Here is a short short list of the remarkable stories, essays, tributes, articles and poems from recent issues. And, don’t forget the art and photographs!

“How We Find Our Silenced Voices and Learn to Sing”   by Janny Castillo – a retelling of a story by Marguerite Annie Johnson, but you may know her best as Maya Angelou.

January Poetry of the Streets (poets Claire J. Baker, George Wynn, Joan Clair, Judy Joy Jones, Mary Rudge)

Are Homeless People Beautiful? by Osha Neumann

Silicon Valley’s Brilliant Design: Homeless Families in the Rain by Carol Denney

“Remember the Children Born On Our Streets”  and  “Dave Ferguson’s Lifelong Mission of Opening Doors” both articles by Lydia Gans

“History and commentary on blues and social justice”

“On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, let us recognize that extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere. Let us recall that poverty is a denial of human rights. For the first time in history, in this age of unprecedented wealth and technical prowess, we have the power to save humanity from this shameful scourge. Let us summon the will to do it.” — Kofi Annan

Street Spirit is a publication of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)  that reports extensively on homelessness, poverty, economic inequality, welfare issues, human rights issues and the struggle for social justice. For the past 17 years, Street Spirit has been dedicated to empowering poor and homeless people and giving a voice to the voiceless, at a time when the voices of the poor are virtually locked out of the mainstream media.

American Friends Service Committee shoulders the entire printing costs of more than $3,000 per month to give more than 100 homeless vendors a positive alternative to panhandling, and to give our readers a progressive alternative to the corporate-controlled mainstream media. Help us remain an independent voice for justice! Please donate or subscribe to Street Spirit.

To read more about what Street Spirit is:  http://www.thestreetspirit.org/about-2/

If you wish to donate to Street Spirit through American Friends Service Committee, click on http://www.thestreetspirit.org/subscriptions-donations/

American Friends Service Committee

“We are committed to this Spirit-led journey, undertaken to see what love can do.”

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service.

AFSC’s work is based on our belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. These principles animate our work for peace and justice in scores of communities in the United States and in our international programs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

AFSC was founded in 1917 during World War I.  In accordance with their Quaker faith, the new organization gave young conscientious objectors ways to serve without enlisting in the military or taking lives.  They drove ambulances, ministered to the wounded, and stayed on in Europe after the armistice to rebuild war-ravaged communities.

In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee and British Friends Service Council accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for the work done during and after the two World Wars to feed starving children and help Europe rebuild itself.

Committed to the principles of nonviolence and justice, the American Friends Service Committee seeks in its work and witness to draw on the transforming power of love, human and divine.

We seek to understand and address the root causes of poverty, injustice, and war. We hope to act with courage and vision in taking initiatives that may not be popular.

To read more about American Friends Service Committee:  http://www.thestreetspirit.org/about-afsc/

The art of homeless artists, reviews of gallery showings, profiles of artists and more:  http://www.thestreetspirit.org/category/features/art-spirit/

Index of back issues of Street Spirit  http://www.thestreetspirit.org/back-issue-archives-by-month-year/

Cheers to the Folks of Street Spirit – monthly newspaper with tagline “Justice News & Homeless Blues in the Bay Area”

**

Teresa LeYung-Ryan with her Love Made Of Heart trademark - photo by YBK

Teresa LeYung-Ryan is “Platform & Fanbase-Building Coach Teresa” and Manuscript Consultant and  . . .

author of:

Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby (novel used by college professors)

Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW (workbook)

Coach Teresa’s Blog at http://writingcoachTeresa.com

**

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan here, at Rose Garden Inn in Berkeley CA, with Carla Danziger (author of Hidden Falls) who is in the San Francisco Bay Area getting ready for her appearance at the annual Norway Day celebration of Norwegian Culture at Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco on the weekend of May 5 and 6, 2012.

Carla Danziger says: “Lots of Norwegian food,  art,  jewelry,  housewares, gifts, and cultural demonstrations and AUTHORS and book-signings!”

Go to http://norwayday.org  for details.  Velkommen!

On both days, authors Carla Danziger, Irene Levin Berman, Astrid Karlsen Scott, and Julie K. Rose.

In The Little Theater, Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco.  11:15am — 12:15pm a Special Program, ‘Norway and the Holocaust: The Untold Story,’ a talk by author Irene Levin Berman, sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate, San Francisco.

