Coming up Monday 5/9 at 9:00am - Yuran, a third-year PSCI major at University of California Irvine, and Vice-Chair of WISE PAC

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Hello! My name is Yuran, and I am a third-year PSCI major. I am the Vice-Chair of WISE PAC. I am interested in mental health because I want to become a high school counselor in the future, hoping to help students/youth in need

Coming up Monday May 9th at 9:30am pst - DICI - the multi-talented Italian born, Milan and Miami artist creating infectious tracks and dynamic, professionally directed and produced videos

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In less than two whirlwind years – from summer 2020 to spring 2022 - DICI has evolved from a quarantined 17-year-old freestyling rhymes and mastering the Pro Tools rig in his bedroom to emerging rap star with thousands of worldwide followers, a popular critically acclaimed indie EP on his own label (DICI Records) and an ever-growing discography of more than 17 singles. Since dropping his self-titled debut in January 2021, the multi-talented Italian born, Milan and Miami raised artist’s infectious tracks and dynamic, professionally directed and produced videos have garnered massive press hits, over 5M combined Spotify streams and YouTube views and over 100K Tik Tok followers.

“305-INTERLUDE” from that debut collection alone has scored over 378K streams on Spotify – where it blew up after being included on the taste making “Chill Rap Vibes 2021” playlist - and over 555K views on YouTube. The hard-hitting videos (13) for most of DICI’s tracks – including “305-INTERLUDE,” “u n i,” “Will You Stay,” “4Door”, “Flip” and his most recent single “Do What I Can” – have been directed by Associated Press and Emmy winning director and cinematographer Brian Bayerl of Greendoor East Productions and promoted by UE3 Promotions. The video DICI and Bayerl shot for “Shibuya” – a homage to the rapper’s half Japanese heritage on his Mom’s side – was shot at the state of the art Robot Studios, with DICI surrounded by fast moving images of Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo created on an LED wall called the Volume – a technology used in the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”

While working diligently on his developing creative aesthetic, ever maturing and insightful narrative flow and composing and production skills, DICI often posted short video snippets on YouTube to keep his eager fan base in the loop about what he was working on. He called these posts “DICI Doses,” which is also a play on the Spanish word for two.

While a year of COVID-19 and its resulting quarantine kept many established artists off the road and in ongoing career shuffle mode, the down time from school gave DICI – free from his extracurricular lacrosse and weightlifting schedule – a chance to focus on his true passion. Along the way, as he learned how to create beats and sonic textures and record his raps over those, he became an ultra-prolific writer. Testament to his prolific songwriting, once in a single week when he was caught up with his schoolwork, he went on a tear and wrote and produced four songs that became his 2021 signature singles “Flip,” “Art of War,” “Five Rings” and “I’ve Been Dreaming.” DICI’s other tracks this past year include “Something’s Right” and “Something’s Right (Dance Mix),” “E to S,” “u n i,” “Will You Stay,”” Do What I Can” and the upcoming “Left To Right.”

New Video “Left to Right” is set for release in mid-May (date TBA in conjunction with a media exclusive)


Articles and Reviews (over 100)

Coming up Monday 5/2/22 at 9:00am - Vanessa Hua, award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 BY Vulture, Electric Lit, Ms. Magazine, The Millions, Book Riot, Vanessa shares her forthcoming book, Forbidden City

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Vanessa Hua, award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. For over two decades, she has been researching and writing about Asia and the diaspora. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Newsweek, among others. Her books, which integrate many of the themes she covers, are critically-acclaimed. A River of Stars was named to the Washington Post and NPR’s Best Books, and was called a "marvel" by O, The Oprah Magazine, and "delightful" by The Economist. Deceit and Other Possibilities, named a New York Times Editors' Choice, received an Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature and was a finalist for a California Book Award, and a New American Voices Award.

Vanessa Hua's forthcoming book, Forbidden City, has already been hailed “magnificent” by Publisher’s Weekly, and is getting rave reviews. I've pasted materials below Hua's new book, as well as some of the articles she's written, establishing her as a voice for the Asian American community.

A Ballantine Hardcover & eBook | On Sale April 19, 2022


“Hua’s provocative latest follows a bold and shrewd woman as she navigates China’s political scene amid the Cultural Revolution. . . . Hua masterly presents Mei’s attempts to leave the Lake Palaces with their ‘power, secrecy, and isolation’ behind as she processes her trauma. This finds a brilliant new perspective on familiar material via its story of a young woman’s brush with power. It’s magnificent.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)


“Vanessa Hua has written a grand, cinematic, and captivating novel. With robust and compassionate imagination, Hua brings to life a heroine who has been relegated to the dustbins of history.”

—Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings

“In this intriguing and suspenseful story, Hua tells of a girl who becomes a lover and worshipper of Chairman Mao, plotting revolution after revolution. How to negotiate the maze of the Forbidden City? How to escape?”—Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior

“Forbidden City is a wonderful novel, immersive and fascinating. Vanessa Hua writes with an audacious mix of intimacy and narrative sweep about one of the most enigmatic figures and most misunderstood moments in history.”—Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins

“Vanessa Hua’s captivating second novel is an act of resistance and reclamation. Forbidden City explores questions of power, ambition, and visibility through a lens that is both clear-eyed and compassionate.”

—Chloe Benjamin, author of The Immortalists

“Arresting, beautiful, and epic, Forbidden City left me breathless by the last page. Hua’s writing is propulsive and packed with rich historical details and exquisitely crafted characters. Mei’s story will stay with you long after reading.”—Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept

“Gripping and vital, Forbidden City charts the sensual, intellectual, and moral awakening of a young woman who forges her own identity from beneath the shadow of Mao Zedong.”

—C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold


ABOUT THE BOOK
On the eve of China’s Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman’s opulent residence—a forbidden city unto itself—that she learns that the girls’ job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart, Mei beelines toward the Chairman.

Mei gradually separates herself from the other recruits to become the Chairman’s confidante—and paramour. While he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place and the Chairman’s imperious wife, who has secret plans of her own.

When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear.

FORBIDDEN CITY (Ballantine; On sale 4/19) is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world’s most powerful and least understood leaders during this extraordinarily turbulent period in modern Chinese history. Mei’s harrowing journey toward truth and disillusionment raises questions about power, manipulation, and belief, as seen through the eyes of a passionate teenage girl.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vanessa Hua is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of the novel A River of Stars and a story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, among others. She has filed stories from China, Burma, South Korea, and elsewhere, and her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She has taught most recently at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

Coming up Monday 5/2/22 at 9:30am pst -- Lauren McBrayer, Head of Business Affairs for an entertainment company in Los Angeles, talks about her new release - LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE

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This electric and seductive debut novel is about a woman at a turning point in her life, and what happens when she discovers the spark that makes her feel whole again. After twelve years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s résumé and give her a shot. Their relationship quickly becomes a cornerstone in Merit’s life. And as Merit starts to open her mind to the idea of more—more of a partner, more of a match, more out of love—she begins to question: What if the love of her life isn’t the man she married. What if it’s Jane?

Lauren McBrayer, LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE

Coming up May 2nd at 9:45am -- Emmy-nominated screenwriter Sascha Rothchild, who has written and produced lauded shows such as GLOW, The Bold Type, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries, talks about her fictional debut, BLOOD SUGAR

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Emmy-nominated screenwriter Sascha Rothchild has written and produced for lauded television series like GLOW, The Bold Type, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. Now she brings this signature sparkling wit and irreverent charm to her fiction debut, BLOOD SUGAR, a dark and utterly delicious noir thriller about Ruby Simon, an absurdly charming murderess accused of killing her husband—which is, ironically, the only murder she did not commit. Readers will be enraptured by this smart stunner of a novel and its loveable antiheroine, cementing Rothchild’s status as one of the most dynamic, inventive storytellers writing today.

Rothchild is currently show-running Netflix’s series spin-off of the To All the Boys film franchise, XO, Kitty, and she is set to make her first foray into film with her screenplay, Who Invited Her, already optioned by DreamWorks with Reese Witherspoon attached to executive produce. 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Ruby Simon has some skeletons in her closet—three, to be exact. But though she may be a murderer, Ruby is not a sociopath, She is an animal-loving therapist with a thriving practice. She has felt both empathy and sympathy. And she has long-lasting friendships, as well as a husband, Jason, whom she adores. But when Jason dies suddenly, the homicide detectives at Miami Beach Police Department begin to question why so many people have died within arm’s reach of Ruby. . . and to doubt her happy marriage.

Ruby suddenly finds herself accused of her husband’s murder—a murder she did not commit, despite the suspicions of her vicious mother-in-law and a scandal-obsessed public. As she undergoes questioning, Ruby’s mind races back to all the details of her life that led her to this exact moment, and to the three dead bodies in her wake. Because although she may not have killed her husband, Ruby certainly isn’t innocent.

