It’s 2017! What will you do differently this year? Tina Turnbow interviewed and photographed seven creatives including Alix Brown, Yael Stone, Dr. David Colbert, Elina Fuhrman, Brian Newman, Kim Coiffier, and Nina Garcia about their New Year’s resolutions and hopes for the new year. Get inspired, check out the interviews below!
Alix Brown, DJ and Musician
Tina Turnbow: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
Alix Brown: My New Year’s resolution are to take better care of myself, take better care of others, practice being more patient, and to learn French.
TT: What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
AB: I’m looking forward to having two albums come out this year from bands I’m in, playing lots of music, and traveling a lot.
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest achievement in 2017?
AB: Making an album that changes the way people think and feel.
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
AB: For people to realize that we are all the same and we are not invincible.
Yael Stone, Actress, Orange is the New Black
Tina Turnbow: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
Yael Stone: I want to donate more money, energy and effort to the causes that I believe in. In 2017 I will not be overcome with the darkness of the prevailing socio political climate. I will set my sights on the kind of world I want. We have to think big, talk big and most importantly, DO BIG.
TT: What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
YS: I’ve been feeling some big adventures coming so I’m getting my mind and body ready for epic change. I am actively courting transformation. In 2016, I got an opportunity for new perspective and I’m embracing the chance to re-imagine everything.
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest
achievement in 2017?
YS: Complete and total reinvention, both personally and globally. Specifically, I’d like to see the Liberation Prison Yoga program integrated into all prisons, jails and detention centers in the USA. By the end of 2017 I’d like to see facilities around the world adopting this radically effective program with the result being a massive paradigm shift in the way we think about detainees and the incarcerated population.
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
YS: I hope that the hateful bigoted rhetoric we are hearing all around the world proves to be the last gasp of an old system that we no longer need. Birth of a new era, baby!
Dr. David Colbert, Dermatologist & Creator of Colbert MD skincare
Tina Turnbow: Do you make New Year’s resolutions and if not, can you tell me why?
DC: I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Instead I make new resolutions whenever I feel I need a change, which is a few times a month. My last one was to hike the Scottish Highlands and I managed to squeeze that into the month of November after the Victoria’s Secret show. Don’t ask…
TT: What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
DC: I’m looking forward surfing in Indonesia! I’m also launching a new skincare venture called NYDG with Sarah Colette in Paris. Also, I’m gunning to surf in Montgenèvre, France because you can ski between the French and Italian alps all day – croissants for breakfast and Barolo and pesto pasta for dinner – heaven! And, I want Hillary Clinton to win the Powerball lottery and get a personal and public apology from Donald Trump for his ridiculously porcine behavior all year. Is that to much to ask? Ps. Who is doing the new first “escort” couple’s Botox? Not me!
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest achievement in 2017?
DC: If I could just forecast only January it would be that we would see something like the French Revolution in Washington DC. Beyond that my biggest achievement will be to find a black lab puppy born on November 21st and fall in love again with man’s best friend and also to surf a ten foot wave with the custom made surfboard that Laird Hamilton and The Wave author, Susan Casey, sent me for Christmas. It’s pearl white with a green map of Kaui!
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
DC: My wishes for the world are always the same: that everyone has a puppy, that we keep human and animal suffering to a minimum, and that Donald Trump and Bibi both retire to an asylum for political narcissists in Antarctica. #notmypresident #f——off
Elina Fuhrman, Chef and founder of Soupelina, Award-winning Author
Tina Turnbow: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
Elina Fuhrman: New Year’s is the biggest holiday for me and I believe that the way you meet the New Year is the way you will end up spending that year.That’s why on New Year’s I like being with people I love most but also welcome new friends into my life. I have a tradition that has been in my family forever – we write down our wishes for the New Year on a small piece of paper and then we burn that piece of paper in a small dish moments before midnight. At the stroke of midnight, we place the ashes into a flute of champagne and drink them so that the wishes will come true.This year, I will be wishing for a “well-thy” year mainly because I believe that health and relationships are the most important things in life. I want to make sure that I’m good to others, that I continue to grow as a woman and that I’m good to myself and am allowing myself the freedom to be good to me.
