout in 2002 and decamped for the Post-Dispatch to become a visual arts critic.

He was in St. Louis for seven years, during which he developed both a national reputation for arts criticism and more than a few foes in the St. Louis art world.

“I would be the first to admit that St. Louis and I were not a match made in heaven,” he noted in a final blog post.

But he did not hesitate to recommend things to various institutions. In a 2009 piece about a St. Louis Art Museum exhibit featuring satirist and visual artist Tom Huck, he wrote:

“Now, the museum has allowed Huck to browse through its print collection and choose some of the artists who have influenced him. The resulting exhibition, ‘Tom Huck and the Rebellious Tradition of Printmaking,’ is small, but says a lot. Pieces by seven artists, including Albrecht Durer and Max Beckmann, are shown with work by Huck in a show in which ideas and influences ricochet off each other until you wonder who is influencing whom…

“SLAM is a little late in the game in asking artists to work with its collection. But the Huck show is so successful that the museum ought to consider doing similar exhibitions in the future. Artists need not be local. Among other things, it’s a way to make Durer contemporary.”

And everything he praised was not always high art:

“But what makes the (Dog Museum of America) fun is that it doesn’t just hold out for art that might fit comfortably into a general art museum like, for instance, the St. Louis Art Museum. (Which, by the way, has two superlative dog paintings on view — one by Landseer, the other by Courbet.) The Dog Museum shows everything from high to low with all the levels in between.”

When he retired, Mr. Bonetti moved to Brookline, where he had grown up. He was a freelancer and wrote about opera for the Berkshire Fine Arts, a website.

A memorial service is pending. Survivors include a brother, Gary Bonetti of Milford, MA.

 

Brookline Native Continues Legacy Of Women Marines

By
Brookline.com
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Olivia G. Griffin
Olivia G. Griffin

In 1918, one-hundred years ago, woman-kind was granted the ability to enlist into the Marine Corps Reserve for clerical duty. Opha May Johnson officially became the first woman Marine, which set the example for others to emulate.

Olivia G. Griffin, a Brookline, Massachusetts native, is currently in the process of enlisting out of Recruiting Substation (RSS) Boston and hopes to continue Johnson’s legacy and become a Marine even in the face of others’ negative thoughts and feelings.

“I have always loved my country and wanted to serve,” said Griffin. “Getting ready to go into high school in 2014, I decided that the Marines were the best fit for me because of the challenge, camaraderie and the idea of ‘earned never given.’”

Though committed to earn the title, Griffin’s parents were reluctant at first to accept her dream of becoming a Marine, she said. For recruiters, a common issue they face is concerned parents.

Engaging with unsupportive parents can be extremely challenging, said Gunnery Sgt. Daniel J. Eddy, the staff noncommissioned officer in charge of RSS Boston. He said that in cases like Griffin’s, recruiters try to explain to parents how the Marine Corps will benefit their children.

“Often times it is difficult for us to overcome their fears of their children potentially being placed into dangerous situations,” said Eddy. “As a father to an eight-year-old daughter, it would be difficult for me to see her leave for any institution, whether the Marine Corps, another military branch, or a college or university, but it is an inevitable part of our lives and we should strive to ensure that we prepare them.”

Griffin’s mother, Caroline Levine, explained that she was not surprised by Griffin’s interest in the Marines. Levine said she will support her daughter if this is her goal and wants her to feel supported by her family. She also believes Griffin will be a great leader because of her determination, intelligence and physical fitness level.

Currently, only about 30 percent of age-qualified youth are eligible to serve, but more than 90 percent of them are disinterested. Even more so, of that 30 percent, less than eight percent of women are even interested in military service let alone the Marine Corps.

Griffin explained that people unfamiliar with the Marines are often shocked when she shares her plan to serve after graduating early from Brimmer and May, a K-12 school. She believes it’s mostly because she’s a female.

Regardless of what people said of her decision to enlist, Griffin swore into the delayed entry program (DEP) on June 7, 2017, to serve in the Military Police (MP) occupational specialty. Upon entering the DEP, Griffin became what is known as a poolee and will continue to prepare for recruit training until her scheduled ship day.

Griffin said that no one looks at her differently because of her gender at RSS Boston. Raymond Tam, also a poolee at RSS Boston, shared his thoughts on Griffin’s character traits.

“She is highly motivated, physically fit, willing to go above and beyond, and helped me and others meet goals, expectations, and become overall better,” said Tam. “I see her excelling in everything she does, and it will definitely follow her throughout her time during [recruit training] and her career.”

While in the DEP, Griffin became the poolee guide, which is a position of leadership among enlistee pools of recruiting substations.

