The story of Zindaba Nyirenda and her efforts to reduce poverty in Africa have been featured in the Daily Herald newspaper of suburban Chicago. Nyirenda credits The Landmark Forum with giving her a voice – for having her realize she could make a real and lasting difference in the world.

Nyirenda grew up a princess in Zambia, and experienced a sheltered and affluent upbringing. As she grew older, she saw the problems her country was having with poverty, disease and a lack of clean water. She has written a book titled "Ta-Lakata: The Tears of Africa" in which she hopes to make suburbanites more aware of these issues. The book also tells of what it took for Nyirenda to deal with family losses which were tied to issues that affect much of Africa – her father and a sister died of AIDS, while her mother died from drinking contaminated water.

Nyirenda also sees global connectedness as a key to making a difference. When she took part in Landmark's Self-Expression and Leadership Program, she created a project to link sister schools in the United States and Africa through distance learning. She founded Light on the Hill for Africa, a nonprofit that supports leaders of African villages.

Landmark Education graduate Maria Dismondy has written a children's book for anyone teased or bullied for being different, and the Novi News wrote an article about its publication, parts of which appear below.

Novi author pens children's book with important message

by Kelly Murad

Lucy has big hair, mismatched socks, and eats toast with ketchup for breakfast. Lucy represents any child of hte past, present or future who has been teased or bullied for being different.

"I recently rean into the guy who used to be my bully and it just hit home to me that children can bully each other but they're just normal human beings," said Maria Dismondy, a Novi resident and author of the children's book Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun. Dismondy, 30, said she used some of her own childhood experiences to pen the book she hopes will empower children.

"My mom actually gave us spaghetti in a hot dog bun and we were teased about it, and I was always tased about my big hair," she said. "(The book) is really about having the courage to be who you are. Instead of changing who she is, Lucy continues to be herself. She's kind of like a little Punky Brewster."

As a second-grade teacher in the Plymouth-Canton School District, Dismondy inspires kids in the classroom every day, but she wanted to do more.

"As a teacher I reach 25 kids a year, but I wanted to reach more," she said.

"I'm going on my eighth year of teaching and I know children struggle withthis all the time. I'm really excited to get the message out to children."

Although this is the first book Dismondy has published, she already has ideas for the second.

"I'd like to do another book about the same concept of bullying," she said.

"I'd love it to be a series because I think she's (Lucy) such a great character." Even though it didn't take Dismondy long to write the book, it took about a year before it was picked up by Northville-based Nelson Publishing and Marketing.

"I'm very wordy, so (the book) started off 1,900 words," Dismondy said. "It was cut down to half of that. You want to paint a picture, but I learned it was better to show through th illustrations than tell with the words."

And thanks to the talkents of Plymouth resident Kimberly Shaw-Peterson, the colorful illustrations do just that.

Dismondy dedicated the book to her husband of three years, Dave. For more information, visit www.mariadismondy.com.

The Book Signing Tour for Sarah Culberson's "A Princess Found" is coming to Pasadena, CA, on November 15th. Culberson and her co-author Tracy Trivas are coming to Vroman's bookstore at 3729 E. Foothill Boulevard from 3-5pm on that Sunday.

Previously, Landmark Education News has recounted the story of how Culberson decided to find her birth parents while taking The Landmark Forum, and how after meeting her father she discovered she was actually a princess in Sierra Leone in Africa. Later, after meeting her father and other relatives, she co-founded the Kposowa foundation to provide education to children in that country.

Kirkus Reviews said that "Culberson's wrenching coming-of-age tale ably chronicles her love and acceptance by both of her families…inspiring." Nearby Pepperdine University is using the book in ethics and identity courses, and a portion of the proceeds from sales of the book is going to the Kposowa Foundation. To find out more or buy the book, visit its Amazon page, go the book's website, or read Landmark Education News' previous stories about Culberson.

Landmark Education News has received word that Sarah Culberson has released a book titled "A Princess Found", which tells her story of going from being an ordinary American to an African princess helping to rebuild a wartorn country. Culberson’s odyssey, which has been featured on CNN and on other major media outlets, began when she took the Landmark Forum and became determined to find her birth parents - she was adopted as an infant. She found that her mother had died, but that her father was not only alive, but was also a member of the ruling family of the Mende tribe in the country of Sierra Leone – her grandfather had ruled over a chiefdom based in the village of Bumpe, and that by birth she was in fact a princess.

