Forging Our Path at Midlife

by Diane Saarinen

Diane Saarinen: I can’t let the interview finish without focusing instead of on women but on you, Paola – you have, I’m holding a book called A Matter of Choice: 25 People Who Transformed Their Lives. And I read the essay on you in it, and you have such an inspiring story about someone who left corporate America, in midlife, and decided to do what you really wanted to always wanted to do — which was to be a photojournalist.

Paola Gianturco: I did. It’s true! Joan Chatfield-Taylor edited that book full of stories about people’s lives in transition. And my story, as you say, led from a 35-year career in advertising and marketing. And at age 55, I decided to take a sabbatical. I had been teaching as well as working with corporate communications clients all over the country.

And I thought I was, for one year – I didn’t think I was making a life-changing decision – I thought I was for one year going to do what I loved and wanted to learn next. And what I loved was photography and travel. And what I wanted to learn next because my whole experience had been in the corporate arena, was about women entrepreneurs in the developing world. The opposite range of that women’s working experience.

And I made that decision immediately after the Beijing Conference that had taken place in 1995. And I learned for the first time, that women in the developing world were sending their children to school with the money they earned. And that men tended to have the cultural [premitor] to spend the money they earned on whatever they wanted. And often it was radios, and beer, and so forth – and not their children.

And I thought: My God, the women are heroic! I wanted to document their work and their lives and I set forth – naively, not being a professional photographer, not being a professional writer – to do a book in one year. It took five! And I found myself so challenged and engrossed by this new avenue both of learning and creative expression, that although I continued to do some consulting for several years, enough to fund this new passion, ultimately I never went back full time to business.

DS: That’s amazing!

PG: Yes, it was!

DS: I love it though because it really tells people that if you have your own path, you go on it, and it can take a little longer than you think it’s going to take – in your case, you thought you were taking a year and this turned out to be like an all-encompassing project. And I’m glad you did it because I love your work!

PG: Well, thank you very much. And it turns out that I work just as many hours, like twelve to fourteen a day, but I’m doing something that I’m passionately involved in and I’m very excited about.

To hear the rest of the Her Circle Ezine interview with photojournalist Paola Gianturco, please return to our site on Saturday, March 8, 2008, when we will make the full audio available for listening. For more information on Gianturco’s books, please visit www.paolagianturco.com.

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series - Diana Ferrus

Diana Ferrus is a writer and performance poet. Her poem, “I have come to take you home - a tribute to Sarah Baartman” was instrumental in the return of the 19th century figure’s remains to her home in South Africa. Ferrus was born in 1953 in Worcester, 100 km from Cape Town, a town known for its vineyards and wine. She completed her secondary education at Esselen Park High School in Worcester and her tertiary education at the University of the Western Cape, where she currently works as an administrator in the Department of Industrial Psychology.Ferrus has attended several literature festivals internationally, including the International Poetry Festival in North and South Korea in 2005. She received two awards for her work, including one from the Department of Arts and Culture for her work with grassroots women writers. In addition, she established her own little publishing house and hopes to publish writers who would not normally be published by mainstream publishers. Ferrus published her first Afrikaans poetry collection, “Ons Komvandaan,” and co-edited “Slaan vir my ‘n masker, Vader,” a book on fathers. She released a CD of storytelling with musical accompaniment. Her next publication will be an English collection of poetry entitled,”I have come to take you home.

 

Daddy 

  

 

Roots 

 

  

 

Journeys 

 

  

 

Tribute to Sarah Bartman 

Writer’s Workshop: Allow Yourself Time to Create

Workshop with Waverly Fitzgerald, writing coach and author of Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythm of Life.
Saturday, March 8th
12:00 pm PST/3:00pm EST

Do you have difficulty setting priorities? Do you dream of finding ways to put yourself – and your art – first? Seattle-based writing coach Waverly Fitzgerald gives demonstrations and exercises so you can set your plans and goals, while honoring your own commitment to yourself. Using her own brand of organic time management – or “slow time” – Waverly also teaches the difference between natural and artificial time, and how to align the creative rhythms to nature’s own flow.