And  1:30 – 2:30pm (also in The Little Theater, left when you’ve gone through Festival Pavilion entrance ) Three Books, Three Authors–Astrid Karlsen Scott, Julie Rose, and Carla Danziger!

Also,  Irene Levin Berman and Carla Danziger will be at Booth #14 (far left wall from Festival Pavilion entrance, pass Little Theater, pass food court).

Festival Map:  http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz259/solabayarea/FestivalMap2012_sm.jpg

author of Hidden Falls--Carla Danziger, of Scandinavian descent, inspires soul-searching questions about justice

Watch Author View’s interview on Carla Danziger posted on YouTube.

See you at Norway Day celebrations May 5 and 6, 2012!

Sincerely,

Coach Teresa

http://writingcoachteresa.com

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan encourages you to wear your many hats as a writer — work on the craft and your platform at the same time.  Pursue more and more resources . . . by visiting my website and this blog on a regular basis.  If you are not in the vicinity of the events I blog about . . . please look at the names of the people who are referenced in my posts, go to their websites by clicking on the links I provide or your keying their names in a search engine.  The people  I blog about will lead you to their colleagues, and so on.  More ways to build your platform?  See the exercises in Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days.  I can help you polish your manuscript (identify themes, universal archetypes, front-story & back-story) AND coach you on platform-building – click here.

Coach Teresa, how do I continue promoting myself after an event or a book signing or a reading?

Here’s my answer:

You’ve spent weeks, maybe even months, publicizing your event.  You deliver the event (and I hope you had fun), then you, the audience, everyone involved in coordination . . .  you all go home or on to another event. Have you forgotten something? That something is “follow up” work.  Who did you talk to at the event?  What did you promise? Below is an example – how to follow up. Angela Pang and her coworkers at AsianWeek work extremely hard each year orchestrating the Asian Heritage Street Celebration.  This is my Email to her; I cc’ed my booth partners Margie Yee Webb and Patricia Tsang, M.D.

May 22, 2011

Dear Angela,

If you need quotes from us for post-event newsletter . . . here goes;  also, 3 photos attached.

Who were the authors at this year’s AHSC? Margie Yee Webb (Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings: Insight and Inspiration for a Wonderful Life), Teresa LeYung Ryan (Love Made of Heart; Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days), and Patricia Tsang, M.D. (Optimal Healing: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine).  Margie Yee Webb says: “California Writers Club is proud to once again be part of the Asian Heritage Street Celebration to encourage everyone to write their stories.  We are also pleased to support schools through donations to the School Raffle Program.” Teresa LeYung Ryan says: “I thank Margie and Asian-Week Foundation for re-connecting me to the Asian-American community. My third year at AHSC, I had so much fun with my friends.”  Patricia Tsang, M.D. says: “A street fair with food, culture, art, literature, martial arts, health science, and more. What can be more enticing to an Asian?  The celebration gave me a chance to reconnect with my roots as well as share information about my book.”

Angela, thanks again for making our experience enjoyable!   Margie & Pat, I’ll email you more photos later 

Sincerely,

Coach Teresa LeYung Ryan  on facebook!

Check out Teresa’s YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/teresaleyung

http://writingcoachteresa.com

You notice how I embedded our URLs in our names? (so that if Angela or AsianWeek e-newsletter readers want to read more about us and California Writers Club. . . they’d be taken to our websites).  By the way, my two booth partners and I are also members of Women’s National Book Association -San Francisco Chapter.

Coach Teresa here has a lot of follow-up emails to send and photos to resize and rename. To see a partial list of people I met at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration, please go to my May 22, 2011 post . Thanks.

Have fun building your writer’s platform!

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan (click on my name to get to my YouTube videos)

***

Click on book cover to go to Amazon

I give thanks to everyone in my life and wish you all tasty and nourishing foods, music, art, laughter, books, literacy, nature, love and peace.