Culberson visited her father and newly discovered family in Africa, and soon learned that the tribe and the village of Bumpe had been devastated by a civil war. Culberson later co-founded the non-profit Kposawa Foundation to support the children of Sierra Leone and rebuild the community.

Culberson’s story has been recounted in other stories on Landmark Education News – read more details here, here and here. To buy a copy of Culberson’s book, go to your local book store or find it on Amazon. To learn more about the book visit the "A Princess Found" website.

Landmark Education’s website now offers an author section, where prominent books written by people who have completed the Landmark Forum are displayed. The section includes books by such people as Ben and Rose Zander, Lynn Twist, Anthony Rapp, Jack Canfield, Dave Logan, Ellen Snortland and Fred Shoemaker. The books cover a diverse range of topics from golf and theatre to business and personal success (including the Three Laws of Performance book recently featured on Landmark Education News).

Each book also contains a link to amazon.com where visitors can receive more information or purchase the book. For more information, visit Landmark Education’s new web page, "Books by Graduates of the Landmark Forum".

Noted director, actor and writer Troy Byer was recently interviewed by Los Angeles Wave about a variety of subjects, including getting away from Hollywood, her new career as a writer, her study of ontology, making a difference with people and how the Landmark Forum helped her establish a powerful relationship with her ex-husband. Landmark Education News has excerpts.

Asked and Answered: Troy Byer

by Leiloni de Gruy

After starring in 28 films (”John Q.” being among the most recent), writing four and directing two others, Troy Byer realized she was not living but just existing. Working in an industry that is the stuff of fantasies for millions, Byer decided to step away from Hollywood six years ago to study ontology, the nature of existence. She then took that knowledge and began coaching women in prisons, shelters and spiritual centers nationwide. Last month, she released the self-published book “Ex Free: 9 Keys to Freedom after Heartbreak,” in an attempt to teach people, particularly women, how to regain their identity in the aftermath of broken relationships. Pulling from her own tumultuous divorce and seeing the devastation her mother dealt with when she and her father divorced, Byer is a living testimony to of how you can survive heartache. But the questions still remain. Why ontology? Would she ever go back to Hollywood? In an exclusive interview, she answers all the questions.

Q: Why did you step away from Hollywood to study ontology?

A: I just got so burnt out with show business. I wanted something different and I knew that I loved being around people. I love human beings, I just think they are so interesting as a species and I wanted to learn as much as I could about us. I’ve always been intrigued by the way the thought process goes on in the mind and how something goes from short-term to long-term memory, then I started getting into past life progression and I thought I want to learn about human beings and that’s ontology–it’s the study of being human. It’s not the study of the human mind, it’s not the study of the human spirit, it’s actually the study of the design of being human.

Q: How are you using this knowledge?

A: I’m using the design of being human to actually support people in understanding why they make choices they make and why, in this particular case, when you’re in a relationship, you can’t let go. It’s actually part of the human design and so one of the things that is common knowledge is that you can’t let go if you don’t know you’re holding on.

Q: Tell me about your book “Ex Free: 9 Keys to Freedom after Heartbreak.”

A: In ‘Ex Free,” I’m actually showing them what their holding on to and why and how what their holding on to has really nothing to do with the guy that they were dating or the women they were dating, it’s just a part of the design. They click with the keys and each key opens another door that gets them closer to freedom. Some people get freedom at key two, which is, you’re not your circumstances. They collapse themselves with their circumstances, they think that if they’re feeling heartbreak then they are heartbreak, but I get them to see that they are no more their heartbreak than they are their headache. A headache is a circumstance, right? If you have a headache, you don’t manage yourself like a headache, you say ‘I have a headache, I have to deal with the headache,’ but that doesn’t stop you from being who you are and that’s what we’re working with in key two of the book.

Q: So, why do people hold on after relationships are over?

A: When we meet people there is usually something about them that we really like, there is something about them that we either want more of or we don’t have any of and so the admiration factor sets in and we are attracted to things we admire, so we see something about that person that we absolutely love. I call it the treasure–you want that treasure in your chest. In life, it’s like related ships. Relationships are ships that are related. So, we sail out to sea and we see someone like ‘Ooh that pirate has some fancy treasures,’ and so we reach for them and we take the treasure and put it in our chest and then when they leave we think that they take that treasure that we hunted so hard to find. Well, we’re still holding onto that, we think that they’re going to take that too, so if we let go of him then we let go of that treasure, but it’s not even about them, it’s about just having that treasure. What you learn in the book is that you don’t need them to have that treasure, you can actually have that treasure all on your own because you can’t miss what you never had. The only reason why you see it and you want it is because somewhere you had it but somewhere as a child you lost it, you let go of it or you threw it overboard because you got upset.

