The CWCW Blog

No matter how strong a sense of self you have, loneliness can take over – especially during difficult times. But you can come out of it stronger than when you went in.   When my boyfriend of three years and I broke up, I moved into a new apartment with three other women. During my first night, I dreamt about him. We were laying in [...]

Singer, violinist, composer Yilian Cañizares performs all over the world…and she has chosen to share with you, the CWCW listener, the music of these talented, creative women to help us navigate these un-chartered waters.  Thank you, Yilian!   What would we do without music? It is precisely at times like these when fear and [...]

I have kept her photograph, which I purchased twenty-five years ago on my first trip to the Anne Frank House. I embarked on the narrow climb to the hiding place and later, the descent, and imagined all that had occurred in between.  I was attuned to the voices of visitors speaking other languages as I looked out a window and considered the [...]

I wonder if Madonna, 60, thinks of herself as old. I’m guessing probably not, but maybe she should. Think of how much she might contribute to the discussion about what it means to age, to grow older well, and how we can facilitate that for all of us, not just for a privileged few. This thought might never have crossed my mind except for having [...]

For some reason, probably because they echoed my anxieties about the larger world, I became obsessed a few years ago with news stories about cruises going awry—a nasty ship-wide norovirus outbreak on the high seas, or an engine room fire knocking out power and stranding a ship for 5 days off the coast of Mexico with no refrigeration or air [...]

I write to satisfy a fundamental need. I started writing within a couple of weeks after undergoing my third (and hopefully last) brain surgery. Initially, my motivation was to understand the new and inexplicable world that surrounded me, and to understand this new person I was becoming. I wrote to help loved ones recognize how and why my brain [...]

The 1960’s. . . where was I? In Brooklyn, married for a few years, with a baby and toddler. Around us swirled the movements and politics of the time – in the South: bus rides, sit-ins, peaceful protests, and violent responses. My husband and I were frequently glued to the TV, watching Black Americans, and those White Americans who joined them, [...]

Instead of watching the State of the Union speech, I went to the theater and saw Gloria: A Life, written by Emily Mann, the award-winning director and playwright and a past guest on Conversations with Creative Women. The staging at the Daryl Roth Theater in Manhattan’s Union Square was unique – seating all around with two huge [...]

I truly believe that things happen for a reason – that it’s more than sheer coincidence when people are brought together.  Two years ago, I wrote a piece for the CWCW website about a “creative woman” named Sheryl Lee Ralph who left an indelible mark on me after I saw her one woman show “A Diva Simply Singing.”  A few weeks prior, I [...]

I picked up my new car today. Quite a milestone, but I couldn’t have been more depressed. Even though I’ve been driving for 52 years, I never bought a car. The day after I got my license, I hit a telephone pole, badly damaging my parents’ Pontiac Tempest and leaving us car-less for several weeks while it was being [...]