Host Deardra Shuler discusses the ins and outs of setting up and running a successful business with Business Coach Liz Wolfe who is a skilled and energetic motivational speaker, coach and trainer. Liz got her entrepreneurial start growing up on a sheep farm in Western Pennsylvania where her family had a cottage industry selling wool items. Ms Wolfe developed public speaking and selling skills which came in handy after she moved to NYC where she then created a successful computer consulting business with her husband, Jon.  Eventually she transitioned out of the technology business.  She now coaches entrepreneurs using her broad experience in small business to help them get unstuck so they can launch and grow an abundant business. She authored the book “Your Business Vision Blueprint: Go from Getting Things Done to Doing Great Things,” and is currently working on a second book. Liz says that one of her greatest accomplishments is staying married to her husband for 25 years while running a business with him. Her other talents include raises her two children and playing the ukulele as well as being part of a singing duo entitled Ukulicious.

Deardra Shuler interviews Fiber Artist and former CUNY Adjunct Professor, Alicia Evans..  As a Nature Coordinator, trees are an emblem of Ms Evans cooperation with nature.  She hosted and created with Nassau County AA Museum & the TAAGS Geneology Society, an art workshop for children.  As part of Tree friends, Evans uses the arts to transform her relationship with nature.  As an Events Planner Alicia coordinated a regional youth songwriting contest.  Via her Program the Living Room Exxperience, Evans invited a variety of individuals to talk about current events.  Her work in PR led to work with Proctor & Gamble Hair Care Museum.  Alicia talks about her ife theme of art, the art of conversation, fiber arts, medical acting, living life via art and creatively finding ways to thrive. 

Deardra Shuler talks with artist & painter Bronxite Laura James.  As a child, Laura spent time at the Brooklyn Public Library where she explored her passion for literature, photography,& later painting. Her African and Caribbean-American heritage & love of stories, design, & color, are all elements in her work. Painting in sacred & secular styles, James exposes the sacrosanct and the ordinary. Her work is timeless.  She has created a diverse body of work of secular and sacred work; icons that expand the collection of stories traditionally painted in this style. James is pleased to help black people see themselves in their sacred texts of  African religions and Christianity, a place where racialized people have curiously been excluded in the west. James illustrated The Book of the Gospels lectionary, published by Liturgy Training Publications in 2001,  In its 2nd edition, the book is used worldwide by numerous Christian denominations. Her religious art is at the forefront of a more inclusive representation of Biblical figures. Ms. James has recently expanded her repertoire to include sacred images from other traditions including the veneration of the Divine Feminine, Yoruba, Buddhism, ancient Islam and Egyptian themes.  A Director of BX200: Bronx Visual Artists Directory, an online database featuring some of the Bronx’s best visual artists. This project is a collaboration with over 200 Bronx artists and organizations. Ms. James has curated numerous exhibitions over the past 30 years. Laura has worked for years on paintings dealing with race & class in America & the Caribbean. Currently she is working on a series of 10  paintings she hopes will show how the past is still being realized in the present https://yale.app.box.com/s/ulqdw7jbckkr7m7a36d1ypt40nmemzfc

Host Deardra Shuler interviews Black women in business.  She talks to award-winning Guadeloupean/Parisian filmmaker Mariette Monpierre.  Born in Guadeloupe and raised in Paris, Mariette completed her Masters Degree in Languages and received her BA in Television & Medias at l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne and her graduate degree in American Studies at Smith College in Massachusetts. She began her career as a producer at ad agency BBD&O in New York where she produced commercials for Frito-Lay, Visa, Campbells, Pizza Hut, etc.  Her portfolio includes advertising, feature films, documentaries, shorts, music videos and podcasts.  Her documentary "Knowledge is Power." helped raise HIV/AIDS awareness. Other films include: “Sweet Mickey for President?” that won Best Documentary at the Reel Sisters Film Festival in New York, a short film “Rendez-Vous,” nominated for the Djibril Diop Mambety Award. The film experienced a successful run in several major international film festivals and took her around the world and was featured at the African Diaspora film Festival in New York, to name a few. "Elza" her first feature length film was a New York TImes Critics Pick.  It won several awards, including the 2012 BAFTA Choice Award, The Jury Award for Best Director First Feature at the Pan African Film Festival in LA., the Paul Robeson Award for Best Film of the Diaspora at FESPACO in Burkino Faso in West Africa..  Mariette's documentary, "Between 2 Shores" aired on PBS/World Channel.  Her TV Comedy pilot "Caribbean Girl NYC," aired on FLOW network in the British Caribbean.  Her documentary about Muslims in the West Indies was featured by Frannce Television.    

