My ancestors are either bursting with pride or rolling in their graves. My animated (storyboarded) play, The Dirndl Diaspora, is getting great reviews! This 90-minute animated/storyboarded feature-length film was written as a play + fashion show for Oaktoberfest, but 2020 decided we couldn’t have live theater, so I upshifted the whimsy. This story, about a seamstress […]
I’ve just written my third Ode to Oakland (after Joaquin Miller Went Walkin’ and BeMused). May I introduce: The Dirndl Diaspora! After instigating some polka at Oaktoberfest last year, my eyes were drawn to the brilliant riots of color at the multiple African fabric pop-ups. What do they have to do with Germany? I wondered. All […]
(There’s a special offer for my readers at the bottom of this post!) It seems ironic that, as International Women’s Day approaches this year, I find myself trying on corsets and watching women strip. But there is a great healing afoot in the world, and at the center of it, women are moving beyond the […]
I’m thinking about LOVE this week (one of my very favorite topics). And chocolate. And music! I created an event in 2017 about the sweetness of all these things. “La Dolce Vita” (I’m always on an Italian theme this time of year too, ruined by the magic of Carnevale) featured songs on the theme by […]
Why, I am SO glad you asked! An ancient Roman convivium was a special gathering to eat, drink, and hold conversation, with the host inviting interesting people to speak or perform. Kind of like a symposium but more convivial? I’m throwing one. Very soon. And it is going to be fabulous! The venue is the […]
I don’t know what was more heart stopping—the weird adventure that inspired me, the dangerous feeling of discovering new literary territory, or finding the nerve to read something “a-spicy” to an audience…. but altogether, bringing Carla White’s hot supernatural romance to life through Cosima was like stepping into an alternate universe. The “Afternoon at the Caffe Florian” Carnevale […]
Remember the Perfectly Revolting Tea Party? Remember the Souls of Her Feet Shoe Salon? Well, my next book launch will also go down in herstory! The Vesuvian Affair by international woman of mystery Cosima Zanardi (as told to me, Kristen Caven), takes place at Carnevale in Venice, and the unveiling will take place in a […]
The Lake I Love. When I saw the call for submissions for the first annual Aluminous Flash Mob Short Play Festival, I knew I had to write about the Pergola at Lake Merritt. How many circles have I made around that lake in all my years in Oakland? With friends, with family, alone? I walked it in […]
I am usually crazy confident about titling my works, but coming up with a title for my winning work in the 2016 Lake Merritt Flash Mob Play Festival was harder than writing the play itself! After two weeks of midnight musings, rushing rhymes and crazy creative processes, I came up with over 50 ideas,narrowed it down […]
I crossed this off my bucket list: choreographing a dance number with The DecoBelles historic dance troupe, famous for their waving beachballs, flying footwork and bright red lipstick smiles. The “water ballet.” was in honor of the unveiling of the new mural, “Birds of Lake Merritt,” by Cleo Villet of OMCA fame, which now grace the pool of the […]
In Beth Barany’s weekly live #askaWritingCoach chat on BLAB, she interviewed me about adaptation of creative works into different media. It was great to have a chance to sit down and think through how many media The Souls of Her Feet has morphed through in its long development. (As the first in a trilogy!) Why, if I’d been […]
Check out the trailer for “Invocation,” a piano & projected poetry performance (say that ten times fast) I created in collaboration with Franz Liszt and concert pianist Daniel Finnamore. It premiered on January 17th to an amazed audience at Oakland Technical High School, invoking a new century at a centennial celebration. (Read more about it […]
