Cindi Adler

Cindi Adler, formerly Cindi Angelini, worked in radio and television for more than 20 years. She started her career in broadcasting working at radio stations in Houston and San Diego, before working as a local reporter and anchor at ABCs KVIA TV in El Paso and the sister station KVII in Amarillo. In 1983, just as President Reagan was campaigning for his second term in office,
     Adler moved to the nation’s capital to provide national coverage to network owned television and radio stations across the country. As a DC bureau Washington correspondent, she covered the White house, Capitol Hill, Pentagon and State Department, and traveled to presidential conventions, shuttle launches, as well as other national events to provide live coverage.
     From the U.S. Capitol Building, Adler also hosted two political talk shows for stations in St. Louis and Detroit, interviewing congressmen and senators about relevant issues and legislation under consideration in the House and Senate. Her career would lead to writing and producing documentaries and industrial videos, before leaving broadcasting to spend more time with her family.
    Adler wrote in the Prologue:
     “Trapped in my home watching news all day, and not being in the middle of it, during the pandemic was tortuous. I started to take notes in the off chance the pandemic evolved into something more significant. My intention was to create a little keepsake for my future grandchildren, something they could take to class some day for show-and-tell to say, ‘my grandma lived through a pandemic and made this little book.’ A leave-behind of sorts with explanations of what happened and what mistakes were made, so that in the future, perhaps in another hundred years when there was another pandemic, some lessons could be learned. I had no idea at that time it would evolve into a book about a really crazy year in history.”
     Instead of using television crews to provide the visuals, Adler reached out to the brilliant street artists from all around the globe who were using the boarded up windows and storefronts of business establishments, that were forced to close during the pandemic, to paint whimsical and oftentimes mischievous artwork depicting the deteriorating state of affairs in the United States and throughout the world – the kind of art that could make you laugh and rage at the same time. In her book 2020 Beyond Word – the Street Art Guide to a Breathtaking Year, Adler lets more than 180 images of street art lead the stories that needed to be told during a year when when “it felt as if the borders around countries disappeared and we were all just one people fighting the same deadly virus, the same racial injustice, and the same terrible leadership.”