An Abundant Life - Life Stories

In 2005 I met a couple who owned a six foot Iguana. It was a time in my life of so many challenges, and they were such a lovely couple and their story was so enchanting and fun that I asked them if I could write a children's story about them. I had the feeling that if I could write the story in an engaging way that it could become a series, and I had in my mind the idea of a Curious George type of character, an animal, or in this case an Iguana, that is owned by humans and is always exploring and discovering and learning about life, sometimes getting into mischief, but always loveable and with a message in the stories that transcended the story itself to help people of all ages to think about their own lives and experiences in new ways.

The couple I met were named Jo and Joe, and when they said enthusiastically yes, that I could I write the story, I sat down and as happens often when I write creatively, it just flowed out of me. I always used to say that I'm not an Artist, but what I realized in recent years is that what I really mean is that I'm not a figurative Artist. I don't know how to draw figures or portraits, and so when I had my children's story written and I'd shared it with Jo and Joe, I started asking people I knew who were Artists and Illustrators and Animators if they or someone they knew would be interested in drawing the characters and illustrating the book. Over the years I've met many people who really liked the idea, and at the time I wrote it I was introduced to someone who worked with the Cartoon Network and I submitted it as a proposal for a show. They liked it too, but even when there were people who liked it, the story somehow just never sparked that certain thing that makes someone want to illustrate or animate or collaborate.

A few months ago, Serena Cacace who is an Artist I'd met in my neighborhood and who had visited YES Gallery a number of times, asked me if I had an ideas for a collaboration. She had moved out of the area and so we would have to work on something together that could be done online of by mail, and when I read her message, I thought about my children's story. I told her about it and sent it to her, and she responded with an enthusiastic yes, and within a very short time she started showing me sketches and ideas. We sent messages to each other and I shared some ideas and images I have from other children's stories with a variety of Artist illustrators and their styles, and what emerged from Serena was so completely her own creation and so wonderful that I began to see my story coming to new life.

The title of the story is Arugula The Iguana, which is the Iguana's real name. Jo and Joe named her that because she loves eating Arugula. As I reread the story and began to see the beautiful illustrations that Serena was creating and sending to me, I realized that in a way Arugula's story is partly reflected in my own life. At the time that I wrote it, my life was in such a difficult place, and the story and journey of Arugula is about finding love and hope and acceptance and a family in sometimes very unexpected and nontraditional ways.  I'll be sharing more about this story as the journey continues, but for now here are a few of the gorgeous illustrations created by Serena Cacace for you to enjoy.

Arugula The Iguana

Illustrations By Serena Cacace

For A Children's Story

Written By Jannie Wolff

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Beautiful Star

A few weeks ago I wrote about an event at YES Gallery that was a very special evening to celebrate a collaboration between my project Love & Plenty and Chefs For Seniors Founder Ron Tornari and to introduce the wonderful work that Ron Tornari does through his organization and his not for profit, providing healthy and delicious meals prepared in home for older adults and people of all ages and backgrounds. At the time of that post, I wrote about some of the beautiful people who were at the gallery that night, and about the interviews that the beautiful Joy, the Founder of Be The Difference LLC, had done while she was at the gallery, asking people to share what they do in their communities to make a difference. It was such a lovely evening, and you can read more about it here, but this week I want to write more in depth about one of the beautiful women who attended, the Creative Director, Musician, Spokeswoman, and Model, Katia Biassou.

I met Katia last summer at a gorgeous event for the Red The Luxury Life Marco Maranghello Cover Launch that I had been graciously invited to by the beautiful Ivonne Camacho, the Creative Director and Founder of AbsolutModerne, a PR company which specializes in luxury website and leading edge online media. You can read more about the beautiful event and the beautiful magazine here, and as I wrote at that time the evening was such a very special one, and it would have been a blessing just to be there, but the beautiful people who Ivonne introduced me to that night and who are truly bright lights in their work and industry made the evening memorable and life changing in ways that are still unfolding as time goes on. Ivonne is such a beautiful and special person, and the people who are around her are not only talented as she is, but they are beautiful inside and out as she is too.