“Poolee Griffin, from day one as a poolee, here in RSS Boston, has demonstrated consistent professionalism far exceeding her current age and experience,“ said Eddy. “She demonstrated initiative in not only improving her physical fitness and Marine Corps knowledge, but also mentoring and encouraging the other poolees to push themselves.”

Upon graduation of high school, Griffin will leave for recruit training May 21, 2018, and hopes to work with military working dogs as an MP.

“Some people think I’m crazy for enlisting, while others see it as a great opportunity and respect it,” she said. “I think it’s pretty cool how far everything has come since Opha May Johnson’s time. I’m proud to help continue that legacy and I’m excited for what’s to come in the future.”

 

QUANTICO, VA, UNITED STATES
04.06.2018
Story by Sgt. Shaehmus Sawyer
Marine Corps Recruiting Command

 

Budget Subcommittee Vote To Delay Land Bank Decision

By
Brookline.com
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Sean Lynn-Jones
Sean Lynn-Jones

The Long-Term Planning and Policies Subcommittee of Brookline voted almost unanimously to recommend its overarching Advisory Committee defer a land bank proposal until next year. The subcommittee designed to plan for the town’s future, recommended more research on a proposed land bank after a meeting on Wednesday night.

Subcommittee member David Lescohier submitted the proposal and was the only one to vote against the recommendation to delay.

The land bank proposal, also known as Article 24, would levy a land transfer tax of up to 1 percent on certain property buyers, according to this year’s Annual Town Meeting Warrant. The tax would create a fund for Brookline to buy land to develop for revenue, build affordable housing and preserve parkland.

“The land bank offers the power, a useful tool to be strategic, to focus on longer goals and save up for them,” Lescohier said in his opening remarks about the proposal.

Despite the delay, Lescohier felt he achieved his goal of getting the issue on the town’s radar, he said in an interview after the meeting.

“I wasn’t expecting that they were going to run with this monster, un-shredded and spindled,” he said.

Members of the subcommittee, as well as members of other town boards and advocacy groups who attended the meeting saw Article 24 as trying to benefit two opposing interests: new development versus preservation of current land.

“The premise from the beginning is development pressure cutting into existing green space,” said Arlene Mattison, president of the nonprofit, Brookline GreenSpace Alliance. “How do you have the same bill, the same law, doing both?”

Mattison recommended creating a conservation-focused land bank like the ones on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

Sean Lynn-Jones, chair of the Advisory Committee and the subcommittee, said the proposal was creating conflicts even before the vote.

“This is the recipe for a huge battle over how these funds are spent,” he said.

Governments or nonprofits start land banks to put vacant properties to productive use, according to the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit that works to eliminate abandoned and deteriorated properties.

If there are no delays, Article 24 is set to go to the full Advisory Committee for a vote on May 1, regardless of what the subcommittee recommended, said Lynn-Jones in a warning before the meeting.

If the Advisory Committee disagrees with the subcommittee and approves the article, it will go to this May’s Annual Town Meeting for another vote, Lynn-Jones said. If the town meeting also votes yes, Brookline’s Select Board will put together a home rule petition to ask the state legislature to create the Brookline Land Bank.

“Even if it’s voted favorably by the town meeting, it has to go to Beacon Hill,” Lynn-Jones said.

If the Advisory Committee follows the subcommittee’s recommendation for further study, a study committee will be appointed to carry it out and could bring the proposal back in time for the Annual Town Meeting in May 2019.

 

Coming Out: The Journey To Self-Acceptance Can Be Mired With Others’ Doubt & Ignorance

By
Brookline.com
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Instead of the traditional one big coming out narrative, I have had to come out several times in my life.

The first was in Illinois, and it has stuck with me ever since. Sexuality was not discussed much—if at all—there. When I came out as bisexual my sophomore year in High School, I received a considerable amount of backlash from close friends of mine—even my then-girlfriend who, unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the topic, became both physically and psychologically abusive—dangling my sexuality over my head during arguments.

That, among other incidences, contributed to a growing reticence with regards to accepting my identity. Coming out then was, originally, intended to “soften the blow” for my future coming out as a trans woman—but what I experienced back in that small town north of Chicago walked me right back into the closet and made me lose any confidence I already had in myself and my identity.

A couple months before I moved across the country to Brookline, Massachusetts the summer after my sophomore year, my parents sent me to a psychologist. He sat me in a puffy brown leather chair—the type in which you sit and feel your whole body enveloped, casting over you a feeling of lethargy—and told me why I should not come out or talk about my identity in Brookline.

“It brings attention to you,” he said. “Are you sure you really are? I think you need to rethink things I think it’s just you being, y’know, a rebellious teenager.”

And I believed him.

