Marlan Warren is a journalist, novelist, editor, playwright, screenwriter, blogger, website designer, and publicist. She is the author of the fictionalized memoir, Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War and the AIDS memoir, Rowing on a Corner. She reviews for Midwest Book Review. Marlan is also a filmmaker.
WC2 Presents Genre-LA Creative Writing Conference (Culver City) (3/29-31) Now in its 22nd year, WC2 West Coast Writers Conferences presents the Genre-LA Creative Writing Conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Friday, March 29 through Sunday, March 31. The conference features best-selling authors, editors, publishers, literary agents, publicists, and film industry experts.
Title: Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst Subtitle: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul Author: Artemis Craig
Genre: Inspirational and Religious Poetry
(Sale Sheet Info Below)
Reviewer: Marlan Warren
I have respect for anyone’s spiritual journey. And I have
a lot of respect for the poet Artemis Craig, whom I met at USC, while we were
both in film school studying screenwriting. We only met once, in the changing
room of the gym, but her feisty humor made a lasting impression.
“Before they’re done, this school’s gonna own the drawers
on my butt!” she said. I don’t know about her, but that school does own the
drawers on my butt. The one thing I
do know that we share is post-film-school depression. A not uncommon affliction
in L.A.
Now, a couple decades later, Craig has risen out of the
ashes of Hollywood as an evangelical poet who has walked through fire, and
lived to tell her story in the form of Inspirational
Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul.
With straightforward honesty and a gift for storytelling,
Craig has arranged the poems in this anthology as an odyssey washed in the
blood of heartaches, losses, and disappointments after returning home as the
Prodigal Daughter. All the elements that make “inspirational verse” inspirational are there
(finding and praising the Grace of God), woven into searing moments from Craig’s
life, told with her flair for dramatic prose and metaphor.
March 2006: Unpublished Feature for Newspaper in Marshall, Missouri by Marlan Warren
United Daugthers of the Confederacy visit first black
settlement site in Missouri:
"Our mother told us if there was ever a fire, grab a box of records and run..."
There isn’t much left
of Pennytown anymore. But when Virginia Huston looks at its vacant landscape, she
sees more than just meadows, a church and a house. She sees memories that must
be preserved.
Huston was the last
person born in Pennytown, a black settlement located eight miles southeast of Marshall that was started
by Joe Penny in 19871 when he managed to purchase eight acres for $160.
“What is unique
about Pennytown is that it was started by a freed-slave,” Huston said.
If you've never experienced Violetta Antnoia Sorcini's passionate artwork, you will have this exciting opportunity starting Saturday, April 21 at La Galeria Gitana in the San Fernando Valley. The show, which features local artists, closes Friday, June 1.
Sorcini is a veteran artist whose paintings, photography and collages often show at local galleries, including ChimMaya.
Born and raised in East L.A., the half-Latino artist is now preparing for what she anticipates will be a life-changing Art Odyssey to Central Italy to meet and live with the Italian side of her family for a month.
"The whole reason I'm going to Italy is to create an art book about my experiences with my relatives and the communities that I'll be visiting,"
Violetta explained during our interview in her charming studio. Although she and her Italian relatives have often been in touch, they have never met in person.
Mixed Media Collage by Violetta Antonia Sorcini
The central theme of Sorcini's non-abstract paintings, photographs and collages is "story."
Señor El Sereno by Violetta Antonia Sorcini
"My artwork is composed of allegories that make statements about how I see the world," said Sorcini. "I invite contemplation while staying positive."
Yes, it was in July 2017, and no, I don't know why I didn't post any video clips or the gorgeous photos I received in January 2018 from actor/playwright/producer Ariel Kayoko Labasan's father before now. But they should not be invisible to the public.
For more video clips and photos of the play and the documentary that grew out of it, please visit: BITS OF PARADISE WEBSITE
SUMMARY:
Excerpt from staged reading of the One-Act Play "Bits of Paradise: Kochiyama's Crusaders" by Marlan Warren with Ariel Kayoko Labasan at
Rogue Machine Theatre (July 2017) featuring Labasan as human rights
activist, Yuri Kochiyama, and Warren as a filmmaker who wants to
document the little-recognized war effort of girls and women behind the
barbed wire of the "Japanese American Internment" who called themselves
"The Crusaders" as they embarked on a letter-writing campaign to boost
the morale of the Japanese American soldiers who were fighting to prove
patriotism while their families were held in U.S. concentration camps.
Warren adapted verbatim the letters and circulars sent out to "any
soldier missing a letter" (the en masse correspondence was all written
by Yuri) from The Crusaders scrapbooks in the Japanese American National
Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and the Japanese American Museum
of San Jose.
NOTE: This show was also performed as a benefit for Founders
Metropolitan Community Church at the invitation of Rev. Kevin Downer and
FMCC Board. (July 2017).
[This play was originally produced in 2008 at The Marsh in a Reader's
Theater version, "Bits of Paradise" by Marlan Warren.]
