Diane is an amazing teacher. She liberated me from a year long bout of writer's block and gave me…read moreincredible tools that I will continue using. Now I can tap into a wealth of material that is inside me. She's not into academic bullshit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_di_Prima http://www.levity.com/corduroy/diprima.htm http://louisville.edu/library/uarc/diprima.html http://www.beatmuseum.org/diprima/dianediprima.html http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/anarchistpoetry/Diprimadir/Diprima.html http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/diprima.html I highly recommend "Foundation of Poetics" -- it's a nine month course where you meet once a month for a four-hour class. She offered four or five one-on-one one hour sessions as part of the class. Wonderful. I've gotten five of the poems out of that class published. Before that, I had just about kissed publishing goodbye. From her Web site, examples of the classes she has offered: THE LYRIC POEM POST WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT READING & WRITING THE LYRIC Why is it so hard to write a good love poem? Do you still think of poetry as a burst of ecstatic song? The term "lyric poetry" comes from the "lyre" -- the stringed instrument with which the Greek poets accompanied themselves, and so includes a sense of Poetry as Song. Though the short lyric poem has been largely neglected for the past quarter century, it is still what comes to mind for most of us when we speak of "the poem". In this three-session class we will read work ranging from the late 19th Century to the present. We will also spend a part of each class day writing. This class is a continuation of the last two summer's study of the lyric, but you you do not need to have attended the previous classes to join. Seven-hour sessions * * * THE LANGUAGE OF ALCHEMY Taught by Diane di Prima Four Lectures Alchemical literature admits us into a magical universe of rich and bizarre imagery and sudden insights--dimensional shifts, but it is a universe in which we feel the need for some kind of map. In our century, this problem has often been solved by flattening the material: reductively reading the texts as either spiritual allegory, or a primitive form of "science". But, in a correspondent cosmos, the process that is creative of soul is also creative of galaxies -- there is no need to reduce alchemy to psychology or chemistry. These lectures will search out signposts in some alchemical texts: terms, ideas, methods whereby the particularity of the language itself provides the map for our reading of the material. Thus, this seminar lays the groundwork for comparison of widely divergent works, and is an invitation to enter the world of the alchemist "from the ground up", by taking them "at their word".

Just bought my first Diane di Prima book "Dinners and Nightmares" and am ecstatic, but saddened to…read morelearn she's the last living poet from the original Beat Generation group. I had recently acquired the Jack Kerouac complete albums 3 cd set, noticing a lady (Diane di Prima) on the album cover typing on typewriter, which led me to want to purchase a book by her. For the last 5 years I studied a lot of Allen Ginsberg's poems, but recently expanded into records (LP's), books, CD's and YouTube videos from the other Beat Generation artists, all of which have passed by this point 2019. Anyway, Diane's book is well written and has plenty to read and learn from; especially the poems and early prose.

In the past few years, I have gone through two of Fred's class/Bootcamp, in the Palo Alto…read morelocations. My friend found Fred's info on a flyer in Palo Alto and sent it to me! Fred gave us the tools we needed in order to work on our own projects. He made sure during the class we had equal time to share our updates, and for classmates to give feedback. He was very encouraging, gave quality feedback to our work-in-progress screenplays, and also sent me additional resources that I would need should I ever want to take my work to market. The first session I signed up for took place in the summer, and it was a little unfortunate as part of the fun is writing/editing together with your classmates and many people were dropping off to go on their summer vacations! The second session I enjoyed more because we had more of a regular group attending, so I felt like that was very helpful. I felt like I was a decent writer prior, but Fred's class gave me confidence in the screenwriting format. While writing is not my main profession, I did pick up one paid copy-editing / copy-writing gig that entailed writing three one minute commercials for a brand to film for an Instagram Video/Advertising. The videos were story-centric, and so what I practiced in Fred's class was directly applicable here. Creative writing is helpful across many professions, even if you are not working directly in the film industry, advertising industry, or content creator industry. Having confidence in creative communication and story-telling can bring you far in your respective career and leadership roles! Highly recommend :)

I have taken Fred's class several times and have thoroughly enjoyed each one!…read moreFrom Fred's straight forward method of teaching how to create a script, to his encouragement and the level of writers that come to the classes. I am only disappointed to not be able to take his class this time (have thought of ways to change and, hopefully, improve my script).

