WESTSIDERS PROFILES

Storyteller Extraordinaire

Selema Masekela opens new worlds to all who will listen

By Bridgette M. Redman

Sportscaster, surfer, entrepreneur and musician Selema Masekela loves Venice in part because there is a conversation he never has to have there. Unlike the rest of car-obsessed Los Angeles, Masekela can walk to the beach with his surfboard and no one will stop and ask him what’s wrong that he has to set out on foot. “Venice is one of the last places in LA where it isn’t weird if you’re seen walking around on foot,” Masekela said. “I love my proximity to the beach and ocean, and that I can hop on my bike in the morning, throw my surfboard on my racks and go ride on the beach. I love my outside open gym at Deuce on Lincoln Avenue, which is really unique and the next generation of what the ‘70s and ‘80s of Venice outdoor fitness used to look like.” It’s just the start of a list of things he loves about having landed in Venice and spent the past 20 years of his career there. At least, that is, when he’s not globetrotting the world having spectacular adventures and covering historic sporting events. For 13 years, Masekela hosted ESPN’s Summer and Winter X Games. He was standing on the vert ramp when Tony Hawk did his infamous 900 at the X Games V in 1999 that changed how the mainstream perceived skateboarding and action sports. He covered the Olympics in Russia and Japan—and was present when his favorite sport, surfing, had its first showing on the Olympic stage. In 2010, he got to cover the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in what was a particularly meaningful event for him. His father, jazz great Hugh Masekela (1939-2018), dubbed the father of South African jazz, was a political exile who was only able to go home after apartheid was lifted. Together, they made a documentary that was shown in 10 parts during the World Cup games. “My father and I drove and took viewers on a journey through South Africa to show people the place and its peoples,” Masekela said. “We got to show the where and why of the country and its people. My dad and I got to take three weeks and go on a father-son road trip of South Africa. It was extremely special.” Masekela has experienced stories with considerably less fanfare but that still resonated strongly with him—such as his coverage of the Lakota Sioux people in South Dakota and how basketball literally saves lives. “To see the passion around a game of basketball on a Native American reservation was truly special and heartbreaking at the same time,” Masekela said. “To learn about the suicide rates, but to also be able to tell a story and provide some context about what that looks like—it’s very special.” As part of his work, Masekela has traveled the planet. He said he doesn’t know where he would be without travel. “Travel has been my lens into the world,” Masekela said. “It’s been the way that I’ve been able to see, listen to, taste, feel and move through the world. It allows for an immense amount of actual discovery of people and culture. It is the difference between being a tourist and being a traveler. When you are a traveler, you have to be of and amongst the people. You have to try your best to move to the magical rhythms of that place and to listen and learn.” In March, Masekela opened the Venice store for Mami Wata, a brand committed to sharing African surf culture, particularly South African surf culture. He’s the co-founder along with a group of surfers in Cape Town: Andy Davis, Nick Dutton and Peet Pienaar. During the pandemic, they published a coffee table book called “AFROSURF” which features pictures and stories of African surfers from 18 coastal African countries. “So many people have told me they sit with the book with their kids and it’s like they’re discovering surfing for the first time through this African lens,” Masekela said. “It is a bit of a Trojan horse in getting people to discover modern-day Africa and its relationship to the world. People assume they know everything there is to know about surfing culture. The story and narrative that has been driven by this Southern California idea is very limiting.” Like travel, surfing has helped to shape who Masekela is. He described it as the way he got to learn about himself as a kid when his family moved to California. “Surfing is a place of real personal expression whilst interacting with nature,” Masekela said. “It’s a balance between having the best time of your life and also trying not to die. You’re in battle with the ocean.” Whatever he undertakes, Masekela hopes that within his career, the things that he is

SELEMA MASEKELA

able to do and be a part of will spark people’s curiosity, encourage them to step out of their box and be open to new interactions with the world. He hopes that he can make people want to engage with others and to have empathy for the rich diversity of the billions of people on the planet. “I hope people see in me someone who is relentlessly curious about the human experience, the many shapes and forms that it comes in, and the infinite nature in which life can be lived and expressed,” Masekela said. “That’s how I would like to be remembered—as someone who told those stories and hopefully was able to bring people together.”

Trainer to the Stars

PHOTO BY CHRIS MORTENSON

MANDY INGBER

Celebrity yoga instructor Mandy Ingber helps Hollywood A-listers get into top shape

By Kamala Kirk

Mandy Ingber was first introduced to yoga when she was 7 years old. Her father, who was very athletic and had sustained various injuries over the years, began practicing yoga and cycling in the ‘70s, which ultimately rubbed off on his daughter. “I was raised in a household where yoga was practiced daily so I joined along,” Ingber said. “We would attend family yoga classes together and there was a PBS show I watched that featured yoga instructor Richard Hittleman. Yoga was almost like our family religion, it’s embedded in my conditioning. It was the bridge for my relationship to understanding my own father, the gift he gave me without realizing it. It’s been an incredible way to connect with and help others.” Growing up in Santa Monica, Ingber attended a mobile school for experiential learning, which provided her with an empowering educational experience. The students made individual academic agreements weekly, did academics and individualized learning in local libraries, ate lunch in parks and went on multiple field trips every week. As a teenager and young adult, Ingber found success as an actress in the entertainment industry. She began acting in the early ‘80s and landed multiple roles in television, film and theater. “I was 14 when I booked my very first acting job in the original company of Neil Simon’s Tony-award winning Broadway show, ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs,’ with Matthew Broderick,” Ingber said. “I was a series regular on many different TV shows including ‘Cheers,’ where I played Annie Tortelli. I also get recognized a lot for my role as Polly in the cult-classic film ‘Teen Witch.’” In her early twenties, Ingber took up indoor cycling and eventually became a spinning instructor at the encouragement of her friends. “It was all very organic and accidental,” Ingber said. “I started spinning in 1991 and was a total gym rat. At the time, two of my best friends were Gunnar Peterson, a well-known personal trainer, and Bob Harper, who later became one of the hosts on ‘The Biggest Loser’ show. They pushed me to start teaching, and since I was in the acting world I knew a lot of celebrities, which brought an onslaught of clients.” Ingber’s spinning classes were a huge hit and she was teaching as many as 100 people each morning, attracting celebrities like Helen Hunt, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Brooke Shields. After going through a breakup with her boyfriend who was a fellow spin instructor, Ingber found herself heading down another path as a yoga teacher. “We had decided we would take a yoga teacher training to add another thing into the mix, then we broke up,” Ingber said. “He took one teacher training and I took another, and I decided to immerse myself because I wanted to take my mind off the heartbreak. Right after that training my father passed away, which led to this whole revelation. I realized that my father had shared this ancient practice that was very valuable and useful to me, and right after he died I started getting all of these different opportunities to teach yoga.” From being a teacher’s aide for an infomercial to teaching yoga classes at a spinning studio, Ingber jumped at the opportunities that came her way. Her introduction to private classes came about when a friend who was supposed to teach Courtney Love asked Ingber to cover the session. From there she segued into teaching private yoga sessions for A-list clientele that included Helen Hunt, Kate Beckinsale and longtime friend Jennifer Aniston, who talked about Ingber in Vogue. In 2006, Aniston and Ingber did a spread together in SELF magazine that featured some of her top yoga moves. Ingber is also the creator of Yogalosophy, a unique workout program that helps people get into shape by combining yoga poses and toning exercises into a hybrid workout while emphasizing the union of the mind-body connection. “My philosophy is about loving your body into shape,” Ingber said. “Back when I taught spinning, I incorporated positive self-talk into my classes. That’s the basis for Yogalosophy, which is designed to be more accessible to people who have never tried yoga and to give serious practitioners a new challenge. I love traditional yoga, but I wanted to contribute something different and new. Together, the combination of yoga poses and toning exercises gives you an amazing head-to-toe workout in just 35 minutes.” In 2013, Ingber published the New York Times best-selling book, “Yogalosophy: 28 Days to the Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover,” followed by her second book, “Yogalosophy for Inner Strength: 12 Weeks to Heal Your Heart and Embrace Joy,” in 2016. “My first book combines fitness, wellness and creativity,” Ingber said. “It includes breathing techniques, cardiovascular exercises and astrological influences so there’s a different approach to one’s workout each day. My second book is a 12-week program and it includes exercise routines, meditations, recipes and playlists designed to help elevate the spirit and lift ourselves up.” During COVID-19, Ingber taught online classes and began to offer virtual astrological consultations as well. “The pandemic allowed me to connect with and teach people from all over the world, offering a new level of accessibility that wasn’t there before,” Ingber said. “I enjoy connecting with people. For my astrological consultations, I’ll do a chart reading and help create a guideline or roadmap of what a person’s soul is here to fulfill. I’m good at timing and understanding what someone is going through during a particular cycle in their life. I provide action-oriented guidance that is tailored to the individual.” A longtime resident of Santa Monica, Ingber loves to spend time at her favorite places on the Westside doing things like shopping at the local farmers market, enjoying a cup of tea at Buena Vida Tea Bar & Garden or Cafe Berlina, indulging in vegan ice cream at Frozen Fruit Co, and reading books at the public library. “I love Santa Monica and the Westside,” Ingber said. “I love that I live in such a walkable neighborhood where I see my neighbors with their dogs, and I can look at the ocean any day I want. Everyone cares about the community, people are interested in the zero waste movement and there are great public programs that support the arts. It’s really an amazing place.”