***

And, so it was with the move: A “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” sort of thing that I hoped would carry me through my junior year and the rest of High School. My sexuality and gender identity were then, to me, “phases”—unnecessary appendages upon which I looked with regret and disdain.

That is until I, on a whim, decided to attend a meeting of my high school’s gender sexuality alliance (GSA). If there was, in my being, even an ounce of that “teenage rebellion,” this was it.

I was emboldened; though just my first time attending the club, I experienced and felt complete support of my identity, the likes of which would have been unheard of back in Illinois. Through more meetings and conversations, I began to thaw. My elation and relief became so much, in fact, that I put my name in to speak at the school’s Day of Dialogue (a day dedicated to, among other things, queer students discussing their identities).

That is exactly what I did—which also helped me turn my pride and euphoria into anger. As I stood at the podium, coming out in front of almost the entire school, my mind began to defog. I began to realize what exactly had happened in my old town.

While in Illinois, I had felt like a nuisance. However, as I began to realize, they had shut me up because it made them uncomfortable. They did not support it.

So, after a particularly heated conversation with somebody from there the summer after my junior year, I decided I had had enough. I contacted several members of my old school’s LGBTQ+ community and helped pen an open letter to the high school’s administration.

In short, it helped set in motion long-needed reforms that I, frankly, wish had existed during my time there.

All of this, too, emboldened me. I had then finally gained the courage to come out as a trans woman.

While the response was and has been, generally positive, it has come with backlash—mainly from those in my old town but, surprisingly, a handful of people in Brookline.

Despite the negativity and turmoil that has accompanied my coming out, I am grateful for the experiences. They, at the end of the day, strengthened my resolve and my sense of self.

But, on the other hand, they have cemented my fear of coming out in the future. No matter how much reinforcement, no matter how accepting a community, no matter how many queer people are around, the fear—and the memory—is always there. Those previous negative experiences permeate.

As many members of the LGBTQ community can probably attest, the queer life is one consisting of many coming outs—from our workplaces to our schools to our friends. We tend to live on the day-to-day—a to whom will I come out to today? and I wonder what their reaction will be? Far too often, we depend on the validation of others in evaluating our own self-worth. That as a consequence of both damaging experiences and being a marginalized member of society. It is a facade, a sense of awareness that we erect in order to risk the least amount of ourselves.

More than anything, people must be as supportive as possible—as early as possible—to those who put their trust and confidence on the line in order to tear down those facades and to reveal their true selves.

The fear is always still there. It sure is for me.

 

Nicole Collins

 

About

Nicole Collins is a senior at Brookline High School and an advocate for the LGBTQ community and transgender rights. She helps run an LGBTQ podcast, Dialog(ue), and helps push for reform within her school. She will be attending Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in the fall of 2018.

For more information about “coming out” click on A Resource Guide To Coming Out.

 

This Brookline Startup Wants To Pair Patients With Registered Dietitians

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Nutrimedy, a two-year-old telehealth startup based in Brookline, is looking to broaden the pool of registered dietitians available to patients regardless of their physical location, by using an app and an online platform.

Jonah Cohen, a physician at Harvard Medical School, founded the company because many of his patients expressed that they were struggling with their diet. Cohen wanted to help, but like most physicians, he does not have proper dietetics training.

“We were underutilizing the dietitians in our country,” Cohen, who now serves as Nutrimedy’s chief medical officer, said. “There had to be a better way to match people for medical nutrition therapy.”

Jonah Cohen, MD
Jonah Cohen, MD

Thus began Nutrimedy, a five-person company offering an online service and app that allows people to find dietitians across the country based on their preferred language and dietetic need, instead of their location. The company launched in March 2016 and the app in February 2018.

Users on the service will make an account and fill out a survey about their health needs. Then, Nutrimedy will work to connect them to their best fit. Once connected, patients can begin messaging the specialist or set up an appointment. Appointments are done over video from anywhere in the country and cost between $35 (for a 25-minute session) and $65 (for a 50-minute session).

Nutrimedy CEO Karolina Starczak, a registered dietitian herself, joined the company because she wanted to do something new that still used her clinical experience.

“It really kind of connected a lot of the pieces that I had worked on throughout my career,” Starczak said. “It allowed me to really step back into a company that was a little more focused on nutrition, but still really looking to deliver this product that would help to improve health, and do it in a way that was personalized.”

Currently, Nutrimedy is gearing up to launch their newest service, which is an expecting mother’s program. This new service, which is scheduled to launch on April 23, will allow users to be paired up with a dietitian who specializes in pregnancy nutrition. The new plan will include five video sessions, unlimited messaging, three-month tracker for a flat $300.

Karolina Starczak
Karolina Starczak

Starczak said that their research found that nutrition was the second most searched term online by pregnant women. The specialized dietitians who will be part of the plan will come from the approximately 650 dietitians on the app. To be included in the Nutrimedy’s network, dietitians are required to be licensed.

