The most recent Emory Health Walk, sponsored by the New York chapter of the Caucus of Emory Black Alumni (CEBA), turned out to be a fun, healthy, and early-morning success. The turnout at Central Park on Saturday, June 26 included alumni representatives from various class years between 1990 and 2010. Though a few of us battled some slight handicaps from the conclusion of a Friday night out on the town merely hours before, everyone braved the heat and arrived bright and early ready to walk.

As an added bonus, our group was treated to an up-close view of the finish line to the annual Pride Run. Seeing these runners complete the home stretch was quite an inspiration to all of us (some ran the entire race in under 25 minutes!)

With breakfast bars and new Emory T-shirts in hand, our crew was ready to get its pre-walking stretches on. We met our guide Lon at our starting point, the North Meadow Recreation Center, where he taught us the importance of good posture and premptive stretching before we started out on our journey. Lon was so impressed that so many of us had come out together to walk for our health (especially on a weekend morning) that he decided to give us our own private walk!

What we thought would be a mere stroll in the Park turned out to be quite a workout, however, as keeping our arms high and our feet light proved to be quite a challenge. “Stay loose as a goose!” Lon would cheer periodically as arms dropped or feet lagged. Thanks to our athletic fervor and a rather unrelenting June sun, it’s safe to say that we were all sweating by the time the 45-minute trek through the hills and paths of Central Park came to an end. Nevertheless, we all agreed that this was a great way to start out our Saturday morning.

After a group cool down stretch, we handed out some extra Emory T-shirts to other walkers out on their own strolls. “Emory… Hey, that’s a great school!” shouted one man, as he proudly held up his new T-shirt. “Thank you, sir!” He didn’t need to tell us…

Couldn’t join us last week? The North Meadow Recreation Center leads weekly Central Park walks every Saturday morning from 9:30 am to 11:00 a.m., no pre-registration required. We’ll see you out there!

- Montshona Edwards 07C

The Caucus of Emory Black Alumni (CEBA) New York celebrated Black History Month in February with two exciting--and fun--cultural events.

On February 19 Rae Wynn-Grant 06C, led an afternoon of art and jazz at the American Museum of Natural History. It was a lovely day at the museum featuring performances from the New Amsterdam Musical Association, along with the New Orleans-infused sounds of Edward Babb and McCollough Sons of Thunder.

Later, a panel discussion about jazz was led by Robert O’Meally, founder of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University. All in all, it was a great time.

Our second event was a Soul Food Sunday potluck hosted by Erin Miles 05C in West Harlem. The fun-filled day included a delicious menu consisting of homemade fried chicken, jerk chicken, candied yams, mac ‘n cheese, sweet potato biscuits, broccoli and cornbread. (You can see some of the remains in the photo above.) Not to mention a special champagne punch and even a banana pudding for dessert!

After eating way more than we should have, we played a riveting game of black history trivia, with Barbara Bridges 06C declaring victory and taking home the Starbucks gift set. Who knew that Dr. Martin Luther King’s real name was Michael? (His parents renamed him shortly after he was born).

More CEBA-sponsored and co-sponsored events are coming up this spring and summer. Also, our Facebook page is up and running, so please add us as a friend to get up to the minute details about what’s going on with CEBA NY!

If you’d like to be added to our special listserv, please email me at medwards915@yahoo.com.

-- Montshona Edwards 07C, chair, CEBA NY

On Wednesday, May 12, Caucus of Emory Black Alumni (CEBA) NY members enjoyed a fun-filled night on Broadway, as we all braved the chilly weather to watch the mighty Denzel Washington star in Fences.

Act One: We all gathered together for a delicious pre-show meet n’ greet at Bourbon Street Bar & Grille in the Theater District. Think yummy sliders, sultry chicken wings, delectable mozzarella sticks, and heavenly hush puppies. Add a cocktail or two and we were ready for the show!

