KUCI: Get the Funk Out

Janeane speaks with Donna Butts, Executive Director of Generations United

Generations United (gu.org)
Donna Butts is the Executive Director of Generations United, a position she has held since 1997. For more than 30 years, Butts has worked tirelessly to promote the well-being of children, youth and older adults through nonprofit organizations across the country and around the world. She began her career in her home state of Oregon as a youth worker with the YWCA, where she worked one-on-one with teens and saw the positive effects of intergenerational programs firsthand.
Butts has held leadership positions with Covenant House, a New York-based international youth serving organization, and the National 4-H Council. She served as the Executive Director for the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention before taking the helm of Generations United.
An internationally sought-after speaker, author and advocate, Butts frequently speaks on intergenerational connections, grandparents raising grandchildren and policies effective across the lifespan. Her commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal. She has been interviewed on the TODAY Show, National Public Radio and ABC News, and was invited by the United Nations to sit on four expert panels most recently on intergenerational solidarity and social cohesion in preparation for the 2014 20th anniversary of the International Year or the Family.
In 2004, Butts was honored with the National Council on Aging’s Jack Ossofsky for Leadership, Creativity, and Innovation in Programs and Services for Older Persons. She served as a 2005 delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. A respected author, she has written countless articles, chapters and publications regarding the welfare of children, youth and older adults.
Butts received her undergraduate degree from Marylhurst College and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. She is a former chair of the board of the International Consortium of Intergenerational Programmes (ICIP) and serves on the board of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. She was recognized three years in a row (2012, 2013 and 2014) by The Nonprofit Times as one of the Top 50 most powerful and influential nonprofit executives in the nation.
In 2015, she was named one of the Top 50 Influencers in Aging by Next Avenue. Under her leadership, Generations United received the 2015 Eisner Prize for Excellence in Intergenerational Advocacy. Recently she was honored with one of the 2017 International Federation for Family Development Awards.
Check out Generations United’s newest report, Family Matters: Multigenerational Living Is on the Rise and Here to Stay.

Julianne O’Brien - Professor, Chair, Department of Dance College of Performing Arts Chapman University; Department of Dance Expertise: Dance Pedagogy;...

From the Orange County Register:
Chapman University dancer Lauren Leung, 19, top, is lifted up by fellow dancers with Chapman University’s Department of Dance during a performance for residents at Emerald Court, a senior living community, in Anaheim on Monday, May 17, 2021. Chapman dance students in a Dance Education and Outreach course were assigned a project to pair up with a senior at Emerald Court. The student/senior pairs communicated via weekly calls where the student learned about the lives and experiences of the seniors. The project culminated with a dance performance choreographed based on the lives of the seniors.

Director D.W. Thomas talks about her debut film, TOO LATE OPENING IN SELECT THEATERS & ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS ON JUNE 25. TOO LATE - STARRING ALYSSA LIM...

OPENING IN SELECT THEATERS & ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS ON JUNE 25
STARRING ALYSSA LIMPERIS, RON LYNCH, WILL WELDON, MARY LYNN RAJSKUB, & FRED ARMISEN
This cozy horror comedy set in the Los Angeles indie comedy scene features Violet Fields who works a thankless job as the assistant to Bob Devore, famed comedian and host of the live variety show, Too Late. But what only Violet knows is that Bob is a monster both literally and figuratively. Resigned to her fate, Violet is caught by surprise when she meets aspiring comedian Jimmy Rhodes and sparks fly. But as her feelings for Jimmy grow and Bob starts to doubt her loyalty, she and Jimmy could end up as Bob’s next meal.
TOO LATE is the debut feature film from director D.W. Thomas and writer Tom Becker. It stars Alyssa Limperis (Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun), Ron Lynch (Bob’s Burgers, Adventure Time), Will Weldon (Comedy Central’s This Isn’t Happening), Mary Lynn Rajskub (24, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Fred Armisen (SNL, Portlandia), Jenny Zigrino (Bad Santa 2, 50 Shades of Black), Jack De Sena (Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Brooks Wheelan (SNL).

New York Times bestselling novelist Kristan Higgins shares her latest novel, PACK UP THE MOON, her most ambitious and moving story yet

New York Times bestselling novelist Kristan Higgins turned her worst fear—losing a spouse and being left alone—into the subject of her latest novel, PACK UP THE MOON, (Berkley Trade Original; June 8, 2021).
At twenty-four, Kristan lost her beloved father in a tragic accident. She’s keenly aware of life’s fragility and as the wife of a firefighter has spent most her marriage steeling herself for the potential loss of her husband, Terrence. Kristan and her husband share a very happy marriage, but she’s written Terrence’s eulogy four times. If he’s late coming home from work and she can’t reach him, she automatically prepares for the worst.
Kristan wrote PACK UP THE MOON to explore her own scariest question: how do you move on after losing the love of your life? In writing the book, she reaffirmed her belief that love has the power to transform even after the one you love is gone and that there is always space for hope.
In PACK UP THE MOON (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; June 8, 2021), Kristan Higgins delivers a tragic love story with a hopeful ending—just not the one you expect. Reminiscent of Me Before You, this is the story of young widower Joshua Park, whose late wife, Lauren, left him twelve letters with directions on moving forward in the first year after her death. In true Kristan Higgins fashion, the result is a laughter-through-tears page turner.
PACK UP THE MOON is her most ambitious and moving story yet.

