It’s cold in DC this week. The winter weather inspired me to prepare a list of mini yoga moments I could create at home. Today’s mini yoga moment started with a juicy child’s pose that helped me release my to do list. It opened the door to a tall glass of lemon ginger tea, a little reading from the December issue of Yoga Journal, and a yoga-inspired listening session courtesy of Pandora.com. It ended with another child’s pose that allowed me to reach for my mala beads. As I touched the beads, I gave thanks for the day’s blessings.
Recently, I chatted with the dynamic digital diva founders of MadameYou.com at the Women Interactive Creativity Technology Festival held on November 9 at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. During our chat about how their company uses technology to celebrate African American women’s hair, Candace, Chanel, and Jess told me their Madame You mobile app was now available for iPhones. WOO HOO!!!! Visit http://madameyou.com to learn more about it.
Having a diverse community of support in various cities has been one of my greatest blessings as an artist, author, and creativity coach. Atlanta is home to one of my strongest communities of support. Whenever I visit the “ATL,” I am surrounded by love and positive energy.
Last night, I was surrounded by ATL love and positive energy at a book reading for my new book, Digital Sisterhood: A Memoir of Fierce Living Online. Everywhere, a social media marketing firm led by my digital sister Danica Kombol, hosted the event. Danica and her team rolled out the red carpet for me and my digital sisters and brothers. I got to see old friends and made some new friends. During the book reading, I shared an excerpt about my work with the Heart of Haiti campaign and my connection to Danica and her team. I also answered questions and asked the guests to share the key ingredients of digital citizenship. What a powerful discussion we had! As the evening was winding down, I looked around the room and realized how truly blessed I am for my ATL community. A deep feeling of gratitude washed over me. Many thanks to Danica, the Everywhere team, and my ATL community for showing me big LOVE!!!!
Today’s blog discusses how I use my digital presence for social good and to support Zuri Works for Women’s Health, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that creates national beauty, arts, and health programs that enhance the quality of life, improve their survivorship rates, and increase the health knowledge of women of color impacted by cancer. Click here to listen to my audio blog which includes a short excerpt from my new book, Digital Sisterhood: A Memoir of Fierce Living Online (available on Amazon).
Zuri Works founder Andrene Taylor (in pink shirt) and her Zuri Works team; Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
Collaborate, share knowledge, and partner with individuals, communities, and organizations committed to finding solutions to address cancer’s impact on the vulnerable populations we serve.
Develop creative, new ideas that address common and unique problems of women in order to increase their use of screening, reduce their delays in treatment, and improve their cancer survival rates.
Use evidence-based solutions to engage women about their health and address health care disparities in their communities.
Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
My Connection to Cancer and Why I Love and Support Zuri Works
I love the meaning of Zuri. It is a Swahili word that means beautiful. It reminds me of my beautiful, bold, and brilliant grandmothers, Dorothy Mae Johnson Gartin (“Nanan”) and Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke (“Freddie). They both lived with breast cancer. A few years after my grandmother Freddie died of breast cancer, I searched for ways to honor her memory through my wire sculpture artwork. In 2001, I discovered the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, a DC-based nonprofit health, education, and arts organization that develops and promotes healing practices that explore physical, emotional, and mental resources that lead to life-affirming changes for people affected by cancer. I started working as a Smith Center artist-in-residence in 2002.
Howard University HospitalAnanda working at HU Hospital in 2009
My first artist-in-residency was at Howard University (HU) Hospital from 2003 to 2009. During that time, I shared my gifts as an artist, poet, writer, Reiki practitioner, and yoga teacher with patients living with cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other illnesses. I also conducted staff workshops with the HU Hospital nurses. Click here to read my Flickr blog and see photos of my work.
Interactive Breast Cancer Awareness Wall Collage at Walter Reed, 2012
After my contract with HU Hospital ended, I began working with wounded warriors, their family and friends, patients, and staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. For the past two years, I have created interactive Breast Cancer Awareness Month wall collages (see 2012 collage above) for the Walter Reed staff to pay tribute to their family and friends impacted by breast cancer. Staff use the collage to write their thoughts about breast cancer and their loved ones.
In addition to my Smith Center artist-in-residence work, I have also taught yoga classes as a volunteer and used my digital presence to support social good campaigns like Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This year, I was introduced to Zuri Works by Xina Eiland, my digital sister, PR coach, and publicist. I immediately fell in love with the organization’s mission and work right after I watched Andrene’s video about her cancer journey which began at 25 when she was a second year graduate student. Her story inspired me. Her cancer advocacy work that marries two of passions — health & art — moved me to donate a few hours of my coaching time to help Xina develop crowdfunding strategies for Zuri Work’s Indiegogo campaign.
Photo Credit: Indiegogo.com
The Indiegogo campaign will support The Exposures Project, a photo education exhibit shot by cancer survivors and THRIVERS which depicts survival stories of women that would otherwise go untold. Watch the powerful campaign video to learn more. I know you will be inspired like I was to give a financial donation. Click here today and make a donation before the campaign ends on October 24. Tell your family and friends to donate too!
