Color Magazine - Edition 43 by Color Media Group, LLC

Edition

43 February 1st February 29th

2012

in a city rich in shades, here is a COLOR that includes all...

Soledad Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien CNN anchor is raising the bar for morning news with her new show Starting Point Plus:

Queen Latifah

On her role in Joyful Noise

Wine in Muslim Indonesia? Tuskegee Airmen

Honored at screening of Red Tails

The Frontline MBA

Why we need top minds at the ground level

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Contents

FEBRUARY Feature

with Soledad O’Brien: After documentaries Black in America and Latino in America, CNN anchor returns to morning news with her new show Starting Point

12 | Q&A

Dialogues

10 | Crossing the Afromexican Bridge by Mimi Gonzalez Entertainment

16 | Queen Latifah draws from childhood, costars for role in Joyful Noise 17 | Shapeshifting at the Peabody Essex: Offbeat exhibit is shifting perspectives on Native American Art Lifestyle

18 | Wine in Muslim Indonesia: It’s more prevalent than you may think 20 | My Fashion Valentine by Jay Calderin 22 | REVIEW: Winning beauty products for ethnic skin and hair

— 01 — 02 — 03 — 04 — 05 — 06 — 07 — 08 — 09 — 10 — 11 — 12 — 13 — 14 — 15 — 16 — 17 — 18 — 19 — 20 — 21 — 22 — 23 — 24 —

Benchmarks

5 | Tuskegee Airmen attend special screening of George Lucas’s Red Tails 11 | Co-Creating New Paths Toward Justice by Alexis Schroeder Business

6 | Cultural drift or cultural SHIFT! Strategies for effectively changing corporate culture 8 | The Frontline MBA. Why businesses need top minds on the ground level

www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

Welcome

From the EDITOR

ecause Soledad O’Brien is multiracial, a public figure and has

extensively reported on the subject of race in America, she has been dismissed by some as not being black or Latino “enough” while at the same time lauded by organizations representative of those same groups of people. As you can read in her interview (p.12), she doesn’t dwell on these contradictions but sees them as a way to start a positive discussion. Well Soledad, we are happy to claim you for the cover of our Black History Month edition and ready to get the conversation started: George Lucas’s film Red Tails connects a younger generation with the real Tuskegee Airmen at a special screening (p.5); Mimi Gonzalez explores the Afromexican bridge (p. 10); Trond Arne Undheim has written a fascinating piece on the state of wine in Muslim Indonesia (p.18); Queen Latifah provides some insights about her past that made her who she is today (p.16). Sounds like history in the making to me. Enjoy. Michael

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Joanne Choi is a freelance journalist who also regularly contributes to AsianBoston Magazine. Her passion is staying up-to-date on people and society. She is working on her first novel.

In a city rich in shades here is a color that includes all… Color Magazine is the premier all-inclusive monthly magazine that highlights and promotes professionals of color. 4 Copley Place | Suite 120 Boston, MA 02116 (617) 266.6961 sales@colormagazineusa.com Publisher

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michael@colormagazineusa.com Event Strategist

Desiree Arevalo Social Media/Marketing Coordinator

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Paola Mesadieu Publisher

Color Media Group, LLC Distribution

GateHouse Media Advisory Committee

Sandra Casey Buford Mark Conrad Beverly Edgehill Yvonne Garcia George Gilmer Kimberly Y. Jones Samson Lee Juan Carlos Morales Pussel Pergament John A. Sims, Jr.

Visit us Online

Tim Estiloz is a two-time Emmy Award winning TV journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience covering news, features and Hollywood celebrity entertainment. Tim currently works as a host and producer for Boston Latino TV and is a performer and illustrator. To see his work visit www. timestiloz. com.

Dr. Karen Stephenson is a corporate anthropologist and lauded as a pioneer in the growing field of social capital metrics. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology at Harvard University, an M.A. in Anthropology at the University of Utah, and B.A. in Art & Chemistry at Austin College, TX.

MAGAZINE February 2012

John A. Sims Jr. has worked for Bentley University for 20 years and is the Executive Director, External Relations in Academic Affairs. He also has more than 20 years of experience in the private sector and is President of AJS Consulting Company LLC. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University, and a B.S. in Education from Miami University in Ohio.

Alexis Schroeder is Co-Founder and Managing Editor of The New Prosperity Initiative (NPi), a Bostonbased media organization dedicated to starting local conversations and sharing local solutions. Lex is also a Program Associate at The Berkana Institute. She writes frequently on leadership and creativity. Follow her on Twitter at @ lexschroeder.

Trond Arne Undheim is an entrepreneur, speaker and author. He lives between Boston and London, speaks six languages and has a Ph.D. in sociology. He writes frequently on wine and society.

Jay Calderin is the author of Form, Fit & Fashion,’ and Fashion Design Essentials. Jay is an instructor and the Director of Creative Marketing at the School of Fashion Design, as well as the Executive Director of Boston Fashion Week, which he founded in 1995.

benchmarks

Tuskegee Airmen Harold May (Left) and Delbrook Binns autograph posters following the screening of Red Tails (Photo Courtesy of Joel Jean-Pierre)

Tuskegee Airmen Honored at Red Tails Screening By Tim Estiloz

he heroics of the famed Tuskegee Airmen is reaching and inspiring a new

generation, while renewing a sense of pride among an older generation, via the new film Red Tails starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr.¶ Produced and personally financed by George Lucas, Red Tails tells the story of the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces, who performed with incredible valor and success in the European Theatre of World War II.¶ Last month, several original members of the Tuskegee Airmen, were honored at a screening presented by the Roxbury International Film Festival at the AMC Theater Boston Common. Many of the veterans praised the film.¶ “Everything that they did was based on fact and it was well done,” said Tuskegee pilot, Jack Bryant. “I think George Lucas did a wonderful job of filming the combat dogfights. It was superb.”

