ALL I WANT FOR JANUARY IS 1+ AMAZON REVIEW! Have you had a chance to finish Killing Justice yet? I finally hit 39 reviews, so now I just need 1+ this month, so I can reach 40 (as I'll then be within 10 of 50, at which point Amazon will finally consider me a real writer, lol) (& multi-award winning Canadian filmmaker Bernard Gray recently bought a copy of the book & we have teamed up with 2 Italian producer friends of mine to adapt it for the screen) Also, when a woman named D

hanging out with Isabel Jasper, the amazing costume designer I met after the NewFilmmakers Los Angeles film festival this past weekend, after she spontaneously asked for & bought a copy of my book during a conversation at a street corner on my way to the Metro

hanging out with Yulee Choi, star and composer for the wildly entertaining Food Truck: Stolen Love...and Moo Deng, after tonight's screening at the Culver Theater...as what especially resonated for me was how Yulee's character's son, named Sarang, is searching for his long-lost father, just like (in reverse), my birthmother searched for me, her long-lost son, for 26 years!...

hanging out with Curran Walters, who stars in the powerful, deeply moving short film Butterfly on a Wheel, which is shortlisted for the Oscars, after an FYC screening at the Culver Theater this past Saturday, & which highlights how what makes us different is our strength, in the case of Curran's character, it's having OCD, & in my case, it's having PTSD...

hanging out with Tabatha Zimiga, the badass nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for her Breakthrough Performance in East of Wall, a truly transcendent, emotional exploration of grief that ultimately tells an uplifting story of resilience, which is also nominated for a Spirit Award for Best First Feature...and featuring a storyline centering a family of foster kids (like Killing Justice/Orphan Rising) and foster horses!... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZCeX4FhTzo

Hanging out with Yagki, an amazing singersongwriter (& fellow foster kid), after her kickass set as part of the WFNM event this past Wednesday at Hotel Ziggy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vry3NzCPMec

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the truly transcendent masterpiece Sorry, Baby, written, directed by & starring Eva Victor, a tragicomic tale of healing from major trauma, as is my debut memoir Killing Justice... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc0jgWoZo9w

E N D I N G S FROM                                                       TO Reduced to Rags                                        Mended by the Merciful Entitled, yet Eviscerated                          Ennobled by Evisceration No longer Needed                                     Navigating Neediness Damaged Defender                                    Delighted Dancer Intimidated & Infantilized                                    Interdependently Immortalized Nailed by the..

poster for Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration, which I finally got around to watching on Mubi just now, & found it to be a devastating look at the ripple effect of unspoken and therefore unhealed family trauma, which is also a central theme of my debut memoir Killing Justice

the artist known as Stella Greco spontaneously buying a copy of my debut memoir Killing Justice as a Christmas gift for her book-loving mom

next Tuesday's topic for Aim4TheHeArt 's Heart sessions urban poetry workshop is Endings . Hope u can join us !

my magic poemfor last night's Aim4theHeArt Heartsessions urbanpoetry workshop . Hope u can join us next Tuesday, when the topic will be endings

hanging out with Meghan Rose Scott, an amazing composer & musician & singer who performed one of her compositions at The Night Temple last night, after she bought a copy of my debut memoir Killing Justice

hanging out with Yohahn Ko, writer/co-director of the powerful, deeply moving short film Ear Boy, after last weekend's screening as part of the NewFilmmakers Los Angeles monthly film festival, which beautifully captures both immigrant trauma & a mother/son relationship, both of which themes are also central to Killing Justice

(parallels with Killing Justice: while in Killing Justice I refer to the extreme right as 'hypocritical legalists', Paul Kingsnorth calls them "archaists" (trying to take us back to a falsely idealized past), and while I refer to the extreme left as 'amoral rebels', he calls them 'futurists' (trying to lure us into a falsely idealized future), those of us who are repelled by this false duality are the 'principled rebels', who are the true heroes of Killing Justice, & the worl

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this truly transcendent film...(by Joachim Trier, whose latest film is the critically acclaimed Sentimental Value)...& especially love its portrayal of the trauma of religious repression, which is also a central theme of my debut memoir Killing Justice... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQMHG9SGlU

The cash-bail system forces people charged with a crime to await their trial in jail if they cannot pay—sometimes for months or even years. Robe Imbriano’s documentary short “Criminal” uses music and lyrics by the Tony Award-winning artists Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald; animation by Thomas Curtis, who was incarcerated for 11 years; testimony from legal advocates; and excerpts of letters written by inmates to illustrate the grave injustices taking place at Houston’s Harris

hanging out with Weronika Mliczewska, director of Child of Dust, the powerful, deeply moving film I got to see at Museum of Tolerance last week...the film captures both fosterchild/orphan and immigrant trauma in all of their raw complexity, and in doing so dives deep into universal themes of love and belonging, as does Killing Justice... https://vimeo.com/1084211801

great Q&A featuring Lucy Liu & Lawrence Shou following a screening of the powerful, deeply moving Rosemead, which opens this weekend-Go see it!...As a foster kid/adoptee & former immigration lawyer, this film resonated for me as a powerful reminder of the parallels between foster kid/adoptee trauma & immigrant trauma, which I've spent the past decade exploring in my debut memoir Killing Justice, which we are currently adapting for the screen...so kudos to Lucy Liu for creatin

my safety poem for last night's aim4theheartorg heart sessions urbanpoetry workshop