Ivonne had made a special trip to visit YES Gallery for the one year anniversary, and she brought several of her lovely friends with her. As I wrote at that time, they all were so kind and gracious and they made the evening such a beautiful, special and memorable one with their generous kindness, support and presence. Other beautiful friends of hers have attended other events, and Katia had been wanting to visit but her schedule is so very busy. When she arrived on the night of the event in December, it was after a very long and work-filled day and week, and I am so grateful to her for making the long trip and taking the time to be there. Her interview with Joy, the Founder of Be The Difference LLC, is so lovely as she is, and it was such a wonderfully kind an generous gift they both gave me to not only take the time in their busy schedules and lives to be at the event but to bring their gifts and blessings and talents to shine at the gallery. 

This past week as I was posting a photograph of the window where Katia was sitting when she had been interviewed by Joy, I saw in a post by Ivonne Camacho and AbsolutModerne that Katia would be participating in the Mrs. New Jersey America Pageant and so I added that information to my post. I remember as a little girl watching the different pageants and seeing over the years so many women who were not only beautiful, but who were doing so many wonderful things. Being a part of a beauty pageant is hard work, and being accepted is an honor. I'm so proud of Katia for accepting the opportunity and I'm proud and blessed to know this beautiful woman whose hard work, kindness, community outreach, charitable work, and excellence in every aspect of her life shines so brightly and has brought her to this place. 

After I posted my photograph with the mention of Katia and her participation in the Mrs. New Jersey America Pageant, I was blessed to see a beautiful post by Katia thanking me for my support. I am an encourager and when I can do something kind and supportive for people who are doing wonderful and beautiful things with excellence, I do what I can to support them. To receive such a lovely thank you from Katia was such a beautiful surprise and experience, and speaks volumes of the kind of person she is. I am so grateful to Ivonne Camacho for having introduced us, and for the invitation to the Red The Luxury Life Marco Maranghello Cover Launch event where we met. It's people like this who make my life so sweet and fill it with abundance as they shine brightly as beautiful stars who help light the way.

With The Beautiful Stars

Tinu, Katia Biassou, and Ivonne Camacho

At The Red The Luxury Life

Marco Maranghello Cover Launch

Photograph By The Marvelous Star Victor Kaminski

With The Beautiful Star Katia Biassou

At YES Gallery

Photograph By The Beautiful Star Katie Duffy McGeehin

A Beautiful Post

By The Beautiful Katia Biassou

Blessings,

Jannie Susan 

An Abundant Life - New Year's YES

As the year draws to a close and the new year celebrations approach, I find myself thinking back to other years and other times and remembering people I knew and may know now, and places where I went and may still go now, and things that I did once upon a time that may still be a part of my life. I say may in all of these cases because things do change, people come and go, and places where we once loved to be or maybe didn't want to be in change, are not around, or we ourselves have changed and moved and things have been shaken up and turned around and made into something new.

A while ago I was thinking about some of the people and places and things in my past that had beens such a big part of my life but are not now, and I realized that I have no regrets. It's not always been an easy road and at the time when things began to shift and change it felt sometimes as if nothing would ever feel right again, but one thing I am understanding now is that having faith in the goodness of God and taking in the love that God offers to us freely can help us understand that thought things and people and places we loved may change or cease being a part of our life, whatever the transition is that happens, though painful, will find us in the end at a better place than where we were before. Every experience I've had has brought me in some way to the place where I am now, and that includes the challenges and heartaches and hardships. If I dwell on the pain of the past I am not seeing the beauty of the present and the possibility of the future, and so as I go into this new year I find myself asking God for more faith and more hope and more courage to believe that good things can and will happen, even within and around the difficulties we face.

