8/29/22 at 9am pst - Jane Esselstyn, R.N., a fresh, charismatic voice in the plant-based movement talks about her new book, BE A PLANT-BASED WOMAN WARROIR: Live Fierce, Stay Bold, Eat Delicious co-written with her Mom, Ann Esselstyn

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The Esselstyn family is three generations plant-based strong. Ann Esselstyn’s husband Caldwell Esselstyn ran one of the studies on a plant-based diet to fight heart disease and wrote a bestselling book on the subject. Her son Rip Esselstyn wrote a several bestselling books/cookbooks, has a food line in Whole Foods, and a popular podcast on the subject. Ann and her daughter Jane Esselstyn have been the women behind the curtains the whole time, developing the recipes and food plans. BE A PLANT-BASED WOMAN WARROIR: Live Fierce, Stay Bold, Eat Delicious, is Ann and Jane’s own book specifically for women, filled with amazing recipes, notes on women's health, celebrates of the power of a plant-based lifestyle.


Encouraged to create recipes without dairy and meat when her husband’s research pointed to the impact of diet on reversing disease, Ann began feeding her family creative, plant-based meals more than thirty years ago. Ann and Jane are bolts of energy from the same strike of lightning and have become fierce, big-spirited advocates for a plant-based lifestyle, reaching hundreds of thousands of fans through their previous books and their popular YouTube channel. At eighty-six and fifty-six, respectively, Ann and Jane are pictures of ageless health and vibrancy and BE A PLANT-BASED WOMAN WARROIR illuminates how plants powerfully support a woman’s body and mind.

BE A PLANT-BASED WOMAN WARROIR includes more than 125 recipes, from Apple Flax Flapjacks and Black Ramen Bowls, to Portobello Sliders with Green Goddess Sauce, to Mint Chip Outta Sight Brownies. And it includes big-flavored dinners like Sweet Potato and Cashew Ricotta Lasagna and Plant-Based Pad Thai, sure to tempt even the most reluctant vegetable-focused eaters. Full of life, captivating energy, and delicious food, this cookbook brings readers to the Esselstyn family table, where plants and joy are at the center.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Jane Esselstyn, R.N., is a fresh, charismatic voice in the plant-based movement. She brings her passion, energy, and can-do attitude to her presentations, cooking demonstrations, and cookbooks. As well as being a nurse, researcher, middle school sex ed teacher, and mother of three, Jane hosts a popular YouTube channel with her spitfire mother, Ann Crile Esselstyn. Jane created the recipes for the #1 New York Times bestseller Plant-Strong and The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet. She is the coauthor of The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet with her brother, Rip Esselstyn and of The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook with Ann, who is her next-door neighbor in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ann Crile Esselstyn has been called "the Julia Child of plant-based-cooking." She was an award-winning English teacher for twenty-seven years, all while juggling raising four children, coaching, and figuring out how to cook delicious and appealing plant-based, oil-free food (pre-internet!). Ann's singular focus is on creating recipes to prevent and reverse heart disease, and she collaborates with her husband, Dr. Caldwell B Esselstyn Jr., in counseling patients. Ann and her daughter, Jane, also feature heart-healthy recipes on their YouTube channel. Ann graduated from Smith College and received a master's in education from Wheelock College. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, next door to Jane.

Coming up at 9:30am pst - Breton Tyner-Bryan talks about her latest Dance Drama in the Film Festival Circuit - Invicta

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BRETON TYNER-BRYAN BACK ON THE FILM FESTIVAL CIRCUIT WITH HER NEWEST DANCE DRAMA “INVICTA”

July 2022 Screenings to include Berlin Commercial Raw, July 27

and La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, July 30


LOS ANGELES, JULY 21, 2022 -- INVICTA, the newest short film from multi-hyphenated creator Breton Tyner-Bryan, will screen at two upcoming festivals in July. The world premiere will be at the Berlin Commercial Raw Festival on July 27 in Berlin, Germany and will make its local premiere at the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival in La Jolla, California on July 30, 2022.

It is currently running at the Lift Off Global Sessions hosted by Pinewood Studios UK on demand from July 4-28, and was also part of the Tokyo Shorts Best Experimental competition in June 2022.

