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I am a mixed, late blooming, boomer Breast Cancer “Super” Survivor chick living with a neuropathy and Lymphedema who loves to write books I would love to read and scripts that I would watch. They are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, memories, families, secrets, wonder, and craziness—most of all that make me laugh. Falling into the depths of racism, life’s tribulation and grief, I chose to write stories and scripts that would include community, simplicity and nature. Books, for me, are music for my soul.
I am the native daughter of Jazz, My first language was Jazz. Jazz functioned as a communal bond, ritual and form of social interaction. It has become more than just sounds. It has become a way of living in this world. Jazz has never been about music, it is the touchstone of modern cultural imagination, archiving mythical images and an aesthetic paradigm for new modes of writing, seeing, hearing and moving. I like to use the improvisational elements of jazz that I have experienced to develop different creative literary tapestry that uses all sensory input.
Breast Cancer first dropped into my life in 1997 when my mother’s returned after 13 years in remission. Three years later in 2000 I was diagnosed. My first major illness was Guillain Barré Syndrome (“GBS”) an autoimmune neuropathy similar to MS. Just 4 months after my release I had emergency surgery for what I now know was uterine cancer, but in 1991, little research had been done with respect to female cancers. Now living with Lymphedema and the deteriorating neuropathy the hardest challenge of my life as a non white female, cut down in career prime, living on a limited income dealing with the psychosocial effects of Breast Cancer and finding a way to Renew, Reboot and to do an Encore living a Happy, Healthy --Hashtag Improvisational Living Rocks!.
Livingonjazzlitcanvas is my new blog where my memories are cast on a literary substrate that creates a portal to finding meaning in my life using mindfulness jazz improvisational techniques that I learned from my father. My instruments are words, mixed media arts. I have to play the utterances that manifest when listening to the sounds that are translated into words. ife after cancer treatment through mindfulness, improvisation, as a portal to living your best life. It is my dream to create a special and unique place especially designed for breast cancer survivors from underserved areas , that would consist of a sponsored weekend for them and a guest on the Northern California Coast featuring workshops, Jazz improvisation, focus groups, delicious cuisine and classes, mindfulness, meditation walks and exercises, yoga, Dharma & Healing Arts projects where exploring and discovering ways to use all of your senses to Rest, Rejuvenate, Restore so that you can live the life of your dreams.
My first nonfiction companion, The Freedom Songs I Felt @ Monterey Jazz Festival 65| My Breast Cancer Journey on a Jazz Lit Canvas : A Literary Companion is set in Los Angeles and Monterey, California during the 1960’s Jazz scene. This is a coming-of-age improvised companion that is an acoustic literary riff shot meditation using poetry, prose, essays and art for each song featured on the CD. [Dizzy Gillespie and James Moody with Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra (2007 Digital Remaster)] It captures the struggles, loss and betrayal of a mixed race girl growing up with a renowned jazz conductor/arranger-father who took her to the rehearsals of the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra 1965. It was on the first night of the onstage Live performance when she fell in love with the sound of jazz and words discovering her gift and love for writing and mixed media art as her dharma art form that saved, transformed and continues to heal her living with breast cancer at 62 years of age.
- Location:
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United States
- Primary occupation:
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Author/Blogger/Mixed Media Artist
- Dream occupation:
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Author/Blogger/Mixed Media Artist
- Hometown:
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Los Angeles
- Schools attended:
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Rutgers University, Fairleigh Dickinson University
- I like:
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Reading, Writing, Surving, all things Dharma Arts and comtemplative study
- Favorite writers:
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Annie Lamott, Anne Dillaird, Michael Ondaatje, Sasha Feinstein, Ralph J. Gleason
- Favorite newspapers:
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Chronical, NY/LA Times
- Favorite music:
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Jazz + All genres
- Favorite TV shows:
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Mss Fisher; Midsomer Murders, Downton Abbey; NCIS
- Favorite quote:
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“I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.” ~ Igor Stra
- Gender:
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Female