Act Two: To say Fences was an artistic masterpiece is an understatement. Many of us couldn’t believe that we had already reached intermission when the lights came on midway through the show. Washington and Viola Davis as husband and wife were superb, and definitely earned their Tony Award nominations. Passion, lies, laughter, deceit—this play was jam-packed with drama, drama, drama and kept audience members on the edge of our seats.

Act Three: Those of us who meandered around the theater after the show got to catch an up-close glimpse of Mr. Washington himself! He came out of a side door of the theater and greeted fans for several minutes before he jetted away in his unmarked chauffeured car. We stood there with our mouths open in sheer awe at the site of this prolific actor—though he seemed humble, dressed down in a baseball cap, and of course, a smile.

Well folks, that’s all for now. Thanks to everyone who came out, and a special thanks to Dina Choate, assistant director for regional programs and our Emory Alumni Association (EAA) liaison, for helping coordinate much of this event.

Stay tuned for our next CEBA NY event: A “Hello, Summer” cookout at a private residence in the Gramercy Park area of NYC. Get ready for fun in the sun!!

See the photos on the EAA's Facebook fan page.

-- Montshona Edwards 07C, Caucus of Emory Black Alumni New York

A stifled smile and beckoning crook of the finger is how Whitney Ivey 08C paced the models from off the runway during the first Atlanta Young Alumni and Caucus of Emory Black Alumni (CEBA) fashion benefit for children’s leukemia research, Thursday, March 26. I could see Whitney framed through the lens of my Canon Rebel XT (I was the self-appointed photog for the night), trying her best not to laugh at the intentionally over-exaggerated poses by some of the male alumni models as she sent them one-by-one, alumna by alumnus, down the red carpet in between Bill Hallman’s two ateliers in Virginia-Highland.

Montshona Edwards 07C, event-coordinator extraordinaire, confidently watched her fellow alumni strut their stuff from the end of the runway as the rest of the alumni models hid inside the back room, checking makeup, hurriedly fixing scarves, trying to hide pesky price tags, and anxiously awaited Whitney’s subtle signal.

It all started as a proposal for an event partnership between CEBA, an interest group of the EAA, and the Atlanta Young Alumni. Montshona then added the fashion twist, and Darrah Brustein 06C offered the “in” we needed—Bill Hallman’s contact information. And so, the seeds of the CEBA-Young Alumni fashion show were planted, but everyone knows that Emory alumni are never fully satisfied—why stop there?

That’s when the idea of making it a benefit came into play—we could make the fashion show into something more, something that would hopefully last longer than spring’s fleeting fashions (fabulous as they were). If we made the show benefit the Emory’s Children Leukemia Research Fund, not only could we fund-raise from alumni for a great cause, but we could double our outcome as all donations would also count toward Campaign Emory, the University’s $1.6B dollar campaign.

All our planning, excitement, lengthy email threads, and runway run-throughs resulted in a fantastic fashion show; with wine and hors d’oeuvres in hand, CEBA members, young alumni, and even some Emory staff gathered at Bill Hallman to usher in the season’s fashions—at a 15 percent discounted rate, courtesy of Mr. Hallman himself. Stationed at a faux driftwood table, DJ Mike Bradley, a friend of Jamie Chan 06C, donated his skills and spun amazing beats and mixes to keep the crowds hyped while Blue Taylor, a professional MAC makeup artist from the Purple Door Salon graciously anointed the models with signature fashion stripes—blue for the boys, white for the ladies.

After the models had made their two runs down the runway (wearing signature outfits they had picked out themselves a couple of days earlier…with some subtle post-production help from the Highlands’ fashion guardian angel, Bill) alumni mingled and entered a raffle for a free month of boot camp, courtesy of BTB Fitness, while backstage we wrapped up the night with some mini-photo shoots before closing up shop.

Click here to see pictures from the event, and if you’d like to join me and other alumni in making a gift to the Emory Children’s Leukemia Research Fund, visit www.emory.edu/give and then type in Children’s Leukemia Research Fund in the “other designation” box.

Who knew that being philanthropic could be so fashionable?

--Cassie Young 07C, program development coordinator, Emory Annual Fund