“I thought it was great and very authentic … I was pleased and very surprised by the detail that was included,” added fellow Tuskegee pilot Donald Callender. Those in attendance, especially dozens of younger African-Americans, were grateful for

the opportunity to convey their thanks to these veterans who helped pave the way for freedom at a time when their liberty in the United States was limited. “Even at a young age I remember being told stories from our parents about these men,” said

19-year-old Chandler Douglas. “It was an awesome opportunity to see this movie and meet the Airmen. It’s such an honor to be here with them … sort of history in the making.” The impact of the Tuskegee Airmen to both the war effort, as well as the eventual march toward racial equality, came at a time when Jim Crow laws were still in effect in America and the military was deeply segregated. Despite opposition and skepticism from both within and outside the military, the Tuskegee Airmen rose to the challenge, becoming superior fighter pilots. However, despite their battlefield success, at the end of the War, grim reminders awaited these veterans that true acceptance was still yet to be achieved on the home front. “We were all brothers in the Tuskegee,” said pilot Howard Carter, “However, they missed [showing] something in the film. I thought they were gonna show that when the guys came back from overseas … and they came off the boat, there was a sign waiting for them saying ‘coloreds’ go this way … and ‘whites’ go the other way. After what the pilots did over there, that was a shame.” Still, the veterans were humbled as they were surrounded by dozens of grateful audience members seeking photos and autographs. “I had no idea it would mushroom into this kind of thing. I had no idea that 65 years later, people would make recognition of what happened so long ago,” Callender said. “I’m so glad this story was told before all the Tuskegee Airmen disappear.” For the the younger generation in attendance, the film and the chance to meet the original Airmen left and indelible impression and challenge for a younger generation to follow in their footsteps today. “I think it’s also important for our young people to see a film like this because a lot of times, many of our current role models don’t have the accomplishments that these men have,” said Regina Walker. “This movie and these men show that when you put your mind to something and you take the negatives away, you can push forward despite whatever comes your way.” www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

Business Figure 1

PULSETAKER HUB

GATEKEEPER

PULSETAKER

PART I of III

This article is the first in a three-part series of cases examining the root causes behind commonly recognized symptoms of failed change initiatives. The article examines why most cultures drift back to the way they were instead of really changing. In upcoming issues Karen will discuss the paradox of diversity – why we will always have diversity as a challenge – and how globalization may be bringing us together, but it will also accelerate fragmentation.

Cultural drift or cultural SHIFT! B y K a r e n Ste p h e n s o n

any change initiatives and mergers & acquisitions (M&A) fail due to “cultural” reasons, or so the Big Six consultancies would have us believe. But putting culture at the center of the blame game is simply to cover up the fact that we have conflated business structure with cultural structure. Cultural beliefs and values are held in place by trusted social networks irrespective of the diversity and distinctiveness of business structures. In other words, the completely rational reasons for changing a business structure will go nowhere if the cultural values are not aligned.

How do we do this? Imagine a culture is a shimmering charged field of energy held in place by the force of trusted social networks. This force is as powerful as the electric quantum cloud that envelops most atoms and molecules and can be just as toxic and radioactive if not properly handled. Within the cloud, there are key electrons or cultural connectors that stabilize the culture because they are, at the center of trust in a variety of social networks. As such, these connectors play a pivotal role 6

MAGAZINE February 2012

in resisting change or its alternative, driving change. If the connectors can be identified early in the change process and persuaded to support the change management process, then they become the great communicators and will shift the culture. Why? Because these connectors are authentically trusted and their shaping of the corporate message, in a language that people will understand and accept, is what can make the difference between success and failure in a M&A. A message emanating from a

trusted source, not a hierarchical one, is the message that will be the first to be believed. Consider the following case materials from the United States government. Case 1: A 3-star admiral at the Pentagon lamented, “I can lead men and women into battle, but I am a prisoner of war in my own organization.” He repeatedly witnessed that his decisions, once announced, were subsequently dissembled upon implementation. Case 2: The director of an intelligence agency pronounced (post-9/11) that connecting the dots through collaboration was to be the modus operandi of the agency henceforth. Less than 24 hours after his announcement, a newly minted employee entered his office to announce that he was leaving the organization. When asked why he was leaving, the young man reluctantly admitted that his supervisor had threatened dismissal if he collaborated with a competing agency. Unable to reconcile the director’s message with the threat of his immediate supervisor, the recruit left. Case 3: In transforming the Army supply chain from linear to nonlinear to reflect post9/11 realities, a surprising finding emerged. By following the networks, I identified an employee critical to a collaborative, cross-functional process. There was only one problem – she adamantly refused to laterally collaborate with this other agency because her performance record was strictly based on a linear, hierarchical model, not a collaborative, or lateral one. As a result, sub-standard, delayed materials led to the real deaths of armed service members. Her inability to grasp the unintended consequences of her actions stemmed directly from how she was linearly rewarded and measured for her performance. When the performance metric was adapted to recognize and reward lateral connection, her behavior changed accordingly.

Cultural Shift When we measure social networks, what we actually see are the aggregated, vestigial remains of trusted connections among a network of people. When properly tracked, these traces of trust derive from three robust patterns, which, like DNA, shift the genetic cultural code to produce lasting change.

Hubs The first repeating pattern is to be central, like in a hub-and-spoke system. Hubs are connectors who have many one-on-one relationships in an organization. They are typically those team members who know everyone in their department very well, and, in general, are repositories for local knowledge. Since they know where the best resources are, they act as clearinghouses of

information and ideas. This pattern rapidly and efficiently distributes information.

Others Talk.

Gatekeepers The second pattern is the gatekeeper, who is perched on critical pathways, usually between Hubs. Gatekeepers generally do not have as many one-on-one relationships but the relationships they do have are strategic. They “control” access to others or serve as bridges between others to control the flow of information. They often finesse a situation, alternating between the sin of commission (e.g., telling a falsehood) and the sin of omission (e.g., telling a half-truth).

Pulse-takers The third pattern is the Pulse-taker, someone who is maximally connected to everyone via indirect routes. The pulse-taker is a behindthe-scenes person, unseen, but all seeing, and a touchstone for culture. This is the most abstract of the three network roles. Pulse-takers are maximally connected to the greatest number of people indirectly (e.g., “a friend of a friend is a friend” and “a friend of an enemy is an enemy” are axiomatic phrases for Pulse-takers). Generally Pulse-takers have a wide array of contacts that extend beyond the limits of their immediate groups. They are people who have a diversity of interests and group memberships. As such, they are attuned to the “pulse” of the organization.

