Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t

I wandered into one of my favorite Brooklyn places, The Brick Theater and they were having a great art exhibition by some of their most hilarious, creative performers who also make art. The artists are - Fareeha Khan, Felipe Di Poi, Lorelei Ramirez, Marissa Goldman, Tawanda Gona, Tim Platt, Whitley Watson I knew Lorelei Ramirez a bit and always loved her work so I asked her and an animator, Felipe Di Poi, who's work I loved as well, to talk about how visual art has been a good outlet for them during these trying times. I'd like to share a "before times" session I did with the Bricks artistic director, Theresa Buckheister as well. As I always maintain, artists are like cockroaches, they will remain through everything—so here's some proof of that.

GOODW.Y.N’s human force is palpable, even when you’re not in the same room as her. She is a warrior in every sense of the word. Equality is her mission and you can’t ignore her. She was born in 1980 in Bedford Stuyvesant to a mother on welfare. Always a writer, she was a good kid that eventually enlisted in the army to get out of her house and move on with her life. Her depth of experience, her access and ability to harness it is remarkably powerful—I haven’t seen anything like it to be honest. I encourage you to read her articles in the New York Times’ parentblog Motherlode: “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” BIO: is the author of Warcries, as well as the 2018-2019 Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient, the 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship Recipient, 2017 EMERGENYC Hemispheric Institute Fellow as well as the 2013- 2014 Queer Art Mentorship Queer Art Literary Fellow. Additionally, her work '"Desert Flowers" was shortlisted and selected for performance by the Women's Playwriting International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.  More about GOODW.Y.N and her performance/writing HERE. Follow her on Instagram: goodw.y.n9

Steele is an extremely talented, charming and handsome musician. He is a founder as well as the drummer for The Britneys, but during lockdown he is upstate focusing on his solo project which he thankfully started pre-lockdown. Steele shares some of his fantastic new singles in the beginning and end of this show. In my position as a comfortably old enough to be his mother self-proclaimed psychotherapist, I was able to dig into the reasons behind Steele’s completely single status until this past year—he is now in his mid-twenties. Let’s say it may have something to do with his relationship with his mother—a very good one at that! Also Steele surprises me with a conclusion at the end of the episode. Listen to songs from Steele's Top Secret Songs HERE. More of Steele's music HERE. Instagram: @steelerkratt  Twitter: @brooklynsteel_e

I knew who Anthony Haden Guest was a long time before I actually got to meet him. He has written seminal books on Studio 54, The Last Party the art world, True Colors, and has written so much more in more books and major publications. Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of getting to know him and even having the opportunity to "psychoanalyze" him for a project I did for BAM. I was thrilled when he recently agreed to let me interview him about his Studio 54 experiences and his perspective on nightlife, etc. — how it's changed today and the circumstances happening around that. We also discuss the great exhibition, Studio 54: The Last Party which is open at The Brooklyn Museum until Nov. 8, 2020. More about Anthony's book with cartoons and verses HERE.

Sherry Amatenstein, LCSW is a NYC-based therapist and author of The Q&A Dating Book, Love Lessons From Bad Breakups and The Complete Marriage Counselor (www.marriedfaq.com). She edited the anthology, How Does That Make You Feel: True Confessions From Both Sides of the Therapy Couch. Before becoming a therapist she spent two years volunteering at a suicide hotline. She was also an interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah, a foundation dedicated to taking audio-visual testimony from Holocaust survivors. Sherry has a lot of training and experiences. She talks about her own life, the effects of quarantine for all of us and the influence of her parents having been holocaust survivors. More about Sherry HERE.

I've been a huge David B. Frye fan since I first laid eyes on his work at Christopher Stout Projects. From a press release by curator Mary Gagler, "Frye presents the unbridled exploitation of colonial power and the unchecked passions of founding fathers and contrasts these with ideals of free love and individual agency.While other bodies of work more directly approach his own family’s history as slaves, Frye critiques America’s internal diplomacy towards white slave owners and their attempt to whitewash the end of slavery into a tale of white heroes and grateful, compliant slaves." David is a charming, humble and extremely bright man. It's fascinating to speak with him about slavery, his art and the emotional impact and perspective his childhood has brought him.  David has been a star of the previous 2 SPRING/BREAK Art Shows-more about his work here: • SPRINGBREAK-2019-FACT-AND-FICTION-David-B-Frye-The-Lincoln-Paintings • David's work in the New York Times • More David Frye Paintings

I saw Michele Balan perform a comedy set recently and I was blown away. It made me wonder about what a career path for someone in my age group with comedy chops/success, like Michele, would have been like to travel on. To be a successful women in comedy clubs in 90's must have been... well I just can't imagine. Therefore, I was thrilled when she agreed to be on Dr. Lisa Gives A Shit. In doing research in preparation to have Michele on my show, I came across a podcast she had done with another goddess comedian, Judy Gold. Michele laid out a history with was so deep and complex starting with the death of her mother at age 10 and the insanity that comes with not having a point person in your life. Michele is a great storyteller and a fascinating survivor—I encourage you to listen to the account which is detailed and inspiring. What someone can do without a college degree! Here's the links to the podcast - it's 3 parts-if you just listen to the first one, you can get the idea—only 1/2 hr. long! Michele and Judy PART 1 -  Michele and Judy PART 2 - Michele and Judy PART 3 Michele relates stories of her childhood in context of our session about how she got to where she is now and her take on what happened. How she got through her childhood, moved out, started a business career, got screwed up, straightened out and is currently a highly sought out comic for luxury cruises is an amazing, inspiring feat. I'm hoping I can get Michele back sometime when she returns from her job of making people laugh on cruise ships around the world,j literally, for a living..

