Although he doesn’t think of himself as a philanthropist, Erran Briggs ’14 embodies the 2023 theme of Black Philanthropy Month, Love in Action.

“I tell people all the time that love is a verb,” Briggs said. “If you love, it involves action. I don’t think you can have love without action, because they are one and the same and encompassing.”

Briggs lives his philanthropy by mentoring and advising people in whose shoes he has been: high school students from his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan, who are applying to college; K students, particularly those who are considering a path like his, taking advantage of military scholarships to get to medical school; and younger medical residents, especially Black male residents.

“Life is in part based on what you do, how you prepare for opportunities, but I think a big piece of it is, do you land in places where the people around you want to pour into you and help you grow?” Briggs said. “One of the things that I’ve tried to keep with me as I left K is, just like so many people helped me, I need to make sure that I’m doing something to help the people around me, particularly the people who look like me, because they’re facing the same sort of roadblocks. I know how powerful it can be to have somebody believe in you and push you and help you.”

Love in action drives Briggs’ dedication to mentoring.

“I am acutely aware that, particularly in medicine, there are not enough people that look like me,” Briggs said. “The studies suggest that when folks have doctors they can see themselves in, doctors that look like them, their health outcomes are better. We need to do what we can to improve the numbers. I love my people, I want to see other Black men get into the field, and with that love comes action, responsibility and a sense of duty.”

In addition to mentoring, Briggs has given his time by serving on the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees from 2020-2023. That experience provided him with a reason to visit campus and an opportunity to see current students, professors and building projects at the same time as it challenged him to reconsider what philanthropy can be.

“I still don’t really consider myself a philanthropist,” Briggs said. “I think the misconception—and perhaps I’m also a victim to this—is that to be a philanthropist, you have to give large amounts of money. I’ve found over the years that’s not true; you give what you can give, and over time, you’re able to give more as you get more. Being on the board and being a part of that group of people who are older and farther in their careers, that inspired me and pushed me to think about how important giving is and to prioritize it in my life.”

According to a report from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Black households give a larger portion of their wealth to charity than any other racial group, prioritizing giving despite the racial wealth gap—a statistic that evokes pride for Briggs.

Black Philanthropy Month

August is Black Philanthropy Month, which honors Black philanthropists all around the world and celebrates their gifts of time, talent and treasure to positively impact communities. Kalamazoo College would like to mark this month by recognizing one of our own donors and highlighting why they prioritize giving—both to K and beyond.

If you think of the Apple TV show Ted Lasso when someone mentions the English Premier League, you’re not alone among Americans. Yet for Kelly Estes ’05, the international soccer organization offered a real-life experience that allowed her to raise her passion for her favorite sport to new heights this summer.

Estes, a sports medicine physician for the Cleveland Clinic, worked for 10 days as Fulham FC’s team physician after her employer, through its new London location, won the bid to provide sports medicine services to the Premier League during its East Coast tour. The Kalamazoo College alumna said she often follows the U.S. women’s national team, but this was her first true in-person exposure to world-class soccer athletes and competition.

“I basically cleared my schedule and asked which kidney I could donate to be involved because I was very excited,” she said. “I played soccer during my time at K, and I always wanted to work in the field of sports, so any way that I can combine my medical career with my soccer background is a huge win.”

As an Ohio native, Estes majored in chemistry at K before earning a master’s degree in nutrition at Columbia University and attending medical school at Wright State University. She completed an emergency medicine residency at the University of Virginia and a primary care sports medicine fellowship at the Ohio State University before becoming a sports medicine physician at Washington University in St. Louis. She moved on to the Cleveland Clinic in March 2020, leading to this summer’s unique career experience.

Estes conducted some research on the Premier League and its players before she left to meet the team and was pleasantly surprised to find that three Americans are among its athletes. That is a big deal in her opinion, as not many soccer players from the U.S. have played in Europe until recently, signaling the sport’s national growth.

Regardless, she wasn’t sure what to expect from Fulham FC’s own players until she met them in the New York area.

“I’ve had some limited experience in the U.S. with some high-level elite athletes, but the soccer team was so welcoming, and the staff was so kind,” she said. “Everyone was down to Earth, which was refreshing, because I felt we clicked like a little family. One of my favorite memories was with an initiation for the new players when they had to sing in front of everyone at a team dinner. They actually asked me to sing as well, so it was like I was initiated. It was nothing that I would’ve ever expected, and it was memorable.”

Fulham FC spent its first two days on the East Coast training at facilities belonging to the New York Red Bulls, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team, before playing its first game in Philadelphia. After a quick 24 hours there, the team spent five days in Orlando before finishing its tour in Washington, D.C.

“I get so excited about being in a stadium around all that energy with a full crowd,” Estes said. “That made my heart sing more than anything else. It’s about being around the fans and the coaches—even being in a smelly locker room. The stadiums are my happy place.”

