We knew the goal was ambitious, particularly because the heart of the campaign involved engaging hundreds of supporters to raise thousands of dollars through the sale of t-shirts on Bonfire Funds, a new online fundraising platform. But the shirts were crucial to the campaign’s vision. We wanted to dramatically raise name recognition of the little-known local organization.
This holiday season, I am grateful to the Greater Richmond area for hearing our appeal, buying and selling shirts, making and soliciting donations, and all of the other things you’ve done to support the wonderful children whose potential is nurtured by FRIENDS. Since November 1, more than 800 individuals have supported the campaign by purchasing shirts or making donations to FRIENDS. As of December 25, we’ve raised $24,536 and sold 1,672 t-shirts through Bonfire. That’s incredible.
But that’s not all. Some very generous companies and philanthropists made end-of-the-year pledges to ensure that we reached our six-figure goal. We’ve also received in-kind donations, inquiries from prospective volunteers and offers of support services for FRIENDS families. And we’re beginning to receive awesome photographs like those featured here of supporters rocking their FRIENDS RVA shirts. Together, all of these things provide ample illustration that FRIENDS has been embraced by a broader, more diverse group of ambassadors than ever before.
If you haven’t gotten your shirt yet, there’s still time to join the movement. Visit bonfirefunds.com/friendsrva before the campaign ends December 31.
It was Phil Robertson’s sincerity that got me. The sense that he really believed what he was saying. That as self-described white trash, he felt a kinship with black farm laborers. That he couldn’t fathom the enormity of the distance between them.
The mere fact that he could sit atop a multimillion-dollar Duck Dynasty was evidence enough of the divide, to me anyway. You see I had taken enough African American studies courses at Harvard to know that the public faces black people showed whites during Jim Crow disguised centuries worth of pain and distrust.
And if that wasn’t enough, I had an 88-year-old grandmother sitting in a Cleveland, Ohio, duplex still shuddering from the memories of her own cotton-picking past who could personally attest to that truth. The truth in which black people were brutalized in the south in ways that aren’t easily resolved—or ignored—even with the passage of time. Ways that can send you running and still haunt you 70 odd years later. Continue reading “On Singing the Blues”
It was Phil Robertson’s sincerity that got me. The sense that he really believed what he was saying. That as self-described white trash, he felt a kinship with black farm laborers. That he couldn’t fathom the enormity of the distance between them.
The mere fact that he could sit atop a multimillion-dollar Duck Dynasty was evidence enough of the divide, to me anyway. You see I had taken enough African American studies courses at Harvard to know that the public faces black people showed whites during Jim Crow disguised centuries worth of pain and distrust.
And if that wasn’t enough, I had an 88-year-old grandmother sitting in a Cleveland, Ohio, duplex still shuddering from the memories of her own cotton-picking past who could personally attest to that truth. The truth in which black people were brutalized in the south in ways that aren’t easily resolved—or ignored—even with the passage of time. Ways that can send you running and still haunt you 70 odd years later. Continue reading “On Singing the Blues”
The bed won’t stay made. The clear counter will inevitably yield to an onslaught of dishes, ingredients and mail. But at least once a day for a brief interval–let’s call it a Martha Moment–I will set things right and experience a bit of peace and quiet in an otherwise hectic day.
An empty email inbox is by far the trickiest of the three to pull off daily, but it’s possible. Productivity gurus will tout the wisdom of folders and filters. They’ll tell you to prioritize and offer tips on scanning to separate the important from the junk. They’ll lobby for regular email-checking time blocks and warn of the perils of checking messages too early in the morning or too late at night.
These email-centric tactics are all well and good. But the things that made the biggest difference in my personal quest for inbox zero happened outside the box—in my attitude and on my to-do list. If you’re ready to take charge of your inbox, follow my lead.
Continue reading “How to Vanquish Email Overload Once and For All”
The bed won’t stay made. The clear counter will inevitably yield to an onslaught of dishes, ingredients and mail. But at least once a day for a brief interval–let’s call it a Martha Moment–I will set things right and experience a bit of peace and quiet in an otherwise hectic day.
An empty email inbox is by far the trickiest of the three to pull off daily, but it’s possible. Productivity gurus will tout the wisdom of folders and filters. They’ll tell you to prioritize and offer tips on scanning to separate the important from the junk. They’ll lobby for regular email-checking time blocks and warn of the perils of checking messages too early in the morning or too late at night.
These email-centric tactics are all well and good. But the things that made the biggest difference in my personal quest for inbox zero happened outside the box—in my attitude and on my to-do list. If you’re ready to take charge of your inbox, follow my lead.
Continue reading “How to Vanquish Email Overload Once and For All”
The choice of Janet Echelman’s work to illustrate the Harvard Business Review article “Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers” opens up a much larger—and to me, more inspiring—debate about how women become true leaders.
Echelman’s work hints at the inner vision, that needs to happen for us to lead in any context. In this debate, rethinking the corporate workspace is no longer central; instead, it’s about freeing ourselves from traditional paths to seek out and pursue our own creative potential, guided by a grand vision. Continue reading “Leadership: The Echelman Way”
The choice of Janet Echelman’s work to illustrate the Harvard Business Review article “Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers” opens up a much larger—and to me, more inspiring—debate about how women become true leaders.