Figure 1:

Three Prototypical Patterns Together, these three positions – hubs, gatekeepers and pulse-takers – comprise the DNA of any culture (see Fig. 4). Connectors are often unaware of their own influence, as are the people who surround them. So why can’t we recognize these connectors? For the same reasons we mistake business structure as culture. A business structure is akin to a child’s drawing because children draw what they know, not what they see. Organization charts are simple, lack perspective and have a weak connection to reality. But that doesn’t seem to stop executives from appointing the usual suspects in those hierarchical positions to spearhead the change. But let’s step back from this scenario. What if we can truly draw what we see, as in seeing the culture? If we did that, then conceivably we would get a more accurate picture of how a culture is held together through its trusted connections. And that is why simple network analysis is such a promising methodology. Social capital analysis (the more sophisticated approach of network analysis) offers an intelligent and comprehensive approach for measuring the true structure of culture. (See Art Kleiner’s 2002 article in strategy+business Magazine). Our workplaces are less about position and more about connection, making social capital analysis the real “due diligence” for engineering mergers, divestitures and other forms of cultural change.

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By embracing diverse skills, perspectives and ideas, we choose to lead: EOE. www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

Business

Frontline Strategies for the MBA Businesses need top minds on the ground level By John A. Sims Jr.

hile I was working on my Master’s of Business Administration at Harvard University in the ‘70s, I remember my second year Business Policy professor saying, “Strategy is developed from the top down, and implementation is developed from the bottom up.”

Working in the high-tech industry and the education business for more than 40 years, I have encountered many situations where organizations implemented strategy from the top down, few where it was implemented from the bottom up. At the beginning of my career, I did something unusual for a Harvard Business School graduate: I decided to spend my career in sales and operations in the lower half of the

organizations where I worked. It was empowering to have excellent business training in strategy and to be able to connect the operations people with the executives who developed strategy for the company. Serving in the United States Army National Guard, where I was a Sergeant and 2nd Lieutenant, also influenced my passion for implementation. I learned very quickly that even in simulated battles there are a lot of moving parts that go into a “Battle Campaign.” In the armed services 2nd lieutenant is not considered a senior officer. As I learned the concepts of what made an excellent infantry officer, I was surprised to find that it was the infantry officers and the sergeants that coordinated all the “assets” used in battle. Of particular interest to me was the role of forward observers and reconnaissance “recon” units. They get very close to enemy camps and then call back to the officers who controlled the infantry personnel and the “assets” that supported the infantry. The better the information from the forward observers and reconnaissance units, the better the support units could hit enemy targets. In my training I learned that no country was ever defeated because it was bombed. To win a war you have to put troops “on the ground.” These concepts made me curious about why businesses today do not have more comprehensive strategies for getting information about their customers from their operations and their sales and marketing people. There will be those who will note that they have

extensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and all sorts of data that flow from the bottom up. CRM systems are great, however, how many companies actually allow their sales people to go out into the field and work with the customers on strategy? How many allow them to write the implementation portion of the sales/operations strategies and then bring them to the executive strategy meetings to work with senior officers of the company? Some argue that the “Military Industrial Complex” model has lost its useful application in modern day business. I would be the first to agree. However, the idea of taking a fresh look at who should be in sales/operations at the ground level is something that I would like the business community to think about. Specifically, I think some MBAs should be given incentives to spend their careers on the front lines of the businesses. Not every MBA should aspire to be the CEO of a company. There should be sales/operations roles at “the ground” level that reward people who are willing to serve in the field. They should be rewarded by being able to come back to the executive offices and help participate in designing the implementation portion of an organization’s strategy. During my career in high technology and educational administration at Bentley University, I have been invited to collaborate with senior management on implementation strategies while working in sales and sales management positions. When some of the senior managers in one company that I worked for found out I had an MBA and that I taught Sales and Marketing courses at Northeastern University Graduate School of Business, they were deeply concerned because it appeared that I had no desire to trade in my sales/operations credentials to be a strategist in upper management. However, they were very creative and devised other ways to use me effectively. A senior vice presidents at a well known tech company allowed me to participate in his biweekly conference call with his senior staff. Another company, where I was a Regional Sales Manager, allowed me to write the sales strategy plan for the entire company. Not all people who are excellent in operations have MBAs but I think more MBAs should consider making a career in sales/operations. The young professor who told me “strategy is developed from the top down, and implementation is developed from the bottom up,” went on to become a world renowned, tenured professor at Harvard Business School with a specialty in competitive strategies. His name is Michael Porter.

John A. Sims Jr. is a Leadership gift officer at Bentley University (jsims@bentley.edu) and President of AJS Consulting Company LLC (jasims@comcast.net).

MAGAZINE February 2012

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Dialogues

Crossing an Afromexican Bridge By Mimi Gonzalez

heard a funny punch line recently from an AfricanAmerican comic from Atlanta. He was winning the competition for cruise-ship work by being friendly, accessible and relatable to a majority of the middle-aged audience. Mixed among the standard married man bits about how long his wife prepped to go out and enjoying beer ads while watching the game with his buddies, was a clever social statement about battling discrimination in the workplace.¶ He led the audience down a predictable path of what he’s encountered as a college-educated Black man with a family and a mortgage trying to make ends meet in this challenging economy. He built the bridge to camaraderie on the shared struggle and took us to the source of our problems. Deregulation and corrupt banking devices? No. Something worse and far more insidious he announced, “We gotta fight the real problem in this economy: all the Mexicans taking our jobs!”

