I’ll be taking a break from the regular Wednesday night plan of Humpday Happy Hour (a local get together with friends whose next location you can find by following @humpdayhapyhour; that’s right, one “p” in “happy”–this is an irreverent group, after all) for the International Museum of Women’s celebration of its “Focusing on Latin America” exhibit. It was fun to write about the great collection of images and essays the virtual museum is hosting, and raising a glass in the Audre Lorde Room of the Women’s Building on the 16th seems appropriate. (And free, for all you budgetistas.)
The event is a precursor to March’s Art Live Lounge, a cocktail party to celebrate women artists and social change. Terra Gallery on Harrison will host the fiesta and corresponding benefit dinner later this spring.
In a city of coworking spaces, The Hub is special to me. And not just because their sister organization in Berkeley helped bring the first Ignite Bay Area event to life, but because it’s partnering with the Mission Street social innovation space to offer more entrepreneurial resources. A new 12-week evening program, Hub Ventures, is intended to provide “funding and resources to a community of 16 entrepreneurs building for-profit solutions for a better world.”
Applications are open to those looking to participate in weekly peer review sessions, mentor office hours, speaker events, and the like. The curriculum (including courses in Design for Impact, Fundraising Methods, Customer Development, and Market Validation) will culminate in a peer selection process to give three ventures $75K in seed funding in the form of convertible debt. Get yourself involved, good doers.
I’m glad to see pal and MamaHope founder Nyla Rodgers’ work with Kenyan communities attract so much positive attention lately (including a great piece by Xeni Jardin on Boing Boing this morning). Nyla has collaborated with good production partners–including local groups Whirled, creator of the Commando kid video at right, and Storytellers for Good, which created the story spot–to highlight her non-profit’s work in sustainable health, water and education projects. The most recent message (“Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential”) is an important one that’s humorously told.
When multimedia storyteller Pauline Bartolone reached out about a photo-centered art auction fundraiser she’s hosting for friends detained in Iran, I was ecstatic about the idea. Saturday night’s event at SOMArts Cultural Center has 80 local artists presenting in the name of freeing documentary photographer Shane Bauer and fellow hikers (you can learn more at FreeTheHikers). And buy art–just know that I call dibs on Camille Seaman’s ”Uneditioned,” below.
I try not to post promotional video content with too much frequency, but the latest from the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (“social consciousness through digital culture”) may just have you friending, favoriting and donating. The Tenderloin-based educational and art space can’t be quickly described in terms of reach or single medium, and that’s how I know it’s needed.
Starting tomorrow, it will host Global Game Jam, 48 hours of game dev and experimentation fun. Institute for the Future’s game researcher Jane McGonigal will kick off the weekend, whose schedule promises “WORK!” of the best kind from 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM for the better part of three days.
When I wrote about ! Women Art Revolution last year, I anticipated that artist Lynn Hershman Leeson’s documentary would be an education. Despite writing regularly about women in technology and media, I fall with the majority of Americans who are hard pressed to name a handful of female visual and performance artists (Frida Kahlo and Marina Abramović come immediately to mind, but the exercise prompted by the film wasn’t as simple as I expected).
Forty years of footage of the work of historians, creators and curators were compiled for this feature-length look at Feminist Art premiering this week at Sundance. It was fun to learn about activism I didn’t know about (including that practiced by the Guerilla Girls, creators of flyers like the one at right that called for changes in the composition of major exhibitions); intriguing to consider the future of work like Iranian artist Shirin Neshat (whose film Women Without Men was one of the most intriguing of last year’s festival); and devastating to hear about the violence that many of these women faced. I’m glad that the film will be coming to the San Francisco Film Festival this year and have a slew of friends–women and men–I’ll be taking to it.
I’m miles away from Costa Rica (read: mountains of Utah), and SF yogini MeiMei Fox’s upcoming retreat to Puerto Viejo is looking especially good. The author and instructor will lead a service-surf-yoga trip in March to benefit the Surf for Life Foundation, a non-profit that connects travelers with community volunteering in coastal areas. Spots are limited.
I hope you’re enjoying a relaxing (or ski-filled) holiday weekend. A few things to add to your calendar if you’re interested:
February 3 | Art Live Launch Party The Common SF
The International Museum of Women will be serving cocktails and apps from 6-9 and featuring the fashions of Hunter Dixon, Taylor Stitch, and Marine Layer.
February 8 | Ignite San Francisco Public Works
The idea and tech talks are coming back, and I’m excited to work with @PattiChan to bring them to the stage. Tickets are $5, and you’ll want to nab ‘em in advance.
February 10 | Women 2.0 Founder Labs night Institute for the Future
We’re headed to Palo Alto to see final demos from founders in the mobile program. I couldn’t be more excited for this round.
And save the date for March 10 | Celebrating Change Art Live Lounge at Terra SF
The International Museum of Women annual benefit celebrating women artists and social change will include live art installations, music, dessert, and other goodness.
A friend tipped me off to a new project, Financial Independence through Entrepreneurship (FITE), that has me excited about the potential to make more money available to female founders. The global empowerment platform powered by Kiva.org and sponsored by Dermalogica hopes to combat the low level of investment in women’s work (“women are traditionally more likely to be denied a loan by a bank, and often face high levels of financial discrimination,” they explain, “more than 70% of people who live below the poverty line are women.”) Loans can be made for women in industries ranging from health to construction and to places as diverse as Honduras, Congo, and Cambodia. A current global challenge to inspire people to help in the growth of new business has cheerleaders including actress Geena Davis, reporter Nicholas Kristof, and Isobel Coleman, director of the Women and Foreign Policy at the Council for Foreign Relations.
I had fun sitting down with Acumen Fund founder Jacqueline Novogratz recently to talk about addressing the causes of poverty and her book “The Blue Sweater.” She talks about simple technologies and “patient capital” as ways to combat hunger, energy needs, housing, and other issues that philanthropy alone can’t tackle.
Thanks to JustGoodTV for shooting, and you can see more about how the fund works below (I like the Girl Effect-esque approach to text and illustration).
I’ll be taking a break from the regular Wednesday night plan of Humpday Happy Hour (a local get together with friends whose next location you can find by following @humpdayhapyhour; that’s right, one “p” in “happy”–this is an irreverent group, after all) for the International Museum of Women’s celebration of its “Focusing on Latin America” exhibit. It was fun to write about the great collection of images and essays the virtual museum is hosting, and raising a glass in the Audre Lorde Room of the Women’s Building on the 16th seems appropriate. (And free, for all you budgetistas.)