Meet Fulham FC of the Premier League

The club began in 1879 when a school teacher and churchwarden formed a boys team at Fulham St. Andrew’s Church in London. The team shifted its name to Fulham Football Club in 1889.

The team derives its current nickname, the Cottagers, from its home field, Craven Cottage, where it has played since 1896.

Fulham FC’s first crest was produced in 1898. Variations have been used over the past 141 years with the present badge (pictured) beginning a new era for the club after its promotion to the Premier League.

10. Graduating Senior Earns First Sherbin Fellowship, 10 Months Abroad

Elle Waldron will visit a variety of feminist and gender-equity organizations in Australia, South Africa, Costa Rica and Spain to witness the tools and strategies they use to execute their work thanks to a new fellowship available to graduating K seniors.

9. Banner Year Elates Faculty, NSF Fellows

Two seniors, Claire Kvande and Mallory Dolorfino, were among four with K ties to receive NSF graduate research fellowships, the most for the College since 2016.

8. College Honors 29 Leadership Award Recipients

The honorees represented talented athletes, outstanding academic performers, members of the President’s Student Ambassadors and student-organization standouts.

7. Student Builds Notable Local Voice in Sustainability

Kalamazoo officials are taking note of Lauren Crossman’s Senior Integrated Project, which engaged local businesses in environmentally friendly practices.

6. Political Internships Provide Experience, Connections

A series of political internships helped Peter Fitzgerald connect with his adopted home of Michigan and envision a possible future.

5. Mentors Help Chemistry Major En Route to Scholarship, Research Abroad

Crystal Mendoza was the second K chemistry major in as many years to earn the prestigious Priscilla Carney Jones Scholarship through the American Chemical Society.

4. Future Physician Targets Tropical Diseases in Ghana

Rachel Kramer completed 10 weeks of research last summer investigating health inequities in Ghana, Africa, while collecting data and researching Neglected Tropical Diseases for her Senior Integrated Project.

3. Hundreds of Birds Plus Thousands of Miles Equals One Big Year

Bird enthusiast Will Keller had a Big Year in 2021 and told the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo all about it.

2. Solitude and Community on the Camino de Santiago

July 2022 was the hottest calendar month in Spain since records were first kept in 1961. It was also the month that Fiona O’Rielly set out on a 500-mile hike across Spain.

1. Kalamazoo Gardeners Beware: Student Unearths Jumping Worms

Worms crawl in and worms crawl out, but biology major Katie Rock found a problematic variety that jumps right here in Kalamazoo.

The 2023 Tribeca Film Festival will include some Kalamazoo College ties thanks to He Went That Way, a thriller co-produced by alumnus Hugh Broder ’77 and based off a chapter in a book by the late Professor Emeritus Conrad Hilberry.

Hundreds of K alumni remember Hilberry for his literature and writing classes, especially his poetry courses, along with his 11 volumes of self-written poems. As a result, it might surprise some, as it did Broder, that Hilberry interviewed the imprisoned Kalamazoo-area serial killers Larry and Danny Ranes in 1976, influencing a 1987 book he wrote titled Luke Karamazov.

“Years after attending K, I was hanging out in a used bookstore and killing time when I went to a section called Michigan Authors,” Broder said. “I happened to notice the name Hilberry on the spine of a book. I knew there were Hillberrys he was related to in Detroit and some of them were writers. But I pulled the book off the shelf when I suddenly realized it was Conrad and it wasn’t poetry. It was his attempt to write about and understand these two brothers who were both serial murderers, but did not participate in each other’s crimes.”

In 1964, Larry Lee Ranes confessed to killing five men over a period of three months and was sentenced to prison for life. Eight years later, his older brother, Danny Ranes, in a separate case, was sentenced to prison for life for the murder of four young women. Hilberry changed the killers’ names to Ralph Searl (Larry) and Tommy Searl (Danny) in an agreement with the brothers and wrote Luke Karamazov. The events described in the book reflect real events, spotlighting the two killers, their friends, the woman who married both of them, and prison officials, while addressing the men’s lives, thoughts, reactions, brutal childhoods, and lives in prison more than their crimes.

Inspired by the storyline, Broder decided to pursue his bucket list dream of one day making an independent film. In 2005, he partnered with a friend who had just finished making his own indie film. Despite the book never being a bestseller, the two agreed they should try making a film around it and arranged to meet with Hilberry.

“At this point it had been about 25 years since I’d seen Conrad,” Broder said. “He drove us around Comstock and Kalamazoo, showing us where these guys had been born and where some of the things in the book took place. He was using their pseudonyms, but we knew who they were, thanks to the internet, and he gave us all of his research.”

After digitizing the interview tapes, Broder heard one of the brothers say, “You guys all ask me about the five guys I killed. Why don’t you want to hear about the one I didn’t kill?”—inspiring the story Broder decided to tell. He Went That Way reflects the real-life account of celebrity animal trainer Dave Pitts, the sole survivor of Larry’s killing spree. Jacob Elordi plays Bobby Falls, a character based on Larry. Zachary Quinto plays Jim Goodwin, a character based on Pitts. The two have a fateful 1964 meeting along Route 66 that pairs the 19-year-old serial killer with the celebrity trainer and his American TV darling, Spanky the chimpanzee, for three days on the road. The men and their personalities continually conflict as their shared journey becomes treacherous.

