Month: November 2010

Celebrate the First Annual Digital Sisterhood Month in December 2010

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It’s time to celebrate the First Annual Digital Sisterhood Month in December 2010! Visit http://digitalsisterhood.wordpress.com.

Digital sisterhood is the feminine currency women use to create relationship wealth through the connections they make, conversations they have, communities they build, causes they support, collaborative partnerships they establish, and commerce they engage in with women they meet online and offline.

I created Digital Sisterhood Month to give women an opportunity to celebrate their connections, conversations, communities, collaborative partnerships, and commerce.

Digital Sisterhood Month Events

1. December 1

#DigitalSisterhood Wednesday Twitter Celebration: Tweet about digital sisters, organizations, and causes like the Red Pump Project that promote HIV/AIDS awareness.

7:00-7:15 am EST – Digital Sisterhood Online Yoga

9:00-10:00 pm EST – #DigitalSisterhood Tweetchat: Discussion topic is how did you use the power of your online voice to raise awareness in 2010.

2. December 2

8:00-9:00 pm EST –  Digital Sisterhood Radio: Sisterhood Collaborators Success Coach Dr. Nicole Cutts and Certified Financial Planner Marie Isabel Laurion on Taking Your Dreams from Design to Destiny: The Next Level

3. December 4 (offline in DC)

2:00-3:45 pm – Field Trip to Yin Yang Yoga Class @ Tranquil Space, 1632 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC ( several blocks from Dupont Circle Metro)

Please bring your own yoga mat and register for the class online by paying $18 (drop in class fee) several days in advance.  Click here to register.  If you wait until December 4 to register online  or at the studio, the class may be filled.  The studio IS NOT offering any special discounts to Digital Sisterhood field trip participants.

Meet Ananda Leeke in the the studio’s tea lounge after class for a cup of tea. If people want to hang out after the yoga class, then the group can pick a place like Sweet Green or another local cafe for a impromptu afternoon meet up.

4. December 5 (offline in DC)

3:30-4:30  pm – Museum Meet Up Visit to Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color exhibit @ National Museum of Women in the Arts,  1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005-3970 

Directions: Metro Center is the closest metro stop. Parking is limited and a bit challenging. Please meet Ananda Leeke and the group at the museum information desk by 3:30 pm.  The event is FREE because it is held on the first Sunday of month. The group will walk to Teaism for dinner (10 minute walk)

5:00-6:30 pm – Dinner Meet Up @ Teaism, a woman-owned Asian-inspired tea cafe, 400 8th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Directions: Everyone is responsible for their own dinner.  The group will eat together on the lower level.  Seating is available on a first come, first serve basis.

5. December 7

9:30-10:30pm EST – Poet Yael Flusberg on Blogatique with Ananda Leeke on BlogTalkRadio

6. December 8

#DigitalSisterhood Wednesday Twitter Celebration

7 :00-7:15 am EST – Digital Sisterhood Online Yoga

9:00-10:00 pm EST – #DigitalSisterhood Tweetchat: Discussion topic is  the most popular conversations women launched and/or participated in on Twitter in 2010.

7. December 9

9:00-10:00 pm  EST – Digital Sisterhood Radio: Lessons Learned from BlogHer 2010

8. December 12 (offline in DC)

3:00-4:30 pm – DC Focus Group: Women in Social Media Who Discuss Fashion, Beauty, Hair, and Lifestyles, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-10, Washington, DC (Metro Center and Gallery Place Metro stations are located within walking distance. Parking is challenging!)

9. December 13

9:00-10:00 pm EST – Digital Sisterhood Radio: Women in Social Media Who Discuss Fashion, Beauty, Hair, and Lifestyles

10. December 14

9:00-10:00 pm EST – Digital Sisterhood Radio: Lessons Learned from Blogalicious 2010

11. December 15

#DigitalSisterhood Wednesday Twitter Celebration

9:00-10:00 pm EST – #DigitalSisterhood Tweetchat: Discussion topic is share the women businesses, services, products or events you patronized and/or financially supported in 2010.

12. December 16

9:00-10:00 pm EST – Digital Sisterhood Radio – Feminism Online

13. December 20

9:00-10:00 pm EST – Digital Sisterhood Radio – Digital Native Lauren Thomas

14. December 22

#DigitalSisterhood Wednesday Twitter Celebration

7 :00-7:15 am EST – Digital Sisterhood Online Yoga

9:00-10:00 pm EST – #DigitalSisterhood Tweetchat: Discussion topic is share the types of online women communities you created, discovered, and/or participated in this year.

15. December 29

#DigitalSisterhood Wednesday Twitter Celebration

7 :00-7:15 am EST – Digital Sisterhood Online Yoga

9:00-10:00 pm EST – #DigitalSisterhood Tweetchat: Discussion topic is share the digital sisters who inspired and/or informed you in 2010.

Opening Your Heart to Haiti: I am a Heart of Haiti Ambassador

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Happy Sunday!

Guess what?  I am a Heart of Haiti Ambassador!  You may be wondering what is the Heart of Haiti?  The Heart of Haiti campaign is a Macy’s partnership that was created to provide sustainable income to Haitian artisans impacted by the January earthquake.  Through the partnership, the artisans create artwork that is sold as the Heart of Haiti collection in Macy’s stores.  The sales from these hand-made products including quilts, metalwork, paper måché, painting and jewelry generate the sustainable income and provide trade instead of aid to the Haitian artisans.  The Clinton Foundation inspired Macy’s to create this amazing partnership.  Macy’s is selling the Heart of Haiti collection at 25 stores including the Metro Center location in Washington, DC  (for all my DC area folks) and on macys.com.   

