Join The New York City Chapter of The Transition Network for an evening with Suzanne Braun Levine sharing her groundbreaking, funny, poignant stories, interviews and research on the many ways women are finding love, and redefining their relationships in Second Adulthood.”

Her new book, How We Love Now, is “the third chapter” in her ongoing conversation with women over 50.

Save the Date! An inspiring evening awaits!

“Reinventing Love in Second Adulthood with Suzanne Braun Levine”

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Time: 5:45 to 8:00 PM
Location: Community Church of New York – 40 East 35th Street (bet. Madison and Park)
Email: rsvp@thetransitionnetwork.org

Register for event:
Members: $20
Non-Members $30
http://bit.ly/AEsrrF

Our Newsletter:
http://bit.ly/zxF3Xl

The New York City Chapter has members from all 5 boroughs as well as some of the close areas of northern New Jersey and Westchester Country.  TTN NYC is the largest chapter with more than 550 members.

Photo by Eleanor Foa Dienstag

For more information about the NYC Chapter, please contact us at NYCChapter@thetransitionnetwork.org.

The chapter’s vitality is reflected in the opportunities available to members to make new connections, learn, grow and enjoy this stage in our lives. 

Monthly meetings are on the Third Thursday when TTN women gather to socialize, welcome new members, and find out what’s happening in the chapter.  There are also special events and peer groups to join.

THE TRANSITION NETWORK (TTN) is an inclusive community of professional women, 50 and forward whose changing life situations lead them to seek new connections, resources, and opportunities. For additional information, see: www.thetransitionnetwork.org

“BEYOND 50 RADIO”
Internet Radio – “Live” online
Host: Daniel Davis
http://www.beyond50radio.com/

Friday, February 24
6:20 to 7:00 pm ET
PHONE LIVE RADIO

“BOOMER’S ROCK”
Internet Radio
Host: Tom Matt

http://ftns.co/boomers-rock

Tuesday, February 28
4:35 to 4:55 pm ET
3:35 to 3:55 pm CT
PHONE LIVE RADIO

KTMY-RADIO / “THE LORI AND JULIA SHOW”
St. Paul, MN
Hosts: Lori Barghini & Julia Cobbs

MORE LISTINGS COMING SOON….

By Cyma Shapiro, founder
MotheringintheMiddle.com

“You’re Not Who You were Only Older,”
Suzanne Braun Levine

I haven’t written a book review for Mothering, yet, since I believe our readers are a widely diverse group of women representing many ages, interests and ideologies. So, when I received How We Love Now, I wasn’t sure what I would do with it, other than read it.

Nearly four pages into the book, I wrote Suzanne’s dear friend, Karin, to thank her for this wonderful gift. Likewise, I hope my writing will peak your interest enough that you will buy this book.

Like Christiane Northrup’s The Wisdom of Menopause, Nancy Alspaugh-Jackson and Marilyn Kentz’s Not Your Mothers Midlife, Katrina Kenison’s Gift of An Ordinary Day and Mothers; Doreen Nagle’s But I Don’t Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy, Levine’s How We Love Now should sit on your shelf as a beloved old friend – there when you need it, available to hold, and ready to provide support and answers for your every need. In fact, some of these books should be a friend for life. How We Love Now is my new BFF.

Continue reading…

Cyma Shapiro is the writer and creator of NURTURE: Stories of New Midlife Mothers (www.MidlifeMothers.org) dedicated to promoting the lives of women choosing motherhood over 40 and a traveling art gallery show. The Mothering in the Middle blog for new midlife mothers –  www.MotheringintheMiddle.com – intersperses daily experiences with thoughtful commentary and essays and occasionally featuring guest writers. She is currently working on a number of creative projects, including an anthology for and by midlife mothers: NURTURE: Stories of New Midlife Mothers. 

When I went to work at Ms. in 1972, I wore a matching pink skirt and blouse — and a girdle. I had just gotten married and was, therefore, not able to get a bank loan without my husband’s approval. I had given up playing basketball (half-court for girls) in college because no coach or court could be found. And I had had an illegal abortion.

