This week has been filled with mega moments of creativity conversations.
Listen to today’s podcast to learn more about the creativity conversations I had on Sunday with two patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Wednesday afternoon with creative professional Delvona Rabione (www.delvonarabione.com), and Wednesday evening with digital sisters, Inez, Star, and Tea. Clicked on link below to listen. http://soundcloud.com/ananda-leeke/listen-to-ananda-leekes-8
I am celebrating National Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day today by attending the #StateMeetup for the International Women of Courage (#IWOC) Award Ceremony which will be hosted by Deputy Secretary Higginbottom and First Lady Michelle Obama. Ten amazing women from around the globe will be honored for their exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for human rights, women’s equality, and social progress, often at great personal risk.
Dr. Nasrin Oryakhil, Director, Malalai Maternity Hospital Kabul
(Afghanistan)
Ms. Roshika Deo, Feminist and Political Activist, Be the Change Campaign (Fiji)
Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze, Bishop, Evangelical Baptist
Church of Georgia (Georgia)
Dr. Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar, Tribunal President, High Risk Court, (Guatemala)
Laxmi, Campaigner, Stop Acid Attacks (India)
Ms. Fatimata Touré, Etude, de Formation Femme-Action (Mali)
Dr. Maha Al Muneef, Founder and Executive Director, National Family Safety Program (Saudi Arabia) *To be awarded in absentia
Ms. Oinikhol Bobonazarova, Director, NGO Perspektiva Plus (Tajikistan)
Ms. Ruslana Lyzhychko, activist and pop artist, (Ukraine)
Ms. Beatrice Mtetwa, human rights lawyer (Zimbabwe)
After the Ceremony, I will attend a private policy briefing with a State Department official about U.S. engagement on international women’s issues.
Photo Credit: Twitter.com
I’ll be live tweeting about the event and sharing photos, podcasts, and videos from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Google+,Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine, and VoiceBo (podcast). I’ll post a blog recap of my adventures and lessons learned later this week.
Click here to watch the State Department’s live coverage of the #IWOC Award Ceremony at 11:30 AM EST. Follow @StateDept on Twitter and use the hashtags #IWOC to participate in the conversation.
January 29: The day after the event, I reached out to my fellow social media leaders on LinkedIn. As a result, I received an invitation to meet up with Jason Nellis, OverAchiever Media founder and a DC social media leader I missed meeting at the White House. We agreed to meet in person the following week to discuss our #SOTUSocial experiences.
#DigitalSisterhood Wednesday Shout Out to #SOTUSocial Women Leaders
I also gave my #SOTUSocial digital sisters a special #DigitalSisterhood Wednesday shout out on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter that featured a collage of several women I met during the event.
Ananda at the #SOTUSocial White House Tour
January 30: The next day I wrote my first blog recap post about being a digital citizen and my journey to the White House, and recorded a podcast that discussed my definition of a digital citizen. I shared the blog post with my social media network and retweeted, shared, and commented on blogs, photos, and tweets by my fellow social media leaders.
Ananda’s #SOTUSocial Pinterest Board
I updated my #SOTUSocial Pinterest board with links to the social media leaders’ articles, blogs, and photos. I also visited WhiteHouse.gov and found blog posts and videos to add to the Pinterest board.
President Obama’s Virtual Road Trip
January 31: After visiting WhiteHouse.gov, I decided to deepen my social engagement with the White House by participating in President Obama’s Virtual Road Trip via Google Hangout. Click here to listen to my podcast about the event.
Jason Nellis and Ananda having fun hanging out at Tynan Coffee and Tea
February 3: I met Jason at Tynan Coffee & Tea and we recorded a podcast about our #SOTUSocial experience. Click here to listen (3 minutes).
Photo Credit: WhiteHouse.gov
I explored the WhiteHouse.gov blog to see if there were any ways I could deepen my social engagement this week. Guess what I found? A notice inviting social media leaders to apply to attend the White House French Arrival Ceremony Social (#WHSocial) on February 11. Since I am a Francophile (have been since my first French class in high school) and a digital diplomacy fan, I applied. You can too. The deadline is February 5 at 6:00 p.m. EST. Click here for details.
Photo Credit: WhiteHouse.gov – French President Hollande and President Obama
I also wrote a Tumblr blog post about my passion for France and desire to participate in the February 11th #WHSocial where President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will welcome French President François Hollande to the White House.
What’s Next: This week, I’ll be writing blog posts celebrating the dynamic women I met (for Digital Sisterhood Network’s blog), featuring the #SOTUChat highlights, and lessons I learned from the #SOTUSocial.
