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Chicago Public Library
Sunday, March 9
2 - 4 pm
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Tour Louis Armstrong
House, Museum, and Concert
New York, NY
Saturday April 5, 2025
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New Faculty to YACOL
Meet the talented Yale alumni who bring a wealth of expertise to our program, and discover the engaging courses they are offering.
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Robert Barsky is teaching:
Online-Spring 2025
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Dan Egan is teaching:
Rye, NY -Spring 2025
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Wyn Kelley is teaching:
Boston -Spring 2025
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Dany Greenberg is teaching:
NYC -Spring 2025
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Drew Lichtenberg is teaching:
Washington, D.C. -Spring 2025
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Emily Kopley is teaching:
Online -Spring 2025
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Peter Brooks is teaching:
NYC -Winter 2025
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Mark Micale is teaching:
Online -Spring 2025
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Matthew Watson is teaching:
New Haven -Spring 2025
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Alexandra Shelley is teaching:
NYC -Spring 2025
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Giovanni Miglianti is teaching:
Online -Spring 2025
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Michael Lewanski is teaching:
Chicago -Fall 2024
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David Ward is teaching:
Art, Artists, and American Society: From the Revolution to Post-Modernism, 1750-1970
Washington, D.C. - Fall 2025
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DISCOVERY, REFLECTION, AND COMMUNITYYACOL outings across the country
View a gallery of images from a variety of outings that Yale Alumni College held throughout 2024.
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WHAT A WONDERFULJUNE AFTERNOON!
Story by Laurie Treuhaft, and photos by Gary Schlesinger and David Schoenberg
To the kids on the block, he was Uncle Satchmo. Fans knew him as Pops. His 1963 recording of Hello, Dolly! ran away with the Grammy and knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts. Born a Baptist, he wore a Star of David, and was best friends with the pope. And he performed in sixty-five countries. “A note is a note in any language,” he would say. Any way you look at it, Louis Armstrong left his mark. Small wonder that 150 responses poured in as soon as YACOL sent a save-the-date for a June outing to the newly renovated Louis Armstrong House Museum.
Yalies arrived with stories! David Schoenberg (M. Phil. 1971, Ph.D. 1976 in Biology) brought a photo of the business card that Louis Armstrong autographed for his uncle at the family’s Junction Boulevard gift shop. Retired sociology professor Andy Beveridge (Class of 1967, M.Phil.1971, Ph.D. 1973) came with memories of a mid-1950s Armstrong concert in Madison, Wisconsin—and of using his department’s very fancy scanner to help provide visitor statistics to the Louis Armstrong House Museum when it was first getting off the ground.
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 | Louis and Lucille Armstrong frequently stopped by the gift shop run by David Schoenberg’s family. David, who has taken many YACOL literature courses, shared photos of this business card that Louis Armstrong autographed for his uncle. Pictured against an image of a plaque found on the garden wall of the house.
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The museum sits on 107th Street in Corona, Queens, across from Louis and Lucille Armstrong’s two-story home. While half of our group toured the house—both a National Historic and New York City Landmark—the other half remained in the museum to view its Here to Stay exhibit. Later we switched places. Here to Stay visitors can listen to hundreds of stories about every aspect of Armstrong’s life. On display are collages of album covers that he secured with Scotch Brand tape and plastered over the walls of his den. There are souvenir photos of Armstrong’s travels and his concert at Ghana’s independence ceremony, photos and news clippings from his Broadway and Hollywood careers, correspondence with his friend Langston Hughes, and a copy of Toni Morrison’s 1974 Black Book with Lucille Armstrong’s photo on the cover.
The house is decorated as it was when Armstrong lived there. His wife Lucille purchased it without telling him and quietly footed the first eight months of mortgage payments from her earnings as an actress at Harlem’s Cotton Club. With Louis’s heavy tour schedule, the Armstrongs were living in hotels three hundred days a year. Lucille wanted a home.
