KUCI: Get the Funk Out
Life’s a Rollercoaster Ride! Stories of Inspiration and Change
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Episodes
Monday Apr 24, 2017
Monday Apr 24, 2017
Leanne Summers, LAWIM PRESIDENT/CEO
Owner, Leanne Summers Entertainment
A LAWIM member since 1992, having served as President, CFO and Chair of the Advisory Board since her initial appointment to the Board of Directors in 1994, Leanne Summers is once again at the helm of LAWIM as President (2008).
A summa cum laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, majoring in Professional Music with a voice principal, Leanne established the first college Alumni Chapter in Los Angeles in 1994 and served as its Chapter President for 11 years. Many of the structures and programs she implemented served as a model for the now over 14 chapters nationwide, and garnered her a seat on the Board of Trustees where she served from 1999-2005 as the first alumni representative.
As a professional singer her experience ranges from session singing to every conceivable form of live performance! From casual work and nationwide tours, to appearances at prominent clubs with Big Bands, various lounge acts, her own Top 40 band, and as a solo artist, musical director, and backup singer/opening act for major artists (Crystal Gale, Richie Havens, Jonathan Cain, Stella Parton, Eddie Rabbit), she brings a “know-how” to her teaching and producing that is immeasurable. Her voice and/or vocal productions can be heard on the likes of The Drew Carey Show, West Wing, Nikki, Cold Case and Californication to name a few.
As a much sought after vocal coach/vocal producer her clients include an extensive list of independent & major label recording artists, feature film & television actors, soundtrack artists, dancers, Broadway performers & prominent music supervisors, production & management companies. She has prepared artists for major tours and appearances at House of Blues, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ASCAP Pop Awards, Star Search, America’s Most Talented Kids, American Idol and more. Some of her proudest accomplishments are in developing young singers who have not only succeeded as performing artists in the music “industry” as we know it, but also those who have gone on to music colleges (many on vocal scholarships) and are actively working behind the scenes or making their mark in areas such as music therapy.
As a clinician she has participated in Grammy in the Schools (NARAS), The Songwriters' Expo (LASS and NAS), Vocal Tracks (Berklee in L.A.) Speech Level Singing Institute and spoken at many schools, music organizations and vocal clinics around the country. She has also authored articles on vocal technique, recording studio topics, performance and singing careers for several music magazines including (Home & Studio) Recording.
Summers says "Los Angeles Women in Music has always held a special place in my heart and is an organization that I truly feel has a reason to exist if we tend to its potential. Our mission statement is a powerful and positive platform! If we let it be our guide as we move forward, we can make our mark and make a difference in our community and in the industry that is our passion. There is no doubt that we face some challenges. The music industry is inundated with organizations competing for people’s time and support. But, I firmly believe that if we come together in a focused and directed manner, we can harness our strengths and carve out a unique place for LAWIM in a meaningful role and with a sense of purpose. No matter the changes that we may make in the coming months ahead, the principle foundation and philosophy of LAWIM will prevail. I encourage us all to empower ourselves and each other to “find our way” and share the vision…"
Other Affiliations: AFTRA, SAG, NARAS, SOS, ASCAP
Website: www.leannesummers.com
Monday Apr 17, 2017
Monday Apr 17, 2017
Caitriona Lally studied English Literature in Trinity College Dublin. She has had a colourful employment history, working as an abstract writer and a copywriter alongside working as a home helper in New York and an English teacher in Japan. She has traveled extensively around Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Caitriona was shortlisted for 'Newcomer of the Year' in the Irish Book Awards in 2015.