Actually it was having had that abortion that was my first tie to Ms. and the women’s movement. The Preview Issue of the magazine, which was excerpted in New York magazine, included among such classics as “Click! The Housewife’s Moment of Truth” by Jane O’Reilly and “I Want a Wife” by Judy Syfers, a list of celebrity names under the headline “We Have Had Abortions.” It took a lot of courage back then to admit to what was a crime. In the corner was a coupon which readers could fill out to add their name to the list. I filled it out with pride and relief (I hadn’t admitted to my crime before), and by the time those coupons were being counted and processed several months later, I was managing editor of Ms.

Click here to read the full article…

It seems self-evident that generations can reinforce each other – by sharing the stories of their lives, by working together, and by living together in communities that are responsive to the needs of citizens of all ages. But those communities are too few and far between.

A national organization called generations united™ — supported by the Met Life Foundation — wants to find five of those special communities and honor them for being “on the cutting edge of intergenerational planning and living.”

Founded in 1986, the organization is a catalyst for change and works in collaboration with 100 national, state and local groups representing 70 million Americans. Their mission is “improving the lives of children, youth and older adults through intergenerational collaboration, public policies, and programs.” It is the only national membership organization “building bridges between generations.”

Check out the Awards Announcement [Deadline for Applications: January 31, 2012] and the wonderful profiles of multigenerational families on their site at “Donna’s Blog.”

generations united™
Because we’re stronger together®
www.gu.org

We're Looking for America's Best Intergenerational Communities

My new book How We Love Now is out this week.

The date was chosen because in publishing January is “self-improvement month.” The thinking is that at the start of the New Year we want to repent for all the guilty pleasures we indulged in over the holidays. Which is also why we make resolutions — to become better than we are. Oy, the guilt.

But Second Adulthood is about shedding that kind of guilt, along with many other emotional and psychological burdens that get in the way of inventing the rest of our lives. So I am proposing a new kind of resolution, a guilt-free and empowering resolving of unnecessary conflicts and contradictions that freeze us in place…

To read the entire article click here.

Please share the article, your comments and thoughts!

Click Here to Buy Online

January 25, 2012

The Transition Network: Bay Area
At the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco

Suzanne Braun Levine: Reinventing Love, Intimacy, and Sex After Fifty

No generation before ours has had the prospect of looking ahead to a second adulthood as long as the first. So the question “What Will I Do With the Rest Of My Life?” leaves us elated – and dazed and confused. We know that there must be love, but what does love mean now? To answer it, we need to evaluate our priorities, commitments, and relationships, including with ourselves. Levine says we also need to take inventory of the intimate connections that are already enriching our lives. Such reevaluations can be scary. Will my long-term marriage survive the process? In this new stage, people are exploring the many meanings of interdependence and writing a new love narrative as they live it.

Date & Time:
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
4:45 p.m. Reception
5:15 p.m. Program

Sponsors: The Transition Network, San Francisco Village, Coming of Age: Bay Area, Civic Ventures

For ticket information click here

January 26, 2012

The Clayman Institute for Gender Research,
Stanford University

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ms. magazine and the Future of Feminism in January 2012 at Stanford University…

Ms. @ 40 and the Future of Feminism: A Panel of discussion with Feminist Editors, Journalists and Bloggers

Join us for an engaging conversation with six women who have helped define feminist journalism over the past 40

Date & Time
Thursday, January 26
3:00 pm to 5:00 p.m.

Location
Levinthal Hall,
Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa St.
Stanford, CA 94305

• Marcia Ann Gillespie, former Editor-in-Chief of Ms. and of Essence
• Shelby Knox, feminist blogger, activist, and subject of the documentary, “The Education of Shelby Knox”
• Katherine Spillar, Executive Editor, Ms. magazine
• Suzanne Braun Levine, writer, editor, and first editor of Ms.
• Miriam Pérez, feminist blogger and reproductive justice activist
• Helen Zia, former Executive Editor and Advisory Board Member of Ms.

Ms. @ 40 and the Future of Feminism:
Keynote Address by Gloria Steinem

Description
A keynote address by Ms. Magazine founding editor, Gloria Steinem, will be the centerpiece of a Winter Quarter series of events that looks back on what Ms. has meant to its readers over the last 40 years and that looks ahead to what feminism may mean for the next generation.  For over four decades, Steinem has been at the forefront of the women’s movement as a journalist, publisher, author, and political activist. Shelley Fisher Fishkin, the Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities, and an organizer of the symposium, will introduce Ms. Steinem.

