Inspiring Organizations, Educators and Artists from Across the Globe
International Organizations, Educational Institutes & Grassroots Activism
I was an active volunteer for 7 months with this great organization located in Gwangju, South Korea. The House of Sharing is both a museum and home to former "Comfort Women," the survivors of sexual slavery at the hands of the Japanese military during the Asia-Pacific War (1932-1945). It is the world's first human rights museum centered on the theme of sexual slavery.
Global Feminine
My rockingly awesome Arab-American sista, Elza Maalouf, runs this inspiring online platform set up as a systemic alliance of women leaders in the fields of business, politics, consciousness, and culture who aim to discuss value systems, memetics, global conflicts, global politics, global economy, religions, spirituality and corporate responsibility with the aim of bringing authentic human awareness to the struggles and challenges that women face at every level of society and culture.
You can to a live interview I engaged with Elza Maalouf on her work in the Middle East, here.
AFESIP in Cambodia & The Somaly Mam Foundation
I met with a few of the great women behind this project while visiting Cambodia in 2011. I can't say enough good things about these two amazing organizations. AFESIP and The Somaly Mam Foundation work in tandem to eradicate human trafficking by supporting survivor rescue, and offering shelter and rehabilitation programs to young women sold into sex slavery.
Somaly Mam, the Cambodian woman and former sex slave behind this project, is one of the brightest lights on the planet. Check out her book: The Road of Lost Innocence
You can listen to a live interview I engaged with representatives from both AFESIP and SMF, here.
Vital Voices Global Partnership
Vital Voices believes in the transformative value of women’s participation in society. They invest in emerging women leaders – pioneers of economic development, political participation, and human rights in their countries – and help them build the capabilities, connections, and credibility they need to unlock their potential as catalysts of global progress. Combating human trafficking is one of Vital Voices’ main focuses to protect women’s rights. This is a fantastic short video that highlights the role of women's leadership and Vital Voices around the globe.
The Incarus Project: Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness
The Icarus Project envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of 'mental illness' rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework. Incarus offers a network of people living with and/or affected by experiences that are commonly diagnosed and labeled as psychiatric conditions.
By joining together as individuals and as a community, the intertwined threads of madness, creativity, and collaboration aim to inspire hope and transformation in an oppressive and damaged world. Participation in The Icarus Project helps us overcome alienation and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.
Next Step Integral
An awesome organization created by my soul sister, Miriam Martineau, and her husband Stephan Martineau. Next Step Integral is a vibrant organization that brings together people who are curious and passionate about translating integral evolutionary visions into real action in the world. They specialize in the areas of education, parenting, ecology, health and community building.
Generation Waking Up!
An awesome global campaign to ignite a generation of young people to bring forth a thriving, just, sustainable world. Their purpose is to awaken in young people a clear sense of who they are as a
generation, an understanding of the urgent global challenges and
opportunities we face, and a calling to take action. To empower young people with the training, mentoring,
and support needed to thrive as global citizens, leaders, and change
agents in the 21st century. To mobilize young people locally and globally across
issues, geography, and all lines of difference, unleashing the
collaborative power of the younger generation.
International Museum of Women (I.M.O.W)
I.M.O.W. is a groundbreaking social change museum that inspires global
action, connects people across borders and transforms hearts and minds
by amplifying the voices of women worldwide through global online
exhibitions, history, the arts and cultural programs that educate,
create dialogue and build community.
Global Grassroots: Conscious Social Change for Women
Global Grassroots is an amazing non-profit organization that supports conscious social change, driven by and for vulnerable women at the grassroots level, with a particular focus on supporting women in Africa.The Global Grassroots Academy for Conscious Change has created a 12-18 month incubator offering mind-body trauma healing, social venture development skills, leadership training, personal transformation practices, seed grants and high-engagement support to help disadvantaged women initiate their own civil society organizations.
You can listen to a live interview I engaged with the founder of Global Grassroots, Gretchen Steidle Wallace, here.
Maiti Nepal
MAITI
Nepal is comprised of a group of socially committed professionals,
teachers, journalists and social workers working to protect Nepali girls
and women
from crimes like domestic violence, sex trafficking, child
prostitution, child labor and various forms of exploitation and torture.