The film is premiering in the Spotlight Narrative category, which Tribeca Film Festival calls on its website, “a launching pad for the most buzzworthy of new films.” Tribeca is scheduled for June 7-18 in New York City. He Went That Way screenings include Friday, June 9; Saturday, June 10; and Thursday, June 15.

Broder isn’t sure what the future will hold for the film after Tribeca, but he thinks Hilberry would’ve been pleased with the final product.

“Oddly enough, Con was writing this book and interviewing these guys back when I was still at K, but I had no idea he was doing it,” Broder said. “I think about the fact that had I not gone to K, I might have made some other movie. I was so taken by this story and the way it was written, that I knew this was the one the minute I read the dust jacket notes.”

A Kalamazoo College alumna has won one of the largest and most prestigious awards for opera composers in the U.S. for her first-ever libretto. 

Ginger Strand ’87 has been awarded the 2023 Charles Ives Opera Prize, along with composer Laura Schwendinger, for their 2019 opera, Artemisia. The honor, granted by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, includes a $15,000 prize for Strand as librettist and $35,000 for Schwendinger as composer. 

The award came as a surprise to Strand. While they knew they had been nominated by Academy member and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Shulamit Ran, the prize is not awarded regularly. Established in 2008, the Charles Ives Opera Prize has only been previously awarded in 2008 and 2016. The prize is granted to a recent work that reflects the mission of the Academy to foster and sustain interest in literature, music and the fine arts by rewarding “works of highest aspiration and superior craft,” according to artsandletters.org. 

“I opened my email and there was this letter from the American Academy that said, ‘Good news from the Academy.’ I kind of thought I was being pranked or something; it just seemed unreal,” Strand said. “I called Laura, and asked, ‘Is this for real? Did we just win the Charles Ives Opera Prize?’ She was in a museum and she started screaming. She hadn’t seen her letter and I got to be the one who broke the news. It was very exciting and felt out of the blue, in particular being my first-ever libretto.” 

A five-member jury unanimously voted to award the Charles Ives Opera Prize to Artemisia. 

In the 35 years since Strand “learned how to learn” at Kalamazoo College, she had written copy for a consulting firm, short stories, essays, one novel and three books of narrative nonfiction before branching into opera. 

“It came about completely by chance,” Strand said.  

Having met at the MacDowell artist residency program, Strand and Schwendinger were long-time friends when Schwendinger confided in Strand over lunch that she was going to compose an opera and thought Strand should write the text. 

“She wanted to write about an amazing Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi,” Strand said. “One of the reasons Laura and I became friends is that we have a lot of interests in common, one of which is women artists in history.” 

While Artemisia Gentileschi is better known now, she was ignored in history for a long period, with many of her works attributed to her father, Strand said.  

“She had a life story that was basically already an opera,” Strand said. “Her father taught her to paint and then he hired one of his assistants to teach her the art of perspective, and this assistant raped her. Her father sued for damage to property, because she was considered his property, and in the course of the trial, Artemisia was tortured to see if she was telling the truth. After the perpetrator was convicted, she was hastily married off to some other dude that she quickly dispensed with, and she went on to become a painter of great renown and had a rather illustrious career.” 

Schwendinger shared her concept of Artemisia’s paintings coming to life in the opera, and the two went their separate ways to compose the music and write the words. 

“It was really a collaborative process, partly because I didn’t necessarily know everything about what a composer needs out of a libretto,” Strand said. “Laura would say things like, ‘I see this moment as an emotional high point, and what we really need here is an aria; we need the two characters to sing something really intense.’ Then I would go away and work on that. Or, ‘I want all the singers on the stage here; they don’t have to be literally in the same place, but we need a big moment where they’re all contributing to the song,’ and I would work on that. Sometimes it was something as simple as, ‘You can’t end the line on this word, because the singers won’t be able to sing it.’ It was a learning process the whole way along.” 

The process was also fun for Strand. 

“Because it was an opera and not a work of nonfiction, I could make things up, although I based it on facts,” Strand said. “My starting point was her actual biography, some letters she wrote, and the paintings, of course. Then, where the historical record was faulty, I could imagine things and put them in, and that was super fun and unusual for me to give myself permission to make things up. It’s not something you’re allowed to do as a nonfiction writer.” 

The writing process took about a year, followed by another year or so of production before two premieres—a shortened chamber orchestra version in New York City and a full orchestra version in San Francisco. Strand attended both. 

“At certain moments, it was exhilarating,” she said. “Other moments, it was excruciating, thinking things like, ‘Why did I write this so long?’ Laura’s experience was completely different from mine because I was focused on the story and the words and she was focused on the music.”