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).
Last week I decided to practice what I learned in photographer Diane Cu’s BlissDom conference workshop on digital photography. So I carried my digital camera everywhere I went in hopes of capturing images that made me think of springtime. This photo represents the meaning of springtime. It was taken in Crystal City, Virginia.
Some of my best BlissDom Conference moments were spent supporting and celebrating the Heart of Haiti Campaign, a partnership between Fairwinds Trading, Macy’s, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. It was created to provide sustainable income to Haitian artisans impacted by the January 2010 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.
Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti Photos
As soon as I arrived and settled into my room at the Opryland Hotel on February 23, I tweeted the Everywhere team, Danica Kombol and Britton Edwards, to let them know I was ready to put on my Heart of Haiti Blogger Ambassador hat and support their Heart of Haiti booth in the BlissDom Handmade Marketplace. When I saw the booth, I was in complete AWE! Why? Because these ladies know how to make a conference booth attractive and fun to visit. And it’s not hard when you have the beautiful Heart of Haiti collection to work with. Danica and Britton gave me a brief update on the new items in the collection and showed me photos from the #Bloggers4Haiti trip to Haiti in January. Check out the photos below.
Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti photosPhoto Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti photosPhoto Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti photosAnanda and Danica Kombol - Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti PhotosAnanda and Britton Edwards -- Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti Photos
While I was at the Heart of Haiti booth, I met and chatted with BlissDom attendees about my experiences as a Blogger Ambassador and February 2011 trip to Haiti. Many of the attendees told me about their passion for using social media for social good and plans to support the Heart of Haiti. Those conversations reminded me how important it is to tell people about the Haitian artisans who are using their creative gifts to make their lives and country better. They also reminded me that I have got to get to Haiti in 2013!
Ananda and Emily FaliLv - Photo Credit: Everywhere Heart of Haiti Photos
During the BlissDom 2012 conference, I had a chance to spend time with Tawanna Smith (a/k/a @WorldTravelMom on Twitter), founder of MomsGuideToTravel.com. We talked a lot about what it means to tap into the power of fierce living from your creative heart (the topic of my February 24th conference session), writing, intentions, and setting boundaries when completing goals. She and Lucrecer Braxton, founder of Art Slam, also stopped by my BlissDom book signing and purchased a copy of my memoir, That Which Awakens Me. We had a great time discussing creativity. After I signed Tawanna’s book, she invited me to do an interview on her Spreecast video show.Now that’s Digital Sisterhood in real time!
Lucrecer Braxton (red), Ananda & Tawanna Smith
FYI: Tawanna will be interviewing me about “Fierce Living from Your Creative Heart” (includes a discussion about my book, That Which Awakens Me) on March 12 at 8:30 pm ET. Click here to watch the live interview. If you miss it, you will be able to watch the recording.
The #BlissDom12 Conference is two days away. I AM SO EXCITED!!! It’s my first BlissDom experience! I am gonna have big fun meeting new people, seeing old blogging friends, networking with brands, hanging out at the great events, listening to the keynote speakers, and learning a lot about video and photography from some amazing speakers. I am also facilitating a workshop session on “Fierce Living from Your Creative Heart” on February 24 from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm.
Happy to be going to BLISSDOM
In preparation for the session, I created a Pinterest board with 40 different pins that include photos, images, videos, and links to creative inspiration and information that I hope will encourage my workshop attendees to open their hearts and embrace fierce living. Each pin includes a question that invites reflection and comments. To learn more about what’s on my #BlissDom12 Fierce Living from Your Creative Heart Pinterest Board, click here to listen to my Cinchcast audio blog. Feel free to check out my board and leave a comment. If you are unable to attend my session and/or #BlissDom12, you can still use my Pinterest board as a source of inspiration in your creative life Enjoy!
Love's Troubadours by Ananda Leeke
PS: I will be signing copies of my novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book Oneon February 25 at 11:00 am at the Barnes & Nobles booth at BlissDom. If you are in Nashville, drop by. Click here to purchase the book on Amazon.com.
Ananda Leeke 