Photo Credit: ZuriWorks.org
This week, I get to show my love for Zuri Works in person at its Big Chop to Stop Cancer Anniversary Benefit. It will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at 1133 15th Street NW, Suite 1200 in DC. If you are in DC, join me for an absolutely fabulous event. Register here.
What’s Next for Me & Zuri Works
In a few weeks, I will launch my fundraising campaign for Zuri Works. It will invite my family, friends, Digital Sisterhood Network, clients, colleagues, and social media network to make a donation in honor of my December 18th birthday. Click here to learn how you can create a similar campaign.
Happy Saturday! It’s Day #5 of the Digital Sisterhood Book 11 Day Countdown Campaign. Today’s blog features an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Ananda Leeke’s new book, Digital Sisterhood: A Memoir of Fierce Living Online. The title of Chapter 2 is Truth: I Am My Mother’s Daughter. It discusses the impact Ananda’s mother, Theresa B. Leeke has had on her life and digital experiences.
Chapter Two: Truth: I Am My Mother’s Daughter (Copyright 2013 by Madelyn C. Leeke)
“Information, media, and technology opened up a new world for me.” Theresa B. Leeke
One morning while I was sitting at the 16th and U Starbucks drinking my Venti decaf Café Americano with three pumps of raspberry and a dash of my own rice milk, thoughts about my mother Theresa occupied my brain when I should have been writing this book. Little did I know those thoughts would inspire this chapter. Don’t you just…
Connecting with new friends Pauline Campos and Sherri Good at the BlogHer 13 Expo Hall on July 25 at the McCormick Place in Chicago, IL
Happy August! Happy Friday!
Last week, I attended the 9th Annual BlogHer Conference held at the McCormick Place and Sheraton Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. What a time I had! It was intense, inspiring, and informative. That’s why I decided to write several blog recaps.
Today’s blog recap is about my “Lean In Moment.” The theme is based on Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and the impact of her BlogHer Conference interview with Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-Founder and COO, on July 27. For more information, watch part one and part two of Tracy Baim’s video of the interview.
I read Sandberg’s book earlier this year. It took me a full weekend to inhale her words and wisdom. Her book was filled with many golden nuggets I have used in my life and shared with other women. It also inspired me to write and submit a case study entitled “Lean In and Listen to Yourself” for the Hot Mommas Project. As a result, I was recently named a 2012-2013 author for the Hot Mommas Project case study library.
Sheryl Sandberg and Lisa Stone
When I learned Sandberg would be a BlogHer keynote, I was thrilled! Here are the key takeaways I received from her interview with Stone.
Believe in yourself.
I am unapologetically a feminist (inspired by Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments and one of my virtual mentors from the 1990s).
Reach for any ambition.
Ask yourself what would you do if you weren’t afraid, and then reach for those ambitions.
At the end of her interview, she challenged audience members to write what they would do if they weren’t afraid on paper signs her LeanIn.org provided, take photos with the signs, and tweet and post the photos on LeanIn.org Tumblr. I loved the challenge. Check out the statements I wrote below.
My “Lean In” Statement
Writing these statements helped me get clearer on what I really want to do with my passion, gifts, energy, and time. My next step is to lean in and publish my Digital Sisterhood book (you know the one I have been writing since 2009 — what a journey!), create space in my life to write more books and create art, and plan when I will cut my locs and grow my Angela Davis afro (will probably happen during my 50th year on earth which is fast approaching in 2014 — maybe even 2015).
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
What are you leaning into?
UPDATE: BlogHer posted a full video of Sheryl Sandberg’s interview. Click here to watch it. Also, check out a video of BlogHer’s Lean In Circles session held at the 2013 conference. Enjoy!
Today, I am thinking about one of my creative sheroes, Lorraine Hansberry, a Chicago born and bred activist, writer, and playwright. Hansberry is best known for her 1959 Broadway play, “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Over the years, her words have been medicine for my creative soul:
“…life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and—I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations.”
Her wisdom on life has inspired me to live fully. That’s why I was excited to financially support the Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project fundraiser (ends on July 19)sponsored by Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain and VITAMIN W. Since 2004, Strain has been working to make the Hansberry documentary a reality. Strain’s film will cover Hansberry’s life on the South Side of Chicago in the 1930s, her life in Greenwich Village in the 1950s, and her final days of living with pancreatic cancer in the 1960s. Click here to watch a short video about the project. Please consider supporting the Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project fundraiser by July 19. Click here to make a donation. Any amount helps. I gave $10.
As a yoga teacher and writer, I enjoy reading yoga blogs and web sites. The Daily Cup of Yoga is one of my favorite yoga web sites to visit. The Daily Cup of Yoga includes tips, tools, wisdom on yoga, books,and technology. The site has several posts about yoga apps you can use with your smartphone. I love how Brian, the founder of The Daily Cup of Yoga, keeps the book section updated with great resources. Like him, I am a yoga book lover! Click here to visit the site.
It’s that time again. Gotta take a digital diet break in order to finish my Digital Sisterhood book. This blog will be very quiet during the rest of August, most of September, and some of October. I will come back at the end of September, and in early October to post about my Blogalicious 2012 conference experiences and the DigitalUndivided.com #FOCUS100 symposium. I should be back in full force by November and definitely by December (for Digital Sisterhood Month).
Ananda Leeke 