Revisiting the Relationship of a Lifetime

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell’s most most recent book of poems, Waking My Mother (Word Poetry, 2013) tackles the complexity of the often fraught relationships between mothers and daughters. O’Donnell, the associate director of the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies,

grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania in a family of working-class Italian-Americans. Her mother, however, would “never submit to the yoke the old Italians typically placed on their women.”

Widowed at a young age with five children, Marion Salvi Alaimo took on some destructive habits, O’Donnell said, that led to emotional and financial hardships. “We essentially grew up in a household in which the parent-child relationship was adversarial and in which the children play the role of adults.”

Many of the poems in O’Donnell’s book reflect those years, in which she and her siblings often clung to each other in absence of any family stability parents are normally tasked with providing.

Alaimo said she wrote most of the poems four years ago when her 82-year-old mother took a turn for the worse after breaking her hip. “For 48 days, she was bed-bound in a Florida hospital, nursing home, and, finally, hospice room,” wrote O’Donnell. “During that time, my sisters and I cared for her. Ours had never been conventional mother-daughter relationships. Our mother had been a difficult person to live with, and we had had more than our share of bitter disagreements over the years.  But these 48 days proved to be a kind of Kairos time for us.  Her suffering broke us all open, enabling us to practice mercy, obtain mutual forgiveness, and experience healing of old wounds.”

She says the poems in Waking My Mother are an attempt to redeem the brokenness that characterized her relationship with her mother, “but consolation comes only through desolation.”

“The book tells our story—but it also tells the story of every family that has endured hardship and division yet still, somehow, has managed to remain whole.”

Poem on Waking (by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell)

Today I woke to talk with my mother.

Her face appeared clean as a dream,

erased of age and any trace of grief,

my mother as I wanted her to be.

She seemed to long to speak to me of love,

and I of mercies I had lately learned.

Her eyes smiled, although her mouth stayed closed,

as if all that need be, might be said through those.

I searched my purse and palmed my silent phone,

touched the icon box marked with her name—

then saw the stranger living in her house

and knew that she was gone, once again.

The voice I’m waiting for, still unheard.

For all my life, not one more word.

Alumni Relations Lecture Series Examines Political Unrest in Ukraine

Olena Nikolayenko, left, and Adriana Krasniansky 

Two members of the Fordham community gave context to the tensions in Ukraine at an April 15 installment of Fordham at the Forefront, which attracted more than 100 alumni, students, and friends to a panel discussion held at the New York Athletic Club.

Ukraine is often described as a hybrid regime, “a semi-authoritative country in which democratic institutions are formally present, but never effective,” said Olena Nikolayenko, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and a native of Ukraine.

When former Ukrainian President Yanukovych rejected a trade agreement with the European Union last November, tensions mounted and demonstrators gathered in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kiev, she said. The protestors, who demanded “a cleansing of those who have slowed down the reforms of the country,” were met with police violence, resulting in dozens of wounded and countless arrests. 

In order to facilitate conversation between the West and Ukraine, native Ukrainian Adriana Krasniansky, a junior at the Gabelli School of Business, said she started a grassroots news organization called Group for Tomorrow’s Ukraine with five other Ukrainian-Americans—two others of whom were fellow panelists. The group aims to provide the fastest and most reliable information about the conflict in Ukraine by translating collected speeches, documents, and interviews for English-speaking audiences. 

Krasniansky visited Kiev, Ukraine, last fall, where she and Group for Tomorrow’s Ukraine member, Julian Hayda, spoke to citizens about how the unrest has affected their daily lives and did video interviews. With the goal to put a face to the Maidan protestors, the panelists showed several video clips of average Ukrainians, including a shop owner and an impassioned 80-year-old man.

Michael Fedynsky, left, and Julian Hayda

The biggest misconception about EuroMaidan, said Krasniansky, is that the protestors are disorganized and motivated by violence. In reality, she said “these people were incredibly organized” and even “started their own soup kitchens for the hungry.”

Krasniansky and her group have worked with National Public Radio and the U.S. House of Representatives to help relay what they see as the facts—that these demonstrations were “rooted in peace,” she said.

Panelist Michael Fedynsky, a former Fulbright scholar working at the National Democratic Institute, offered international context to the rising conflict. After spending a year in Ukraine, Fedynsky concluded that in order to move forward, Ukraine needed a more coherent and effective political system. 

Currently, the Ukrainian political parties are all “personality, regional, or identity-based rather than issue-based systems,”said Fedynsky. This varying political spectrum keeps power in the hands of oligarchs, he said.

“No matter who you vote for, someone rich is going to throw a million dollars at someone else, and your vote won’t matter,” he said. 