Nutrimedy also connects with companies to be able to offer a version of the core-program and their “nuExpecting” program to their employees.

The company is hoping to raise their second seed fund at the end of April. Nutrimedy is also a member of PULSE@MassChallenge digital health cohort, which provides mentorship and potential investment opportunities to digital health startups. The company was also a part of the Boston Children’s Hospital Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator, which provides mentorship and grant funding.

Cohen said over the next six months they want to expand to have potential programs focused on fertility, and postpartum and lactation nutrition.

“I’m just very passionate about this area and a deep believer that food can really help us live our healthiest lives,” Cohen said.

 

Around Town

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1. Learn what to do in a medical emergency at the “You are the help until help arrives” event on April 5. Hosted by Fallon Ambulance, the event is part of a series of events taking place in Brookline for Public Health Week. The event will run from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Hunneman Hall in the Brookline Main Public Library.

2. Celebrate nature, innovation and science at the third annual Youth Climate Adaption Challenge on April 7. Held in the Pierce School Cafeteria, the event is an environmental fair that addresses climate change. It will run from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

3. Discover techniques for gardening Brookline’s urban/suburban environment on April 7. Held as part of Climate Week, the workshop will focus on permaculture techniques. It will run from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Hunneman Hall in the Brookline Main Public Library.

4. Learn about African-American history in Brookline through the Hidden Brookline Walking Tour on April 7. Led by Suzette Abbott of Hidden Brookline, the tour will include local Underground Railroad sites and other landmarks. The tour will meet at 2:00 p.m. at Town Hall on Washington Street. The rain date for the tour is April 8.

5. Enjoy an evening of music at Mistral’s 21st season finale on April 8. Held at St. Paul’s Church, the finale will feature a piece by Brookline resident and composer Elena Ruehr. The chamber music concert will start at 5:00 p.m.

 

What Is David Hogg Talking About

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Around Town

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Upcoming events

Thursday, April 5

Lavenber Bee Baking Company Pop-Up: noon – 6:00 p.m. April 5 and 12, Lavender Bee Baking Company, 14 Pleasant Street, Brookline. For more information, please e-mail here or visit here. Lavender Bee Baking Company is a local nut-free specialty baked good business.

You Are the Help Until Help Arrives: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m., Hunneman Hall, Brookline Main Library, 361 Washington Street, Brookline. Attendees learn what to do in an emergency.

Friday, April 6

Family Movie Night: “Stink!”: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., Lawrence School, 27 Francis Street, Brookline. A foul smell, kids’ PJs, and chemicals star in this family-friendly documentary.

Saturday, April 7

First Time Home Buyer Seminar: 10:00 a.m.  -noon, Unlimited Sotheby’s International Realty, 1290 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information, please visit here, call 617-332-1400 or visit here. Attendees are guided through the pre-approval process, current market conditions, major steps in the buying process, how to protect deposits and more.

Youth Climate Adaptation Challenge: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Pierce School, 50 School Street, Brookline. An environmental fair to address climate change.

Youth in Action: High School Students Discuss Fighting Climate Change: 1:45 – 3:15 p.m., Pierce School Auditorium, 50 School Street, Brookline. For more information, please isit here. Students will share their stories of lobbying, setting up composting systems and efforts to decrease plastic bottles. Ideal for middle school students and their families.

Music of Latin America for Violin and Piano: 3:00 – 4:30 p.m., Lincoln Elementary School, 25 Kennard Road, Brookline. Free. For more information, please visit here. Brookline Music School’s 2017-2018 Faculty Artist Series concludes.

Sunday, April 8

Musical Beginnings Summer Programs Open House: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Lincoln Elementary School, 25 Kennard Road, Brookline. Space limited. To register, please call 617-277-4593. During Summer Preview Days, Brookline Music School invites the community to explore its summer program options, including full- and half-day programs.

Green House Fest: Tour Energy-Efficient Brookline Homes: Noon – 3:00 p.m., Brookline Open Studios, throughout Brookline. For more information, locations or to RSVP, please visit here. A tour of homes showing solar panels, heat pumps, electric cars with chargers, on-demand water heaters, rain water saving tanks, home energy monitors and more.

“Bel Canto:” 5:00 p.m., St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 15 St. Paul Street, Brookline. Cost: $35. For tickets, please call 978-474-6222, e-mail here or visit here. Mistral performs Elena Ruehr’s “Bel Canto” String Quintet No. 5 based on Ann Patchett’s novel “Bel Canto” in which music plays a central role.