Director: Marlan Warren
Producers: Marlan Warren and Ariel Kayoko Labasan
Special Thanks to Rogue Machine Theatre (Hollywood, CA)
and to Founders Metropolitan Community Church (Los Angeles).
Cast:
Ariel Kayoko Labasan............Yuri Kochiyama and Mary Nakahara
Douglas N. Hachiya..............Bill Kochiyama & Various Soldiers of
442nd Infantry
Jacky Jung..............Various Crusaders
Zoe Jean Kim..........Various Crusaders
Scott Shima............Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Mack Wei...............Various Soldiers of 442nd Infantry
Marlan Warren.......Filmmaker
Theater Sound: Amanda Bierbauer (Tech) and Roger Owens (Sound Design)
Website: http://bit.ly/2tSXRto
Facebook: @YuriKochiyamaPlay and @CrusadersFilm
"Better go and doublecross yourself / Turn tail and run / In sickness
and in health / Something wicked this way comes..."
Monty Warren &
The Friggin' Whatevers tune "Doublecrosses" was aired by Steve Kelly on
his Kelly's Heroes show on Fylde Coast Radio (U.K.) on March 14, 2018.
It was an honor to be included in the 2 hour / 48 song lineup!
"Doublecrosses" was penned by Monty Warren and John Beemiller, for album
#3: "Far Out Close Up." Monty Warren leads a motley group of
"Whatevers" who hail from the South Florida / Raleigh, NC area -- all
veteran musicians who just plain love rock 'n' roll.
If you like us, won't you please get in touch or follow us? Here's some
more info:
Website: http://www.montywarren.com
EPK: http://montywarrenmediakit.blogspot.com
Facebook: @montywarrenandthefrigginwhatevers
CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/montywarrent..
Because I didn't get out to the Women's March 2018, I'm posting the music video I made of the "first" Women's March that happened after Trump's "election." Music is by Monty Warren & The Friggin' Whatevers. Anger and Humor and Desire for Positive Change is by the wonderful people--women, men and children--who gave their all for Democracy.
Remember: "Power never concedes without a Demand. It never has and it never will."
My mother Trudy Warren 8 months pregnant right after Hurricane Donna, Ft. Myers, FL
Perhaps I am remiss in not posting current national events and my relation to them as they happen. A couple weeks ago, I posted this poem by the extraordinary California poet, Carolyn Howard-Johnson about her inner "Wonder Woman." Now with Hurricane Irma bearing down on my hometown of Ft. Myers, I can't help but recall this picture my father took of my mother hauling away the multitude of fallen branches from the banyan tree we shared with our neighbors' yard. Eight months pregnant with my brother Monty. Mom played the piano the whole time the hurricane raged around our 2-story clapboard house. The tin roof blew off our neighbors' home behind ours. And they came into our house for protection during the calm of the Eye.
A toast to all Wonder Women everywhere. May your praises always be sung for your beautiful warrior spirits and loving ways.
You Think You Know Me Well
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
I am WonderWoman. You may have known
me so long you remember
my original star-studded skirt
a la 1942 or still sigh over that skirt metamorphosed
to a bias-cut bikini singing
a patriot’s song to the female derrière
That would have been the same time
it became hard to tell if I was born
to empower little girls or to mesmerize
boys--the big ones and the small.
If that’s what you think
when you hear my name,
you’ve clearly not internalized
the idea of cruel waxing demanded by today’s
experts on grooming. (You should know
I didn’t do that. Somehow I was never convinced.
Tights were another matter. I wore
them proudly--my woman-of-steel
brand-- lasso-wielding woman,
woman who bounced bullets
from magic cuffs, woman who didn’t need
The work of the
Crusaders, although obscure and unknown, was a means by which young people
in confinement were able to prove that no physical boundaries could stop them
from transcending beyond the 'barbed wires.' - Yuri Kochiyama (aka
"Mary Nakahara")#YuriKochiyama
At the invitation of Rogue Machine Theatre in Hollywood, "Bits of
Paradise: Kochiyama's Crusaders" will be presented as a staged reading on
July 19 (3pm and 8pm) and July 20 (8pm). The play, by Marlan Warren in
collaboration with Ariel Kayoko Labasan focuses on a women's movement founded
by renowned human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama when she was known as 20-year
old "Mary Nakahara" and incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps
during World War II with her fellow Japanese Americans. Calling themselves
"The Crusaders," the girls and women mobilized a morale-boosting
letter-writing campaign that ensured that "any soldier missing a letter"
would receive mail.
"The performances will be more 'staged' than 'reading,'" explained
Warren, who co-produces with Labasan, and directs the play. "Some actors
may not be holding scripts, and there will be action sequences, props and
costumes."
Warren originally directed and produced "Bits of Paradise" as a
Reader's Theater piece at The Marsh Theatre in San Francisco in 2008.
