Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Kwanzaa: Umoja

 First day of Kwanzaa, a holiday created by Maulanga Karenga in 1966 after the Watts riots. I have mixed feelings about Kwanzaa but the roots and principles are important. So with that in mind..

Day 1: Umoja (unity). 2022 is the 10 year anniversary of "Get What You Want," a monthly email list/blog of playwriting contests, fellowships, and production opportunities that goes out to hundreds of writers. In 2022, I also organized 2 diff monthly Dramatists Guild writers' groups for beginners and advanced writers and seeking career planning.

For the WGA-East, I was the lead mentor for 6 young writers under the New Members Mentorship Program, mentor at Northwestern University for a Black MFA writer, spoke multiple times as a guest artists for NYU and once at Columbia, and did this while traveling to 10 different countries for half of the year. In fact, the WGA-East mentorship program ended when I was in Croatia. 

For my Buddhist community, I continued as a coordinator emailing classes, setting up zoom, distributing homework/reading, checking homework, and taking attendance for the last 12 yrs. 

In its second year, the Squire Foundation continued to give to different educational institutions that promote learning and compassion. 

And in 2022 I got to work on 2 kick-ass tv shows (THE GOOD FIGHT and EVIL) with a great group of writers as we forged connections, built stories, and creating art that I found socially and politically relevant. 

Umoja!

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