Participation is limited. Registration required for this free virtual workshop. To attend contact us via email at events@hercircleezine.com.

Visit Waverly online at www.waverlyfitzgerald.com. To learn more about her book, Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythm of Life, visit www.schooloftheseasons.com.

Missed the workshop? Not a problem. We’ve got the instant replay here.

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series - Jonida Beqo

Jonida Beqo, a.k.a. Gypsee Yo, is a native of Tirana, Albania, currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in Theatre from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where she founded Lighthouse Productions, an independent theatre company dedicated to original works that educate about and empower communities in crisis. In 2003 the American College Theatre Festival and the Kennedy Center for the Arts recognized Jonida’s one-woman show “The Women I Know” with the Dell’Arte Diversity Award. She has published in magazines and anthologies such as Mehr Licht! Java Monkey Speaks Anthology, Pedestal Magazine, as well as in a series of periodicals in Albanian. Jonida is the author of three poetry collections in her native tongue, and of four audio CD collections in English, including her bestsellers Kitchensinkdrama, and Firstborn Daughters. As Gypsee Yo , she performs internationally as a spoken word artist, and has competed in slams worldwide, including National Poetry Slam 2006 and 2007, Individual World Poetry Slam 2006, and the first ever Women of the World Poetry Slam 2008. Jonida is a devoted wife, a doting mother, and a passionate teacher. www.gypseeyo.com

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series: Women Writing in the New Ireland

Join us Sunday, March 9th for a reading with the ladies from across the pond.

WWInI is a new initiative aimed at facilitating a dialogue between women writers in the New Ireland. The intention is to promote the creative work of women writers living in Ireland who are from migrant and new communities and to encourage contact between these writers and other women writers who were born in Ireland or who have lived here for a long time.

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series: Women Writing for (a) Change

Join us Saturday, March 8th for this very special reading from Women Writing for (a) Change.

Women Writing for (a) Change is a feminist writing community located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1991 by Mary Pierce Brosmer, teacher, speaker and published poet, Women Writing for (a) Change has grown in scope and in depth from its first small, rented home for fifteen writers to a movement in which women and girls “practice their voices” and go into the larger world to add women’s stories and women’s views to the critical conversations of our times. Women Writing for (a) Change offers weekly writing classes for women who are open to the change that a writing practice can bring into their lives. Daytime and evening classes meet for 15 weeks and form close-knit communities; over 80% of participants return from semester to semester. Since its beginnings, more than 800 adult women and 300 girls have been writers at Women Writing for (a) Change.

Restoring balance by amplifying and strengthening the “voice of the conscious feminine” is the heart of the mission of Women Writing for (a) Change. In 2001, it’s sister organization, Women Writing for (a) Change Foundation, was established to support the program of Young Women Writing for (a) Change—creative writing programs for girls and young women in grades 4 through first-year of college— as well as to offer scholarships for girls and women to attend its creative writing courses. In addition, the Foundation supported the development of our weekly radio show broadcast on WVXU, 91.7 from 1999-2005 (now available through our website) as well as School Partnerships, which offer after-school Young Women Writing for (a) Change programs at local schools. With the recent purchase of a permanent home in Cincinnati, 6906 Plainfield Road in Silverton, the Women Writing for (a) Change movement can now plant roots and continue its growth and deepening work of bringing the conscious feminine to the world.

Women Writing for (a) Change continues to grow out into the world, inspiring the founding of seven sister WWf(a)C schools in Bloomington, IN; Birmingham, AL; Burlington, VT; Grand Junction, CO; Indianapolis, IN; Portland, OR; and opening soon in Traverse City, MI. The movement has influenced organizations - nonprofits, schools, and businesses - throughout Greater Cincinnati, as both women and men attend its programs, and as consultants trained in WWf(a)C practices serve directly in social service, academic and other settings.