Emily A. Francis, speaker/bestselling author/wellness expert shares her book Healing Ourselves Whole

Your Body is Speaking to You, It's Time to Learn the Language to Answer!
Discover what your body is trying to tell you about reaching your highest health! Healing Ourselves Whole gives you the tools needed to clean your emotional house from top to bottom. This groundbreaking process contains meditations and exercises that will help you dig deep into past trauma to discover when and how it took root, but most importantly how to release it!
Get in touch with various parts of the physical and energy body, and learn how identify, and let go of stored traumas while rediscovering the deeply held happiness that is also stored within your body. From this empowering space, you will learn to live from a new mindful way of being.
As a trained body worker, Emily Francis offers a refreshing perspective into healing trauma. She reveals unique knowledge of the body as a holder for memory. Emily will lead you on a path deep within yourself to rearrange the ways that pain and trauma have been holding you back from whole body, mind, spirit, and energy healing.
Learn the process of rearranging the dialogue within the body memory systems as well as a practice to healing your past self, and come into the present to create your best possible life.
"Emily has developed a vernacular for healing that our body tissues speak which allows us to excise the chronic wounds of pain, traumas, and guilt. This book will help you undo what has perhaps been the cause of your chronic physical or mental pain". - Roberto Tostado M.D., author of WTF (What the Food) is Wrong with Our Health?

TOGETHER APART, a collection of new short musicals written, composed, directed-by and starring Brown University alumni, will premiere on May 27 at 5:3...

TOGETHER APART, a collection of new short musicals written, composed, directed-by and starring Brown University alumni, will premiere on May 27 at 5:30 PT/8:30 ET and stream through May 30 to raise money for The Actors Fund.
The musical evolved out of a true Zoom moment: A Brown musical theater reunion attended by graduates from the early 80s through the late 90s. Lisa Loeb, ’90 Graduate and Grammy Award Winner, was energized by the digital reconnection, and inspired to write a musical about the experience. She asked the group if they wanted to collaborate, and the creative process began. Loeb said “As I sat in the Zoom reunion, listening to everyone talk about their current lives, connecting with friends, and reflecting on all of our vivid musical theater memories from Brown, I realized that we shouldn’t just talk about what happened in the past, but we should write a Zoom musical about what’s going on, and it should happen all in the world of Zoom. And by sharing our storytelling and our passion and love for theater, we can work together to provide an outlet for our shared creativity while giving back to this incredible cause.”
The production is a compilation of ten seven-minute musicals, all about connecting on Zoom at the beginning of the pandemic. Producer Beth Wishnie, ’89 Graduate and Tony Award winner, said “This entire project has been a labor of love. Once we decided to raise money for our friends in the entertainment industry, we worked around the clock to make something meaningful to anyone who was able to see it."
Emmy and SAG award winner Julie Bowen ’90, who was in the midst of filming in Canada, was especially enthusiastic to join, knowing the show would be raising money for The Actors Fund. David Lai ‘86, who was deep in production on the music for the movie of Come From Away, came aboard as well, as did so many other talented Brown alums including Broadway veteran Ann Harada, Emmy Award winner Josh Hamilton ’92, and film icon JoBeth Williams ’70.
General admission tickets start at $25 with a VIP pre-show event available for donations of $100 or more. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite with proceeds benefitting The Actors Fund.
More info on http://getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org

THE BABYSITTER - MY SUMMERS WITH A SERIAL KILLER By Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan

THE BABYSITTER
MY SUMMERS WITH A SERIAL KILLER
By Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan
A chilling true story—part memoir, part crime investigation—reminiscent of Ann Rule’s classic The Stranger Beside Me, about a little girl longing for love and how she found friendship with her charismatic babysitter—who was also a vicious serial killer.

Travel and wellness journalist Annie Daly and her debut book, DESTINATION WELLNESS: Global Secrets for Better Living Wherever You Are

travel and wellness journalist Annie Daly and her debut book, DESTINATION WELLNESS: Global Secrets for Better Living Wherever You Are

Writer and a former editor at The New York Times, Cate Doty, shares her new book MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned ...

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages by Cate Doty is a compulsively readable behind-the-scenes debut memoir that takes readers inside the weddings section of The New York Times—the good, bad, and just plain weird—through the eyes of a young reporter just as she's falling in love herself.
Cate Doty talks about:
· Her experience at The New York Times
· How The New York Times wedding section has endured and why it is still so coveted
· Her predictions on changes we might foresee in the wedding industry post-pandemic
· Advice she would give someone planning their wedding for the first time

Donne Davis, founder of GaGa Sisterhood, national social network for enthusiastic grandmas & author

Donne Davis, founder of the GaGa Sisterhood, a national social network for enthusiastic grandmas, and author of When Being a Grandma Isn’t So Grand: 4 Keys to L.O.V.E. Your Grandchild’s Parents — a practical guide for handling the most common grandparenting challenges