The Creator State

Crime novelist Tod Goldberg has made a career of writing about bad people behaving badly. A New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the popular “Burn Notice” series, his work has been published in a dozen languages all over the world. In addition to exploring the dark side of glitzy cities in his novels, he serves as director of UC Riverside’s low-residency MFA program where he is a professor of creative writing. He is also co-host of the popular podcast “Literary Disco” with writer Julia Pistell and actor Rider Strong.

Goldberg’s latest book is “The Low Desert: Gangster Stories,” a collection of short stories expanding upon the universe of his acclaimed “Gangsterland” series. Set mostly in Goldberg’s own backyard of the Coachella Valley, his new book explores the noirish underbelly of California’s inland desert.

UCR Magazine Associate Editor Jessica Weber caught up with Goldberg to talk about falling in love with crime fiction, the secret world behind the palm trees and fancy desert resorts of Southern California, and why we sometimes root for the bad guy. Listen in for the lowdown on “The Low Desert.”

Can you name the fastest land mammal in North America? If you guessed pronghorn, you’re right. In the world, they’re second only to the cheetah.

A team from UC Riverside met some friendly and very fast pronghorns along with giraffes, chimpanzees, and okapis while interviewing UCR alumna Denise Verret at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. The zoo, according to Denise, represents the best of Los Angeles, a place she loves dearly and has dedicated her life to serving. In 2019, after three decades working for the city of Los Angeles, Denise was named CEO and director of the zoo, becoming the first African American woman to lead a major U.S. zoo.

In this wild episode of The Creator State, Denise shares her love for animals and LA during an interview with UCR Magazine editor Omar Shamout inside The Lair, the reptile and amphibian house at the LA Zoo.

Tom Lutz knows a lot about writing. He writes about travel, he’s written books about crying, nervousness, and even about doing nothing. His works have received numerous accolades, including the American Book Award, and have appeared on New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists.

Tom is the founding editor-in-chief of The Los Angeles Review of Books, known as LARB (“larb”), founder of The LARB Radio Hour, The LARB Quarterly Journal, The LARB/USC Publishing Workshop, and LARB Books. At UC Riverside, Tom is a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Creative Writing, as well as the director of Writer’s Week, the longest running, free literary event in California.

Tune in to hear Tom talk with UCR Magazine editor Omar Shamout about his fiction debut, “Born Slippy,” and about writing, of course.

Rafael Lopez knows when to press play.

As a DJ, music producer, and artist based in Palm Desert, California, he’s known as Alf Alpha. He creates and performs hip hop and electronic dance music for nightclubs, festivals, TV and film, and parties…sometimes from the inside of one of his 70’s era Volkswagen busses, customized and retrofitted as mobile DJ booths.

Alf Alpha began his career as a DJ while attending the University of California, Riverside, where he played soccer for the Highlanders and was a founding member of the UCR Chapter of the Hip Hop Congress.

Following an album release in 2009 and self-released beat tape the following year, Alf Alpha was invited to perform at the annual Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival in 2011 and has been an artist at the festival every year since his debut.

Alf Alpha is a DJ for the Los Angeles Football Club and brands across the globe, and he is also an educator, sharing his time and talents with high school students during six-week DJ workshops.

After learning her 10-year-old sister was being bullied at school for her dark skin, UCR alumna Taylor Pollard tweeted a photo of her younger sister with the hashtag #flexininmycomplexion. The photo and phrase went viral, with positive messages flooding in from around the world, including support from celebrities Alicia Keys, Lena Waithe, and Lupita Nyong’o.

And just like that: a business was born, launching with a t-shirt line made in their garage that sold out in 10 minutes.

Under the leadership of Taylor and her sister, Kheris Rogers, Flexin’ In My Complexion has evolved from t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase once used by their grandmother to encourage their confidence into a non-profit aimed at empowering youth against bullying.

Taylor now splits time between managing business operations and her younger sister’s exploding fashion career as a model and designer, the youngest to ever show during Fashion Week, as well as speaking engagements, media appearances, and partnerships with LeBron James and Nike.

Join us for a conversation with Taylor Pollard about using social media savvy to launch a business (and a movement), and learn how a major change at UCR aligned perfectly to prepare her for the future she couldn’t even imagine.