An INDIE NEXT selection
A LIBRARY READS pick
An IRISH BOOK AWARD finalist
"The only way of doing justice to the experience of reading this book would be to quote the bits that made me laugh out loud. But that would mean quoting from every single page...With her parallel perceptiveness, Vivian rescues much more than just contemporary Dublin. She also resuscitates some of the magic of language and life, showing the way words breathe or choke, the way the world can shrink your life or expand it...Bypassing nothing, the opposite of a passer-by because she’s trying to figure everything out, and with the help of a notebook and without meaning to, she exposes vistas and ruts, portals and traps...She’s a modern-day flâneuse, overlooked but overlooking nothing, a seer, a gift of a character." —The Irish Times
EGGSHELLS
by Caitriona Lally
“This urban fairy tale delivers something that is both subtle and profound in its examination of the human soul. Magically delicious.” —Kirkus
“A whimsical jaunt through Dublin and a modern take on many old Irish folktakes…Humorous, charming, and original.” —Booklist
“The book’s style calls to mind The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Engaging and humorous.” — The Dublin Inquirer
“Inventive, funny and, ultimately, moving.”
— The Guardian
“Delightfully quirky… Vivian’s voice alone is enough to keep us reading, charmed by her unique brand of manic, word-hoarding wit.”
— The Irish Independent
Eggshells (Melville House; Hardcover; March 14, 2017), the exceptional debut from Irish writer Caitriona Lally, chronicles the life of idiosyncratic Vivian as she navigates Dublin in search of the place where she fits in.
Delightfully inventive, alive with wordplay, and perfect for anyone who has ever felt they don’t belong, Eggshells is at once the whimsical story of a charming oddball, and a richly detailed travelogue of contemporary Dublin.
Vivian has never felt like she fit in. As a child, she was so whimsical, so odd, that her parents told her she’d been “left by fairies.” Now, an adult living alone in Dublin, she has nosy neighbors, meddlesome social workers, a condescending older sister…and not a friend in the world. Until she decides it’s time to change her life.
The first step is advertising for a friend, preferably one named Penelope. While she waits for someone to answer her ad, Vivian roams the city. With meticulous lists and hand-drawn maps, she sets out for a new neighborhood every day, searching for the portal, seeking her escape to a better world, the world her parents told her she came from.
Lally’s acclaimed debut is perfect for anyone who loved Fredrick Backman’s A Man Called Ove or The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Eggshells is a thoroughly modern take on classic Irish literature, full of wordplay, warm humor, and utterly charming characters. Told through hilarious, painfully awkward interactions, Lally offers readers a fresh, nuanced love story of friendship and human understanding.
Monday Apr 17, 2017
Monday Apr 17, 2017
2016 LA Critics Award winner for Best Blues Artist, Best Female CD (Album: Long Road) and Fan Favorite!
In mythology, Sirens were dangerous yet beautiful creatures that would lure sailors with enchanting songs and make them crash onto the rocky coast. It is said that some crews survived by using wax in their ears to keep from being compelled.
But what if the music was turned up? What if it was amplified? What if there were soaring guitar tones that shook your bones and cut through to your soul?
You’d be helpless.
Get ready to meet your fate with Diana Rein on her magnetic Indie Blues sophomore album “Long Road”.
See if you can escape the artist named "the Six String Siren" by her adoring fans. With a sharp tongue, driving blues guitars and melodic solos — it won’t take long before you fall under her spell.
Born in Romania and raised in Chicago, Diana came onto the scene as an acoustic rhythm guitar player in her hometown with the release of her first album of 8 originals "The Back Room".
"On Long Road, Diana Rein doesn't just show off her incredible guitar playing, which is reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan with a sprinkling of Buddy Guy & Jimi Hendrix, but also her powerful voice !! Killer Vocals, Killer Guitar, Killer Rock !! With music like this, Diana's Rein as "Queen of Blues/Rock" will be a long one !! " - Michael Trike McGrath of Trike's Trax
It wasn't long before she was doing solo and band shows all around Chicago including venues like: The Double Door, Fitzgerald's, Joe's Bar, Lucille's, festivals, college shows and playing a set at The Taste of Chicago right before Bonnie Raitt hit the main stage.
Diana is also working on a solo project/one woman band show that will be an intimate treat for her fans. Her music is saturated with the Blues at its core and infused with guitar driven Rock and Roots.
