Ann LePore

Meet Ann LePore, she is a parent, an educator, an animator, and a citizen of the community. She’s currently working as a professor at Ramapo College where she runs the animation program.

Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?

A: I went art school because I have really supportive parents who didn’t freak out. Maybe they did, but if so it was an internal freak out. In New York City I got my Masters of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts. I was focusing on 3D computer animation, which at the time in the early 2000’s, was still pretty new. The tools were quite experimental. I’ve had so many different jobs: I managed print advertising for some Conde Nast publications, and created displays for Macy’s and taught all kinds of courses.  I will reveal my age by saying I was once the Y2K coordinator for a large pharmaceutical company but I’ve always enjoyed teaching and I’ve always done some element of teaching in all those other jobs combined. For an artist who likes to teach, being an art professor is the perfect combination because it allows you to be focusing on your own work and have it always refreshed and informed by the kinds of questions that students ask.

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Mahwah and Ramsey, and what do you love there?

A: In Ramsey, in a little plaza there is a Japanese place that I really like, Tawara and I also really like Gao Kitchen. My favorites in Mahwah are our many pizza places: Kinchley’s and Novino, those are my favorite!

Q: How long have you lived or worked in Mahwah?

A: We moved to Mahwah from Jersey City four years ago.  In Jersey City we had a tiny little condo on Palisade Ave for years and then when we had a second baby our condo shrank. Who could ever need more than 800 square feet? We could- and we realized this quite suddenly. Luckily for us, the real estate market which had been stagnant had just suddenly exploded: property values doubled. And then we realized we couldn’t get a larger apartment in Jersey City, because we wouldn’t be able to afford it. We thought “now is our chance to figure out what the suburbs are like”.

Q: So were you working in Mahwah while you lived in JC?

Yes, I was doing the reverse commute from Jersey City up to Mahwah.  I only knew Route 17 and I only knew things that were close to Ramapo College.  I remember my father asking, about Mahwah, but the only part that I knew was Rio Vista. I imagined the whole town was like that, but after visiting the neighborhood of a family he raced cars with in the old Cragmere section, I got excited. It looked liked Bronxville to me; it was both nostalgic and charming.  Once we realized the taxes were so low nothing else really made sense.  We focused all our energy here, and we waited. We sold our condo and moved in with my in-laws- who are so generous!  The people who owned this house were being moved by Mercedes and were a little sad that they had to move. It was obvious that they loved it here.  When we came to see the house which was only being shown for one day, there were luxury cars lined up and down the street and I thought we didn’t have a chance. Everybody else wants this, it’s going to be a bidding war, and we can barely offer the asking price.  We wrote the sellers a letter and explained our situation and why we loved the house. We could imagine hosting all of our big family gatherings in this modest but unusual place that had been so lovingly cared for.  They really liked the letter and they were in a position to choose, and we were delighted that they picked us.   These were very generous people.  As soon as we were out of attorney review, they invited us over because they wanted to show us the house and their koi pond. We’d be adopting their pets, in a way.  It was such a wonderful experience. Later they also invited us to their going away party, so we could meet their friends and neighbors.  Before we even moved in, we felt like we were part of the neighborhood. It really couldn’t have been better. I remember when we finally got the keys and came in, they left us balloons, and their daughter left painted rocks and a cute little birdhouse for us- it was so sweet!

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Mahwah?

A: Oh lots of people. Everyone here is interesting.  But the first two that come to mind are my friends Bernadette Kwitonda, and Anne Powley!

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?  And why?

A: I would love to go to New Zealand, Iceland, the Amazon, anywhere, really. I’ve actually been communicating with students and faculty in Ghana at a university there and I would love to go for a little bit, especially if I could bring my family.  Send me anywhere. I need to see more of the world and I want that for my children too.  I think their world right now is their sweet little grade school and I want to expand that.

Q: What is your favorite movie OR what is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?

A: The first movie that I watched in the theater was Star Wars.  My parents took me because I think they couldn’t get a sitter, I was 3.  I’m a big Star Wars fan now and my kids are just starting to get into it. We love watching it together.

Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?

Advice? Something about community.  Something about remembering that it’s okay to lean on each other a little bit. And to let people know that it’s ok to lean on you. The convenience of Amazon and all these other technologies that help us can also be isolating. It suggests that we should be able to do everything alone, or that our families should be separate from all the other families. And I don’t think that’s the case at all.  I think we are better people and we can achieve more, when we ask to depend on each other, and we ask people to depend on us. A second piece of unrelated advice: I constantly tell my students and my own kids that to fail is okay. There is too much fear around basic mistakes, why must you always know what the outcome is going to be before you begin? Why don’t you just experiment a little bit?  It’s more informative to fail and if you are not as afraid of it, you can also do a little more gracefully.

