Telling Women's Lives

Gorzeman- Community Leader Profile- Lawren Desai

Eric Gorzeman

Dr. Rubino

Women Entrepreneurs: Profile on Lawren Desai

Aperture, Winston-Salem’s popular indie movie theater and brainchild of Wake MBA grad, Lawren Desai, may show some of the most interesting and creative movies in town. But since it opened on 5^th Street in 2010, it’s also been a key attraction that’s helped the revival of downtown.

“Winston has changed a lot since 2010- There was only a Mellow Mushroom, no Camino Bakery when we first got started,” Desai said. “Now there is a lot more downtown, and I am happy to have been able to contribute to that.”

Lawren Desai is the owner and manager of Aperture Cinema, the downtown Winston-Salem independent movie theater, known for its independent and art-house film showings, including some selections from the Riverrun International Film Festival every April. Desai, a Winston-Salem native who remembered how vacant and quiet downtown used to feel, has transitioned from being a passionate film enthusiast to trying to break into the film industry to finally finding a way to curate and bring interesting film to her hometown, known as the city of arts and innovation.

“She’s not an owner or a boss. She’s just trying to educate the public and bring entertainment to them,” said Nate Loftin, a long-time employee at Aperture Cinema in downtown Winston-Salem. “Aperture is so much more than just a movie theater.”

When Desai left the Triad to go to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, “I said that I wanted to go to a big city- and that I was never coming back.” And she did not, at least for a while.

“I sort of dabbled in the film industry and almost went to graduate school for film,” she said. “I really developed my interest in film when I was out in L.A., but my real interest is independent films, the stuff that we are showing here.”

Desai went out to Los Angeles without at any plans, just aspirations and a love of movies. “I took internships and whatever I could get.” Desai said.

She then returned to Winston-Salem to work with the film department at Wake Forest. After another stint away, this time pursuing film industry work in New York, she decided that she liked to watch and show movies more than she liked to make them. That led her to get her MBA from Wake Forest.

There at Wake Forest, she met her husband and found a job as a financial analyst in Greensboro. Desai had given up hope on her career in the film industry until the birth of her son. Desai noticed a lack of places to enjoy independent and art-house movies in Winston-Salem. There was an independent film theater in Greensboro, about 40 minutes away from downtown, but none in Winston.

“You start writing a business plan- you don’t think that it could happen, it just kind of happens.” Desai said. It started in fall of 2008 and the building was under construction in the beginning of August 2009. The business plan quickly took off for Desai and turned a dream into a reality.

Aperture, opening with two screens, started off as a for-profit venture in January 2010. It has since expanded up to four screens to meet increased demand for independent and art-house movies.

Desai was able to convince Riverrun to move their headquarters downtown with Aperture as they were a much better place to screen the independent films.

There has been a lot of challenges for Desai and Aperture in its seven years.

In 2013 Aperture had to transition from 35mm to digital because the distributors required the upgrade, which was a massive setback to Aperture since it requires large up-front costs to buy the equipment.

Another hurdle for Desai and Aperture was a change in the business plan. “We transitioned last year to a non-profit from a for-profit at the start of 2017. We converted to a non-profit and we transferred all ownership, and now as a non-profit, they can fundraise and apply for grants. Around 75% of all independent cinemas are non-profits around the country.” Desai said.

Aperture has gained a lot of community support around Winston, especially from a tight knit group of “regulars” as Loftin calls them. Many people come to Aperture for the community and atmosphere. “Often we have to kick people out after the showings because they stay around and talk about the movie for an hour or two, long after we have closed.” Loftin said.

Desai can create this community and social atmosphere through creating an environment open to discuss and enjoy films. The whole vibe to Aperture creates a homey and welcoming feeling, a place to buy a snack, a local Foothills beer, and/or baked goods from a local favorite, Camino Bakery.

“Desai does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere for the movies she shows there. She has been a key part of the re-boom of downtown.” Dedee Johnston, Chief Officer of Sustainability at Wake Forest, said about Desai.

Desai annually goes to Sundance and the Toronto Film festivals to curate films for Aperture.

Aperture has been expanding into showing other traditional films too. For example, Aperture recently opened up Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed film, Get Out, this past weekend.

Desai’s next goal? Trying to bring out more Wake Forest students outside of the “Wake bubble” and into downtown.