Ananda holding Haitian artwork at Heart of Haiti booth at the Blogalicious Conference held in Miami, FL in October 2010

I learned about the Heart of Haiti campaign during the Blogalicious 2010 Conference held on October 8-10, 2010, in Miami, Florida. During a speed networking session, I met Danica Kombol, a managing and founding partner at Everywhere, who introduced me to the Heart of Haiti Campaign. Click here to listen to my interview with Danica: www.cinchcast.com/anandaleeke/100144.

Later that morning, I listened to a Heart of Haiti campaign presentation featuring Willa Shalit and two Haitian artisans.  They discussed the powerful work they are doing to create artwork and support Haitian artisans as they rebuild their lives after the January earthquake.  That’s when I fell head of heels in love with their work.

After the presentation, I visited the Heart of Haiti booth in the Blogalicious Exhibitor Hall to learn how I could support the campaign. Lauren Thomas, former digital coordinator with Everywhere, gave me more information about the artwork and campaign.  My conversation with Lauren turned into an interview. Click here to listen: www.cinchcast.com/anandaleeke/100204.

A week after I returned to DC, I received emails from Lauren and the Blogalicious team about a local Heart of Haiti event at Macy’s at Metro Center featuring my favorite Haitian singer Emeline Michel. Visit www.emeline-michel.com.  I decided to attend and invite my dad so he could learn more about the campaign.  We were both impressed with the campaign and collection.  Click here to see photos of  the Heart of Haiti events I have attended: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anandaleeke/sets/72157625478398964.

My dad has become a big fan of the Heart of Haiti collection.  So has my mother! I plan on recruiting other family members, friends, and people who read my blog by serving as an ambassador!

Please support the Heart of Haiti campaign by purchasing a product from the Macy’s collection this holiday season!  See the links below for more information.

Macy’s Heart of Haiti:

http://bit.ly/heartofhaiti
Heart of Haiti on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/heartofhaiti
Heart of Haiti Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/HeartofHaiti
Fair Winds Trading:  http://fairwindstrading.com
Willa Shalit on Twitter: http://twitter.com/willashalit
 
 
 

 

Ananda submitted her Ignite DC #6 Speaker Submission on Digital Sisterhood today!

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039, originally uploaded by anandaleeke.

Have you heard of Ignite DC? Visit http://www.ignite-dc.com.

Ignite DC is a fabulous five minute speaker event held several times a year in DC. During the event, 16 speakers take the stage to share their thoughts in five minutes with 20 slides. Speakers include artists, technologists, thinkers, and personalities. Their presentations spark new conversations and collaborations across cultures and disciplines.

I participated in Ignite DC #4 on June 16. My topic was “Who’s living inside of me?” and used excerpts from my book That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (2009 – Amazon.com).  Click here to watch a 5 minute video of my presentation.

Ignite DC #4 was a positively fantastic experience! I learned so much from my fellow speakers and enjoyed networking with audience members. It was so great that I decided to submit a topic proposal for Ignite DC #6 which will be held on February 3, 2011.

My Ignite DC #6 topic is “What is Digital Sisterhood” It utilizes my research and excerpts from my next book Digital Sisterhood (December 2011). See the summary below.

Ananda’s Ignite DC #6 Summary

What is Digital Sisterhood? (excerpt from Digital Sisterhood by Ananda Leeke, December 2011)

Copyright 2010 by Madelyn C. Leeke. All Rights Reserved.

What is Digital Sisterhood?

Did you know women represent 87.1 million of the total U.S. adult online population (163.8 million) in 2010? According to the BlogHer-iVillage 2010 Social Media Matters Study, co-sponsored by Ketchum and the Nielsen Company, there are 67.5 million women (18 to 76 years old) out of 126.9 million social media users in the U.S. Now that’s digital sisterhood!

Digital sisterhood is the feminine currency women use to create relationship wealth through the connections they make, conversations they have, communities they build, causes they support, collaborative partnerships they establish, and commerce they engage in with women they meet online and offline. The relationship wealth of digital sisterhood is based on what women care about and their shared interests and experiences. How do women connect? What are their conversations? What communities do they build? What collaborative partnerships do they form? What types of commerce do they engage in?

The answers to these questions lead to one truth. Women are standing in their power and reclaiming themselves online and offline. They move with a power not seen before. It is rooted in women being fully,

P – Present when they

O – Own their lives as

W – Women who believe they have

E – Everything they need to live out their

R – Revolution of authenticity.

May all women know their investment in themselves and each other will yield a high return!

Ananda Launches Her December Digital Sisterhood Birthday Fundraiser Today!

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156, originally uploaded by anandaleeke.

Happy November 18th All!

Did you know that in 30 days I will celebrate my birthday on December 18th? In honor of my special day, I have decided to launch my December Digital Sisterhood Birthday Fundraiser on Kickstarter.com today.

Here’s how my December Digital Sisterhood Birthday Fundraiser works. Between now and December 18th at 11:59 pm, I am asking my family, friends, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, and social media peeps to make a donation of $1, $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, $30, $35 $40, $45, $50 or more by clicking on the link: http://kck.st/avHVlu.

Guess what? You get a special award for each donation you make! Visit my Kickstarter.com page to learn about the special awards: http://kck.st/avHVlu.

All donations will be used to cover the cost of my self-publishing fees with iUniverse, Inc.

FYI – To date, 28 generous folks have donated $827 towards my goal of raising $1,600 by December 23. Isn’t that amazing? I think it shows how powerful social media and the generosity of people are when they come together to do good. What blessings!

Thank you in advance for your positive energy, support, and generosity!

Blessings, Gratitude and Deep Appreciation,

Ananda
www.anandaleeke.com