Contra Dancing in the Ballroom: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., Brookline Senior Center, 93 Winchester Street, Brookline. Cost: $7. For tickets, please visit here. For more information, please call 617-730-2777. Live music with Amy Larkin on the Fiddle and Debby Knight on the piano, and an experienced caller. Open to beginners and singles. Light refreshments served.

Tuesday, April 10

Legal Bootcamp: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., The Village Works, 202 Washington Street, Brookline. Free. For tickets, please visit here. A roundtable discussion on “Dispute Resolution for Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Freelancers.”

“Georgia O’Keeffe:” 1:30 p.m., Wingate Residences at Boylston Place, 615 Heath Street, Brookline. Free; space limited. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-244-6400. Art Matters will lead a presentation on the life and work of American modern painter Georgia O’Keeffe, who is known for her paintings of flowers, New York City skyscrapers and New Mexico landscapes.

Buying a Home: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information, please call 617-695-4617, e-mail here or visit here. Prospective home buyers learn how much they can afford to put down, how much mortgage they can handle and what their property options are.

Wednesday, April 11

Brookline Youth Awards: 7:00 p.m., Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline. Free. For more information, please call Caitlin Haynes at 617-730-2345 or e-mail here. The night will include video interviews of students in Brookline who are making a difference in the community, a video interview with Headmaster Anthony Meyer, and keynote speaker and 2013 Youth of the Year Recipient Ben Hoff. Hosted and presented by BrooklineHub.com.

Thursday, April 12

Phenomenal Foodies: 5:30 – 8:00 p.m., Showcase Superlux Chestnut Hill, 55 Boylston Street, Newton. For more information or to buy tickets, please visit here. A Women’s Panel featuring women in the food industry. Features appetizers from Davio’s and a cash bar.

Pop and Protection: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-695-4617, e-mail here or visit here. Attendees learn about the different types of insurance and the components of a basic estate plan, while exploring sparkling wines.

Saturday, April 14

Spring Pruning Workshop: 12:30 – 3:00 p.m., Minot Rose Garden, Saint Paul and Browne streets, Brookline. For more information, please e-mail here. The Friends of the Minot Rose Garden annual spring pruning workshop. Master Rosarian David Cannistraro will demonstrate pruning techniques and guide participants as they prune the roses in anticipation of their spring blooms.

Summer Ensembles and Intensive Programs Open House: 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Lincoln Elementary School, 25 Kennard Road, Brookline. For more information, please visit here. During Summer Preview Days, Brookline Music School invites the community to explore its summer program options, including full- and half-day programs, weekly music classes, and private lessons.

Sunday, April 15

Opera at the Cinema: “Carmen:” 10:00 a.m., The Makery, 2 Sewall Avenue, Brookline. Cost: $20-$23. For more information, please e-mail here or visit here. Presented by the Royal Opera House. Bizet’s classic French opera stars Anna Goryachova in Barrie Kosky’s production.

“Phantasy:” 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 15 St. Paul Street, Brookline. Cost: $10-$30. For more information, please visit here. Winsor Music’s 2017-18 season will conclude with a varied program of English, American and German masterpieces, highlighted by the premiere of a “Song for the Spirit.”

Tuesday, April 17

Couples and Money: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For mre information or to RSVP, please call 617-695-4617, e-mail here or visit here. A talk about the roles behavior and money play in every relationship.

Wednesday, April 18

Marketing for People Who Don’t Like Marketing: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., Inner Space Yoga, 17 Station Street, Brookline. Free. For information or to register here. For consultative professionals in charge of their own marketing, including realtors, financial advisers, coaches of all varieties in the first two-five years of business.

Brookline GreenSpace Alliance annual meeting: 6:00 – 8:30 p.m., Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline. To RSVP, please e-mail here. A celebration of 30 years of environmental advocacy. Ken Liss, president of the Brookline Historical Society, speaks about “Public Squares and Parks Reserved: An Early History of Open Space in Brookline.”

Thursday, April 19

Short-Term Goal Planning: 6:30 p.m., In Good Company, 1653 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free. For more information or to RSVP, please call 617-695-4617, e-mail here or visit here. Attendees make a plan to achieve their most important financial goal.

Monday, April 23

Schindler survivor to speak: 7:30 p.m., Pine Manor Ellsworth Theater, 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill. Cost: $18; $5 for students. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Spce limited. For more information or to reserve seats, please visit here or call 617-738-9770. Chabad at Chestnut Hill will be hosting guest speaker Mrs. Rena Finder, who was 10 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland. Her father was killed at Auschwitz. She and her mother were sent to work at Emalia, Oskar Schindler’s enamel and ammunition factory.

Ongoing events

“Off the Wall:” 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, through April 27, Gallery 93, 93 Winchester Street, Brookline. Photographs by Julie Smith, taken during her travels, feature stencils and wall art superimposed on layers of paint and plaster.

