USVAA

Amylynn Burns

David Carpenter

Jason Deckman

Izzy Ezagui

Christian Gabriel

James W. Hawke

Cynthia Hernandez

Cinthia Hines

Sydney Hoffner

David Joyner

Satinder Kaur

Monty Little

David Lee McGee

Elliott McKenzie

Steve Miska

Fabian Ospina

Kadyn Michaels

Robert Morgalo

Fabian Ospina

Ryan Roa

Ken Scar

Michael Shusko

Jesse Schwartz

Matthew Streeter

Sidney Tuggerston, Jr.

Image Credit: Going Sailing, oil on canvas by Fabian Ospina (USMC)

In keeping with our unique mission to highlight the talent level of our colleagues working in all artistic disciplines across the country, USVAA partnered colleagues Jamie Peterson and Trevor Denham with Victorinox Swiss Army Knife North American and the Wounded Warrior Project to translate the experiences of Warriors, Donna Pratt and Jeffrey Adams on a pioneering artistic endeavor called the 2018 Wounded Warrior Project Special Edition Swiss Army Knives.

Both Donna and Jeffrey worked with Jamie and Trevor to articulate themes of perseverance into their knife designs utilizing the mottoes of “Keep Moving Forward,” and “Make Life Adapt To You.”

USVAA is honored to have this opportunity to work with Victorinox and the Wounded Warrior Project to bring these stories to life on iconic Swiss Army Knives, and humbled by the opportunity to support the Donna, Jeffrey and the Wounded Warrior Project.

For more information about the project, please follow the following links.

Swissarmy.com activities:

https://www.swissarmy.com/us/en

https://www.swissarmy.com/us/en/Wounded-Warrior-Collection/cms/wounded-warrior

https://www.swissarmy.com/us/en/Products/Swiss-Army-Knives/Medium-Pocket-Knives/Tinker-Wounded-Warrior/p/1.4603-X3

Victorinox Wounded Warrior promotional video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmMNA_stvJI

Jamie and Donna speak about their experience with this project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UKSySSBPDI

Trevor and Jeffrey speak about participating in this project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIzPOiuUwkA&t=1s

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqZqjZCBS4B/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/victorinoxswissarmy/

Thank you as always for your continued support.

We are extraordinarily proud to announce that the City of Los Angeles has officially recognized November 1st 2018 as Veterans In The Arts and Humanities Day.

USVAA would like to thank the Los Angeles City Council for the honor and Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin and his staff for spearheading the effort on behalf of our colleagues and all veterans.

The initiative to recognize November 1st as Veterans in the Arts and Humanities Day is part of USVAA’s overall effort to raise awareness of the contributions of all veterans to building America and to highlight the contributions veterans engaged in the arts and humanities have made to our shared culture in the United States and throughout the world since the Revolutionary War.

The recognition in 2018 is especially meaningful as it coincides with the centennial observance of Veterans Day and the end of WWI on November 11th, 1918.

Thank you to everyone for your support of this important USVAA initiative, our programs and our mission to serve veterans each and every day of the year.

We would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to our New Works Presentation 2018 at The Actors’ Gang, Monday, November 12th in honor of the centennial observance of Veterans Day. Please see all of the information for the event below.

The USVAA Veterans Writing Program New Works Presentation 2018 at The Actors’ Gang in Culver City — held this year in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Veterans Day and Armistice Day.

This year’s exciting New Works Presentation 2018 line-up included seven extraordinary scenes selected by our Writers Guild mentors from novels, screenplays, pilots and plays written by our workshop participants.

The presentation featured scenes from new works by the following military veterans:

Katie Robinson
Sati Kaur
Cynthia Hines
Rick McGovern
Kadyn Michaels
Izzy Ezagui
Steve Miska

Individual scenes were directed by the writers and mentors including Sati Kaur, Kadyn Michaels, Sam Wolfson and David Fofi with Melissa Ritz directing the show.

The presentation was followed by a talkback led by Melissa Ritz with the writers and mentors Writers Guild mentors Timothy Wurtz and Sam Wolfson.

Special Thanks to The Writers Guild of America, The Culver Studios and New Filmmakers LA for their ongoing support.

Last year’s program was featured in this excellent KPCC Southern California Public Radio ARTICLE.

Billboard Magazine featured Outlaw Country Music star and USVAA Colleague Gethen Jenkins in an article last week about his career and his latest single as he continues to move forward with his amazing career. The single, “Bottle In My Hand” is signature Gethen Jenkins — a masterful combination of adroitly humorous lyrics, his amazing voice, perfectly honed guitar riffs and expert musicianship from each member of his band.

“Gethen Jenkins began writing songs as a teenager but put his passion for music aside when he joined the Marine Corps at 18. After serving eight years in Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to the States and decided to pursue music full-time,” writes Billboard’s Annie Reuter.”

I made a promise to myself when I went overseas with a bunch of people from my platoon,” the 6’5″ singer tells Billboard, settling into a leather couch at Sputnik Studios in Nashville where he’s putting the finishing touches on his debut album. “We were over there, and we promised that we were gonna give music a shot when we got back, me and my buddy Jesse. So we did. We came back, and we started the band.”

You can watch the video and download and stream the music here: https://red.lnk.to/BIMH

For more information, read the BILLBOARD ARTICLE.