Naturally, a few of the younger guys in baseball caps sitting at the bar nodded in agreement at the surface level of the joke, not understanding he wasn’t making an anti-immigrant statement. As a fellow comic I laughed out loud because I recognized what he was doing: contextualized coming from a Black man, he told the audience that the source of our economic woes is not “undocumented workers.” He used the latest “boogie-man” side-step to make a point and to get a laugh. Brilliant. The president’s “Blueprint for Immigration Reform” is a strategic attempt at addressing security, accountability and economy from an integrated perspective, while honoring America’s diversity and the strength derived from it. For many Central and South Americans, he is “acting forward” the legacy of another Black man known in Mexico as, “El Primer Libertador de America,” “the first liberator of the Americas.” In Mexico around 1570, Gaspar Yanga did just that, leading group of slaves in revolt deep in the mountains of the Yucatan near Vera Cruz. The lore has it that he was from the royal family of Gabon that was forced to rise up and escape the slave labor of the sugar plantations. Yanga was not alone and joined other slaves and Afromexicans fleeing the silver mines of Zacatecas. They found the jungle density of the highlands difficult terrain, inaccessible and safe from the Spanish. But the Spanish crown would not allow Yanga’s colony to exist as a reminder and temptation to the enslaved Africans and Amerindians. The community grew to more than 500 during nearly 40 years of freedom before the Spanish sent a royal war party from Puebla in 1609. Francisco de la Matosa was an escaped slave of Angolan heritage whom Yanga appointed general of a military Matosa would also have to form. He armed one hundred fighters with old muskets and an additional four hundred warriors with the weaponry of the time including bows, arrows, machetes, stones and spears. 10

MAGAZINE February 2012

Before the battle began, Yanga sent a captured Spanish prisoner to the Spanish army. He offered a peace treaty, outlining terms that his community be granted a “homeland” and that all of the people with him were declared free and independent. Yanga warned the Spanish that they would suffer high casualties if they chose not to avoid war. He also recognized the Spanish fear of losing more slaves and promised to return any who would escape in the future to seek asylum. The Spanish ignored Yanga and engaged his warriors in a battle that cost both sides. The crown’s armies made it into Yanga’s town and burned it. Still, they were incapable of capturing Yanga or the rest of his people who fled deeper into the mountains. The Spanish retreated, regrouped and sent a priest to convince him to surrender. Yanga would not and returned eleven demands in a new treaty to the Spanish. In 1618, the Spanish authorities officially recognized the town of San Lorenzo de Los Negros as a free settlement. Today it is a town of 20,000 called Yanga. His story may have been lost were it not for the great grandson of Mexico’s “Black President,” Vicente Guerrero – a general who defeated the Spanish and himself was a mestizo of African and Amerindian blood. Vicente Riva Palacio would one day research archived Inquisition papers and bring forth the story of Gaspar Yanga. A general, a lawyer, a former Mayor of Mexico City and the grandson of Mexico’s second president, Palacio published the story of Yanga in an anthology in 1870. While there are mostly people from the highlands rather than Afromexicans in Yanga today, his spirit lives on and is celebrated by the town in an annual August “Festival of Negritude.”

benchmarks

Co-Creating New Paths Toward Justice By Alexis Schroeder

his past fall I attended a conference on social justice in New York City

that posed the question, “What is the new conversation in social equity that you are longing to have?” It was called “The Art of Participatory Leadership and Social Change” and it was designed and hosted by longtime activists and Art of Hosting (www.artofhosting.org) stewards Tuesday Ryan-Hart, Kelly McGowan, and Chris Corrigan.

The Art of Hosting is a self-organizing global community of people who are interested in participating in conversations that matter. Gatherings are called and designed by three to five person host teams. In addition to serving as trainings in participatory leadership methods, there’s always a theme and central “calling question” for each event. Hosts provide a light structure to these two or three-day gatherings and then help the whole group (anywhere between 15 and 50 people) design the rest of the agenda once folks arrive. It’s a simple, powerful way of making sure that gatherings are inclusive and that the kinds of conversations that need to happen in any given community can actually happen. At the Art of Participatory Leadership and Social Change event, we considered several essential questions: What more is possible when

racial and economic equity are fundamental to all of our movement building? How do we honor difference and yet not move into separation? What would it take to spend less time organizing our selves around our analyses and give more attention to moving into wise, sustainable action? We talked about power, where we feel empowered and disempowered in our work and how we might understand and interact with power differently. Hosts Tuesday, Kelly, and Chris shared stories about how participatory leadership methods have served them in their work over the years. Participants—community organizers, activists, artists, consultants, and academics of all different ages and backgrounds—called small group conversations around social justice using something called Open Space Technology, which allowed us to

self-organize according to our interests. And on the third day, we did a Pro-Action Café, another conversation-based tool for getting ideas off the ground, using the input and wisdom of others. Most compelling for me was an hour long “teach” during which Tuesday and Kelly offered a new path forward for those of us committed to social justice who may feel stuck. So-called “Co-revelation” is the collective practice of simultaneously honoring and being fully present to our differences while resting in our shared humanity to get good work done together. It’s a relational practice of addressing some of our most complex issues with a spirit of connection and openness to learning how to be together across historically constructed hierarchies and differences. Co-revelation felt this past fall, and as we enter 2012, feels now like a powerful new path forward. While it’s a set of ideas and a practice still in development (stay tuned for an article by Tuesday Ryan-Hart for The Berkana Institute), it has the potential to move us past those very human roadblocks that so often keep us from doing important work together, work that all of us can get behind. For me, co-revelation is that thing we aim for across our differences. It’s a way of calling forth and using our collective wisdom to make meaningful, lasting, surprising change happen. And change just in the way we interact with each other as human beings in conversation, in our teams and organizations and in society.

To learn more about the Art of Participatory Leadership and co-revelation, please visit artofsocialchange.org.

www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

Q+A WITH

Soledad Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien Host of Starting Point on CNN Photos courtesy of CNN

MAGAZINE February 2012

www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

hen we first interviewed awardwinning journalist and CNN mainstay Soledad O'Brien, she was working on her acclaimed documentary series Black in America and Latino in America. Since then she has written a memoir The Next Big Story: My Journey through the Land of Possibilities, in which she reflects on the most influential stories she has covered – including her Emmy-winning coverage of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti – as well as how her multiracial upbringing has shaped her career. This year, CNN has brought O’Brien back to morning news with her own daily show, Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien. We spoke to her while she and her team were on the road covering the 2012 Republican presidential primaries.