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
COLCOA FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL TEAM
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
François Truffart calls in Monday to chat with host Janeane Bernstein
About François Truffart
After completing a Master’s degree in Economics and Politics in Paris (Dauphine University), François Truffart was Cultural Attaché in charge of the promotion of French cinema and television programs at the French Embassy in Hungary (Budapest), Japan (Tokyo) and the United States (Los Angeles) from 1991 to 2001. In 2001, he joined Gilles Jacob and the Cannes Film Festival to become Director of La Cinéfondation. From 2003 to 2004, he was the U.S. representative of the Cannes Film Market. He has been in charge of programming for the COLCOA French Film Festival since 2004 and has been assigned Executive Producer of the event in 2007.
He is the author of Le Guide des Televisions en Europe, published by Bayard Press in 1991.
Francois Truffart was honored by the French governement with the order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres during a reception with French Minister of Culture, Mrs Fleur Pellerin, on February 4, 2016.
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
ABOUT DEBBIE GOODSTEIN
Debbie Goodstein was the writer and director of Voices from the Attic (1988), which was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Voices from the Attic had a limited theatrical release, was broadcast for three years on Israeli television on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and in the U.S. on the Discovery network. It was widely distributed to schools and religious institutions and—and over 20 years later—it is still being sold at places like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Goodstein wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical narrative feature Mighty Fine, starring Andie MacDowell and Chazz Palminteri, which was released theatrically in May of 2012 by Lionsgate. In 2013, Mighty Fine had a special Academy screening and was invited to screen at Simon Wiesenthal Center at The Museum of Tolerance in LA, and, most recently, won “Best in Show” at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto (named one of the top 25 festivals in North America by Movieline Magazine). Goodstein has sold several screenplays to major studios and has numerous other credits in film and television, including: writer for “Saying Kaddish,” which was nominated for a Daytime Emmy; writer/producer for “Growing Up in America” (Fox TV Films); and writer/ producer/ director for “The Bubbies,” a reality show on NBC. She and her cousin Leslie Wolfowitz also wrote and produced the play "Kindergarten Confidential" which was showcased Off Broadway in 2006.
ABOUT ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC
“Echoes from the Attic” tells the small but epic story spanning 70 years of the shifting, sometimes tense, sometimes distant relationship between two families surviving the Nazi occupation, one Jewish and the other, their Polish rescuers. It is the story of the triumph of an enduring bond forged in war, tempered by compassion and made resilient by love.
“Echoes from the Attic" will premiere in Berlin at the end of the month, screening in tandem with its prequel, the academy award shortlisted "Voices from the Attic", in the Asynchronous program dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. Invited by Arsenal Cinema, the organizers of the Berlinale Forum of the Berlin Film Festival, “Voices” and “Echoes” are two of eleven films invited to be screened in a three-city tour beginning in Berlin and going on to Leipzig and Frankfurt.
Our Echoes team has been hard at work all summer getting the film ready for its Berlin debut. Post-production costs along with a final shoot in Poland organized in an effort to dig deeper into guarded family histories, have brought us here to Kickstarter in hopes of covering these costs. After our German tour, we hope to rerelease “Voices” along with “Echoes” theatrically, here at home. “Echoes” will also be distributed as a stand alone at festivals, museums, schools, and eventually to global accessibility online.
THE STORY
“Echoes from the Attic” is Debbie Goodstein’s follow up to her 1989 documentary “Voices From the Attic” which charted her journey to Poland and the attic where her mother and 15 family members were hidden for two years during the Holocaust. “Voices” features Debbie’s Aunt Sally as she deals head on with the scars she’s carried and the long shadows cast by those harrowing attic years. “Echoes” picks up 23 years later when Aunt Sally announces that, after years of lobbying Israel’s Holocaust Center, Yad Vashem, the late Stanislaw Grocholski, the Polish farmer who gave them shelter, will be awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” honor. Thrilled with this victory, attic survivors and descendants, 27 in all, travel back to Poland to attend the ceremony honoring their hero. But something goes terribly wrong during the ceremony, opening a painful rift between them and the Grocholski family that they are determined to mend. A private meeting with Stanislaw’s eldest daughter, Zosia, reveals the unknown and life-shattering risks her parents took to do the right thing. With Zosia’s revelations, “Echoes” becomes the natural companion piece to “Voices,” shining a bright light on often-overlooked sacrifices, pain and strength of ordinary people of extraordinary heart.