PJ Drive: Through March 15, Brookline Town Hall, 333 Washington Street, Brookline. Cradles to Crayons is teaming up with the Boston Bruins, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and Wonderfund to launch the 11th annual drive, which provides new, unused pajamas to children in need across Massachusetts.

Release Rebalance Restore Essentrics Class: noon – 1:00 p.m. Fridays, All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon Street. Cost: $15-$65. For more information, please call 617-738-1810 or visit here. A full-body, rebalancing exercise program designed to slowly build strength, flexibility and balance. This class is for those who are new to, or returning to exercise, have slightly-limited mobility, or have atrophy-related stiffness, frozen shoulder or other chronic aches and pains.

Zen meditation and talk: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Thursdays, Eishoji Zen Center, 1318 Beacon Street, Brookline. Free; space limited. For more information or to RSVP, please call Jason at 508-360-2323.

Al-Anon Family Group meeting: 7:00 – 8:40 p.m. Tuesdays, United Parish – Brookline, Choir Room, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline. For families and friends of problem drinkers. Anonymous, confidential and free. Open to newcomers.

Caffe’ Italiano — Free Italian Conversations: 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and noon Fridays, Coolidge Corner Library, meeting room, 31 Pleasant Street, Brookline. Supported by the Publish Library of Brookline and the Italian Consulate in Boston. A free and friendly Italian conversation, leaded by an Italian teacher. Participants practice and improve their Italian regardless of proficiency. No registration require; drop-in. For more information, please visit here.

Game Day for Seniors at Putterham Library: 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Thursdays, Putterham Branch Library Community Room, 959 West Roxbury Parkway, Brookline. MahJongg, chess, Scrabble, dominoes, bring your own game or request. Handicapped accessible; wheelchair available. For more information or to request a game, please call Helen at 617-942-7547.

Mindfulness Practice and Meditation: 7:00 – 8:40 p.m. Tuesdays, United Parish of Brookline, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline. Attendees sit and walk mindfully together, read a text and share what comes up for us in the reading. MPCGB links the 17 ongoing meditation groups in the greater Boston area that practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, to build relationships and deepen the practice of mindfulness. Free. For more information, please call 617-738-5917 or e-mail here.

Learn to Meditate: 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Sundays, Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston, 646 Brookline Avenue, Brookline. Taught by qualified instructors, this basic meditation class is for beginners, as well as anyone who would like to refresh their understanding of the technique. Drop-in class; no registration required. Participants are welcome to come as often as you like, but the class is designed as a one-time introduction with the same content each week. Suggested donation: $5-$10. For more information, please call 617-734-1498 or visit here.

Overeaters Anonymous: 9:45 – 11:00 a.m. every Saturday, Brighton Marine Health Center, Hawes Building, third floor, 77 Warren Street, Brighton. Attendees find physical, emotional and spiritual recovery. For more information, please call Deanna at 617-731-8150.

 

Small Private Colleges Attracting Fewer Students

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Brookline.com
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Small, liberal arts college administrators are growing increasingly concerned as their enrollment numbers fall.

The Boston Globe reports undergraduate enrollment trends at 118 four-year private colleges in the region show one out of five of those colleges have had an enrollment drop of at least 10 percent.

Newbury College in Brookline is facing the most severe drop, with its enrollment declining 86 percent over 20 years.

The number of high school graduates shrinking may be the problem. People have had fewer children since the 2008 recession, and the price tags of high-tuition schools drive families away.

Retired Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder predicts 500 U.S. colleges will close in the next decade, leaving large, private Ivy League schools safe, along with public colleges. Tinier schools like Eastern Nazarene College, Marlboro College and Boston Architectural College will struggle.

 

Play It Forward – Sports Gear Exchange

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Brookline.com
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Up For The Grabs, Reebok Founder’s Brookline Estate Still On The Market For $90M

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It has been more than a year since the longtime head of Reebok, Paul Fireman, put his 14-acre Brookline estate up for sale for $90 million — and the massive property that is being touted as the “most expensive listing in Massachusetts history” is still on the market.

The estate, owned by Paul and Phyllis Fireman, is known as Woodland Manor, and sits on a parcel surrounded by The Country Club in Brookline and Putterham Meadows Golf Course.

The property offers rolling lawns, ponds, sculpted rock outcrops and “a horticultural encyclopedia of specimen plantings,” according to the marketing agents, Jonathan P. Radford and Deborah M. Gordon, of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New England. The home features eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.

Radford said that the Firemans were focusing on selling the property to downsize.

“They have other homes,” he said. “They just love that area and they decided they wanted a smaller home.”

