The Two Gay Geeks 🏳️🌈 have a chat with our good friend Mona Elyafi, publicist and Champagne Expert. We chat real briefly about her life as a publicist and then continue the conversation about how she became an accredited Champagne Expert and all things Champagne. Have a listen and we hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
About Mona Elyafi
Mona Elyafi was born in Beirut Lebanon and immigrated to Paris France in 1975 when the civil war started. She was raised in Paris benefiting from a mix of both a European and Middle Eastern culture. With a muslim father and a catholic mother, she grew up exposed to both religions – its traditions, celebrations and beliefs. She moved to Los Angeles in 1990 to pursue a BA in Political Science. She left LA to for New York City where she attended New York University to complete a Masters in Liberal Arts (with a minor in Journalism). She then returned to LA and started her PR career at the Lee Solters Company with the famed Lee Solters (credited to have created the field of PR).
ILDK Media is a one- woman owned business created 17 years ago with one tiny seed and over a decade later, turned into a widely respected expert in LGBTQ+ PR strategies with a focus on diversity & inclusion as well as global Women Empowerment campaigns.
The drive in Elyafi to amplify women’s voices runs in the family, starting with her maternal grandmother who was her mentor & role-model as well as her great uncle, Abdallah El Yafi, on her father’s side. Abdullah El Yafi, former Prime Minister of Lebanon, was a pioneer in defending women’s rights & equality. He was at the forefront of the struggle to give women the right to vote, which he was able to achieve with his cabinet in power in 1952. This is a man who had quite an ‘avant-garde’ ring to conservative Muslim ears.
As she celebrates 17 years in business this year, 16 years of sobriety, 6 years married to her wife, she is beyond grateful for the trials and triumph that have paved her journey to date.
About Locked Up and Uncorked
Locked Up and Uncorked, produced by Aude Thouret for A Lord Pupuce Productions, retraces through short (5-8 minutes) episodes the history of Champagne, France, and its milestone moments from the coronation of Clovis (the first King of France) in the cathedral of Reims, to modern-day events.
In the face of the disastrous economic effects of the Coronavirius that saw the majority of her business gone in one day, Elyafi took that opportunity to bounce back, and put all this new free time to good use by turning to her passion, Champagne.
On top of completing an extensive course with Comite Champagne to officially become an accredited Champagne expert, she also decided to share her knowledge and expertise in all things Champagne related. Teaming up with her wife, she created and launched an entertaining, bubbly, educational, instructive and fun docuseries appropriately titled “Locked Up and Uncorked”.
In our second segment, we chat about the film Raising Buchanan that was released on VOD this week. We also highlight recent articles posted to the tggeeks.com in the past week. As always we have our birthdays and we have the ever-popular feedback segment.
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Show Notes / Links:
- TG Geeks Episode 267
- TG Geeks Episode 270
- TG Geeks Episode 271
- TG Geeks Episode 272
- Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, An Intimate Portrait Of The Hollywood Icon Debuts May 5 on HBO
- Dr. Zombie – Monster Family Physician #99
- Ben’s “Gay” Breakdown | Finding Love while Escaping Freedom
- TG Geeks Episode 227 (interview with Patrick Green and Ed Blott of Escaping Freedom)
- TBS and truTV Cordially Invite You to a Special “I’m Sorry” Mother’s Day Brunch
- Hamish Downie’s Five More Questions With PJ Selarom
- Ben’s Breakdown | A Fitting and Dark Finale to Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Thank You:
- The Arkle Times Post Dispatch News – The Human Arkle on Twitter @arkle — Be sure to take a look at Arkle’s other venture: Arkle Studios presents Shameless Cash Grab
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- Here’s a special shout out to “The Gay Geek” for graciously allowing us to post our episodes in their Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/thegaygeek. And a special Thank You to Jeremiah Reeves, the moderator, for being such a great guy.
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