Join Harvardwood and the Harvard Graduate School of Education for our Speaker Series: Entertainment for Educators 

Hear from renowned media industry professionals every day during the week of March 27th-31st.

Schedule below:

Monday, 3/27 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET: Producer, Director, and Writer Bennett Singer
Purchase Tickets here

Bennett Singer is an award-winning producer/director/writer whose films have been screened at The Smithsonian, The United Nations, The British Museum, and the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. His latest documentary, CURED, directed with Patrick Sammon, opened the 2021–22 season of PBS' acclaimed documentary showcase Independent Lens and has garnered more than 20 awards and accolades. A feature film based on CURED is currently in development, and a classroom edition is being produced in partnership with History UnErased. Learn more about his work HERE.

Tuesday, 3/28 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET: Documentarian Dan Sturman
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Dan’s work includes the Sundance, Peabody, and Emmy-winning documentary Nanking, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award, released theatrically, and then sold to HBO Documentary Films: Soundtrack for a Revolution, which was also shortlisted for an Academy Award, released theatrically, and broadcast on PBS; and the 9/11 documentary Twin Towers, which won an Oscar in 2003. His films have shown at festivals around the world, including Cannes, Sundance, Hong Kong, Hot Docs, and Tribeca, and have received special screenings at the White House, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

Wednesday, 3/29 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET: Golden Globe and Emmy nominated Filmmaker, Playwright and Actor Mark Kassen
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Mark Kassen is the founder of Like Minded Media Ventures and co-founder of the civic engagement platform A Starting Point (ASP). He is a Golden Globe and Emmy nominated filmmaker, playwright and actor. Mark has a history of cultivating new filmmaking technology, utilizing it to create the Trigger Street Independent film fund with Dana Brunetti. In four years, TSI’s films garnered 11 Emmys and 4 Golden Globes.

Thursday, 3/30 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET: Executive Vice President Naia Cucukov
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Naia Cucukov is a dynamic, innovative and conscientious executive with over sixteen years of experience in the entertainment business. Since her start at Walden Media in 2013, Naia has cultivated a diverse slate of films and television projects. On behalf of Walden, she has overseen development and production for The Giver, Universal and Working Title’s Everest, Disney’s The BFG, A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog's Journey, Sony Animation’s The Star, Lionsgate’s Wonder, Paramount's live action Dora the Explorer and Playing with Fire starring John Cena. Naia has executive produced the critically and commercially acclaimed series, The Baby-Sitters Club, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's and Family Viewing Series.

Friday, 3/31 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET: Producer, Director, and Documentarian Danielle Parsons
Purchase Tickets here

Danielle Parsons specializes in making small subjects larger than life. She creates documentary and video art using microscopes and macro setups. Whether it be floating through lightscapes inside a precious gem, surfing sound waves, or swimming with microbes, her directing work transports audiences to immersive worlds of pure beauty and wonder. She has produced and directed content for TV and digital outlets such as The History Channel, Disney, WIRED, NPR, BBC, and Slate. Danielle's video art has exhibited at museums and galleries including SLOMA, IFP New Media Center, and the SPRING/BREAK art show, as well as on the blockchain as NFTs.

If you are not a Harvardwood Member or current HGSE student, purchase our all-in ticket pass HERE and gain access to all events for less than the price of 3!

Speaker Series Goals:

The power of a great story to educate, shed light on rarely discussed topics, and change hearts and minds draws millions of learners and storytellers to entertainment.

Produced in partnership with students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Educators for Entertainment Speaker Series highlights leaders working at the intersection of education and entertainment who are using storytelling, media, and the arts to create educational impact around the world.

Through this series, we hope to bring together Harvard students passionate about the magic that happens at the intersection of education and entertainment and strengthen the bridge between the two industries within the broader Harvard community.

2 pm PT /5 pm ET (Virtual)

Danielle Parsons specializes in making small subjects larger than life. She creates documentary and video art using microscopes and macro setups. Whether it be floating through lightscapes inside a precious gem, surfing sound waves, or swimming with microbes, her directing work transports audiences to immersive worlds of pure beauty and wonder.

Danielle is the founder of Wonder Science, a Los Angeles-based production company and worldwide streaming app available on Roku, Apple TV, iOS, Android, and Fire TV players. The channel programming combines science and art, inviting viewers to see the unseen, and experience a flow state of relaxation and curiosity.

As a student at Harvard College, Danielle drew inspiration from scientists E.O. Wilson and Stephen Jay Gould. Her passion for film has taken her to some far flung places, from Kazakhstan to the Galapagos Islands. She has produced and directed content for TV and digital outlets such as The History Channel, Disney, WIRED, NPR, BBC, and Slate. Danielle's video art has exhibited at museums and galleries including SLOMA, IFP New Media Center, and the SPRING/BREAK art show, as well as on the blockchain as NFTs. She built a science museum in the metaverse. Festival audiences have watched her films at the Imagine Science Film Festival, Goethe Science Film Festival, and the Infinity Festival, among others. Danielle creates concert visuals and music videos for bands such as Metallica. Danielle is repped commercially by MAJORITY. She was rescued by a dog named Puzzle.

