What is The Shine?
The Shine is a mindfully-curated variety show that takes place in New York and Los Angeles once every couple of months. This alcohol-free event features a centering meditation, music from a local band, an inspiring short film, grassroots philanthropy, delicious food, and storytelling. Our mission is to create a fun and welcoming social environment where attendees can strike up meaningful conversations and make lasting connections that leave them feeling inspired to do more, give more, and be more. We are an all-volunteer organization and 100% of ticket sales is used for production costs. We hope to see you at The Shine!
Featured line-up:
Agapi Stassinopoulos
Speaker
Agapi is a bestselling author and speaker who inspires audiences around the world. In her previous book, Unbinding the Heart: A Dose of Greek Wisdom, Generosity, and Unconditional Love, she shares the wisdom from her life’s adventures and experiences. In her new book, Wake Up to the Joy of You: 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, Happier Life, she takes readers on a journey and inspires them to let go of what doesn’t work and instead create the lives they really want. Agapi was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then moved on to receive her master’s degree in psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Her previous books on the Greek archetypes, Gods and Goddesses in Love and Conversations with the Goddesses, were turned into PBS specials. She is currently conducting workshops for Thrive Global, a company founded by her sister, Arianna Huffington, to help change the way we work and live. She divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and was born and raised in Athens, Greece.
Maria Usbeck
Singer-Songwriter
Ecuador-born, Brooklyn-based artist Maria Usbeck moved to the US at the age of 17, later forming the band Selebrities. In May of 2016, she released a solo album, Amparo, capturing her childhood in South America and desire to compose in Spanish. The songs were written across the span of three years traveling the world, then arranged and recorded live with producer Caroline Polachek (of Chairlift) and engineer Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. Fleshed out on the marimba, xylophone, quena flute, piano, and harp, Amparo is meditative but not meandering, pulsing with many stories in many voices that flow together seamlessly like water, leaving behind a wordless hum.
Jacqueline Stewart
Meditation
Jackie Stewart is a meditation teacher at MNDFL, New York City’s premier meditation studio, and the host of The Interdependence Project’s interactive online meditation, Sit Anywhere Sundays. She brings mindfulness into action through involvement in social activism, leading corporate meditations, and philanthropic work.
Gabriel Royal
Cellist
Built to pull you in slowly, Gabriel Royal’s cello and vocal arrangements inspire a certain patience that’s rare in music nowadays. The virtue is something Gabriel knows well, having spent five years busking on the New York City subway before finally getting noticed and recording his first album. A certified visual art teacher, he started writing music just for fun. And it wasn’t until one of his best friends forced him to tour in 2011 that Gabriel saw the possibilities in front of him. Once back in New York, he decided to play in the subway a lot more.
Motley Dance
Dance Troupe
Elisabeth Motley/ Motley Dance has been presenting and performing her work both nationally and internationally since ’04, and has received grants from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. She is the recipient of the Hector Zaraspe Choreography Award, and was a finalist at the A.W.A.R.D. show, Joyce SoHo. Motley has presented her work at Gibney Dance, Danspace Project, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Whitney Museum, Springboard Danse Montreal, Festival Oltre Passo-Italy, LMCC’s Sitelines, Joyce SoHo, Chocolate Factory Theater, HERE, Movement Research at Judson, Fresh Tracks at NYLA, Center for Performance Research, and Alice Tully Hall among others. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Marymount Manhattan College, and holds a BFA from the Juilliard School, and MFA from Goddard College.
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