The Best Perry Farrell

Venice renaissance man has big plans for 2022 PERRY FARRELL

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

When Perry Farrell hit 60 in March 2019, he knew he had to change. He spent years in the dark but decided it was time to emerge. Among the ways he’s celebrating his third chapter is with “Heaven After Dark,” which the Venice renaissance man called an extension of his landmark Lollapalooza festival. Like Lollapalooza, it focuses on iconic and emerging musicians, performance artists and varietal acts to showcase alternative music, underground culture. “Heaven After Dark” attendees will experience “seven realms of heaven;” “an audio sensory journey that introduces attendees to musicians, dancers, comedians and street performers to narrate and shape the evening’s story;” the Farrells performing as Kind Heaven Orchestra; and DJs and producers playing acid house music. “We want to start germinating the seeds in LA with emerging artists,” Farrell said. “They are very reminiscent of the groups I played with when I was coming up in LA in the early ‘80s. I’m trying to recreate that vibe. But, of course, you can never go back.” “Heaven After Dark” is a departure from Lollapalooza, which plays to approximately 385,000 in Chicago each year. “During large events, you get to see something that you didn’t expect,” Farrell said. “To me, it was like, OK, where are we going to get the emerging music from if the music industry isn’t really nurturing it? “To me, it was essential that we went back to the original place where we started our music and started to garden it, curate it so that they could grow and one day be on the Lollapalooza stages.” His wife, Etty, added, “I think it’s nice that when you do big shows, when you’re in a big festival, you do get the production and all the bells and whistles. At the same time, you lose that personal contact with your audience. So you get to sing and perform and look into people’s eyes, and then open a dialogue with the audience.”

Recalling the past

Last year, Farrell’s management pushed him to release, “Perry Farrell—The Glitz; The Glamour,” a 35-year retrospective of Farrell’s life, music and arts. Across nine 180-gram vinyls, “Perry Farrell—The Glitz; The Glamour” takes fans through his expansive solo career starting with his first band, Psi Com, and its five-song self-titled EP. Recorded in 1985, just prior to the formation of Jane’s Addiction, the Psi Com sound was inspired by artists like Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. From 2001, “Song Yet to Be Sung” was inspired by and recorded after a life-changing experience in Sudan helping free thousands of slaves from human bondage. This experience and album set forth Farrell as a humanitarian and his commitment to equality. The 12-song EP was written and produced by Farrell and is joined on the album by lifelong friends including Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction), Martyn LeNoble (Porno for Pyros) and Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction and Porno for Pyros). Satellite Party’s 2007 album, “Ultra Payloaded,” was co-produced by Perry, Steve Lillywhite and Nuno Bettencourt and features his wife and muse, Etty Lau Farrell. The 12-song LP also includes collaborations with John Frusciante, Flea, Fergie, New Order’s Peter Hook, Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros),Thievery Corporation and Mad Professor. For the recording of 2018’s “Kind Heaven,” the alt-rock icon assembled guest stars—Elliot Easton (The Cars), Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Mike Garson (David Bowie), Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction), Etty Lau Farrell, Dhani Harrison as well as Tommy Lee, the Bloody Beetroots, Kascade and Joachim Garraud. It features singles “Pirate Punk Politician,” a searing indictment of the current state of our planet under a rising tide of autocratic regimes, and the soaring song of hope, “Let’s all Pray for This World.” “The project was led by my management team,” Farrell said. “They came in, maybe a year ago, and they noticed I was all over the place. I hadn’t documented my career, all my pictures I’ve been saving, my life, my memories. My publishing was all over the place.”

Pandemic panic

The COVID-19 pandemic was devastating to Farrell, as he had to cancel Lollapaloozas in Chicago, Brazil, Argentina, Stockholm, Paris and Berlin. Jane’s Addiction emerged to play Lollapalooza Chile and Argentina in mid-March. “I think it’s worth mentioning that Jane’s Addiction is coming back for what would have been their 30th anniversary,” Etty said. “However, because of COVID-19, we pushed it a year. They’re going to start with Lollapalooza in South America.” Before the gigs, Farrell said he was excited about the reunion. “We’ve had our bouts,” Farrell said with a laugh. “But right now, we’re closer than ever.” Etty added, “I think it’s because you’re older.” “I didn’t want to say that,” Farrell laughed. “As you get older, you let go of all of the petty stuff that you thought was important.” Besides brainstorming new events, Farrell used the pandemic to work on his memoir. “I have history,” he said. “When the pandemic hit, I said, ‘OK. I’m going to settle down and get my act together—probably what everybody’s doing—gather my music, my publishing, my pictures, stories, and I’ve had a really fun time doing it. “Now, I really feel I’m prepared to enter into the third act of life. There’s a lot you can accomplish in this third act. I don’t want to look at this third act as I have to slow down. I was slowed down in the middle. Now I feel like the best Perry I can be.”