INVICTA shows the lives and expectations that come with it, is set in New York City where a group of seven Mafia wives come together, driven by passion and drama. They are seemingly locked out of a Riverside Drive mansion and are searching for a way in. Who has summoned them and why are they now denied? As the women struggle to change and/or accept the situation, their dancing suggests alliances; perhaps they were once strong, now weakened. Betrayal -- or is it? -- from one woman brings up lost dreams, dashed expectations and longing for love, despite everything.



The seven women, who could represent the deadly sins, the virtues or the colors of the rainbow, are uniquely portrayed by members of Tyner-Bryan’s company Breton Follies: Sian Berman (Australian Ballet), Maya Kitayama (Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast, Can-Can), Emily Ulrich (Other World), Savannah Crawford, Susan Olmos Sabel, Samara Steele and Tatiana Stewart.

INVICTA is directed, written, choreographed, edited, and executive produced by Tyner-Bryan who also served as costume designer, sound designer and casting director. Her long-time collaborator, Michael J. Burke (The Golden Age, And Just Like That) is Director of Photography and composer Adria Barbosa contributed to the evocative score.


BROADWAY WORLD’s A. A. Cristi reviewed the film calling it “a wonderfully theatrical work…the women all convey a strength…each woman is complex, more than her strength, sexual desire or gender.”

Freelance journalist Nadia Vostrikov called it “...lusciously cryptic film waiting to be pried open” and praised Tyner-Bryan for leading the audience through “...her female-conquering world, indulging the viewer with opulence at every corner.”

INVICTA will screen on Saturday, July 30 at THE LOT in La Jolla located at 7611 Fay Avenue, San Diego. The screenings start at 10:00 am, and the red carpet and awarding of prizes will be from 3:00-10:00 pm. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.

About La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival

La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival is the First International Fashion Film Festival Founded in North America. Described as a filmmaker-centered film festival, it is called The Cannes of the fashion film world. An international jury will be awarding filmmakers in 20 different categories.

IFFS’s mission is to empower, support, and recognize the individual creative professionals who make up the fashion film community worldwide.

For more information on INVICTA or to speak with the Breton Tyner-Bryan, please contact Deborah Gilels, LA Media Consultants at (818) 648-9513, email deborah@lamediaconsultants.net.

Coming up 7/24 9am pst - Susannah B is an accomplished singer-songwriter, screenwriter and writer John Anderson talk about their latest project Daddy's Eyes

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Sacrifices must be made to make it to the top of the music world. No one knows this better than Dixon James, who promised his wife they would get there. In this haunting message of hope and despair, mother and daughter singers have been separated for over twenty years by race, wealth, fame, and a heroin addiction. They long to find one another…. Before it’s too late. In the tradition of a Greek tragedy, the journey is never straightforward.

Susannah B is an accomplished singer-songwriter, screenwriter and actor. A Los Angeles resident for most of her adult life, Susannah (aka Susannah Blinkoff) grew up in Manhattan as the daughter of well-known Broadway composer/lyricist Carol Hall. From an early age, Susannah was acting off-Broadway and singing professionally in NYC clubs. At Brown University, she met her longtime friend, director Drew Ann Rosenberg. As an actor, Susannah has appeared on Broadway and in film and TV. She co-wrote the film BELLYFRUIT and collaborated on the title song with composer/producer Stephen Bray (Madonna, THE COLOR PURPLE).

She is currently writing a comedic musical TV series with author Annabelle Gurwitch. As a singer, Susannah B has performed at many clubs in L.A. including Hotel Café and Catalina Jazz Club. She has released six albums of her own pop songs as well as an album of retro jazz standards. Most recently, Susannah B released an EP of techno house remixes with DJ/producer j. wells and the duo have a new electronic single “Moon & Sand” dropping later this summer.