I add courage into that list because it's not easy at times to believe in hope and love and goodness. When we have lived a life that at times has shown us that people can do all kinds of things, it can be hard to believe that no matter what they may do we will always have an ally and friend to help us if we have the faith and presence of mind to keep doing what is right for our part. It can also be frightening to care and to love when we have lost and been hurt by loss of friendships, loved ones, romance, and things that we cared about and may still care about. How can we love in the face of fear that we may have what we love taken away from us? And that is where courage comes in, the courage to keep walking forward in faith, loving and caring and hoping and doing all that we can to do our best to do what is kind, and right and true.

As I prepare for the new year at YES Gallery, I'm excited for what has already happened there and I feel so much joy for the possibilities in the future. Someone who has visited the gallery several times before stopped in and told me how inspiring it is to walk by and wished me a happy new year, and a happy new year it will be, with the help of faith and hope and love and belief in God's goodness and grace.

Happy New Year!

From YES Gallery

408 6th Street

Hoboken, New Jersey

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - 'Tis The Season

When I was very young I received my first bottle of Chanel No5 because my Mother always wore it and she said that every woman should own a bottle of Chanel No5. If I am remembering correctly, it was at the table when I had breakfast in the morning of a birthday, and my Father had been the one who bought it. I still have that bottle, and as I've written in this blog at other times before, I have since then had the opportunity to add new bottles of not only No5, but additional scents from the history and the present of Chanel fragrances.

When I heard from the Beauty Advisor who I know who works at the Chanel Counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City that there would be a special fragrance event, I made an appointment. I knew it would be a wonderful experience, and it was even more special than I had expected. From the invitation I had thought that it would be a kind of party atmosphere, and though it was very celebratory because of the holidays and the displays, it was much more personalized in the way of other events that I've gone to when there have been makeup consultants or other individual appointments to meet with specialists from the company. Jawn, the fragrance specialist who I met with took me through the line of fragrances from the Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection, sharing the history behind each scent and so much fun and useful and interesting information that though I had known some of the history and definitely have my own memories of stories I've heard and things that have been shared with me, I learned so much and the brand that I'd always loved since childhood has really come alive in new ways.

At the end of our time together, I was invited to come back for another appointment. Jawn had added another day to his schedule, and so I decided to meet with him again. This time we went through some of the Les Exclusifs, but he also added in the other fragrances that are part of the brand, and so by the end of our afternoon I had learned about and had the opportunity to explore every Chanel fragrance that is available. I love perfume, and wear it daily, but I'm very selective about the scents I wear and different fragrances from Chanel are often the ones that I've selected on a regular basis. Having the opportunity to explore and learn about the entire line has not only given me some beautiful reminders of how the stories from Chanel have been a part of my own life, but have added some new memories and new possibilities for future experiences.

An Adventure With Chanel Fragrances

At Saks Fifth Avenue

New York, New York

https://www.saksfifthavenue.com/ 

 https://www.chanel.com/us/

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - New Life

This past week I had the anniversary of the day that I was born again. December 12, 2005, was a day that before it happened I would have thought was like any other during that time which was a very difficult and dark time in my life, but after God stepped in everything changed, and what had been darkness was given new light and new life. I've written about the testimony of that time before, so I won't go into the story of it now, but one thing that I started doing six months after that was helping in a soup kitchen on Manhattan's lower east side. When I first walked in the door to volunteer and I saw how awful the experience was for the people coming in and how terrible and unhealthy the food was, I heard the voice of God saying, "Only the best for my children," and I began the journey at that moment that has become a passion of my life, to help bring the best quality food possible to people everywhere, regardless of their background, income level, age or anything else that might keep them from having healthy, wholesome, delicious high quality food.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Ron Tornari by David Meltzer at a an event he was hosting in Hoboken. Ron is the Founder of an organization named Chefs For Seniors that began as a way of providing older adults healthy and delicious meals cooked in-home by Chefs. After starting the organization, Ron understood how much need there is in communities of all ages and backgrounds, and so he started a not for profit to help provide meals and food for people who couldn't afford the service. The work he is doing aligns so closely with my Love & Plenty project that I've written about in these pages before, and so I kept in touch with him and suggested that we begin collaborating on events to help raise awareness and bring his services to Hoboken. This past week I scheduled an event with him that was in two parts, the first part at YES Gallery and the second at a private club nearby that was kind enough to let me use their space for the gallery event guests to share a meal. There were so many wonderful people that responded in so many wonderful ways, including some lovely press that I will write about in future weeks, but for now I want to share a very sweet moment that I videotaped on the night of the event when one of the visitors to the gallery, Joy the Founder of Be The Difference LLC, began interviewing guests about how they make a difference. It is something that she does as part of her brand's message and I had seen posts about some of the interviews she has created before, but it was a very unexpected and impromptu part of the evening. It had not been planned, but it seemed to flow beautifully with the energy and spirit that were in the space. So many people involved with YES Gallery are making a difference in their communities, and it was a lovely experience to have someone like the gorgeous Joy, who herself makes such a difference, document just how wonderful these wonderful people are.

