Past Forward

As Vice President for LA Opera Connects, Stacy Brightman is responsible for all aspects of community, engagement and learning programs that serve more than 150,000 students and community members annually. Stacy and her team provide deep access and radical welcome to opera for community members, from toddlers to seniors, by staging community performances and offering free or very low-cost ticket opportunities, through continuing education opportunities such as pre-show lectures and podcasts; by inviting community members to perform on stage to experience opera first-hand; and through school and residencies that integrate opera learning directly within curriculums. 

She works with more than 200 schools and 300 additional non-profit organizations annually. Stacy has guided four County-wide festivals, which have impacted more than a million Angelenos with performances, exhibits and symposia presented by more than 120 partners. She frequently serves as a grants and conference panelist and was recently selected to serve as one of Opera America's first three female mentors in the inaugural year of its Women's Opera Network mentoring program.

Eli Villanueva, a talented and passionate musician, director and educator, is in his 16th year as Resident Stage Director and teaching artist for LA Opera Connects. Eli teaches and directs as many as 2,000 students annually in original productions including, The Acclaimed In-School Operas, Opera Camp Summer Intensive, and LA Opera’s Off Grand Cathedral Project conducted by Music Director, James Conlon.

Eli’s compositions are praised for their appeal to audiences and performers alike.  His commissioned works of One-Act operas include THEN I STOOD UP which premiered in 2017, THE WHITE BIRD OF POSTON, FRIEDL and FESTIVAL PLAY OF DANIEL, an adaptation of the 13th-century liturgical play, Play of Daniel. In addition, music ranging from solo to choral works can be found through publishing companies, Fred Bock Music, Laurendale Associates, and Cherry Lane Music.

Chapters is a multi-part series concerning the history and the lessons of civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices carried out against communities or populations—including civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices that are perpetrated on the basis of an individual’s race, national origin, immigration status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

This project was made possible with support from Chapman University and The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library.

Guests: Stacy Brightman and Eli Villanueva
Hosts: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Jonelle Strickland
Produced by: Public Podcasting

Vanessa Garcia is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. Her novel White Light was one of NPRs Best Books of 2015 and won an International Latino Book Award. Her most recent play is the immersive hit, The Amparo Experience which Broadway World called “mad genius," and just won a Ruth Foreman (Carbonell) Award this week. Vanessa has also written for Sesame Street among other shows.

White Light
Shade Mountain Press, 2015

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Sara Schaff is the author of two story collections: The Invention of Love (Split/Lip Press 2020) and Say Something Nice About Me (Augury Books 2016), a 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for short fiction. Her writing has appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Yale Review Online, LitHub, and elsewhere.

The Invention of Love
Split/Lip Press, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Kelly Fordon is the author of an award-winning short story collection, Garden for the Blind (Wayne State University Press, 2015); a poetry chapbook, The Witness, which won the Eric Hoffer Award for the Chapbook; and a poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House.

I Have the Answer
Wayne State University Press, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Tea Krulos is the author of Heroes in the Night, Monster Hunters, Apocalypse Any Day Now and his new title American Madness. He writes a weekly column on his website (teakrulos.com) titled "Tea's Weird Week" and lives in Milwaukee.

American Madness
Feral House, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Sharon Harrigan’s new novel Half has been called “riveting and inventive” by Publisher’s Weekly and “suspenseful, lyrical, and consuming” in a starred review by Booklist. She is also the author of the memoir Playing with Dynamite and teaches writing at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Half
University of Wisconsin Press, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Jody A. Forrester grew up in Los Angeles during the conflicted fifties and tumultuous sixties. She went to San Jose State College, but left after the first semester to participate full time in the anti-war movement. A graduate from the MFA Bennington Writing Seminars, her essays and short stories have appeared in multiple publications.

Guns Under the Bed: Memories of a Young Revolutionary
Odyssey Books (AU), 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Jennifer Hull is a writer and a teacher. She grew up in New York, graduated cum laude from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in history, and has a master’s degree in education. She has taught K-12 students as well as college freshmen at the Taos campus of the University of New Mexico. She lives in New Mexico, with her husband, twin sons, and cocker spaniel.

Shook: An Earthquake, a Legendary Mountain Guide, and Everest's Deadliest Day
University of New Mexico Press, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

The author, Michael H. Blaine spent a career at the Clinton Correctional Facility. Having been an Officer, Sergeant, and Lieutenant, his story reveals the changes he observed and what he experienced. Refusing to compromise his principles and sickened by the downward spiral that Clinton was experiencing, he retired months before the first successful escape at Dannemora on June 6, 2015.

The Invisible Walls of Dannemora: Inside the Infamous Clinton Correctional Facility
Histria Books, Gaudium Publishing, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Ruby McConnell is a registered geologist who writes about nature, art, and culture with a particular emphasis on the intersection of the environment and human experience. A recipient of numerous honors, including the Literary Arts Oregon Literary Fellowship, she has written extensively about the Pacific Northwest and the environment.

Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of a Life
Overcup Press, 2020

A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.

Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.