Echelman’s work hints at the inner vision, that needs to happen for us to lead in any context. In this debate, rethinking the corporate workspace is no longer central; instead, it’s about freeing ourselves from traditional paths to seek out and pursue our own creative potential, guided by a grand vision. Continue reading “Leadership: The Echelman Way”
Dear Maya,
I received a bunch of gift cards this holiday season and I still haven’t spent the ones I received last year. I’m trying to keep my spending under control and I worry that by walking into some of these stores I would be setting myself up to overspend. At the same time, I feel bad about wasting the cards that friends, family and co-workers bought with their hard-earned money.
Sincerely,
Gift-Card Worrier
Continue reading “The Gift Card Conundrum: How to Spend without Overspending”
Dear Maya,
I received a bunch of gift cards this holiday season and I still haven’t spent the ones I received last year. I’m trying to keep my spending under control and I worry that by walking into some of these stores I would be setting myself up to overspend. At the same time, I feel bad about wasting the cards that friends, family and co-workers bought with their hard-earned money.
Sincerely,
Gift-Card Worrier
Continue reading “The Gift Card Conundrum: How to Spend without Overspending”
I smiled at the thought of millions typing queries into the search engine under Hurston’s watchful gaze. She was the ultimate questioning woman so it’s only fitting.
I hope many will click on her image and discover or reconnect with this fierce, independent and accomplished writer. Today she’s best known for her novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” but she also published three other novels; dozens of short stories, essays and articles; three plays; three musical compositions; eight folk tales and anthropological works; and an autobiography.
Alice Walker observed: “After reading Hurston, anyone coming to the United States would know exactly where to go to find the remains of the culture that kept Southern black people going through centuries of white oppression. They could find what was left of the music; they could find what was left of the speech; they could find what was left of the dancing; they could find what was left of the work, the people’s relationship to the earth and to animals; they could find what was left of the orchards, the gardens, and the fields; they could find what was left of the prayer.”
Indeed, Hurston’s greatest gift as a writer was her ear. She reveled in the subtleties of black vernacular speech, passionately capturing the cadence and timbre of voices. Her deep listening and nuanced retelling made her stories—fiction and otherwise—vivid, distinctive, matchless.
“And Janie, maybe it wasn’t much, but Ah done de best Ah kin by you. Ah raked and scraped and bought dis lil piece uh land so you wouldn’t have to stay in de white folks’ yard and tuck you’ head befo’ other chillun at school. Dat was all right when you was little. But when you got big enough to understand things, Ah wanted you to look upon yo’self. Ah don’t want yo’ feathers always crumpled by folks throwin’ up things in yo’ face. And Ah can’t die easy thinking maybe de menfoks white or black is makin’ a spit cup outa you; Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate.”
– From “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
Beyond local idiom, figurative speech and lore, Hurston mastered the studied but no less colorful tone of her omniscient third-person narrator.
She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!
– From “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
Hurston also made art of the telling and retelling of her own story in her own voice.
I was glad when somebody told me, “You may go and collect Negro folk-lore.” In a way it would not be a new experience for me. When I pitched headforemost into the world I landed in the crib of negroism. From the earliest rocking of my cradle, I had known about the capers Brer Rabbit is apt to cut and what the Squinch Owl says from the house top. But it was fitting me like a tight chemise. I couldn’t see it for wearing it. It was only when I was off in college, away from my native surroundings, that I could see myself like somebody else and stand off and look at my garment. Then I had to have the spy-glass of Anthropology to look through at that.
– From “Mules and Men”
In this way, Hurston was a multilingual marvel and the undoubted literary foremother of so many I admire today. Women who celebrate and give voice to people on the margins without condescension, apology or pity. Women who write artfully and heartfully. Women who speak their own names.
Happy Birthday, Zora!
Maya Recommends
A Google search for Zora Neale Hurston will yield 6,840,000 results in 0.47 seconds. Below I offer a few personally curated selections for your information and pleasure. My faves:
- Soul of a Black Woman. This great overview of Hurston’s legacy by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., appeared in the New York Times in February of 1978 and was reprinted as the afterword to Zora Neale Hurston: The Complete Stories.
- Zora Hurston, 57, Writer, Is Dead. This New York Times Obituary includes a 1942 photo of Hurston and offers insight into how news of her death was covered at the time.
For the last ten years or so I’ve written out New Year’s Intentions. They are like resolutions but a bit less, well, resolute.
They represent goals and habits that I’m interested in building a life on, but they lack the forcefulness and grit the term “resolutions” implies. The usual suspects health, fitness and family make regular appearances on the annual lists as do career and financial goals. Results, to put it mildly, vary.
One area that’s been a particular struggle is the eating well intention. After years of study, I now have a very sophisticated food philosophy. Problem is, I’m entirely ill-equipped to live it.