Making A Difference

At YES Gallery

With So Much Gratitude To

The Gorgeous Joy

Founder Of Be The Difference LLC

The Gorgeous Katia Biassou

And The Gorgeous Katie Duffy McGeehin

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - In Memory of La Dolce Vita

This was originally posted in 2018. When I heard the news this past week that the world had lost this wonderful man and friend to so many, I had a difficult time thinking of what tribute I could write for him. There is so much to say, and no way to express what it feels like to think that he is not going to appear, walking down the street, sitting outside of one of his favorite restaurants, or hosting one of his famous parties. I keep waking up in the morning thinking I need to go see him at some club or party or event, and then I remember. And as I remember, I begin to think about the Rocco I knew, and I want to tell the world all the good things he brought to life. This blog post was Rocco approved. When I wrote it I sent it to him and asked for any edits as I always do when I write about people or places because I want to make sure that the way I am writing about them is the way they want to be shown. He was happy with it and that made me so happy at the time, because I know that though he was always kind, he was honest too, and he would have told me the truth of what he felt about my writing. I'll share it here again because he liked it and shared it with people at the time, and though there have been several years and more wonderful things he's done since then, it will give a view into the life of someone who I admired, loved, and who was extraordinary in so many wonderful ways.

Notes From The City - An Abundant Life - La Dolce Vita

May 20, 2018

The first time I met Rocco Ancarola, he was wearing a costume. I was writing a blog post about Antique Bar & Bakery, and one of the owners had invited me to the Halloween Silent Disco, the first Silent Disco in Hoboken. I am not big on costumes or Halloween - I will admit that my vanity doesn't allow me to do anything that I think will make me look foolish. A designer friend once arranged for a group of us to go to a party in a cornfield dressed as the entire cast of "The Wizard of Oz" and she made me the most beautiful Glinda The Good Witch gown, but it is rare that I will dress up in a costume for anything. Years ago I used to love to dress up, and after I met Rocco and experienced his joie de vivre I started to wonder what had gotten me to start worrying so much about what anybody else thought. He is a very handsome and charismatic man, an icon in New York and international nightlife, and yet there he was, wearing an outfit and a wig and looking as if he was having the time of his life. Since I've gotten to know him more in the months since then, I've started to understand that whenever Rocco is in the room it's a party. Costume or not, holiday or week night, he brings a sense of laughter and fun wherever he goes that is contagious. The night of the Silent Disco a friend of his introduced us when he found out I was writing a blog about the restaurant because I had met the other two partners and had not yet met the third. Rocco gave me his telephone number and email address and said I should call him, and we spoke a bit about Antique Bar & Bakery and his reasons for joining that restaurant partnership. I had known that he was involved in the nightlife and restaurant business in New York City, but it was only after I got home and started doing my research that I realized who I'd been talking to, and I immediately called a friend up in amazement. It was inconceivable to me, and magical, that someone with a pedigree like Rocco Ancarola would be so friendly, so kind, and so generous as to take the time to talk to me. When I said that to him later, as we sat down to talk for this blog, he laughed at first in his charming way, and then he said something that is a key to the phenomenal success that he is. He told me that he never really thought about himself or his ideas as being extraordinary in any way. He works hard, and when he has ideas, he works towards accomplishing them. In his words, "It's just another day at the office," but in my experience of who Rocco Ancarola is, he and his office are capable of extraordinary things.