MamaCoAtl & Kim McMillon, thank you for giving me a role in blogging about activities to raise public awareness that say “END Violence Against Women & Girls!”: http://16daysofartivismforthehealingofviolence.wordpress.com/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In honor of UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women & Girls, please feel free to tell the world about any events you support by submitting a comment at:
http://16daysofartivismforthehealingofviolence.wordpress.com/tell-us-about-your-events-to-commemorate-international-day-for-the-elimination-of-violence-against-women/

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan
Author / Writing Career Coach / Manuscript Consultant / Publisher

16 days of ARTivism (Nov. 25 – Dec. 10 San Francisco Bay Area) begin on Nov. 25 United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women & Girls, which is also Thanksgiving Day this year  http://16daysofartivismforthehealingofviolence.wordpress.com/

GraceArt Publishing is the publisher of Build My Name, Beat the Game: 22 Days to Identify & Develop My Writer’s Platform to Attract Agents, Acquisition Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention. Paypal is available http://writingcoachteresa.com

Teresa says: “Reach out, not stress out, when building your writer’s name/platform.”  

To comment on any of my columns (blog posts), just click on the blue title bar of the post, fill in the boxes and press “submit.”  Please click here for my blog http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/

Love Made of Heart inspires adult-children of mentally-ill parents to speak openly about the stigmas that their parents suffer.  http://LoveMadeOfHeart.com

I am happy to announce my Love Made of Heart online store where you’ll find gift items for yourselves, women, children, moms, grandmas, babies, friends and pets. http://lovemadeofheart.com/Love-Made-of-Heart-Online-Store-&-Gift-Shop.html

http://www.facebook.com/Teresa.LeYung.Ryan

I met Jennifer Joseph at a writers’ conference many years ago and throughout these years whenever someone asks: “Who should we include on a panel of experts in the publishing industry?” I would reply: “Invite the owner of Manic D Press–Jennifer Joseph.  Great energy.  Savvy.  She cares about her authors’ careers.”

Manic D Press is an award-winning literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction, poetry, pop culture, music, art, narrative-oriented comix, and alternative travel books,  representing a diverse group of unique writers and artists,

When I was president for California Writers Club-SF Peninsula Branch 2005-2006, I wanted to give our members a program of publishing experts at the June 2006 meeting–my last meeting as president.  That day, I learned from Jennifer Joseph why publishers usually don’t print large quantities of any particular book, and, why publishers “remainder” books (sell a book at a low low price) even when they’ve been only recently published.  Here’s the answer:  Books are inventory; inventory gets taxed.  To have unsold books sitting in warehouses cost money to the publishers.

Last week, at the publishing panel sponsored by Women’s National Book Association at San Francisco Public Library-Main Branch, I learned from Jennifer Joseph to take advantage of the facebook phenomenon.  I love writing blog posts to help writers build their names/platforms; Jennifer recommends my using facebook to broadcast new posts.

Also, I learned that she publishes poetry books.  On the Manic D Press postcard are thumbnail-size images of 20 book covers with their titles, authors’ names, genres, ISBNs and cover prices; 5 of them are poetry/essays.

Please visit the online Manic D store  http://manicdpress.com

On her website, Jennifer says: “If there’s a Manic D book that’s not here and you want it, send an email, okay? Thanks for everything (and especially for reading our books).”

Writers who want to see submission guidelines, go to:  http://manicdpress.com and scroll to the bottom of the page  OR click here: http://manicdpress.com/submissions.html

http://www.facebook.com/manicd

http://twitter.com/manicdpress

Awards presented to Manic D Press include 2000 American Library Association Stonewall Award for Literature; 1997 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Art; 2002 and 2000 Firecracker Alternative Book Awards for Fiction; 1998 American Institute of Graphic Arts juried traveling exhibition 50 Books, 50 Covers; Sept/Oct 2003 + March/April 2004 Booksense 76 lists; SF Bay Guardian’s 2004 Best of the Bay: ‘Best Quintessentially San Franciscan Publisher’, Publishing Triangle’s 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry + 2008 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; SF Weekly’s “Best of San Francisco 2008″; 2009 and 2010 Lambda Literary Transgender Awards.

Thank you, Jennifer Joseph, for being a hard-working publisher who enjoys sharing your insight with the writing-and-reading community!

Sincerely,
Teresa LeYung Ryan, author, writing-career coach, founder of GraceArt Publishing

Build My Writer’s Name and Platform: Attract Agents, Acquisition Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention
is the 22 minutes for 22 days workbook.
“Reach out, not stress out, when building your writer’s name.”

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/

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