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Speaking About What's New...
Paula Allen
Paula Allen has just returned from her second trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. She accompanied activist Eve Ensler to the Panzi Hospital in the Northern Kivu province, where V-Day and UNICEF broke ground on a community for women and girl survivors of genocide called "City of Joy." Allen is also completing three photography books: Homecomings weaves together the stories of three families who lost relatives and homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Windwalker is a diary of a road trip in southern New Mexico with a Native American healer and her 11 year-old daughter. Family-Belfast documents 16 years in the life of an Irish traveller family (gypsies) living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Also, Allen's photo exhibit, " The Betrayal of Srebenica: A Ten Year Commemoration," is currently traveling to universities around the country. The exhibit is produced by historian Lisa DiCaprio.
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Marc Ian Barasch
Barasch is the founder and executive director of the Green World Campaign, a grassroots movement of global citizens finding new ways to care for our world. In addition to public events and education projects, the Campaign's principal focus is collaborating with Trees for the Future to plant half a billion trees in environmentally devastated regions in the tropics, restoring the ecology and economy of some of the world's poorest places. Through Web portals, viral videos, public service advertising, and special events, The Green World Campaign makes it easy for people to click and plant trees where they're most needed, which are then reflected on Google Earth maps. "The Green World Campaign," writes Barasch, "is a way to translate the overwhelming good intentions of the vast majority of people into results that we can all see, and from which we will all benefit. Think of it as a seed — the seed of a new world where we don't
wait for governments and institutions to do tomorrow what we, together, can
do today."
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Tal Ben-Shahar
Look for Tal Ben-Shahar's bestselling book, HAPPIER: Learn the Secrets to
Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment in your local bookstore and online.
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Simon Deng
Deng was recently honored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as one of four heroes in the fight against hate and intolerance during the 12th annual ADL Concert Against Hate at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Honored with the ADL Ina Kay Award, in recognition of their courage and heroism in overcoming prejudice and hate, were: Hero Against Genocide: Simon Deng; Hero Against Racism: Civil Rights icon Ruby Bridges; Hero Against Anti-Semitism: Ruth Halimi; and In Memoriam: Vincent Chin, Lynching Victim and Hero Against Hate.
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Hedda Nussbaum
Twenty years after the tragic death of her daughter at the hands of her own
abuser, Hedda Nussbaum is bringing her personal story of abuse and recovery
to the workplace, where the effects of domestic abuse are staggering:
- A study of domestic violence survivors found that 74% of employed battered
women were harassed by their partner while they were at work.*
- The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence is estimated
as $727.8 million, with over 7.9 million paid workdays lost each year.
- The costs of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year,
$4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services,
much of which is paid for by the employer.
"While I was being abused, I often came into work exhausted, was frequently
late to my job and stayed at home for days at a time when I had bruises to
hide. So-called 'domestic abuse' isn't just domestic. It takes its toll on
employees and companies alike."
Nussbaum has been speaking publicly since 1995 at shelters, universities,
and community programs — discussing her experience and educating the public
about the warning signs of domestic abuse and providing strategies for
getting help. She has also been a strong advocate for other battered women — co-facilitating a support group, working as a paralegal for a domestic
violence organization, writing, and teaching women how to stay out of what
she calls intimate terrorism.
*Source: Family Violence Prevention Fund Website
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Deborah Siegel
Siegel has been selected as one of the eight women who comprise the first class of the Women's Media Center Progressive Women's Voices project. Siegel also recently asked 20 prominent women to muse on what the world might look like with Hillary at the helm, for the February issue of More magazine. The online version of the forum, which generated a lot of press coverage, is: www.more.com/more/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/more/story/data/1199992533380.xml.
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Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar
Thakor and Kedar's book, ON MY OWN TWO FEET recently went into its second printing. They have also launched a free periodic e-newsletter on their website called "Get In$pired". Kedar is scheduled to speak at the Professional Business Women of California's mega-event this spring in San Francisco (5,000 attendees expected) alongside notable speakers like Cokie Roberts and Madeline Albright.
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James Traub
Traub has recently completed The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy Abroad (Just Not the Way George Bush Did). The book examines
America's century-long, often quixotic, campaign to promote democracy, and cites key policy-makers from the Bush Administration to explain how the White House discredited the very practice it had made the foundation of our foreign policy. Traub offers extensive, first-hand reports on the status of democracy, and of American efforts to spread democracy, in the Middle East and Africa. He concludes that we cannot abandon this project, but must first dig ourselves out from the rubble of the Bush years, and then learn to act more modestly, and more patiently. The book is scheduled for release in September, 2008, at the climax of the Presidential campaign.
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Diane Wilson
Wilson has been working on several projects simulateously: The Texas Jail Project, which Diane co-founded, has been collecting blanket donations for women inmates in more than 240 Texas county jails because, despite state law, cold cells and no blankets are the reality for many inmates — which often leads to illness and depression. TJP has also been providing much-needed attention to the chronic overcrowding, lack of medical care,and the long jail terms without counsel that many inmates suffer within the Texas criminal system.
Wilson has also started working with local activists to oppose a new nuclear
power plant that is planned for the Texas Gulf Coast.
She recently completed her new book, Holy Roller, which chronicles her
experience in the Pentecostal Church. The book is scheduled for release
by Chelsea Green Publishing in the fall of 2008.
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Ann Wright
During the run-up to war in Iraq, Army Colonel (Ret.) and diplomat Ann Wright resigned her State Department post in protest. Wright, who had spent 19 years in the military and 16 years in diplomatic service, was one among dozens of government insiders and active-duty military personnel who spoke out, resigned, leaked documents, or refused to deploy in protest of government actions they felt were illegal. In their newly released book, Dissent: Voices of Conscience, Ann Wright and Susan Dixon tell the stories of these men and women, who risked careers, reputations, and even freedom out of loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law.
Wilson is also working on a book about her experience in the Pentecostal
Church called Holy Roller.
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