Regina Louise never knew a “normal” childhood. Throughout her tumultuous youth, she was shuffled through more than 30 foster homes and psychiatric facilities, all before the age of 18. Compounding the trauma, a racially motivated ruling in 1974 prevented Regina’s counselor from being able to adopt her. And yet…

After aging out of the foster care system, Regina pursued her dream of higher education, built a thriving hair salon business, and became a successful author, motivational speaker, and advocate for foster youth. Following nearly 30 years of separation, Regina reunited with her counselor and was adopted as an adult in the same courthouse where the pair lost the previous legal battle.

For more than 16 years now, Regina has traveled the country telling her story to bring awareness to the systemic failures that continue to affect foster youth today. In April 2019, a film based on Regina’s memoirs premiered on Lifetime alongside PSAs about adoption and foster care, giving voice to the more than 400,000 children currently in the U.S. foster care system.

Join us for this moving conversation with Regina Louise about taking control of your own story no matter the circumstances and using your voice to become your own hope.

How hard is it to take an “ugly” photo? Former corporate lawyer turned photographer Chris Jordan is certainly trying. For many years, he’s been looking through his lens at the destructive power of our culture and global mass consumption.

Chris documented devastation following Hurricane Katrina and visited Midway Island for photo and video projects about plastic pollution responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of seabirds. His TED Talk, “Turning Powerful Stats into Art,” has received more than 1.7 million views and his documentary ALBATROSS is currently available as free public artwork and screening all over the world.

Chris’s heartbreaking art inspires viewers to reflect on the consequences of convenience and the effects of our collective consumption habits, elevating his work into environmental activism.

So exactly how hard is it to take an “ugly” photo? Chris says it can’t be done. Even while photographing heaps of discarded electronics, Chris sees that beauty permeates everything in our world.

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Chris Jordan about how to find hope and beauty amidst despair and learn more about his exhibition “Intolerable Beauty,” on view at UCR’s Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts in downtown Riverside through January 2020.

Nwaka Onwusa has managed the enviable feat of making music the guiding theme of her career. According to her, the road to curating music history — first at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles and now at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland — began at UC Riverside.

The first in her family to attend college, Onwusa says her experience working in the UCR fine arts box office got her foot in the door at the Grammy Musuem box office, then joining its education department, and later becoming its curator. In 10 years, she conceptualized, researched, and produced more than 20 exhibits for the museum, including “Legends of Motown,” “All Eyez on Me: The Writings of Tupac Shakur,” and “Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey.”

At the Rock Hall, Onwusa hopes to bring a broader range of artists into the fold, including those traditional rock ’n’ roll fans might consider outside the genre’s boundaries, especially more West Coast hip-hop artists.

Listen in for a conversation with Nwaka Onwusa as we discuss her career ascent in music and her new role. Plus, we’ll put her on the spot to name her all-time favorite songs.

Fatima Farheen Mirza started writing her first novel in a classroom at UC Riverside. Following her passion to pursue writing full time, she changed majors from pre-med to creative writing and went on to become a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Fatima’s debut novel “A Place for Us” was the first book to be released by Sarah Jessica Parker’s new publishing imprint, SJP for Hogarth. It became an instant New York Times Bestseller and was named one of the best books of 2018 by The Washington Post, NPR, and People magazine.

We sat down with the author in the Middle Eastern Student Center at UCR for a conversation about how characters evolve and teach us to reflect upon our own lives. Join us as we explore identity amid powerful family dynamics and how freeing it can be to allow yourself and your art to become what they need to be.

What’s a good road trip without great snacks? For Eugene Kang, a road trip stop for beef jerky sparked his entrepreneurial journey to become the co-founder and CEO of Country Archer Jerky Company, a brand you might recognize from the shelves of Starbucks, Target, Whole Foods, and Costco stores across the country.

Growing up working in his parents’ gas station convenience stores, Eugene was familiar with popular snack options and with the hard work needed to run a thriving business. Following a record year of growth in 2018, Country Archer was included as one of the fastest-growing private companies on the Inc. 5000 list and Eugene was named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 List in the food and drink category.

Join us as we talk with Eugene Kang in this episode about seizing opportunity, creating a national brand, and where his focus lies as a visionary leader.