California – Performers and Authors

Amelia Earhart’s stepson George Putnam Jr. and his wife Marie, commented upon seeing Roberta’s performance “You can see your heart is in it. Amelia Earhart is a part of you.” Elgin Long, consultant on the new Amelia Earhart film starring Hilary Swank added. “You are a wonderful actress. You really bring Amelia Earhart to life.” New Video: Amelia Earhart “live” on stage, written & performed by Roberta Bassin Watch an interview with Roberta Bassin about “Amelia Earhart: In Her Own Words” AND NOW THE BOOK! “Amelia Earhart, Me and Our Friends: Journaling the Journey. The Amelia Earhart Self Help Book.” http://www.amazon.com/dp/1523738561 After bringing America’s legendary heroine, aviator Earhart, “to life on stage,” Roberta’s many fans and supporters have encouraged her to author a book presenting what she has learned from her years of research and personal experiences in performing this role.    Roberta, a graduate of UCLA in History and English with a lifetime teaching credential, is available for Book Signings and Discussions about Amelia Earhart. Learn more about Roberta: http://www.imdb.me/robertabassin

The play begins in 1963 when Terry’s favorite high school teacher is threatened with being fired over rumors that she’s a lesbian. It ends forty-five years later when Terry runs into that very same teacher — by that time an honored elder at the gay synagogue in Los Angeles. In between those two events, Terry both witnesses and creates gay history.

In LESBO SOLO, Terry clearly shows the painful past of the gay community, how incredibly far it has come — and how much fun people have had along the way. The play is also a powerful reminder, in today’s political environment, of what we stand to lose by going backwards.

LESBO SOLO, A BRIEF & PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT, has a long subtitle but is an extremely minimal production only requiring a chair and table. A slide projector is desirable but not absolutely necessary.

My Disability Experiences: Laura Bock is a 71-year-old lesbian, but that’s not all. She is also Jewish, a red diaper baby, native San Franciscan, disabled (eyes and ears), and ran her own business, a bed, and breakfast, for 23 years in her historic family home on Willard Street. She was a founding member of and performer with Fat Lip Readers Theater for eighteen years and active in movements dear to her heart: fat politics, peace and justice, and disability rights. She is grateful to her grandparents and parents for their values and politics and commitment to activism she still holds dear.

She is a proud member of the second wave of the women’s liberation movement and holds her feminist analysis close to her heart. She joined her first consciousness-raising group in 1975, and in subsequent years facilitated groups, took classes in women’s studies at various venues, and with other women gave presentations around the Bay Area. She is very proud of the work she has done with the GLBT Historical Society on preserving and cataloging the massive collection from the SF Women’s Building and Women’s Centers.

She was co-chair of 2010, the year honoring bay area lesbians with disabilities. Her oral history has been taken by FABLEDASP (Fabulous Activist Bay Area Lesbians with Disabilities, A Storytelling Project) as well as by the Old Lesbian Herstory Project and by the University of Oregon, where she has an archive in its library’s special collections. Story Corps interviewed her and her friend Sally Goldin and broadcast a part of that interview on National Public Radio.

In 2009 she co-founded an Old Lesbian memoir writing group and continued to share facilitation of it for 4 ½ years. She dedicated the year 2014 to processing her collection at the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society. 2015 and 2016 she devoted to writing and publishing her memoir, Red Diaper Daughter, Three Generations of Rebels and Revolutionaries.

Susan B. Anthony – Failure Is Impossible:   “Failure is Impossible” was Susan’s motto,  even though Susan died in 1906, fourteen years before women won the national right to vote.    Using actual speeches and events from Susan B. Anthony’s life, “Failure Is Impossible” follows Susan’s transformation from Schoolteacher to Temperance Worker to Abolitionist to Suffragette to America’s most famous organizer for Women’s Rights.

Clara Barton – The Courage of Angels:  Clara was a shy, timid young girl.  While she might never speak up for herself, for others – she was fearless.  Clara’s hard work began long before she began helping wounded soldiers on the battlegrounds of the Civil War, and her battles didn’t end after she’d successfully fought for the creation of the American Red Cross.