“We are the city of arts and innovation. Film has to be a part of that,” Desai said. “Film, to me, is one of the most accessible and one of the most communal art forms. Us being here contributes to Winston being the city of arts and innovation.”

Unfinished Business- Eric Gorzeman

Revisiting Anne Marie Slaughter’s work, which we read at the beginning of the semester is an interesting read. This time, I felt as though I was able to read her work using a lens and see a lot of the different issues she raised in an alternative perspective. I believe that the final chapter, where Slaughter is suggesting improvements and benefits to our society as a whole is the most interesting chapter because we get to read through and dissect her suggestions. The suggestion to provide subsidized and affordable child care is one of my favorites. We have already seen child care work in other countries such as Norway and Germany to a degree, and providing such care here in the United States would allow equal opportunity for parents to still pursue their careers while being able to raise a family. Another important concept that Slaughter raised, was this work-obsession “workaholism”. Americans work longer than many of their European counterparts and have less time off than many of them too. There’s this idea in America that somehow perpetrated from the American dream, that if you work hard it will pay off and you will be successful. If you want to reach the top, you need to be a workaholic in our culture, rather than a real leader. However, in other countries such as Japan, we work far fewer hours than they do on average. I believe that America needs to find a balance between work hours and time off, and I am not sure we have found that balance yet.

Farmer Jane Reader Response- Gorzeman

Farmer Jane included a wide variety of very impressive women, but one that stood out to me was Glenda Humiston. Humiston stood out to me not only for her impressive career path, California’s State Director of USDA’s Rural Development Programs and Former Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment as the Department of Agriculture but by the way Humiston is able to lead and compromise under her employees and constituents. Humiston was able to get local, federal, public and private sectors, as well as interest groups to buy into the legislation. She often focuses on preserving farmland, managing water distribution, and managing natural resources. The most impressive thing that Humiston does is her ability to lead and create compromise, often among groups with clashing interests. Her interest in sustainability, water quality preservation, and being able to create legislation through the people and for the people is extremely admirable. Besides focusing on sustainability and longevity of our natural resources (water included), Humiston sought to have transparency and negotiations into the complex, and often convoluted legislative process. She did this all under the Californian and Federal government working eighty plus hours a week and meeting constantly with politicians and different interest groups.

Humiston’s story particularly resonates with me, since I am from California, we often here a lot concerning water and farmland bills that get made into law. Since much of California is dedicated farmland, there is often intense debate over water usage during the drought, a debate on land ownership and usage, and the use of farmland. Humiston also grew up on a ranch, so she understands the hardships and obstacles many farmers have to overcome.

Eric Gorzeman- Sexism In Science & Academia

Between the two NY times article, it is surprising the rampant amount of sexism in the science field. The number of blatant times that the women were obviously victims of the male-dominated science world is depressing, especially considering that women outnumber men in college and often perform better in college. It is also depressing considering that one of the best schools in the world, Yale, only had one women professor in the math department in its history in 2010. The system is enabled by the professors and mentors, instead of trying to break the mold, they seem to uphold the rampant sexism that is in place in the system. Excelling in the STEM-related field is difficult for man and woman as it is a difficult field, and women do not need the added pressure and “glass-ceiling” accompanying their already complex work. Breaking through a predominantly male field, much like women in the finance firm we read about earlier this year, seems to come with uncomfortable situations. The surprising subject of the second article, about how female scientist tends to get “hit on” by their supervisors, while male scientist it was their peers, is startling and uncomfortable. To be put in a situation where the boss is making advances is a lose-lose situation for the employee. Creating tension and diminishing trust on a team leads to employees often under-performing in their roles. The situation with women scientist at conferences is also depressing when these scientists are trying to present their research and work that they may have spent months and even years on, and instead of praise or advice or interest, they receive a sexual advance, is unprofessional, to say the least.

Getting into academia and excelling in an STEM-related field is a long and difficult journey for men and women alike. However, adding blatant sexism and discrimination into the mix is a sad reality of entering into such a male-dominated world. Hopefully, the STEM field can find ways to get rid of this blatant sexism in its midst.

Eric Gorzeman: Community Leader Profile- Lawren Desai

Lawren Desai is the founder of a/perture Cinema in downtown Winston-Salem.