Color Magazine: What is it like having your own show, where your name is right in the title? Soledad O’Brien: It’s funny, five years ago when I was doing [American Morning], I was definitely part of the other side of things. But for the last five years I have been doing documentaries and putting my name on them, so in a lot of ways it’s not very different from that. Obviously live versus taped is very different. The name to me is sort of the exterior. What we try and do in the show is have a team of people around you who are all part of the conversation, so it never feels like you are by yourself. In a way it doesn’t feel any different at all. CM: Is there more personal pressure to provide ratings? SO: One of the things I’ve done intelligently, if I may say so myself [laughs], is to focus on doing a show that we are proud of and that we like, and we’re really not that focused on ratings. The goal is to build over time, and I think everybody around me and who I report to has that same goal: to do a great show that we’re proud of. I have to look at the ratings, I look at everyone’s ratings all the time, but what matters to me is much more than if ratings jump up or slide down, but are we doing something that we like. Because it’s a startup, we have the opportunity to create what we want; there’s no format that we have to hit. CM: Are there pitfalls you try and avoid that could come with having that freedom? SO: You know what I like about it? Is that everyone, especially our executive producer Shannon High who came to us from NBC News, is very much of one mind in terms of flexibility. We’re gonna try it, if it doesn’t 14

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work we don’t do it. For example, we were doing stuff in this diner [while Covering the Iowa Caucuses] over the last week and a half. Sometimes in the middle of the conversation someone comes up to serve you coffee. Happy to have someone serving coffee, but in the middle of a question, it’s kind of hard. [Laughs.] I think we are two people who are very much alike in that we’re going to try it. I think that is much more important than feeling constrained. CM: How are the demands different on a daily show versus doing a documentary or going out in the field? SO: Really different. In a way it’s apples and oranges, but it’s hard to say, because we’re in the middle of the caucuses and primary. So I’m on the road, and we get up at three o’clock in the morning to prep for the show and the show ends at nine in the morning and we immediately start shooting one of the candidates. But that’s unusual, and that’s crazy, and then if it’s a primary night, the minute you finish shooting you go and start covering the primaries for the CNN Election Special. You don’t finish until late in the evening and then you get up again in the morning. So that’s insane, and that’s what January looks like. But in a lot of ways it is a lot better and a lot easier because I was on the road a lot for the documentaries. I love to travel, so when I was getting tired of it, that was a bad sign. I love having a place to go and a team to work with to do the stories we are interested in on our morning show. People get stuck on the early morning hours, but I’m a morning person and I have been doing morning television for a long time and always really liked the schedule. It’s a good schedule when you have kids. Once we get through January, I will be able to have an opportunity to go pick my kids up after school

or go attend their recitals and things like that – things I really couldn’t do when I was traveling for the documentaries. It’s an insane business at times, and it’s a really rewarding business. I have no complaints; it’s fun to do this for work. CM: Do you miss being able to singularly focus on a subject and examine it in depth as you did with your documentaries? SO: I worried that I would, and that was why it was very important for me to continue doing documentaries. I will still be doing Black in America and I’ll still do Latino in America. One of the things that I really love about doing documentaries is that you follow someone for a year. Many of the people I have done a documentary on have become lifelong friends. I think that’s a special relationship. That was very important to me, to keep doing that, as we were trying to figure out what the next year would look like. CM: Because you’re multiracial, you’ve had various groups claim you and others say you are not “enough” of something. The Black in America documentaries come to mind because you were criticized as not being “black enough” by some, while at the same time you’ve been honored by the NAACP and the National Society of Black Journalists. How do you reconcile that on a personal level? SO: I know, it’s ironic right? [Laughs.] To be honest it doesn’t affect my identity at all, and I feel that I don’t have to reconcile it. I get it. I think it’s an indication that the conversation and the history of race relations in this country are very complex and at times very unhappy and challenging to even talk about. I really talk about it in the way that you and I just talked about it, which is I find it funny. I find it interesting – perplexing at times – but it never gets to the point where it’s something I take home and have to wrap my head around. Part of what I like about doing documentaries is that it’s all about the conversation. It’s intriguing to me that someone raises that issue. The minute someone says that to me, I say, ‘Really? Why do you feel that way. Tell me what your perspective is.’ But it’s not like some person on twitter says, I’m not black enough to do this job, and I struggle come to terms with that. But if someone does want to discuss something about race, about identity, I’m absolutely all the way in. CM: The other perspective is that, as a journalist, you need to remain unbiased. Can you discuss covering a topic you may have a personal tie to versus something that you are more removed from? SO: I guess I’m not sure that if you are doing

Black In America and you are a black woman, there’s an inherent bias. No more than if I were doing Education in America – my mom was a public school teacher, that doesn’t mean I am going to do a story on public school teachers in Arizona with a certain perspective on it. What I would like to think is that my mom’s experience has formed what I know about public schools, and the fact that I went to public schools informed what I know. I think it’s less about biased and more about being in a position to ask better questions or do better followup because you have some personal experience that can be illuminating. I always thought there is a value to being an insider to a conversation and an outsider. The insider allows you to – call something, how do I say this, it sounds like bull stink. Like when you’re doing political coverage and you can call out a politician and say that’s just not true, I know this to be a fact. On the other hand, being an outsider allows you to come at an issue from a fresh perspective and be open to a lot of conversations and you don’t feel you know a story so well that nobody else’s take on it is more peering. I’ve always felt fortunate, because, certainly on the race question, I’ve had an opportunity to be an insider and an outsider. And some other things too, I’m a working mom, when it comes to the working mom story I have a certain amount of expertise. On an education story, again, I went to public schools and that may give me a certain amount of expertise on public school education, but on the other hand I didn’t go to private school so maybe I’m lacking on that front, and I have to study a little harder to have a good take on that experience. I think it’s a mixed bag but it’s only good to have outsider slash insider status.