TRAILER

John Anderson grew up in Erie, PA and received degrees at UC San Diego in biology, biochemistry and acting. He found his love of writing when he discovered Microsoft Spellcheck. John was winner of best film and best script at the 48-hour film project for "Scared Slim". He was also a series writer on Presumed Innocent, an episodic based on real-life cases from the Innocence Project. Among his many writing credits, he co-produced the horror film, Maneater starring Dean Cain. John was writer/director on the movie, This Town and short film Corgi Conspiracy, which premiered at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

"I first heard Susannah B’s music in a small, crowded jazz club in Hollywood. Her sultry voice and wistful lyrics transported me to a lonely barroom, where I found myself bathed in the opium-den-like company of other lost souls, longing to escape. My wife, director Drew Ann Rosenberg and I have experienced the pain of the opioid crisis firsthand as friends struggled with addiction or died from overdoses. The loss of these vibrant, talented people was tragic and senseless. Could we have done something to give them a ray of hope and shown them how much they had to live for? Life can change in an instant and often-times when you least expect it. My wife discovered this simply by spitting into a DNA collection test tube, where she found new family members and made a deep, meaningful connection. Using these themes, I wanted to craft a modern Greek tragedy, centered on a world where Susannah’s lyrics guided us through the darkness of my imagined inner-city club and while tragic and filled with regret, always holding that spark of hope that comes with the belief that ‘things may get better if you just hold out a moment longer.’ John K Anderson - Writer

Coming up 7/18 9:30am pst - Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh, a filmmaking duo share their debut feature film THREE HEADED BEAST which just made it's world premiere at 2022 Tribeca Film Festival

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Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh are a filmmaking duo working in Austin, Texas. They are both 24 years old and have been making films together since they met in middle school. Their debut feature film THREE HEADED BEAST made its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival in the prestigious U.S. Narrrative Competition.

THREE HEADED BEAST is one of the films in the US and Canadian Narrative competition at this year’s Outfest. We recently participated in the Tribeca Film Festival and their programmers have hailed it “one of the boldest and most assertive American independent debuts in recent memory” and it has been called “erotically charged and arresting” by Chris Feil at Frameline and “hypnotically beautiful and undeniable” by acclaimed filmmaker Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, The Beta Test).

Here’s a quick summary of the film: Peter and Nina are a long-term couple navigating a healthy and comfortable open relationship. Alex is a young man still figuring out adult life who has formed an intense connection with Peter. Their individual fears, desires, and loneliness collide over a hot Texas summer in a nearly wordless film told largely through intimacy, body language and music.

This is the debut film by Fernando Andrés and Tyler Rugh, a young filmmaking duo from Austin, Texas who not only wrote and directed the film, they acted as cinematographer, editor and sound operators and producers along with producer Lisa Freberg (One Good Man Productions). This is a true independent film about to make waves in this festival circuit and I believe you will find it well worth the watch and review.

Here is a link to the film's trailer: https://vimeo.com/715836288

At Tribeca, we got a number of great reviews.  Here are a few quotes:

"A master class in making something deft and eloquent..."

- The Village Voice

"Don't miss this gem."

-Gay City News

"An impressive triumph of craft."

-IndieWire

Screening Schedule

Tuesday, July 19th at 9:45pm / DGA Theater

New York Times bestselling author and physician, Sayantani DasGupta, brilliantly re-imagines the beloved classic, Pride and Prejudice, to reflect the complex, diverse world of American high school culture with her new book Debating Darcy

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Originally trained in pediatrics and public health, Sayantani DasGupta teaches in the Graduate Program in Narrative Medicine, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, all at Columbia University. She writes and speaks on issues of race, gender, health and social justice.

New York Times bestselling author and physician, Sayantani DasGupta, brilliantly re-imagines the beloved classic, Pride and Prejudice, to reflect the complex, diverse world of American high school culture. The book is already receiving rave reviews, and you need not be an Austen-head, to love it and the conversations around the many issues Sayantani weaves in and addresses.

“Studded with references to U.S. and South Asian pop culture as well as Jane Austen–related Easter eggs, DasGupta’s astute, buoyant comedy of manners employs witty, rat-a-tat dialogue alongside social commentary about subjects including classism, colorism, and sexism.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review


“Fiercely feminist and utterly delightful. Jane Austen would be proud.”
—Samira Ahmed, New York Times bestselling author of Internment

New York Times bestselling author, Sayantani DasGupta, brilliantly re-imagines the beloved classic, Pride and Prejudice, to reflect the complex, diverse world of American high school culture, in her bright and funny YA debut, DEBATING DARCY (on sale April 19, 2022 |Scholastic Press). Set against the ultra-competitive world of speech and debate tournaments, DEBATING DARCY blends hilarious, light writing with pertinent issues impacting young people today,such as the class conflict between private school Darcy and public school Leela, toxic masculinity, and the #MeToo movement.