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

A: I don’t have a bucket list but I have been step-by-step confronting a lot of fears that I have. I am afraid of confrontation and violence, so I started taking Brazilian Jujitsu class for a year and a half at Malandra’s in Suffern.   My time with is slowly coming to a close; As I’m aging I’m coming to a place where I have to pick carefully what I spend my time on. But I so enjoyed that experience!  My other big fear has been a certain type of public speaking. A big public event with a very large audience gives me vertigo; so I started going on stage at open mic nights at Rhino Comedy Club.  It’s good to face your fears.  My son had nightmares about eels, he thought they were under his bed.  So I found an organization that does eel rescue. Baby eels are coming up the Hudson River tributaries each spring and often can’t bypass power plants or dams. For the last two springs my son and my husband put on waders and they scooped out thousands and thousands of eels with a net and drove them up past a power plant so they can get upstream. My son may have other fears – but not eels!

Q: What is your favorite music/ 3 bands you would like to see (dead or alive)?

A: I love almost all kinds of music but I’m stuck in a genre of late 90’s West Coast hip hop.

Q: What current / former local business makes you the most nostalgic about Mahwah and Ramsey?

A: Ernie’s, that feels like a staple. Something that you expect should be here forever.

Q: Choosing anyone, dead or alive and a non-relative: who would you like to have lunch with?  Why?  Where in Mahwah and Ramsey would you have lunch?

A: Nikola Tesla and I will take him to Novino’s for the big family style food. I would want to hear straight from him which things about him are true and which are fairy-tale-conspiracy stories!

Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Mahwah and Ramsey?

A: The Ramapo Reserve and Lake Henry. It is really pretty. We’ve been taking our kids there for a long time because when my daughter was a toddler the hikes had to be shorter or flatter. We would go there and the kids would play and fish. Living in Jersey City for such a long time makes you really appreciate any nature you can find. We have lots of beautiful spots here.  The hikes here are really easy hikes too!

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

A: Hopefully still here. As my kids age and they need me more in some ways but less in others, I want to work on more complicated projects. Things that are really community based, or more public art commissions. I would have more time.  So far life is really good and if it could stay like this, then I’ll be really happy.

Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?

A: I used to be introvert and super shy. And I had to figured that out. It happened at college, I came to a new place and decided to reinvent myself. I see myself as an extrovert now, but I can imagine a relapse back toward a type of shyness.  In the deepest and darkest part of winter if I  didn’t make sure to get out, I could just hibernate on the couch and not need to see a lot of people. But then when I do, it’s always rewarding!

Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?

A: Safe, Cozy, and Family.

Q: If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?

A: George Clooney.

Q: What 3 adjectives would your boss or peers used to describe you?

A: Industrious, Invested, and Accommodating.

Q: If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose? Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer, or Nanny?

A: My husband likes to cook so I feel like I have a chef! It would have to be a Personal Trainer, my fitness level should be way better than it is. I always imagine that people in Hollywood are just like taking a nap and they hire someone to move their arms and legs while they are sleeping- That’s what I would request.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or what are you reading now?

A: I just finished book called “The Memory Police” by a Yoko Ogawa, it’s a little bit science fiction or dystopian fiction, it was very interesting and beautifully written.   “Let The Great World Spin” by Colum McCann is a nice re-orientation: taking a larger step back and looking at humanity.  And then I’m reading right now, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Oscar Vuong. The protagonist is writing letter to his mother. The letters are so lovely and they reveal these vignettes of the complexities of parent-child relationships.

Q: What can Mahwah or Ramsey do to make it a better place?

A: Ramsey has a center of town which Mahwah doesn’t because the shape of our town so it’s sort of impractical but we do have a train station, some shops and space across the street. I feel like we should continue to direct the town whenever possible with some sidewalks or some things that can help people gather. Maybe that’s why we are super sports-oriented because those are the gatherings. We don’t appear to have any art venues and it would be nice to see Ramapo College help take on that role. There are definitely a ton of cool free events going on there all the time and being in this community- we all have access to it.  I started to say that we need a center of town but when I think about our Library and Ramapo Reserve, those places don’t need to be near each other to function beautifully. We just need 1 or 2 more of them.  And flexible community spaces, that would be great.

Q: Have you crossed paths with anyone that has made an impact on your life?

A: I’ve been really fortunate- the people I’ve met here have been amazing and very open. I was getting ready to leave Jersey City and a lot of my friends told me that “Oh you can’t go to the suburbs because they’re so mean, you’ll never make friends and it will be terrible. It will be a very keeping-up-with-the-Jones’s kind of thing!” The day after the moving trucks came, our next door neighbor came over and introduced himself and said “Oh you’re from the city you probably don’t have any rakes or lawn tools. If you need to borrow anything, let me know”.  That was so nice.  Our experience has been very positive. That first little moment when somebody crosses the casual mode of greeting people at events and says “Come let’s have a cup of coffee or come let’s do this.” Those are always wonderful, I so enjoy doing that.   I worry sometimes that I don’t reciprocate enough because I get caught up in the tornado of a fast-paced lifestyle. It’s always lovely when people reach out and ask to connect on a more personal level. And that happens here in Mahwah a lot.

 

 

Leave a Reply