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Acacia Parks, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Hiram College. Her research focuses on the efficacy of positive interventions, and the psychological and behavioral characteristics of individuals who use them. She is also interested in ambulatory assessment, and in particular, the use of smartphone technology as an assessment and intervention tool. Most recently, she has begun examining the effects of positive interventions on objective measures such as physical activity level and sleep quality.
Acacia serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology, where she was guest editor of a special issue on Positive Psychology in Higher Education; the special issue was released as a book by Taylor & Francis. She is also co-editor of a positive psychology teaching activities book, published through APA Press, and is co-editor of a volume with Wiley-Blackwell entitled "The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Positive Psychological Interventions." She is an active teacher of both psychology - including positive psychology, abnormal and clinical psychology, and research methods - as well as critical writing.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and serves as associate editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology.
When she is not professorizing, Acacia spends time with her partner, CS, his two children, Callie (age 14) and Conrad (age 11), and her new baby, Cassandra. They live on a small farm in rural NE Ohio, where they raise pigs, goats, rabbits, and poultry (ducks, geese, and chickens).
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Debut YA Paints the Perfect Portrait of A Teen Artist
Bursting to Break Out!
★“Cagan tells Piper’s story with amazing authenticity… soulful reading for any artistic teen with a dream.” —Booklist, starred review
“A character readers will remember.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Will embolden budding teen artists.”—School Library Journal
Piper Perish inhales air and exhales art. The sooner she and her best friends can get out of Houston and get to New York City, the better. Art school has been Piper’s dream her whole life, and now that senior year is halfway over, she’s never felt more ready.
But in the final months before graduation, things are weird with her friends and stressful with three different guys, and Piper’s sister’s tyrannical mental state seems to thwart every attempt at happiness for the close-knit Perish family. Piper’s art just might be enough to get her out. But is she brave enough to seize that power when it means giving up so much?
Debut author Kayla Cagan breathes new life into fiction in this dynamic, utterly authentic work featuring interior art from Rookie magazine illustrator Maria Ines Gul. Piper will have readers asking big questions along with her. What is love? What is friendship? What is family? What is home? And who is she as a person when she’s missing any one of these things?
Kayla Cagan is a writer and playwright. She received her BFA in Theater from Stephen F. Austin University. She lives in Los Angeles. This is her first book
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Monday Apr 03, 2017
Monday Apr 03, 2017
Orin Davis earned the first doctorate in positive psychology, and is a self-actualization engineer who enables people to do and be their best. His consulting focuses on making workplaces great places to work, and his research is on flow, creativity, hypnosis, and mentoring. In addition to being the principal investigator of the Quality of Life Laboratory and the Chief Science Officer of Self Spark, he is a startup advisor who helps early-stage companies enhance their value propositions, pitches, culture, and human capital. Dr. Davis also serves as a science advisor at Happify and Happy Brain Science, and is an adjunct professor of business, psychology, entrepreneurship, and creativity. He writes and speaks avidly about human capital, creativity and innovation, and positive psychology.
Monday Apr 03, 2017
Monday Apr 03, 2017
ABOUT MELANIE BROOKS
I am a writer, teacher, and mother living in Nashua, New Hampshire, with my husband, two children, and yellow Lab. I grew up in the Canadian Maritimes, and the deep ties to water and rugged spaces that live in me are rooted in that background.
I graduated with a degree in English from Gordon College and then earned a Bachelor of Education from Dalhousie University. I later earned a Master of Science for Teachers of English from the University of New Hampshire. I began my career teaching high school social studies and then went on to teach middle school English. After my children were born, I began teaching college writing. I currently teach professional writing at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and Merrimack College in Andover, Massachusetts, and creative writing at Nashua Community College in Nashua, New Hampshire. I completed my MFA in creative nonfiction through the Stonecoast Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine.