She championed the rights of Native Americans. Gage’s house, near Syracuse, New York, is now a museum and a site on the Votes for Women Trail. She was a writing mentor for her son-in-law, L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books, which feature a strong American heroine. Carpenter, a former president of the International Wizard of Oz Club, also offers a Powerpoint for children grades 4-6 about her 2020 picture book, The Voice of Liberty (South Dakota Historical Society Press), illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. This book describes a protest by Gage and colleagues from the New York State Suffrage Association at the 1886 dedication of the Statue of Liberty. Why protest that beautiful statue? Because women then had no rights, not even the right to vote. In this talk Carpenter discusses doing research, writing, rewriting, and the publishing process.

In 1993 he started the Woman Suffrage Media Project to coordinate and further efforts to popularize this little known part of American history. He also began research for a photographic history of the suffrage movement, and over the following years visited or corresponded with major libraries and historical societies across the country.  Recipient of a research grant from The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard, he served as a researcher and consultant for several suffrage related books, publications, and films including the PBS documentary, “One Women, One Vote.”  After over a decade of work, he completed the lavishly illustrated, 500 page history, “Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement,” full of facts and images documenting women’s early political achievements.

The book received glowing reviews and was recommended as an essential resource for the nation’s public and school libraries.  He has spoken at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Constitution Center, and the Library of Congress, emphasizing in particular the successful grassroots political campaigns suffragists waged between 1910 and 1920. Mr. Cooney received the “Write Women Back Into History” Award in 2005 from the National Women’s History Project in recognition of his work uncovering this empowering chapter in American history.  A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he lives with his wife in Half Moon Bay, California and is available to speak in California and nationally about this important part of American history.

During that time, she has worked with leaders of national women’s organizations to encourage them to celebrate their own organizations’ history as well as to build coalitions to develop programs and events that celebrate the vast array of women’s historic achievements. She has worked with school districts throughout the country to train teachers in ways to integrate a multicultural women’s history perspective into the school curriculum. She is a recognized expert in the field of women’s history and has keynoted hundreds of women’s history events and conferences

Martinez has made appearances at universities, corporations, institutions and organizations, including Columbia University, Trinity College, Towson University, The University of Pennsylvania, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The NJ National Guard, The PA Department of Veterans Affairs, The NJ Department of Community Development, The Vanguard Group, Synchrony Bank and J.P Morgan Chase. The artist is available to speak throughout the U.S. Many of the paintings and social commentaries in this socially-conscious presentation are in Martinez’s art book, “Soraida’s Verdadism: The Intellectual Voice of a Puerto Rican Woman on Canvas; Unique, Controversial Images and Style.”

To share their stories with people from all walks of life, especially students and women, is a joy, an honor—and a mission. There is a need to acknowledge these Latinas (and so many others!) and celebrate their accomplishments in order to break stereotypes, bridge societal gaps, and establish a mutual respect so that each individual can be seen as a potential center of influence. These Latinas serve as examples—that each of us has the power to make a positive mark in this world. Sylvia’s other lecture topics include:

1. A Woman’s Power to Effect Change—Locally, Nationally, Globally
2. Every Woman has a Story to Tell
3. Writing to Change the World (One Journalist’s Point of View)

The Book of Latina Women: 150 Vidas of Passion, Strength & Success was selected for the 2007 California Collection for High Schools by the California Readers’ Association. Sylvia has presented at C-Span Book TV, The L.A. Times Festival of Books, Book Expo America, Southern California Writers’ Conference and Latino Book & Family Festival. Sylvia earned her M.A. in Digital Journalism from National University, her B.A. in Print Journalism from the University of Southern California, and certification in Women’s Studies from San Diego State University. A journalist, author, teacher, and editor, Sylvia continues to adamantly believe in the power of the written word, that every person has a story to tell—and that these stories need to be shared.

