Passed & Present with Rebecca Soffer and Michelle Sprott
Bring your most pressing questions to our next event in the Passed and Present conversation series. Gilbert will host a new discussion the last Thursday of every month.
Dubbed “Brunchnista” by her besties due to her never-ending pursuit of the best in brunch, Michelle Sprott’s return to New York birthed the concept of brunch as more than a merger of meals, but as a behavior. Michelle will share tips on celebrations (even virtual celebrations) brought together by good food and meaningful conversations with friends and family. Michelle’s evolution into the independent, street smart, sophisticated woman she is today began in the Big Apple. The Brooklyn-bred beauty met her rites of passage in one of the most multicultural cities of the world and emerged with a keen sense of community. She carried that sense with her to Huntsville, Alabama and back, earning her BS in Biology from the historically Black Oakwood University. Michelle is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Passionate about young women and education, she has dedicated her time and talents to organizations like Teach for America, Everybody Wins, and The Fresh Air Fund, where she continues to empower and advocate change in young people’s lives.
Rebecca Soffer is cofounder of Modern Loss, which offers creative, meaningful and encouraging content and community addressing the long arc of grief. She is also coauthor of the book "Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome" (Harper Wave, 2018), which The Strategist named a best book on loss for a younger generation, and the author of the forthcoming "The Modern Loss Handbook," an interactive guide through loss and building your resilience (Running Press, 2021). Rebecca also runs the Modern Loss Substack newsletter, a longform monthly deep dive into various themes stemming from grief. She has been featured across media, including on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, NY1, MSNBC, Fox, and CTV; led retreats at Kripalu; and spoken nationally on loss and resilience at Chicago Ideas Week, HBO, Capital One, SoFi and Amazon. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Marie Claire, Glamour and NBC. Rebecca is a former producer for The Colbert Report and a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumna.
Allison Gilbert is an Emmy award-winning journalist and author of numerous books, including the much-anticipated, forthcoming biography of Hearst newspaper columnist Elsie Robinson, to be published by Seal Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, in 2022.
On 9/11, Allison was a television news producer in New York and was nearly killed by falling debris when the second tower collapsed. She is the official narrator of the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s historical exhibition audio tour, the only female journalist to be so honored. To mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks, she is executive producer of two film projects in collaboration with the 9/11 Museum and Wondrium: a documentary called, "Reporting 9/11 and Why It Still Matters,” and a 20-part series entitled, "Women Journalists of 9/11: Their Stories.” Both projects explore what it was like to be a working journalist covering the terrorist attacks 20 years ago and how the aftermath changed journalists and media forever. Featured journalists include Tom Brokaw, Savannah Guthrie, Maggie Haberman, Linda Wertheimer, Scott Pelley, and many others.
Allison writes regularly for the New York Times and other publications. On her popular grief and resilience blog, she features Q & A’s with some of the most notable names in our culture today including, Arianna Huffington, Jon Stewart, and bestselling authors Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Dani Shapiro, and Susan Orlean. She is co-editor of Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11.
You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Learn more by visiting www.allisongilbert.com.
The Passed and Present series, named after Gilbert’s inspiring book, is sponsored by Domani for Grief, a platform created with a single goal in mind: to provide in one place the best and most trusted resources, support, and information available to begin the healing process. “Domani” means tomorrow in Italian. Domani for Grief believes there’s always hope in a brighter tomorrow.
Registrants will be added to the Domani for Grief & Reimagine e-newsletter lists.