Their living room is filled with gifts from world leaders, and their pink and turquoise first-floor kitchen is modeled after the 1939–40 World’s Fair, held at nearby Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The kitchen cabinets are shaped like piano hinges and have handles that resemble trumpet keys. But Louis spent most of his time in the upstairs den that Lucille had set up for him. It’s filled with his album covers, recordings, collages, and photos. Pops was a documenter. He traveled with a portable typewriter and recorded everything. His den contains some 750 tapes—not only of his performances and jam sessions, but also of conversations with friends who dropped by. The tour guides played some of those tapes for us. On one, Pops tells us he buys everybody’s records, including the Beatles. “It’s a new beat and that’s all right!” On another, we hear joking and conversation at the dining room table over Armstrong’s favorite meal: red beans and rice, a New Orleans specialty.
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 | Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and (from left) vocalist Svetlana Scmulyan; David Ostwald, tuba; Jason Clotter, bass; Alvin Atkinson, Jr., drumset; Bria Skonerg, trumpet and vocal; and Anat Cohen, clarinet, performing under the honey locusts and pines in the Armstrong garden.
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Then it was out to the garden for a concert in celebration of Juneteenth, the museum’s first concert of the summer. It was a community event. The atmosphere was friendly with everyone pitching in. Neighbors and local residents, friends of the musicians, and our YACOL group worked together to put out the last of the folding chairs under the honey locusts and pines. In the garden’s dappled sunlight, renowned trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and his band gave a superlative performance that had most of us tapping our feet or dancing at the rows’ edges.
Wycliffe Gordon later said that returning to Louis Armstrong’s house after many years was deeply emotional for him. Like Armstrong himself, Gordon is both a topnotch instrumentalist and vocalist. The program was lively and generous. Joan Gaylord (Class of 1996) noted that the band’s renditions of When It’s Sleepy Time Down South and On the Sunny Side of the Street were synonymous with Armstrong’s career. Joan is alumni advisor to the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective. For anyone who has ever taken a YACOL course, Song for Sharon immediately suggested our incomparable Sharon Small, who came down from New Haven that day to help set up our post-concert reception. Other numbers included Back Home in Indiana, Black and Blue, That’s My Home, Caravan, Just A Closer Walk with Thee, and Swing That Music. In between songs, Wycliffe told stories about Pops and his legacy.
The concert evoked emotions of all kinds. For my daughter May, once a trombonist herself, “the trombone could be powerful or sweet; the same with the singing. It was all very human and expressive.” Her twin sister Layla (Class of 2017) was excited to hear a virtuosic trombonist leading the band in addition to the more usual harmony and bass lines the instrument provides.
In the words of my son-in-law Aidan Kaplan (Class of 2017), the concert wasn’t merely nostalgic but a tradition alive. Aidan was taken with how beautifully all the guest artists from various countries played together. Stirring and creative performances and improv solos were delivered by Wycliffe, and by band members Bria Skonerg, trumpet and vocals; Anat Cohen, clarinet; Ehud Asherie, piano keyboard; Vince Giardano, banjo, guitar and vocals; David Ostwald, tuba; Alvin Atkinson Jr., drumset; vocalist Svetlana Scmulyan; and Jason Clotter on bass. Together, they brought a wide array of talent to this singular concert.
How could the final number have been anything but Pops’ signature song? It would be too logical to assume that the inspiration for “What a Wonderful World” was his full and varied career, his performances, his travels, his fame, or even his love for all people and his embrace of all kinds of music. Yes, it celebrates all those things, but they were not what the song really meant for him. Louis sang "What a Wonderful World" as a love letter to the neighborhood—an ode to the children of 107th Street, and to all the children for whom he played his trumpet out on the balcony of his second-floor den and the kids who came over for ice cream with Uncle Satchmo and Aunt Lucille . Louis and Lucille watched three generations grow up on that block. Their home is filled with photos of their neighborhood family.
A reception featuring momos (Nepali/Tibetan dumplings) by Om Wok, two-time winner of the annual momo crawl in nearby Jackson Heights, brought the afternoon to a close. In welcoming us, Regina Bain, the museum’s Executive Director and a graduate of both Yale College and the School of Drama, lauded both Armstrong and Yale. It was a chance for everyone to share thoughts on the day: the very moving house tour; the richly curated exhibit; the magnificent, transporting concert—and to chat and take a group photo with Wycliffe Gordon and clarinetist Anat Cohen.