Not all suffragists were Free Lovers by any means; but several prominent Free Love advocates like Victoria Woodhull were strong supporters of women’s rights, so the reputation stuck. This enjoyable talk about the 19th century battle between Free Love and prudery reveals a fascinating side of American society, which affected the struggle for women’s right to vote. The talk is rated PG-13.

Audience Feedback:

 "This unknown suffragist history was enlightening and entertaining. Numerous members' feedback was very positive. One long-standing member said this was the best lecture we've ever had!"- Joan Gill, Chair of Speaker Programs, Canadian Women's Club of San Francisco

"Joe Miller was recently invited by the Sonoma Valley Historical Society and presented his research on the history of the suffragists to a very receptive audience. His presentation was most informative as well as entertaining. He engaged the audience by showing how much of this subject has been completely forgotten or misunderstood."- Peter G. Meyerhof, Historian

Joe C. Miller published an article in The History Teacher, titled “Never a Fight of Woman Against Man: What Textbooks Don’t Say about Women’s Suffrage” (2015). There he argued that college textbooks include many errors and myths about women’s history.

Gina L. Mulligan is the award-winning author of two historical novels; Remember the Ladies and From Across the Room, and the non-fiction Dear Friend; Letters of Encouragement, Humor, and Love for Women with Breast Cancer. After her own diagnosis, Gina founded Girls Love Mail, a national charity that collects handwritten letters of for women with breast cancer.

The performances are especially appropriate for women’s meetings, book clubs, National Women’s History Month in March, Breast Cancer Awareness events, philanthropic events, corporate service programs, and more.  Here’s what participants are saying:

“Gina Mulligan gave an inspirational and informative presentation to the Women of B’nai Israel for our annual membership appreciation lunch. Her warm and candid style created a real sense of friendship and sharing. Her presentation was so engaging that the staff who were serving the luncheon, who were participants in the employment program of the St. John’s Shelter for Women, even asked if they could write letters.”  - Eve Panush Membership Appreciation Lunch Coordinator, Sacramento CA

“Gina Mulligan was friendly and very accessible. We all loved her enthusiasm and historical tidbits.” - Sandy Parker, 1st Vice Chair Sacramento Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution

“Gina Mulligan gave a presentation at the California Assessor’s Association Conference.  She kept the audience engaged with her fun, high energy delivery. The presentation was informative and useful to the attendees.” - Dale Stroud, Tehama County Assessor

Through colorful visuals and engaging stories, Rebecca tells how these women battled pandemics, mental illness, sexist laws against women owning businesses, terrible wars, enemy occupation, and even Napoleon Bonaparte to forge their champagne empires. These brave women risked imprisonment and even death, while breaking all the rules to make champagne and founding the largest champagne houses today.

Rebecca can speak to your club via zoom or in person.

Rebecca’s historical novels about these women garnered 2022 EDITORS CHOICE HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY. The novels are available at bookstores and Amazon, or wholesale through Ingram Content Group.

CHAMPAGNE WIDOWS, First Woman of Champagne, Veuve Clicquot

https://www.amazon.com/Champagne-Widows-First-Woman-Clicquot-ebook/dp/B09D2HTJY9

MADAME POMMERY, Creator of Brut Champagne

https://www.amazon.com/Madame-Pommery-Creator-Champagne-Widows-ebook/dp/B0BSSKGQRX

Each woman’s story is infused with facts, humor, and includes a “call to action” for your audience. The presentation is an hour-long, and includes a Q&A session.

 The performances are available for libraries, schools, corporations, universities, civic, and religious groups. They are especially appropriate for women’s meetings, Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebrations in January, Black History Month in February, National Women’s History Month in March; and any time you need a unique presentation to support your individual program.

If you’d like me to create a specialized program for your event, please inquire about it when you contact me.

 Speaking Topics: 

Rosa Parks:Mrs. Parks made a stand by sitting down. She can teach your team how to make a bold stance when doing the right thing.

• Overcoming Fear
• Teamwork

Harriet Tubman:Harriet freed herself from slavery; and then returned to free others.