TT: What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
EF: I’m working on making Soupelina soups available to more people and excited to continue sharing the magic of therapeutic soup with the world. I’m looking for more amazing travels, I’m such an inner gypsy and love to explore! I’m also really looking forward to challenging myself to take more time to meditate and connect with myself. I took a silent meditation course in 2016 and it helped me understand my mind, now I want to dedicate more time to training it. Most importantly, to always be present and create balance in life.
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest achievement in 2017?
EF: Wow, that’s a big question! I’m very proud that in 2016, people became familiar with the Soup Cleanse I invented, and my book, Soupelina’s Soup Cleanse, that came out in February was translated and published in several European countries. I’m hoping that in 2017, I will take this a step further and be able to educate people on the medicinal power of food, and how to maximize its therapeutic value. It’s a huge task but I think the world is ready!
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
EF: My biggest wish for the world is to understand how eating healthy affects not only your body but your mind. Food is very powerful and when we eat well, we heal our gut and our brain, and that makes us kinder, balanced and content. Truly healthy people are filled with love and kindness, not hate, and that makes our world a better place.
Brian Newman: Verve Recording Artist, Trumpeter, and Singer
Tina Turnbow: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
Brian Newman: I’m not much for standing on ceremony as far as New Year’s resolutions go, but this year I am am resolving to write more music!
TT: What are some of the things you are looking forward to most in 2017?
BN: 2016 was a crazy year for a lot of people but one good thing that came out of it was singing with Verve Records. I’m am so exited to make records for them! The band and I have idolized the artists on the Verve label since we were young students of music. Verve was home to entertainers like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and Jimmy Smith, the list goes on to even include Frank Zappa and Velvet Underground!
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest achievement in 2017?
BN: Well, my biggest achievement ever was marrying Angie Pontani and having our beautiful daughter Sistilia. For 2017, I look forward to spending lots of time with them and also performing at new venues across the globe touring our next record that we are working on now. It should be out in mid-2017.
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
BN: My biggest hope and wish for 2017 is that we can achieve the solidarity that we so greatly need right now in this modern world. I’d like to raise my daughter in a place that accepts all people regardless of race, creed or sexual preference. We’re all here to live and the only way that works is if we’re on the same team. Everybody love everybody, baby!
Kim Coiffier, Design Director of MAIYET
Tina Turnbow: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
Kim Coiffier: I always make one – to be true to myself. It’s quite ambitious as you equally need to follow, lead and let yourself go every day!
TT: What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
KC: At the moment, 2017 is far from being organized, I have many projects in mind so I am definitely looking for 2017 to put some ideas in real perspective. With my family in Europe and my day life in NYC, I wish to get some wings and settle better into this great nomadic life.
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest achievement in 2017?
KC: The biggest achievement for 2017 would be to get my driving license. It’s not a joke! I never took the time to get that done before so it’s time.
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
KC: I hope that governments and all of us will raise more awareness and action towards global warming for this coming year. The agreement for Kigali deal took seven years to be approved. Hopefully education and information will improve environmental issues.
Nina Garcia, Marie Claire Creative Director & Project Runway Judge
Tina Turnbow: What are your New Year’s resolutions for 2017?
Nina Garcia: I believe in making resolutions throughout the year, not only on New Year’s eve. But, I think it’s safe to say that we all need that extra push once in a while to reassess what we want and to make a few changes to get there. This is the perfect time of year to do that. Many of us are surrounded by friends and family and are reminded of what is important in life. For me, I try to carve out some time during the festivities to reflect and plan for the year to come. This year, I’m resolving to spend more time with my kids (that’s an ongoing resolution) and unplug more frequently.
TT: What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
NG: 2016 was a year of incredible change. From politics to fashion, it seemed that every industry underwent a significant amount of transformation. For 2017, I’m looking forward to letting those changes settle in. In fashion, I’m looking forward to new designs made by innovative thinkers and new voices raising up from all of the different platforms we have now come so accustomed to in this technologically savvy time.
TT: If you could forecast the future, what will be your biggest achievement in 2017?
NG: Keeping up with all of the “new” while simultaneously finding more time to disconnect. That’s always a tough one. That, and eating less chocolate. I’ve never once been successful at that.
TT: What is your biggest wish for our world in 2017?
NG: A more connected and collaborative world. I really do think we areliving at a time of immense opportunity. We just need to use all of the tools available to us for the greater good.
Photography & interviews by Tina Turnbow for The Untitled Magazine