always wanted to do a documentary, especially now with these tough economic times, about poverty in America. Now I can, it will just be shot in five chunks then assembled as a doc so we can run it on our morning show. That to me is something that I am personally passionate about, I think it’s an interesting time to do it, and I think a show gives you the flexibility and real estate to do that. CM: You’ve said that what you take away from covering tragedies is that bad things happen until good people get in the way. Can you explain that? SO: A really clear example would be Hurricane Katrina, what you saw was people going to help, people getting boats out to go save others. I remember running into Sean Penn on the street who was literally pulling people off their porches, rescuing people. It was remarkable

and it was just regular folks who were rescuing other regular folks. I think that there is a real tendency to sort of say how terrible things were, and things were terrible, but the silver lining is that you see amazingly great things that people do. In Haiti we stayed at this hotel called La Plaza Hotel and there was a tent city outside of our window. On the first day it was 10,000 people, on the next day it’s 20,000 people, by the time we left it was like 40,000 people. I remember these women would get up in the morning and sweep in front of their tents – and their tents weren’t tents they were just sheets. I just remember that these were people who kept insisting there was a certain humanity and dignity to life, and even in the wake of disaster they were going to keep it. These were people who were trying to get in the way of everything going to hell in a hand basket.

CM: So it should be more about seeing all the perspectives? SO: Yes, and maybe more importantly, be willing to give all the perspectives airtime. Ultimately it is not about what I think of a story, it’s about what they think of a story. Especially in documentaries, your job is to give people the opportunity to speak for themselves. My job on the morning show now is to make sure we are getting these perspectives, and we are hearing from people who have perspectives that aren’t the conventional ones. Whether I agree or disagree is far less important than letting them have have their say. CM: Is there a topic that you haven’t covered that you would love to tackle? SO: One of the reasons I was very excited to do a morning show is that we can tackle those issues and they don’t have to be those hour long docs that take a year to shoot. For example, I’ve

www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

entertainment

Queen Latifah in “Joyful Noise” Superstar draws from childhood, costars for latest role By John Black

hen she was asked to play the part of a woman

in a small town gospel choir on the verge of winning a national singing championship in the new movie Joyful Noise, Queen Latifah didn’t hesitate to say yes. Her enthusiasm, though, wasn’t just for the chance to sing some great gospel music – and to sing it in perfect harmony with country music legend Dolly Parton. She wanted the part of Vi Rose Hill – a mom trying to raise two children while her husband was away serving his term in the army – to be as inspirational as the gospel music on the soundtrack.

“I didn’t just become Queen Latifah by going to school every day and being a good girl,” she said. “I was adventurous. I was cutting class and coming to New York City to see what there was to see and do and experience in the world. I didn’t do it the right way, necessarily, so I can understand now what my mother went through.” Latifah was 10 years old when her parents separated, and she remembers the rage and frustration she felt as a child following the split. Even 16

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though there were tough times, because she had a strong relationship with her mother, a relationship based on the power of communication, she was able to tap into a parent’s feelings for the film. “I know I made my mom filled with rage at times, especially when I was 17 fighting her to be independent and stretch out on [my] own. It was a tough time, but we always communicated. That was the key. We didn’t always agree, but we always talked,” Latifah explained. “I know what my mom was feeling trying to raise a child and put all she has into them, only to have them disrespect you or go against the things you’re trying to teach them to help them with their lives. It’s a tough situation to struggle to put food on the table and to give love and to keep a sense of humor and to build up a child to be ready to face the world. That’s a big challenge, so I always represent for the single moms of the world.” Along with tapping into her own memories, Latifah said she used music to take the character of Vi Rose Hill from the written page and make her a fully developed character in the film, using the songs from the film itself as well as a personal selection of her own to help her tap into the emotions needed for the film. “Music has always touched me in a special way, from the time I was a little child. I remember being in church and hearing the songs and hearing the harmonies; certain notes just hit my ears in a certain way,” she explained. “As an actor, maybe some people have to go think of certain things or imagine things to find their performance, like if they have to cry in a scene they have to go off and think of sad things in their lives of imagine bad things happening to people they love. Me, I just have to put on a song by the Clarke Sisters or Jolene by Dolly (Parton) and it instantly takes me there. It gets me in the mood. I don’t have to think about it. It just hits straight to my heart. Music has always been an escape. It’s been a release as well as a way to express myself. I can’t think of a world without music.” And while her recordings these days feature more of her rich singing voice, fans who remember the day back in 1989 when her seminal rap debut All Hail the Queen first dropped still ask Latifah when the Queen will step back in front of the mic to rap. “I’ve always been a hip hop head. I always write my rhymes at home, and whenever I have to step on that stage it comes back to me. It’s second nature,” she said, “I’m not sure where to go with it today, but I never count it out. Hip Hop is a lot like rock and roll and the longer that hip hop is around the more you are going to see older and older MCs getting up to show us how it’s done. We all still treasure the ones that came before you who still rap today. If run DMC tours, I’m going to that concert. The music is going to grow old, but grow strong, because they were originals. Maybe there’ will be room for me when I’m 60 to drop my oldest and newest greatest hits album. Who knows what will happen.”

entertainment

Shapeshifting at the Peabody Essex Offbeat exhibit is shifting perspectives on Native American Art By John Black

hink of the term ‘Native American art’ and chances are you

almost automatically think of tribal designs on ancient clay pots or intricate patterns woven into colorful woolen blankets.¶ Shapeshifting, a new exhibition at the Peabody and Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, wants to change the way we think about Native American art – and Native American artists – by ‘reshaping’ out perspective about the past, present and future of the country’s only true indigenous art form. Kent Monkman; Théâtre de Cristal, 2007; © Kent Monkman, image