For more information, please visit our website: www.womenwriting.org.

One World Cafe Virtual Reading Series: Alison Aston

At 23 years old Rebecca Johnson is the epitome of success: she’s got a jealous-making job working for British society mag Reine, a fab flat in London and a continuous stream of attractive men passing through her sheets. This all sounds rather impressive, but in reality Becks sells the ads, shops in H&M and would rather go home with a girl in Manolos than Prince William in Armani.

Join us Friday, March 7th for author Alison Aston’s reading of her novel, Closet. Think the gay Bridget Jones meets The Devil Wears Prada.

Originally from the South West of England, Aston has lived in London, San Francisco, and Marseille. Her credits include work in women’s style magazines like ELLE and Harper’s Bazaar. Currently she works for BBC magazines, in addition to freelance work for Time Out. Aston lives with her civil partner in Bristol.

Interview: Paola Gianturco

In Celebrating Women, photographer Paola Gianturco trains her eye on the world’s most vibrant festivals that honor women. These moving celebrations, idiosyncratic to their indigenous roots, take the form of parades, parties, competitions, and religious ceremonies. Gianturco spent five years photographing seventeen festivals in fifteen countries across five continents. Collected for the first time ever in a single edition, Gianturco provides insightful text describing the specific occasions and detailing their historic and cultural significance, culled from her extensive interviews with musicians, dancers, vendors, mask makers, costume designers, journalists, priests, governors, and spectators—not to mention a princess and a king.

Visit the author online, and join us Saturday, March 8th for an exclusive interview with the author.

Full Circle: A Tribute to the Cultural Diversity of Women’s Art

Studio HCE is proud to host a special online engagement of the juried exhibition, “Full Circle: A Tribute to the Cultural Diversity of Women’s Art” at New York’s Pen and Brush (www.penandbrush.org) studio March 6th - 30th.

Deborah Jack, Juror of Selection and Awards
Deborah Jack is an artist whose work is based in video/sound installation, photography, painting, and text. Her current work deals with trans-cultural existence, memory, the effects of colonialism and mythology through re-memory. Her work was included in the 2007 Brooklyn Museum Exhibition Infinite Island: Contemporary Art. She has published two poetry collections, The Rainy Season (1997) and skin (2006). Her poetry has appeared in The Caribbean Writer and Calabash and she has recited her work in the Caribbean, United States, South Africa and the Netherlands.

Awards and honors include a Caribbean Writers Institute Fellow, University of Miami, Prince Bernard Culture Fund grants, University of Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship, Photography Institute-National Graduate Seminar Fellow, Lightwork Artist-in-Residence, Syracuse University, CEPA Exhibition Award, New York Foundation of the Arts SOS grant, and a Big Orbit Gallery Summer Residency. Her work has been exhibited in St. Martin, the United States, and Europe. Jack is also a member of art collective the Evolutionary Girls Club. Her work is part of the Lightwork collection, the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, the collection of the Island Government of St. Martin and several private collections.

Deborah Jack is an Assistant Professor of Art at New Jersey City University.

Pen and Brush Mission Statement
Founded in 1894, the Pen and Brush is a not-for-profit organization of women professionally
active in the literary, visual, and performing arts. Its goals are to promote women in the arts,
to foster high standards of aesthetics and craftsmanship, to develop the professional activities
of its members, and to educate the general public about the significance of art in personal and
community life. Throughout most of the year, exhibitions of paintings, graphic art, mixed me-
dia, photographs, sculpture, and crafts are held in the galleries. Poetry, prose, and play read-
ings, lectures, demonstrations, concerts, and receptions are regularly scheduled. Other activi-
ties include meetings, discussions, contests, and workshops. The Pen and Brush is located in
its own brownstone in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.