BIO. - BRAD, COWC CO-FOUNDER

"I was born a poor black child..." -Steve Martin, The Jerk

Great movie. Anyway, I was born in Kansas City, MO. in the summer of 1977, The Summer of Sam. Another great movie. I am the middle child and only boy of three siblings. My family moved in and out of six different houses, all in the Kansas City, MO. area, by the time I was 5 years old. Some of these moves were necessary downgrades, some were upgrades. I'm not sure what my father did for work during the first few years I was alive, but I know he worked and my mother stayed home. In '82 we moved to Miami, Florida and lived there for about 2 years. I know my father worked in Insurance at that time.

What I remember about Kansas City from those days is the different houses I lived in: The Brown Townhouse, The Red House, The White House, The Other White House, The Pink House, and The Green House; in that order. My fondest memories from Miami are my scantily clad, Puerto Rican neighbor, Maria, and her scantily clad Puerto Rican daughters who used to feed me spicy food that my palate was not prepared for. That, and the time when my older sis and I were home alone and I pulled a knife on her when she wouldn't let me play with her and her friend. Ha! She was so pissed.

In 1985 my dad got a promotion and family moved to Columbus, Ohio where I lived, worked, and played from 3rd grade through high school. Full of idealism, anti-establishment angst, and creative passion, I went off to study Theatre in College at Graceland University in southern (middle of nowhere, cornfields and pig farms) Iowa. I focused on Acting and Management. Graceland is a Liberal Arts institution and requires that its students study a core curriculum of general education courses, which I appreciated. After earning my B.A., I went off to work in professional theatre and live the life of the prototypical starving artist for 2+ years before starting grad. school at New York University in NYC. I earned my M.A. in Education as well as my teaching license in 2004. I am currently licensed to teach K-12 in both NY and Ohio.

After grad. school, I accepted a full-time, salaried position in The Office of The Associate Dean and Special Projects in the Kanbar Inst. of Film, Television & New Media, Tisch School of the Arts, N.Y.U. I really loved this position because of the students, faculty, and administrators I worked with and the wealth of knowledge and experience I gained about the Film Industry during my 2+ years in that role. I assisted Dean Antonio and her Assistant, Patti, with a variety of tasks; event planning, managing a summer high school filmmakers camp, coordinating film award contests, filing, correspondence, even editing the Grad and UG department websites.

While in NYC from 2002-2006, I also worked on a number of Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, Independent, and Student theatre projects in the city as either an actor, director, assistant director, stage manager, or production assistant. It was during my time in NYC, surrounded by so much history, assortments of cultures, egos, and energy that I began taking my writing 'hobby' to the next level. As a creative, open-minded, adventurous, and extremely reflective and analytical person, NYC was an ideal place for me to live during my mid 20's. I highly recommend it. However, I had always intended to move back home to Columbus to "settle down" after I had gained some palpable work experience in NYC.

I moved back home to Columbus, Ohio in August of 2006, a year or two earlier than planned, after meeting the woman of my dreams and developing the kind of relationship with her that I had previously concluded was not possible. I bought a 15 passenger van for $500. off of some band in Brooklyn that was upgrading their wheels. I loaded into said van all of my worldly possessions and, with the help of my man Jay-V, drove that rickety bitch all the way to C-bus. I had no apartment, no job, and less than 2 grand in the bank on which to live and pay bills until I could sort out employment. I have been doing "contract" (temp.) work, substitute teaching, delivering pizza part-time, doing freelance online writing/editing work, and applying to every single salaried employment opportunity for which my level of education and work experience should qualify me every day since.

Today, nearly two years later, I am less than two months away from being married to my aforementioned dream girl, I start work full-time at OSU next week, and I am excitedly developing the Central Ohio Writers Collective with a buddy of mine from grades 3-12, JD. I hope you will take an interest in the online resources we are initiating for Central Ohio writers and that you will come out and have some fun with us during our live COWC group events and activities.

All the Best,

Brad