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Tag: Melanne Verveer

Art to the Rescue of the Planet

Posted on March 22, 2023April 19, 2023by JC AgidLeave a comment

ART TO THE RESCUE OF THE PLANET

(Note: The art installation Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave was presented for the first time during a UN 2023 Water Conference special event hosted by Femsa Foundation – Scroll to the end of the post to watch the making Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave.The play LOVE authored and directed by Alexander Zeldin was performed at the Park Armory in New York in from in February and March 2023.)

Somewhere among the routine schedule of meetings, the policy papers, and tightly scripted speeches of besuited officials gathering at the 2023 UN Conference on Water, one presentation stands apart. 

A vast dynamic piece of art proposes raising awareness about the urgent water situation in Latin America. Composed of 8,000 ceramic beads, each representing a drop of water, it is the imagined work of New York-based artist Inma Barrero and more than 100 entrepreneurs, leaders of corporations and governmental agencies, artists, activists, and children.

Its name is inspiring: Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave. Its reason for being, however, is frightening.

Over 2 billion people worldwide cannot access safe drinking water or sanitation. During the pandemic, many could not even wash their hands. Until and unless decision-makers act on the critical need to make safe water available for all, the situation will only worsen as the global population grows exponentially. This United Nations meeting in New York City was long overdue.

In Latin America alone, the water shortage affects seven out of ten people, according to the local not-for-profit Lazos de Agua program. That represents 160 million people—that is the populations of Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru combined! 

To face this challenge, an artwork co-created by a well-known artist and dozens of people spread out in 15 countries, including children from public schools in Manhattan and the Lycée Français de New York, might seem, at best, decorative.

Or is it?

Continue reading “Art to the Rescue of the Planet”

Posted in Amazing Women, ART, Byline JC Agid, Culture, New York
Tagged Alexander Zeldin, Alexandra Plat, Alyse Nelson, Artepreneur, Be the Drop that Shapes the Wave, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1893, David Schwimmer, Diane Von Furstenberg, DVF, Fanny Polly, Femsa Foundation, Guy Laiberté, Hillary Clinton, inma Barrero, JR, Lazos de Agua, Les Napoleons, LOVE, Melanne Verveer, One Drop Foundation, Seven, Shirin Neshat, UN 2023 Conference on Water, United Nations, Urban Shakers, Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, World Economic Forum

Listen to the Women and Girls of Iran

Posted on January 1, 2023January 13, 2023by JC Agid1 Comment

Listen to the Women and Girls of Iran

It was gigantic and staring at me. Everyone around seemed as mesmerized by it as I was: an eye, wide open. It was staring at the sky, too, and it covered most of the steps of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park at the far end of the oblong Roosevelt Island on the East River, an unlikely urban cable car stop away from Manhattan. In the background, lurking in the shadows, stood the 39-story United Nations building, proud and self-confident. 

In that park, at the bottom of the steps that morning of November 28, 2022, every spoken word and every single stare were targeted at the United Nations, at the United Nations and Iran. 

Continue reading “Listen to the Women and Girls of Iran”

Posted in Amazing Women, Byline JC Agid, Gender Issues, Mujeres, New York, Politics, Society, Women can have it all, Women Empowerment
Tagged Alyse Nelson, Antonio Guterres, Christine Lagarde, Commission on the Status of Women, CSW, Delphine Schrank, Eyes On Iran, For Freedoms, Four Freedoms Park, Franklin Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, Jacinda Ardern, Jîna Mahsa Amini, JR, Leymah Gbowee, Malala Yousafzai, Masha Amini, Melanne Verveer, Michelle Obama, Nika Shahkarami, Oprah Winfrey, Roosevelt Island, Shirin Neshat, United Nations, Vital Voices, Vital Voices for Global partnership, Women Life Freedom, Zainab Salbi

Letter to Angella Nazarian

Posted on March 3, 2021March 10, 2021by JC AgidLeave a comment

Letter to Angella Nazarian
On the eve of Visionary Women Summit 2021 – https://www.visionarywomen.com
(Quotes below, unless in italics, are invented, and the attribution to people is purely fictional)

Dear Angella;

Do you remember the cobblestone streets of Coyoacán in Mexico City, a far cry from the busy double deck jammed highways that drive across the megalopolis? I am sure you remember the first time you pushed the double green doors of the Blue House—Casa Azul, the home of Frida Kahlo. I do, and I have returned there so often.

Continue reading “Letter to Angella Nazarian”

Posted in Amazing Women, Byline JC Agid, Culture, Gender Issues, Marion Naufal, Society, Women can have it all, Women Empowerment, Women Entrepreneurs, Women in Africa, Women in Mexico
Tagged Alaa Salah, Alyse Nelson, Amanda Gorman, Angella Nazarian, Aretha Franklin, Assouline, Beijing UN Conference on Women, Betsabee Romero, Biden Administration, casa azul, Casa Estudio, Cheek to Cheek, Christane Amanpour, Condoleeza Rice, condoleezza rice, Creative Couples, Diego rivera, Ella Fitzgerald, Frida Kahlo, Hillary Clinton, Jacqueline Novogratz, Janacek, Janet Yellen, Joe biden, kamala harris, Kandisky, Katalin Kariko, Katie Couric, Leymah Gbowee, Madeleine Albright, Marie Curie, Marie-Agathe Charpagne, marionnillustrations, Martine Assouline, Mary Alice Williams, McKinsey, Melanne Verveer, Miró, Museo Frida Kahlo, Nancy Pelosi, Nickolas Muray, Nobel Peace Prize, Noguchi, O'Keefe, Pat Mitchell, Picasso, Pioneers of the Possible, Tehuana Dress, Tracy K. Smith, Trotzky, Twakkol Karman, Visionary Women, Viva la Vida, Women's Forum, Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, Women's Forum Mexico