A Passion for Teaching Rooted in Love

PHOTO CREDIT: ROBERT MACAISA/LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

DR. DARIN EARLEY

LMU’s Dr. Darin Earley aims to give students what he’s given his own children

By Marin Heinritz

One of Darin Earley’s first teaching jobs was at Horace Mann Junior High, and one returning fall when discussing with his class what they did over summer break, he disclosed that he’d gotten engaged. One new seventh grader he hadn’t met before that day told him: “I’m going to be in your wedding, Mr. Earley.” It came as a surprise, but it turned out she was right. In the months that passed between their meeting and Earley’s marrying his wife of now 27 years, they developed the kind of connection and relationship that led to her being in his wedding. And that, in many ways, is what being a teacher is all about, according to Earley, director of the Loyola Marymount University Family of Schools. “The students that I’ve taught I’ve done my best to love them at the same level of the children that I’ve birthed,” Earley said.” That’s important to me.” In addition to his 10 years at Loyola Marymount University Family of Schools, where he has managed various programs and grant-funded projects that support 15 partner schools, and served as a liaison between the university and the local education community, Earley has worked as a secondary school administrator, classroom teacher and human relations facilitator, serving over 18 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Education is an opportunity for me to learn, for me to give back,” Earley said. The son of teachers, education is in Earley’s bones. Though it wasn’t until after the LA native, who graduated from Westchester High in 1983, went to Howard University with the initial goals of becoming a lawyer that he realized his calling. It started the moment he and his dad got off the plane. “All the freshmen were getting there and it was just a sea of African American folks, I’d never seen that in an educational setting at all,” Earley said. He also remembered stepping in front of the school of fine arts one day and hearing the most extraordinary sounds coming out of the building. It was a black woman singing opera. “I had no idea,” he said. “We are so diverse. . . we all are part of this diaspora.” For Earley, after having grown up as one of a handful of Black students in the gifted classes, “always trying to validate my place in the space that was called Westchester,” he said, this notion of being one out of many was a relief. “This was transformative. You’re not the smartest kid in the space and you don’t have to be—such a weight off my shoulders. It was like freedom, liberating, you don’t have to carry the mantle.” With the pressure off, he “felt like I could just be.” And that allowed him to realize something that changed him. “You know, I’m not here just to go to school and take some money and get out,” Earley said. “I’m here to learn to make a difference.” The notion of making a difference through teaching was solidified after his freshman year when he interned as a TA for his mom (who had been the first Black teacher in her Ohio hometown) in her fourth grade classroom following an internship at Pepsi that turned out to not be what he was looking for. The rest is history. In his 33 years teaching elementary to doctoral students and working as an administrator for LAUSD and LMU, Earley has educated Angelenos on just about every level. And in his current position, he’s helping initiate the kind of programs that aim to change lives for years to come. The Cultivating Young Black Excellence tutoring program pairs LMU students with LAUSD students, because it’s crucial that students see themselves where they want to be. Whether it’s Black students getting tutoring from a Black college student, or the Black tutor seeing themself as a real teacher for the first time, the exchange can have a powerful effect. Earley remembered this kind of effect with one young woman on a tour of LMU as part of a college readiness program. She pulled out her cell phone and called her mom while on campus with a view of the mountains and ocean to tell her how beautiful it was and that she was going to go to college there. And this is exactly the point. She had to see herself there before she knew it was possible for her. As Zora Neal Hurston wrote in “Their Eyes Were Watching God:” “You got to go there to know there.” “People want to do things because they’ve had a positive experience,” Earley said. “Unfortunately, school has not been a positive experience for Black kids, especially in LA. We want to do things to change their experience with school. We want kids to be excited about school.” And it’s important to encourage Black students to want to teach because “if one Black child has one Black teacher they’re 30% more likely to graduate from high school and matriculate to college,” Earley said. How to get more kids involved in teaching is a question Earley has grappled with for years. “First, they have to have a good experience,” he said. “Second, they have to see the value of contributing to the lives of others. Third, they have to know they don’t have to do it forever.” Another program Earley helped initiate that aims to create better educational experiences for Black students is the Leadership and Equity Academy for Principals (LEAP Academy), a two-year program that began in Fall 2021 that seeks to assist principals in creating a school environment in which Black students are accepted, valued, cared for, and encouraged to be active and responsible members of the school community, as well as connecting students to local business owners for internships and local community centers for recreational opportunities. Even with the various roles Earley plays in education at LMU and beyond, he still thinks of himself primarily as a teacher. “Administration is a different skill set because now you’re thinking broader and how you spread your knowledge in different spaces,” he said. “Not all teachers are good administrators, but all administrators should be good teachers.” And being a good teacher to Earley—who in addition to being a teacher, administrator, husband and father, is a Christian minister—is shot through with love, and rooted in the golden rule. “What probably makes me the most proud is I’ve tried to give to other people’s children the same thing I would want them to give to mine,” he said. “That’s been my aim.”

Kim Gordon creates one-of-a-kind spaces that are beautiful and functional

By Srianthi Perera

To Santa Monica interior designer Kim Gordon, intuition goes hand-in-hand with design. The self-taught designer developed it alongside her career. Gordon visited different homes and met various types of individuals who lived within. This helped her develop a perception for her art. “Because I worked with so many different types of people who were artistic and really put a lot of thought in their homes, I really learned a lot about how people live in a house and how it feels,” Gordon said. “Anyone can put walls up, but sometimes you walk into a place and you think it feels so nice.” The ambiance is the sum of the different parts of a home and its spaces: from the color of the walls to the floor and every little thing in between. They have to sing together to create that particular feeling. Gordon notices the little things. “It’s the hunger of the work, leading to people and always paying attention and gaining that knowledge,” she said. “Are you keeping that knowledge and building up on it? Then it becomes very intuitive. After you’ve done this and you work with so many different people, there’s a lot of intuition to design.” It all began in Venice 20 years ago, when she worked with architects and fellow designers. Gordon cut her teeth doing installations for interiors. She started out with decorative artwork, using natural materials such as mosaic on ceilings, murals and also chandeliers. Using craft techniques for interior design was not common then. Everything was clean and modern, Gordon said. With the opening of unique stores such as Anthropologie and Etsy, opportunities came for a more natural look in design, and for artists to create hands-on. Gordon also “got an itch” to do a project of her own, so she bought a house in Mandeville Canyon and worked on it as a showpiece. “It did well, and I kept taking a lot of risks to continue to do that kind of work and I was really lucky,” she recalled. Nowadays, Gordon’s signature design is resort-like; she spends a lot of time and energy making a home feel like a spa. The trend is related to the pandemic and the resultant long hours spent at home. She’s inspired by natural materials and clay walls, and because most of her materials such as stone and limestone couldn’t be shipped in during the past two years, she sourced them in closer places. That introduced her to “lovely makers” in Canada, Mexico and Southern California. Gordon has had her share of celebrity clients, among them Don Henley, for whom she was hired to antique the wood in his recording studio. How does she meet them? “I’ve always been lucky; I guess we live in Los Angeles and it’s a company town,” she said. “I don’t really advertise. You meet one and then you meet another and another.” The experience working with sound was invaluable and she was able to use the knowledge to make home theater designs. Working on projects for celebrities, however, meant adding stress to the body. Gordon had her share of setbacks, also. One of the biggest was getting cancer. Now cancer-free for three years, Gordon, nevertheless, won’t forget her experience. “Cancer changed me; it definitely made me nicer,” she said. “I think I was mean and crazy when I was on all that medication and it kind of brought me to my knees.” She used to be pushy and hard, with a driving ambition. “Now I feel like I want to be a lot nicer,” Gordon said. “I think more about what stress can do for the body. That’s also where some of the introduction of spa materials, spa vibes in houses comes from. I’m at my house all the time. If I had a spa, it would be fantastic; it would make me feel better.” With the worst of the pandemic hopefully behind, in February Gordon opened an artsy atelier with terra cotta clay walls on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. “I was able to work out a really nice deal with the landlord,” she said. “We decorated it really sweet and we do so much creative work there.” The location has yielded her good neighbors as well. “It’s nice to have a place to go and get coffee and be a part of the community,” Gordon said. She has many plans for programming there—presentations on designing, house hunting, book signings and other activities will enhance it, she thinks. How does she feel about life right now? “I feel like actually what I really need to do is be quiet now, chill out a little bit and I think there’s a lot of inner work (introspection),” Gordon said. She still “has to survive,” but realizes that she needs to stop running for a little. Her