Most of all,
its special focus has always been on preventing trafficking for forced
prostitution, rescuing sex trade victims and rehabilitating them.
This online forum brings together people from all over the world interested in promoting the voices of voiceless women, young girls and children using all the different media they have available: blog posts, audio, video and visual journalism.
Pacific Integral
Check out this great organization in Seattle, WA, founded by a group of experts in the field of sustainable human development and transformation. Pacific Integral works with both individuals and organizations that are committed to the emergence of a sustainable, equitable and beautiful future for humanity. Their services include individual and organizational capacity development, consulting, organizational mentoring, transformational program design and web-based education and resource delivery.
Integral City
My long-time friend and mentor, Marilyn Hamilton, runs this dynamic organization devoted to Integral City Meshworkers who think, act, relate and work for supporting and building the healthy cities of the future. Integral City Meshworkers explore the city as a whole system like the human equivalent of the beehive. They use an integral meta-framework to reframe the city as a resilient, vibrant human habitat in dynamic balance with its eco-region.
Global Voices: Citizen Media Stories from Around the World
An international community of insightful bloggers who report on blogs and citizen media from around the world.
Check out my Sudanese buddy, Amir Ahmed, whose blog has become world recognized for his intelligent insights into Middle Eastern culture, Muslim religion and the role of social media in cultural change.
You can listen to a live interview I engaged with Amir on his work, here.
Integral Politics in the Middle East
My brilliant Arab-American sista Elza Maalouf's insightful blog on women and politics in the Middle East.
Beams and Struts: A Magazine for Hungry Brains and Thirsty Souls
Check out my friends and their experiment in collective
intelligence at this great online magazine where articles weave together
everything from philosophy and spirituality to pop culture and porn in intelligent and
creative ways. I am also an ongoing contributing writer for this site.
A great blog full of bizzare facts and unique insights into gender and sexuality in South Korea.
The Masculine Heart: Seeking the Strong, Tender Heart Inherent in Men
An insightful blog written by William Harryman on issues of sex, gender and men's rights/activism.
A great online feminist magazine and blogspot for young feminist thinkers.
International Artists and Filmmakers
My friend, filmmaker and artist Velcrow Ripper, is one of the
leading lights and embodied examples of sacred activism on the planet today. His highly
praised documentary, Scared Sacred, offered a powerful tour through
war-devastated lands across the globe and invoked a meditative call to arms. The other
two films in his upcoming trilogy, Fierce Light and Occupy Love, are sure to be
equally important in supporting a new narrative for spirituality, love
and global activism in the 21st century.
You can also listen to a live interview I engaged with Velcrow Ripper on his work, here.
Shirin Neshat is a talented Iranian-American artist and filmmaker whose work addresses the social, political and psychological dimensions of women's experience in contemporary Islamic societies. Neshat actively resists stereotypical representations of Islamic women and recognizes the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping the identity of Muslim women throughout the world. Using photography, Persian poetry and calligraphy she examines concepts such as martyrdom, the space of exile, as well as issues of identity and femininity.
Jakub Strouhal aka Jakub Evolved
I
met this amazingly talented young rapper/singer-songwriter while I was living
in Vancouver, Canada. Jakub
lives and works with street kids in East Vancouver, one of the roughest and most poverty stricken areas in Canada. His music
reflects a raw, potent, and direct connection to the streets and the divine. Jakub is
one of the sweetest, intelligent and musically talented young man I've ever met, and
his music is a profound reflection of
finding God in the most unexpected places.
You can listen to a live interview I engaged with Jakub on his work, here.
Kelly
is an inspiring nineteen-year-old American filmmaker and visual
artist currently living in Seoul, where she is filming a powerful
documentary on the life of highschool students in South Korea. As a high
school senior herself, she won the 2010 YoungArts Gold Award
in Cinema and was nominated as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts,
meeting President Obama. During high school, her short film "To Be
Remembered" screened at film festivals across America. This girl is
amazing. Check her out!
My step-mother, Barbara Bickel, is a talented visual and performance artist and co-founder of the Gestare art collective, a group of women committed to living as process artists in relationship with each other, the earth, the Divine Feminine, the cosmos and all its inhabitants. Their artworkings are visual, textural, vocal, performative, moving, ephemeral, earth-related and time/space based.