As I've written in these pages before, I lived and worked for a long time in downtown Manhattan, and my earliest memories of City life include the places that Rocco Ancarola started, was a part of, and made great. When we sat down to talk one beautiful afternoon at Antique Bar & Bakery, I asked him a few questions about why he moved to New York and what made him decide to start the restaurants he started, because I am simply in awe of the fact that New York City nightlife, and indeed New York City itself, would not be what it is today without him. Currently a partner with the Tao Group in one of Manhattan's hottest restaurants and nightclubs LAVO, his illustrious career includes Mezzaluna, Boom, and Ciaobella in Manhattan, and numerous parties and events that are legendary worldwide. Growing up in South Africa as the son of Italian parents, he came to New York to pursue a life-long dream. He told me that he had always wanted to be an actor, from the time he was a very little boy, something that I can completely relate to because from the earliest memories I have I dreamed of being an actress. His mother came from a butcher's family, and both his father and mother gave him a love for fine food and wine. Growing up with the experience of having wine barrels around the house because his father made his own home-made wine, he saw an excellent possibility in New York with the vision that is his trademark, and he decided to start a wine importing company with a friend. Then, when an opportunity came to work at Mezzaluna, he took it, learning the art of restaurant service from a waiter he admired. Over time, as he continued to pursue his acting career, he also continued to make friends in the restaurant industry, and after working together and creating a nightlife scene at one place after another, they decided to create a restaurant of their own.

In one of the themes that seems to be an integral part of who he is, Rocco was always looking for ways to do something that no one had ever done before. When he was at Mezzaluna, he and his friends created such an enchanting and desirable environment that many of the other Italian restaurants tried to copy them. The first restaurant he and his partners started, Ciaobella, was such a success that it forever changed the way that people thought an Italian restaurant should be. For a time he left New York for Hollywood to follow his acting dream, and while there he had an inspiration for a new nightlife experience. When he met Chef Geoffrey Murray who had traveled the world surfing and working in restaurants, magic happened. After coming back to New York his next restaurant, Boom, opened to acclaim and went on to win awards and be the place to be seen because of the ecclectic and delicious menu of cuisines from around the world created by his partner and Chef Geoffrey Murray, and a chic party atmosphere that was completely new to SoHo in those years. Other restaurants and lounges and clubs sprang up to try to match the success, but they could not. The phenomenal success of Boom swept across the country, starting a trend by defining the "world food" concept. Using the term "fusion" became synonymous with contemporary haute cuisine as others tried to define themselves in ways that reflected what Rocco and his partners had created, but the fact that set Rocco and his vision apart was always his love of the classics. His DJ's play original classic songs and not the remixes that others use, and even when he opened the acclaimed Rabbit In The Moon, an English Gastro Pub, he kept the theme of authentic English Pub food and classic dishes while always using the best, freshest and highest quality products. Following Boom, Rocco and his partners started Bang in South Beach, creating another incredible cuisine and nightlife experience with food from the Islands of the World, and bringing South Beach to the forefront as a global destination and one of the world's hottest spots. Outposts of Boom and Bang opened in Bridgehampton, Madrid and Mexico City.