And although he said he was “not disappointed with the number of people” interested in the property, he declined to say how many people had toured it. “People are searching for just a decent acre to build on,” he said. “There’s no good land and that will will appeal to someone.”

The estate’s driveway, a third of a mile long, leads to the home designed by Shope Reno Wharton and built in 2000 by Thoughtforms Corp. The home offers more than 26,000 square feet of living space and features more than “5,000 square feet of Deer Island granite terraces with garden views.”

Paul Fireman led Reebok from the late 1970s through an IPO in the mid-1980s. He sold Reebok to Adidas in 2006 for $3.8 billion, and currently serves as chairman of Fireman Capital Partners, an investment firm. With his wife, Phyllis, he established The Paul & Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation, which works to end family homelessness in Massachusetts.

If you are ready to make an offer, please visit here.

 

Stink! Bring The Family!

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Remembering Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik

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Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik
Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik

Several years ago, while reminiscing with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s son-in law, about the thrilling Brookline days of yore, he highlighted the unique Shabbat sessions with the Rav held between Mincha and Maariv at the Maimonides School Synagogue in Brookline. It was during these short interludes that a small group of lay and professional congregants would assemble around the Rav and ask questions on the weekly Torah portion or any topic of choice. Occasionally during these rare moments, the Rav would share an anecdote, a recent conversation or a meeting he had attended.

One Shabbat afternoon in the early 1980’s the Rav shared with us the following story:

It was the Rav’s annual custom to visit his wife’s grave in West Roxbury Massachusetts on Erev Yom Kippur. At the cemetery he was approached by a family who did not recognize him and assumed he was the “cemetery rabbi”. They requested he recite memorial prayers and patiently obliging he was dragged to various family graves despite the time constraints of that nightfall’s hallowed importance. Weeks later the family discovered the identity of their uber gracious “cemetery rabbi” and made a generous donation to the Maimonides School in Brookline, the Jewish Day School founded by the Rav and his wife, Tonya in 1937.

The Rav educated, nurtured and “raised up” thousands of students. He encouraged his students to be free and independent thinkers. Ergo, his students represent a broad range; from Haredi Orthodox to left of center liberal Orthodox. An early student of the Rav stated in his introduction to a book about the Rav’s philosophy: “my loyalty and love for him as my teacher never interfered with my own intellectual independence and critical appreciation of his writings”.

A quarter of a century after the Rav’s passing his teachings, which during his life were mostly confined to student notebooks and limited tape recordings, have received unprecedented exposure through dozens of books and websites published by his actual and “virtual” students. These publications shed a bright light on the Rav’s brilliant oeuvre.

Commentaries are now available on the Chumash, Talmud, Siddur, Machzorim, Grace After Meals,  Haggadah and Tisha B’av Lamentations.  In the academic sphere numerous manuscripts on the Rav’s Torah and philosophy have been published and a student’s classroom notes from the 1950-51 Rav’s class on the Guide to the Perplexed has been edited and released. A Habad Hasid wrote a 375-page book entitled “The Rav and Rebbe” specifically highlighting the warm relationship and similarities between the Rav and the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

What is unprecedented is that as a result of the varied religious development of his students the Rav is referred to and portrayed in these publications in vastly different ways. Some of his Haredi writers refer  to him as the head of the “Boston Beis Din”, disregarding the Rav’s doctorate in Philosophy and decades long leadership as the Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University. Others, while still quoting his teachings expunge his name entirely.

Yet, there are students who actively expose the Rav’s Torah to the Haredi community. A Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University distributes free copies of the Rav’s commentaries on the Talmud to the Lakewood Yeshiva in New Jersey and the Brisk Yeshiva in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. While the Rav once stated that were he to visit Israel he would be greeted by Haredi demonstrators, today, in fact,  the Rav’s books sell very well in most Jerusalem neighborhoods.

On the other end of the religious spectrum some of the Rav’s students criticize him for not being more liberal or “progressive” in certain areas of Halakha. An early student of the Rav wrote about the Rav opening “two doors”; pointing to new paths but not walking through them. A rabbi living in Jerusalem who never met the Rav but claims to be familiar with his writings stated that the Rav was not a “Chadshan , a Halakhic innovator, and that his students admire him excessively.

In a recently published complex psychoanalytical and philosophical book on the Rav a professor at a major university in Israel  provides rationale as to why he prefers to refer to the Rav as Soloveitchik, rather than referring to him as The Rav or Rabbi Soloveitchik. “That I refer to the subject of this book as Soloveitchik and not “ the Rav,” or even R. Soloveitchik, serves a double purpose, to relate to him from a more critical scholarly perspective, but also to accord him the status he deserves as a figure within the intellectual history of the past century….”

