Posted by Tommy Garrett on May 18, 2011 – 8:20:06 PM

SAVE THE DATE!
AGE MARCH 2011 comes to Southern California on Saturday, May 21, 2011

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Join Barbara Rose Brooker, founder of Age March San Francisco in 2010,
and talented vocal performer Suzi Oliver in celebration of AGE PRIDE!

Suzi Oliver is a vocalist who sings from her heart! With an eclectic range from standard to contemporary jazz with some R & B edge and Brazilian flavor, she never ceases to surprise and excite her audience! Suzi has performed throughout the L.A. area for several years at some of the most well known clubs and venues. She has also traveled through Asia and the US, and performed in the big band arena with the likes of the Ray Anthony Orchestra, Red and the Red Hots, and the Billy May Orchestra. Her CD ” Beginnings” is an exciting combination of original songs and a new spin on popular 20th century songs. She has a follow Up CD entitled “ Universal Language” which is an eclectic blend of Original Jazz, Techno and House Music. Some of the titles can be heard currently on www.myspace.com/suzioliver and on www.suzioliver.com.

She is currently singing in the Los Angeles area with her Jazz Quartet “Safari Jazz” and can also be booked for your event by contacting her at suzi@suzioliver.com or through Gigmasters: Suzi Oliver and Safari Jazz.

All of this began with a dream. Dreams come true. It was hard getting started and getting support. But as a seventy-three year old professional single woman, I’m tired of ageism in our country. I and my committee worked endlessly. I envision a society of a work place with all ages, all levels, education at all different starts and beginnings. Everything is possible at any age.

At the MARCH on AUG 8, 2010, I saw this hunger for Age Pride and freedom from restricted ideas. Vans with people of all ages came from the East Bay Marin, Peninsula. People I had never met were there. At eight a.m. they were standing in line for their AGE MARCH T shirts. They held signs-I’m Not A Senior! I’m A Person! Celebrate Your Age! Don’t Lie About it! I’m 96 and I Have Dreams Too. It went on and on. Some wore stickers on their t-shirts with their age numbers printed on the stickers. Other carried gold pon pons and wore gold hats.

A Table of pastries were donated along with coffee. Silvia Cicardini and her saxophone and band played the blues and San Francisco Songs. It was an air of celebration. It was magic. It’s a new movement and it’s San Francisco!

How thrilled and proud I am. Christopher Springman/radio host did a superb job, introducing everyone and making it fun.

“Time to make history! Time to March,” he announced. Behind a red ten-foot banner, with the gold letters AGE MARCH/SF 2010 we marched. Next to me was Dr. Nader Shabahangi/Phd/CEO/AgeSong, sponsor of the age march next to me, my daughters and their husbands. My daughter’s dog Fred, a black lab wore a sticker on his collar that said I’m five. A low fog along the Bay was lifting and the sun burst behind the clouds. We walked along the bay, facing our gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge, orange and hovering in the mist like a glass necklace. Sailboats bobbed on the Bay like toys and birds flew low along the tide.

Those who had trouble marching, still marched slowly in the back. When I turned around and looked behind  at the hundreds of people behind me, it was thrilling. “This is the beginning of a dream,” I said to Dr. Nader. “People are hungry for this,” he said.

That night, on Channel 2 at five p.m. the age march was covered. On Channel seven, at five-and on Channel 3, NBC.

The next march will be in December in Los Angeles. The date will be announced.

THANK YOU for helping me make us make history.

To be continued.

Below are some points to look at about the meaning of this Age March.

I will keep adding to it.

March for age awareness.

March for age pride.

Don’t be ashamed of age.

Be proud of it!

March to be hired no matter what your age!

March to abolish phases like Age Appropriate!

March to end social and media pressure to look a certain way. To act a certain way!

March to abolish requirements to give age. It’s no different than having to give race.

March to merge and unify a society where all ages can work at the same levels, can educate themselves to begin new ideas and projects.

March for women over fifty who are treated as if they’re commodities and throw-aways.

Abolish terms like cougars and sugar daddys.

Treat people of all ages the same.

It’s not justice for some. It’s justice for all~

To be continued.