PHOTO BY CHRIS MORTENSONNatural Eye for Design

KIM GORDON

two sons still need her; the 19-year-old is in college and the 13-year-old is at home. Her partner, Mauricio Suarez, is by her side. And so are their three dogs: a Pomsky, Australian shepherd poodle and Pomeranian husky poodle, named Pablo, Eva and Ghost. “We live together in a happy little house,” Gordon said.

SYNDEE WINTERS

PHOTO CREDIT: LAUREN DESBERG

A Message of Kindness

Syndee Winters brings magic to the stage

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

Syndee Winters spent her childhood dancing around her mother’s Brooklyn beauty shop, entertaining the clientele with her singing. “They asked me, ‘Syndee, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ My mother, while she was curling someone’s hair, said, ‘Don’t you want to be a pediatrician?’ I didn’t even know how to spell that.’” Eschewing that route, Winters selected entertainer as her career. Her resume includes stints with “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Disney Princess—The Concert,” as well as the new band Butterfly Black. Winters, who spent the last few months on the road with “Disney Princess—The Concert,” relocated to Culver City from New York during the pandemic. “I moved at the top of 2021, not knowing what I would be doing,” she said. “I really wanted a change of pace. I thought LA would grant me that. My really good friend’s apartment became available. I moved into her place with my partner, Ben Williams, who is an incredible musician.” The two helm the band Butterfly Black. To record material, the couple turned one of the bedrooms into a “full-blown studio.” They met in the fall of 2020 on social media, via a mutual connection in “Hamilton.” Williams’ message and musicianship were attractive, she said. Williams’ resume includes tours with Pat Metheny, David Sanborn and Robert Glasper. “When the pandemic happened, the only thing I could control when the industry closed was songwriting and making music,” she said. “I sought out to find a collaborator. I went on to his Instagram and he released an album, ‘I Am a Man,’ in 2020. “I really loved his message. He said the album was inspired by 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis. He talks about mental health and the American Black male. I’m an advocate for positive messaging in music.” Winters messaged Williams on socials to see if he would be willing to collaborate. “I was in New York for a trip to move my things from New York to Florida,” she said. “When I met Ben for a writing session, something switched and I thought, ‘I don’t think I’m going to Florida. We thought we would hang out for a little bit and see what happens. In one of our first writing sessions together, we wrote ‘I Just Wanna Love You.’” In mid-March, Butterfly Black released “I Just Wanna Love You,” a track that was leaked to Natasha Diggs, a NYC DJ, who played it on her “Soul in the Horn” show. From there, it was picked up by D-Nice, a DJ, beatboxer, rapper, producer and photographer, who began his career in the mid-1980s with the hip-hop group Boogie Down Productions. “D-Nice was in the chat listening to the set,” Winters said. “It kind of blew us away. We were like, ‘What’s happening?’ It was so exciting.” Winters described “I Just Wanna Love You” as “music that makes you dance, connect with and feel good.” “During the pandemic, we were so isolated, and I wanted to create dance music,” she said. “It is the music that brings you together. We connect the styles of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and some of our favorite musicians—the Jacksons, Quincy Jones and Prince—to create this single that, hopefully, audiences will enjoy. We’ve gotten some really good feedback so far.”

Disney love

Growing up, Winters fell in love with Disney World. So, touring with “Disney Princess — The Concert” was an obvious choice for her. “I feel like every chapter of my life since age 3 has had an element of Disney in it,” she said. “On my Instagram, I did a little flashback of my visits to Disney World. Now to be able to say I’m a part of the Disney legacy as a princess makes me feel just in awe of life. “Now, I get called Nala all the time. When I was on ‘The Lion King’ tour, I was in New Orleans and I visited my co-star Jelani Remy,” she recalled. “His little niece heard my voice and said, ‘Nala.’ It was so cute and then we sat and watched ‘The Princess and the Frog.’ I thought, ‘This is awesome and now I get to sing a song from ‘The Princess and the Frog’ in ‘Disney Princess—The Concert.’” She has made a living starring as royalty—as future queen Nala in Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway. Besides Winters, the cast featured Susan Egan, Broadway’s original Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” and Meg in Disney’s animated feature “Hercules;” Arielle Jacobs, Broadway’s Jasmine in “Aladdin” and “In the Heights;” and Disney Channel icon Anneliese van der Pol, “That’s So Raven,” “Raven’s Home” and Broadway’s final Belle in “Beauty and The Beast.” “Disney Princess—The Concert” had a profound effect on its fans and Winters. “I get to see all the little girls dressed like their favorite princesses, moms singing along to the songs they grew up on,” she said. “A lot of the Disney princess songs are pretty much the soundtrack to our lives. When they sing the songs back to us makes me feel really good. I get to be the vehicle for these lyrics and this message of encouragement and kindness.”

Arts aficionado

Winters’ Broadway experience is vast, with spots in “Hamilton,” “The Lion King,” “Pippin,” “Jesus Chris Superstar” and “Motown the Musical.” On television, she’s been featured on NBC’s live “Jesus Christ Superstar” with John Legend, and as Ms. Smiley on “Law & Order SVU,” where she interrogated Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) on her parenting methods. Inspired by the art of storytelling, Winters’ latest writing project celebrates the life of Lena Horne in a one-woman play with music entitled, “Lena: A Moment with a Lady.” As a recording artist, she has written and released several singles, EPs, and her debut Horne-influenced jazz album “Lessons: From a Lady.” She also lent her vocals to recordings by Snoop Dogg, Big Daddy Kane and Grandmaster Flash. Winters’ dreams of teaching were realized when she founded ROAR School, which equips students to be resourceful, optimistic, authentic and reliant. Winters watched “Hamilton” blossom from its workshop phase to the final piece. She auditioned for the soon-to-be blockbuster, but there wasn’t a place for her. A space became available during its first year on Broadway, so she auditioned. Winters landed the role of principal cover, which means she covered all of the Schuyler sisters’ roles. “The show had already blown up, right after the Tonys,” she said. “I was really excited to be a part of the show—not because of the impact it made in pop culture, but more so, the fact that my specific skill set—writer, actor, singer and rapper—made it onto the Broadway stage in this form and fashion. “All the skills I had been building and been passionate about happened to translate into the biggest musical in history,” she said. “I love Broadway, but I’m not a Broadway performer. I’m an artist and my skillset is what Broadway was looking for at the time. With the ‘Disney Princess—The Concert’ and ‘The Lion King,’ I’m a musician and those voices resonated with me. Those were the voices I heard on the radio.”