I became aware of the Level Playing Field a several months ago and the varied stores of the IDEAL…read morescholars are humbling. The consistent thread among their stories is the commitment and hard work of each student to excel despite the lack of resources available to them, resources that most of us take for granted. I became a mentor for an IDEAL scholar at UC Berkeley. She is smart, funny, artistic and inspiring - she is excited about life and a joy to know . She cares intensely about her community and helping others. I gain energy from talking with her each time we get together. I am impressed by the number of scholars from this program that after graduating from college, continue to graduate or professional school as well as provide help and support to newer scholars. I think this speaks well of the program and the quality and commitment of the scholars selected to participate. I understand that 100% of the administrative costs of LPFI are covered by donations from an "angel", so that 100% of my donations directly support scholars with books, laptops, scholarships, and all the various things that are needed to make it through college today. I can see how we will all benefit from the work that the IDEAL scholars will provide to our society - we will miss a great deal in the future if these students do not have a chance to fulfill their potential. I can only hope that this program will be expanded so that many more young people can benefit from the education and support supplied by the Level Playing Field. What a fine world that would be!

LPFI, their staff, and their programs make our community and society a better place…read more I got connected to LPFI when my mentee (from a 1-1 mentorship program) was selected for the SMASH summer program (before going on to Sonoma State). I can tell you that SMASH was second only to parents in being a positive and powerful force in my mentee's life. He wrote multi college essays on his experiences at SMASH and references his learning there in guiding his choice to become a high school math teacher when he graduates. The LPFI organization is full of people that DO with authenticity, capability, and deliver results. Take every opportunity you can to fund them, work with them, and learn with them.

Joie, is the most talented acting coach, she's absolutely patient with her students…read more She makes them feel so easy comfortable and ready to break legs. Because Joie can do it. In addition her sweet personality make you want to hug her.

Joie Landeaux is an amazing acting coach, acting business consultant, and muse, to many actors. I…read morehave taken her "Acting for Film", and "Audition Skills for Film Acting" classes several times over. How is she a muse? As a professional Magician, I was thrilled to hear from the famous Magician, The Amazing Jonathan, that he actually had her helicoptered in to coach him when he was performing in Atlantic City where Merv Griffin, as the producer. She flies to NY regularly to help actors on Broadway. She has remained the teacher and muse to one student that she worked with from the beginning of his career, following him all the way to staring on Broadway as Charle Chaplin in "Chaplin". I now work with her privately on specific scripts I am developing as a Magician. I believe she is seeing students both in SF and the East Bay. She has that special magic that can up-level your game.

I hired David to help bring some ambience to a holiday event I was hosting. I was so happily…read moreimpressed with not only his selection of music but he was so professional and communicative. We chatted a few times, he asked what I was looking for and he absolutely killed it at the event! The music was perfect and his guitar skills are amazing. I am so happy I trusted him to help make my event a success! Hire him- you won't regret it ! I believe he also teaches guitar lessons- I can imagine his professionalism and warmth makes the perfect combo for a great teacher. Look no further!

I found David while looking for a teacher to help me get over my beginner learning slump, and he…read morehas been such a great teacher! He's helped me learn good technique after being self taught and introduced me to the world of music theory. He's made me love playing guitar again, I highly recommend him if you're looking for teacher in the city :)

Jay Shilliday is a class act, and a brilliant sound designer. Entrust him with your audio and video…read morepost-production needs, he'll never let you down.

Jay engineered all ADR and designed audio FX for our short feature. His space and gear are ideal…read morefor ADR. His approach is professional, effective, encouraging, focused, and ever-genial (that last one may sound like a small thing, but it's a huge thing). Somehow a huge amount of high quality works gets done without any of it feeling like work. He's got a great collaborative approach is a true pleasure to work. We were very fortunate to have him on-board for this project and he gets our and my highest recommendation.

Michael Davenport is good guy, and a great teacher. Intent on finding your strengths and weaknesses…read moreand exploiting them to achieve beautiful, playful, chaotic harmony, Michael will make you uncomfortable. Truly.

I have always wanted to take a vocal improv class and so finding out about Jenni's 8-week class was…read moreexciting. The first meetup was free so that you could get a taste of what the classes would be like and she offered a discount rate for coming to the meetup. We met once a week and after the second class she closed the group so that we could have a chance to have a safe and comfortable space to explore our voices. I appreciated how professional yet fun and open Jenni is. She really knows a lot about the voice and all of the exercises we did were engaging and offered a chance for you to take risks. It was nice getting to know the other people in the group and as each class progressed we all became more comfortable in taking chances and grew individually and as a group. I feel that I got a lot of of the class and I am more confident in my voice and look forward to improvising more in my daily life and work as a music therapist. Check out Jenni's classes or take a lesson if you want a safe and supportive environment to grow into your voice. Whether you are a musician or not, you will surely benefit!

If you want a place to come play with your voice, this is it!…read moreI looked forward to Jenni's Vocal Improv Jam class every week. Jenni has a warm and bright energy that exudes enthusiasm. She confidently shared with us warm ups, exercises, and games. - - I've already shared one of my favorites with my girlfriends. I appreciated that the class was in a series, rather than drop-in so that participants could get to know each other. Yay, for singing Yay, for community Yay for ExploreVoice Studios !