Women Have Power: Let’s Hear Them

Posted on November 3, 2020January 18, 2022by JC Agid2 Comments

Women Have Power: Let’s Hear Them
A conversation with Alyse Nelson, President and co-Founder of Vital Voices for Global Partnership. Co-editor of Vital Voices: 100 Women to Empower Other Women (Assouline)

Forget for a moment Joe Biden’s victory as President-elect and Donald Trump’s struggles with defeat, one of the main news from the 2020 American Presidential election is Senator Kamala Harris. For the first time in history, a woman—a Black, Asian woman—will become the first female Vice President of the United States. Harris will also rank first in line to succeed Joe Biden as President.

Besides the election of Kamala Harris, women seem to have taken center political stage whether it is in the United States or on the opposite side of the world.

Women actually played a key role in the 2020 American elections a mere 100 years after the 19th amendment of the American Constitution granting women’s suffrage was passed. Fast forward to 2020, 57% of women—and among them 90% of Black women—chose the Democratic candidate over the incumbent President, according to NBC News. Women also voted more than men (52%). In other words, they decided the Presidential outcome and chose Joe Biden although Donald Trump increased his base of white women voters.

Ahead of the Presidential election, another woman, Justice Amy Coney Barrett also made history and became the only the fifth woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court in 230 years. A woman Justice has replaced another one. While it surely seems to be a positive step for women’s empowerment and gender equality, succession might not be as simple as just having a woman leader succeeding another one. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the American champion of women’s rights; based on the 48-year old Justice Barrett’s past judicial positions show, the new Justice is not.

Continue reading “Women Have Power: Let’s Hear Them”

Posted in Amazing Women, Byline JC Agid, Culture, Fire Chat With, Gender Issues, Mujeres, Women can have it all, Women Empowerment
Tagged Alyse Nelson, Amanda Gorman, Amanda N'Guyen, Amy Coney Barrett, Assouline, Diane Von Furstenberg, DVF, Gayle Kabaker, Habiba Ali, Hillary Clinton, Jacinda Ardern, Joe biden, kamala harris, Martine Assouline, Melanne Verveer, Rouba Mhaissen, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Saskia Nino de Rivera, Seven, susan collins, Tina brown, Vital Voices, Vital Voices for Global partnership, Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower, Women's Forum for the Economy and Society

One Hundred Women to Inspire Us to Change

Posted on September 14, 2020September 21, 2020by JC AgidLeave a comment

One Hundred Women to Inspire Us to Change
Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower (Assouline)


On September 6, 2020, French philosopher Elisabeth Badinter wrote an editorial in Le Journal du Dimanche, one of France’s main Sunday’s paper to denounce a dangerous post #metoo radical neo-feminism, which she says transforms all women into victims and all men into presumed aggressors. At the same moment in the United States, Assouline and the American foundation Vital Voices published a groundbreaking book with 100 portraits and texts of women ‘using their power to empower.’

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exceptions.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, lawyer and former Justice, United States Supreme Court


Their names are Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG passed away a few days after this article was published), Melinda Gates, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nancy Pelosi, Michelle Bachelet, Geena Davis and Jacinda Ardern. Some have led countries, some head a foundation, one is a US Senator, while another is one of the most powerful judges in the United States. The book also features Panmela Castro, Xiye Bastida, Yin Myo Su, Hindu Oumarou Ibrahim, Andeisha Farid, Amani Ballour, and Tarana Burke. Less known in the Western media, they too run foundations, corporations, paint large murals, engage in politics, and transform the healthcare delivery landscape of their communities.


There are 100 of them in this book edited by Alyse Nelson, President and co-founder of Vital Voices Global Partnerships, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Melanne Verveer, and Madeleine Albright. This Washington-based non for-profit organization works with women in 182 countries to help them become professionally empowered, visible and heard. One hundred portraits painted by Gayle Kabaker, one of the greatest American illustrators, known especially for her New Yorker covers. One hundred women who share their visions, their ambitions, and raise their voices. They could be a thousand, a hundred thousand, millions. In fact, these 100 women leaders, activists, lawyers, politicians, entrepreneurs, diplomats, financiers, biologists, journalists, athletes and artists are de facto ambassadors of half of the world’s population.

Continue reading “One Hundred Women to Inspire Us to Change”

Posted in Amazing Women, Byline JC Agid, Gender Issues, Mujeres, Uncategorized, Women can have it all, Women Empowerment, Women Entrepreneurs, Women in Africa, Women in Mexico
Tagged Alyse Nelson, Amanda Gorman, Assouline, Christine Lagarde, Diane Von Furstenberg, DVF, Gayle Kabaker, Hafsat abiola, Hillary Clinton, Jacinda Adern, Lucha Libre, Madeleine Albright, Martine Assouline, Melanne Verveer, Panmela Castro, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sara blakely, Saskia Niño de Rivera, Saskia Nino de Rivera, spanx, Vital Voices, Vital Voices for Global partnership, Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower, WIA, WIAphilanthropy, Women in Africa

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