YAGO CURA

Librarian Sparks a Publishing Revolution

Yago Cura founded HINCHAS PRESS to offer a platform for marginalized readers and writers

By Marin Heinritz

Yago Cura, Hyde Park librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library, grew up skateboarding in Miami in the ‘90s, before skateboarding was cool, before anybody knew what anyone else was doing on social media, before comparing yourself to others became a full-time job. “When skateboarding wasn’t cool the only thing we wanted to do was go skateboarding,” Cura said. “It wasn’t about dating or girls, it was about what curb are we going to go hit tonight—not about what influencer should we try to mimic. It was about being focused on the thing that you loved regardless of what other people thought.” That ethos has guided Cura in everything he does, especially his literary aspirations. In 2016, Cura started HINCHAS Press out of need and passion. The Mar Vista-based publishing house focuses on building a bridge between U.S. and Latin American writers, providing a platform for underrepresented writers, and providing a greater opportunity for readers to access a greater diversity of voices. “I want to read what I want to read, not something that’s been vetted or distilled by someone else,” Cura said, noting a long-standing problem in the publishing industry. “This is nothing new, this over-prevalence of specific type of people in publishing. I’ve consistently given a voice to people who’ve been looking for a platform.” The seed of HINCHAS began in 2009, as an online literary magazine, thanks to a loan of $400 from Cura’s friend James Foley, the American combat journalist who was murdered in Syria by ISIS in 2014. “If it wasn’t for him, I really wouldn’t exist,” Cura said. HINCHAS’ first publication was in Foley’s honor, the poetry collection “Ghazals for Foley” in 2016, and the press was born. Since then, HINCHAS has published “XLA Poets,” a collection of 10 BIPOC poets, including Los Angeles Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson. Cura described the writers as “women poets I’ve worked with who are kicking ass,” he said. “Interesting writers who happen to be women but they’re amazing in their own right and deserve to be together.” In addition, the press, which relies on no funding from outside agencies, has released several volumes of “Librarians With Spines: Information Agitators in an Age of Stagnation,” edited by Cura in collaboration with Max Macias and Autumn Anglin, and is set to release the third volume this year. Cura said these collections of alternative narratives provide an opportunity for librarians to be advocates. “The work is so much more than pointing out the fault lines in the system,” Cura said. The work is what do we do with this knowledge how do we change this system? ‘Librarians With Spines’ stands as an alternative to people sitting around and pointing a finger saying, ‘I don’t like it.’ It’s real applications of how to fix things.” Which seems to be what Cura is about. And it’s often nothing less than a revolution. “People are attracted to the idea that revolutions are something that happen quickly, but the real work is going to take a lot of time, and a lot of people don’t see it,” he said. The son of Argentinian immigrants, Cura grew up in Bensonhurst and Miami, and after earning his MFA and burning out on teaching in New York, he earned a Masters in Library Science from Queens College, which he puts to use at LA’s Public Library, where he’s worked since 2011—most recently as a bilingual Adult Services Librarian at the Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch, named for the first African American librarian employed by the City’s Public Library. It’s an interesting location, Cura said, being in South Central LA but in the western region of LA’s Public Library system, which includes Mar Vista, Playa Vista and Venice Branch Libraries. “For me, it’s an honor at the very least to work here and assist the community,” Cura said. “I love it because no two days are the same. It’s a trip: it’s good, it’s bad. It makes a nice complement to being a writer and a publisher, a curator, editor and former teacher.” Cura does it all, building community as he goes. Right now he’s working on a novel loosely based on his family’s experience in Argentina’s Dirty War and promoting “Tlacuilx: Tongues in Quarantine,” a collection of poetry by Project 1521, a group of Southern California poets and an artist that drew inspiration from the Florentine Codex, the creation of a group of Indigenous Mexican artists amid a plague in response to the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. Through his work at the library, as well as a writer, editor and mentor through HINCHAS, Cura is doing what he loves, independent of larger influence—but at the behest of a greater purpose. “I’m not a religious person, but teaching people and empowering people to do their own thing is the faith part of what I exert,” Cura said.

RICK OEFINGER

Gone Fishing

Marina del Rey Sportfishing’s Rick Oefinger takes people on first-class adventures at sea

By Michele Robinson

Since 1997, Captain Rick Oefinger has been the president of the Marina del Rey Sportfishing and Whale Watching Company. “I enjoy taking people fishing, meeting people and sharing my passion with them,” says Oefinger. For Oefinger fishing is definitely a passion, but it’s also a way of life and his business all wrapped up together. His earliest memory of fishing was doing it with his grandfather when he was only 2 years old. From this experience, he got hooked. At the young age of 14, he started working on a fishing boat. That was 51 years ago and he has never looked back. “I fish every day,” he said. Dedicated to his craft and business, Oefinger or his crew are on deck as early as 5 a.m., seven days a week, 364 days a year, weather permitting. The only day the landing isn’t open is on Christmas. Growing up in Manhattan Beach, Oefinger worked in Redondo Beach for 20 years. He was fired from his job in May 1990. But when one door closes, another one opens and that is exactly what happened in his case. Oefinger had a friend who needed help with the maintenance of boats in Marina del Rey. He went to help out, and the old owner of the company had a boat and was looking for someone to take people out on trips. Oefinger needed a job so he worked for him. In 1997, the old owner left and Oefinger took over the lease. There are several things that are unique about how Oefinger runs the company. Customers receive a first-class fishing adventure along with a full-service experience. All of the necessary gear and equipment is available. Everyone is welcome, including those with no prior fishing experience. It is very popular with first-time fishers, tourists, women, families, and people from all walks of life and from all over the world. “You just make your reservation and get yourselves to Dock 52, everything is here,” Oefinger said. “The friendly, affable crewmembers will demonstrate basic operations. They will also help, assist and instruct the guests while they are on board. For a nominal charge they will even clean the fish for you.” Another special aspect of Marina del Rey Sportfishing is the way they fish. They use the unique Southern California style of sportfishing, which means they use live anchovy or sardines. This live bait is different from what would was used on the East Coast and it was developed on our coast about 100 years ago in the 1920s. A distinctive feature about Oefinger’s company is that four of his boats are custom designed by him. He built the boats from the ground up, which included designing them and overseeing their production at the shipyard building site. Besides work, Marina del Rey Sportfishing uses their boats for fun. Annually, their boats have participated and won trophies in the Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade. The boats are decorated by volunteers at the Cabrillo Aquarium, then ready to participate in the fun party. Every summer, the Betty-O is rented out several days a week by the Marina del Rey Anglers, Del Rey Yacht Club, Friends of Rollo and other nonprofit organizations to take underprivileged youth on fishing trips, some who have never seen the water before. The California Yacht Club also rents out the boats for fishing trips with the Junior Blind and Braille Institute. Oefinger also shared some tips for planning a fishing trip. One thing to remember is the time of the year makes no difference. From October to February, the fish available will primarily be bottom feeders like rockfish, sculpin and sand dabs. After March 1, red snapper and grouper become more abundant. In the spring the fish migrate and one may catch barracuda, bass bonito and even yellowtail. “The prettiest time to go out on the water is from October to February,” Oefinger said. “The water is usually calm and fewer people are on the boats.” The public is invited to come on board on one of their six “party boats,” which can hold around 70 to 80 people, but are currently limited to 60% due to COVID-19 concerns. People can also rent boats for private trips, which hold up to 100 people and offer tours for 20 to 25 people. Trips can last as long as a half day (four to five hours) excursion up to a whole day (eight to nine hours) experience. For those interested in whale watching, Marina del Rey Sportfishing offers three hours of private and public options. “When you go out to see whales, or on any other trip for that matter, you will likely see myriads of unique sea birds, seals, dolphins and all sorts of other wonderful sea creatures,” Oefinger said. At 66, Oefinger isn’t ready to slow down yet, but rather continues to love what he does. “I would not change a thing in my life, I’ve had a lot of fun doing it,” Oefinger said. “It’s a wonderful life.”

