Rare Bird Radio

Allan MacDonell is the author of the upcoming book 'Now That I am Gone", as well as, 'Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine' and 'Punk Elegies: True Tales of Death Trip Kids, Wrongful Sex and Trial by Angel Dust'. MacDonell studied creative writing at San Francisco State University. He was a defining contributor to L.A.'s Slash magazine. Since the turn of the millennium, MacDonell has been separating real from fake on Internet platforms like Buzz Media, Spin Media, Participant Media, and marijuana news-and-lifestyle site Kindland. He is currently director of TheSkeeve.com.

Jennifer Locke has a dual career path going back more than 25 years as a practitioner of performance video art and as a professional dominatrix. Locke composes physically intense, sculptural actions in relation to the camera, audience, and specific architecture. Within this framework, she plays with viewing structures—redistributing hierarchies between artist, model, camera, and audience—in order to explore intersubjectivity, spectatorship, and the construction of meaning. Her actions focus on cycles of duration, physicality, and visibility, and draw from her experiences as a dominatrix, wrestler, and artists’ model.

Heidi Barnes ran her family's Bar Harbor, Maine inn for years, which inspired 'The Bellman' and 'The Bellman's Secret'. She has lived around the world, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, and Canada―and now resides in Los Angeles, California. She enjoys outdoor activities, loves animals, and is a devoted mother of three.

Chrissy is spunky, comedic and outgoing. She is an American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumna. Chrissy has her hand in many pots- acting, hosting, comedy, producing, radio & writing. Bring her a pot and chances are she'll put her hand in it. Chrissy currently hosts and produces the unfiltered & unscripted comedic entertainment talk show - Females Unfiltered, which shoots on location at Mixology101 at The Grove in Los Angeles.

KAREN STEFANO is the author of the forthcoming memoir 'What A Body Remembers' (Rare Bird Books 2019) and the short story collection 'The Secret Games of Words' (1GlimpsePress 2015). Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Ms. Magazine, California Lawyer, Psychology Today, The South Carolina Review, Tampa Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Epiphany, and elsewhere. She is also a JD/MBA with more than twenty years of complex litigation experience.

BRIAN ALAN ELLIS is the author of several books, including 'Sad Laughter' (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018) and 'Something to Do with Self-Hate' (House of Vlad Productions/Talking Book, 2017). His writing has appeared at Juked, Hobart, Monkeybicycle, Fanzine, Electric Literature, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Funhouse, Connotation Press, Heavy Feather Review, and Queen Mob’s Tea House, among other places, and he lives in Florida.

Allan MacDonell is the author of the upcoming after-death memoir 'Now That I Am Gone.' His previous books are 'Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine' and 'Punk Elegies: True Tales of Death Trip Kids, Wrongful Sex and Trial by Angel Dust.' MacDonell studied creative writing at San Francisco State University and was a defining contributor to L.A.'s 'Slash' magazine. Since the turn of the millennium, he's been separating real from fake on Internet platforms such as Buzz Media, Spin Media and Participant Media. He is currently director of TheSkeeve.com.

Cheyann Benedict is a serial fashion entrepreneur whose creative impulses refuse to be confined to a single discipline. Benedict achieved her first lifetime achievement score by selling her startup women's T-shirt line C&C California to the Liz Claiborne company in 2005. Since then, the search for new challenges, new forms of expression and deeper artistic fulfillment have taken Cheyann around the world, several times, and deep into her punk rock origins.

Emily Strelow, author of 'The Wild Birds', was born and raised in Oregon’s Willamette Valley but has lived all over the West and now, the Midwest. For the last decade she combined teaching writing with doing seasonal avian field biology with her husband. While doing field jobs she camped and wrote in remote areas in the desert, mountains and by the ocean. She is a mother to two boys, a naturalist, and writer.

Jacqueline Suskin is the author of 'The Collected', a book of narrative poems paired with found photographs, and 'Go Ahead & Like It', a self-help book that explores the healing power and artistry of positive list making. Known for her multidisciplinary work with a project she calls Poem Store, Suskin composes improvisational poetry for patrons who choose both a topic and a price in exchange for a unique verse. She regularly brings poetry into classrooms around the country and was honored by Michelle Obama at the White House as a Turnaround Artist. Suskin is based in Los Angeles, but considers the entire state of California her home.