Like an increasing number of American women, I’m concerned about the origin of most of the food I eat and the industrial food complex that delivers it. I believe that buying and preparing fresh, healthy and sustainably sourced food is among the most powerful ways I can have a positive moral, political and environmental impact in the world. I also have no clue as to how to do this on a consistent basis. Continue reading “This Year I Learn to Cook”
For the last ten years or so I’ve written out New Year’s Intentions. They are like resolutions but a bit less, well, resolute.
They represent goals and habits that I’m interested in building a life on, but they lack the forcefulness and grit the term “resolutions” implies. The usual suspects health, fitness and family make regular appearances on the annual lists as do career and financial goals. Results, to put it mildly, vary.
One area that’s been a particular struggle is the eating well intention. After years of study, I now have a very sophisticated food philosophy. Problem is, I’m entirely ill-equipped to live it.
Like an increasing number of American women, I’m concerned about the origin of most of the food I eat and the industrial food complex that delivers it. I believe that buying and preparing fresh, healthy and sustainably sourced food is among the most powerful ways I can have a positive moral, political and environmental impact in the world. I also have no clue as to how to do this on a consistent basis. Continue reading “This Year I Learn to Cook”
Dear Maya,
Well, there is a lot I could use some advice on but right now my thoughts have been centered around one thing that scares the crap out of me—becoming a mother. I know, I know, women have been doing this for years…but I haven’t.
How did you know you were ready? Did you know? I am very active in my community and career and don’t know how being a mom will impact these. I am so scared of giving up everything I am working towards…
I also struggle a little with my husband and not feeling a little resentful that he doesn’t wrestle with these questions as we head down the road to becoming parents. He is very laid back and seems to think I am worrying too much. I am afraid he might be right (even though I won’t admit it to him). 😉
The Baby Worrier
Continue reading “Ready or Not: Having a Baby Means Making Some Tough Calls”
Dear Maya,
Well, there is a lot I could use some advice on but right now my thoughts have been centered around one thing that scares the crap out of me—becoming a mother. I know, I know, women have been doing this for years…but I haven’t.
How did you know you were ready? Did you know? I am very active in my community and career and don’t know how being a mom will impact these. I am so scared of giving up everything I am working towards…
I also struggle a little with my husband and not feeling a little resentful that he doesn’t wrestle with these questions as we head down the road to becoming parents. He is very laid back and seems to think I am worrying too much. I am afraid he might be right (even though I won’t admit it to him). 😉
The Baby Worrier
Continue reading “Ready or Not: Having a Baby Means Making Some Tough Calls”
But when the lists get long, as they inevitably do, another variety of list is required—The Kill List. It is the more forceful cousin of the Not-To-Do List touted by productivity experts. It is a catalog of time-sucking, energy-draining, useless activity that you no longer choose to engage in.
But when the lists get long, as they inevitably do, another variety of list is required—The Kill List. It is the more forceful cousin of the Not-To-Do List touted by productivity experts. It is a catalog of time-sucking, energy-draining, useless activity that you no longer choose to engage in.
Mellody Hobson is much more than just the new wife of billionaire filmmaker George Lucas. The Ariel Investments president serves on several boards, including the Starbucks Corp., and is chairwoman of the board of directors for DreamWorks Animation SKG. She’s also a regular on-air financial contributor for outlets like the Tom Joyner Morning Show and CBS. As if that were not enough, she and Lucas also welcomed their first child, Everest, who was born by surrogate in August. Who says we can’t have it all?
Umm, I do. And I bet Hobson would agree.
Sure, she was the youngest of six children raised by a single mom in inner-city Chicago and went on to Princeton and great professional success. But despite what the magazine quips, I suspect Hobson would contest the outdated notion that she now “has it all.”
She has a lot, certainly. But she could probably name without hesitation several things that she doesn’t have—sleep for one. (Her work ethic and fitness routine are legendary. Pre-baby she swam at 4 a.m. and ran right after.)
I would love to hear her discuss the trade-offs, sacrifices and compromises that underpin her success. After all, one of her signature expressions is “Don’t major in the minor.” Clearly, she sets priorities, focuses energy and executes over the long haul.
She touts patient, value-oriented investments for a living. Her voice soothed viewers of Good Morning America, Nightline and World News Tonight years ago when Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and fools spoke of putting money in gold or mattresses. “Don’t just do something, stand there,” she counseled, urging viewers to stay the course.
Hobson has bolstered financial literacy among women and minorities. She’s offered excellent, practical money management advice in media outlets from morning shows to magazines. Her investment firm even sponsors a public school on the south side of Chicago and teaches sound investment principles to its students and community.
She’s an inspiration and worthy of all the positive media coverage she receives. But make no mistake, she’s not a role model because she has it all. Rather, she’s a wise woman because she defined her own specific vision of success and worked it.
Mellody, if you’re out there, let me interview you!
Recommended Reading
The Unsinkable Mellody Hobson (via CNN Money)
Mellody Hobson: Champion of Financial Literacy (via Chicago Tribune)
Mellody Hobson & Jeffrey Katzenberg (Via CNN Money)