Show Me Your Mumu founders Cologne Trude and Cammy Miller have revolutionized online retail

By Kamala Kirk

When Cologne Trude and Cammy Miller first met as students at UC Berkeley, the connection was instant. The two quickly became friends, then after graduation they moved to New York together to work in the fashion industry and were roommates for several years. It was during a weekend trip to Miami in 2010 when the idea for their future clothing brand and e-commerce platform, Show Me Your Mumu, was born. “When we were packing for our trip, we felt there was one item of clothing that was missing from our suitcases,” Miller and Trude said. “We wanted a loose, flowy piece in a fun print that was versatile enough so you could wear it out at night and to the pool during the day. We were at dinner one evening talking about this item that we wanted but didn’t have, when one of our friends suggested that we make it ourselves. He jokingly said, ‘Show me your mumu!’ And that’s how we came up with the name for our company.” Upon returning from their vacation, Miller and Trude launched Show Me Your Mumu, transforming their apartment into the company’s headquarters. They hunted for fabrics and worked with a patternmaker, production source and web designer to create their first items of clothing and sold them online. When the brand began to take off and all of their items were selling out, they decided it was time to quit their full-time jobs and move back to California to pursue their dream as entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 2010, Show Me Your Mumu has expanded to hundreds of different styles and prints including kids and swimwear lines, denim, maternity wear, a bridesmaid collection, as well as men’s ties and socks. Their list of celebrity fans includes Kendall Jenner, and they’re known for doing special collaborations for limited-edition collections with Barbie, Disney, and media personalities such as Hannah Brown from “The Bachelorette,” among others. They also have a successful wholesale business and are carried in over 350 stores across the United States. “It’s been really fun with Mumu because we’ve evolved the brand,” Miller said. “When we see a need in our own closet, we’ll design something to fulfill that. Our denim does really well, as does our swimwear because girls love the flexible and supportive fabric. We’re a very print-based brand, and our designs are fun and exciting. We have several prints each year that are our superstars and we’ll bring them back in new styles, which our customers love.” Trude added, “We’re always launching new collections and every week we release new items. We have so many fun seasonal collections, and we love festivals and holidays like Fourth of July and Valentine’s Day. Cammy and I got married six months apart and during that time we discovered the need for cool, stylish and flattering dresses for bridesmaids that were affordable and could be worn again. We launched our wedding line in 2015 and it has become a big part of our business. After we got pregnant and had our daughters, we launched a line for kids. This year we’re launching some fun things for men that we haven’t done before.” Miller and Trude opened their Venice boutique in 2015, then the following year they opened a bridal boutique across the street. As the company grew, they moved their warehouse to a bigger location in Downtown Los Angeles. Over the years they’ve been featured by numerous media outlets including Forbes in 2019. Social media has also played an important role in Show Me Your Mumu’s success, and Miller and Trude are very focused on their community, always engaging with fans and customers on platforms like Instagram. “People love that we have a Mumu community,” Miller and Trude said. “A lot of fashion brands feel inaccessible and exclusive, but we’ve always wanted everyone to feel included and that we’re right there with them. We work hard to maintain affordable price points and we make a lot of our items in America while paying fair wages and working with good factories. Our customers really appreciate that.” At the beginning of COVID-19, Miller and Trude closed their retail store, but still have their office and bridal showroom, which are located off Abbot Kinney. They also host private fittings for brides-to-be and their wedding parties at the showroom. “We’d love to open another store one day, but our business shifted with e-commerce so it made sense to focus our energy there,” Miller and Trude said. “Having a store and bridal showroom is so fun. Girls come in groups with their bridesmaids, friends and family and everyone is in such a great mood. We love spending time with our customers in person.” Looking ahead, Miller and Trude are growing their team and expanding their sizing to include more plus-size styles and collaborations. They also hope to open another retail space down the road and look forward to getting more face time with customers

Fashion Pioneers

COLOGNE TRUDE AND CAMMY MILLER

through various fun events and activations. Miller and Trude live in Venice, and Trude’s husband, Sam, owns Great White café on Pacific Avenue and Gran Blanco under the Venice sign. Trude grew up in Newport Beach and Miller is a New Orleans native. Both said that the people and community of Venice were what attracted them to the area as residents and business owners. “Even when we were in New York and started the brand, people always assumed we were in California,” Miller and Trude said. “We’ve always been a California lifestyle brand with a Southern soul. We’ve combined where we both are from to create this brand that is so natural and organic to us and really shows who we are. Our first office, store and bridal showroom were in Venice—we’ve always been Venice girls. It’s home for us and the brand.”

Dancing Through Life

PHOTO BY CHRIS MORTENSON

CHASEN GREENWOOD

Ballet instructor spreads light, inspiration and love on the Westside

By Bridgette M. Redman

It’s good that Chasen Greenwood had a persistent friend when he was but a boy in Texas. He already knew by age 10 that he loved musical theater, but his friend wanted him to take a ballet class with him. “I said, ‘No, boys don’t take ballet,’” Greenwood said. “That’s not the cool thing in Texas.” He did it anyway, taking a class at Lisa Owen’s New World Ballet in Richardson, Texas and his life was changed. He would go on to dance on full scholarships with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet and Ballet Austin. He’d perform in the West Coast premiere of “Newsies.” He’s worked with Lady Gaga’s choreographer, Richy Jackson, and director Neal Brennan for an Xbox Super Bowl commercial. He recently choreographed a yet-to-be-released movie about a Black ballerina. The reluctant boy fell in love with dance and his choreography even won him “Best Young Choreographer” at Regional America Southwest. Now a teacher at Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica, Greenwood said it is a place that helps him pursue his life goal of spreading light, inspiration and love. “Like so many others, dance was my light,” Greenwood said. “It really was what got me through most of my childhood. I want to spread what the art form does for me. At Westside School of Ballet, I started meeting great adults and they helped me produce shows in Los Angeles.” Light, inspiration and love became Greenwood’s mantra. His classes are open to anyone of any age, from ex-dancers to professionals and semi-professionals to those who are new to dance. He said he starts every class guiding his students in breath work and then tells them that the next hour and a half is for them. “The one thing we all agree on is that we love dance,” Greenwood said. “For me, teaching is therapeutic. I can be having the worst day and when I show up, I am able to be with the dancers. No matter how busy I get, I will always go back to coaching. Dancers have always been my friends and the people I relate to. When people come to my class it’s important that we show up for ourselves and it doesn’t matter what our politics, religion or anything else is. We all love dance.” Greenwood remembers teaching at Westside School of Ballet just as the pandemic was shutting things down. He recalled the last class he taught. “It was when we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Greenwood said. “The last thing I said to my students was, ‘I’m sending you all love, I don’t know when I’ll see you again.’” However, Westside School of Ballet found ways to safely dance through the pandemic—with strict protocols and safety measures in place. On Father’s Day in 2021, Greenwood was able to do his first show since the start of the pandemic—one where everyone was masked, they checked vaccinations and kept everyone distanced. “We had a sold-out show and a lot of those adults (at Westside) helped to fund and raise money for those shows,” Greenwood said. “I hired 15 professional dancers and created all new work. We filmed it live with an audience and they got to see each thing twice because we filmed at different angles. They saw my directing, saw the product and saw what it was like to be on stage.” After that, he did another fundraiser where he hired 12 to 13 dancers and brought on two other choreographers. While Greenwood has loved live performance, he is now enjoying work on television and in film, and hopes to do more choreography for it. He also dreams of founding his own company, a contemporary ballet group that would collaborate with such organizations as Universal Studios and whose dancers would perform in television and film. As someone who has lived all over the country, Greenwood acknowledges that there are challenges and sacrifices to living in LA. It’s expensive and the traffic is intense. But he loves the people and it is here where he wants to build his career. He also credits Westside School of Ballet as re-inspiring his desire to teach. He said he is proud to be a part of the dance organization. It has not only kept him going, but restored his spirit. “There is something about the energy that I can’t explain,” Greenwood said. “It sometimes gets me teary-eyed when teaching. When I see people completely together doing pliés, I get chills. It’s something I can’t explain with words, which is why I’m a dancer.”