“We want this exhibition to invite and incite visitors to challenge their perceptions of what native American Art is and can be,” said Karen Kramer Russell, exhibition curator and PEM’s curator of native America Art and Culture. “The first approach I want people to take when they come in is to remind themselves that they are looking at the work of artists, not ‘makers.’ We’re dealing with paintings, sculpture, photographs and videos, but in Shapeshifting, a map can be a sculpture, a painting can be woven, a video can sing.” In putting together the show, Kramer Russell said she knew from the start that she wasn’t interested in grouping objects chronologically or geographically or by medium because such arrangements just feed into the preconceived notions of the audience about the artists and their culture. Mixing up the styles, subjects and especially the chronology of the objects’ creation, she said, shakes thing up just enough to keep viewers guessing. “One of the fun challenges of the show,” she said, “is trying to guess what objects are historical and what ones were created recently. It’s not easy to do.” Shapeshifting is organized, instead, into four thematic sections: Changing, Knowing, Locating and Voicing. Changing explores how native artists have continuously embraced innovation, adapting new ideas and expanding their means of expression. Knowing illustrates the

strikingly different ways in which artists imagine, understand and express their experience in the world, especially as influenced by culture and unique personal vision. Locating considers the importance of family, community, land and place in the cultivation of Native individual and tribal identity. Voicing focuses on the artist as an individual engaged in the process of self expression while interacting with the rest of the world. Keeping these themes in your mind, the best way to enjoy the show is to wander around the rooms of the Shapeshifting exhibition and let the new way of looking at things slowly creep into your consciousness. Look at the giant Wheel of Fortune created by Bob Bauzous (Chiricahua Apache). You will probably recognize the iconic image of Sitting Bull in the middle of

courtesy MacKenzie Art Gallery, photograph by Don Hall

ON DISPLAY

Shapeshifting will be on display at the Peabody Essex Museum through April 29. For more information, call 866-7451876 or visit pem.org.

the wheel, but a closer inspection of the piece reveals chickens pressed into the surface across the face, and words like Coward and Unmanly alongside Brave and Valiant cut our along the edge. Now think, what does the wheel say to you as you walk up to it and give it a gentle spin. Watch the video installation called Tsu Heidei Shugaxtutaan (We Will Again Open This Container of Wisdom That Has Been Left in Our Care) by Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Aleut). See a Native American do a traditional dance to modern electronic music, followed by a hip hop performer break dancing to traditional Native American music. Look at the differences, but pay attention to the similarities. Now, as kind of a final test to see how your point of view has shifted, stand in front of the glass case holding the Ball-headed war club, ca. 1675 (possibly Pokanoket Wampanoag). See the intricate pieces of wampum inlaid into the handle. Realize that, as far as historians can tell, each one of those gleaming chips represents an enemy struck down and killed by the warrior wielding the club. Now, instead of thinking of it as a war club in that all-too-familiar Hollywood kind of way, imagine it as a kind of protection club that the Native American who owned it used to protect his family, his friends and his way of life. www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

Left, Decanter Jakarta sommelier Yohan Handayo Below, Hatten Wines vineyard in Bali

LIFESTYLE

Wine in Muslim Indonesia By Trond Arne Undheim

o Indonesians enjoy wine? Typical answer: No. Real answer: More and more. I traveled to Indonesia to check it out and spoke with local sommelier Yohan Handoyo. Yohan recently wrote The Secrets of Wine which won Gourmand International’s award for best educational book and is now the sommelier at Decanter Jakarta in Indonesia.’

“There is a growing interest in wine here, due to cheaper airline tickets so Indonesians can travel, but also because of the Internet, the influx of expats, and the proximity to Singapore,” Handoyo said, “Right now, the government is the only showstopper.” Indonesian cuisine – complex, full of spice, and varied across the thousands of islands on the archipelago – pairs well with wine, at least with a particular kind. According to sommelier Handoyo: “Indonesians are not familiar neither with tannin nor with acidity. Also, they like a fair amount of residual sugar as well as wine that is chilled because of the climate.” Muslims are, for religious reasons, in theory not permitted to consume any alcoholic drink. That much is relatively clear from the Koran. Ninety percent of Indonesia’s 250 million people are Muslim, meaning there are more teetotaling Muslims here than in any country in the world. All of this means the country’s alcoholic beverages sector is small relative to its large population. The Indonesian government imposes steep duties and taxes on imported wines. The alcoholic drinks industry is tightly regulated by the government for moral and social reasons, slammed with a hefty several hundred percent government tax. In a number of regions the sale and consumption of alcohol is banned. However, wine consumption is growing among affluent Indonesians, mainly in Jakarta and the Hindu majority tourist island of Bali. Hatten Wines on Bali, launched in 1994, is the only Indonesian vintner of some renown. The tropical climate of Bali makes for the unique 18

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character of winemaking in Bali: grapes are harvested year-long from evergreen vines and wine can be produced in several vintages per year (every 120 days, in fact) instead of the traditional yearly vintage production of other wine areas. This feat was deemed nearly impossible, due to equatorial heat, monsoons, fast growing fungi and voracious root-munching termites. (And Indonesia’s persistent political and economic turmoil did not help.) Hatten Wines buys its Alphonse-Lavallée grapes from several growers but has its own vineyards for the Belgia white grapes, a Muscat grape family member. The wine is tropical and pleasurably sweet. Hatten Wines’ Don Buchanan makes red, pink, white and Méthode Champenoise sparkling wines, plus a Pineau des Charentes-style apéritif. For centuries, the Indonesian archipelago, 17,000 islands, have looked abroad for wine for religious services. In 2011, the Catholic Bishop of Purwokerto (Java island), in collaboration with Austrian wine makers, priests, agronomists, NGOs, business men, university students and a Trappist nun, Sister Martha, has begun planting a vineyard just in front of the monastery of Gedono in Salatiga, on the hills of Mount Merbabu, to be exact and in case you want to visit. The challenge was to find vines that could withstand the hot and humid climate. There were also some political obstacles, I am sure. A few years back, some tourists died of poisoned Arak, which neither helped tourism nor alcohol consumption among the latter. However, around Indonesia or indeed the rest of southeast Asia, wine is typically casually

consumed by expats, tourists, Catholics, the young and the rich. Wine used to only be available in hotels, but this is changing. According to Handoyo, “Before 2000, only seniors and expats consumed wine and there was limited selection, essentially French and lousy Australian. Wine was only available in upscale supermarkets and French and Italian 5-star hotels at ridiculous prices. By 2005, the starting age had dropped to college students, and a wide international selection sold in convenience stores and cinemas at lower prices because of competition. The economic growth and recent investment upgrades are changing the game. By 2011, there were 18 importers instead of one and seven wine houses in Jakarta even on one main street. With Asian-aware wine commentators like Jeannie Cho Lee, Debra Meiburg and Ch’ng Poh Tiang, the language might slowly change from “gooseberry” and other metaphors that are foreign to Asians towards more down to earth vocabulary. Though some Asians will still have trouble pronouncing Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande (what delightful stuff, though). Muslim countries are not at all the same when it comes to wine. Whereas there may be differences between countries and cultures, some things are for certain. There are loopholes. There is curiosity. Wine education seminars and wine tastings are changing the game. Sommelier Yohan Handoyo is part of that change. For better and for worse, wine definitely extorts with the GDP of Indonesia, a secular country with a Muslim majority.

