R.I.P. Michael Brooks

Very shocked, surprised and saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Michael Brooks – writer, leftist political commentator and humanist – at age 37. I didn’t watch all of the time, but when I did I was always impressed by his intelligence and knowledge. I particularly liked his interviews with professors like Cornelll West, Harvey Kaye and Adolph Reed, leaders like Lula and other like-minded folks.

I’m surprised how much I’m crying today. I listened to a lot of remembrances today. A common refrain was how many people said how giving he was, how encouraging, how helpful to other people. He didn’t see them as competition but rather as allies. In unity, there is strength. One of the things I learned that he never spoke about when I listened to his show: he grew up very poor, and fought very hard to not just rise up out of it, but that it was something he wanted no one to go through. So, his progressive values, which could sound so intellectual because he was so well-read, came from a deep emotional belief and genuine compassion. I always thought that was true, but to know the history, it just made it more real. He also had a great laugh. (I’ll admit that I didn’t find him as funny as other people did, but I found his sense of humor and joy very enlivening.)

Here’s one of the best things Michael Brooks said, and lived by: “Be ruthless to systems but be kind to people.”

Read more here: https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/michael-brooks-dead/

Meagan Day at Jacobin remembers: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-remembrance

Michael Brooks (1983-2020) got a chance to meet former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva early this year after advocating his release from prison.

Uncategorized

A Reading of THE FRISCO FLASH – Oct. 14, 2018, 2 pm

I’m doing a reading of my play THE FRISCO FLASH. It will be on Sunday, October 14 at 2 pm at the Second Stage at the Broadwater , 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. (between Lillian Way and Vine) in Hollywood. Free. Starring Gregory Battle, Josh Breslow, Jordan Farris, Marieve Herington, Jared Poe, Brian Pope, Adam J. Smith and Ingrid Walters

Description: Cecil Lewis “Young Jack” Thompson twice won the World Welter Weight Boxing title in 1930, becoming the second African-American to win a boxing title, and the first after Jack Johnson. His career closely intersected with two other more well-known white champions. Yet today, Young Jack Thompson is completely forgotten. Based on my own original research, I attempt to right this wrong and relate it to today’s issues of racial injustice.

The gravestone of Cecil (Young Jack) Thompson and his mother – photo by Julius Galacki

Los Angeles, Theatre, Uncategorized

West Adams Historical Association – work done on a living history monologue

Sunday September 23, 2018 was the annual West Adams Historical Association living history tour in the Angeles Rosedale Cemetery. (Anyone with any interest in Los Angeles / California history should try to make next year’s tour.) I’ve written monologues twice for them but I didn’t expect to do anything this year, however I ended up helping with casting and doing revisions (and thus getting a credit in the program) on the monologue for Henry Fook Chew played by Roy Vongtama (who did a fine portrayal by the way).

Roy Vongtama performing – photo by Julius Galacki
Unlike most of these monologues, the Chew one was inside the Chapel near his actual gravestone.

Henry Fook Chew’s gravestone – photo by Julius Galacki
The theme for this year’s tour was immigrants. While the Angeles Rosedale doesn’t look as pretty or sleek as other Cemeteries in the area, what I really like about it is that it has ALWAYS been an inclusive cemetery open to all races, religions, ethnicities, and nationalities. Thus the immigrants featured in this year’s tour were people of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Latino, Armenian, German and French backgrounds

Los Angeles, Theatre, Uncategorized

ALL THINGS CHICKEN available on Amazon starting April 6, 2018

The story: Some guys are just too stuck to cross the road: in the absurdly funny and ultimately touching short film, Dave and Ray pass the time by eating chicken and talking about profound things in profoundly foolish ways, that is, until a road trip to view a comet just might begin their bigger journey of growing up.

My 29 minute film “ALL THINGS CHICKEN” will be available on Amazon Direct this Friday, April 6, 2018. The film stars Matt Mercer (Dam Sharks, Plane Vs. Volcano, Contracted II, etc.) and Drew Nye (Big Head comedy shorts, etc.), with supporting performances by Amy Vorpahl (Geek and Sundry star, etc.), Sarah McElligott (The Onion Movie, etc.) and visual artist Valerie Suter.

The film won a number of awards on the festival circuit including Best Short Screenplay and Best Score and was nominated at the Tenerife (Spain) International Film Festival for Best Short Film, Best Actor in a Short, Best Supporting Actor in a Short, Best Producer of a Short and Best Short Screenplay

Uncategorized

In (belated) Memory of Christiane Riera

I feel very stupid about this because I had no idea that one of my classmates at Yale, Christiane Riera had died of cancer 4 years ago at the quite young age of 44, leaving behind a son and husband in Brazil. (At least I knew she had moved back to Brazil after Yale.).

chris riera I just came across an email about a Facebook post from a few months ago where a theatre in Brazil was named after her. It’s beautiful that someone so young was beloved and had accomplished enough in a relatively short life to be so honored.

So, I just want to honor, late and after the fact, but well deserved with pictures of “her” theatre. christiane-riera-teatro-municipal-in-itajuba-brazil

Obviously the bulk of her theatre, film and TV work was in Brazil, but a very good film she worked on was “The Constant Gardener” which many people should know. Here’s another person’s blog post where she goes through some of the details of Chris’ career and how she gave to her as a writer and person.

christiane-riera-teatro-municipal-in-itajuba-brazil-interior-2

But I also feel so sad because Chris was such a nice person. In the arts, there are always people with egos and insecurities that lead them to do nasty things. She was SO the opposite of that. Kind and generous. I can’t think of a moment in New Haven when she wasn’t so. She had a shared apartment down in NYC and let me stay there, which allowed me to stay so much more connected to the NY art and theatre world while I was in New Haven.

And of course, it’s impossible not to relate her death too young to some other friends who died too young like Vivi Friedman – a talented film director I knew – who also died of cancer in her early 40’s. And friends and relatives who died (and some who survived) of the same disease. And of course, my own mortality and what seems like so little accomplished. And how we fool ourselves that our time is forever but in truth we’re sitting on the ledge of a figurative Grand Canyon. The awesomeness of life is before us, but our balance is always precarious and ephemeral.

So, the one message of it all, however trite it sounds but isn’t trite at all, yes carpe diem but also seize the connections with others just as much. Do it all with love.christiane-riera-teatro-municipal-in-itajuba-brazil-interior-1

Film, International, Theatre, Uncategorized, Yale School of Drama