Howard Halle is one of the least pretentious people I personally have interacted with in the name of art. He is honest, charming and has a specific insider view of the rise and future of the art world. He gave pulitzer prize winning art critic, Jerry Saltz his first staff job as a critic. One of Howards skills is identifying talent and managing a great department of art writers. As this is his last month with TONY, I thought he would be more nostalgic than he was. My personal take is he is looking forward to getting back to making some art of his own! BIO: Howard Halle is the Editor-at-large for Time Out New York as well as Chief Art Critic and Editor of the Art section. He joined TONY on August 1, 1995 as part of the staff at the launch of the magazine and has worked here since. He taught 20th-century art history at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art in Washington D.C. before moving to NYC in 1981 to serve as the Curator for the The Gallery and Performance Art program at The Kitchen, one of the city's oldest non-profit arts centers. Additionally, he organized exhibitions at galleries and other institutional venues, including the Centre George Pompidou in Paris. Before coming to Time Out, he was Assistant Art Editor at Grand Street, an arts and literary quarterly. And.. In an act of shameless Dr. Lisa self-promotion, here's an enjoyable story about me by Halle from 2016: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/blog/can-do-spirit-artist-to-sit-naked-on-a-toilet-in-a-10-hour-performance-012616

Fariaz's Facebook post hit a nerve with many and drew me in to request a therapy session with actor and comedian Fariaz Rabbani. This session with him helped me understand the emotional trauma of being an undocumented immigrant. It also made me realize how there are people around me that i know that can be in this situation and I might not even realize it. FARIAZ RABBANI writes: Being undocumented - especially while growing up here, is not something I'd wish on my enemy. It's psychological torture. I can't express it in words. It's been a never-ending self quarantine from society. COVID is the closest example I can give. You look out and see all the things you could do, all the ways you're wasting your time on this earth, but you're stuck in a space. But before DACA it was worse - can't travel, constant paranoia about where you are and what could go wrong, because bad luck doesn't mean just going to jail - but possibly having to leave the country and go to a place that you hardly know. All the while life is passing you by with no end in sight. I graduated from college in 2006 (with zero financial aid) and then 2006 ended, 2007 ended, 2008 ended, 2009, ended, 2010 ended, 2011 ended - all these years I couldn't work a job on the books, or a even apply to a job I wanted to do, or drive, or travel - I didn't even have an ID card (I cried the day I got my first ID in the mail). Even getting on a Greyhound was out of the question because there were news reports about ICE checking documents at random stops. In all this I tried to stay positive but eventually I grew angry and bitter. Even my stand up got very angry and not very funny. I would just go on stage and say the most horrible thing I could think of - because I stopped caring. I had no future, no agent, manager would be interested in me, it was my way of self-sabotaging. When I started stand up people would say you're very likable - but by 2011 the common feedback was "you need to be more likable on stage". I just had no outlet for any of the frustration, I was experiencing. I still remember when I read in June 2012 that Obama was signing an executive order creating the DACA program. I think I read it 4-5x just to make sure what I was reading made sense and I wasn't dreaming. It really opened up my life - but like COVID - it was like a phase 3 opening. You can now do a lot of things you couldn't before but you know you're still not living a normal life. I still worry every time I go to an audition when they ask for citizenship status. I know I can't audition for jobs outside the US. I worry if my rep will drop me b/c my opportunities are so limited. The cruelty of keeping so many people in limbo by the government is hard to justify. Due to DACA I am able drive, work, travel in the US - but I can't leave the US, and visit my parents in Bangladesh. Why? I don't know. What does US gain by keeping 700k ppl trapped? Not to mention the cruelty of using this population as political pawns. Let's hope Nov brings about a change, and 2021 is a good year. 263You, Michael Adam Kaplan, Johnny MacDonald and 260 others 45 Comments18 Shares MORE ABOUT FARIAZ HERE: http://fariaz.com/

PLEASE NOTE: This is PART ONE of a very intense two part session with Calvin Williams. This session with Calvin Williams, host of RFB's Lush Vibes Radio is timely inspiration for all of us, because as a society, we are all dealing with health issues right now. About 5 years ago, Calvin had to deal with losing 3 close relatives in succession and how soon after that he was diagnosed with Type 1, Juvenile Diabetes which is rare for someone in their thirties. Calvin takes us through how he went through the hard years and how, just recently, he's starting to recognize himself again.