BALI

Hatten Winery

Trond’s Picks

At Boston Medical Center, our diversity sets us apart.

Hatten Two Islands Chardonnay

(2011, $27, 85/100) With strongly yellow color and a sudden, but measured hint of oak, this somewhat complex wine is clearly Australian grown. A bit run of the mill but with intensity to carry a spicy meal, this kind of wine would only last 6 to 12 months, similar to the Portuguese vino verde.

Hatten Two Islands Merlot

(2011, $25, 83/100) With serious point for drinkability, this easy going low achiever has no tannin, no complexity, yet is charming for its lack of pretense. The fruit is never overpowering, neither intense nor completely mellow.

Hatten Alexandria

(2011, $25, 88/100) This semi-sweet Muscat like wine made with Belgia grapes will win you over any day when visiting Indonesia. Intense, easy going, with lush fruitiness, slight floral notes, and a nice aftertaste, it shows a misty yellow color tone and almost Mosel valley sophistication. Knowing that it is grown in the tropics adds to my fascination with this unique wine. It is an excellent aperitif or wine with spicy food. From what I understand, Hatten Wines is currently exporting to Belgium and Germany and seeking distributors in the UK, Spain and the U.S.

As a central component of the greater Boston area, our commitment to serving individuals with various cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds is an essential part of who we are at Boston Medical Center. We know that by bringing together differences — a rich variety of traditions and viewpoints — we can remain truly engaged in providing the utmost service to our community. In fact, we offer our patient population on-site, person-to-person interpretation services in more than 30 languages, 24-hours-a-day. This same commitment to diversity encompasses our careers. Within our strong, all-inclusive workforce, you have the opportunity to discover the full potential of your own personal and professional strengths. You belong with the best. At Boston Medical Center (BMC), you can join a team of individuals who don’t simply strive for excellence – they set the standard for it. Visit our website to discover opportunities and enjoy an exceptional career at BMC – The Exceptional Choice: www.bmc.org/hr/taleo

Indonesian Wine Links Hatten Wines www.hattenwines.com Decanter Jakarta www.decanterjakarta.com

True diversity knows no exceptions: EOE. www.colormagazineusa.com February 2012

Designer Ralph Rucci

LIFESTYLE

(Photo Courtesy of Chado Ralph Rucci)

My Fashion Valentine b y J ay C a l d e r i n

hen I say, “I love fashion,” I am not professing a deep devotion to clothes. My particular connection to couture is not founded in the drive to keep up with trends, or following the current musings of celebrities and their stylists. Nor is based it in the acquisition of status defining objects. All those things have their place but my true love is a matter of ideas, the minds behind them, and the hands that make those abstract concepts a reality. My hope is that this open love letter to an industry I’ve devoted my life to will inspire others to go beyond flirting with fashion and spend some time getting to know it a little better.¶ Fashion and I were high school sweethearts at the High School of Fashion Industries in New York City. Our matchmaker came in the form of my fashion art teacher, Ms. Sweet – yes, that was really her name. She taught me how to draw pretty pictures, but always demanded more – first and foremost an understanding and appreciation of the art form and the industry I was contributing to. Once I began to explore the many masters of the craft, I developed several creative crushes, some of which have blossomed into life-long love affairs. There are some fashion designers that I come back to again and again, when I’m in need of inspiration or a gentle reminder of why I was smitten with fashion in the first place.

MAGAZINE February 2012

ALL of ME You can connect to good fashion on many different levels. Intellectually, there are great depths to the mind of design that can be mined for information. The pure physicality of fashion can be appreciated for how deftly ideas are brought into the three-dimensional world, as well as how our bodies interact with it. The purity of intent at the heart of the creative process will engender great affection and admiration for designers that have made fashion their life’s work. And last but certainly not least, the spirited rebels and visionaries who are always stirring things up, providing us with fresh perspectives on the industry. Below are just a few of my creative touchstones in the world of fashion and some suggested reading that may lead you to discover and nurture your own personal relationships with the champions of fashion.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

THE HE(ART) of FASHION

True pioneers forging new territory in fashion design are rare. Issey Miyake was responsible for new ways of addressing the relationship between clothes and the wearer. Experimental concepts like Pleats Please and A-POC (A Piece of Cloth) were developed in what could be described as a fashion laboratory. Although it is understood that talented groups of hardworking professionals are responsible for the garments that come down a runway, few designers will pull themselves out of the limelight and stress the value of the work and the design team behind it over themselves. This is exactly how Maison Martin Margiela operates. In addition to this unique mindset the design house continually challenges convention, experimenting with the radical ways of interpreting fashion.

Love was in the air when Christian Dior described Cristóbal Balenciaga as “the master of us all.” While Dior was known for his “New Look,” Balenciaga’s uncompromising artistry was responsible for transforming the woman’s fashion silhouette several times throughout the 1950s. Today Nicolas Ghesquiere keeps the tradition of innovation alive at Balenciaga in a way that is relevant to the contemporary consumer. Fashion designer extraordinaire Ralph Rucci is often compared to Balenciaga in terms of being a designer’s designer. Having been fortunate enough to visit his design studio in New York, I experienced first hand the great complexity of his creations – clothes that evoke a reverence for the history and craft of couture.