It is a truth universally acknowledged that Leela Bose plays to win. A life-long speech competitor, Leela loves nothing more than crushing the competition, all while wearing a smile. But when she meets the incorrigible Firoze Darcy, a debater from an elitist private school, Leela can’t stand him. Unfortunately, he’ll be competing in the state league, so their paths are set to collide. But why attempt to tolerate Firoze when Leela can one-up him? The situation is more complicated than Leela anticipated, though, and her participation in the tournament reveals that she might have tragically misjudged the debaters -- including Firoze Darcy -- and more than just her own winning streak is at stake…her heart is, too.

A feminist manifesto that would make Jane Austen herself proud, DEBATING DARCY is a must read for teenagers, gatekeepers, and fans of the beloved classic everywhere.


Dear Reader,

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride and Prejudice’s Lizzie and Darcy are among the most iconic examples of enemies-to-lovers couples. In Austen’s original 1813 novel, the pair bicker, fight, and debate their way into falling in love—so it made perfect sense to me to set my modern reimagining in the ultra-competitive world of high school speech and debate tournaments.

I am a huge Austen-head. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice umpteen times and seen every possible stage, TV and movie adaptation. Maybe my love of Jane Austen comes from my being a daughter of Indian immigrants. There are certainly a lot of similarities between the way that Austen characters obsess over eligible matches and the central role of marriage in many Desi communities. Yet, although Leela and Darcy—the protagonists of this novel—are both South Asian Americans, that’s not my central impulse for writing this story.

The themes of Pride and Prejudice I wanted to explore in this novel include the class conflict between private school Darcy and public school Leela; the importance of being willing to change your mind about someone and not give into prejudice; as well as toxic masculinity and sexism. Although Wickham, the lying, womanizing villain of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, preys on much younger women, there is no space in the original novel for those teenage girls to fight back in any public way. I wanted my modern, feminist characters to say all the things that their 1813 counterparts could not, and in doing so, honor the #metoo stories being shared by many brave high schoolers, including speech and debate competitors, in an effort to make these spaces more welcoming, equitable and just.

This is a novel that celebrates the power of finding your community and speaking your truth, even when it’s scary. It’s a novel about knowing we are all worthy of taking up space in the world. In between the wit and banter, the complex debate topics and funny musical theater references, this is ultimately a story about justice and honor, friendship and love.

So, dear reader, whether you have, like me, read and watched versions of Pride and Prejudice a zillion times, or really never heard of it until now, I hope you find power, laughter, courage and joy in these pages.

Words matter. Art matters. Debating the issues that affect our lives matters. Your voice matters. YOU matter. And love—in all its beautiful romantic and nonromantic derivations—matters most of all.

- Sayantani 

SAYANTANI DASGUPTA is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed, Bengali folktale and string theory-inspired Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond books, the first of which -- The Serpent's Secret -- was a Booklist Best Middle Grade Novel of the 21st Century and an E. B. White Read Aloud Honor Book. Sayantani is a pediatrician by training, but now teaches at Columbia University. She is a team member of We Need Diverse Books, and can be found online at sayantanidasgupta.com and on Twitter at @sayantani16.

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, National Bestseller, Lambda Literary Award Finalist Melissa Febos talks about her critically-acclaimed, award-winning book, Girlhood

ABOUT MELISSA 

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart, the essay collection, Abandon Me, and a craft book, Body Work. She is the inaugural winner of the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary and the recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The BAU Institute, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and others. Her essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Granta, Sewanee Review, Tin House, The Sun, and The New York Times. She is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program.

Praise for Girlhood
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post * Kirkus Reviews * TIME * NPR * Washington Independent Review of Books * The Millions * Electric Literature * Ms Magazine * Entropy Magazine * Largehearted Boy * Passerbuys


“Febos’s own voice is so irreverent and original. The aim of this book, though, is not simply to tell about her own life, but to listen to the pulses of many others’. In her author’s note, Febos writes that she has ‘found company in the stories of other women, and the revelation of all our ordinariness has itself been curative.’ This solidarity puts Girlhood in a feminist canon that includes Febos’s idol, Adrienne Rich, and Maggie Nelson’s theory-minded masterpieces: smart, radical company, and not ordinary at all.” —New York Times Book Review


