Mujeres – Thirty Seven East

Above the Personal Hurdle, Hoping for a Professional Dream

April 14, 2019April 15, 2019 by Iesha Coppin Leave a comment

Above the Personal Hurdle, Hoping for a Professional Dream
Fire Chat with Kemi Osukoya, Editor-in-Chief of Africa Bazaar Magazine
Member of the American Delegation to the 2019 Women in Africa Summit

There’s an emotional association when you become in tune with your passion. A feeling of elation and many times emancipated when choosing to follow your dreams come full circle. Kemi Osukoya, the founder of US-based magazine and online media Africa Bazaar, and a former business staff writer at the Wall Street Journal illustrates her evolution as a journalist, stigmas of being an African-American woman, all the while finding solace through a complicated relationship and the turbulence of motherhood.

In African culture, you are to pursue the profession your elders want and for Osukoya, a Nigerian-American, being a journalist was a secret narrative she locked away. Through personal evolution, she overcame adversities meandering her way through a media-driven industry which questioned her merit, abilities, and cultural differences.

Ethical Fashion: UpCycle!

March 25, 2019April 12, 2019 by JC Agid Leave a comment

Ethical Fashion: UpCycle!
Fire chat with Gabriella Smith, the founder of the UpCycle Project

Passionate about fashion and an entrepreneur at heart, Gabriella Smith wanted to be disruptive. Her clothes had to be more than just a brand, more than just beautiful. “I wanted a story of purpose, respect, transparency and reasonability.” So, after a first corporate experience at Estée Lauder, she launched The UpCycle Project, “an education platform to raise awareness of the waste the fashion industry creates by developing hands-on workshops, student mentorship programs, debates, as well as innovative events and products to develop circular solutions for fashion and other industries.”

Fonda: On Becoming Jane

March 8, 2019April 12, 2019 by JC Agid Leave a comment

Last November, I had the pleasure to interview twice Jane Fonda when the French Institute-Alliance Française awarded her the 2018 Trophée des Arts. To celebrate the 2019 International Women’s Day, here is an updated article based on these conversations. The two-time Academy Award winner explained how she made a first name for herself as a young adult in France, thus becoming a major trailblazer.

FRIDA’s (back) in New York … as KAHLO

March 4, 2019April 12, 2019 by JC Agid Leave a comment

CELEBRATING FRIDA KAHLO IN NEW YORK

At least until May 12^th. First, at the Brooklyn Museum with the exhibition “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving.”

But also, through the Mexican painter’s influence on art and fashion with the presentation of artist’s Hormazd Narielwalla’s last series of Frida collages at Art on Paper New York March 7-10.

Finally, throughout a city, which was the first to publicly recognize the art of Frida Kahlo: in New York during the late 1930s where she became a full-fledged artist.

The Three Sins of Mayra González

August 23, 2018April 12, 2019 by JC Agid 2 Comments

WOMEN CAN HAVE IT ALL | SERIES | THE THREE SINS OF MAYRA GONZALEZ

A manager at Nissan Mexico once told Mayra González that she was very talented and would have a great career in the industry, but “you have three sins,” he added: “You are young; you are a woman; and you are Mexican.”

Fast forward more than 15 years: Mayra González was eventually promoted in 2016 at age 39 to the top job at the Japanese car company’s fourth largest business unit, thus inducted to the very exclusive club of female CEOs, a mere three years after Mary Barra became the first woman appointed CEO at General Motors.