Claire Hollingworth Profile, Eric Gorzeman

This profile is about Claire Hollingworth, the wartime correspondent who broke the story of the Polish invasion of Germany, which led to the start of World War 2. She worked as a journalist and a war correspondent for many years for the Guardian and her writing took her all over the world. This profile reminded me a lot of Wanda Jablonski, of how Hollingworth was a women journalist in a man’s world, especially as a war correspondent during WW2.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-woman-who-scooped-everyone-on-world-war-ii-1484179609:

The celebrated British war correspondent Clare Hollingworth died Tuesday in Hong Kong at 105. The news reached me via her obituary in the Daily Telegraph, which a friend emailed. It was fitting that the Telegraph published one of the first reports of her death, as the newspaper also published Hollingworth’s most famous article and arguably the biggest scoop of the 20th century: the outbreak of World War II.

In late August 1939, Hollingworth was a 27-years-old cub reporter for the Telegraph in Poland. After talking a British diplomat into allowing her to borrow his car, she drove across the border into Germany, where she observed large numbers of troops, tanks and field artillery lined up along a road.

As she wrote in her autobiography, when the wind blew open burlap screens “constructed to hide the military vehicles . . . I saw the battle deployment.” Her story appeared in the London newspaper on Aug. 29 under the headline “1,000 Tanks Massed on Polish Frontier.” Germany invaded Poland three days later.

The young reporter’s scoop heralded the rest of her journalism career, which took her to the four corners of the Earth. She was a journalist of the old school—daring, dogged and open-minded. She was interested, above all, in “getting the story.” In pursuit of that goal, she would talk to anyone, travel anywhere, endure any discomfort.

Hollingworth spent six years covering World War II in dangerous assignments that took her to Central Europe, the Balkans and northern Africa. Next she covered the war in Algeria, two wars between India and Pakistan, conflicts in Aden, Burma, Borneo and Ceylon, the Vietnam War, two Arab-Israeli wars, the bloody birth of Bangladesh, and the Cultural Revolution in China.

In 1946 she was staying at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem when a bomb went off, killing 91 people. “I was not being brave,” she once wrote about her adventures. “My over-riding feeling was enthusiasm for a good story.”

Her sources included high government officials and military officers as well as soldiers and ordinary people. When I knew her in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong in the 1980s and ’90s, she was as welcome at the governor’s sedate dinner parties as she was at the raucous bar of the Foreign Correspondents Club or with the local patrons of sidewalk noodle stands.

In what was perhaps her sole concession to being a female reporter in what was then mostly a man’s world, she often made a point of befriending sources’ families, secretaries and household help. Such sources came in handy, such as when she broke the news, in 1963, that British double agent Kim Philby had defected to the Soviet Union. The wife he left behind in Beirut was one of her sources.

Since the early 1980s, Hollingworth made her home in Hong Kong. She would hold court at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, where she often could be found in a corner of the bar sipping a G&T and attired in her regular working uniform of a custom-made safari suit and rubber-soled Chinese slippers. She was a marvelous raconteur, and I heard some of her best tales over dinner in the club’s upstairs dining room.

“It’s perfectly acceptable to pick up bok choy with your fingers,” she once instructed me after noticing that my chopstick skills weren’t up to managing the Chinese vegetable. “Zhou Enlai told me so.” The Paris-educated Chinese premier had informed her that just as the French used their fingers to eat asparagus, the Chinese used them to eat bok choy. The point of her story was twofold—to show how urbane the Chinese leader was, and to remind me of how well the Chinese elites lived compared with ordinary people, who often starved.

Another time, she spoke to me of her long-distance phone conversations with former British Prime Minister Edward Heath. “I have the number of the phone on his bedside table,” she boasted.

When she visited Washington, she would stay at the home of Pamela Harriman, socialite, Democratic activist and onetime U.S. ambassador to France. When she visited Manhattan, she wanted to “pop in” to the “local”—that is, a neighborhood bar—so she could tap the views of regular New Yorkers. She also spoke and wrote movingly of the wartime suffering of civilians.

Ms. Kirkpatrick, a former deputy editor of the Journal’s editorial page, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

WFU Student Leader, Gorzeman

I plan to interview Julia Rootenburg, a senior psychology major at Wake. Julia has been involved in multiple activist organizations such as the Bronx Defenders in New York City and volunteers at a prison for a prison reform organization in Winston-Salem.