Reimagine Virtual Candlelight Vigil with Steve Guttenberg
Reimagine has been hosting candlelight vigils since March 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to break down taboos and hold space for all that we've lost. This gathering features actor Steve Guttenberg. In his new memoir Time to Thank, Steve describes his more recent and unexpected role as caregiver for his father Stanley Guttenberg who is diagnosed with kidney failure. Steve chronicles his weekly road trips from Los Angeles to Arizona to care for Stanley —the hero and strength of the family—and the ways in which time on the road affords him some perspective on their life together: from early years in Queens and Long Island to Steve's rise as a Hollywood star to the painful and moving work of helping care for an ailing family member at the end of their life.
Our other featured guest is Chris Dingman: musician, composer, family caregiver, and Reimagine community collaborator.
Steve Guttenberg is a beloved Hollywood actor, known for his role in films including Diner, Police Academy, Short Circuit, Three Men and a Baby, and television shows including Ballers and Veronica Mars. He's a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has hosted Saturday Night Live, and his films have grossed billions of dollars at the international box office. He wrote and performed in the play, Tales from the Guttenberg Bible at The Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor in the summer of 2023. His previous books include The Guttenberg Bible (2012) and the children's book The Kids from DISCO (2014)
Steve Guttenberg, Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero
NYC-based vibraphonist and composer Chris Dingman is known for his distinctive approach to a unique and beautiful instrument. Chris has worked with legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, and many of today’s jazz, creative, and world music luminaries. He brings together this background with a host of influences from around the world, in service of taking listeners on a journey to a transcendent place. Working in NYC since 2002, Chris’s trajectory was forever changed when, in 2018, his father entered hospice. Chris played and recorded gentle, meditative music as an act of care for him in his final months of life. This music became the 5-hour extended album Peace. Since then, Chris has brought his special brand of healing music far and wide, from live sessions at Omega Institute and The Rubin Museum of Art to his online series Transformations and much more. His critically acclaimed albums Journeys vol. 1 and vol. 2, are described by The New York Times as “hypnotizing” and by Jazz at Lincoln Center as “absolutely beautiful.”
Chris has presented talks and performances for the Gold Foundation Conference on Humanism in Medicine, the American College of Physicians, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, Orlando Health, and written for the Johns Hopkins Medicine blog. He has been profiled by NPR, the New York Times, AMNY, and many other publications, and has received fellowships and grants from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, South Arts, and the Thelonious Monk Institute.
About Reimagine
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and – at our own pace – actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth.