Q: What are some of the keys?

A: The first key is make pain your new best friend. We know that pain is excruciating and the first thing we want to do is stop it, we want it to go away but if it goes away how will you ever know where you are in the healing process? If you think about it, it’s what is called growing pains, it’s an opportunity for growth. Another one is your crutch. You have to know that your crutch is just your crutch. We all have crutches that we reach for when we become emotional amputees. Just like when you can’t walk, you reach for a crutch. In this case, it’s an emotional crutch. For some people it’s cigarettes, some people it’s wine, some people it’s music, some people it’s television, some people it’s eating. Whatever your crutch is, you have to know what it is and you have to own your crutch so that your not owned by your crutch.

Q: You were in an unhappy marriage with producer Mark Burg. What issues did you face?

A: It just was not a healthy relationship in any way. I wasn’t ready to be married because I was still incomplete with so many things from my past, and he wasn’t ready to be married. Then there was a lot of infidelity in the relationship, for him it was physical infidelity and for me it was emotional. I was withholding myself from him emotionally and then that sent him to start doing what he started doing and there was just a lot of cheating. I wasn’t happy; I was very sad and I was afraid. I had just had a little baby, I didn’t know where I was going to go; we were broke at the time. He had not had his success and I had a little bit of success, but I had lots of bills to pay so I moved into a crack house, basically. It was the crack house that Rick James used to live in when he got busted with that girl, that’s the house I ended up moving in with my son until I got it together and just got back up on my feet. It just wasn’t a healthy relationship, I cried all the time.

Q: It’s a bit ironic because with most people they believe that the marriage was wonderful and that the divorce was the most miserable part–but for you, you say that the divorce was the best part. Explain that.

A: I look at it as miserably married, happily divorced. Well, after we got divorced I started studying ontology right away, I did something called a Landmark Forum, it’s a three day seminar and it’s designed to put people who are just broke and stuck, and when I say broke I mean broken, I was so blown away by the technology and then I thought I can choose right now to have a happy divorce or a miserable divorce. I called my ex-husband up and I said ‘I am willing to forgive you for everything, if you’re willing to forgive me for everything so that we can be great parents for our child or we can just keep acting like a fool and keep going on this way. So, we forgave each other. We knew we sucked as husband and wife so we concentrated on being great parents. Our divorce was based on the foundation of parenting together for the sake of our son. He said sorry I’m cheated on you and I said I’m sorry I gave you a reason to cheat on me. Men don’t just cheat, women don’t just cheat, there’s always some sort of inspiration.

Q: What inspired you to take on this mission of helping others?

A: People have always been so great with me. I have been so lucky. If I were to live status quo, I should at least be a heroin addict or a prostitute or something. I grew up in the streets, my mother was on welfare, I have three brothers that are in jail. It wasn’t suppose to go like this but I had people at every step of the way that were just so amazing and just reached out and picked me up along the way. My social worker, when I was in foster care, was so great. I thought I want to be like him. Then when I was with my mom and we lived in the battered women shelter, there was a woman there who helped and she would come in and talk to us, and I wanted to be like her too. I think helping the women in prisons is because of my brothers. If I could talk to the men as well I would but that’s a bit challenging. I know what incarceration is like, with my brothers. I’ve seen it. You make a bad choice and there’s a big price to pay, so I like to create something different for them.

Q: Will you ever return to acting?

A: No, I don’t think so. If you see me acting, that’s because my books didn’t sell. 

Amy Blackburn developed a special project out of her participation in Landmark Education’s programs: The creation of a book, titled Caring for Cynthia, that is now available for purchase. The book, published by Amy Blackburn Photography, in conjunction with Verve Editions and Channel Photographics, provides a starting point from which caregivers can arm themselves with knowledge and empower their role as a valuable companion during a loved one’s journey with cancer.