Continuing to win prestigious awards, among many others for Boom the Esquire Awards and The John Mariani "Best New Restaurant in the USA", and for Bang the Silver Spoon Award for Best New Restaurant in Florida, Rocco then opened another completely unique restaurant, Two Rooms on Manhattan's Upper East Side in an old house from the 1800's with a white picket fence that featured African design and food from all over Africa. Two Rooms drew crowds that lined up around the block and visitors included Madonna, Seal, U2 and the New York Rangers. In Sag Harbor he opened Rocco's A La Playa, a first of its kind for the Hamptons, serving Cuban and Brazilian food, that became a legendary Jet-Set hotspot destination; and his club Pink Elephant in New York City was nominated as the Best Club in the USA, with Pink Elephant in the Hamptons considered to be in the top ten Best Summer Clubs in the World. He currently runs one of the longest and most successful New York Sunday night parties at LAVO, called Riviera Sundays, and all of this while producing events abroad in the international arena, in such illustrious places as the Cannes Film Festival. His first event at Cannes was for the Camera D'Or award winning film "Slam," with many other events at Cannes yearly after that; he produced yearly events at the Havana Film Festival, bringing among others Actor Matt Dillon's directorial debut film "City of Ghosts" to Havana; at another time he brought Actress Marissa Tomei and Actor Norman Reedus for an exclusive party he produced at the famous landmark "El Moro." For New Years 2000 he produced the magnificently star studded "New Years Eve Millennium" event in Havana with 1,500 people from all over the globe and 500 of the Cuban elite attending, and which was referred to by many in Cuba as one of the most memorable events since the revolution. He has produced events in Sao Paulo for the opening of his club Pink Elephant and the New York club Chaos, and Pink Elephant events in Punta del Este, the playground of the rich and famous of South America and Jet-Setters from around the world; he has also produced events on the exclusive island of Hvar in Croatia and Sibenik, and in the Dominican Republic's exclusive Punta Cana. For five years he produced one of the most exclusive New Years parties in the world in Rio de Janeiro with CARAS Magazine, the most famous celebrity Magazine in Brazil and South America, and he also produced the exclusive yearly top party of the Winter Music Conference in Miami with his friends the world renowned DJ's Paul Oakenfold and Pete Tong. He has produced parties in Ibiza, in Paris for Fashion Week, and in Venice. He has been nominated as one of the Top 10 Promoters in the World by top Italian Magazine Max Italia; one of New York's 100 Coolest People by the Daily News; and he still has time for acting, appearing in Madonna's GRAMMY nominated video "Oh Father" as a lead playing her father as a young man; with Mark Ruffalo in Director Terry George's film "Reservation Road"; the film "Cathedral Canyon" directed by Paul Douglas; and he currently is appearing in the Reality show "Real Housewives of New York." As with everything else he does, he takes his acting work seriously, and has studied with Uta Hagen and Shelly Winters, two of the most well respected and excellent actresses and teachers in the history of New York City theater. He is also writing a film script based on his parents' love story, and a book about his life.