In Germany, a Jesuit priest has published his Ph.D thesis on the Rav called “The Human Condition”. This, despite his thesis advisor’s lack of enthusiasm for this project, in no small matter due to the Rav’s well known objections to inter religious dialogue with Christianity.

Many of the Rav’s devotees owe their rabbinic and academic prominence to the Rav’s brilliant teachings.

Indeed, the Rav raised up many disciples.

 

Brookline House With Conservatory, Library & Koi Pond On Sale For $4.85m

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The 8,619-square-foot, 15-room behemoth at 372 Warren Street in Brookline is probably the city’s most interesting new listing; certainly its most opulent in a while.

The house, which dates from 1900 and which is on sale now through Coldwell Banker for $4.85 million, includes a bonafide conservatory-slash-greenhouse and a wood-paneled library.

There is also a koi pond on the property; and there is a two-car attached garage “with ample room to build additional 2 car garage” if need be.

The house’s four levels include an au pair/in-law suite, the potential for nine bedrooms(!), and four fireplaces. Do look around.

 

 

 

You Are The Help Until Help Arrives

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A New Brookline Facebook Group Aims At Guaranteeing The Right Of Speech & Freedom Of Expression Of Its Members

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To the esteemed members of the Brookline, MA community:

Dear friends,

Please join us in a new Brookline public group, free for all to participate, with respect to the right of speech and the freedom of expression.

It is our effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, religious, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social justice issues, etc. Be part of this process, share with us your stories, opinions, successes or problems.

To join, please visit here and kindly spread the word.

 

Meet Brookline’s Woman Of The Year: Artbarn’s Chloe Lara-Russack

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Chloe Lara-Russack
Chloe Lara-Russack

The Brookline Commission for Women will hosts its 26th Annual Women Who Inspire Us Awards Ceremony on Thursday, March 29, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hunneman Hall at the Brookline Main Library at 361 Washington Street. Refreshments will be served from 6:00 – 6:30 p.m.

During the event, the Brookline Commission for Women will celebrate 12 essay winners from 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades who wrote essays about a woman who inspires them. The “Women Who Inspires Me” essay contest, held annually in celebration of National Women’s History Month, is an important part of chronicling the history of women in Brookline and encourages students to reflect on those who make an impact on their lives.

That night, the Commission will also honor the 2018 Brookline Woman of the Year: Chloe Lara-Russack, executive co-director of Artbarn Community Theater (official website here) and a Vermont native, raising two girls along with her husband, who has harbored a love for theater since she was a child.

Theater has always been a part of Chloe’s life. Graduating from Bates College with a major in Theater and Education she soon found herself stumbling upon the magical stage of Artbarn Community Theater. In addition to her role as Artistic Director at the Barn, Chloe also worked in Brookline Public Schools developing theater curriculum.

Chloe has always maintained a strong passion and belief that theater has the potential to heal, build relationships and strengthen personal self-esteem. To further pursue this dream, Chloe left Artbarn in 2007 to attend NYU’s Drama Therapy Master’s program.

After graduating in 2010 Chloe returned to the Boston area and worked as a theater specialist in the Boston Public School System. In addition to her husband, Dan, and her daughters, Rowan and Hazel, Chloe’s greatest passion has and always will be the “theater.” In the words of a greeting card that Chloe has received time and again: “Given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world.” Chloe never leaves home without her fairy wand safely tucked in her back pocket.

The formal program will last about an hour and a half minutes. This event is free and open to the public.

All are welcome!

 

Boston Man Sentenced For Two Bank Robberies

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Brookline.com
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A Boston man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for robbing a branch of RTN Federal Credit Union in Brookline and a branch of Mansfield Bank in West Bridgewater in November 2016.

Stephen D. Williams, 56, was sentenced to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,287 in restitution. Williams pleaded guilty in December 2017 to two counts of bank robbery.

Two individuals, one later identified as Williams, and the other later identified as Joseph Morris, entered a branch of the RTN Federal Credit Union in Brookline on Nov. 15, 2016. Williams approached a teller and demanded cash. The teller handed Williams cash from her drawer and Williams and Morris exited the bank and fled the area in a dark-colored Volkswagen.

An individual later identified as Williams  entered a branch of the Mansfield Bank in West Bridgewater on Nov. 22, 2016. Williams gestured that he had a firearm and demanded the tellers give him the bank’s money. The teller handed Williams cash, and Williams fled the area again in a dark-colored Volkswagen. Bank surveillance cameras recorded images of Williams during the robbery.

Law enforcement officers familiar with both Williams and Morris located the dark-colored Volkswagen and arrested the two men at an apartment complex in Brockton on Nov. 23, 2016.

Morris was charged in state court with the robbery of the RTN Federal Credit Union in Brookline and was sentenced to 8 to 10 years in jail.

 

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