Using her experience as a Tucson-based photographer and registered nurse, Blackburn has produced a photography book that captures images of one woman’s experience with breast cancer. But the true strength in Caring For Cynthia is helping the support team flourish, as revealed through Blackburn’s experiences, photographic images, and poignant essays as a caregiver for Cynthia.

As a nurse and best friend to internal medicine physician, Dr. Cynthia Ogden, Blackburn takes every step of Cynthia’s cancer journey with her. Beginning with Cynthia’s diagnosis, Blackburn trails her treatment and recovery, capturing images and subsequently, depicting the support person’s side of the breast cancer experience.

From her vantage point as an R.N. and confidante, Blackburn vividly portrays, both in images and in words, the pain, emotional chaos, and feelings of helplessness that breast cancer patients‚ and their loved ones, often encounter. Her camera lens reveals even the most sensitive moments with compassion and understanding.

Blackburn believes that sharing her experiences provides a knowledge base that will assist support persons to empower themselves as they embark on the journey of cancer with their loved one(s). The book project also underscores the importance of the caregiver’s role in the patient’s well being.

“The role of the support provider is critical. Their eyes see for the patient what the patient cannot see for themselves because of weakness, sickness, or being emotionally drained. Caregivers have to be strong and must be present to the experience. This book provides a starting point from which caregivers can empower themselves through knowledge,” explains Blackburn.

The book also provides a platform from which people can begin conversation regarding breast cancer so that caregivers and patients create community as they unite to support one another during the journey with cancer.

“Even though we both worked as professionals in healthcare, Cynthia and I were confused a! nd apprehensive about what to expect. We experienced various levels of denial, just like anyone else,” admits Blackburn. “Within weeks of Cynthia’s diagnosis, we felt compelled to create something that would serve as an educational tool to diffuse some of this initial apprehension and denial so that patients and their caregivers can focus their energy toward acceptance and, most importantly, surviving.”

The Blackburn-Ogden team recorded photographic images from the first day of diagnosis in March of 2005 until March 2006 for the book. The result is a 96-page, color, flexi- cover book featuring 44 images and numerous “day-in-the-life” essays.

This book is useful for anyone has either personally experienced breast cancer, recently learned of a breast cancer diagnosis in their circle of friends or family and healthcare professionals that encounter breast cancer diagnoses and/or treatment in their profession.

To learn more about Caring For Cynthia please go to www.caringforcynthia.com, or to learn more about Amy Blackburn Photography, please go to www.amyblackburnphotography.com or contact the artist directly at 520-991-5736. To order a signed copy of the book, call Blackburn, or for a regular copy, go to amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. Also, watch the video below:

Acclaimed author Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote Fight Club and dozens of other novels, gave a lengthy interview to a major British newspaper, The Independent, where he discusses his writing process and credits his participation in the Landmark Forum with helping to launch his writing career. An excerpt from the article appears here. To read the article in its entirety, go to the website of The Independent.

Chuck Palahniuk Talks Sex Dolls, Strippers and the One Subject He Won’t Write About

by Matt Thorne

While talking to Palahniuk I’m increasingly aware that this is a man for whom rules are very important, something which is reflected in all of his work, whether it’s the sex addiction meetings in Choke or the famous instructions at the start of Fight Club. Palahniuk began his career after attending a self-help course called Landmark, and he tells me that although he hasn’t attended a course in several years, it still informs his attitude to life. But I’m interested in how this incredibly controlled man, who shows up for our lunch in a black Cadillac with tinted windows and likes to write covertly in hospital waiting rooms, quantifies his success. He’s sold over three million copies of his books yet his prose is often savaged by critics.

What’s most valuable to you, I ask him. Is it the reception from your group, audiences at readings, making money, the numbers of copies sold, good reviews, or whether the book gets made into a movie? “No,” says Chuck, “it’s ‘did I have fun doing it?’ because before I ever got paid, before I sold anything, I was thinking, am I having fun doing this, and if not can I do it in a different way so I am having fun?”

But surely sometimes writing should be painful and difficult? Or am I doing it wrong? He laughs. “No, you’re doing it wrong. It’s like sex, if it hurts and it’s painful you’re doing it wrong.”

For Palahniuk, writing is his way of dealing with things he can resolve and exhausting his feelings around them. “Because when you’re writing you can arbitrarily choose which crisis to be upset about and you’re upset about the house burning down in the story so you don’t have to be upset that the plane was cancelled or the food got burned or the dog pooped in your hotel room…”