Afterward, Joan Gaylord, expressing her appreciation for the work of trumpeter Bria Skonberg, had this to say: “Her exceptional tone and interpretation stood as proof of Louis Armstrong’s continuing influence. Clearly, his legacy endures.”
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 | After the reception, the YACOL group took a photo with renowned trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (center) and clarinetist Anat Cohen (to his left). Regina Bain, Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and a graduate of both Yale College and the School of Drama, is second from left in the royal blue dress.
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Reflections of a Poet:
A Conversation with
Professor Paul KaneBy Olga Seham
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Everyone knows the experience, when writing, of struggling to find the right word, the one that most precisely conveys what you are trying to say. Now add to that challenge these requirements: the word has to have a certain number of syllables; those syllables have to fall in a prescribed pattern of stresses; and (sometimes) the word has to rhyme with another or others. That’s the challenge that students face many times over in Paul Kane’s YACOL courses.
Paul Kane is a poet who has published eight collections of poetry; an essayist (in prose and verse); a scholar of both American literature (primarily transcendentalism and Ralph Waldo Emerson) and of the poetry of Australia, a country where he lives part of each year; and Professor Emeritus at Vassar College where he taught for over thirty years. He has taught almost every year since YACOL began in 2016.
Professor Kane and I met by Zoom in December to discuss his teaching and poetry, as well to talk about his new class, Wisdom Literature, which he’ll be teaching for YACOL this spring. The following was edited for clarity and conciseness.
When YACOL was starting up, what appealed to you about teaching in the program?
A couple of things: I could teach whatever I wanted, and I would be teaching adults. I knew they would be highly motivated, intelligent people from whom I could learn as well. That’s the secret to Yale Alumni College: that I learn a lot by teaching.
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To learn more about or to register for Wisdom Literature Click Here.
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Tell me about the course you’ll be teaching in the spring.
It’s called Wisdom Literature and it’s going to look at what is wisdom, how does one obtain it, what are the sources of it, who’s thought about it. We’ll start with Plato, and we’ll look at some Greek notions and then at the Bible, and then at some Eastern traditions. Then we’ll jump to nineteenth-century America to look at Emerson and Emily Dickinson and then some contemporary poets, and also Native American versions of what wisdom consists of. We’ll also be drawing on our own collective wisdom in the class, and that should be really interesting.
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Vintage Wisdom: An Interview with Chad LudingtonBy Patricia Dorff
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To learn more about or to register for Past in a Glass Click Here.
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Charles (Chad) Ludington graduated from Yale College (Pierson) with a BA in history in 1987. He then played professional basketball in France, where he fell in love with food and wine. He received his PhD in history from Columbia University in 2003. His books include The Politics of Wine in Britain: A New Cultural History (2013), A Long Shadow: The Story of an Ulster Irish Family (2016), Food Fights (edited with Matthew Booker, 2019), and The Irish in Eighteenth-Century Bordeaux (2024). Chad is also the general editor of the forthcoming Bloomsbury Cultural History of Wine. For twenty years he was a professor of history at North Carolina State University and New York University. He now conducts wine tastings and gives wine history talks. He can be found at https://charlesludington.com.
Chad has also taught several YACOL classes, including, most recently “The Past in a Glass,” which is being offered again in the spring. YACOL Board member Patricia Dorff, who took that class with Chad in fall 2024, sat down with him to discuss his interest in wine.
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What first sparked your passion for wine? Was there a specific moment or experience that drew you into the world of wine?
I think it really occurred when I was playing basketball in France after Yale. I wasn't into fancy wines at that time, I didn’t even know what those were. I was mostly into Côte du Rhône because it was cheap and that’s what my friends always ordered or brought to parties, and it was just the idea of sitting around with friends and having long meals and good conversation, and wine was very much a part of that. You’re kind of buzzed from the wine and food, you’re buzzed from the conversation. All of that seemed kind of magical to me, especially given that most of my eating until then was more about getting enough nutrition for playing a lot of basketball. I was hungry all the time, but this was a different experience.