• Break Free From Fear & Self-Limitations
• Teamwork
• Strategic Planning
• Taking Consistent Action

Mrs. Coretta Scott King:Mrs. King tenaciously worked to make her husband's birthdate a national holiday. Mrs. King can speak about setting a BHAG'S - Big Hairy Audacious Goals and doing the work to see them come to fruition.

Goal SettingStrategic Leadership

Bessie Coleman:Bessie Coleman never took "no" for an answer. She can talk about the importance of persistence.

• Never Stop Pursuing Your Dream
• Never Take No For An Answer

Mary, Mother of Jesus:

• The Power of Love
• Resurrection Sunday

Choose one of the following:

1. American combat nurses during WW II. Learn about the brave women working in jungle and underground hospitals, on planes, trains, and ships. The combat nurses faced danger, human suffering, imprisonment, and discrimination.
2. American Women war correspondents who risked their lives going went behind enemy lines in WW II.
3. American women spies during WW II. Learn about their extensive training and dangerous missions.
4. Women on the home front: the Wendy the Welders, Rosie the Riveters and Japanese American interns in the Tanforan horse stables in San Bruno, CA.

5.The Women Airforce Service Pilots who ferried over 77 types of aircraft from the factories to 134 Army Bases. Thirty-eight pilots died and never left the United States.

6. Choose all five subjects in a synopsis of each category in an hour PowerPoint presentation.

Biography:

Jeane Slone is a member of the Pacific Coast Air Museum, Santa Rosa, CA and a 15-year member of Redwood Writers Club, a branch of the California Writer’s Club. She received the Jack London award for service to the club. Ms. Slone has a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education and teaching certificate. She has taught several history classes at Sonoma State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and is a member of the National Women’s History Alliance.

Ms. Slone has distributed local author’s books since 2010.

She is the owner of ESL Publishing, a dedicated company that prints quality textbooks for second-language learners. www.eslpublishing.com

Ms. Slone is the daughter of parents who both served in the Army during WW II. She has published five historical novels all of which are historically accurate with a composite of real characters.

 She Flew Bombers During WW II, winner of the national 2012 Indie Book Award. Available also as an audio book through audible.com.

She Built Ships During WW II, also available in an ESL version with workbook.

She Was an American Spy During WW II.

She Was a Photographer Behind Enemy Lines. Finalist in the Indie Excellent Book Awards.

She Was a Combat Nurse During WW II.

To purchase the historical novels: www.jeaneslone.com.

A Hollywood producer has optioned for the historical novels to have a TV series produced titled, War Gals: Unsung American Heroines.

Bio

Ellen Snortland is a lawyer, teacher, author, columnist and author book coach. She is a regular opinion columnist for the Pasadena Weekly and her writing has been featured in major US newspapers and magazines for decades. Ellen has also been a speaker, journalist and delegate for major United Nations World Conferences such as the Women’s Conference in Beijing and Conference Against Racism in South Africa, and the Commission on the Status of Women in New York City. An instructor and on the board of the 501c3 IMPACT Personal Safety of Los Angeles, Snortland is the author of “Beauty Bites Beast: The Missing Conversation About Ending Violence,” a how-come book about women’s personal safety that was featured on Dateline NBC. She is the director, writer and producer of the award-winning documentary film version of “Beauty Bites Beast,” based on her book of the same name. Ellen is also the co-author of “The Safety Godmothers,” along with fellow self-defense expert Lisa Gaeta. Ellen’s TEDx talk explores her mission to empower people through self-defense: http://tinyurl.com/tedx-ellen.

Snortland lives in Altadena, CA, with her husband, Ken Gruberman, and their 3 naughty dogs.

Beauty Bites Beast Info

Beauty Bites Beast Trailer:http://bit.ly/BBB-Trailer

Beauty Bites Beast Description

Consider that one-third of all women and girls worldwide are assaulted during their lifetime, and chances are they didn’t fight back. Why is this, when females of other species would? Beauty Bites Beast sets out to answer this question and vanquish the barriers to teaching women and girls unarmed verbal and physical empowerment-based self-defense. The film flips ideas about female helplessness, as women undertake the transformative experience of learning verbal, emotional and physical techniques and reclaim their lives. How often can you say with certainty that a movie will save lives? This one already has.