And his story will go on as the legend that he is. Time and time again, as he branched out and created new spaces and new events, they would be so phenomenally successful that there would be others who tried to copy them. But Rocco is Rocco - there is only one, and just as he strives always for a unique and memorable excellence, he keeps people around him who strive for excellence too. As I have written before about Antique Bar & Bakery, I won't go into detail here, but for anyone who hasn't read that post, it is from December 3, 2017 and it is called "The Art Of Perfection" for many reasons, from the Executive Chef and Partner Paul Gerard and his glorious food to Partner and Filmmaker Joe Castelo who brings his film experience to create a perfect scene, the convivial atmosphere, the beautiful and carefully detailed design, and the friendly staff who make everyone feel at home. Rocco shared with me that it was because of its uniqueness and theatricality that he decided to become involved, in his words "With the 100 year old oven it doesn't get more unique than that. A bakery by day and restaurant by night, with food cooked in the 30 ton coal oven by the super talented Chef Paul Gerard, and the visual films of real classic home movies from the 70's arranged by Partner Joe Castelo, and with very friendly staff who sing and dance as they work, this to me is the cherry on top, of what gives the place the Gold Medal for originality and exemplifies uniqueness, from the decor, to the food and the music and the biodynamic organic wines and bar chefs that create cocktails with only fresh ingredients from oven fired roasted fruits and to fresh herbs." I had wanted to meet with Rocco and talk a bit more before writing that post, but as with all things, patience can make timing perfect when we allow it to. Having the opportunity to meet with an icon was made even more special by a beautiful spring day and a wine pairing dinner at Antique that Rocco hosted, introducing Chef Paul Gerard's new spring menu and featuring biodynamic and organic wines shared and paired by Wine Expert Phil Cerrito from Wilson Daniels, that was the first in a series of monthly dinners titled "Wine & Dine With Rocco Ancarola" celebrating family style service, delicious food and delectable wines. The invitation showed a photo of Rocco looking very much like an even more glamorous Marcello Mastroianni with the caption "La Dolce Vita", and the day of the dinner when we met to talk, Rocco was wearing his "La Dolce Vita" t-shirt in homage to that same wonderful film. When I wrote about Antique Bar & Bakery, I used their tag line "Keep The Fire Burning" as an ending note, saying how much they do just that for so many people. For Rocco Ancarola, I can echo that and add the words "The Sweet Life," because of how much he has done and still does to keep life sweet for us all.

Rocco Ancarola

At Antique Bar & Bakery

122 Willow Avenue

Hoboken, New Jersey

https://www.antiquebarbakery.com/

With Executive Chef And Partner Of
Antique Bar & Bakery

Chef Paul Gerard And His Son Frank

Wine & Dine With Rocco Ancarola

At Antique Bar & Bakery

With Phil Cerrito

Wine Expert From Wilson Daniels

www.wilsondaniels.com

And The New Spring Menu

Created By Executive Chef Paul Gerard

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Connecting In Conversation

I've written about the project "Education = Power In Choice (EPIC): Empowering Communities Through Food System Education" in these pages before and how it all began through the Food Systems Game Changers Lab and the project Love & Plenty that I submitted as an idea in 2021 that was accepted into the Lab and led me to being connected with a wonderful group of people around the world to come up with an answer to the question, "How can we make a more equitable food system through education?" A few months ago I was contacted by Hana McMahon-Cole, one of the wonderful people who has continued to be a part of the EPIC project moving forward, and she was in the process of creating a speaker series for youth food system education that is part of the after school and out of school time program Beyond School Bells. As I wrote at the time, we had such a wonderful conversation that really was so inspiring and affirming of all of the importance behind the work we have been doing together. Times like those are so precious as reminders that the work of education and sharing information and connecting communities to their food system is making a difference for the better in so many lives.

I heard from Hana last week that they had finished editing my conversation with her as well as the introductory video for the series, and when I had a chance to review it I was delighted. It's so wonderful to be a part of such a stellar group of beautiful souls who are doing so much excellent work in their respective communities and in the world, and to have the opportunity to speak with Hana after all these months of working together on EPIC and have the chance to speak about the things we are doing in our own work as well as our collaborative project. I'll post the actual videos when they're ready to be seen publicly, but for now I'll share the landing pages to show the other people involved and the project as a whole. In a very fun surprise for me, the photograph the team creating the videos used for my landing page profile photograph is one of the very special and beautiful photographs taken by Victor Kaminsky at the one year anniversary celebration of YES Gallery. Having the two worlds of my life meet together in this way makes so much sense to me because the combination of art and life and health and wellness, healthy food, and community and youth development have been somehow connected in everything that I do, and what I always find when I try to describe to people my vision for different projects, they all seem to interconnect and reflect all of these many seemingly different areas. Holistic health is for me the most exciting and inspiring idea to investigate and aspire to, and connecting people together in community based settings around the topics of food, wellness, art, design and sustainability seems to be something that helps communities to connect and heal and grow in healthy and dynamic ways.

In Conversation With

Hana McMahon-Cole

Beyond School Bells

Food Systems Speaker Series

Blessings,

Jannie Susan