Heidi Barnes ran her family's Bar Harbor, Maine inn for years, which inspired 'The Bellman' and 'The Bellman's Secret'. She has lived around the world, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, and Canada―and now resides in Los Angeles, California. She enjoys outdoor activities, loves animals, and is a devoted mother of three.

Damian Sage is a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA. A native of New York, Damian’s music is deeply steeped in the wisdom and experience of someone who has seen it all.

Allan MacDonell is the author of the upcoming novel 'Now That I Am Gone'. His other works include; 'Punk Elegies: True Tales of Death Trip Kids, Wrongful Sex and Trial by Angel Dust', 'Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine' and was a defining voice of the groundbreaking punk periodical "Slash" magazine. While writing for Slash, he also co-invented slam-dancing.

Roger "Buzz" Osborne, also known as King Buzzo, is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He is a founding member of the Melvins, as well as Fantômas and Venomous Concept.

Janet O'Shea is Professor of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA. Author of 'RISK, FAILURE, PLAY', 'At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage' and the co-editor of the 'Routledge Dance Studies Reader', 2nd edition, her research focuses on corporeality, interdisciplinary exchange, and the politics of everyday life. She is a practitioner of Filipino martial arts, jeet kune do, Brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, and empowerment self-defense.

Cathy Chapaty is a 22-year martial arts veteran and third-degree Taekwondo black belt who specializes in teaching children, many with ADHD, Asperger's syndrome, and other challenges. She is the author of two books: "No Pouting in the Dojo: The Imperfect Journey of Teaching Children Character through Martial Arts" (Sidekick Publications, 2014) and "Sports Planet: Sports Played Around the World" (Steck-Vaughn Publishing Co., 2003).

Susan “George” Schorn (the nickname . . . it’s a long story) is a writer, martial artist, and self defense advocate. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two children, and trains and teaches at Sun Dragon Martial Arts and Self Defense. She writes "Bitchslap: A Column About Women and Fighting" for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Her first book, 'Smile at Strangers: Lessons in the Art of Living Fearlessly', was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in May 2013.

As an Ambassador for the Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors, Chapaty teaches workshops at girls' empowerment conferences and has helped area Girl Scouts earn their safety badges through self-defense seminars. She has also led seminars at National Women's Martial Arts Federation (NWMAF) camps, which attract hundreds of girls and women from across the United States, Canada, and Europe. (The NWMAF named her Member of the Year in 2011.)

Chapaty has had dozens of essays and articles published in a variety of media on topics such as integrity in sports, anger management, and mentorship through martial arts. In 2012, she was honored by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea for an essay on the transformational power of Taekwondo. Chapaty is a member of the NWMAF, Association of Women Martial Arts Instructors, USA Taekwondo, and the Writers' League of Texas.

Allan MacDonell is the author of the upcoming novel 'Now That I am Gone', 'Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine' and 'Punk Elegies: True Tales of Death Trip Kids, Wrongful Sex and Trial by Angel Dust'. MacDonell studied creative writing at San Francisco State University. He was a defining contributor to L.A.'s Slash magazine. Since the turn of the millennium, MacDonell has been separating real from fake on Internet platforms like Buzz Media, Spin Media, Participant Media, and marijuana news-and-lifestyle site Kindland. He is currently director of TheSkeeve.com.

Heidi Barnes ran her family's Bar Harbor, Maine inn for years, which inspired 'The Bellman' and 'The Bellman's Secret'. She has lived around the world, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, and Canada―and now resides in Los Angeles, California. She enjoys outdoor activities, loves animals, and is a devoted mother of three. The Bellman's Secret is her second novel.

Sarah Tomlinson is the author of the father-daughter memoir, 'GOOD GIRL', published by Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster) in 2015. She has ghostwritten or co-written seventeen books, including the New York Times Bestseller, 'FAST GIRL', with Suzy Favor Hamilton, and four un-credited New York Timesbestsellers. Her music criticism, articles, and personal essays have appeared in publications including Marie Claire, MORE, Publishers Weekly, Salon.com, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Huffington Post. Her fiction has appeared in Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Her personal essays have appeared in the collections 'He Never Came Home' and 'Critically Acclaimed: Fake Movies Real Reviews'.