“Anyone who has ever been a girl or a woman will recognize the patterns Febos uncovers: the unwanted touch, the expectations of our bodies, the way we become complicit in the traps laid out for us along the way by the patriarchal structures that govern so many of our social, professional, and interpersonal spheres . . . By following Febos' distinct paths between the past and present, we might realize there's room to forge our own, and that we've just been handed a flashlight that helps illuminate the way.” —NPR, “Books We Love”


“Febos is an intoxicating writer, but I found myself most grateful for the vivid clarity of her thinking . . . disquisitive and catalytic--it doesn’t demand change so much as expose certain injustices so starkly that you might feel you cannot abide them another minute . . . I never once needed trigonometry and I couldn’t find Catullus in a crossword these days, but Febos’ education is a kind I surely could have used.” —The Atlantic


“Febos combines personal, cultural, investigative, and scholarly passages to ferociously dissect the lessons that shaped her, and the result is a book that fills the educational void she’d noticed . . . A guide for women to redefine themselves.” —Boston Globe


“These essays are moss and iron—hard and beautiful—and struck through with Febos’ signature brilliance and power and grace. An essential, heartbreaking project.”

—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties and In the Dreamhouse



“Girlhood is an exquisite collection. In lapidary, lucid prose, Melissa Febos dissects the traumas, terrors, and pleasures of the fraught passage from girl to woman. . . This is a book for mothers, daughters, and our deepest selves, a true light in the dark.”
—Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter and Stray



“Girlhood is a must-read hybrid text for women looking to define themselves from the inside.”
—Melissa Broder, author of So Sad Today and The Pisces


Melissa Febos critically-acclaimed, Girlhood, examined the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them. Blending investigative reporting, memoir, and scholarship, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power, and pleasure women have long been taught to deny.


When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she’d been told about herself and the habits and defenses she’d developed over years of trying to meet the expectations of others. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs.

Written with Febos’ characteristic precision, lyricism, and insight, Girlhood is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, and a searing study of the transitions into and away from girlhood, toward a chosen self.

Monday 6/27 at 9:30am pst - Judy Wu, professor of Asian American studies, director of the Humanities Center, and historian talks about her book Fierce and Fearless Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress

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Marking the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, Judy Wu, professor of Asian American studies, director of the Humanities Center, and historian who recently co-authored a comprehensive biography of Title IX pioneer, Patsy Mink, titled Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress.

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, professor of Asian American studies and director of UCI's Humanities Center, is a co-author on the first-ever biography on the powerhouse lawmaker and major author of Title IX, Patsy Takemoto Mink. Wu collaborated with Mink’s daughter, political scientist Gwendolyn “Wendy” Mink on the book, Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress.

“Lots of people associate Title IX with equality in collegiate sports, but it’s also about admissions, scholarships, housing and employment. It established the basic legal principle of gender equity and completely revolutionized education in America,” says Wu.

Fierce and Fearless
Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress

by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink

Discussion points:

How did the idea for this book come about?

Tell me about the process of collaborating with Wendy Mink.

How did Patty Mink, who surprisingly is not a well-known name in feminist US history, make her mark in Washington DC?

This is the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Can you talk about the creation of Title IX and it's legacy today.

In 1972, what happened when Title IX was enacted, because I know it took several years to create the structure to enforce it

Cara Capuano UCI's Communications Officer and accomplished TV & Radio Sports Broadcaster recently produced a UCI podcast featuring Judy Wu and Wendy Mink:

LISTEN: https://news.uci.edu/2022/06/22/uci-podcast-patsy-minks-role-in-title-ix-passage/

READ: Title IX’s legacy at 50 | UCI School of Humanities

Projects mentioned by Judy:

https://sites.uci.edu/voice/

https://sharingstories1977.uh.edu/

About Professor Judy Wu

Professor, Asian American Studies
Director of Humanities Center
Chancellor's Fellow
Ph.D., Stanford University, 1998, History
University of California, Irvine

See the new short documentary by Ben Proudfoot.

When the Backlash Came for Title IX, She Fought Back

Research Interests
Asian American History; Comparative Racialization and Immigration; Empire and Decolonization; Gender and Sexuality

MORE - UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System - Judy Tzu-Chun Wu