Born in Harlem/raised in the Bronx, Wanda Dee is a performer who co-produces with husband Eric Floyd their Management/Promotion organization, Goddess Empire.  Goddess Empire LLC and Goddess Empire Entertainment is a full scale production company that has been producing Ms Dee's world tours & all-star cavalacade of US & world tours featuring talent such as Eric Floyd's OLD SCHOOL PARTY & Eric Floyd's GRAND DIVAS OF STAGE. None of this would be possible were it not for the revenue Wanda's world tours generate in box office, mercandise,and concession receipts. Notwithstannding Coronavirs, a 2021 tour is planned for the annual Rezerection Festival in New Castle, England. Dee was Hip Hop's 1st female inductee into The Universal Zulu Nation, 1st female Hip Hop DJ cast by HARRY BELAFONTE  in his urban cult classic "BEAT STREET,  Dee was the 1st & only female Rapper signed to The U.K.'s production team of STOCK, AITKEN & WATERMAN on PWL Records, where she debuted "BLUE EYES."   Later Dee was  discovered by KLFs BILL DRUMMOND & JIM CAUTY who enlisted her vocals & writing skill for singles  first initial two hit singles "WHAT TIME IS LOVE?" & "LAST TRAIN TO TRANCENTRAL"on The White Room album..She has had success with single CD releases ("I WANNA SEE YOU SWEAT" / "I LIKE I HARD," "THE GODDESS IS HERE!") Her shows complete w/ exotic dancers are choreographed and staged by her Producer/Husband ERIC FLOYD.  

Host Deardra Shuler talks with singer/lecturer Camille Yarbrough who is an award-winning performance artist, author, and cultural activist. With a career that spans over sixty years, several continents, countless awards and accolades, and a few generations, Nana Camille has earned legendary status. Her long running TV Show (Ancestor House), via her popular musical CD (also entitled Ancestor House).  Her performances and lectures focus on poetry, music, Black art, spirituality, and culture.  She toured with the Katherine Dunham Company of Dancers, Singers, and Musicians. She taught African Dance and community courses at the CUNY. An accomplished theater actress, she co-starred/toured in Lorraine Hansberry’s To Be Young, Gifted, and Black and did a national tour "God’s Trombones",and danced, sang and acted in the Broadway Musical, Kwamina.She appeared in the soap operas:Where the Heart Is, Search For Tomorrow, Television Special; Soul, CBS Special; Caught in the Middle and Gil Noble’s Like It Is. She also toured in her one-woman show; Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot. ,  

Host Deardra Shuler talks with 2 time Tony Award nominated Vivian Reed who also includes among her awards the NAACP Award, Drama Desk Award, Theatre World Award, Mabel Mercer Award, et al. She has appeared on TV variety and talk shows both nationally and internationally including The Tonight Show, The Today Show and the ABC-TV daytime drama, ‘One Life to Live.’ She has shared the bill with notable performers as Pattie Labelle, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Elaine Stritch, Alan King, Sammy Davis Jr., Quincy Jones. She appeared in Don't Bother Me I can't Cope, Bubbling Brown Sugar.  Received acclaim in major productions of ‘Sophisticated Ladies,’ ‘Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd,’ ‘Blues in the Night,’ ‘High Rollers,’ ‘Show Boat’ in which she portrayed the role of ‘Queenie’ and ‘Tintypes.’ Her recent plays include ‘Tartuffe,’ ‘Blues for an Alabama Sky,’ et al.  Ms Reed is a celebrity vocal teacher at Marymount Manhattan college in NYC Film Version: Electrix Presents "Vivian Reed in Her Own Words" which airs on Manhattan Neighbor Network, Saturday, 10/17/20 at 7:00 pm EST. See: https://youtu.be/GzPzGZMtdXU  

