Panel
When Writers Attack: We Just Want to Change the World
Monday, July 29, 2013
There are many outspoken members of the writing community. These writers have taken an active and effective part in changing the world, or at least one or two parts of the world. It’s all about the reason for writing. We HAVE to write. We want to get our MESSAGE out there. And some messages shake things up a bit.
Daniel Elsberg to Edward Snowden; Martin Marietta to Treyvon Martin; there is never a loss of issues scientific, political, religious, sociological, with ample reasons for anger, stimulus, and perhaps tilting at a few windmills. No subject will be off limits tonight.
We’re presenting a stimulating discussion with a few writers who have trained, entered the ring, and have come out fighting. You may not agree with their point of view, but you have to admit, they have found a way to present their message and they have been unafraid.
The discussion will be about their process, their message, how they discovered and gained the forum, the fallout associated with their stand, and a bit less about the marketing aspect than some of our panels. We will touch on the power of the pen and its potential abuse, and how stimulating the world has been ever since the “End of History” seemingly occurred during the 1980s.
Our Panel:
DAN BERKOWITZ is Co-Chair of The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and former Regional Rep of The Dramatists Guild.
His work has been produced off-Broadway, at major regionals, etc., and includes the popular “A… My Name Is Still Alice,” and Ovation Best Musical nominee “There’s No Place Like Hollywood!”
In a previous life, Dan was Associate Producer of The David Susskind Show, winner of 20 Emmys. Dan also produces, directs, and is a script/ production consultant. If the stars remain in alignment, “ModRock: The New Musical,” for which Dan contributed “Additional Material,” will just have opened at the El Portal Theatre in NoHo.
You can learn more about him at DanBerkowitz.com.
MICHAEL MAROY is a documentary filmmaker and has been titled as an expert in American Sub cultures. He has been featured on 20/20 with Diane Sawyer and his work has been featured on the History Channel, BET, ABC, and MTV, among other networks.
Currently has 10 documentary films completed through his production company, Too Real For TV.com. His latest film is titled “America’$ Daughter$,” which explores the realities of prostitution in the United States and is currently in the works for a part two which will be filmed in Canada.
Michael Maroy is a graduate of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with a Bachelor’s in Radio and Television from the college of Mass Communications and Media Arts, where he was also a writer for the Daily Egyptian newspaper.
His films have been distributed all over the world and he truly believes that writers make a difference.
GLORIA ROMERO: Former 10-year California State Senator GLORIA ROMERO is a community activist and regular columnist for The Orange County Register.
She has worked tirelessly on behalf of education reform, and written extensively on health care access, “buying” votes and election fraud, prison system issues, the ballot initiative and amendment process here in California, “Hispanics in Hollywood,” and of course on educational and children’s rights issues.
She holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology from UC Riverside, and helped create the controversial “Parent Trigger” law (noted in the recent feature film Won’t Back Down) that allows parents to retake failing schools and re-charter them. She has taught at the university level and served as a trustee and vice president of the board of trustees of Los Angeles Community College District.
JOHN POWERS brings a stellar list of credits in both political op-ed and arts criticism to our table, including regular commentaries with NPR legend Terry Gross on her interview show.
He is a columnist for Vogue, covering the intersection of politics and culture, and authored the brilliant blackly comedic look at American pop culture under late Clinton and early Bush, “Sore Winners.”
A former professor at Georgetown University, his work has also appeared in numerous publications, including Harper’s BAZAAR, The Nation, Gourmet, The Washington Post, The New York Times and L.A. Weekly, where he spent twelve years as a critic and columnist.
He lives in Pasadena with his wife, the author Sandi Tan.
JON WIENER teaches US history at UC Irvine. His most recent book is “How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America.”
He sued the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act for its files on John Lennon. With the help of the ACLU of Southern California, Wiener v. FBI went all the way to the Supreme Court before the FBI settled in 1997. That story is told in Wiener’s book, “Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files.”
His work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times. Wiener hosts a weekly afternoon drive-time interview show on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles. (Info at jonwiener.com.) His guests have included Gail Collins, Jane Mayer, Joan Didion, Gore Vidal, Barbara Ehrenreich, Frank Rich, Seymour Hersh, Amos Oz, Mike Davis, Elmore Leonard, John Dean, Julian Bond, Al Franken, and Terry Gross.
He has a B.A. from Princeton and a Ph.D. from Harvard, where he began working as a writer in the late sixties for the underground paper The Old Mole.
Moderator:
TELLY DAVIDSON has written on film, TV, and culture for numerous publications, including Yahoo Movies, FilmStew, 213 Magazine, Guitar Player, the American Film Institute, Entertainment Today — even The Frum Forum (on the right) and Progressive Populist (on the left.) His book “TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows” was honored by the Television Academy, and he has worked on several TV specials for NBC and PBS including the upcoming “Pioneers of Television II.”
He is an active member of IWOSC and PEN and has served on several panels including “Biographies & Memoirs,” “Trends in Publishing,” “Covering the Celebrity Beat,””Don’t Get Scammed,” and “Books to Film.”