The power of a great story to educate, shed light on rarely discussed topics, and change hearts and minds draws millions of learners and storytellers to entertainment.

Produced in partnership with students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Educators for Entertainment Speaker Series highlights leaders working at the intersection of education and entertainment who are using storytelling, media, and the arts to create educational impact around the world. 

Through this series, we hope to bring together Harvard students passionate about the magic that happens at the intersection of education and entertainment and strengthen the bridge between the two industries within the broader Harvard community. 

Register for this event at the link below. Harvardwood members, friends, and non-members are ALL welcome, but every attendee must register for themselves individually. So if you're inviting others to join you for this panel, please forward them the link to this page so they can sign themselves up. Thank you!

Members, Friends of Harvardwood, and Current HGSE students: Register Here

Purchase ticket  $1 for Members, friends, HGSE current students

Non-Member Ticket Options

To attend all 5 events of the Entertainment for Educators series, Register Here

Purchase ticket  $15 for access to all 5 events of the Entertainment for Educators series

Theater, Dance & Media presents a durational evening length facilitated by Sidra Bell and LROD, who have been in residence with the Harvard Dance Project ensemble converging around concepts of space, time, force, and shape. This durational landscape cultivated from collaboration and possibility are woven together with the constant mobility of movement research, artistry, and intention. Together we will explore multiple states of presence for embodying futures and negotiating the reality of outcome.

Performance Dates and Times
Farkas Hall, 12 Holyoke Street, Cambridge, MA
Friday, March 31
     Artist Talk at 7pm
     Performance at 8pm
Saturday, April 1
     Performances at 2pm and 8pm

Choreography by Sidra Bell and LROD
Lighting & Sound Design by Andy Russ
Projection Design by Callie Chapman
Costume Design by Dede Ayite
Featured Ensemble: Joy Ashford ‘23, Laura Coe ‘23, Mia Hazra ‘24, Alma Kent ‘24, Doreen Li GSE ‘23, Shojeh Liu ‘23, Bryce Reynolds ‘24, Micaela Rosen ‘23, Yuqi Sun

More info HERE.

RSVP HERE for free.

10 am–12 pm PT/12–2 pm CT/1–3 pm ET

PREREQUISITE: Must have attended The Career Center Orientation | Weekly on Mondays & Wednesdays

This workshop is highly interactive and includes activities and discussion. For the best learning experience, we strongly recommend signing into the workshop from a laptop or desktop computer. 

This is a two-part workshop series: 

• Part One will be held on April 20
• Part Two will be held on April 27

Balancing the multiple demands of life, art and work can be a perpetual challenge for professionals in the performing arts and entertainment industry. If you are struggling to get through endless to-do lists while still staying focused on what is most important to you, this workshop is for you.

In this workshop we will:

• Assess and define your needs
• Explore how you're spending your time and energy
• Identify strategies to help you achieve your goals

More info HERE.

RSVP HERE.

April 1 & 2, 2023
10:00am-5:00pm each day

AFRICA ADORNED: SURFACE DECORATION TECHNIQUES INSPIRED BY THE CONTINENT

This workshop will consist of fundamental surface decorating techniques used to articulate an African aesthetic. Atoe and MacDonald will share their influences and how they each developed a decorating language that connects them with their heritage. The artists will demonstrate their individual carving techniques used to create rhythmic geometric patterns, including David MacDonald’s method using his handmade ebony wood carving tool. The artists will also demonstrate how they use slip trailing, stamps, and other techniques to create texture and visual interest. Students are welcome to bring up to four leather hard items to decorate. Leather hard tiles and tools will be made available to those who do not have pots available. For those not enrolled in a course at the Ceramics Program, bisque firing of student work will be made available at a cost of 2 cents per cubic inch.

Cost: $25 for Harvard College Undergraduates, $200 for adults and Harvard Graduate students enrolled in a course at the Ceramics Program, and $250.00 for those not enrolled in a course.

More info HERE.

Register HERE.

Daughter of the Universe: the Music of Carmen Lundy features Harvard Jazz Band honoring 2023 Jazz Master in Residence, Carmen Lundy. Read more about Lundy at the Harvard Arts Blog.

More info HERE.

Get tickets HERE.

Perspectives on Performance welcomes writer, producer, and dramaturg Amauta Marston-Firmino on his talk, "WORK, PROCESS, EXORCISE: Slave Play, Dramaturgy, and the Movies."

Perspectives on Performance is a series that invites prominent artists and academics from different disciplines to speak about their work in and on interdisciplinary performance. The program is supported by the Provostial Funds for the Arts and Humanities.