I love words. And I love to play with words on the page. My head is a busy place. An endless film reel plays in there, its frames alive with images and moments, actual and imagined, that I’ve tucked into the folds of my memory. I watch them over and over again, shaping and reshaping, ordering and reordering, trying to make sense of them, searching for the story they want to tell and the language with which to tell it.
Unpacking experiences of life and loss is at the core of my writing. When I was thirteen, my father was infected with HIV after receiving tainted blood during open-heart surgery. He died of an AIDS-related illness ten years later. The complicated nature of his disease and the grief of his death have had a lasting impact on me. My writing is the vehicle through which I'm learning to understand that impact. The stories filling the pages are helping me to better understand myself.
https://www.melaniebrooks.com/
I first read about Melanie Brooks in Poets & Writers Magazine. Her book, Writing Hard Stories, grabbed my attention and I just had to invite her on my show!
Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma
"An inspiring guide to ennobling personal stories that travel to the dark sides of life."
- Kirkus Reviews
“Writers of all genres will glean golden nuggets of advice about writing and living from this book, while all readers, because they, too, have unique personal stories, will be comforted and inspired by the everyday and creative struggles of some of their favorite authors.”
- Booklist
"[I]t unearths gems of insight, especially about the natures of truth, memory, subjectivity, and fact, and about what memoirs can mean to readers. And it leaves no doubt about the strength required to confront old ghosts."
- Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHED WITH BEACON PRESS (February 2017)
Order Your Copy Here
In Melanie's own words
Two years ago, I began writing a painful family story that has now become a memoir, A Complicated Grief. Writing into the memories of this part of my life left me with some difficult questions: What does it take to write an honest memoir? And what happens to us when we embark on that journey? Would I survive the process? I decided to approach the writers whose memoirs moved me and ask these questions. Their replies – honest and soul-searing – comprise Writing Hard Stories. This book profiles my conversations with some of our country’s most prolific writers including: Alysia Abbott, Richard Blanco, Kate Bornstein, Edwidge Danticat, Mark Doty, Andre Dubus III, Jessica Handler, Richard Hoffman, Marianne Leone, Michael Patrick McDonald, Kyoko Mori, Suzanne Strempek Shea, Sue William Silverman, Kim Stafford, Abigail Thomas, Jerald Walker, Joan Wickersham, and Monica Wood. These writers invited me into their homes, into their lives, to share the intimacies of finding the courage to put words to their stories. Their candid descriptions of their own treks through the darkest of memories and the details of the breakthrough moments that opened up their stories gave me the mooring I needed to keep writing my own.
Monday Apr 03, 2017
Monday Apr 03, 2017
OVARIAN PSYCOS
A documentary directed by Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumbull-LaValle.
ABOUT THE FILM
Ep MainBased in the heart of Los Angeles' Eastside, and building upon the legacy of the Chicano/a and civil rights movement, the irreverently named Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade are a ferocious and unapologetic group of young women of color, cycling through the barrios and boulevards of the Eastside, committed to collectively confronting racism and violence, and demanding and creating safe spaces for women.
ABOUT FILMMAKER KATE TRUMBULL-LAVALLE
Kate Trumbull-LaValle (Director/Producer) is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker who first began in the field of social justice media as an educator and media maker for the Media Arts Center San Diego and the San Diego Latino Film Festival. She was associate producer and assistant editor for Renee Tajima-Peña’s No Más Bebés (2015), which profiles the history of Latina women coercively sterilized at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and 1970s, and aired on Independent Lens. She directed the short documentary, Abaayo/Sister (2012), an intimate portrait of two Somali friends caught in a cultural tug-of-war and is a UC Berkeley Human Rights Fellow (2010) and graduated with an M.A. from the Social Documentation Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
BROADCAST PREMIERE ON INDEPENDENT LENS
MON 03/27/2017 at 10pm EST (check local listings)
If you missed the 03/27/17 broadcast premiere on PBS,
you can can watch the online stream on www.PBS.org
FILMMAKER PRESS CONTACT: After Bruce PR
eseel@afterbruce.com // 562.881.6725
tracy@afterbrucecom // 503.701.2115