Meeting Patients Where They Are

Ebony Funches of Venice Family Clinic provides medical care to the homeless community

By Michele Robinson

Ebony Funches, doctor of nursing practice, loves helping underserved patients. As a member of Venice Family Clinic’s street medicine team, she pounds the pavement to provide care to people experiencing homelessness. “I meet patients exactly where they are,” Funches said. “My goal is to always provide quality care for those who need it most.” Every Thursday and Friday morning, she goes out with the street medicine team, which is composed of a social worker, registered nurse and mental health specialist, to provide medical care to unsheltered neighbors. They travel across the Westside in the Santa Monica, Venice and Westchester areas, providing care anywhere their expertise is needed including the local library, a new or existing encampment, or simply on the sidewalk. “I provide outreach services and build trust to deliver the best health care possible,” Funches said. Funches treats new and existing patients, and is able to provide a variety of medical services to them such as taking vitals, prescribing medication, performing wound care and helping with mental health issues. The long-term goal of the outreach program is to help people living on the street successfully get housing. Funches provides comprehensive care, including physical and mental health options, as well as follow-up care. “We can diagnose and treat schizophrenia on the street,” Funches said. “We can offer patients with psychosis injectable antipsychotics that last one to six months, which reduces the burden of taking a pill daily. This strategy for treating patients with psychosis helps these people become more organized so that they can function well enough to get housed and meet their long and short-term goals.” Dedicated to Venice Family Clinic, Funches drives an hour each way to work at the Rose Avenue location. She has been a registered nurse since 2008 and has worked at Venice Family Clinic for the past four years. “I knew immediately that I was going to be a lifer at Venice Family Clinic,” Funches said. “I am really invested in the Westside. I am most grateful to work at Venice Family Clinic with people who are so dedicated to our mission.” Funches’ career choice is inspired by her mother, who still works as a nurse in a local correctional facility. By watching her mother help people, Funches knew from a young age that she wanted to do the same. “I knew I wanted to be a nurse when I was 8 years old,” she said. Funches worked full time as a nurse while she went to school for additional nursing credentials. Eventually she earned her doctorate in nursing practice, an accomplishment only 10% of nurses have achieved. In addition to working in street medicine and substance use treatment, she is board certified in three different specialties: she’s a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, a family nurse practitioner, and an adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner. She also credits the clinic staff and her patients for inspiring her to continue learning. “The clinic provides integrated care, which blends behavioral health services within primary care,” Funches said. “I would not be the provider I am without Venice Family Clinic. The clinic helped me to grow both personally and professionally.” Besides street medicine, Funches sees others who come to Venice Family Clinic for health care services. In a typical week, she is practicing family medicine, caring for the unhoused who walk in, and providing psychiatry services via telehealth or in-person. In 2020, Venice Family Clinic celebrated 50 years in the community. As the first community health center in Los Angeles to practice street medicine, it began sending health care providers into the community to care for people experiencing homelessness in 1985. Venice Family Clinic’s street medicine program has grown to nine teams with 11 health care providers. Venice Family Clinic serves 4,500 unhoused residents, which is about 10% of the total population that the Clinic serves. They also recently launched a new Street Medicine Curriculum. This program is designed to train the next generation of healthcare providers who want to work with the unhoused. Having recently merged with South Bay Family Health Care, the Clinic now serves patients at 17 convenient locations from the Santa Monica Mountains to the South Bay. Providing in-person primary care and telehealth options to the community, Venice Family Clinic serves more than 45,000 people, regardless of their income, insurance or immigration status.

EBONY FUNCHES

For people without insurance, services are provided on a sliding scale and no one is turned away. The Clinic receives grant funding and raises private donations to help cover the cost of care for people who don’t have the funds to pay for their care. During the pandemic, the Clinic was also instrumental in reducing COVID-19 by administering more than 33,000 vaccines to a population that typically has lower vaccination rates. To protect patients and staff at the outset of the pandemic, the Clinic offered telehealth options. Telehealth continues to be an important option for the Clinic’s patients because many lack reliable transportation or have difficulty taking time off work to attend an in-person appointment. For Funches, serving the community she loves is her main focus. “I really love my job, it feels meaningful and purposeful every day,” Funches said. “My role is to make sure patients are cared for and respected. I enjoy making sure patients get the care they need and deserve. I’ve never worked for a place where people really live out the mission in their daily work like they do at Venice Family Clinic. It inspires me.”

‘The Vibe Plays a Big Part’

JIM KAUFMAN

Producer Jim Kaufman helps artists be authentic

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

Jim Kaufman is a music producer by trade, but he more accurately describes his job as a “vibe tech.” “Half of my job is just making sure everyone’s stoked, getting their opinions heard,” said Kaufman, a six-year Santa Monica resident. “I have to make sure everything on the tech side sounds great. That’s a huge part of it. The vibe plays a big part. Album listeners gravitate toward authenticity. You can’t fake having a good time. You’re having a good time or you’re not. There’s an authenticity you can’t edit that comes across in recordings.” Music is in Kaufman’s blood. His mother took him to his first concert—The Beach Boys—at age 8 in Washington, D.C. “I was blown away,” he recalled. “Brian (Wilson) wasn’t touring at that time. This was the ‘Kokomo’ era.” The Phoenix native grew up playing piano and picked up his first guitar at age 7. “I already knew that music was my thing,” he said. Kaufman graduated in 1998 from New School for the Arts & Academics, then in Scottsdale, Arizona. A year later, the guitarist/keyboardist co-founded the post-industrial rock band Opiate for the Masses, which inked a deal with Warcon Enterprises and Century Media. Kaufman was trained early on by Nine Inch Nails “Downward Spiral”-era musician/“Saw” film franchise composer Charlie Clouser. He became part of Helmet’s production team, too—all before the age of 21, by expanding outside the world of alternative rock and forging ahead into genres diverse as alternative, country and hip-hop. “I was his assistant for a little while,” said Kaufman, who moved to SoCal 20 years ago. “I did that and toured for a decade. About 2008, I said, ‘I’m over the road.’ I really loved making records and being in the studio. I gave up touring and have been locked inside of a studio since then.” Through Jim Kaufman Productions, his first client was Tempe, Arizona’s The Black Moods in 2002. Kaufman and the rock band recorded two full-lengths (2012’s “The Black Moods” and 2016’s “Medicine”) and the EPs “Laurel Canyon” and “Killers in the Night.” After the success of the album “Sunshine,” The Black Moods and Kaufman have reunited. “‘Medicine’ allowed us to get a deal with Another Century/Sony, which is really what moved us to the next level,” said singer Josh Kennedy, who met Kaufman through The Black Moods’ drummer Chico Diaz. When Kaufman fractured his hand, Kennedy moved in and served as his in-studio guitarist for acts like Danny Worsnop of Asking Alexandria. As far as Kaufman’s relationship with The Black Moods, Kennedy said his friend is inspiring. “He pushes us really hard,” Kennedy said. “He’s our friend, but he makes it a point to be honest, just like producers should. They question you and go and back with ideas. It’s inspiring to work with him because he’s such a close friend and we both came up together in this whole mess that you call the music business.” Kaufman’s resume also includes songs by Dee Snider, Them Evils, Anti-Flag, Helmet and Atlas Genius, as he primarily focuses on alternative, rock and country. “I truly try to listen to music as a fan, as a listener, as a student,” Kaufman said. “I really try to soak up the energy and provide bands with an awesome studio environment. I have this feeling the microphone pics up a lot more than the soundwaves. It picks up energy. If everyone has a great time, the mics are going to hear that.”

