First 24-hour radio station for women reaches listeners around the globe

Orlando, FL. PRNewswire. Heartbeat Radio for Women, the world's first-ever 24-hour radio station for women founded in Trinidad and Tobago five years ago, is extending its success and message of female empowerment with the launch of HeartbeatRadioUSA.com, an Internet-only music and news station.

Also available as an iPhone application, HeartbeatRadioUSA.com features women's oriented programming focused on: authors/books, celebrities, entertainment, eco, health and wellness, house and home, legal, parenting, personal finance, relationships and style.

"Harnessing the power of the everyday woman is what Heartbeat Radio is about," said Heartbeat Radio for Women President and Founder Kiran Maharaj. "We talk about such a wide array of topics, it allows us to have a fresh format that doesn't exist anywhere else. It helps that more and more people are streaming radio every day from their home and work computers and their mobile devices."

Interact Theater will present Hot Jazz at da Funky Butt, an original music theater piece recounting the legendary early days of jazz, set in New Orleans in the late 1920s, a city shrouded in myth and a bit of voodoo mystery. The historic Funky Butt Dance Hall was home to some of the earliest sounds of this groundbreaking new art form, and gave rise to a movement that wailed the voice of some of America's most oppressed - and most gifted - artists.

A feast for the eyes, ears and soul, the production features one of New Orleans' best jazz ensembles, Rue Fiya and Twin Cities' actors, Ivory Doublette and Reginald Haney along with the Interact ensemble of performers with and without disabilities. Written by Interact Artistic Director Jeanne Calvit and Dario Tangleson, with music and lyrics by Ivey award recipient Aaron Gabriel and directed by Dario Tangleson, Hot Jazz at da Funky Butt will run April 28 to May 21 at The Lab Theater. A special opening night performance and party with the artists and Rue Fiya on April 30 will benefit Interact Theater.

Pillsbury House Theatre, in a co-production with The Mount Curve Company and presented by the Guthrie Theater, announced complete casting for the area premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney's In the Red and Brown Water, May 12 to June 5, 2011, in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie.

The first play in McCraney's critically acclaimed trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays, In the Red and Brown Water tells the story Oya (Clark), a charismatic high school track star, who hopes to use her speed as a ticket out of the Louisiana bayou. Fate intervenes as the teenager makes a life-defining decision to defer an athletic scholarship in order to care for her ailing mother, Mama Moja (Parks). When her mother dies and Oya (named after the Yoruba god of wind) finds the scholarship is no longer available, she is left to grapple with the consequences of this missed opportunity. Having lost her dream, her family and identity, Oya finds herself entangled with two men - the gentle Ogun (Williams) and the seductive Shango (Akyea). Oya's choices take her on a journey that leads to a powerful gesture of grief and sacrifice.

The worlds' top female basketball prospects will be selected in the 2011 WNBA Draft, which will be held on Monday, April 11 at ESPN in Bristol, CT. ESPN2 will provide coverage and analysis of the first round beginning at 3 p.m. ET, in addition to ESPN3.com offering a simulcast. ESPNU and NBA TV will broadcast the second and third rounds.

This marks the first time that a professional sports league will conduct its draft at ESPN headquarters. Previous WNBA Drafts have been held in various locations including the site of the NCAA Division I Women's Final Four (2006-2008) and, most recently, at NBA Studios in Secaucus, NJ (2009 and 2010).

After winning the WNBA's Draft Lottery for the second consecutive year, the Minnesota Lynx holds the top pick in the Draft for the third time in franchise history. In 2006, the Lynx used the first pick to select Seimone Augustus. Last year, Minnesota sent the pick and Renee Montgomery to the Connecticut Sun on Jan. 12 in exchange for Lindsay Whalen and the second overall selection. It marked the first time in league history that a team had swapped the No. 1 pick in advance of the WNBA Draft.

Club Book, a program of Metropolitan Library Service Agency and coordinated by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County, brings best-selling and award-winning authors to library communities across the metropolitan area - proving that the library may be the coolest club in town. All events are free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first served. Doors open 45 minutes in advance of programs and books will be available for sale.

In 2010, Club Book hosted authors Garrison Keillor, Paul Harding, Frances Mayes, Terry McMillan, Tim O'Brien, Elizabeth Gilbert, Gish Jen, Jane Hamilton, Kate DiCamillo, and others.   Here's the slate of free upcoming library events:

Club Book with Heid Erdrich: April 6, 7 PM, Roseville Library, 2180 N. Hamline Ave.
Heid Erdrich is the author of three poetry collections including National Monuments, Fishing for Myth, and The Mother's Tongue. She has received two Minnesota State Arts Board fellowships and has been nominated four times for the Minnesota Book Award which she won in 2009.

By Maggie Gaughan

Farm in my nose, eyes, ears, hands
I smell it, see it, hear it and feel it
The touch of the sun against my skin
The warmth of the alfalfa spread as far as you can see
Birds singing in the distance
A hawk is searching its prey from flight
Trees on the perimeter are whishing in the autumn breeze

By Susan Gebelein, Founder, Savannah Consulting

I love to run!  I like events!  And I love to travel!  So international marathons were made for me.   Many people, huge accomplishment, lots of energy and just sometimes a monumental experience – like the New York Marathon a month after 9/11 or the Chicago Marathon in 2007 that was stopped because of the hot weather, depleted water for the runners and scarcity of available ambulances.

Only hours after the elation from completing last year’s Paris Marathon, (which took me only three minutes longer than my first marathon over 20 years ago) with the pain from my legs hurting like never before and having sworn I would never run another race, my husband and I were having dinner at a lovely Parisian restaurant on the Champs-Elysees. The words out of my mouth were “How about the Rome Marathon next year?” So much for never running another marathon. 

Enjoy piglets and other baby animals at the Minnesota Zoo.

Come out and enjoy the sights and sounds of spring at the Wells Fargo Family Farm from April 1 to April 30, 2011. There’s nothing cuter than baby chicks, piglets, lambs, calves, goat kids and bunnies. There will be fun, hands-on kids’ activities on April 22 and 23 including tractor rides from the Grain Elevator to the Farm (Friday, Saturday, Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.)

Would you like to be a columnist, submit an article or write reviews about sports and entertainment? Send an email to writer@strategicdreaming.com with the following information:

• Focus of articles
• Writing sample
• Publications where your articles have appeared
• Frequency of submission: Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly
• Links to your website, if applicable
• Your contact info including name, business name and phone number

Thank you for your interest.

We are committed to offering high quality, relevant and fun information to our subscribers.