July 15, 2010 | By Sam Whiting

To prove that age means nothing, “Viagra Diaries” author Barbara Rose Brooker lives like a writer just starting out, in a rent-controlled junior one-bedroom. It is on the second floor of an apartment building at Broadway and Franklin Street in San Francisco. Traffic noise is her constant companion.

Q: Latest project?

A: The Age March. I had a dream a couple of years ago that every man and woman in every city in the United States was going to march in an Age March, and their real age number would be printed on their button. They march in protest of our anti-age society. The dream is being brought to reality Aug. 8 at Crissy Field.

Q: How long is the Age March?

A: The march is 1 mile. It costs $10 to register if you want a T-shirt. If you don’t want a T-shirt, just put your name down at www.agemarch.org. There are no age requirements. We have people in their 20s who have registered.

Q: What will your age button say?

A: We’re going to have stickers instead. My sticker is going to say “73.” I am so proud of it. I love it. It’s a fabulous time, and I’m sick of lying about it.

Q: You used to lie about your age?

A: Of course I did. How else can you get a job or a date?

Q: Describe your novel “The Viagra Diaries”?

A: It’s about Anny Applebaum, who is 70. She has all kinds of ambitions and goals and refuses to settle. She inspired my Age March. I have a film option on “The Viagra Diaries” and I’m writing a sequel. I think maybe 70-plus is in.

Q: Seventy is the new what?

A: Seventy is the new 70. I’m not going to say “the new 50″ and all that. We don’t have to go back.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: I’m a native San Franciscan. I grew up on El Camino Del Mar. I went to Lowell High School and graduated in 1954.

Q: What did you want to be?

A: I always wanted to be a writer and an actor. I wasn’t really able to be an actor because I was told to get a real estate license and a husband. I did all those things, and I hated it. Now I’m performing in my first one-woman show, at the Commonwealth Club. It’s called “The Viagra Diaries.” My first one was Oct. 19 last year. My second one is Nov. 23.

Q: First job?

A: I worked at Saks when I was 16, selling bridal clothes, I think.

Q: Childhood nickname?

A: Bobbie.

Q: Describe your neighborhood?

A: This is not the fancy part of Broadway. Van Ness is one block away. This is how 73-year-old struggling authors and actors live.

Q: Favorite vacation spot?

A: Paris.

Q: When were you last there?

A: Twenty-five years ago.

Q: Aren’t you about due?

A: I’m due for a lot of things.

Q: What would you buy if you could?

A: Dozens and dozens of orchid plants. I’d give them to all the people I like.

Q: What would surprise people to know about you?

A: That I really love solitude. I love staying home and writing and painting and not talking to people for days. When you’re in the media, you develop a persona that you’re “out there.” I’m not “out there.” I’m “in there.”

Q: What would you call your autobiography?

A: “There Is No End, Only a Beginning.”

Q: Who plays you in the movie?

A: Diane Keaton.

Q: What haven’t I asked you?

A: Am I having fun doing all of this?

Q: Well, are you?

A: I’m having a fabulous time, because I still have hope that anything can happen at any time.

E-mail Sam Whiting at swhiting@sfchronicle.com.
(C) San Francisco Chronicle 2010

The Age March — billed by its organizer as the first age march in history — is set for Aug. 8 at Crissy Field in San Francisco.

“Let’s get rid of age segregation and discrimination and labels,” organizer Barbara Rose Brooker of San Francisco writes on the event’s Web site. “I’m not a senior. I’m a person!  Let’s do away with phrases such as ‘age-appropriate.’ Age is a spirit not a number or a rule!”

The aim of the march is to protest against living in “an anti-age society that is ashamed of age, where the media gives the message to lie about our age to get jobs and romance, to go back and not forward,” writes Brooker, the author of “The Viagra Diaries.”

Participants will wear their real age number on either a button or on the front of their T-shirts. Brooker, 73, said she expects thousands of men and women to participate.

“Aging isn’t about Botox. It’s a spirit. The fountain of youth is inside of us. Let’s show that we’re proud of our age and not ashamed of it,” writes Brooker.

The one-mile walk will begin at Crissy Field across from Sports Basement, 610 Mason St., the Presidio, in San Francisco at 9 a.m. and the full event is scheduled to last for three hours. For more information, visit http://www.agemarch.com.