Corey Roskin is smart, soft-spoken and easy-going. These traits are a big reason why he’s had a successful 30-plus-year career dealing with the public as an event planner/event host.
Roskin was born in Skokie, Ill., just outside of Chicago. He grew up surrounded by music; his mother was a classically trained singer who sang on the radio and in USO tours as a teen, though she did not pursue it professionally. His dad was very funny, but never acted on his dreams of becoming a comedy writer. Roskin played both piano and clarinet as a youngster, and danced in high school shows.
He went on to get a degree in psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A week after graduating, he moved in with his aunt and uncle in San Bernardino, and took a job in a psychiatric hospital. Roskin was unsure about his career calling, but he thought it would be somewhere in the field of psychology or social services.
He spent a year in graduate school in Los Angeles, studying industrial psychology; at that point, he was leaning toward the human-resources field—but instead, he went to work in social services for the city of West Hollywood. For nearly 30 years, he organized community events, special programs, health fairs and speaker series. He worked with many different groups including seniors, kids and people with HIV. When the city decided to start a large book festival, Roskin was asked to help create and run that as well. On the side, Roskin taught yoga for more than a decade.
In March 2020, Roskin retired; he moved to the Coachella Valley two months later, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roskin continues to do a lot of work in the Coachella Valley—all as a volunteer. He’s worked with the Mizell Center and several nonprofit organizations, and is on the board of the Palm Springs Public Library Association. For the latter, he’s helped oversee an LGBT author event called Pride on the Page. Roskin is part of a fundraising committee for the Palm Springs Cultural Center, and was pivotal in the recent musical event Nobody Does It Better, directed by Doug Graham, which raised a whopping $84,000 for the Cultural Center. Like almost everyone involved, Roskin was pleasantly surprised that the event exceeded its $50,000 goal. That money will go toward much-needed capital improvements, including converting another one of the movie theaters into a live performance space, complete with a stage.
“I’m really excited to see what’s happening at the Cultural Center, so I was happy to come on board and see how I could help,” Roskin said.
I asked him how event planning and fundraising are different in Palm Springs compared to Los Angeles. “Like anywhere, it’s important to get to know the community, to get to know the players, and that took a little while,” he said.
Roskin said the desert is not only smaller than L.A., but also a little “sleepier.” He explained that people are just starting to realize what’s possible here culturally, and he’s seeing the level of entertainment take a step up.
Though he doesn’t often deal directly with big Hollywood names when organizing book festivals and booking folks for speaking engagements, Roskin does seem to have the calm, low-key manner necessary to handle celebrity egos. What are the qualities necessary to do the kind of work Roskin does?
Roskin also does a little bit of writing, singing and dancing. In the future, he would like to do some of his own storytelling, in whatever form that might take.
“You need to be organized,” he said. “I think you need to have passion; you need to be excited about being creative, and you need to be flexible if a plan needs to be altered. Also, find good people to work with.”
A man of many talents, Roskin also does a little bit of writing, singing and dancing. In the future, he would like to do some of his own storytelling, in whatever form that might take. He said a friend in L.A. created a story-telling series there, and Roskin would love to put together something similar here. Another item on his bucket list: Interviewing more authors, both one-on-one and as a member of a panel.
When asked about the best advice he’s ever been given, Roskin replied: “Probably that when I get too stressed about something to just step back, walk away from it for a minute, and take a breath or two, and come back to it. Try not to stay in the spin of the stress.”
Roskin keeps this Toni Morrison quote on his desk: “If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.” When asked about his philosophy of life, he replied: “Be as nice to people as you are able to.”
“I’d like to maintain a life that incorporates the three Cs: community, cultural arts and connection,” he continued. “Those are the things that, in a very broad way, define me.”
Roskin can be contacted at coreyroskin@gmail.com. Bonnie Gilgallon also writes theater reviews for Independent and hosts a weekly radio show, The Desert Scene, on Mutual Broadcasting. Her website is www.bonnie-g.com, and she can be emailed at BonnieGnews@gmail.com.