Quotes for “Beauty Bites Beast”:

“I was one of the women who thought self-defense was victim blaming. I had it so wrong. What Beauty Bites Beast showed me, in a truly transformative way, was that self-defense is about agency. My right and capacity to set and protect my own boundaries.

I also believed that self-defense was always violent, for tomboys, not what a nice girl should ever do. Besides, the onus should be on men to change their behavior towards us, right? I had it so wrong again. The film breaks down how self-defense can play a role in true empowerment. You will laugh, you may tear up, but you will definitely walk away enlightened.” — Petra Hand, a UN representative in Iraq and international business consultant

Ellen Snortland and Medal of Freedom winner Dolores Huerta on the set of “Beauty Bites Beast”

Now That She’s Gone (NTSG) Info

Now That She’s Gone: Unraveling the Mystery of My Mother
Written & Performed By: Ellen Snortland
“With a name like Snortland, she’d better be good.”

NTSG Description

“Now That She’s Gone” is the kind of one woman show that people who hate one woman shows love. Juxtapose a sexually liberated and wild daughter thoroughly enjoying life with a stoic Norwegian-American domesticated mother who sounds like she just got off the boat, and you get a flavor of the NTSG smorgasbord.

Full of humor and poignancy as well as human rights and history, NTSG has been performed as a staged reading and as a full stage performance across the country and around the world since 2008. Everywhere the show has been performed, audiences have connected with Ellen and her odd relationship with her mother. There’s the comedy of their intertwined lives, their final touching moments together and Ellen’s uncovering the secret of her mother’s mysterious behavior.

This story is universal in its appeal and reaches across age, gender, race, religion, political affiliation and sexual orientation to bring something identifiable to all who see it: how we relate to the most important relationship in our lives… our parents.

“Now That She’s Gone” was first produced by EMP Theatricals, LLC, at the 2008 NY International Fringe Festival and premiered in Europe at the 2011 Edinborough Fringe Festival.

NTSG Quotes

Gloria Steinem, feminist, journalist, political and social activist says, “Ellen has a gift for being serious and funny, making you laugh and understand at the same time.”

Riane Eisler, author of “The Chalice and the Blade” says, “Ellen’s play is a must see. Her performance is stupendous! The play is funny, moving…like real life; it comes from the heart.”

Nora Dunn, SNL Alum says, “Ms. Snortland delivers a poignant and completely original insight into the mother/daughter relationship that is deeply moving, and often profound.”

Ken Gruberman, multiple Grammy award winner says, “I liked Ellen’s play so much that I married her!”

Born into the cruel poverty of Brooklyn’s tenements Tillie didn’t create cosmetics, bake cookies, or march for women’s rights. She was a self-propelled dynamo who always knew she had all the rights she needed. Other people just needed to kindly get out of her way.A humanist, Tillie Lewis’s personal triumphs came from every single crisis of her day. Along with the world she suffered WWI, the Pandemic Flu, Crash and Great Depression, WWII, Korean Conflict and turned each problem into wealth. She was long investigated by the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover, and endured arrests for her suspicious behavior “hiring people based upon good character and work ethic and not by race, gender, or faith.”

Tillie rose to become the first #1 producer of diet products and tomato products in the nation, the #5 canner of every product feeding the globe and teaching Japan, Israel, and Italy exactly how to grow their national agri-business.

The story of Tillie teaches us all to waste no time on self-pity, focus on a clear goal, always be ready for change, Create Excellence, your EMPLOYEES are #1, and never EVER give up.

Available at Amazon HERE. Great women have rich beginnings, middles, and ends. We are not a short compilation.

Forgotten to history and researched thoroughly by Summa Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi: Keynote speaker and telling history as a performance is Kyle Elizabeth Wood. Refences and photos from Universities, Colleges, Museums, Historical Societies, AAUW, and Service Clubs will be provided upon request.