Dedicated and loyal

Kaufman’s other love is his family. For 10 years, he has been with his partner, yoga instructor Jasmina Hdagha, with whom he has one daughter, Sedona Ann, who was born March 17, 2021. “My partner and I met in Phoenix and then a group of our friends were going up to Sedona,” Kaufman said. “We spent this amazing weekend together and been together ever since. She’s a wonderful mother and I’m very lucky.” The family enjoys living in Santa Monica, which he calls a “great scene of good, like-minded people.” “Being from Arizona, I have PTSD from the heat when I was a kid,” he added. “I love California—the farmers markets with the wonderful produce. I love to work out and ride my bike to the beach. “There’s a wonderful music culture with 4th Street Recording Studio in Downtown Santa Monica. A lot of my friends, who like me, spent their twenties living up in Hollywood, have moved west. Now that we’re in our thirties and forties, it’s a great scene of like-minded people. There is the food, yoga, the great weather. It’s always 71 and sunny.” The key to his career is seeing music as the universal language. “It’s how we communicate,” he said. “Being in the womb, listening to your mother’s heartbeat. It’s something that everyone loves. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like music. “I love helping bands. I love the actual, technical process of making records. We’re at United Recording in Hollywood. We go there if we need to do bigger sounds. I feel like I’m going to Disneyland. The magic has never been lost on me.”

Serving Others

Mallika Chopra uses her lifelong knowledge to support others on their journey of well-being

By Srianthi Perera

Growing up, Mallika Chopra was immersed in self-help concepts such as meditation, mindfulness and self-reflection. Hence, it’s no surprise that Chopra—the daughter of famous author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra—has honed her adult life and livelihood around these insights. The Santa Monica resident, who is an author, speaker and businesswoman, said that her driving passion, influenced by her father, is service. “One of the questions he always asked us to ask ourselves is, ‘How can I serve?’” Chopra said. “For me, that’s been the question since I was a child. I feel very lucky and privileged with so many of the gifts and opportunities that I’ve got in my life that really the driving force is how can I serve. That includes how can I serve myself, my family, my community and my world.” Chopra recently became the CEO of Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality founded by her father. There, she heads the popular meditation and well-being app, Chopra App. She’s a public speaker and presents to various companies on topics such as finding balance, managing stress and anxiety. She’s an author of several children’s self-help books and the consultant to a television show, also for children, called “Apple TV+ Stillwater.” She’s also a wife and mother to daughters Tara, 20, and Leela, 17. What does Chopra deem her biggest accomplishment? “Being a mother to my two daughters, they are their own unique people who will contribute to the world in meaningful ways,” Chopra said. “So, I really measure success through that.” Career wise, Chopra said her biggest accomplishment has been “a pattern of launching different projects” and focusing on relationships. “I really think it’s about nurturing relationships, and through that, finding professional success,” Chopra said. “I’ve had many failures, I’ve had some successes, but for me, I really measure my professional career through the impact I’m making on a day-to-day basis.” Chopra Global supports people on their journey of well-being in body, mind and spirit. It hosts events and programs for the public, and also certifies education professionals to teach meditation and other healthful activities. The Chopra App is chockful of content on similar topics led by her father and the larger community of his friends and experts. Chopra didn’t plan to become an author. She only wanted to write if she had something authentic to express. Her writing career began when she became pregnant with her first baby and began to think about her intentions. The first book, “100 Promises to My Baby,” is about her commitment, responsibilities and conscious parenting. It was followed by many others aimed at children and parents. Chopra realized first-hand that even at a young age, kids are overwhelmed, have a lot of anxiety and confusion. “I knew from my personal experience because I learned to meditate when I was 9 years old,” Chopra said. Her books reflect her personal journey. The “Just Be” series: “Just Breathe,” “Just Feel” and “Just Be You,” is a trilogy of illustrated how-to books for children (and the adults in their lives) that provide simple tools to understand and support social and emotional knowing, resilience, meditation, mindfulness and self-reflection. “My Body Is a Rainbow: The Color of My Feelings” helps children imagine a rainbow of colors radiating from their body and combines this color connection with breathing exercises. In “Living with Intent: My Somewhat Messy Journey to Purpose, Peace, and Joy,” Chopra shares insights gained while seeking meaning and balance as a mom and entrepreneur who felt she was overwhelmed by work, family and responsibilities. “The books have done amazingly well because they’re actually quite unique,” Chopra said. “I purposely wrote these books for kids who can read by themselves.” Her next book due out in the summer is based on wisdom traditions and aimed at younger children; it is titled “The Buddha and the Rose” and is a subtle story about our connection with the natural world.

MALLIKA CHOPRA

Chopra’s impact on local children may be measured by her winning the OWL Award presented to outstanding women leaders by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. She has shared her meditation skills with children at Carlthorp School in Santa Monica, where her daughters attended, among other schools. Chopra didn’t grow up on the Westside, however. Her own childhood was spent in Boston and other cities in the U.S. and India. She moved to the area in 2000 with her husband. “After we graduated from business school, we never thought we’d end up living here so long, but this is absolutely home and where we are anchored,” Chopra said. Her brother, Gotham, lives in Pacific Palisades, just a 10-minute driving distance away. Their father, Deepak, lived in San Diego for many years and now lives in New York City, although he spends time in LA with his grandchildren. Tara is in college and Leela has another year of high school left. Chopra, who turned 50, is close to reaching another stage in her life with her husband as empty-nesters. “My brother and I are feeling responsibility and privileged to think about my dad’s legacy, and that’s why I got involved more in the company,” she said. That’s a large part of her service to the world. Chopra Global offers tools to empower people to impact their communities. She, herself, used her lifelong knowledge and content to impact women and children. “We can use Chopra Global as a company that can empower other people to find their voice and make impact,” Chopra said. “That’s something I feel serves in our unique way.”

Mallika Chopra

mallikachopra.com

Chopra Global

chopra.com