President Yanukovych was removed from power in February, and new presidential elections have been set for May 25. Ukrainians continue to protest in Maidan Square, and the whole world has eyes on the upcoming election as Russian troops threaten the nation’s borders.

“Ukrainians really want a change of life and they don’t trust the regime,” said Krasniansky. “The citizens—both young and old—are willing to sacrifice everything for hope.”

--Angie Chen, FCLC '12

Director of Fordham’s Ubuntu Program Reflects on Mandela’s Legacy

On Dec. 5, the world lost Nelson Mandela, who dedicated his life to human rights around the globe and civil rights in his native South Africa, and who changed the course of history through his actions.  Economics professor Booi Themeli, Ph.D., director of Fordham’s Ubuntu Program at the University of Pretoria, is one of the many people whose lives were changed by Mandela's lifelong fight for equality. Themeli grew up in South Africa under apartheid, and next month, he will lead a group of Fordham students to his country to participate in the Ubuntu service-learning program and "follow in the footsteps of Mandela."

Q. How great was Mandela’s influence on you growing up in South Africa? 

For me, his loss been rough, personally. I went to school with one of his granddaughters, and we've stayed friends for years. I grew up in South Africa in the Limpopo province during the days of apartheid and I lived through the country’s turmoil, during the height of apartheid in the 1980s, after Mandela’s release from prison. And my two sisters lived through the better part of what was going on earlier. For us, he was inspirational. He showed us that everything was possible in life. And he paved the way for many South Africans like myself to go and study overseas.

Q. How did his struggle pave the way for education equality?

Booi Themeli

When I was in high school, things were segregated. The apartheid system meant there were schools meant for white kids only, for Indian kids only, for black only, and schools for mixed race groups. I could not go to any university so I went to a black university, the University of Limpopo, because of the segregation. 

Thanks to Mandela, the world was protesting against apartheid, and USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) started special scholarships for black South Africans to go overseas, especially to come to this country. I came through that channel. Had it not been through Mandela’s high profile, the world would not have known the horrors of apartheid and how it had denied a lot of blacks access to education. 

Q. How will you share the Mandela legacy with your students?

In January, the program is going to South Africa for a semester abroad. We will be taking 20 students--18 from Fordham, one from University of San Francisco, and one from University of Scranton. These kids are expected to do service learning in the poor areas of South Africa, like Soweto, where Mandela grew up.  It is a special time that they are going, because the nation will be going through a period of mourning. More so, it is an opportunity for them to follow in the footsteps of Mandela, to go out there and touch the lives of so many South Africans that need help. So, for this trip especially, service will have a much deeper meaning, as the students uphold his legacy in making a difference in the lives of others.

Mandela said “What comes in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” 

Opus Winners, Up Close and Personal

Last night's Opus Prize co-recipients, Beatrice Chipeta, R.S., director of the Lusubilo Orphan Care Project in Malawi, Africa, and John Halligan, S.J., founder of the Working Boys’ Center (WBC) in Quito, Ecuador, have touched so many lives that words alone cannot do their work justice. Our own Office of Marketing and Communications officer Michael Foley shot more than 40 hours of video of the two humanitarians doing what they do, day in and day out, to empower the poor in the countries where they reside.

The footage has been reduced to two eight-minute clips, which premiered last night at the Opus Awards ceremony at Rose Hill. First, Father Halligan in Quito:



And Sister Chipeta in Karonga, Malawi.



The unmistakable voice is Fordham's own William F. Baker, Ph.D., the Claudio Aquaviva Chair and Journalist in Residence and president emeritus of WNET.

—Janet Sassi

Now Playing on Fordham’s Youtube Channel . . .

Fordham University will welcome Sister Beatrice Chipeta and John Halligan, S.J., to its Rose Hill campus tomorrow, Nov. 11, for the announcement of the winner of the 2010 Opus Awards.

If you want a better idea of what these two Unsung Heroes have done to deserve the Opus Foundation’s attention and consideration, visit Fordham's YouTube Channel and watch clips of them both. First, Sister Beatrice Chipeta:




And Father John Halligan




The award will be announced Thursday, Nov. 11 at 5:15 p.m in Keating First on the Rose Hill campus.

—Janet Sassi

President's Ball is a Bright Night for Students

Photos by Bruce Gilbert

It's the dance that brings students from the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses together each fall. Fordham’s own version of a homecoming dance, the annual President’s Ball was held the Lombardi Field House on the Rose Hill campus on Sept. 24. The party, which drew nearly 3,000 students decked out in stylish, semiformal attire, included music, dancing, refreshments and fun.

—Gina Vergel

Historical Video: Harry S Truman at Fordham

In 1946, President Harry S Truman received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Fordham University. The video below is courtesy of British Pathé.

(TRUMAN AT FORDHAM COLLEGE)