Host Deardra Shuler interviews guest Naiika Sings.  A  native New Yorker.  Naiika has a range that highlights the messages she conveys in her songs.  The singer/songwriter is co-founder of The All My Friends Are Stars Music Festival that has taken place in Gothenburg, Sweden for the last 5 years.  Her band members are also called "All My Friends Are Stars." Sings sang the theme song of a documentary entitled (“Coded Bias” a film screened at Sundance Festivals).  A curator of items given to her by men is featured by prominent art critic Larry Qualls).  Featured in newspapers, she's heard on Hot 97, Power 105.1, WBLS 107.5 and Sweden radio P3 Din Gata.  She  appeared on news stations WPIX 11, WNBC, CBS and ABC. Her subway performances have drawn crowds and video garnered over 10+ million views. She has been lauded by talents like as 50 cent, Marjorie Harvey, Ledisi, R Kelly, et al. A video featuring her NYC subway performances has garnered over 10+ million views.  Currently Ms Sings is working on her latest CD. See: ECLECTRIX PRESENTS… featuring NAIIKA SINGS at 7PM - Saturday 7/25/20, NYC ONLY-Spectrum channel 1993 and Global! LIVE stream HD Channel 5  https://www.mnn.org/watch/channels/hd-channel Sneak Peak: https://youtu.be/YjYdDgwGV_U            

Host Deardra Shuler invited Lorcan Otway, owner/director of St Marks Theatre 80, located at 80 St Mark’s Place in NYC.  Mr Otway will discuss the recent play presented by the Negro Ensemble Co, "Grandma's Quilt, starring Karen A. Brown. The influence the Coronavirus has on the theater community. What both the Broadway and off-Broadway Theater Alliances are doing to protect its people, actors, audience and much more. Theatre 80 St Marks is an historic theater also known as "the jewel of Off-Broadway"  built in 1964.  It was built in a former speakeasy and jazz club where Frank Sinatra and Edward Albee began their careers.  This Lower East Side landmark is one of the city’s oldest revival theaters. It was designed by its late owner Howard Otway and his son Lorcan Otway.  "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" opened at the theater in 1967, launching the careers of Bob Balaban, Gary Burghoff and one of the ushers, Billy Crystal. From 1970 - 1994 it was central in the third wave of classical film revival houses. The theater was leased out for live theater and managed by the Otway family trust upon the death of Howard Otway.  The theater is now run by his son, Lorcan Otway. The Theater's Walk of the Stars has signatures of a large number of stars from Gloria Swanson, Myrna Loy and Joan Crawford, to Alan Cumming and Gary Burghoff.  Recently "Late Night" with Jonathan Lithgow, Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson was filmed there. The Coronavirus is spreading so rapidly that industries are forced to temporarily shut down until the issue of how to handle the virus is dealt with. Lorcan Otway will talk about what the entertainment industry is doing, at least temporarily, to stem the spread of the disease.

Deardra Shuler's guest is the legendary Emme Kemp. Kemp was a child prodigy who grew up with the gospel and blues of Chicago.  The protege of Eubie Blake, she recorded with the ragtime piano man.  She performed a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. Played at Josephine Baker's Welcome Back Party after Ms Baker's 1972 appearance at Carnegie Hall, the Waldorf, venues in Japan and her beloved Harlem. And in Monte Carlo before Princess Grace.  Most recently she delighted listeners at the Jackie Robinson Recreation Center in Manhattan for Black History month. When Ms Kemp lived in California she coached under the eminent pianist Egon Petri. Her Jazz anthology is classic to modern. Emme appeared in Woody Allen's movie "Sweet & Lowdown, starring Sean Penn," on college campuses, gave her overview on popular culture through her lectures, poetry and writings, paid tribute to the music of Harold Arlen, Gershwin and Ellington on her album "Try a Little Tenderness," composed the original song Bubbling Brown Sugar for Broadway and has played piano for and acted in the productions, Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope, Bubbling Brown Sugar and Lorraine Hansberry's musical "Raisin.  Her deep spirituality has given Ms Kemp a compassion that is the lifespring of her music.   (Group photo by Janet Solesky); Film clip credit: Angela Viscido, Eclectrix, Inc.  https://vimeo.com/395278798  

Host Deardra Shuler talks with Desmond Richardson, one of the Artistic Directors of the Complexion Contemporary Ballet.  Complexions will feature its upcoming season at the Joyce Theater in NYC from January 21 – February 2nd.  Program A will feature the world premiere of “Love Rocks” a full company ballet set to works by the iconic GRAMMY Award winning singer and songwriter, Lenny Kravitz.  Photo credit for Love Rocks goes to Chad Wagner and Steven Trumon Gray, @THEGINGERB3ARDMEN; Sharen Bradford for Bach 25 Dance company photo and Woke photo by Joseph Franciosa. In the second week (Program B), the company will reprise “WOKE,” a physical reaction to the daily news. A bold and dynamic socially conscious one act ballet featuring the full company that examines our humanity in conjunction with today’s political climate.  Also  featured“BACH 25.” Set to the music of Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach will be presented as part of Programs A*and  B.