Did you participate in any State of the Union online activities such as the #SOTUSocial and #SOTUChat?
How did it feel to participate?
Ananda at the #SOTUSocial held at the White House
Click here to listen to my podcast (5 minutes) that highlights my participation in the State of the Union Social and how it reminded me of the importance of being a digital citizen, a concept I discussed during my talk on digital citizenship, digital sisterhood, and social media leadership at Spelman College’s Women Interactive Conference held in November 2013.
My Definition of Digital Citizen
A digital citizen is a person who uses her or his digital presence to mindfully share information and inspiration. Mindful sharing is thinking before you share your thoughts online and asking yourself if what you are planning to share will be helpful to others.
What is your definition of a digital citizen?
How are you planning to demonstrate your digital citizenship in 2014?
Ananda at the #SOTUSocial White House Tour
My Journey to the White House
I applied to participate in the State of the Union Social (#SOTUSocial) a few weeks ago. On January 20, I received an email from the White House indicating that I had been selected to develop and curate content, utilize the content to engage online communities, and live tweet at the #SOTUSocial (including the #SOTUChat panel discussion with White House officials and U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez after President Obama’s address).
Guess what? Over 6,000 applicants applied to participate in the #SOTUSocial. Only 60 social media leaders were chosen to visit the White House and attend the #SOTUSocial. What an honor to demonstrate my digital citizenship!
Click here to read my blog about my #SOTUSocial Group Tour to the White House (includes photos).
I developed three digital resources (one Pinterest board and two Twitter lists) to prepare for President Obama’s State of the Union address. Click here to read more about them.
Photo Credit: “Kreative Grooviness: That Which Awakens Me ” by Ananda Leeke
Happy Creativity Thursday!
Have you ever dreamed of making something with your hands and then allowed your fears or lack of training to stop you?
It happened to me several years ago when I started dreaming of painting. I was afraid to try it because I had never attended art school. My perspective changed after I started working with a master artist during my tenure as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital. The master artist happened to be a patient I was assigned to work with on creative projects that would help him express his feelings. He transformed our sessions into art workshops where he taught me to trust my intuition and natural creative gifts. He pushed me to paint and gave me numerous painting assignments. This experience helped me create a series of paintings that I used to illustrate two book covers (see paintings above and below). The master artist breathed life into my creative dreams.
Photo Credit: “Be Love. Love Light. Live As the Spirit of Life.” by Ananda Leeke
Has anyone breathed life into your creative dreams?
How did the person breathe life into your creative dreams?
What creative actions were you inspired to take?
Visit Amazon.com to learn more about my creative journey and book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetical Memoir of Self-Discovery (2009). My book is available as a Kindle download and a paperback book.
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
Happy Internet Geek Tuesday!
Tomorrow marks my 49th birthday. This year, I am using my digital influence to raise money for ZuriWorks for Women’s Health, a nonprofit organization that offers beauty, arts and health programs to enhance the quality of life for women of color impacted by cancer. ZuriWorks also works to educate women of color about their health and to improve their survivorship rates.
Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
I learned about the organization from my digital sister Xina Eiland, President of X+PR, when she began working with its founder, Andrene Taylor on several events earlier this year. I became an instant fan after watching Andrene’s moving video about her cancer journey and the amazing support ZuriWorks has been able to provide to women of color living with cancer. These women reminded me of my two grandmothers, Dorothy Johnson Gartin and Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke, who lived with breast cancer. I wish they had access to ZuriWorks’ programs.
That’s why I am using the next two weeks (from December 17 to December 31) to invite my family, friends, and digital community to make a donation to ZuriWorks in honor of my birthday and the holiday season. Click here to make a donation. Any amount counts ($5, $10, $15, $20, $25 or more). Thank you in advance for your generosity!
2013 is winding down quite nicely for me. Today, I started thinking about my favorite creative moments. Hosting the my October book launch party for Digital Sisterhood: A Memoir of Fierce Living Online at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery was my most creative moment. See photo collage above.
I started my day with the 21 Day Meditation Series sponsored by Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra. Today’s theme is “Creative Me.” The message of the day discussed how play opens the pathways for creativity to flow freely. It reminded me of two children I have been playing with in my work as an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for the past two weeks.
Our creative play afternoon sessions have been filled with laughter, water color painting, coloring, clay sculptures, and colored pencil and magic marker drawings (see photos of our artwork above). They have opened my heart wider and inspired me to play more with collages in my life.
How are you adding more play to your creative life?
Last week, I attended Digital Diplomacy, an open house event that featured the social media efforts of several embassies including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The World Bank and U.S. State Department also participated in the event.
Ananda Leeke 