Alternating between Ruby’s memories of her past crimes and her present-day fight to clear her name, BLOOD SUGAR is a twisty, clever debut with an unforgettable protagonist who you can’t help but root for—an addicting mixture of sour and sweet



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sascha Rothchild is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, who has written and produced lauded shows such as GLOW, The Bold Type, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Carrie Diaries. In 2015, she was named one of Variety's “10 TV Writers to Watch.” Rothchild has written for LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, and the Miami Herald, and adapted her article, "How to Get Divorced by 30" into both a memoir and a screenplay for Universal Studios. She graduated from the honors program of Boston College summa cum laude, with a major in theater and screenwriting. Blood Sugar is her debut novel.

Monday 4/25 at 9:00am - 94.3 WCYY host and front man of the Portland Maine band, Xander Nelson joins host Janeane Bernstein

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Fearlessly fusing the joyous intensity of pop-punk with the soulful swagger of blues, this Portland, Maine based quartet has been turning heads since their debut in the New England music circuit in 2017. Lead by frontman and namesake Xander Nelson, the group features Manny Urgiles on guitar, Chuck Martin on drums, and Conor McGrory on bass.

Flashing the chops they honed at Berklee College of Music, they’ve shared the stage with Grammy nominees and local legends alike, and have become known for their high-energy live sets. Unlike most rock bands out there, they give you both something to pump your fist and shake your hips to.

They’ve released two critically acclaimed EPs – 2017’s “A Dull Roar” and 2018’s “See You On The Other Side.” What’s more, their single “You Got A Problem” has received extensive airplay on 94.3 WCYY and102.9 WBLM.

LISTEN to the NEWEST Singles!

LONELY
IN TIME

ABOUT XANDER

I was born and raised right in Portland, Maine. As the son of two local TV Journalists, I was always interested in broadcasting – however, I wasn’t interested in music until I picked up the guitar at the age of 11. (Yes, of course, to get girls to like me! Why else?) My love of music led me to attend Berklee College of Music, where I began hosting a weekly radio show on the Berklee Internet Radio Network. There, I honed my DJ skills, taste in music, and propensity for dad Jokes. Since graduating from Berklee, I have come home to join forces with the station I grew up listening to: 94.3 WCYY. In my free time, I enjoy writing and performing music, roasting bad movies, and skiing. I also teach guitar at the Maine Academy of Modern Music, where I can share my love of rock and blues with the newest generation of musicians.

Read More: Xander | 94.3 WCYY | https://wcyy.com/author/xandernelson/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

PRESS

https://www.facebook.com/105040535248418/posts/160248376394300/?d=n

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/08/26/press-play-listen-to-in-time-by-xander-nelson/

Here’s a Valentine’s Day article that touched on the significance of “In Time” -
https://www.centralmaine.com/2022/02/07/face-the-music-for-valentines-day-a-soundtrack-of-love-songs-by-local-artists/

Xander Nelson (xandernelsonmusic.com)

LIVE on Monday 4/18/22 - Sara Gottfried author of Full: A Memoir of Overcoming an Eating Disorder

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For almost a decade, Sara was held hostage to wanting the perfect physical image. It was not until late adolescence that her disorder came to fruition, physically that is. Full: A Memoir of Overcoming an Eating Disorder is her powerful and utterly raw story of her battle with anorexia. Filled with humor, wisdom, and inspiration, readers will feel empowered to overcome their own battle with disordered eating.

Sara’s battle with anorexia began when she was sixteen years old. What started off as a “simple” diet on the quest to be healthy quickly spiraled into a path of rigidity, confinement, and malnourishment. She lost the most innate desire the human body has—to eat. Everything that Sara once found joy and pleasure in only fueled her anxiety. Sara began to lose herself mentally, emotionally, and physically.

She battled through endless appointments, unrelenting questions from doctors and professionals, and feelings of defeat and overwhelm. She was full. Full of her eating disorder.

Sara graduated from Bridgewater State University with a Bachelor of Science and went on to complete the Advanced Standing Social Work program at Boston University, obtaining her Masters of Social Work.

Currently, she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in Massachusetts and works as a School Social Worker and outpatient therapist.

Full: A Memoir of Overcoming an Eating Disorder is Sara's powerful and utterly raw story of her battle with anorexia and learning to share her story. Filled with humor, wisdom, and inspiration, readers will feel empowered to overcome their own battle with disordered eating.

To learn more, visit Sara's: www.saraelleng.com

Website: www.saraelleng.com

Instagram: @sara_elleng