This event is free and open to all but a ticket is required. Reserved tickets will be available through the Stanford Ticket Office beginning on January 13.  Click here to visit the Stanford Ticket Office. 

This has been quite a month!

First of all, I finally held in my hands a copy of my new book How We Love Now; it has been eighteen months since I finished it, and at last it is real. The scary part is that it will soon be in the hands of actual readers, and while I am anxious to hear if it resonates with other women, I am less anxious to hear if it doesn’t, which will undoubtedly happen.

More good news in connection with the book is that I have been invited to speak about it by several of The Transition Network (TTN) chapters around the country starting in San Francisco (where my talk is also sponsored by Civic Ventures and Coming of Age: Bay Area). When I began writing about Second Adulthood just after the turn of the century (I love the sound of that!), one of my first stops was a TTN meeting. The organization was just getting started, and the energy and vision of its founders, Charlotte Frank and Christine Millen contributed greatly to my understanding of what was going on with women. Under the current Executive Director Betsy Werley, TTN has gone national. There are now fourteen chapters and I look forward to meeting members all over the country.

Another big deal this month was an invitation to speak at TEDxWomen, as part of a conversation entitled “Rebirth” which was livestreamed to a hundred locations around the world and to millions over the Internet. Jane Fonda, whose wonderful new book is called PRIME TIME: Making the Most of All of Your Life, put together the panel which included: Laura Carstensen, founder of the Stanford Center on Longevity, who reported on her studies of happiness and aging. She has found that people (both men and women) in their fifties and sixties are much happier overall than people in their thirties and forties. I certainly am.

I talked about The Fertile Void and got great feedback, including a mention from Rosie O’Donnell (who – true to form – liked that I described the prelude to the Fertile Void as “the fuck-you fifties”) in an interview on Huffington Post, where, coincidentally, I am now blogging regularly.

I also spent a few days in San Francisco at the Civic Ventures Summit, where the Encore Movement really established roots among the many activists for positive aging who were there. Founder Marc Freedman is dedicated to using the organization to galvanize activists to work toward changing societal assumptions and individual experiences of work and life after fifty. We were all inspired by the five winners of the Purpose Prize – for social entrepreneurs over 50 – who told their stories.

And Ms. – my true alma mater – turns 40 in 2012, and is still going strong under the ownership of the Feminist Majority Foundation. The seventeen years I spent there truly changed my life; for one thing, it was there that I began to explore – personally and professionally – the issues that still matter to the women I write about. Stanford University is sponsoring a panel discussion about the magazine, where I will join the current editor Katherine Spillar, feminist bloggers, and former editors on January 26 to reminisce and look forward.

The spirit of Ms. lives on in our lives, in the magazine itself, and – in my opinion – in the Occupy Movement, which has taken over the country. Check out the amazing (though long) video, narrated by a song about democracy written and performed by Leonard Cohen.

Here’s to a great year for all of us – and democracy too!

**For Information on Events and Interviews – Click on the NEWS!

Click Here to Pre-Order
ON SALE DATE: JANUARY 2, 2012

We’ll be talking about the Fertile Void – the gravity-free zone where we sort things
out and shake things up. Where we shed the voices of shoulda-woulda-coulda thinking
and begin to sense the presence of an internal compass, our own voice.

What’s the solution?

Join us…you won’t want to miss this!

The TEDxWomen event – Resilience, Relationships, ReBirth, ReImagine – on December 1, 2011 was the FIRST bicoastal, global TEDx event in history!

I was thrilled to be a part of this energizing, awe-inspiring day.

The 2011 TEDxWomen event brought together an exhilarating array of speakers – of all ages – in Los Angeles and New York. The live events at the Paley Center in the two cities were part of “a genuinely global, groundbreaking community.” We were joined by women and men gathered at over 100 events on every continent and in every time zone. Pat Mitchell, President and CEO, and the Paley Center for Media team of organizers were amazing. Congratulations to them all.

The videos from our session and all others are available on the TEDxWomen site. Just click on the name of a speaker in the Video section.

I participated in Jane Fonda’s session on “ReBirth.” Click here to take a look at my video and please leave your Comment.

TEDxWomen…The Conversation Continues.

Enjoy!