"Bits of Paradise places its footprint on the timeline of a much-needed
theatrical examination of the Asian American journey."--Asian Week
Recently, the play was reworked and re-titled "Bits of Paradise:
Kochiyama's Crusaders," after Warren joined forces with actor/playwright
Ariel Kayoko Labasan, whose solo show, "Yuri Speaks Out!" played to
packed houses at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Labasan will reprise her role
as Yuri Kochiyama, portraying the activist from ages 20 to 84.
Los Angeles playwright Marlan
Warren's play, "Chasing Sangha," has been selected for Athena Cats'
New Works Festival of 10-Minute Plays, and will be performed as a staged
reading Sat., April 8, at the City Garage in Santa Monica's Bergamot Station
Arts Center. The event ties in with SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day.
"I'm thrilled Athena Cats invited me to be part of this afternoon of
10-minute plays," said Warren. "Athena Cats--with its focus on women
playwrights and directors--is like a dream come true for me."
Athena Cats is the brainchild of playwrights/screenwriters Debbie Bolsky and
Laurel Wetzork. This collective of Southern California area female playwrights
and directors formed to bring unrepresented works written by women to the
stage.
According to the Athena Cats website, the statistics for female playwrights are
grim. Twenty-three percent of plays produced during the 2011-2014 season were
written by women, according to a Female Playwrights Institute study.
"Our goal is to redress this imbalance," said Athena Cats co-founder
Laurel Wetzork.
When Warren's one-act "Bits of Paradise" showcased at The Marsh in
San Francisco, it received praise from "Asian Week":
"Based on letters written between Japanese American girls and women in the
U.S. internment camps and Japanese American soldiers during World War II, Bits
of Paradise places its footprint on the timeline of a much needed theatrical
examination of the Asian American journey."
"Chasing Sangha" focuses on a Night in Hell in the California winter
desert where two brand new women friends try to achieve mystical enlightenment
according to a Shaman Certification course one of them is taking, but Murphy's
Law comes along with them. "Sangha" refers to the Buddhist concept of
finding strength and protection by bonding with like-minded people.
The year is 1980. In the photo that remains, Ron DeSaram can be seen bent
over his guitar, massive hair flying in unruly waves against the night sky,
anger written across his face in defiant happiness. He looks like he’s wearing
all-white, but no way to be sure in this black & white action shot.
“That’s the night they shut the power down on us,” explains Ron, 37 years
later, “July Fourth celebration in Lake Worth, Florida. Noise ordinance. Every
time they’d tell us to turn the volume down, we’d turn it up.”
Ron DeSaram with his Les Paul Guitar [Photo by Greg Fontenot]
His wife, Nancy DeSaram, adds: “They turned off the power, started up the
fireworks and then the palm tree next to the stage caught fire.”
At last, I've figured out how to put my Flickr photos from the L.A. Women's March 2017 in a slider on this blog. My apologies that I have not figured out how to not have my other photos on here, which will be included in my documentary, "What did you do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama's Crusaders."
The film is about human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama and the Women's Movement she started while behind the barbed wire of a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. The photos you'll see here that reflect that film are from a performance of the Purple Moon Project at the Japanese American National Museum and there's one of the wonderful woman we interviewed who was 11 years old when she participated in Yuri's movement.
The beginning photos are the March. I'm sure you'll figure it out.
"Power never concedes without a Demand. It never has and it never will."
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*Celebrating 8 years of Service! *
*Book Publicity By Marlan is a subsidiary of Roadmap Communications.*
*MARLAN IS AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE OR GROUP COACHIN...
An appalling nightmare...
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Browsing through my notes I found a quote from Terence McKenna. It chimes
with my recent interest in a story about people obsessed with aesthetics.
Sausage on my nose.
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The worst pain is emotional. Sure I feel sorry for myself sometimes when I
think of things I used to do and can't now, but there's ten thousand times
the s...
ONE SHEET
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*Title: ROADMAPS FOR THE SEXUALLY CHALLENGED*
* [All's Not Fair in Love or War]*
*Author: Marlan Warren*
*Publisher: Roadmap Girl Publications*
...
INTRODUCTION: A Memoir-in-Progress
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Thank you for stopping by! If you'd like to read this unfinished memoir,
here's how: Click on the Chapters that are listed in the right margin.
Otherwise,...
Still Life with Bottles and Apples
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*January 2013 - Awarded First Place: Gallery 21 Small Image Show, San Diego*
*May 2012 - Awarded "Best in Miniatures": San Diego Watercolor Society*
L.A. CAT - BIKER CHICK
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"He's like this biker who rides in every now and then to date her, and
she's like this cloistered Uptown Girl," my neighbor Bill joked one day
when we wer...
Not on the Map
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After a restorative spa retreat in Ixtapan de la Sal, Karen Gershowitz
ventures beyond the walls to discover Toluca’s breathtaking Cosmovitral
Jardín Botán...