For any accessibility needs, please contact [email protected]

Amauta M. Firmino is a writer, producer, and dramaturg based in NYC. He was the production dramaturg for “Slave Play” on Broadway and NYTW, and a resident dramaturg at the Sundance Institute. He has developed new plays at the Yale Repertory Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the Sundance Theater Labs. He is currently developing TV and film projects with A24, Film4, eOne, HBO, Monkeypaw and Universal Pictures.

More info HERE.

Cathy Lu (she/they) is a ceramic artist working in sculpture and installation to explore Asian-American identity, and how issues of immigration, cultural hybridity, and assimilation become part of American identity. She has participated in artist in residence programs at Recology SF, Archie Bray, and Bemis Center. Her work was recently exhibited at Chinese Culture Center SF, / Slash Art Gallery SF, and Galerie Du Monde in Hong Kong. Lu was a 2019 Asian Cultural Council/ Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation Fellow and a 2022 SFMOMA Seca Award winner.  She currently teaches ceramics at SMFA at Tufts University, and lives between Richmond, CA and Boston, MA.

More info HERE.

Register HERE.

Showrunner Sessions is our ongoing event series where we go one-on-one with a showrunner (or showrunning team) to find out, “What exactly does a showrunner do?” Find out what they look for in a writing staff, the lessons they’ve learned on the job, and their approaches to running the writers’ room.

For this session, we learn from Sera Gamble, the Creator, Executive Producer and Showrunner of Netflix drama series You. Hear how she approaches adapting books to screen, how she runs her writers’ room, and how she’s navigated the industry writing across various genres.

Moderated by Gloria Calderon Kellett (With Love, One Day At a Time).

Panel starts at 5:00pm Pacific time.

After signing up, you’ll receive information on how to access the Zoom panel.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]

More info HERE.

Join us for The Ethics in Storytelling: Mental Health & Disability Representation in Film & TV, presented by the Harvardwood Club of Toronto. 

When: Wednesday, April 12th @ 5pm PT/8pm ET (Virtual)

All members are welcome, whether or not you're affiliated with the Harvardwood Toronto Chapter. This event is free to full members of Harvardwood, simply RSVP below. Non-members can purchase tickets at the link below.

Sarah Taylor is a multi-award winning editor with over twenty years of experience. She has cut a wide
range of documentaries, television programs, shorts, and feature films. Sarah strives to help shape unique stories from unheard voices. Her work has been seen in festivals around the world including Sundance, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and ImagiNative Film Festival. Sarah takes her passion for editing beyond the edit suite by moderating panels and mentoring new editors. She has led panels at events such as the Calgary International Film Festival, NorthWest Fest, and EditCon. Sarah is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and is the host of the CCE podcast The Editor’s Cut and Braaains Podcast.

Sarah's recent work includes the CBC original series PUSH that takes audiences into the inner world of the “Wheelie Peeps,” an unlikely group of friends and wheelchair users, bonded by their shared experience of navigating life on wheels and the feature length documentary The Lebanese Burger Mafia - the meaty saga of Burger Baron, a rogue fast-food chain with mysterious origins and a cult following - which is having its world premiere at Hot Docs in May 2023.

Heather Taylor is a writer/director of TV and films about complicated family relationships -- often told through a supernatural/ horror/ sci-fi lens. She is a Canadian/UK citizen, US Green Card holder, and splits her time between LA and Toronto.

As a writer, Heather was a story editor on season two of THE HARDY BOYS on Hulu and co-wrote two episodes, one of which was nominated for a WGC Award. She is the co-host of BRAAAINS, a podcast exploring the inner workings of our brains and how film and television portray them, and her narrative podcast, ANOMALY, was an official selection of the 2021 Tribeca Festival. Her second feature film, LETHAL LOVE, is streaming on Netflix.

Heather started her writing career as a playwright and is the author of three poetry collections. Former journalist and ad(wo)man, she is an idea machine and the Indiana Jones of research. Born with a non-visible disability, Heather strives to destigmatize mental illness, disabilities, and poverty in her work.

She graduated with a Masters in Screenwriting from City University, London, and was a 2022 RespectAbility Lab TV Writing Fellow. Heather is also an alum of the Royal Court Young Writers’ Program and the CFC Bell Media Prime Time TV program. She is a proud member of the WGC Feature Film Committee. See more at: HeatherATaylor.com

Register for this event at the link below. Harvardwood members, friends, and non-members are ALL welcome, but every attendee must register for themselves individually. So if you're inviting others to join you for this panel, please forward them the link to this page so they can sign themselves up. Thank you!

Non-Members, Register Below:

Purchase ticket   $5.50 Non-Members

If you can't access the RSVP button for dues-paying Harvardwood members, make sure you're logged in. If you still have issues accessing the page, your membership has lapsed, so renew your dues as a Full Member or Friend of Harvardwood.

Members, RSVP Below: