From August 2011 Stovell+MPR Project

I will always cherish the opportunity Stovell+MPR had when we worked on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication last year. Hurricane or not, we were able to get in two days of programming at the Convention Center. But moreover, it is a powerful, gorgeous memorial. You must experience in person.

Here are a few beautiful photos taken by of Dennis Behling, Conceive Believe Achieve.

Guest Blogger: Rebecca Walker, Author, Feminist, Manuscript Consultant

Rebecca Walker, author, feminist, manuscript consultant. 

Photography of Rebecca Walker by Amanda Marsalis.

Stovell Marketing and Public Relations, Inc. is working with Rebecca Walker on her upcoming writing workshop in Maui December 19-26. If you are drafting your first or next memoir or a story about your business, economics, or how your experiences can help other business owners succeed, the core of your book is a narrative, and Rebecca can help you with the tools you need to write a great book. Hope you'll join us in Maui (location doesn't hurt:). I'll be there!

Rebecca is inspirational. She is truly among the Who's Who on any important lists about feminism, women's issues, writing, the arts and politics.

She is a wonderful writer, speaker, feminist, and contemporary woman. I had the pleasure of meeting her in 2009, when I attended one of her writing workshops for memoirists. Well, I don't write memoirs (not yet), I write fiction (and websites, brochures and marketing plans:), but the experience and what I learned in a jam-packed week of reading, writing, marketing sessions, and idea exchanging, changed my writing life. So, I am honored to have her as a guest blogger, and she's going to hang around for a day or two - just to talk. So enough of my ramblings, here goes...

Let's get to the facts right up front. What's your full name, website, your latest release, the WIP that is keeping you up at night, your agent, your editor, how long have you been writing…your successes? Yes, I want the mini bio right here, right now!

Rebecca said: Rebecca Walker here, and there are a plethora of ways to find me. Check my site at www.rebeccawalker.com, my FB fan page, Twitter feed @rebeccawalker, and of course LinkedIn for all you business-minded folks. There's more, but I will leave it at that.

My new book coming in February 2012 is called Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness. It's a look at the different elements that make up what we think of when we see Obama step out of the limo with dark glasses, or strut across the White House lawn. What is that ineffable quality of cool? Reserve, audacity, swagger, what? And where did it come from.

This will be my sixth book, my fourth collection. My other two are straight-ahead literary memoirs, one on growing up mixed race in the seventies and eighties called Black White and Jewish and another about my decision after much ambivalence to have a child, called Baby Love, which was very controversial!

I am fortunate that my books have done well, and are taught all over the world. Today I signed  a permission for my introduction from my book on masculinity, What Makes a Man, to be included in 350,000 textbooks! One of my manuscript clients just sold her book to a major publisher, and I'm thrilled to be teaching another master class for writers in December in Maui at one of the most gorgeous resort properties in the world: the Grand Wailea. AND I get to come home and kiss the most beautiful six-year old you ever did see. I count my blessings.

Q.  What's the best-kept secret about your writing process?

Rebecca said: I hate to actually write. I like to write the entire book in my head before sitting down at the computer so the sitting down isn't so brutal and lonely and terrifying. I also find sitting and "trying to find you story" extremely inefficient. Time management people!

Q.  What character/theme have you written or are writing about that keeps you up at night - just one, please:)?

Rebecca said: Lost love. Fidelity. The vast ocean between continents. The need for human evolution.

Q. What recording artist/television or pop culture fictional character has had the greatest influence on your writing style and why?

Rebecca said: Gosh, so many! I feel like a big sponge. I'm constantly inhaling high art and pop art and mashing it all together in that thing called my creative brain. Maybe Miles Davis because I play Kind of Blue on repeat for hours? Maybe Michael Jackson because he's Michael Jackson and my son worships him. Maybe Michael from the Office because his self-deprecation makes me laugh. Don Draper because his character is so beautifully written with so much complexity. Nikki from Big Love because she's at once completely lovable and repugnant.

Q. What book/author is the current "hot read" on your bookshelf?

Rebecca said: I'm reading the Steve Jobs book right now, like everyone else. Also a gorgeous memoir/biography of a woman who started her creative career at 72: The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock. Very inspiring.

Q. What's your favorite drink on a cool October evening - and who (fictional or not, friend or family, celebrity or historic figure) would be sitting at your side enjoying that drink with you?

Rebecca said: Steaming hot chai with almond milk and agave with my husband, for sure. I'd like to have tea with Joni Mitchell. Coffee with Joan Didion.

Q. Who's your favorite author, poet, lyricist and what would you ask them if you had the chance (or when you had the chance)?

Rebecca said: I would definitely ask James Baldwin if it was all worth it. The exile, the torment, the struggle, the coming out, the bearing of the torch. All of it. Was it worth it, in the end?

Q. Last question…what question have you been dying to answer but no one has ever asked?

Rebecca said: People have asked me so many questions, I feel I've covered everything over the years. Let's see. I think the question would be the same: Is it worth it? The struggle to write, to publish, to share, to risk? Is it worth it? What have you lost and what you have gained. The answer to both questions is...everything.

Thank you Rebecca!

If you'd like to ask Rebecca some questions, go for it!

Stovell+MPR Promotes Elizabeth M. Newton, CMP to Vice President

Stovell Marketing and Public Relations, Inc. (Stovell+MPR) today announced the promotion of Elizabeth M. Newton, CMP, Director of Operations, Senior Meeting Planner, to Vice President.

"Elizabeth's spot-on contributions, professionalism and creative energy have made a measurable difference in the way we work, and helped us further maximize client satisfaction," said E. Denise Stovell, president, Stovell+MPR. "A top performer, she is an asset that we as well as our clients and partners value."

Prior to joining Stovell+MPR in August 2009, Elizabeth served as conference registrar and logistics manager with the Food Marketing Institute, the trade association for supermarkets; as well as registration and housing coordinator and client services supervisor with Convention Management Group, a third party convention management company, in her 11 years in the meetings industry. Elizabeth has handled all aspects of conferences and conventions ranging in size from 80 – 35,000 attendees. This includes managing the registration process from programming of the database to on-site temporary staff training and supervision. She has also directed the overall customer service aspect of trade show floor operations for conventions including booth assignments, handling payments and development of financial reports.

In her new position, she will serve as team supervisor and partner liaison for Stovell+MPR major client projects and vendor relations. She also will continue to ensure that Stovell+MPR's standard of event management excellence is maintained while helping to grow the company’s event client portfolio.

For more details check out our new website by clicking here now.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Stovell+MPR is excited to tackle a new year with an aggressive growth plan and an ongoing commitment to providing gold-standard services and products to existing and new clients. Watch out 2011!

Stovell+MPR: Our First Blog Post!!!

Miami Beach, FL while attending NMSDC National Conference (Phototography by E. Denise Stovell)

This is my first post for Stovell Marketing and Public Relations, Inc.'s blog - Stovell+MPR -  We'll be posting to the blog regularly, and look forward to providing you with information on what we're doing, what we're learning and where we're going. Since I love photography, and travel quite a bit on behalf of our clients, you will see a few of my photos here. It's just something I do to keep me grounded. Plus, the past few months I've been to some great cities in the United States of America, and I definitely want to share my amateur photographs with you.

By the way, all photos were taken when NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) programs and activities were not in session:)