How did you transition from being a casual wine drinker to becoming a professional expert?
When I came back to the United States, I took a job in a wine store to learn more. I didn’t know much about wines when I got the job, but the owners said, “You’ll learn,” and I did. My colleagues called me “Chad du Rhône,” because that’s all I knew, at first. I basically tasted and tasted and tasted as much wine as I could, usually when distributors came by, but then with other staff, and of course I’d buy wine to try at home. In some ways it was an education that I designed accidentally by myself for myself, but I also learned so much just by listening to the people who knew a lot more about wine than I did. In addition, I was reading books and taking notes about everything that I was drinking. I relied in particular on Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine. It was the first book I started with, and it has a little bit of everything that you need to know about the wine you’re drinking, the producer, the region, the type of grape, or what foods it might pair with. So, it was never a formal education on the tasting side, but really it was simply tasting, listening, and reading books, and the whole experience of working in wine stores. I worked in three different wine stores by the time I finished my PhD.
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Eve Berenblum Goldberg Scholarship
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The board of Yale Alumni College is delighted to announce that our Founder and Emeritus Chairman, Marv Berenblum, ’56, has established a scholarship fund in memory of his daughter, Eve Berenblum Goldberg.
Eve was a remarkable human being who had the courage of her convictions and believed in elevating the younger generations. She was warm, caring and generous, and brought light onto the lives of so many people whom she befriended. Eve would have been excited to know that a Yale Alumni College scholarship foundation had been established in her memory to benefit a deserving group of "Bulldogs of the Last Decade" (BOLD alumni).
Scholarship recipients are able to join Yale Alumni College courses of their choice at no cost. Yale Alumni College aims to assist as many alumni as funds allow in joining our lifelong learning community each year.
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In the Spotlight: Scholarship Recipients
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 | Tera Hofmann graduated with a BA in economics from Yale College in 2020. After graduation, she played three years of professional ice hockey in the NWHL and PHF. Tera now works for a nonprofit hockey organization that provides hockey and educational resources to underserved youth in New Jersey. She is excited to continue her studies with YACOL and pursue her passions through education.
| |  | Jessica Tang graduated from Yale in 2020 with a BS in neuroscience. She is currently an MD-PhD student at UCDavis SOM and NIH-Cambridge. She is grateful that the Eve Berenblum Golberg Scholarship has allowed her to explore stage comedies and madness at the movies.
| |  | Reverend Laura Kisthardt graduated with a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 2020. She works as an associate pastor at the First Congregational Church of Southington, Connecticut. From January to March 2025, Laura will be on sabbatical from the church and looks forward to the opportunity to take a YACOL course for personal reflection and learning.
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Mallet Njonkem’s deeply held commitment to creating value for all stakeholders has been his guiding principle from his early years in Cameroon through his education at Yale and throughout his journey in finance. At Ariel Alternatives, Mallet works with private equity portfolio companies. His expertise in identifying high-potential opportunities and conducting thorough due diligence across these industries directly supports minority-owned businesses. A Yale College graduate with dual degrees in economics and mechanical engineering sciences, Mallet actively serves his alma mater on the Humanity' Capital Campaign Committee, the Yale Alumni Fund Board of Directors, and the Young Alumni Council for Yale Alumni College, among other initiatives. His commitment to fostering diversity extends to his roles on the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) National Leadership Council and the Executive Board of the Baldwin Institute. Mallet and his partner have taken several Yale Alumni College classes together, including “The Landscape of Jazz,” in which they explored how music shapes culture, and “In Watershed Elections,” in which they learned how single moments can transform nations. For Mallet, “These weren't just classes—they were our adventures together. We joined energetic discussions, made lasting friendships, and found new shared passions."
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| | See what else is going on with YACOL!
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TRAVEL WITH US!
AUGUST 14-19, 2025
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